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SHRF MONTHLY REPORT - MAY 2006
SHRF MONTHLY REPORT - MAY 2006
SHRF MONTHLY REPORT - MAY 2006
COMMENTARY
As if deliberately defying all the appeals and pressure from all the concerned parties, ranging from the victims themselves up to the international community, to stop human rights violations and work towards political reform, the ruling Burmese military junta seem to be doing quite the opposite.
For the last 10 years or so, the junta’s troops seem to have been doing virtually everything that would strangle the civilian populations, especially the non-Burman ethnic communities in the ethnic States, and gradually force them to submit to a life of total servitude or flee to neighbouring countries, ridding the territories under their control of “unwanted elements” in the process.
It is a well known fact that over the last decade the junta’s troops have been rapidly expanding all over the country, especially in Shan State, and committing all sorts of human rights abuses against the civilian populations with impunity.
Things like forced labour, robbery, extortion, humiliation and other harassments, etc., may not have immediate effects as devastating as those of more severe types of abuses like mass killing, burning of villages and mass forced relocations, etc.. But, in the long run, if they are repeated again and again, they produce the same effects. They create a difficult situation in which people can no longer survive and finally have to flee.
This is precisely what the SPDC troops have been doing to the people in Shan State, which has often caused people to flee in search of means of survival, creating more or less regular flows of refugees to Thailand.
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BULLYING; RANDOM SHOOTING AND KILLING; ROBBING, ARREST, DETENTION AND TORTURE; IN MURNG-NAI
In December 2005, an SPDC military commander from IB248 threatened to shoot and humiliated a community leader in a Buddhist monastery in Murng-Nai town. The same commander later randomly shot dead a 2-year-old child and intentionally shot dead a man in Naa Khaan village in Naa Khaan village tract, Murng-Nai township.
On 1 December 2005, a traditional Shan new year ceremony was held at a Buddhist monastery in Murng-Nai town by the local people and was attended also by people from the surrounding village tracts.
In the evening, a patrol of SPDC troops from IB248, led by Capt. Thita, came to the ceremony. When Capt. Thita saw a community leader from Naa Khaan village, who had come to attend the ceremony, he went straight to him and humiliated him right in front of many people in the monastery.
Pointing his pistol at the head of the community leader, Capt. Thita shouted, “How smart do you think you are? I can shoot you dead right here in this ceremony! Who do you think I am?”. After verbally abusing the community leader for a while, Capt. Thita and his troops left the ceremony.
According to villagers of Naa Khaan, the community leader once refused to give Capt. Thita a certain amount of cooking oil which he demanded while on a patrol. Since then, Capt. Thita bore a grudge against the community leader and often tried to find fault with him and humiliate him.
Some days later, in the evening of 7 December 2005, a patrol of the same SPDC troops led by Capt. Thita came to Naa Khaan village and as usual searched for pigs and chickens in the village, and shot dead a villager, Zaai Nu (m), aged 23, who was returning from hunting birds, right in the middle of the village.
At about the same time, a 2-year-old boy, Zaai Poi, who was returning from watching a video movie at a relative’s house with his grandma, was hit by a bullet and died instantly. According to the grandma, Pa Ku, when they got near the center of the village they heard 2 gunshots, and her grandson was hit and fell down on the ground and died on the spot.
In one of the houses in the centre of the village where the incident took place, a woman who had just given birth to a child a few days earlier was frightened and shocked by the gunshots which were very close to her house and she died, probably from a heart attack.
A few days later, on 10 December 2005, Capt. Thita again led a patrol of about 25 SPDC troops to Naa Khaan village and arrested several villagers, accusing them of providing food and collecting information for the Shan soldiers in the area.
The villagers were taken to the base of IB248 and detained for several days during which they were interrogated, beaten and tortured by the SPDC troops. Some villagers were accused of serving as secret messengers and collecting money for the Shan soldiers.
Among the victims were Lung Ta La, aged 43, and his wife, Pa Soi, aged 40, who were not only arrested and tortured, but also robbed of their property. They lost 1 motorcycle, 1 pig, 20 chickens, 1 big tin of cooking oil and many other clothes and items. The other known victims were Lung In-Ta-Ka (m), aged 48, Lung Kun-Na (m), aged 42, Pa Naang Ying (f), aged 38 and Aw-Ta (m), aged 33.
CIVILIAN FISHING BOATS AND THEIR CATCHES CONFISCATED IN KUN-HING
In late 2005, several boats of displaced people who were catching fish in the Nam Pang river were seized and confiscated by SPDC troops from IB246 in Kun-Hing township, and later fishing in the river was also banned by the SPDC troops.
People who made a living on a day-to-day basis catching fish with small boats in Nam Pang river were mostly displaced people who had been forcibly relocated to Kun-Hing town from the surrounding villages several years ago by the Burmese junta’s troops.
On the day of the incident, 5 such boats were seized while they were catching fish in the river, each with a sizable amount of catch, by the SPDC troops from IB246 manning an outpost camp on the river bank about 1 mile south of Kun-Hing town.
The SPDC troops not only confiscated the boats but also all the fish, leaving nothing for the owners who depended solely on them for their livelihood. The 5 victims were Zaai Ta (m), aged 36, Zaai Myeng (m), aged 33, Zaai Hurng (m), aged 28, Zaai Naa-Ga (m), aged 35 and Zaai Kawn (m), aged 37, all from Kun-Hing relocation site.
After the ban on fishing in the river, many people lost their livelihood. Those that still had boats could not use them for fishing any more, not to mention those whose boats had been confiscated. Many of those who could not find any other means of survival have already fled to the Thai border.
A VILLAGER FORCED TO PAY A FINE AFTER HIS MOTORCYCLE WAS CONFISCATED, IN MURNG-TON
In late 2005, a villager was threatened into paying a big amount of money as a fine by the SPDC police after they confiscated his motorcycle in Naa Kawng Mu village in Murng Haang village tract, Murng-Ton township.
Lung Khawng (m), a villager of Naa Kawng Mu, was arrested by a police officer, Thein Oo, for driving a motorcycle without a licence in Naa Kawng Mu village. The police confiscated Lung Khawng’s motorcycle and threatened to put him in jail unless he paid a fine.
Lung Khawng was told by the police to provide 200,000 kyat of money as a fine if he did not want to get a jail sentence. Knowing very well what life in jail was like, Lung Khawng was so afraid that he immediately agreed to pay the fine.
Lung Khawng managed to pay the fine within the time limit permitted him by the police by borrowing money from several of his relatives to make up the demanded amount, while his former motorcycle was being driven around the village virtually every day by members of the police.
FORCIBLE USE OF CULTIVATED LAND AND FORCED LABOUR IN KAE-SEE
During the last rain-crops cultivating season, SPDC troops of LIB287 forcibly took about 100 acres of lands from the villagers of Wan Zing village in Wan Zing village tract, Kae-See township, and forced the villagers to grow crops on those lands for the military.
The lands were farmlands which the villagers used to grow peanuts, soya beans and other rainy season crops every year as their livelihood until they were taken by the SPDC troops to grow certain kinds of oil-producing crops as instructed, they said, by their superiors.
The following 5 villagers of Wan Zing were among those whose lands were forcibly taken:
1. Lung Zin-Ta (m), 25 acres
2. Lung Pang Long (m), 23 acres
3. Lung Zan Nu (m), 24 acres
4. Lung Leng (m), 18 acres
5. Lung Ta (m), 10 acres
Although the SPDC troops said they would use the lands only for the duration to cultivate their crops, the time coincided with the cultivating season during which the villagers also needed to grow their crops.
The villagers were not only prevented from using their lands to grow crops for their livelihood, but were also forced to provide free labour to grow different kinds of crops for the military on those lands.
CONFISCATION OF RICE FIELDS AND FORCED LABOUR IN LOI-LEM
In late 2005, several acres of rice fields were confiscated from local farmers after they were forced to grow crops for the military in them by SPDC troops of IB9, in Tawng Nao village tract, Loi-Lem township.
During the previous rice growing season, the SPDC troops of IB9 had forcibly used several acres of rice fields, belonging to the villagers of Kot Kheo and Pang Wet villages in Tawng Nao village tract, for growing a certain kind of rice crop for the military.
The SPDC troops said they would use the rice fields only for the duration of their rice crop, and told the farmers to ‘help’ them grow the crop so that it would not take longer than the time actually needed to cultivate the crop.
The farmers had to do virtually everything from the start to the end, until the rice was harvested and transported to the military base, and they tried hard to finish in time so that they could start cultivating their own rice crops.
However, when all the harvested rice reached the military base, the military authorities told the farmers that they would not return the rice fields but would use them as military rice fields because they had fertile soil.
The farmers could do or say nothing, and lost their means of livelihood. Among the known victims were Zaai Tho (m), aged 39 and Lung Ti (m), aged 48 of Kot Kheo village, who lost 5 and 4 acres of rice fields respectively, and some farmers of Pang Wet village.
Farmers who lost their land and could not find alternative jobs to feed their families fled to other places, and some have arrived at the areas bordering Thailand.
EXTORTION FOR STATE INFRASTRUCTURE IN MURNG-TON
In late 2005, large amounts of money were extorted from the villagers of Pung Pa Khem village in Murng Haang village tract, Murng-Ton township, by the SPDC local military authorities for the construction of a paved main road through the village from end to end.
The commander of IB65, commander Min Aung, called a meeting of village leaders and told them that the SPDC authorities intended to build a paved road leading from Murng-Ton town down to Pung Pa Khem village during the coming dry season.
“After that, two new military battalions will be set up and Pung Pa Khem will be made a sub-township of Murng-Ton”, said the commander, “In order to be ready as a town by that time, we need to build a paved main road through the village from end to end”.
An order was then issued, requiring the villagers to provide money for the construction of the said road amounting to 8,000,000 kyat in total. The villagers were also told to say, when asked, that they willingly donated that amount of money because they were very happy that their village would get a new paved road.
The money was collected in accordance with the economic and social status of the villagers. Each average-looking household was required to provide between 100,000 and 200,000 kyat, while those who seemed to be doing well were required to provide up to 500,000 kyat each.
At around the same time, in November-December 2005, SPDC police at Naa Kawngmu village in Murng-Haang village tract, Murng-Ton township, also extorted money from the people to build a new police station at Naa Kawngmu village.
Naa Kawngmu village leaders were ordered by the police to set up a checkpoint in the village and collect 15,000 kyat of money from each of the passing civilian trucks and cars for 18 days. One of the witnesses who stopped for a night at Naa Kawngmu said that the police got 300,000 kyat from 20 cars in just one day.
All the shop owners in the village were also forced to ‘donate’ money for the construction of the said police station. Each shop, whether big or small, was required to provide at least 5,000 kyat.
ROBBERY, EXTORTION AND FORCED LABOUR IN LAI-KHA
In December 2005, a patrol of SPDC troops from LIB547 extorted money and property from several villages in Kung Keng village tract, Lai-Kha township, shot several pigs and chickens and forced a civilian truck to transport the pillage back to their base.
On 20 December 2005, a patrol of about 15 SPDC troops from LIB547 came to patrol the area of Kung Keng village tract. As they passed through the villages, the SPDC troops took what they wanted, shot the pigs and chickens they found and extorted money from the villagers.
The following is the list of some of the villages and some of the incidents that took place during the said patrol:
1. Loi Aai village; a 25-viss pig shot dead and taken away
2. Nawng Kaa Sai; 50,000 kyat of money extorted
3. Lin Phu village; 50,000 kyat of money extorted
4. Nawng leng village; a pig shot, 50,000 kyat of money extorted
5. Maak Laang village; 30,000 kyat of money extorted
6. Loi Wawt village; 60,000 kyat of money extorted
7. Nawng Pe village; 1 viss of raw opium extorted
A civilian truck, belonging to the Buddhist monastery of Paang Oo village, was conscripted by the SPDC troops and forced to transport all the spoils looted during the patrol back to their base in Lai-Kha town.
In November 2005, groundnuts belonging to an old couple were stolen and destroyed by a patrol of SPDC troops from Nam-Zarng-based LIB543 in Naa Poi village tract in Lai-Kha township.
A patrol of about 90 SPDC troops from LIB543, based at Kho Lam village in Nam-Zarng township, came to Naa Poi village tract in Lai-Kha township and bivouacked near a farm some distance from Nam Ma village in Naa Poi village tract.
In the farm, there were harvested groundnut plants which the owners had made into heaps to protect them while they were kept until they were ready to be threshed. There were altogether 7 heaps or piles of groundnuts in the farm.
According to the owners, Paw Thao Thi, aged 57 and his wife, Mae Thao Zing, aged 56, each heap would yield 1-1/2 baskets of groundnut grain when threshed and could be sold at a rate of 10,000 kyat per basket.
Since there were 7 heaps, there would be 10-1/2 baskets of groundnuts which could be sold for at least 105,000 kyat. The old couple had been able to survive on this income during the previous years.
However, the SPDC troops, during their 2-3 days bivouacking at the place, stole and ate the groundnuts. Since there were many soldiers taking the groundnuts at different times from different heaps for many times, all the heaps were destroyed.
When the SPDC troops left the place, although they had not taken all the groundnuts, they left them scattered all over the place. Without properly piling them, the groundnuts were left unprotected from insects, animals and the climate and were destroyed by them.
The old couple were not able to retrieve any of their groundnuts when they went to their farm a couple of days after the SPDC troops had left, and they lost the income that would otherwise enable them to survive for the rest of the year.
A few weeks earlier, a patrol of the same SPDC troops from LIB543 also robbed the villagers of Haang Lin village in Naa Poi village tract, Lai-Kha township, of their chickens and other foodstuff.
The patrol stopped at Haang Lin village for a night and forcibly seized many chickens from the villagers’ houses and forcibly took some foodstuff from a shop in the village. The following are some of the villagers who lost their property.
1. Pa Ni (f), the shop owner, lost 10 cans of canned beef worth 500 kyat per can; and 13 bottles of beer worth 750 kyat per bottle
2. Pa Zing (f), lost 3 chickens worth 1,900 kyat in all
3. Lung Kya (m), lost 3 chickens worth 1,900 kyat in all
4. Lung Aw (m), lost 6 chickens worth 4,850 kyat in all
5. Lung Ku (m), lost 5 chickens worth 4,400 kyat in all
When asked why the villagers had not complained about it to the authorities, they said that after the SPDC troops had taken something they often warned the villagers not to complain about it or they would come and take much more than that next time.
Sometime in late October 2005, a patrol of SPDC troops from LIB549 also robbed the villagers of Nam Pun in Paang Saang village tract, Lai-Kha township, of many viss (1 viss = 1.6 kg) of their chickens and other food stuff.
On the day of the incident, a patrol of about 37 SPDC troops from LIB549, led by Capt. Khin Maung Win, came to Nam Pun village, and rounded up and seized the chickens in the village. The SPDC drove the chickens into their dens and seized them, using nets to trap those that refused to go into their dens.
Although the SPDC troops managed to catch about 20 viss of chickens, worth about 50,000 kyat, by themselves, they were not satisfied. They ordered the village leaders to provide them with more chickens and other foodstuff, as the following list.
1. 8 viss of chickens, worth 20,000 kyat
2. 1/2 basket of white rice, worth 3,000 kyat
3. 1 big tin of cooking oil, worth 20,000 kyat
These villagers were also warned by the SPDC troops not to tell anyone about the looting. “Or else, we will shoot all of you dead when we come to patrol this area again”, they threatened.
EXTORTION IN MURNG-YAWNG
In late 2005, a large amount of money was extorted from farmers who had just begun rubber plantations by the township SPDC authorities in Murng-Yawng township.
Around mid 2005, Murng-Yawng township SPDC authorities persuaded people in the township to grow rubber trees so that they could later produce rubber and generate more income to feed their families.
Encouraged by the authorities’ persuasion, many farmers who had enough lands started their small rubber plantations at places not very close to the villages. There were about 140 rubber plantations by late 2005.
When the rubber tree saplings had properly taken root and started to grow, the SPDC authorities issued an order saying that all rubber plantation owners needed to pay taxes to the authorities. Those who failed to do so would be banned from growing rubber, and their rubber plantations would be confiscated.
The farmers complained that each of the 140 or so plantation owners was forced to pay 20,000 kyat as taxes to the authorities. It was very difficult for them because it was the time when they had to put their time, money and energy in their rubber plantations and had not yet been able to get any income from them, they said.
EXTORTION AND FORCED LABOUR IN KUN-HING
In late 2005, people in Kaeng Lom village tract in Kun-Hing township were forced by SPDC troops of LIB524 to give them chickens and bamboo.
The following 3 villages were among the victims:
1. Saai Leng village
2. Nawng Leng village
3. Kaeng Lom village
Each of the 3 villages not only had to give the SPDC troops 10 chickens and 70 pieces of bamboo, but were also assigned to carry all the chickens and bamboo to the military base in Kun-Hing town.
FORCED LABOUR AND EXTORTION IN MURNG-TON
Since late 2005, people in Naa Kawngmu village in Murng-Ton township have been forced by SPDC troops of IB65 to keep and raise livestock at their houses, and report on a daily basis to the authorities about overnight guests and movements of the Shan soldiers.
Since then every house in Naa Kawngmu village has been required to keep 4 chickens, 1 male and 3 female, and 2 pigs. Those who had fish ponds were also required to raise fish, and to make sure that there were fish in the ponds at any given time.
The commander of IB65, Min Aung, said that he issued the orders according to his policy to help the villagers improve their economic situation and security. Therefore, all the villagers were obliged to follow the orders in order to improve their own lives.
Those who did not do as told within a certain period of time would be regarded as defying the orders and would be punished with a fine of at least 10,000 kyat.
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