Candle4Burma : NEWS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BURMA

Burma Army Kills Two Men and Submits Hundreds to Forced Labor as it Increases Activity in Toungoo District

2011-03-27T22:45:00.001+06:30

Saw Oo Nay Mya, age 44, was shot by Infantry Battalion (IB) 250 of Military Operations Command (MOC) 7 on 2 February 2011 in Toungoo District, Northern Karen State. The commander of this unit is Major Hla Tun. Saw Ler Maw, age 22, from Hkler Lah village in the same district was killed by MOC 9 on 22 February 2011.

Starting from the middle of January 2011 the SPDC has been increasing its activity in Toungoo district. Currently, the Burma Army has 3 Tactical Operations Commands (TOC) in the area. These troops have been moving food along the car road from Hkler Lah camp to Bu Hsa Hkee camp. During this process the Burma Army has been using prisoners from Toungoo and Insein Prisons as forced labor. The movement of food is possibly a sign of coming attacks.

Burma Army activity
The Burma Army currently has 3 TOCs under MOC 9 in Toungoo District. Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) 375 and 376 from TOC 1 have been transporting food from Hkler Lah to Bu Hsa Hkee using more than 100 trucks. Along the car road, MOC 7 is providing security for MOC 9. The military equipment of these troops includes M-81s, RPGs, machine guns and sniper rifles.

Human rights abuses along the car road
All the way from Hkler Lah to Bu Hsa Hkee, Burma Army troops ordered villagers to drive their own trucks on the road to check for landmines. After that, the Burma Army's own trucks would follow. Because this landmine-sweeping job was very dangerous, no one wanted to do it. The villagers drew lots to decide who would have to go. To transport food, the Burma Army used 70 prisoners from Toungoo Prison and 70 prisoners from Insein Prison in Rangoon. The Burma Army used these prisoners to carry heavy loads. Prisoners who could not carry the loads were beaten by the soldiers. One of the prisoners escaped and reached the area under control of the Karen National Liberation Army (local pro-democracy resistance), who gave him permission to find his way home.

In addition to this, 40 villagers from Hkler Lah were forced to transport food by SPDC MOC 9 by motorbike from Hkler Lah to Koh Day on 18 January 2011. The same day, 140 men and women from Klaw Mee Der area were forced to carry food along the road from Pa Leh Wah to Klaw Mee Der and act as human minesweepers by IB 102. On 11 Feb 2011, 5 men from Play Hsa Lo were forced to carry loads and act as minesweepers between Play Hsa Lo and Tha Pyin Nuint by IB 102. The unit's commander is Myint Thine Win.

Finally, during these operations the Burma Army has blocked the car road from Toungoo city to Hkler Lah camp. By doing this, the Burma Army has prevented villagers to go to the city to trade.

Burma Army strategy
The motive of BA for this increased activity in Toungoo District is still unknown. However, one possibility is that it is a sign of coming attacks in the area. The large shipments of food - needed for prolonged activity -- are a strong sign for this. Still, the food movements are on a small scale, making it difficult to come to a firm conclusion of the military's intentions.

Further abuses in other areas
In Papun District, the Burma Army is using forced labor to transport supplies from the Salween River.
(BNN/FBR)

Karen refugees flee further clashes

2010-11-16T23:04:00.000+06:30

Hundreds of refugees have fled a second wave of fighting along Burma’s border with Thailand close to Waw Lay, a former stronghold of a breakaway Karen army faction.

Estimates of the number of people sheltering in Thailand’s Phop Phra district, in Tak province, vary: a source on the border told DVB that 350 refugees fled, while the Bangkok Post put the figure at 600.

A week ago some 20,000 people, the majority from Myawaddy town in Karen state, poured into Thailand after clashes erupted between a renegade faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and Burmese troops.

While most of these returned several days later, the situation along the border still remains volatile. The fighting yesterday was triggered after DKBA troops returned to their base at Waw Lay, which was captured last week, and encountered a Burmese army soldiers.

A DKBA official told DVB that troops that the group had also attacked the nearby Bayinnaung Hill and Kanaelay army outposts. The Burmese army retaliated by firing artillery shells into Waw Lay, injuring two villagers who are now in hospital in Thailand’s border town of Mae Sot.

Schools in Myawaddy meanwhile have reopened after closing last week as the town emptied of residents. The main market, where several locals were killed in the crossfire in 8 November, has also been teeming with people since it reopened.

Army checkpoints that were set up along the road into Myawaddy prior to elections have also been removed, although one resident said that toll fee for freight trucks carrying goods from Thailand into Burma have been raised from 50,000 kyat ($US50) to 80,000 kyat ($US80) per truck.

dvb

SWAN denounces Burma Army build-up and rape in central Shan State

2010-11-14T06:24:00.000+06:30

Shan Women's Action Network
SWAN strongly denounces the Burma Army build-up around the Shan ceasefire area in Ke See township, central Shan State, which led to the rape of a young disabled woman on the eve of the November 7 election.

Since November 3, more than 1,000 new troops have been deployed from other parts of Shan State to areas adjacent to territory of the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) First Brigade. These troops have been conducting patrols and hunting out villagers suspected of supporting the SSA-N 1st Brigade, which refused to become a Border Guard Force under the Burma Army.

On November 6, a fully armed 10-man patrol from Mong Nawng-based LIB 286, led by Major Win Zaw Latt, searched the village of Wan Nawng New, about five miles north of Mong Nawng. One of the troops raped a 25-year-old disabled woman who was alone in her house with her two-year-old niece.

The soldier tied up the woman’s hands and feet, and then bound her hair to one of the house posts before raping her. Neighbours heard her screams but did not dare come to her aid until after the patrol had left the village. No one dared complain about the crime, and the woman herself has fled the village in fear of repercussions.

SWAN is gravely concerned at the fate of this woman, and of other civilians in this area, who are being deliberately targeted under this new military campaign against the SSA-N.

SWAN has repeatedly documented the systematic use of sexual violence by the Burma Army, and is appalled that even just before the election, when the eyes of the entire world were on Burma, troops dared openly commit rape. This is a clear sign that the impunity enjoyed by the Burma Army for sexual violence is set to continue.

“We strongly urge the international community not to recognize the Burmese generals’ new proxy government,” said SWAN spokesperson Nang Moan Kaein. “It is tantamount to legitimizing the Burma Army’s crimes, and will condemn women in Burma to continued systematic sexual violence.”

prachatai

Fighting Erupts at Border Areas Following Burma Election; Thousands Displaced

2010-11-14T06:15:00.001+06:30

On the day of the election in Burma, November 7th, fighting broke out on the border town of Myawaddy as a breakaway faction of the pro-Junta DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) took control of the border crossing with Thailand and SPDC military and police posts. The DKBA force was led by Colonel Saw Lah Pwe (Bo Nha Khan Mwe) of the DKBA Brigade No. 5. According to DKBA leadership, the SPDC had been forcing them to join the

SPDC controlled Burma Guard force and coercing citizens to vote for the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in the controversial election. A force of DKBA soldiers responded by taking key administrative and military positions in both Myawaddy and nearby Three Pagodas Pass area. During the initial day of fighting, most SPDC troops fled the area and there were reports of others being captured by DKBA forces. SPDC forces in the area at that time included 120 troops from the Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 283 and 60 troops from the LIB No. 405. On the 8th, SPDC troops responded by heavily reinforcing their troops with a new division size unit (LID 22) and launching an assault on DKBA positions in Myawaddy. There are reports of several deaths from this fighting, including at least three civilians. On the 9th, DKBA forces retreated from Myawaddy, and concentrated their forces at the Three Pagodas Pass area. Fighting between DKBA and SPDC forces continues in this, and neighboring areas. The SPDC have sent LIB 405, IB 283, IB 106, IB 284, and IB 289 to the area and have mortared Mae Ka Tha village, wounding several villagers.

Reports indicate that upwards of 20,000 displaced people have fled Burma into Thailand since fighting began on Sunday. Some are taking shelter in various places including a monastery and the Thai Army Headquarters in Mae Sot and are being given humanitarian assistance. The number of additional internally displaced people in Burma is unclear at this time, but may grow if the conflict is moves to other areas inside Burma. FBR teams are currently in the affected areas and we are waiting for their assessments and trying to help those people internally displaced by the situation.

freeburmarangers

KNU terrorists shell Myawady, Phaya Thonsu, leaving some innocent people dead, injured

2010-11-10T22:09:00.000+06:30

NAY PYI TAW, - The KNU terrorists are committing various subversive acts to disrupt State's stability, community peace and tranquility and rule of law, causing innocent people casualties and public panic.

A group of KNU terrorists from south of Myawady opened fire with heavy weapons at five different places in Myawady at about 8.45 am yesterday. A total of three innocent were killed and 20 injured in the incident.

The injured were rushed to Myawady hospital and provided with necessary treatment by officials concerned.

Due to shootings of KNU terrorists, shells of heavy weapons also exploded near Thai- Myanmar Friendship Bridge and Chinese temple in Maesot in Thailand, leaving some innocent people injured.

In similar incident at noon yesterday, a group of KNU terrorists opened fire of small and heavy weapons from north of Phaya Thonsu in Kayin State, causing one member of Myanmar Police Force dead and four Tatmadaw members and one service personnel of the Township Forest Department injured.

Arrangements are being made for convenience of locals and workers in Myawady and Phaya Thonsu by officials concerned, and the Tatmadaw members are in hot pursuit of the group of KNU insurgents.

reliefweb

9 year old girl killed during fighting at Three Pagodas Pass

2010-11-10T22:01:00.000+06:30

WCRP: A 9-year-old girl was hit in the spine and killed by shrapnel from an explosion at around 4pm yesterday in Three Pagodas Pass. The explosion was caused by a shell fired from a State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) mortar at Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) rebels and landed on the ground amidst civilians caught between the two forces while attempting to escape from the fighting.

A monk at the monastery located near to where the girl was hit explained, “DKBA soldiers were near to the village and the SPDC were outside the village. The SPDC soldiers are firing on them with very big weapons. The girl was near to the DKBA soldiers. This is how we know that she was hit by the SPDC soldiers and not the DKBA.”

The girl and her mother had spent the previous night at the monastery for safety and were attempting to flee to the mountains to escape the fighting when they found themselves caught in the crossfire between SPDC and DKBA forces.

The girl did not die immediately and though her mother attempted to take her to the Thai border in the hopes of getting medical treatment, the fighting continued for another hour and a half, preventing them from moving. By the time the fighting had eased at around 5:30pm it was too late.

Fighting broke out between the SPDC and DKBA splinter groups in Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass after the elections held on 7 November. The DKBA has enjoyed relatively friendly relations with the SPDC since they broke away from the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, in 1994 and signed a ceasefire agreement with the SPDC. After the elections held last Sunday, however, which were widely condemned as a sham designed to maintain military rule with a civilian front, a number of DKBA splinter groups engaged in heavy fighting with government troops and took control of key locations in Myawaddy and Three Pagodas Pass.

Tens of thousands of refugees have flooded across the border into Thailand to escape the fighting.

rehmonnya

Two Giri victims die during election

2010-11-09T23:32:00.000+06:30

Kyauk Pru: Two people in the Cyclone Giri-affected area of Kyauk Pru Township died from diarrhea on 4 November just two days before the election in Burma.

The two deceased are from Sita Ra Village in Kan Ton Gyi Yin Village, 80 miles from Kyauk Pru, on Rambree Island, an area lashed badly by Cyclone Giri.

Another 40 people in the village are suffering from diarrhea since the disease has begun spreading.

A relief worker from Kyauk Pru said, "They received treatment as well as medicine from the authorities and a NGO soon after the cyclone. But now the victims in the area are being neglected by the government and NGOs due to the recent election. Because of this neglect, two victims died from the disease."

In Sita Ra Village in Kyauk Pru, 500 people are still living in temporary huts without roofs or wells.

According to sources, many Giri-affected areas in Arakan State have been neglected by the government due to the election. Many cyclone victims are now living in terrible situations in the disaster areas without any aid.

According to a UN source, the townships in Arakan that were hit the hardest are Mray Bon, Kyauk Pru, Min Bya, and Pauktaw. The UN reported that 70,975 people have been left homeless and 200,000 have been severely affected by the disaster.

bnionline

FBR REPORT: Burma Army Soldiers Kill One Villager, Wound 11-Year Old Boy

2010-11-09T23:21:00.001+06:30

Mone Township, 12 August, 2010: Burma Army soldiers entered the villagers' farm at Ter Kweh Lay Ko and shot and killed Saw Hsa Htoo, 35, and wounded Saw Moo Wah, 11. They then killed and ate two of the villagers' cows. The soldiers were from Maladaw camp, Infantry Battalion (IB) 48, and had just replaced an outgoing group of soldiers at Maladaw. After returning to the camp, they ordered the villagers to bring the body of Hsa Htoo and the wounded Moo Wah to their camp; later they ordered the villagers to bring the wounded boy to Tha Pyi Nyut, later bringing him to the hospital at Toungoo, and warned them to not say that he had been shot by the soldiers.

Four days later captain Khin Maung Kyaw from Maladaw camp took 30 soldiers to harass villagers in Maladaw, Kyauk Ta, Saw Wah Der and Tha Pyi Nyut; they stopped all villagers from traveling and threatened to shoot anyone they saw on the trail. At the same time, the deputy battalion commander at Maladaw, Htay Kyaw, ordered villagers at Maladaw to make ID cards and demanded 7500 kyat from each of them.

At the same time, in the plains area at Nge Laut Te village, Burma Army soldiers from Military Operations Command (MOC) 10 captured Saw Nay Thaw Htoo, 35. On the 17th of August the villagers from Nge Laut Te were forced to build a clinic at Haw Ko Gaw. Earlier in the month, soldiers from LIB 439 captured four people from Haw Ko Gaw village, including 2 nurses and one medic. At the same time they shut down all medical care and banned the buying and selling of medicine in all of the Mone Township plains areas, creating serious health problems for the people living there.

During the month of August the Burma Army troops patrolling between the plains and mountains where the people work were from LIBs 599, 590 and Infantry Battalion (IB) 48. These patrols regularly capture and otherwise harass the villagers, creating a very insecure situation.

Forced Labor
On September 17, Burma Army troops from IB 60, commanded by Wai Phyo Aung, forced 60 villagers from Ko Pu and Hsaw Mi Lu to build a camp and demanded 60,000 kyat from them for food. Two days later troops from LIB 439 captured a villager and demanded 20,000 kyat for his release. This is part of a general pattern of extortion by Burma Army soldiers in these areas. Also, on 1 October, 2010, MOC 10 commander Thein Tun forced 250 villagers from Ko Pu and Hsaw Mi Lu to clear the car road for 100 yards on both sides, from Kyauk Kyi to Hsaw Mi Lu camp. Then, on 6 October, four army cars carrying Burma Army came and stayed at Thaw Pyi Nyut and Kyauk Kyi Pauk.

Burma Army Control of Elections
On October 1, Burma Army IB 48 invited village leaders from Yulo, Kamulo and Maladaw to meet about the elections. They plan to conduct a training for the villagers on October 23rd, about the elections, which will be held on the 7th of November at Thaw Pyi Nyut. The parties running are called Ta Sa Nya, Pyi Khat Phyo, and Kayin Pyi Thu.

Starting in September, the Burma Army took the villagers' boats from the Aung Zin Yat boat station to restrict their access to Tha Pyi Nyut. This has also caused difficulty in getting enough food, so that the villagers are having to share what little they have and cannot survive much longer in this situation.

The Free Burma Ranger’s (FBR) mission is to provide hope, help and love to internally displaced people inside Burma, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Using a network of indigenous field teams, FBR reports on human rights abuses, casualties and the humanitarian needs of people who are under the oppression of the Burma Army. FBR provides medical, spiritual and educational resources for IDP communities as they struggle to survive Burmese military attacks.
For more information, please visit www.freeburmarangers.org

Concern over forced relocation of 60 Kachin villages

2009-11-04T05:31:00.000+06:30

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Over 60 villages are in the process of forced relocation from two dam sites in Burma’s northern Kachin State, said the latest report released on Tuesday by a Kachin Environmental group.

The Kachin Development Networking Group, (KDNG) a network of civil society groups and development organizations in Kachin State, Burma released a report “Resisting the Flood” on Tuesday. It has monitored developments and the likely impact of the 2,000-megawatt Chibwe Dam on the N’Mai River, work on which has already begun, and the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam.

“Over 60 villages with approximately 15,000 people are in the process of being forcibly relocated without informed consent. This dislocation will cause many secondary social problems including conflicts over jobs and land, and an increase in migration and trafficking to neighbouring countries. Women will be particularly impacted,” the report said.

The group also sent an open letter on Tuesday to China Power Investment urging it to immediately stop construction of the Myitsone Dam and other dams in Kachin State “to avoid being complicit in multiple serious human rights abuses associated with the project”.

According to a statement from the group, on October 9, residents of Tanghpre village at the planned Myitsone dam site on the confluence at the source of the Irrawaddy handed an open letter directly to Burma’s Northern military commander, objecting to the dam.

In August military authorities informed residents that they had less than two months to begin moving out. “We cannot bring our farms with us when we move” said a representative of the Tanghpre Village Housewives Group in a meeting with the commander on October 10. “We do not want to move and we appeal to you to bring our concerns to Naypyidaw for consideration,” the statement noted.

On the same day, 300 residents assembled at the confluence for a public prayer ceremony to protect the rivers. Several historical churches will be submerged by the Myitsone Dam project, which will also flood forests in one of the world’s “hottest hotspots” of biodiversity, impact downstream riverine ecosystems that are home to the endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin and affect the delta region, which provides nearly 60 per cent of Burma’s rice.

The KDNG noted in the report that the project has no environmental, social or health impact assessments, which have been publicly disclosed, locally-affected residents have not been consulted about the project; their attempts to voice concerns have been ignored.

The report also noted that it is well-documented that development projects in Burma are accompanied by increased militarization and human rights abuses, including forced labour and rape.

The group mentioned that the location of the dams are insecure because it is in a ceasefire area that is extremely unstable; an outbreak of fighting would put local people, the project, and Chinese personnel at risk, and it faces risks from earthquake because it is located a mere 100 kilometers from a major fault line in an earthquake-prone area.

China Power Investment is planning a series of seven dams on the Irrawaddy and its two main tributaries. The majority of the electricity from all the dams will be transmitted to China.

On June 21 2009, Burma’s Ambassador to China Thein Lwin and the President of China Power Investment Corporation Mr. Lu Qizhou signed the Memorandum of Agreement between Burma’s Department of Hydropower Implementation and CPI for “the Development, Operation and Transfer of Hydropower Projects in the Maykha, Malikha and Upstream Ayeyawady-Myitsone River Basins.”

Rohingya Forced to Work on Border Fence

2009-11-04T05:10:00.000+06:30

Burmese junta troops force 200 Rohingya to build a wire fence on the Bangladesh-Burmese border in Burma’s northern Arakan State each day.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Tun Tun, a resident on the Bangladeshi side of the Bangladesh-Burmese border said troops from the Burmese junta’s Light Infantry Battalions No. 233, 234, and 236 ordered headmen to martial 200 people daily to build a wire fence along the border.

“The headmen are told to, ‘Volunteer labor to develop your country’,” Tun Tun said.

The junta troops use forced labor rotated from four villages near the border in Maungdaw Township, he said.

Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Arakan Project, said that the junta’s troops have used forced labor since they started building the fence in March. She said they sometimes pay 500 kyat (US 50 cents) a day to each worker.

“Villagers can buy exemption from forced labor duties,” Lewa said, “but most Rohingyas have very little money and cannot avoid it.”

Two refugees who fled to Bangladesh recently told Tun Tun they were forced to work three days a week.

“They told me every man in the village had to work on the fence if he wanted to continue living in the village,” Tun Tun said.

The Burmese resumed building the wire fence in Maungdaw Township on the border with Bangladesh in October.

Burmese authorities started the 200-kilometer wire fence earlier this year, saying it was to stop human trafficking along the border with Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and Burma share a 320-kilometer border, partly demarcated by the Naf River, a regular route for smuggling and illegal crossings by Muslim refugees.

Many Rohingya refugees from Burma cross the border to look for work in Bangladesh, but many end up in UN refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar District in Bangladesh.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimate that 400,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees live in two camps near Cox’s Bazaar.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who face severe discrimination in Burma. Many have fled the country to escape human rights abuses, including forced labor for Burmese junta forces.

Bangladesh authorities have cracked down on Rohingyas living illegally in Bangladesh recently. More than 1,000 people have been arrested and pushed back across the border into Burma in recent months, Lewa said.

irrawaddy

Journalists, Volunteer Relief Workers Arrested in Rangoon

2009-11-04T05:06:00.000+06:30

About a dozen people including journalists and Nargis Cyclone volunteer relief workers were arrested throughout October as the Burmese government cracked down on overseas private donations for cyclone victims.

According to Burmese journalists, authorities arrested at least 12 people in the past weeks, including eight journalists.

“As far as we know, at least 12 people were detained and eight journalists were among those arrested,” said a journalist based in Rangoon, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Burmese human rights group in exile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), confirmed that since early October, Burmese authorities have conducted arrest raids on the homes of journalists and activists.

“We confirmed at least nine people were detained,” said Tate Naing, the secretary of the AAPP. “The number of arrests has increased recently. We are following the recent crackdown.”

Tate Naing said former pro-democracy activists were among those arrested.

According to sources in Rangoon, journalists Jay Paing, a freelance journalist; Thant Zin Soe, a news editor at Foreign Affairs; and Min Satta were identified as among those arrested.

However, when contacted by The Irrawaddy, an official at Living Color Media Group, the publisher of Foreign Affairs, said it had no information about whether Thant Zin Soe was arrested or had just disappeared.

“These days, Burmese intelligence agents are closely watching journalists,” said a Rangoon journalist.

Members of the independent relief group, Lin Lat Kyal, were among those arrested, allegedly for accepting relief donations from abroad.

A group of journalists and private citizens founded Lin Lat Kyal shortly after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in May 2008. Authorities suspect that overseas Burmese students and Burmese living in Singapore and the United Kingdom fund the group with private donations.

A Lin Lat Kyal member said authorities told his arrested colleagues that they wanted information about the group.

In military-ruled Burma, most activities by independent relief works or civil society groups are not allowed by authorities. The regime requires such groups to be under the authority of government agencies or state-sponsored groups such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association.

Dozens of private citizens who responded to help the cyclone victims in the days following the disaster, including the well-known comedian Zarganar, have been arrested during the past two years. Currently, 19 arrested relief workers are being detained.

Sources said businessmen who conducted money remittance transactions were also among those detained recently.

“About seven people who were involved in remittance were taken away by the Special Branch,” said a Rangoon businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said government agents interrogated them to determine who had received funds from abroad.

In September, the Burmese regime granted amnesty to 7,114 prisoners. Human rights groups said 128 political prisoners were among those released. According to the AAPP, there are currently 2,119 political prisoners in Burma including 46 journalists.

irrawaddy

11 Political Activists Sentenced at Insein Prison

2009-10-26T02:48:00.000+06:30

Eleven political activists, including one Buddhist monk, were sentenced to between five and 10 years on Tuesday at Rangoon Northern District Court in Insein Prison.

The court also passed down a sentence in absentia on two monks, Ashin Pyinnya Jota and Ashin Sandardika, from the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, who have fled abroad.

Sources close to prison authorities in Insein told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Ashin Sandimar (aka Tun Naung), Kyaw Zin Min (aka Zaw Moe), Wunna Nwe and Zin Min Shein were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for violating the Explosives Law (Section 3) and the Unlawful Association Law (Section 6).

Meanwhile, Saw Maung, Aung Moe Lwin, Moe Htet Nay, Tun Lin Aung, Zaw Latt, Naing Win and Tun Lin Oo were sentenced to five years for violating Section 6.

In 2008, Ashin Sandimar, Wunna Nwe and Saw Maung were sentenced to eight years imprisonment for violating the Immigration Act (13/1) and the Illegal Organization Act (17/1), while Zin Min Shein and Tun Lwin Aung are already serving 13-year sentences for other offences related to political activities.

Therefore, Ashin Sandimar, Wunna Nwe and Tun Lwin Aung have now been convicted and sentenced to 18 years each, while Saw Maung has received 13 years, and Zin Min Shein a total of 23 years.

Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the Thailand-based rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), said, “We can say with certainty there was no free and fair verdict. They [the activists] were tortured during interrogation and were forced to admit violating these acts.”

Sources have said that some of the activists—perhaps even some of those already behind bars—tried to organize demonstrations on the second anniversary of the Saffron Revolution in September, but the authorities caught them and accused them of belonging to illegal organizations, of being terrorists, and of planning to create unrest.

Meanwhile, Burmese-American activist Nyi Nyi Aung (aka Kyaw Zaw Lwin), who was arrested in early September at Rangoon Airport, appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday.

“He has been accused of violating the Cheating Offence - Section 420, and forgery,” said his lawyer, Nyan Win.

Shortly after the arrest of Nyi Nyi Aung, 16 ethnic Arakan youths were arrested—seven in Rangoon and the others in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State. They were accused of maintaining links with the Thailand-based All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress.

According to Assistance Association for Political Prisoner (Burma), 2,119 political prisoners are being held in prisons across the country.

irrawaddy

Many Burmese Monks Arrested

2009-10-26T02:47:00.002+06:30

At least 30 monks were arrested in Burma in September and October, the two-year anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, sources said.

Sources familiar with the Sangha, the institution of monks nationwide, said 13 monks from Meiktila and 10 monks from Kyaukpadaung townships in Mandalay Division were arrested in late September, in an effort by the military junta to discourage or break up potential demonstrations by monks.

An official in Meiktila who requested anonymity said monks from the Nagar Yone Monastery in the township were among those arrested.

A Burmese human rights group in exile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), confirmed that dozens of monks were arrested in the past two months.

“More than 20 monks were detained throughout September,” Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the AAPP, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “We’ve gotten reports of seven monks arrested recently.”

The AAPP said the recent arrests took place in Arakan State, and Rangoon, Mandalay and Magwe divisions.

There are 224 monks among the 2,119 political prisoners in Burma, said the AAPP, not including the recent arrests.

In September, the Burmese regime announced an amnesty for prisoners. The number of political prisoners released totaled 127, including four monks, of the 7,114 prisoners who received amnesty.

The All Burma Monks’ Alliance, which led the 2007 demonstrations, has renewed its call for the regime to apologize for the beating and arrests of monks in Pakokku two years ago and to release all monks who were imprisoned during the subsequent crackdown.

The monks set an Oct. 3 deadline for the regime to respond, saying that if there is no apology, monks will start another boycott of alms offered by all military and government personnel, known in Buddhism as “patta ni kozana kan.”

Burmese authorities responded to the monks’ call by increasing security in Rangoon early this month.

irrawaddy

Police beats man to death

2009-10-14T03:57:00.001+06:30

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A father, who dropped into the North Okkalapa Township police station to inquire about his detained son, was beaten to death by the police, his family said.

Kyawt Maung (56) from No. 2 Ward went to the police station to find out about his son, who was being held in the Rangoon Division, North Okkalapa Township police station. Police private Pan Thee and former 100-households head of Ward level Peace and Development Council, Win Cho beat him to death on October 8 near the Thumalar junction, his family said.

Kyawt Maung ran a school bus business. His son Thet Oo Maung used to take part in the Tuesday prayer meeting campaign to free the opposition leader.

“The doctor said my father died of a blood clot in his brain. He was admitted to North Okkalapa hospital on October 8 at about 10 p.m. The doctor referred him to the Rangoon General Hospital, Brain and Nervous System Ward. But he died at 6:45 a.m. before being sent to the referral hospital, a close relative told Mizzima.

The accused Win Cho has been arrested by the North Okkalapa police station, but police private Pan Thee is still at large.

An eyewitness close to the bereaved family said, “Win Cho and the policeman handcuffed him when he reached Thumalar junction. Kyawt Maung asked them why he was being arrested. But the policeman hit him on his mouth and he fell down. Then the policeman stomped on his neck and kicked him in the stomach after which he fell unconscious. Then they grabbed him by his hair and banged his head on the asphalt road”.

A family member, who was also the Chairman of the ‘Self-reliance road maintenance Committee’, filed a murder case against the policeman and Win Cho in the North Okkalapa police station.

An inquest was conducted on the body of Kyawt Maung. He will be cremated at Ye Way cemetery today, the bereaved family said.

The police arrested Thet Oo Maung in connection with the case of 9th grade students from a North Okkalapa High School having a scuffle and altercation in front of North Okkalapa Myint Myat tea shop.

Kyawth Maung is survived by his wife, son and two daughters.

mizzima

2,000 Karen villagers have been forced to relocate by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)

2009-10-14T03:51:00.000+06:30

About 2,000 Karen villagers have been forced to relocate by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) since May, as the pro-junta ethnic army takes up position to move into northern Karen State where the Karen National Union’s (KNU) Brigade 5 is based, according to Karen sources.

According to a Karen relief group, the Karen Office for Relief and Development (KORD), the estimated 2,000 Karen villagers are from six villages in Papun District and were forced to relocate to a makeshift jungle camp known as Thapepan, which is controlled by the DKBA.

Maw Law, a KORD field relief worker who recently returned from northern Karen State, said the DKBA has recently been recruiting members from among the villagers and has forbidden them from leaving the relocation site.

“They won’t even let villagers go out of the camp to forage for food,” said Maw Law.

He speculated that the DKBA wants to cut the Karen villagers’ lines of communication with the KNU’s military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

About 35 villagers escaped and ran away from the relocation camp due to the restrictions, said Maw Law.

After seizing KNLA Brigade 7 in June, the DKBA vowed to launch a military operation against KNLA Brigade 5 in Papun District by September.

A member of the Free Burma Rangers, a locally based relief group, said DKBA battalions are active in Mae Mwe areas in Papun District and that the DKBA soldiers were trying to “clean up” KNLA Brigade 5 in Papun district.

Fighting in Papun district is now reported every day, he said.

Col Chit Thu, the commander of DKBA Battalion 999, had planned to establish a new battalion in Mae Mwe and personally take command of the operation in KNLA Brigade 5, Karen sources said.

However, he was reportedly forced to abandon his plan when he had to undergo an urgent medical operation.

The DKBA has in recent months been recruiting locals as soldiers as it looks to increase its troop strength from 6,000 to 9,000, which will help balance the Burmese army-dominated border guard force in the area.

Due to forced recruitment and fighting in KNLA Brigade 7 in June, more than 3,000 Karen villagers fled into Thailand’s Tha Song Yang District.

Karen sources on the Thai-Burmese border said DKBA soldiers will replace Burmese government troops positioned along the Salween River border in Papun District by 2010.

Trade at Brigade 5 on the Thai-Burmese border includes building supplies, food and cattle.

One shopkeeper in Mae Sam Leap, a border port where many traders operate, said businessmen in the town were worried about restrictions on trade should the DKBA control the border zone.

Some Karen sources said that restrictions will also impact on Karen relief groups and the KNU, with humanitarian assistance such as medical supplies, foods, clothes and other commodities being confiscated or highly taxed.

Brigade 5 is the main channel where aid and supplies pass en route to KNU brigades 1, 2 and 3.

“Transportation will be restricted if the DKBA takes control because they don’t really have law and order,” Maw Law said. “They just do whatever they want.”

irrawaddy

16 houses destroyed by TPDC in Maungdaw

2009-10-14T03:47:00.000+06:30

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Sixteen houses were destroyed by Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) with the help of Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) in Maungdaw Township on September 26, over the allegation that the houses were built on farm lands, said a house owner whose house was destroyed by the authority.

These houses had been built at Shita Purika village of Maungdaw Township since 100 years ago on said land. But, recently, the SPDC authorities declared an order to destroy the houses which were built on farm land and collected the list of houses which were built on the farm land.

Regarding the order, the villagers did not comply with the order, so the Chairman of TPDC accompanied by some Nasaka from Inn Din Nasaka camp, went to the village on that day and destroyed the said houses by villagers, added the house owner.

But, the authority did not pay any compensation to the victims and mentioned no place where to go to re-build the houses. Therefore, the victims went nearby villages and stay at their relatives houses and make temporarily tents at their relatives’ compounds, said another villager preferring not to be named.

The houses were abolished by the authority while the rain has been falling cat and dog. As a result, the victims were facing acute difficulties in the rainy season. The authority concerned deliberately chose the rainy season to destroy the Rohingyas’ houses to suffer more trouble, said a local elder on condition of anonymity.

The concerned authorities always find new things to harass the Rohingya people at the intention of to flee the Rohingya people from their mother land, said a village elder.

The authorities have been threatening the villagers that any one who does not comply with the order he/she will be jailed for 7 years.

The owners of the destroyed houses are as follows: Serazul Hoque( 35), son of Islam, Abu Taher(33), son of Abdu Salam, Rofique(21), son of Skaker Mohamed, Sayed Ullah ( 29), Rahimullah (35), Sona Ullah (40), son of Jaffar Ahmed, Rashidullah (36), Eliyas (37), son of Nurul Hoque, Lal Meah (55), Mosi Ullah ( 50), Esaque (80), now he is in Buthidaung prison, Abdul Hashim (29), Hamid Hussain (35), son of Fazal Ahmed, Salaman (47), Salaman(2) (50), and Rashid Ahmed (51), son of Ahmed. They all belong to Shita Purika village, said one of the house owners.

bnionline

Three villagers arrested for renovation of mosque in Maungdaw

2009-10-14T03:46:00.001+06:30

Maungdaw, arakan State: Three villagers were arrested by Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) in the second week of last month on the allegation that they renovated a village mosque in Maungdaw Township without permission, said a trader on condition of anonymity.

Renovation or new construction of religious buildings such as---mosque, Madrasa (religious schools) --- etc in northern Arakan are not allowed.

Two years ago, the village mosque of Shita Porika was renovated by villagers without permission from authorities, the trader added.

Regarding this, two years ago, four villagers were arrested and sentenced to seven years in jail each. They were Molvi Habi Ullah (60), son of Molvi Abdu Shukur, Moni Ullah (45), son of Anu Meah, Issaque (80), and Abdul Hoque (65), son of Islam. They all belong to Shita Porika Village of Maungdaw Township, said a local villager who did not want to be named.

However, last month of the second week, again three villagers were arrested for renovation of the said mosque. They have been identified as Shoffique Ahmed (50), son of Shoffi Ullah, Khobir Ahmed (45), son of Boshir Ahmed and Nurul Islam (45), son of Salim Ullah. They all belong to Shita Porika village of Maungdaw Township, the local villager added.

The authorities had filed a case against 27 villagers for renovation of the mosque. Among them seven villagers were arrested and jailed for seven years each, and the rest 20 villagers have been absconding, said a religious leader from the locality.

A schoolteacher on condition of anonymity said, “For mosque renovation, seven villagers were jailed and 20 others are absconding to avoid arrest. So, the authorities concerned destroyed the lives of 27 families at a time.”

However, the ruling military junta has declared and boasts that Burma is a country with religious freedom. Actually, there is no country like Burma in the world, in terms of religious persecution, said a businessman from the locality.

bnionline

Arrests Continue in Arakan

2009-10-02T04:44:00.000+06:30

Sittwe: The Burmese military authority has continued arresting Arakanese youth and students on Monday, with the number arrested reaching 16 after a youth from Buthidaung Township in northern Arakan was taken into custody on Monday.

21-year-old Maung Naing Soe, the son of U Maung Tha Pru from Nyung Chaung Village in Buthidaung Township was arrested by officers from Special Police Force No. 2 in Rangoon.

A relative of the youth told Narinjara over the phone that a special force police officer from Rangoon came to the village of Nyung Chaung and arrested him with the help of local police.

Afterwards, Maung Naing Soe was taken to Buthidaung and detained at the police lock-up there.

According to the source, the youth will be brought on Tuesday from Buthidaung to Rangoon where at least ten Arakanese youth have been detained since the first week of this month. The Burmese special police force has arrested many Arakanese youth in Rangoon and Arakan State since early this month on suspicion that they have connections with exiled Arakanese student groups based on the Thai-Burma border.

On 7 September, special police forces arrested seven Arakanese youth and students from Layden Ward near the former University of Rangoon Art and Science in a raid of a hostel where they were living.

The youth and students were identified as Ko Tun Lin, Ko Kyaw Zaw Oo, Ko Kyaw Win, Ko Khin Maung Htay, Ko Kyaw San Hlaing, Ko Zaw Tun Oo, along with one other unidentified youth. All are from Arakan State and some of them are college graduates.

On 13 September, special police forces arrested another four youths in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State. Those youth are Htoo Htoo Chay, Khing Moe Zaw, Kalur Chay, and Maung Thu.

Among them, Htoo Htoo Chay is a son of well-known businessman U Kyaw Thein, who is known by local Arakanese people as Kiss Kyaw Thein. Htoo Htoo Chay is also a singer and owner of the Kiss Internet Cafe in Sittwe.

A student from Sittwe said a police team raided his internet cafe and seized many documents from the shop after he was arrested.

On 15 September, two youths from Mrauk U, the ancient city of Arakan, were arrested by Special Police Force No. 2 in their town and were brought to Rangoon for interrogation.

On 19 September, Ko Aung Moe Zaw and another unidentified student, both from Ponna Kyunt 20 miles north of Sittwe, were arrested by special police forces.

A lawyer from Sittwe confirmed the arrest and said that all the youths will be brought to Rangoon for interrogation because the case is being investigated by police there.

Because authorities have been arresting Arakanese youth and activists in Arakan, many other youth and students have gone into hiding to avoid arrest themselves.

It has also been learned that a youth who had been working at the Thai-Burma border revealed the inside networks of the All Arakan Student's and Youth Congress to the Burmese military junta after he surrendered and was taken into custody. The arrests began shortly thereafter.

•Five bodies found floating in Naf River

2009-10-02T04:39:00.001+06:30

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Five bodies were found floating in Naf River by fishermen on September 25, according to a local resident from Maungdaw.
The bodies were seen in Naf River on the Burma side near Ngakura area and the Burmese border security force (Nasaka) was informed by fishermen, he added. But the Nasaka has not done anything about it and the bodies continue to float.

The fishermen didn’t dare check the bodies and informed the local people and the authorities, he added.

On September 26, Commander Major Than Ngwe of Nasaka area number 4 visited the spot where the bodies were found. But, he didn’t leave any instructions, said an aide of Nasaka.

The bodies were spotted in the area of Nasaka 4 and moved towards Augak Pyeuma on September 28, evening, the aide said.

However, some of the local people said the bodies were of people of the Rohingya community. They alleged that they were killed by the authorities because it announced a few days ago that there was movement of robbers and imposed curfew in the border areas, said a school teacher from the Pyeuma area.

If the authorities do not take responsibility for the bodies in the river, who will? the teacher asked and said the bodies have been floating in the river for about one week.

kaladanpress

Authorities destroy 100 unregistered refugee homes

2009-10-02T04:37:00.001+06:30

Kutupalong, Bangladesh: The authorities of the registered refugee camp (Kutupalong) destroyed about 100 houses of unregistered refugees living near the UNHCR registered refugee camp yesterday noon, according to a refugee from the camp

The Camp-in-Charge ASM Fasal Rabbi along with camp security officer Sub Inspector (SI) Moonir and other security personnel destroyed around 100 houses of unregistered Rohingya refugees in Block A 3 in front of the MSF and ACF office, he added.

The order was issued by the Camp-in-Charge and the security personnel destroyed the houses, said Anwar from the unregistered refugee camp.

Jamal and Harban, the staff members of the MSF recorded the destruction of the houses with a video camera, he said.

But, SI Moonir arrested the two staff members of the MSF, who were recording the destruction of the refugees’ houses and took them to the office of the Camp-in-Charge office. Later, they were released, according to an unregistered refugee committee member, Kala Meah.

According to MSF officials, the recorded video tape was safe though the local authorities asked for it.

It is learnt that the Camp-in-Charge and his personnel were informed by the refugees that locals Zafor Ahmed and Kamal, son of Syed Ahmed and their sister Ms. Saylinna had quarreled with registered refugee Sabir, son of Gawsonngya, who was locked and kept in the house of Zafor. At the clashes 15 persons were wounded. Since the registered refugees are under control of the Camp-in-Charge, he was asked to intervene. He went to the spot where he saw some refugees’ houses were built near the road side and in front of the MSF and ACF office. So,he then ordered the houses be destroyed.

The SI Moonir arrested 18 persons of unregistered Rohingya refugees on said day and kept them in the camp security box and released today after taking 3000 Taka from them, Kalam , an unregistered refugee said

kaladanpress

Children from Moulmein Township Forced into Burmese Army

2009-10-02T04:33:00.000+06:30

IMNA
Youths under the age of 18, from Moulmein Township in Mon State, are being forcibly enlisted into the Burmese Army, according to soldiers from the South East Command (SEC).

IMNA learned from an informant in the SEC that the children in question are as young as 14 years old, and are from the Pegu and Irrawaddy divisions as well as Arakan State.

“The South East Command hired brokers to find children, and brokers spend 2000,00 kyat for 1 child. The children’s parents are poor and they can’t support their children to go to school, therefore they exchanged their children for money. Parents think that their children will become soldiers and they don’t know how badly their children will fare as soldiers, “said a soldier from the South East command.

Since January of this year, the SEC has asked its brokers to procure two children a month, added the soldier.

According to residents from Moulmein Township, SEC also kidnapped ten children while they were walking on the road in the Moulmein township area.

The Human Right Education Institution of Burma (HREIB) and ethnic minority groups have welcomed UN investigations into the use of child soldiers in Burma. Various exile media groups reported on the UN’s announcement on this past August 4th that it was sending a team to Burma, in order to pressure ethnic minority armed groups and the Burmese army into stopping thier use of child soldiers.

On July 22, Yoma news group released a report called “Child Soldiers Burma's Sons of Sorrow”, which highlighted how the Burmese Army is recruiting under-aged children to supplement the dwindling numbers of the Burmese Army. The Burmese government announced in 2008 that it need to increase its army’s numbers to a total of 500, 000 troops.

A Yoma news report estimated that between 20 and 30 soldiers run away from the 500 Burmese Battalion in the 14th commander division every month

Shot villager being treated in Kanchanaburi hospital

2009-10-02T04:32:00.000+06:30

IMNA , Rai Maraoh
A Maezarli villager shot and seriously injured by the Burmese army is being treated at Kanchanaburi Hospital in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province.

On September 28th, a soldier from battalion (LBI) No.356 column 2 shot Oo Kyaw Hla, who works with the Maezarli Village Peace and Devolvement Council as a quarter headmen. The victim was sent to the Three Pagoda Pass (TPP) hospital. However, the hospital was unable to handle the severity of his wounds, and Oo Kyaw Hla was sent to Sangkhlaburi hospital, where he was again turned away due to the severity of his wounds. Oo Kyaw Hla is now hospitalized Kanchanaburi hospital.

“Not a good situation for injury, the doctors from Sangkhlaburi said maybe his left leg will have to be cut off, but now we don’t know the situation,” said friends of Oo Kyaw Hla’s family.

Battalion No.356 column 2 is made up of over 40 soldiers, and based temporarily in the Oo Kyaw Hla’s home village of Maerzali. On the night of September 28th, soldiers of column 2 were reportedly worried about a potential Karen National Union (KNU) ambush, and ordered Oo Kyaw Hla to accompany their nighttime patrols, due to his knowledge of the area.

“Oo Kyaw Hla had to help the night duty soldiers. They switched sentry duty every hour. At about 2 am when the rain had started, Oo Kyaw Hla tried to switch his place, and the soldier on duty did not recognize him and shot him four times,” a KNU officer said.

The captain of column 2 paid 20,000 kyat to cover Oo Kyaw Hla’s injury, and his fellow villagers claim to have sent him to Three Pagoda Pass hospital on September 28 about at about 4 pm. He was later sent to Kanchanaburi hospital as an emergency case.

Earlier this month, IMNA published a story in Burmese reporting on the KNU ambush of the Burmese Army Battalion No.356, which was based in a KNU controlled area. Battalion No.355 marched to combine with Burmese Army Battalion No.356, and on the night of September 28th column 2 of Battalion No.356 was marching back toward their home base, and was stopping for the night in Maezarli village.

Fighting between the KNU, the Burmese Army, and the Karen Democratic Buddhist Army (DKBA) in the Three Pagoda Pass region has been sporadic over the last few months since the formers’ invasion of the traditionally KNU controlled area.

IMNA also published a Burmese report detailing a skirmish between Battalion No.356’s column 1 and the KNU on September 28th. The battle was located between A Plone village and Myain Tar Yar village and reportedly lasted ten minutes, but a KNU source insists that no injuries were sustained.

Farmers’ helper jailed for two years

2009-10-02T04:30:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–A Burmese opposition party member has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment after pledging to help two farmers facing charges of damaging government property.

Aye Myint, vice-chairperson of Magwe division’s National League for Democracy (NLD) branch, was sentenced yesterday on charges of threatening a civil servant.

His arrest on 17 September followed an announcement made in a teashop owned by a forestry department official that he would assist two farmers whose land had been confiscated by the forestry department.

He had said that he would help the two file a complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Rangoon.

The two farmers, Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, were accused by police of cutting down a tree on the confiscated land, bringing charges of damaging public property.

Aye Myint told DVB on 23 September, the day prior to his sentencing, that he was expecting to be imprisoned.

“I have many reasons to think like that. My family has been under watch by authorities,” he said.

On two occasions he said members of the government proxy Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) had come to his house and thrown rocks.

Yesterday’s sentencing coincided with a visit to the town by ILO’s Burma liaison officer, Steve Marshall, regarding a land dispute between 108 local farmers and local authorities.

Marshall was denied a meeting with Nyan Myint and Thura Aung, reportedly because he had missed visiting hours.

Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew

A Child Porter

2009-09-18T04:04:00.001+06:30

After 16 days of being an ammunition porter on the frontline with Burmese military government troops, Aung Naing was reunited with his parents recently at Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Burmese border.

Recounting his ordeal to The Irrawaddy, 16-year-old Aung Naing said he begged the government troops to let him go because he did not want to be a soldier. He finally escaped after the soldiers told him they would take him for military training in Rangoon.

According to Aung Naing, junta troops from Light Infantry Battalion 32 seized him and four other youngsters near Three Pagodas Pass during a troop exchange in August. The five children were made to carry ammunition on the frontline.

He said they came and seized him in the yard of his home when his parents were out. He was taken to a battalion base near Three Pagodas Pass, where he spent one night before he was made to carry ammunition.

“When they seized me, they just ordered me to go with them to the hospital at Three Pagodas Pass,” he said.

“They made me carry mines, mortar shells and a radio transmitter,” he said, unable to guess at how much weight he had to carry because he had never had to carry such loads before.

“They were very rough,” he said. “They didn’t give me any food for two days. I only had water to drink. All I could do was try to get some sleep at night.

“Without food, I became more and more tired. I could barely lift my feet to walk, but if I sat down, they beat me.”

“They forced me to walk on the frontline, where Karen troops could shoot at me,” Aung Naing said.

Aung Naing said he was wounded when Karen National Liberation Army troops ambushed government troops on their way to Anan Kwin village in Kyar Inn Seik Gyi Township, Karen State.

“The Karens fired mortars at us first,” he said. “I tried to get as close to the ground as possible, but the basket was too heavy, and I couldn’t get my arms out quickly—that’s when the bullet hit my right arm near the elbow. Luckily it only gave me a flesh wound.

“The soldiers gave me some medicine but left the wound to bleed,” he said.

The soldiers removed half the load from his basket after he was shot, but they still forced him to carry ammunition, even though his arm was bleeding.

“Each time we had to cross a stream or river, they told me if I dropped their transmitter, I would go to prison for 20 years,” he said. “I held it firmly despite my injury.”

He said the government soldiers did not dare cook rice at night because they were afraid the Karen might see the fire, he said.

“The soldiers had rations to eat if they couldn’t cook rice, but I had nothing but water to drink. They didn’t want to share food with me because they were afraid they would run out of supplies in the jungle.”

“Once or twice they gave me a can of fish, and sometimes I was able to get some rice with a bit of salt,” he said.

When he finally reached home, Aung Naing said he felt like a convict on the run. His arm had been injured, but it was the brutal wound to his spirit that caused more pain.

[Aung Naing is not the real name of the boy in the story]

irrawaddy

Eight Democracy Activists Arrested

2009-09-18T04:00:00.000+06:30

Eight democracy activists including one Buddhist monk in Myingyan Township in Mandalay were detained by Burmese military authorities on Wednesday, according to local sources.

A friend of a detainee said that the authorities appeared at the homes of those arrested about 3 am and took them into custody.

The source said Myo Han, Wint Thu, Hla Myo Kyaw, Aung Myo Lat, Soe Ya Zar Phyo, Kyi Soe, one unidentified civilian and one unidentified monk were arrested.

The mother of Wint Thu said, “They came and searched our home about 2:30 am. My son wasn’t here, but later I heard he had been arrested.”

The detainees were taken to Mandalay, sources said. Sources believe the authorities made the arrests in an effort to disrupt planned demonstrations.

Special Police have been mobilized at various Myingyan monasteries and at youth gatherings in the township in recent days, sources said.

Burmese authorities have also increased security in Mandalay and Rangoon, and several other cities, as the Saffron Revolution’s two-year anniversary nears in September. Security forces have been deployed at strategic road locations and near monasteries and pagodas.

Last week in Pokokku, a journalist and two unidentified civilians were detained by the authorities while they attempted to interview monks in a monastery. Pokokku was a center of monk-led demonstrations in 2007.

The regime continues to regard monks with suspicion, and they have been restricted from traveling abroad and inside Burma without special permission.

Meanwhile, the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) reported that one monk from Rangoon and three from Magway Division were arrested in August.

According to the AAPP, of Burma’s 2,211 political prisoners, 237 are monks. According to official data, there are more than 400,000 monks in Burma. The monastic community has always played an important role in social and political affairs, often in opposition to oppressive regimes.

Ashin Gambira, one of the prominent Buddhist monk leaders of the 2007 demonstrations, is currently serving a 63-year prison sentence in Kalay Prison, located in a remote area of Sagaing Division.

Bo Kyi, the AAPP joint-secretary, said an estimated 100 political prisoners are in poor health and receive inadequate medical treatment.

irrawaddy

Female Dissident Put in Solitary Confinement: AAPP

2009-09-15T04:17:00.001+06:30

An imprisoned female activist of the 88 Generation Students group faces additional anguish after being put in solitary confinement in a remote prison, a human rights group said on Monday.

Thailand-based Burmese human rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said that prison authorities incarcerated Nobel Aye (aka Hnin May Aung), 28, in a solitary confinement cell in Monywa Prison in Sagaing Division recently.

The AAPP did not specify the reasons for the solitary confinement punishment in its press release on Monday. However, Tate Naing, the secretary of the group, told The Irrawaddy by telephone that political prisoners in Burma have often faced additional punishments or solitary confinement if they complain about human rights violations or prison condition.

Nobel Aye has been arrested twice. The first time was in 1998 when she faced a 42-year jail sentence for non-violent political activities. She was released under an amnesty in July 2005 following Gen Khin Nyunt and his military intelligence apparatus’ downfall.

She was arrested again in August 23, 2007, after the 88 Generation Students group led a protest against a hike in fuel prices that sparked monk-led national demonstrations.

In November 2008, she was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and transferred to Monywa Prison in February 2009.

“Since she is not well, we are very concerned about her life in prison,” said Tate Naing.

According to the AAPP, Nobel Aye is one of 191 female political prisoners in Burma. The Burmese regime currently keeps 2,211 political dissidents under arrest.

irrawaddy

Additional abuses and photos of landmine victim

2009-09-07T04:22:00.001+06:30

In an incident initially reported by FBR on 9 July, soldiers from LIB 373 and LIB 372 attacked villages in the Saw Wa Der Area. After the attacks, they laid landmines in the area and returned to their camp. One villager, Saw Ghay Meian, 20 years old, was carrying rice back to his village, Kaw Thay Der, when he stepped on one of the landmines. This was on June 17th, 2009. He later died at the local clinic

FBR/BNN

Burma Army Commander Khin Maung Hsit Charged with Rapes, Numerous Other Abuses

2009-09-07T04:20:00.001+06:30

Commander Khin Maung Hsit has raped two women and engaged in numerous other abuses since he took control of Military Operations Command 5 (MOC5) operations in the area of Kler La (Bawgali Gyi) in Toungoo District, northern Karen State. Since taking command of the camp on August 15, Khin Maung Hsit has acted with impunity in violating and abusing the residents of Kler La. The following are examples of his recent actions.
After drinking one village's alcohol, he took the local teacher, Naw Paw See (all names have been changed), ordered her to strip, and proceeded to rape her.
He also raped Naw Eh Hla, after forcing her to drink alcohol and give him a massage.
After losing at a game of cards with the villagers, he arrested Saw Thoe Pan and had him tied up at Kler La Camp.
Again, after losing a game of Snooker, he had Saw Poe Ju arrested and taken back to Kler La Camp.
Every time Commander Khin Maung Hsit comes to one of the nearby villages, he demands 3 bottles of whiskey. Each bottle is worth 30,000 kyat (approximately $30).
According to the FBR team, soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 544, which is under MOC5, also raped Naw Eh Wa and Naw Blu Paw, both from villages in the area of Kler La.

Villages in the Kler La area, already facing extreme difficulty as a result of Burma army demands for forced labor, have to contend with the monsoon rains as well. The rains have damaged many fields as well as the road between Kler La Camp and Kaw Thay Der. Because of the damaged road, the villagers have not been able to obtain food or sell their fruits.
Some of the villagers have fallen ill with Dengue and other fevers, but have been turned away by the local doctor after seeking treatment, who suggested they should try to treat themselves. Village leaders have tried complaining to the local Burma Army authorities but they have been ignored.

BNN/FBR

Monks intimidated close to 2007 anniversary

2009-09-04T04:19:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Several Burmese monks have been arrested and others intimidated by authorities as the two-year anniversary of the September 2007 uprising approaches, according to sources inside Burma.

A monk in central Burma’s Mandalay division said recently that a local government-led Monk Adminstration committee had warned monks in the area to avoid political activities.

This follows the arrest last week of several monks in various parts of Burma in what appears to be a campaign by the government to intimidate the normally apolitical community in the run-up to the anniversary of the monk-led uprising.

A monk in Magwe division’s Chauk township, U Thumana, was taken by authorities on 29 August. The reason for his arrest and his current whereabouts are unknown.

U Thumana is originally from the town of Pakokku, which became the flashpoint of the 2007 uprising after police broke up a peaceful demonstration on 5 September, injuring three monks.

Two monks in Pakokku were arrested last week by government officials. One of them was identified as U Weithuda from West Monastery in the town, said a local monk.

“Some people came to U Weithuda’s monastery and told him there was a girl waiting for him in a teashop near the monastery,” said the monk.

“He went with him and they arrested him when he reached the outside [of the monastery compound].”

Two other monks in the division’s Yaynanchaung were also briefly took by authorities and questioned.

Monks are widely revered amongst Burma’s majority Buddhist population, and were thus heavily influential in the September 2007 uprising.

Although by protocol monks are apolitical, the community withdrew religious services for the country’s military generals during the uprising.

Some of the estimated 138 fatalities from September 2007 were monks, with eye-witness accounts of troops beating and smashing the heads of monks against walls.

The government is now on high alert, with residents in Irrawaddy division capital Bassein saying authorities were keeping close watch on monks.

“The other day, about 20 monks from Hantharwaddy monastery came outside of their compound to clean a sewer in front of it,” said a Bassein local.

“That alarmed the local authorities [who thought the monks were protesting] who dispatched a lot of police to the monastery.”

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Scorched earth victims ordered to rebuild houses

2009-08-30T22:19:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Villagers in Burma’s central Shan state whose houses were razed in the junta’s latest scorched earth campaign this month have been ordered by the army to rebuild their property.

Some 500 hundred houses were burnt down by the Burmese army near Laihka town in Shan state between 27 July and 1 August, uprooting around 10,000 civilians.

Sein Kyi, deputy editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, said that army officials in the area recently ordered those who fled to return to their villages and rebuild their homes.

“They also shot video and picture footage of the villages being rebuilt to make it look like the army was actually helping the villagers.”

He said the villages were burnt down by army soldiers together with troops from a splinter group of the opposition Shan State Army, known as the Brigade 758.

“Now the army officials are telling villagers it was the Brigade 758 who burnt down their houses, despite warning [the brigade] not to,” he said.

“But actually, it was the [government] troops who burnt down the villages and the Brigade 758 was only accompanying them.”

The order to rebuild the villages follows a press conference held two weeks ago in Bangkok by Shan right groups, who reported that around 40 villages have been targeted in the campaign.

According to the groups, it is the single largest forced relocation in Shan state since a campaign from 1996 to 1998 saw the uprooting of 300,000 villagers, many of whom fled to Thailand.

Some aid materials, brought to the displaced by sympathisers in nearby towns and villages, were reportedly intercepted by the army on August 7.

Sein Kyi said that the materials were recently distributed to the villagers under the army battalion’s name.

Much of the scorched earth campaign has focused on Laikha township, where over 100 villagers, including women, have been arrested and tortured, and three have died. Many of these were displaced by the previous campaign.

Reporting by Aye Nai

Nursing mother shot in the neck and mouth by the Burma Army

2009-08-30T21:59:00.000+06:30

On August 26th 2009, Burma Army troops and soldiers of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) shot and severely wounded Ma Kin Kyi, 34, a woman from Htee Pa Doh village in Thaton District, west central Karen State. According to our local FBR relief team, the troops, from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 214 and DKBA 333 Brigade surrounded the house in which Ma Kin Kyi was staying and fired into it, severely injuring her in the neck, jaw and mouth. According to the team, Ma Kin Kyi, who has a 2 month old baby, is not likely to survive this injury because she is unable to drink or eat. The team reported that the troops entered the village and suspected that the house in which Ma Kin Kyi was staying contained soldiers from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). The FBR team is now in the area, giving Ma Kin Kyi emergency medical treatment and trying to help her survive as best as they can and will continue to report on the situation.

BNN/FBR

Dam forces relocation of 60 villages

2009-08-28T03:24:00.001+06:30

Aug 26, 2009 (DVB)–Over 60 villages in northern Burma have been ordered by the government to relocate to make way for a new dam on the country’s major river, the Irrawaddy.

Local sources allege that the township council in Kachin state’s capital, Myitkyina, on August 5 summoned authorities from over 60 villages north of the town and told them to move their villages.

The combined population of this area, at the confluence of the Irrawaddy and the N'mai Hka rivers, is estimated at 10,000.

“They didn’t say exactly when we are to move but assured that we would definitely have to move,” said a villager who attended the meeting with the township officials.

“They are now collecting statistics of the villages for the relocation plan.”

He added that there are about 2000 acres of farmland in the area about to be destroyed when the building of the Myitsone dam starts.

Authorities are said to be making a list of those to pay compensation to, although villagers have complained that no compensation has yet been received.

According to advocacy group International Rivers, the dam would create a reservoir the size of New York City, submerging historical sites such as churches and temples.

The dam project is being jointly run through an alliance dominated by Chinese firms, including China Power Investment Corporation, China Southern Power Grid Co. Ltd, and the Yunan Machinery Export Import Company.

Also involved in the project is Asia World Co. Ltd, which is owned by Lo Hsing Han, a Burmese business tycoon and former drug trafficker.

Most electrical power generated from the dam’s hydropower plant will go to China, despite campaigning groups complaining of regular electricity shortages in many of Burma’s major cities.

Reporting by Thiri Htet San

500 Shan houses burned in scorched earth campaign

2009-08-16T00:44:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–The Burmese junta’s latest scorched earth campaign in Shan state has in the last three weeks destroyed 500 homes and uprooted around 10,000 civilians, according to a data released today.

Burma’s eastern Shan state has long been a site of conflict between the Burmese army and armed opposition groups, driven in part by its abundance of opium poppy plantations.

Data compiled by Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and other Shan community-based organizations show that since 27 July, around 40 villages have been relocated by the army.

According to the groups, it is the single largest forced relocation in Shan state since a campaign from 1996 to 1998 saw the uprooting of 300,000 villagers, many of whom fled to Thailand.

Much of the campaign has focused on Laikha township, where over 100 villagers, including women, have been arrested and tortured, and three have died. Many of these were displaced by the previous campaign.

“One young woman was shot while trying to retrieve her possessions from her burning house, and her body thrown into a pit latrine,” said a joint press release.

“Another woman was gang-raped in front of her husband by an officer and three of his troops.”

The groups have called on the UN Security Council to set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate what they believe to be crimes against humanity.

They have also demanded that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) “seriously review their engagement with this pariah nation”.

“The regime brazenly committed these crimes even as the whole world was watching them during the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” said Charm Tong of SWAN. “They are thumbing their noses at the international community.”

Reporting by Francis Wade

10,000 Villagers Forcibly Relocated in Shan State: Rights Groups

2009-08-13T19:05:00.000+06:30

The Burmese army has recently forced an estimated 10,000 people in central Shan State to leave their villages and torched more than 500 homes, Shan human rights groups claimed on Thursday.

The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) told reporters that the Burmese junta has been forcibly relocating villagers in Laika Township, in central Shan State, since July 27. About 40 villages were affected, the groups said.

This campaign has been carried out cold-bloodedly and systematically,” said Kham Harn Fah, the director of the SHRF, speaking at a press conference in northern Thailand. He added that in many cases, Burmese troops used the villagers’ own petrol to burn down their houses.

At least three villagers were killed, including a young woman who was shot while she was trying to recover possessions from her burning house, and over 100 had been arrested and tortured, the Shan rights groups said.

Another woman had her throat cut and was thrown into a river after troops arrested her, and a 45-year-old man was shot to death during the forced relocation, the groups said.

The groups also said that a woman had been gang-raped in an incident that occurred on August 2. Witnesses said that the woman was raped in front of her husband by an officer and three of his subordinates from Light Infantry Battalion 514, based in Laika.

“It was very cruel. For many years, the junta’s troops have used raping women as a weapon of war,” said Charm Tong, one of the founders of SWAN, which published License to Rape, a report documenting the Burmese army’s extensive use of sexual violence as part of its operations against ethnic insurgents.

She added that while the international community was expressing outrage over the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese regime continued to commit crimes against humanity in ethnic areas.

“They are thumbing their noses at the international community,” she said of Burma’s ruling generals, adding that the recent creation of a regional human rights body would be “a joke” if it did nothing to end human rights violations in Burma.

irrawaddy

Dam forcibly displaces 15,000 Burmese

2009-08-11T17:35:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–The construction of the unfinished Tasang dam in eastern Burma has already forced around 15,000 people into refugee camps in neighbouring Thailand, according to a report released yesterday.

Upon completion, the Tasang dam on the Salween river in Shan state will be the largest in Southeast Asia, bigger than China’s Three Gorges dam.

But ‘Roots and Resilience’, a report released by the Shan Sapawa Environment Organisation which focuses on the Kheng Kham community, documents the forced relocation of 15,000 civilians living near to the dam site.

Shan state is Burma’s prime opium growing region and the site of often intense conflict, with factions of the ethnic Shan State Army fighting against the Burmese government.

“The dam is in a war zone and the Burmese military always suspect the villagers are part of an armed group,” said Sai Sai, a spokesperson from Shan Sapawa Environment Organization. “So they are arrested, tortured, and many rape cases have been reported in the area.”

The 7,110 megawatt Tasang dam is the biggest of five dams planned on the Salween river.

Last year the government announced that 28 dams were under construction, adding to the 12 that already exist. There are plans to build another 10.

Investors in the project include Thailand’s MDX Company and China’s Gezhouba Group Company.

The majority of the energy generated by the dam will be sold to Thailand, who recently reiterated its support for the project when it included it in its national Power Development Plan against the wish of human rights groups.

“We want to pressure the Thai government not to put the Taseng dam into Power development plan” said Sai Sai.

“If they are doing so then they are showing their support for the dam and for the human rights violations that are occurring as a result of the dam”.

“If they go ahead with the dam 15,000 people will lose everything because their homes will be under the water.”

According to environmental group International Rivers, between 40 and 60 million people worldwide have been displaced by hydropower projects.

Reporting by Alex Ellgee

More Karen refugees flee to Thailand

2009-08-11T17:29:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Around 200 Karen refugees have fled across the border to Thailand’s refugee camps in recent weeks with many reporting continued forced recruitment into the Burmese army and militias.

According to a refugee who recently arrived in Thailand’s Nu Poh camp, villagers were given the choice of either paying 150,000 kyat ($US150) or joining the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) militia, who have been fighting alongside Burmese troops.

“We have been already struggling for food and we can’t afford to pay them,” said the refugee. “And we couldn’t go out to work for food as there are landmines surrounding our villages.”

A spokesperson from the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP) said that 200 more refugees have recently arrived at three camps located in Thailand’s Tha Song Yang district, in Tak province.

“Some said there was forced recruitment and labouring as well as extortion of money [from the villagers],” he said.

Some of the newly arrived refugees said the DKBA’s Battalion 999 has been recruiting villagers in Karen state’s Nabu township, citing security for the villages as the reason.

An official from Battalion 999 said that new recruits are essential, although it is done on a voluntary basis.

“During the 15-year-long standing of our group, we have had our people injured or dying, and in order to replace those soldiers, we have to find new recruits,” he said. “We are not forcing them to join; we are only asking for their help, for their own people.”

“Since we are short on troop numbers, they can help us fight for at least three years…and then they can resign if they are not happy with us.

“Those who have money can pay us to hire mercenaries but we are not collecting money from anyone as we have our orders not to.”

Many of the refugees who have entered Thailand had fled from the Ler Per Har camp for internally displaced people in eastern Karen state, which became a focal point of the fighting and has now been overrun by the DKBA.

Last month the Bangkok-based Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) said that while fighting had eased, reports of the forced labour, portering and exortion of money, food and livestock from villagers by the DKBA continued.

Reports have surfaced today that the DKBA is preparing to attack the KNU Brigade 6 base, following their loss of the strategically important Brigade 7 base in June.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

Su Su Nway Put in Solitary

2009-08-05T05:26:00.001+06:30

A prominent Burmese labor rights activist, Su Su Nway, was placed in solitary confinement for three days after participating in a ceremony to mark the 62nd anniversary of Martyrs’ Day on June 19 in Kalay Prison, in Sagaing Division, according to her sister.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, her sister, Htay Htay Kyi, said, “She was put in solitary confinement because she stood up and sang an independence anthem composed by Min Ko Naing to mark Martyrs’ Day.”

Htay Htay Kyi said she visited her sister on July 21 when she delivered medicine to Su Su Nway who said she had been denied medical care by the prison authorities.

Su Su Nway, 37, suffers from hypertension and heart disease.

In 2006, she won the John Humphrey Freedom Award for promoting human rights.

She was arrested together with two colleagues after they pasted anti-government posters on a billboard in downtown Rangoon during the monk-led uprising of 2007. She was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.

Su Su Nway is among other 2,100 political prisoners who are currently being detained by the Burmese military authorities.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in July called on the Burmese junta to release all political prisoners before the national elections in 2010.

Burmese permanent representative at the UN, Than Swe reportedly told Ban that Burma will release prisoners before the election; however, he did not specify if political dissidents would be among the prisoners released.

irrawaddy

Relocation, Forced Labor and Extortion

2009-08-03T15:38:00.002+06:30

On May 18, commander Pa Na Di from DKBA 666 Brigade demanded the relocation of Lui Kee, Kler U Nga, and Nga Per Lay Koh villages to Tha Per Pa village. He threatened to burn the people's homes down if they did not immediately relocate.
On May 9, soldiers from DKBA 666 Brigade entered the area of Nga Kee Lu village and attacked three of the villagers there. Saw Mo Shi, Saw Pah Pye, and Saw Pa Day were each hit "so many times that they couldn't even count".
On May 10, DKBA 666 Brigade soldiers entered Tha Per Pa village and assaulted some of the villagers. Saw Bu Hae was hit in the head with a rifle and slapped. Saw Pa Eh was kicked in the face. Saw Pa Ray was slapped three times. Saw Pa Chi was punched five times in the face and hit in the back three times.

On May 11, DKBA "Ka Saw Wa" Brigade and Burma Army LIB 103 extorted goat meat, pork and more than 50kg of rice from villagers in Tee Doh Hta. On 11 May, the "Ka Saw Wa" commander and LIB 9 commander forced extorted two goats and 28 chickens from villagers in Mae Ngo Hta.

On May 12, these same troops forced five people from Mae Ngo Hta village to carry rice from Mae Ngo Hta village to Ma Taw village. On 12 May, a commander under DKBA 666 Brigade demanded five gold rings, five earrings, one gold necklace and 300,000 Kyat (approximately US$250) from Saw Kae Der, and one radio, 50,000 Kyat (approximately US$42), one long rope, a bag of rice and valuables worth 500,000 Kyat (approximately US$417) from Saw Ka He.

On May 12, a commander under DKBA 666 Brigade demanded 5 gold rings, 5 earrings, 1 gold necklace, and 300,000 Kyat from Saw Kae Der, and 1 radio, 50,000 Kyat, 1 long rope, a bag of rice and valuables worth 500,000 Kyat from Saw Ka He.

©BNN/FBR

DKBA Role Increasing as Attacks Continue

2009-08-03T15:34:00.001+06:30

The increased activity of the DKBA in recent months appears to be the result of an SPDC policy to strengthen the DKBA as a proxy force used to carry out its attacks. Their aim is to crush the will of the people to resist, and defeat the pro-democracy KNU resistance. By forcing Karen villagers into this force, the Burma Army hopes to not only boost the number of soldiers fighting on its behalf, but to fuel inter-religious animosity and use intra-ethnic warfare as a means of crushing the will to resist.

The DKBA was formed in 1994 after a split from the Karen National Union and is looking to increase its control over areas of Karen State in alliance with the Burma Army. The DKBA has engaged in widespread and systematic human rights abuses towards this effort, which have been well documented by FBR teams and other human rights organizations. It is currently carrying out widespread forced conscription and forced labor in the areas under its control and has joined with the Burma Army in the recent attacks on the IDP camp at Ler Per Her in Pa'an District, just to the south of Papun District.

FBR teams have also reported that DKBA troops will likely join the Burma Army in attacks in parts of Nyaunglebin District and northern Papun district, two areas where they have not historically operated. The DKBA is now moving from Tha Bo to Muthey, in Nyaunglebin District. FBR previously reported new Burma Army attacks in Mone Township, northern Nyaunglebin District in early July, which forced over 500 villagers to hide in the jungle and left three men dead.

©BNN/FBR

One villager killed and four wounded in DKBA and Burma Army attack

2009-08-03T15:31:00.001+06:30

On June 18, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Burma Army shot five villagers in Bray Day (also known as Paw Ler Loh) village, eastern Karen State, killing one of them.

Saw Toe Lo, 70, was killed in the attack in the village in Bu Tho Township, southern Papun District. The villagers had already buried Saw Toe Lo by the time the FBR team arrived

Naw Wee Shi Paw, 36, Naw Ma Htit, 60, Saw Eh K'Nyaw, 7, and Saw Boh Heh, 38, were all injured.

Naw Wee Shi Paw was shot eight times in the head and arm in the attack, which was carried out using both light machine guns and grenade launchers. Saw Eh K'Nyaw was shot seven times, including in his face, knee and chest
According to the FBR report, the villagers were in front of and inside the house when the attack began. When it started, the villagers shouted out to the DKBA and Burma Army soldiers, "We are not Christians!" But the attack went ahead regardless.

©BNN/FBR

Names of 30 NLD members arrested by the Junta;

2009-08-03T15:17:00.000+06:30

The verdict in the trial of Noble Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been postponed to August 11, 2009. Meanwhile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) has learnt that the regime arrested at least 30 NLD members in the early hours of this morning, between midnight and 1 am. Three of those arrested were later released. The reason for their arrest is not clear.
30 NLD members were arrested;

Magwe Division;
1. (Ko) Myint Ngwe (Yenangyaung Township, Magwe Division)
2. (Ko) Tint Lwin (Yenangyaung Township, Magwe Division)
3. (Ko) Than Aung (Yenangyaung Township, Magwe Division)
4. (Ko) Khin Win (Yenangyaung Township, Magwe Division)
5. (U) Aye Myint (Aunglan Township, Magwe Division)
6. (U) Min Maung (Aunglan Township, Magwe Division)
7. (Ko) Soe (Taungdwingyi Township, Magwe Division)
8. (Ko) Par Lay (Taungdwingyi Township, Magwe Division)
9. (Ko) Kyaw Naing (Taungdwingyi Township, Magwe Division)
10. (U) Tha Aung (MP) (Myothit Township, Magwe Division)
11. (Ma) Zin Ma Ma Tun (Myothit Township, Magwe Division)
12. (Ko) Than Soe Myint (Myothit Township, Magwe Division)
13. (U) Pike Ko (Pakokku Township, Magwe Divison)
14. (U) Kyaw Nyunt (Pakokku Township, Magwe Divison)
15. (U) Tin Myint Aung (Pakokku Township, Magwe Divison)
16. (U) Thaung Soe (Chairparson of Minbu Township, Magwe Division)
17. (Ko) Nay Myo Kyaw (Saku Township, Magwe Division)
18. (Ko) Aung Win (Pwintbyu Township, Magwe Division)
19. (Mg) Thu Ya (Pwintbyu Township, Magwe Division)
20. (Ko) Htay Win (Kamma Township, Magwe Division)
Rangoon Division;
21. (Ko) Htein Win (Dagon Myothit Township, Rangoon)
22. (Daw) Khin Win Kyi (Dagon Myothit Township, Rangoon)
23. (Ma) Khin Myat Thu (Mingaladon Township, Rangoon)
24. (Ko) Nay Lin Kyaw (Dawbon Township, Rangoon)
25. (Ko) Nay Lin Soe (Tharkayta Township, Rangoon)
26. (Ko) Sai Kyaw Kyaw (Tamwe Township, Rangoon)
27. (Ko) Tin Min Naing (North Okkalapa Township, Rangoon)

Three NLD members were arrested then later released;
28. (Daw) Naw Ohn Hla (North Okkalapa Township, Rangoon)
29. (U) Nyunt Hlaing (MP-Aunglan) (Sanchaung Township, Rangoon)
30. (Ko) Myint Aung

©BNN/AAPP

26 Dissidents Detained in Rangoon: AAPP

2009-08-03T15:12:00.000+06:30

The Burmese military authorities arrested 26 pro-democracy activists on Thursday night in a move to pre-empt any public outrage concerning the postponement of a verdict against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, said a Burmese human rights group.

Tate Naing, secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Burmese human rights group based on the Thai-Burmese border, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Burmese authorities had arrested 26 dissidents since Thursday evening.

“We have learned that 28 people were arrested and that two activists among them were later released,” he said. “But the other 26 remain under arrest. Most of them are former political prisoners.”

The following morning (Friday), the Burmese judiciary postponed the verdict on Suu Kyi to August 11.

Later that day, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Nyan Win, said at a press conference at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) that the Rangoon Northern District Court had said that it decided to postpone the verdict because it is “reviewing the law.”

Among the 28 who were allegedly arrested during the overnight operation are elected representatives from the 1990 elections, including Tha Aung from Myothit Township and Nyunt Hlaing from Aunglan Township, as well as a well-known woman activist, Naw Ohn Hla.

Tate Naing said Naw Ohn Hla and Nyunt Hlaing were later released. However, he added that the number of arrests could rise as tensions increase among Suu Kyi’s supporters and security forces around Insein Prison, where the opposition leader has been detained since May 14.

“These arbitrary arrests show that the junta is scared of public outrage over the unjust trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Tate Naing said.

The detention of the 26 dissidents adds to the more than 2,100 political prisoners already being held in Burma’s prisons. According to AAPP and other human rights groups, the number of political prisoners in Burma has doubled in the last two years.

The arrests came following calls from the international community for the junta to release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners in Burma.

irrawaddy

Forced labor for Mudon residents

2009-07-29T05:14:00.001+06:30

IMNA
In anticipation of a visit by high-ranking Burmese army officials, Mudon villagers are being forced to clear brush from the main roadway.

On June 16th the order was delivered from the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) to village headmen who then passed it along to their individual villagers.

19 villages have been included in the order, and a Mudon headman reported that the clearing occurs as a mixture of forced labor and extorted villager money to pay laborers, to avoid inconsistencies and inferior work when the military officials cavalcade arrives.

The use of forced labor both directly from the Burmese army and indirectly through the leadership of individual villages represents a long-standing and pervasive abuse committed against Burmese residents.

“When Burmese authorities’ high-ranking officials visit and travel in the village, we have to clean bushes along the main road,” said a village headman.

“Village headmen are making orders for us to clear brush from our plantations along the main road to Mudon and Thanphyuzayat. So I have to clean bushes on the main road now every day. If you don’t clear the brush you have to pay money to the village headman,” said a villager from Mudon Township.

A plantation owner who is clearing the brush said that he couldn’t refuse the village headman’s order because the headman would inform the TPDC.

Some villagers have already finished the brush clearing along the road whereas others are continuing to do so.

Forced labour persists at Karen refugee camp

2009-07-29T04:51:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Instances of forced labour, forced army recruitment and extortion are still being reported at the refugee camp in Burma’s eastern Karen state that was overrun by a pro-junta militia last month.

The Ler Per Har camp was a focal point of fighting last month between government troops, supported by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), and opposition Karen National Union (KNU).

Around 4000 Karen civilians have fled across the border into Thailand, many of whom reported cases of being forced to act as porters for the army, and to walk in front of army patrols as minesweepers.

The Bangkok-based Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) last week said that while fighting had eased, reports of the forced labour, portering and exortion of money, food and livestock from villagers by the DKBA continued.

“These abuses continue to result in more people fleeing their villages and crossing to Thailand,” the TBBC statement said, adding that a further 200 people had crossed the border into Thailand in the 24 hours prior to the statement’s release.

The populous Ler Per Har camp accommodates internally displaced refugees inside Burma, although the Burmese government have said that KNU troops also reside there.

A source from the TBBC said that the DKBA were making the lives of villagers around the conflict zones “unbearable”.

“The DKBA come to villages and tell families that they want their sons in the army,” the source said.

“They come and ask for money; when the villagers cannot pay this, they ask for livestock.”

Pressuring the DKBA and Burmese troops to end forced labour and extortion is very difficult, said the TBBC.

There has been talk however of a long-term plan by the Thai government to negotiate with the DKBA and the Burmese junta for the safe return of the refugees currently holed up in various sites on the Thai side of the border.

According to the TBBC statement, around 2000 people have moved from temporary sites in and around Nu Poh village near to the Thai-Burma border to a new camp nearby.

The fighting between Burmese troops and the armed wing of the KNU, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), began on 2 June.

Since then, Burmese troops have taken two strategically important KNLA bases. It is unclear how many people have died in the fighting.

Fighting between the Burmese army and the KNU began in 1949, and is thought to be the world’s longest running internal conflict.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Arakanese vessel owners forced to pay toll to Burmese Navy

2009-07-24T04:18:00.001+06:30

Sittwe: The Burmese Navy’s collection of toll from Arakanese vessel owners in Sittwe and other places in northern Arakan state has put them in a tight spot, said Ko Thein Aung a vessel owner in Sittwe.

“We do not want to complain about it but we are at the end of our patience regarding toll collection by the navy. So we sent this message to you,” he said.

According to him, there are three naval bases near Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State. The Burmese Navy ship No. 554 is anchored in the middle of Kaladan River. Two naval ships are harboured at two jetties in Satro kya creek in Sittwe.

The three naval ships are stationed in the area since last year November following a maritime dispute withBangladesh.

“We have to pay Kyat 1000 to each naval ship whenever we cross them. However, it is not government imposed tax. It is to fill the pockets of naval personnel. Moreover, naval officials force us to buy meat like pork, beef and chicken and cooking oil and other foods from Sittwe whenever we go to Sittwe in our vessels,” he added.

Other vessel owners are also forced by the Burmese Navy to buy food for officials from Sittwe markets.

Another motor boat owner from Sittwe also said that the navy collects toll from all vessels including all machine boats, fishing boats, rowing boats whenever the vessels cross. “We also buy food for them,” he added.

Navy officials do not allow any private vessel to proceed to its destination if the vessels do not give in to the navy officials demand. Three navy ships have been stationed by higher authorities to check all private vessels going in and out of Kaladan River.

Many Arakanese private vessel owners are suffering from such forced collection of toll by the navy and the misbehaviour but vessel owners do not to dare to complain to higher authorities in Naypyidaw regarding this.

“We know we should complain to the higher authorities but I have never heard problems being resolved by higher authorities in Arakan state. So we are silent and we do whatever navy officials order us, “ Ko Thein Aung said.

narinjara

Woman detained by Nasaka, not produced in court

2009-07-24T04:15:00.000+06:30

Maungdaw: A woman detained in Maungdaw on the western Burma border since July 15 by Burma’s border security force, Nasaka is yet to be produced in court, said one of her relatives.

Ma Soe Soe (36) was arrested by Nasaka from the POE major jetty in Maungdaw on the evening of July 15, while she was returning to Maungdaw from Teknaf, a Bangladesh border town, the relative added.

Ma Soe Soe is a carrier of items for rich businessmen who transport goods between Burma’s Maungdaw town and Teknaf town in Bangladesh by motor boat across Naff River.

“She brought 20000 Taka (Bangladeshi currency) from Teknaf over and above the government limit of carrying Bangladesh currency. So the Nasaka arrested her in the jetty and seized the Bangladeshi currency,” she said.

Nasaka authorities allow carriers to bring only 5000 Taka (Bangladeshi currency). But Ma Soe Soe had more than that amount. So she was arrested by Nasaka.

“We have no idea why Nasaka officials have detained her at one of its outposts near the POE jetty for a week without producing her in the township court. We are worried about her security,” the relative added.

According to Burmese law, those arrested have to be produced before the court within 24 hours. Nasaka is detaining her against the law.

Since most Nasaka personnel on the border have no respect for human rights including women’s rights, her family members are worried about Ma Soe Soe’s security given the long detention at the outpost.

narinjara

Forced labor for Mudon residents

2009-07-24T04:07:00.000+06:30

In anticipation of a visit by high-ranking Burmese army officials, Mudon villagers are being forced to clear brush from the main roadway.

On June 16th the order was delivered from the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) to village headmen who then passed it along to their individual villagers.

19 villages have been included in the order, and a Mudon headman reported that the clearing occurs as a mixture of forced labor and extorted villager money to pay laborers, to avoid inconsistencies and inferior work when the military officials cavalcade arrives.

The use of forced labor both directly from the Burmese army and indirectly through the leadership of individual villages represents a long-standing and pervasive abuse committed against Burmese residents.

“When Burmese authorities’ high-ranking officials visit and travel in the village, we have to clean bushes along the main road,” said a village headman.

“Village headmen are making orders for us to clear brush from our plantations along the main road to Mudon and Thanphyuzayat. So I have to clean bushes on the main road now every day. If you don’t clear the brush you have to pay money to the village headman,” said a villager from Mudon Township.

A plantation owner who is clearing the brush said that he couldn’t refuse the village headman’s order because the headman would inform the TPDC.

Some villagers have already finished the brush clearing along the road whereas others are continuing to do so.

imna

9000 Displaced people in Burma lacking medical aid

2009-07-24T03:39:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Internally displaced persons hiding in jungles in eastern Burma are suffering from outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever with almost no medicine or medical facilities, according a Karen aid group.

Around 9000 people in Bago division’s Taung-ngu district are internally displaced (IDPs) and are having difficulty accessing food, water and medicine, said the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).

The prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases soars during the rainy season, and is a particular threat to people living in bush areas.

“Their traditional method of making smoke to keep mosquitoes away is dangerous because the Burmese army might see [the smoke] and find them,” said Saw Eh Wah from the CIDKP.

At least two or three people in each household are infected with either malaria or dengue fever, many of whom are pregnant women and children under age of 10, he said.

No deaths have yet been reported and IDPs are said to be using traditional medicines to combat the diseases.

“There are no hospitals or clinics; sometimes they get one or two medical workers from the Karen National Union and the Free Burma Rangers [medical group],” he said, adding that the IDPs are using “herbs and tree roots” as medicine.

Burma is also home to over 500,000 internally displaced persons, the majority of which are in eastern Karen state.

Many of these have been forced out of their homes by fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen National Union.

A report released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in June said that around 723,571 people are considered to be stateless in Burma, the world’s third highest population of stateless persons.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

Monks harassed by authorities

2009-07-23T05:07:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Monks living in a Rangoon monastery were harassed by authorities last week after accepting food donations from opposition party members given to mark Martyrs’ Day in Burma.

Around 20 officials from Thingangyun township authority in Rangoon arrived at the monastery in Laydauntkan ward where monks had received meals from National League for Democracy (NLD) members, a traditional way to celebrate Martyrs’ Day each year on 19 June.

According to NLD member Naw Ohn Hla, the officials “said intimidating words” to the monks and told them to report future donations to township authorities.

“They issued warnings and interrogated them,” she said. “They asked the monks how the offerings were made, how they were blessed with water, what kind of clothes were worn.”

Authorities threatened to seal off the monastery as had been famously done to Maggin monastery during the September 2007 monk-led uprising.

Monastery abbot, U Kumara, reportedly replied that his monastery had no “complicated matters” like Maggin, but was told by authorities that he had been “tainted with a black spot”.

Ohn Hla was among the 21 NLD members arrested and briefly detained whilst returning from Martyrs’ Mausoleum on Sunday.

“They told us not to wear clothes with [the pictures of] General Aung San,” she said. “When we headed towards the museum, they arrested us on the way.”

A number of those detained were “beaten up severely” and thrown into a van, she said.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

87-year-old opposition member imprisoned

2009-07-17T04:39:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–An elderly member of Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy party who is said to be in declining health was yesterday sentenced to two years in prison under defamation charges.

According to his colleague, the 87-year-old chairman of the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) Taungok township branch in Arakan state, Kyaw Khaing, was denied medical care throughout the trial, during which he was “slipping in and out of consciousness”.

"He has been suffering from dysentery for the last three to four days and he had to be supported [on the way] to the court,” said Tin Thein Aung.

“Deputy police chief Tin Maung San would not allow him to be hospitalized,” he said, adding that the doctor refused to come to the courtroom but instead handed medicine to his son.

Kyaw Khaing was sued for defamation in June by his predecessor in the job, Than Pe, although Tin Thein Aung argued that the sentencing came about “because he is an NLD [member] and involved in politics”.

There are currently around 470 NLD members imprisoned in Burma, out of a total of 2,160 political prisoners.

The verdict arrived on the same day that Burma’s ambassador to the United Nations, Than Swe, announced that the government “is processing to grant amnesty to prisoners on humanitarian grounds and with a view to enabling them to participate in the 2010 general elections."

The pledge followed a visit to Burma earlier this month by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who urged the release of political prisoners prior to the elections next year.

Ban Ki-moon reported back to the UN Security Council yesterday, and said that his denial of a meeting with imprisoned NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi was “a major lost opportunity" for the country.

'The choice for Myanmar's [Burma] leaders in the coming days and weeks will be between meeting that responsibility in the interest of all concerned, or failing their own people and each one of you,' he said.

It was not explicitly stated however that the prisoner amnesty would include political prisoners; in February this year over 6000 prisoners were released in a ‘goodwill’ amnesty by the government, although only 23 were political prisoners.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet

Landmine Kills Young Villager in Toungoo District

2009-07-13T18:05:00.001+06:30

A landby the Burma Army killed Saw Ghay Meain, 20, in the Saw Wa Der area, Toungoo District, northern Karen State. mine laid

Military Operation Command 5 (an MOC is made up of ten battalions) sent out Light Infantry Battalions 372 and 373 to attack this area and they laid landmines, one of which later killed Saw Ghay Meain. The Burma Army often attacks villages in this area, forcing people into hiding, then laying landmines so it is dangerous to return to their houses or gather possessions.

The MOC is quartered at Play Hsar Lo. On June 6 they went to Tha Phay Nuint village and made 15 villagers do forced labor. They also stole their possessions and took them back to the camp. Another Burma Army unit from Shan Zee Bo camp forced ten people from Shan Zee Bo village, six from Yain Sha village, six from Taw Gu village and eight from Zee Phu Goo village to do forced labor. The Burma Army regularly steals possessions and makes villagers do forced labor in many areas under their control.

The MOC 5 commander, Kaung Mya, was killed in an explosion and has been replaced by Khin Maung Sin.

BNN/FBR

New Burma Army attacks in Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District, northern Karen State, have forced over 500 villagers to hide in the jungle

2009-07-13T18:02:00.002+06:30

New Burma Army attacks in Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District, northern Karen State, have forced over 500 villagers to hide in the jungle and has left three men dead.

On July 7 the FBR team in the area reported that the 500 villagers who were now in hiding had not been able to carry enough food and were facing shortages. They also said that heavy rain meant children were facing health problems and becoming sick. The team is giving medical treatment to the IDPs as well as giving them what clothing and shelter they can. The continuing attacks mean the IDPs must remain hiding in difficult conditions. Villagers remain constantly prepared to flee, and will continue hiding until Burma Army troops return to their camps and local resistance soldiers are able to clear landmines.

The build up to the attacks began in early June when the Burma Army began forcing villagers in the area to provide recruits or pay fines of up to 300,000 kyats (about US$250).

By mid June Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) 351 and 599 (a total of about 150 soldiers) increased patrols on the road linking Kyauk Kyi and Mone and began the rebuilding of the road. The Burma Army shot dead Saw Maung Nyut, 48, from Paw Pi Dor village, north west Karen State on June 9 at 9am.

On that day, Burma Army Light Infantry Battalion 590 (an LIB is about 130 soldiers) went into Paw Pi Dor village with Saw Pa Lo from Paw Pi Dor and Maung Maung from Aung Chan Tha village who had been captured on March 5. The Burma Army told villagers not to leave the village and shot Saw Maung Nyut when they saw him as they were leaving the village on patrol. Paw Pi Dor is in Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District.

The following day the Burma Army Infantry Battalion 53 led by Min Thu went into the village again and told them they were not allowed to leave the village to work on their fields. On June 12 the Burma Army expanded their camp at the village and forced villagers from Paw Pi Dor and Aung Chan Tha to build it. On June 12 the Burma Army forced Htee To Lo villagers to expand their camp in their village. LIB 590 has also begun work on new camps at Htee Lu Lor and Kwee Pay as a base for operations in Mone Township.
On June 30, troops from LIB 590 captured Myaung Oo villagers Tin Aye and Maung Aye and forced them to guide them in their attacks on the villagers. On July 1 LIBs 351 and 599 (about 100 men in total) ordered villager Saw Par Lo to follow them to Min Tai and on July 2 they killed him at Min Tai and returned to Paw Pi Dor village. A villager named Maung Maung was killed on June 14 by soldiers from LIB 590 at Kwey Thay Myaung.

On July 3 the Burma Army sent two more battalions (more than 100 men) to Kyauk Kyi to do further operations in Mone Township. On July 3 LIB 590 captured Myaung Oo villager Than Oo and Aung Chan Tha villager Pyu Kyai and forced them to guide them in their attacks.

On July 4 the Burma Army along with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA - a proxy force that fights alongside the Burma Army) went to Htee Law Plo and Kaw Soe, meaning villagers from Ti Ko, Saw Kar Dor, Klaw Ki and Hti Lu Baw Hta and Nya Mu Ke, Ka Pa Hta, Na Hti Ko, Tanata and Nwa Lay Ko respectively could not leave to tend their farms. The following day villagers from Myaung Oo, Aung Chan Tha, Paw Pi Dor, Htee To Lo, Si Bin Tha, Mee Tai Taw and Mae Sa Li Kon were only allowed to work from 6am to 6pm and told if they were seen in their fields outside those times they would kill them.

These attacks come after a period of relative quiet in northern Karen State. The large scale attacks which were seen during 2006-2008 slowed at the end of 2008. FBR previously reported on the combined Burma Army/DKBA attacks in Pa'an District which began in early June, including on Ler Per Her IDP camp.

BNN/FBR

Village in Mudon township forced to repair pipeline ruptures

2009-06-27T02:29:00.000+06:30

HURFOM: 100 villagers are being forced to perform unpaid manual labor to repair the Yadana/Yetagun gas pipeline. Many villagers have complained that the repair project is disrupting their regular work.

On June 10 Light Infantry Battalion LIB No.209 ordered the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) of Ah Khon village, Mudon Township, Mon State, to make every single household, excluding woman and children, work on fixing the pipeline. The orders for forced labor came after villagers reported the gases line rupture to their headman on June 10th. LIB No. 209 also ordered that if someone was unable to work they would have to pay 10,000 kyat. It is not clear how long the gas pipeline was leaking before the break was discovered.

According to a villager, workers had to dig a 2 foot wide and 4 foot deep trench, a length of 150 meters, as the pipe was ruptured in three sections. Workers then had had to dig and remove the ruptured pipe, carry it to the railway station, return with the replacement pipe, and place it in the trench by hand.

“It is time for working on the farm, but I have to leave my farm have to work on the pipe. It is a rushed time for farmers to work on their farms because it is planting season and we are going to be late”, said Nai Rot, a local farmer who is 44 years old.

Gas pipeline breaks are frequent in this area, and every time villagers are requisitioned to make repairs without receiving compensation or pay. “We don’t know why we have to work; it is not for our profit – it is the government that profits, and should use its own labors, not us,” said Nai Mon, a 35 year old farmer.

The Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay portion of the gas pipeline leaks or explodes nearly every month, after which villagers living near the damaged portion of the pipeline have to work, without compensation, to make repairs. Additionally villagers who live near the pipeline must pay for security to protect the pipeline every single month

Editors note: All villager and farmer names have been changed for security purposes.

rehmonnya

Forced labour for building school in Buthidaung

2009-06-27T02:19:00.001+06:30

Buthidaung, Arakan State: The Burmese Army is using forced labour and extorting money from villagers of Mogh Bill village, Buthidaung Township for construction of a new primary school as part of a development programme in northern Arakan, said a former schoolteacher requesting anonymity.

The Buthidaung District Peace and Development Council (DPDC) Chairman received kyat 7 million from a Rohingya businessmen of Rangoon for the school when a Rohingya delegation visited northern Arakan accompanied by the Deputy Home Minister Phone Swe on May 20, said one of the village Chairmen on condition of anonymity.

A Major from the Military Operation Command (MOC) - No.15 has been assigned to build the school. The new school is being built after demolishing the old one and by using forced labor from nearby villagers.

According to a local villager, everyday, 30 to 40 villagers have to work the construction site without any wages for the last 30 days. But, only one skilled worker brought from Buthidaung Town is being paid wages. He has to mix sand, cement and stones in proportion, said a trader from the locality.

Besides, the military officer or contractor is collecting kyat 10,000 to 20,000 per family from villagers in keeping with their financial status for the construction of the school. The Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) Chairman was forced to pay kyat 200,000, according to a local elder.

Though the authorities received money for the construction of the school, the local authorities are using forced labour free of cost and collecting money from villagers. This is unacceptable to the Rohingya community. Most of the money will line the pockets of the contractor or the army. The army has no defence work, but they have been working at harassing the Rohingya community. All the business is controlled by the army directly or indirectly, said a businessman who declined to be named.

In addition, on a daily basis, villagers have to provide 10 to 30 labourers to the nearby army battalion. They have to work in the camp from 8 am to 5 pm taking food from home, he added.

This is the time when villagers have no work to support their family members while they face restriction of movement. In such a situation, villagers are forced to work in the military camps or have to work to serve the army, the businessman further said.

However, the international community, the ILO (International Labour Organization) is pressurizing, to the Burmese military junta to stop forced labour across the country, the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) authorities do not comply with the request. But, SPDC authorities have declared that there is no forced labour in the country.

kaladanpress

Many villagers forced to labor on road repair in Ye township

2009-06-27T01:54:00.000+06:30

800 villagers in Ye township were forced to labor for 3 days making repairs to a road damaged during by the rain.

On June 20th, 2009 villagers were ordered by the Kaw-Zar Town Peace and Development Council (TPDC) Chairman, Kyaw Moe, to make repairs to the main road, in which a hole had developed after heavy rains.

“The TPDC forced us to repair the road, and if anyone says they will not go, they have to be punished. So nobody will dare refuse to work,” said a resident from Kaw-Zar town.

The residents had to repair the road, which is about 1.5 mile long, by serving on a rotating duty shift, where 1 town quarter would work each day. There are over 800 households and 2 quarters in Kaw-Zaw Sub Township. The work system requires that 1 person from each family has to work as a laborer for the road repair each day. The residents had to make repairs to the main road by filling in the hole in with soil. The residents worked for 3 days repairing the hole, before the job was completed today on June 22nd.

Whenever the TPDC requires labor, they force residents to work where they want on a wide range of projects, from bridge repairs, to road repair, to cleaning bushes in the LIB No. 31 battalion. Laborers are paid nothing, according to a resident from Kaw-Zar town.

“We just fill their (SPDC) demands, and we have no time to work on our own jobs,” said a female resident of Kaw-Zar town.

Whenever residents are forced to work, they have to bring their own food with them. The TPDC does not provide support for the residents who are forced to perform manual labor. This has been the case since 2003 when the SPDC built battalion in Kaw-Zar Township. The SPDC forced residents from Kaw-Zaw to work as uncompensated manual labor at that time, to build LIB No. 31 battalion.

Kaw-Zar Sub Township, which is southern Ye Township, contains the most instances of human rights violation in Mon state, according to Nai Aue Mon, coordinator of Human Rights Documentation and Dissemination Project (HRDDP).

imna

Two children abducted into Burmese army

2009-06-26T04:08:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Two 14-year-old boys in Rangoon who were abducted into the army but then disqualified on fitness grounds have been forcibly sent to other military camps around Burma, according to the mother of one of the boys.

The two, Zin Min Aung and Zaw Zaw, disappeared in late May after collecting wood near to Panpinsan village in Rangoon division’s Twante township.

Their families discovered in June that they had been abducted by army Sergeant Win Myint and sent to the Danyingone soldier recruitment centre in Rangoon’s Insein township.

“We went to the Danyingone recruitment centre last Friday and found out that our sons were brought there by Sergeant Win Myint on 7 June but they refused to recruit them as they were underage and not fit enough,” said Zin Min Aung’s mother, Kyu Kyu Mar.

Those who present new recruits to the Burmese army are often rewarded with a sum of money.

They then went to find Win Myint at his house but only his wife was there.

“The wife said her husband has been on a trip for about four to five days and that she thought he was trying to hand the boys to other army recruitment centres.”

After being confronted several days later by Kyu Kyu Mar, Win Myint reportedly admitted that he had sent the boys to other camps.

“He said he sent our sons into the army as they are straying on the streets,” she said, adding that he had said he “only collects stray kids but not kids from good families”.

Win Myint told her to contact staff at the Danyingone centre to discover their whereabouts. When she arrived at the centre, however, she was denied entry.

She said the families are now getting assistance from the opposition National League for Democracy party in Twante to report the case to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Cases of forced recruitment of child soldiers in Burma arise frequently, despite the government regularly proclaiming that it is tackling the issue.

In 2002, Human Rights Watch accused the junta of being the world’s leading recruiter of child soldiers.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Cross-border DKBA attack leaves two Karen dead

2009-06-26T04:07:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Two Karen refugees in Thailand who fled ongoing fighting in eastern Burma have been shot dead in what appears to be a cross-border attack by Burmese pro-junta militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Members of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), who are fighting alongside the Burmese army in its offensive against opposition Karen National Union (KNU), have reportedly been pressuring Karen in Thailand who had fled the offensive.

Three DKBA soldiers entered Thebayhta village in Thailand’s Tha Song Yan province on the evening of 23 June and reportedly questioned two Karen men about KNU activities.

A villager in Thebayhta said that when the two replied that they knew nothing, the soldiers shot them.

One of the men, Mah Kloh, 36, died on the spot while the other, Er Khlay, 28, died yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, refugees have been told that homes and villages in Burma’s eastern Karen state will be confiscated if they do not return.

According to a Karen youth group helping the refugees, nine families comprising 54 members in Thailand’s Mae Thrit village were told that they had to go home, despite many voicing fears that they will be caught in the clashes.

The Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) said on Monday that Thai authorities had similarly been telling Karen to leave the country, although some observers speculated that Thailand was reacting to pressure from the DKBA and Burmese government.

Around 4000 Karen are thought to have fled Burma since the offensive began on 2 June. Thai authorities have reportedly given a verbal promise to help 4000 displaced villagers although no definite plan has been set out, said the KWO secretary.

According to the KWO, Karen villagers face the prospect of being forced to walk in front of troop patrols as minesweeper, while rape of women is a real threat: last week two Karen women, both teenagers, were raped and murdered by the Burmese army.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

Six villages relocated for Arakan hydropower plant

2009-06-26T04:05:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Six villages located near the proposed site of a hydropower plant in Burma’s western Arakan state have been displaced by Burmese military, with added concerns that civilians nearby will be forced to help build the plant.

The villages, near to Buthidaung township, are home to the Khami ethnic group, whose numbers are reportedly “very low already”, according to the All Arakan Student and Youth Congress (AASYC), who have been monitoring the plant’s impact on the local area.

This is one of several times that the project has been attempted at the area close to the Sai Dan waterfall, and given the influx of army troops and construction materials, villagers reportedly are confident that this one will go ahead.

Original plans for the plant date back to 1959, but any initial attempts at construction were thwarted by the murder of a Japanese construction worker by the then ruling Burmese Communist Party.

According to Kim Weistrich, from the AASYC’s Anti-River Development Campaign, further forced relocation of Khami away from their land will means that “it is quite likely that a lot of the cultural heritage will be lost”.

Concerns about locals being forced to help build the plant stem from the construction last year of the nearby Zee Chaung dam on the Kaladan river, which reportedly involved the use of 150 unpaid labourers per day, including children.

“We strongly expect that to happen with the Sai Dan plant as well” Kim Wiestrich said.

Cases of forced labour and other such human rights abuses are commonly documented during construction projects in Burma.

International watchdogs monitoring the development of a gas pipeline to China, which will begin its course in Arakan state, say that intense militarization along the pipeline contribute to cases of forced labour and land confiscation.

"Overall, I think there's a consistent pattern that local people are not regarded as stakeholders in these projects, they are regarded as obstacles,” said Matthew Smith of advocacy group EarthRights International (ERI).

“For other projects, there seems to be a consistent pattern; the military moves in and there is forced labour, forced relocation, land confiscation, no compensation, and local villages lose their land.”

It is rumoured that the Burmese military has also banned the use of bamboo in forests surrounding the Sai Dan waterfall which local villagers are dependent on.

“It’s particularly dangerous at this time of year because it’s the rainy season” said AASCY, relating to the use of bamboo by locals to support their homes during heavy rains.

The military has apparently claimed that the power produced will be used in Arakan state, although there are doubts to whether this is true.

"There are definitely reasons to be concerned, especially when we're talking about revenues which are generated from the people's natural resources," said Smith.

Kim Wiestrich said it was “quite likely” that the majority of the income will be used for military means.

Reporting by Daniella Nayu

Army enlists youths as porters in Mandalay

2009-06-24T04:57:00.001+06:30

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - At least 50 youths hailing from central Burma’s Mandalay division were forcibly enlisted on June 1 by the Burmese Army to work as porters to carry military material such as rations and equipment, local villagers said.

Youths, from at least seven villages in Mandalay division’s Thabeikkyin region, known for its gold mines, were forcibly enlisted to work as porters to carry army paraphernalia on the evening of June 1.

“The youths were whisked away in five army trucks. The young men here use to relax at night in teashops. The troops arrived suddenly and took them away,” a local told Mizzima over telephone.

Another local resident revealed, “We have never seen anything like this here in Thabeikkyin town. This is the first time such a thing has happened. But people said those taken away came back by shelling out 100,000 kyat (USD 100) each. About five have reportedly come back.”

While it is still not clear which battalion of the army had taken them away to wok as porters, locals believe that it could the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 148, based near Kyuak Hlebe village in Thabeikkyin Township.

Thabiekkyin Township is well known for gold mining activity and it attracts businessmen as well as people from other townships including Wutlet, Ayardaw and Thantse. Many come and work in the mines.

Political prisoners moved to Insein’s dog quarters

2009-06-22T04:48:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Around 20 political prisoners in Rangoon’s Insein prison have been placed in detention inside the prison’s canine quarters, according to the wife of one of the inmates.

Conditions in Burma’s prisons are often dire, with particularly bad punishments meted out to high-profile political prisoners.

Many well-known imprisoned activists and opposition members are in poor health and are often denied healthcare, with the situation compounded by the frequent barring of family visits.

“My husband is now in the dog ward and he said he didn’t know why the prison officials did that,” said the wife of political inmate Sit Yan Naing, who was arrested in 2007 for allegedly carrying explosives in his fishing boat and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

“There are other people with him and also none of them seemed to know why they were there,” she said, adding that a prison warden at the canine unit had told her he didn’t know why either.

Meanwhile, a member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party was arrested on Wednesday after taking photographs and video footage documenting a water shortage problem in his town.

Myat Myat Mon, the wife of NLD member Lay Lwin, said that she and her husband were taken from their house to South Dagon’s Township Peace and Development Council office by township officials and police on Wednesday afternoon, and he has not returned since.

“My husband told them he didn’t do it but [township chairman Hla Win] threatened to beat him up and said they would sue him anyway with any means possible,” she said.

The sister of Lay Lwin said that his whereabouts were unknown.

“We heard a clerk in that office saying something like he was transferred to a government interrogation camp so we are so worried for him,” she said.

Reporting by Aye Nai and Naw Say Phaw

Junta continues to recruit children into army: Rights defender

2009-06-19T03:36:00.000+06:30

New Delhi (mizzima news) - Despite the Burmese junta’s claim of eliminating the use of children in the military, a human rights advocate said children in Burma are still recruited into the army and that he is currently advocating for the return of three children from the armed forces.

Aye Myint, a lawyer in Pegu town, who has helped in the return of several children from the army, said he is handling three cases of children being recruited in the army in recent weeks. He is now working for their return at the behest of their parents.

“I have just submitted a letter of complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for the return of three children from the army,” Aye Myint told Mizzima on Wednesday.

But since publicising the details of the cases could come in the way of the ILO and his efforts to negotiate with the Burmese authorities in helping the children return, he refused to provide details of the cases of the three children.

In a summary of the cases, Aye Myint said, it includes a boy of age 16 from Myingyan town of Mandalay division. The boy was reportedly working at a restaurant in Pegu town and was persuaded by an Army officer from Brigade 77 to join the army and was later taken away by the officer.

“No matter how the child is recruited, whether by persuasion, coercion, or threat, if a child under the age of 18 is recruited into the army, it is a violation. The army has the responsibility to return the kid because the kid is supposed to be in the classroom not carrying out military duties,” Aye Myint said.

Aye Myint, who by profession is a lawyer, has started fighting against the use of children in the military since 2006. And since March 2006, he said, with the help of the ILO, he was able to help 25 children return from the army.

On June 3, the junta claimed that it is taking steps in preventing and eliminating the use of children in the army by sending back eight minors to their parents from the military.

But Aye Myint as well as other human rights activists said the return was just a sham while the army continues recruiting children into the army.

Burma is a signatory to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Child (CRC). While the convention prohibits children of age 15 and below from recruiting into the army, the Burmese military law specifies that children below 18 cannot be recruited into the army.

But against these laws, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s 2007 report states that children in Burma are still being used as soldiers not only the Burmese Army but also by non-state armed forces, referring to ethnic armed rebel groups.

The report, which was submitted to the UN Security Council, listed nine armed groups from Burma including the Burmese Army among the 54 armed groups around the world that continues to use children in their armies.

Lengthy sentences for opposition prayer arrestees

2009-06-19T03:20:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Two members of the opposition National League for Democracy party arrested after praying for the release of political prisoners in Burma have each been sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison.

The two, Chit Pe and Aung Soe Wei, were arrested on 21 April after holding a prayer ceremony at a pagoda near to Rangoon division’s Twante township, and charged under Section 295a which addresses "desecration of religious buildings and property".

Aung Soe Wei’s wife Ma Lwin said the two were immediately taken to Rangoon’s Insein prison following the verdict and were barred from speaking to family members waiting outside the court. Lawyer Kyi Toe said that his requests to authorities to let him meet his clients to were denied.

“I made a request to the police station chief Myint Kyaw and also to the court, but was denied both times,” said Kyin Toe. “I was not given the right to freely talk to and discuss with my client from the start until the end of the case.”

Meanwhile, three National League for Democracy (NLD) youth members in Rangoon were arrested by authorities last Friday.

NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said it was a further sign of the ruling State Peace and Development’s Council’s repression of opposition groups in Burma.

“The NLD has been under pressure [from the SPDC] for many years and it is not easing, even when they are promising a new election and the end of all arguments,” said Nyan Win.

“But we are not in depression; we will continue doing our work and will never change our non-violence policy.”

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet

Kachin Youths Beaten and Hospitalized

2009-06-19T03:08:00.001+06:30

Around fifteen ethnic Kachin youths, including schoolchildren, were reportedly seriously injured and three were hospitalized in a beating by Burmese soldiers. The beatings took place after the youths prevented the soldiers from physical abuse a Kachin girl in Mayan village in Mogaung Township, Kachin State, northern Burma.

The incident came after village youths attacked the Burmese soldiers to prevent them gang-raping the teenage girl, according to a report released on Wednesday, June 17, by rights campaign group, Burma Campaign UK (BCUK).

The soldiers attempted to rape the 17-year-old Kachin schoolgirl, Wa Sha Ki, as she was going home on 31 May, but she was rescued by the Kachin youngsters, according to the report.

The soldiers later returned to Mayan village to take revenge, attacking the youths.

The Burmese commander of Artillery Battalion 372, Lt-Col Ye Yint Twe, gathered about thirty of his soldiers and ordered them to punish the young men in the village. The Burmese soldiers rampaged through the village, dragging the youths out and beating them mercilessly.

According to the BCUK report, fourteen-year-old Sawan La San was left unconscious after the beating. Four of his ribs were broken and he was vomiting blood before falling into a coma as a result of brain injury. He is reportedly hospitalized in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State.

The army commander warned the villagers not to talk about the incident, and Burmese soldiers have been patrolling the village since the beating took place. Young males in the village are in hiding for fear of arrest and torture.

Human rights abuses that include land confiscation, forced labor, illegal taxation, rape and sexual abuse are regularly occurrences in Kachin State, according to Kachin rights groups.

A Kachin villager was quoted as saying: “We have been suffering this kind of abuse by Burmese soldiers for decades since the time of our grandfathers, but no one can help us.”

“We don’t want the soldiers in our village. They are not here to help but to abuse and oppress us in different ways every day. Until they leave, we will continue to suffer,” said the villager.

There are more than 600 mostly ethnic Kachin people living in Mayan village.

In August 2008, a 15-year-old school girl was gang-raped and killed by Burmese soldiers in Bamaw district, Kachin state, and a 21-year-old was gang-raped by Burmese soldiers in Sarmaw in December. No action was taken in either case, according to the BCUK report.

Nang Seng, a campaign officer with the BCUK said: “This incident is typical of the kind of things going on in villages and towns across Kachin State. This will continue after elections next year, as ethnic people have been given no rights, no level of autonomy, and Burmese Army soldiers will still occupy our villages.”

irrawaddy

Political prisoners put in solitary confinement

2009-06-18T05:42:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–Five political prisoners in Burma’s Insein prison have been put in solitary confinement after prison authorities suspected them of planning to demonstrate against the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Three of the detainees are reportedly in bad health. Nine Nine, a 1990 elected people’s parliamentary representative who is serving 21 years, has been suffering from stomach problems for nearly 15 years, according to his wife.

“I was informed my husband and four other inmates were kept in solitary confinement after someone tipped the prison officials about them planning a protest in the prison,” said Tin Tin Hla.

“Apparently that information was wrong.” She added that prison authorities had banned her from visiting Nine Nine, thereby denying him the medicine she brought for his illness.

The four other detainees were identified as National League for Democracy (NLD) lawyer Soe Han, NLD member Aung Naing, All-Burmese Federation of Student Unions member Lwin Ko Latt and monk U Santimar.

Meanwhile, the leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA), U Gambira, has been transferred from Hkamti prison to Kale prison in Sagaing division, reportedly to receive medical care following an illness.

“In Hkamti Prison, he was having severe headaches at night so, he was moaning and screaming,” said a relative of U Gambira, Ma Khin Mu Htay.

“Because of that, they stuffed clothes into his mouth. I also heard that his legs were shackled and kept apart by a wooden bar and his hands were handcuffed behind his back.”

She added that when his mother visited him in Hkamti, he was so weak he struggled to speak.

The ABMA leader was active during the September 2007 protests, following which he was jailed for 69 years. He had been previously been transferred from Rangoon’s Insein Prison to Mandalay, then to Hkamti.

U Gambira's kin have also been jailed and transferred to Sittwe, Kyaukpyu, Mergui, Moulmein, Taunggyi, and Loikaw Prisons, far from their families.

Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew

Political Prisoners Punished in Insein Prison

2009-06-12T16:44:00.000+06:30

[Mae Sot, Thailand] Five political prisoners in Rangoon's Insein prison have been held in punishment cells [military dog cells] and banned from receiving family visits since 11 May 2009, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) has learned. The reason for their punishment is unknown.

They are U Naing Naing (National League for Democracy Member of Parliament), U Soe Han (NLD member and lawyer), Aung Naing (NLD member), Lwin Ko Latt (student and member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions), and U Sandimar (senior abbot monk).

U Naing Naing is suffering from a hernia and also hypertension. U Soe Han has eye problems. Their families have been banned from visiting, and have been unable to provide them with essential medicines. The families are now very worried for the health of their loved ones.

Due to inadequate healthcare provision in Burma's prisons, political prisoners rely on their family members to bring them medicines and other essential items. The ruling military regime has prevented the International Committee of the Red Cross from conducting prison visits since November 2005.

Security in Insein prison is currently very tight, due to the ongoing trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, her two live-in party members Daw Khin Khin Win and Daw Win Ma Ma, and US citizen John William Yettaw.

Background on their cases:

NLD MP U Naing Naing aka Saw Naing Naing was arrested on 14 September 2000. He was charged with Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, and Section 17/20 of the 1962 Printers and Publishers Registration Act. He was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.

NLD member and lawyer U Soe Han was arrested on 14 September 2000. He was also charged with Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, and Section 17/20 of the 1962 Printers and Publishers Registration Act, and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.
NLD member Aung Naing was arrested on 11 June 2005. The charges against him are unknown, but he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

Student and ABFSU member Lwin Ko Latt was arrested on 26 September 2003. He was charged with Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act and Section 17/1 of the 1908 Unlawful Association Act. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

U Sandimar, a monk and senior abbot from Kyar monastery, Pazundaung Township, Rangoon, was arrested on 7 September 2007. He was charged with Sections 17/1 and 17/2 of the 1908 Unlawful Association Act and Sections 5 and 6 of the 1988 Law Relating to the Forming of Organisations (State Law and Order Restoration Council Law No. 6/88 30 September 1988). On 14 November 2008 he was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment.

BNN/AAPP

Six tribal villages relocated for hydro power plant

2009-06-12T05:41:00.001+06:30

Buthidaung: Six Khami ethnic villages in Buthidaung Township were forced to relocate by the Burmese Army recently for construction of the Sai Dan hydro power plant.

The villages are located in the upper Sai Din waterfall area - a famous waterfall in Arakan, 30 miles east of Buthidaung. The Burmese regime plans to construct a hydro power plant at the spot.

The six Khami tribal villages are: Swa Yay, Li Bo, Dauk Souk Pai, Mari Mi, Ree Chaung and Pana Chay. The villages are located near the place the power plant is to come up. The authorities therefore relocated the villages to upper Pana Chay village.

A village source said there are about 50 households on an average in a village and most villagers depend on the Sai Dan Creek for their survival.

The junta has claimed that power generated from the Sai Dan waterfall hydro power plant will be distributed in Arakan State from 2012 when the project is completed.

The power plant is expected to produce about 70 MW of electricity.

The Burmese regime tried to construct the hydro power plant at the Sai Dan waterfall in the past too but did not succeed because of some problems.

Prime Minister U Nu’s government was constructing a power plant in the Sai Dan waterfall in 1950 but later stopped work after one US engineers were killed by the Burmese Communist party.

The military government also tried to construct the power plant at the waterfall after seizing power in 1988 but two years later the project was stopped without any reason being given.

Now the authorities have again decided to construct the power plant at the waterfall. Local people believe this time the authorities will build the power plant in Sai Dan waterfall because many equipments and some foreign engineers have arrived in the area for the project.

narinjara

Sarapa on extortion drive in Maungdaw Township

2009-06-12T05:38:00.000+06:30

Maungdaw, Arakan State: The Military Intelligence (Sarapa) has been extorting money from villagers by doling out illegal indictments, such as holding Bangladeshi mobile phones, receiving money from foreign countries in Maungdaw Township, a schoolteacher from the locality said, on condition of anonymity.

On June 1, Myint Swe, a Sarapa officer extorted Kyat 200,000 from Idris (22), son of Ali Zuher, who hails from Sarfoddin Bil (Hla Poekhung) village of Maungdaw Township, over allegations that he possessed a Bangladeshi mobile set. In fact, he does not even own a mobile set. Villagers are compelled to pay the money, the authority demands as they will not get justice, if they complain to the court. If they complain to the court, or other concerned higher authorities, the villagers also fear reprisal by the culprits. Most of the time, the higher authorities are partial to the culprits, a village elder said.

Similarly, on June 5, the Sarapa officer extorted Kyat 360,000 from Safi Ullah (25), son of Abdul Salam , who hails from Sarfoddin Bill village of Nasaka area No. 6 of Maungdaw Township, on allegations that he also possessed a Bangladeshi mobile set, a close relative of the victim said.

Besides, on June 7, at about 1:00 am, Sarapa Officer Myint Swe accompanied by some Nasaka personnel from Nari Bill ( Kyauk Pyinseik) Nasaka outpost camp went to Nari Bill (Kyauk Pyinseik) village of Nasaka area No.6 of Maungdaw Township and arrested Hamid Hussain (23), son of Abdul Shukur on allegations that he had received money from his relatives based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). However, the victim did not receive any money from his relatives. The authorities are aware that they will get money from the victim after threatening him, as his relatives live in KSA. After being arrested, he was brought to the nearby Nasaka camp, a close friend of the victim, who declined to be named, said.

However, the following day on June 8, he was released after paying Kyat 200,000. It is an easy method for the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC authorities to get money from the Rohingya community by making false allegations against them, that they are involved in human trafficking, possessing Bangladeshi mobile sets, receiving money from foreign countries, and crossing the Burma- Bangladesh border, he added.

The concerned authorities only accuse those people, who are able to pay up the money demanded from them. It is a source of earning for the SPDC authorities in northern Arakan, according to a student from Maungdaw Town.

kaladanpress

Army Seizes Villager’s Rice Paddy, Demands Money for Pipeline Security

2009-06-12T05:31:00.000+06:30

Burmese Army soldiers seized a villager’s rice paddy field by force in Mudon Township, Mon State.

Three day ago, soldiers informed the Doe Mar villager that they would take 2.5 acres for themselves for rainy season rice cultivation. They offered no compensation, said a source close to the farmer.

When he arrived at his farm, the soldiers, who are guarding the nearby Myaing Kalay pipeline, informed him that they would be working in his field and that he should go home. The villager’s property is located close to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) base.

A land seizure of this type continues what has been called an “expansive set of human rights violations,“ along the 180-mile pipeline since its construction began in November 2000. A May 2009 report by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) found 298 acres of farmland seized and nearly 12,000 acres in total.

A villager told IMNA that the soldiers said “[they] will work in his field for the rainy [paddy season]. So that paddy field owner had to go back home.”

Another Doe Mar villager added that, if the soldiers asked last year it may not have been such an imposition; the farmer did not grow rice then, due to the high price of rubber. This year, however, rubber prices have dropped and the farmer needs the rice paddy to support his family.

Residents told IMNA that soldiers have abused their power and demanded money from the villagers for a long time: “they try to take everything from the villagers. Not just the paddy field, money as well. We have been giving them [SPDC soldiers] money for a long time for gas pipeline security.”

Since April 2006, when the gas pipeline exploded, villages in Mudon Township have had to give 2,500 Kyat per family every single month to local battalions for gas pipeline security.

A resident from Hnee Padaw village , Mudon township, added that “in our village, not only do we have to pay money for pipeline security, but also for the salary of the [SPDC organized] militia in the village.”

The May 2009 HURFOM report found that the most common of the numerous human rights abuses by the SPDC surrounding the Myaing Kalay gas pipeline were Land Confiscation, Forced Labor, Taxation, Extortion and Commandeering.

Youth sold to Burmese army for $US20

2009-06-11T02:16:00.001+06:30

(DVB)–Teenagers are being kidnapped and sold to the Burmese army for as little as $US20, while those caught trying to escape are often shot or poisoned, say young army deserters recently interviewed.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council has come under fire recently as documented cases of forced recruitment of child soldiers continue to emerge, with various international jurists, British MPs and exiled Burmese lawyers labeling the practice a war crime.

Last week, Human Rights Watch criticised as “window dressing” a ceremony in which child soldiers were handed back to their families, and said the problem continues.

A report released by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) last week featured interviews with three teenagers, one 16-years-old, who recently escaped from the army.

“When I returned from my grandmother's shop [in Rangoon], I went to Sule Pagoda and a soldier who was there from Taw Boke army camp grabbed me,” said an 18-year-old deserter.

“He told me that he would give me pocket money. Then that soldier sold me for 20,000 kyat [approx US$18.80] to a military officer who was sitting in a tea shop.”

He added that out of a monthly salary of approximately US$20, army seniors stole $US18, leaving them with about US$2 for a whole month.

Another former soldier forcibly recruited into the army said that children as young as 13 were taking part in military training, while treatment of those caught fleeing was often brutal.

“They killed them. For example, they injected them with poison or shot them with a gun,” he said.

“It [execution] was especially for the soldiers who escaped with a gun.”

Last week the International Labour Organisation (ILO) voiced concern about a clause in the Burmese constitution that makes use of forced labour legal when the government deems it necessary.

As well as recruitment of minors into the army, cases of forced labour documented by the ILO include recruitment of civilians to walk in front of army patrols as ‘minesweepers’.

Reporting by Francis Wade

Fines and torture for medical workers after they treated insurgents

2009-06-08T04:59:00.000+06:30

HURFOM: After treating insurgents, a village medical field worker and his two assistants, from Yebyu township, were forced to pay a fee of 900,000 Kyat to the local battalion commander. But because of corruption, the two assistants were tortured and beaten anyway.

Late in April the local field medical worker, Nai Neing Min, was brought by his two assistants, Nai Kyi and Nai Nyeing (who are 31 years old and 30 years old, respectively), to a rebel camp to treat insurgents. Nai Neing Min, and his two assistants were then forced to pay a total of 900,000 kyat by Light Infantry Batallion (LIB) No.273’s battalion commander, Thein Zaw, who is based in MaMuu village, Yebyu Township. The payment was arranged through the MaMuu village headman Nai Khon Ba.

However the headman did not deliver the full 900,000 kyat to the LIB No.273 battalion commander. Instead he delivered 600,00 kyat, and kept 300,000 kyat for himself.

“Because of the village headman, we are facing problems,” a source close to Nai Neing Min reported him saying “We already gave 900,000 kyat for the battalion commander, but he [the headman] didn’t gave all money to the battalion.”

The village headman was corrupt and because he took a portion of the fee, the battalion’s commander Thein Zaw got angry with Nai Neing Min, and the two assistants. Therefore, the medical field worker was intimidated and the two assistants were arrested and tortured by the LIB No. 273 for information about insurgent group Nai Chan Dein’s activities.

Sources close to the medical field worker, Nai Neing Min, reported him as saying, “The Battalion’s commander decided to demand 900,000 kyat because he found out about the treatment of the insurgent group. We gave the 900,000 kyat to the village headman to give to LIB No.273’s battalion commander however, the village headman [Nai Khon Ba] only paied 600,000 kyat to the battalion’s commander, and kept the rest of the 300,000 kyat for himself. The battalion commander [Thein Zaw] got angry and demanded that troops arrest Nai Kyi and Nai Nyeing [assistants] on Thursday, April 30th, and tied them up, beat them and rolled bamboo sticks on their shins”

“The commander called me to the Pharpon village and intimidated me about the assistance to the insurgent groups, The battalion’s commander, Thein Zaw, said, ‘If the high officer knows about us taxing money from you, you will get in trouble.” The source added.

After arriving back in the village, Nai Neing Min heard that his assistants had been arrested, tied, beaten and tortured by solders from LIB No. 273 for information about how to find the rebel group. He was afraid and fled to Kalay village.

In Yebyu Township, which is a main area for the insurgent group activities, LIB No.273 arrests and tortures people whom they suspect of communicating with the insurgent groups [Nai Chang Deing groups and Nai Ah Bim groups]. Many people have left their homes and run to neighboring villages to find a safe place for themselves.

Villager, Ah Zan, who fled from MaMuu village to Kalay village said, “ My younger brother and I decided to leave our family and move to Kalay village. We walked day and night on the jungle road to arrive at the village [Kalay village]. Throughout the trip we had to worry either that the Burmese soldiers or the rebel groups would see us. If they see the people traveling, they will arrest them and claim they are from the other side.”

This situation demonstrates that the residents have been facing many problems in the area, because they are accused of either helping support rebel group or the SPDC.

Please note, the editor has changed all names of persons involved for their own security other then the township and the battalion commander.

rehmonnya

Wearing Mon dress, three Mon children are arrested for swearing

2009-06-08T04:57:00.001+06:30

HURFOM: 3 children were arrested for using fowl language, though sources dispute this account saying family claims the arrest was over the children’s wearing of Mon dress.

On May 16th 3 Mon children, all 13 years old, were sitting by the side of the road, in Kamawet Sub-Township, Mon state, when they were detained by 4 plain-clothes police officers Burmese police for swearing at them. After taking the children to Kamawet jail, one of the children, who was the child of the headman, went to his father to notified the other parents of the arrest. The parents arrived at the jail and had to pay the police department 5,000 kyat, the 4 arresting officers 10,000 kyat, and an additional 5,000 kyat to the headman.

May 16th was the 252nd anniversary of Mon Kingdom Fallen Day, a holiday marking the destruction of the Mon capitol, Hongsawatoi, by the Burmese Ruler Aungsaya, and the subsequent torture and genocide of the Mon people. As a celebration of remembrance and nationalism for the fallen Mon state, Mon people wear traditional Mon clothes.

Though the reason for the arrest by police was that the children were swearing, according to sources, parents claim that the arrest was because the children were wearing Mon clothes. A source also said that one of the families also claims that the local police intimidated the parents, forcing them to pay for their children’s release.

According to a source that had spoke to one of the families of a child that had been arrested, “The children were sitting on the bridge. At that time 4 local police, who were not wearing police uniforms, came and asked them ‘what are you doing here and why are you wearing the Mon uniform today?’ After that they arrested the children and took them to Kamawet jail until their parents arrived. The children were arrested at 7:00 am and released them at 10:00 am, at which time the parents arrived to pay and pick them up.”

Also according to a source who had spoken to one of the families, they claimed that one of the police said, “the government only allows Mons to ware Mon dress on Mon National Day. The children are braking the law, therefore we have the right to detain them.’ We had to pay 20,000 Kyat to take our children back home.”

rehmonnya

Forced labour increases in Maungdaw Township

2009-06-08T04:41:00.001+06:30

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Forced labour is increasing in Maungdaw Township due to the building of the fence on the Burma-Bangladesh border, after Cyclone Aila lashed the area, a local businessman said on condition of anonymity.

The storm and tidal waves have destroyed almost 80 percent of the shrimp enclosures of villagers and barrier or walls, which were recently completed on the Burma-Bangladesh border, to erect the fence, said a shrimp owner of Maungdaw Township.

As a result, the ruling military junta, which had recently carried barbed wires, cement and iron rods from Rangoon to Maungdaw Township by ships, had to take the initiative again to erect the fence in the border area.

The army accompanied by Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) recently ordered every village in Maungdaw Township to provide at least 100 labourers for four days to work at the work site, without any wages and also to take their own food. The concerned authority had already ordered the village tracts of Padaung and Donkhali of Maungdaw Township to provide 100 labourers per village. Having worked at the work site for four days, they had to return to their homes and another group had to go to the work site for another four days, said a school teacher.

On the other hand, the authority concerned invited some other labourers for fence construction from other places, such as Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships and other villages. But, they were provided Kyat 1,500 to 2,000 per day according to their work capacity, said a local shopkeeper.

Erecting the fence on the Burma-Bangladesh border area causes a lot of hardship for the local people of Maungdaw Township and forced labour also escalated.

Besides, yesterday, the concerned authorities distributed 2 acres of land per family to the new settlers, who were recently brought to Arakan State from Burma proper. The lands were seized from the Rohingya community for Natala villagers. This also upset the Rohingya villagers, said an ex-chairman requesting not to be named.

kaladanpress

Three villagers tortured by police in Maungdaw

2009-06-08T04:40:00.001+06:30

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Three villagers, including one woman from Maungdaw Township, were arrested on May 22 and are being tortured by the police, on suspicions that they were involved in setting fire to a video room owned by Natala villagers, a school teacher from the locality said.

Earlier, last month, some of the video rooms of Natala villagers were reduced to ashes by unknown miscreants. These video rooms were built in the villages of Kadir Bill (Nyaung Chaung), Kiladaung (Du Chee Yar Tan), Gawdu Sara and Mayrulla (Myinn Hlut) of Maungdaw Township. At that time no one was arrested by the authority regarding this matter.

After the event, at about 5:00 am, a group of Nasaka personnel from the camp of Zawmattat of Nasaka area No. 7 of Maungdaw Township went to the spot to investigate the situation.

Later, at about 9:00 am, a group of policemen from Maungdaw town went to the spot and arrested three villagers, including a mother and son because their houses were close to the video room. Police suspected that they were involved in the outbreak of fire, the teacher added.

The victims have been identified as Nur Jahan (47), wife of Md. Hashim, her son Md. Ayub (20) and Noor Mohammed (50), son of Habibur Rahman. All of them belong to Sarcombow Village of Maungdaw Township, a close relative of Nur Jahan said.

The victims are being tortured severely to get confessional statements from them. However, they are still in police custody, but no case was filed against them and they were not even produced in court.

The video room was set on fire on that day at about 3:25 am by unknown miscreants. Its owner is U Wachay, belonging to the Rakhine community, who settled in Maungdaw Township since 1992, invited by the concerned authority from Bangladesh, a villager of the locality said.

Most of the villagers believe that some of the concerned authorities deliberately did this to get ways to harass and extort money from the Rohingya community, a trader from Maungdaw town said.

A village elder said, “We are like the fish under the knife. In such a situation, we don’t dare to do anything against the military junta as they will harass the Rohingya community and they will give us severe punishment.”

However, police believe that some of the Madrassa students of Sarcombow Madrassa and some of the organized youths set fire to the said video room. The Madrassa is close to the video room, an aide from the Maungdaw police station said.

Police demanded Kyat 900,000 for their release on bail. But, the arrestees did not give the money because they were not guilty and after getting bail, the police will call them to their police station frequently to ask for money.

Some of the Natala villagers fled to the plains from their isolated areas and built some shops such as---betel shops, wine shops, brothel rooms and video rooms along the Maungdaw-Aley Than Kyaw road with the help of Burma’s border security force (Nasaka). Many youths of the Rohingya community were destroyed due to brothels. A youth has to pay Kyat 1,000 to 1,200 per night at a brothel, said a village elder who declined to be named.

The concerned authorities are trying to find new methods so that they can destroy the Rohingya community in northern Arakan economically, educationally, socially and culturally and through religious persecution, said a religious leader from Maungdaw town.

kaladanpress

Children recruited in Burmese Army cadet

2009-06-08T04:34:00.000+06:30

The Burmese Army in Shan State East has forcibly recruited children aged from 12 to 15 to its army cadet claiming it will improve education.

The Army continues to recruit despite international pressure to stop using child soldiers.

Burmese soldiers from both Mongpiang-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #360, led by Captain Thein Aung, and Infantry Battalion (IB) # 43, led by Lieutenant Aung Naing, recruited many children from the township, said a local resident who wishes to remain anonymous.

The recruitment, using Lahu militia units from Kawng Pat village tract, started in April.
Children from 27 villages around Pat Kang village tract, 30 miles northwest of Mongpiang, have been taken. Each village was ordered to provide five children, the source said.

On 25 May, children were taken to an army base in Nam Zarng, in Shan State South. It is not yet known how many children were taken.

A mother whose child was taken said: “I worry that my son will be sent to front line as the situation in the country is unstable. He is just 12 years old.”

Khami tribal youths from Pelatwa and Buthidaung Township on the western Burma border have also been forcibly recruited by the Burmese army, according to Narinjara report on 1 June.

According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2009, Burma still continues widespread and systematic forced recruitment of child soldiers.

Villagers over the age of 18 are also being ordered to attend military training, conducted at the command of the IB# 43 from May 1.

The first group of about 100 villagers has been trained and the second group is now undergoing training, say local villagers.

“After the training, those [trainee] will be sent to provide security in their area and in the military region,” the source said.

Since early 2009, the Burmese Army has been forcing villagers in several townships in Shan State to set up militia units.

Likewise, from the beginning of May, junta authorities in Chin state began military training for villagers of Paletwa Township, Khonumthung News reported on 1 June.

shanland

Kachin student in coma after brutal assault by soldiers

2009-06-08T04:26:00.001+06:30

After the brutal assault by Burmese Army soldiers, a teenaged Kachin student is in a coma for three days in hospital. He was beaten up severely at the railway station of Mayan Village in Burma's northern Kachin State on May 31 by a section of soldiers, said local sources close to the boy.

An eighth grade student Hpuwan La San (14) was innocent but wrongly assaulted by a group of angry soldiers from the village-based Burmese Army Artillery Battalion No. 372 led by Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe . The assault followed a dispute between the soldiers and local Kachin young men, according to the students' relatives.

His relatives added that teenaged Hpuwan La San was assaulted without being asked any questions by the Burmese soldiers while he was waiting for a train to go back to his home in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. He fell unconscious on the scene of assault, said relatives.

He was first hospitalized in Namti, a small city near Mayan Village and later moved to the military hospital of the junta's Northern Command HQ in Myitkyina, said Namti hospital sources. He is now in a coma and vomiting blood. He has multiple fractures on his entire body following the assault, said relatives who visited him in hospital.

Besides, over four more innocent high school students from the village were also assaulted in their homes by Burmese soldiers but their injuries are not serious, said villagers.

La San was not involved in the clash between the soldiers and young men in the village. The fight took place after the young men prevented a teenage Kachin girl called Wa Sha Ki from being raped with a knife held to her throat by four Burmese soldiers in the afternoon of May 31.

The four Burmese soldiers were beaten up by a group of Kachin youths soon after they attempted to rape Wa Sha Ki. In a harsh retaliation local Burmese soldiers, led by the Artillery battalion commander Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe went on the rampage on Kachin young men. Over 30 troops were ordered to "Kill all Kachin young men in the village."

The army operation took place between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Burma Standard Time. The troops assaulted Kachin young men in every place in the village, said villagers.

Yesterday, a high ranking army officer from the Northern Command HQ based in Myitkyina visited the scene and met village administrators and village leaders.

He ordered that Hpuwan La San’s responsibility must be taken by both the village and the village-based Artillery Battalion. He made a simple apology for the words of the battalion commander Ye Yint Twe---- ‘Kill all Kachin young men in the village.’ He said "Don't listen to those words. It is what wicked people say," said villagers.

During the short visit, the army officer promised that soldiers will not assault Kachin young men in the village any more. But more than 30 young men are still hiding in the forests, said villagers.

According to villagers, severe problems in the village started cropping up after the Burmese Army's Artillery Battalion set up base in the village in 2004. The soldiers slaughter cattle owned by villagers without paying, confiscate land and rape women.

It is at such tumultuous times that Kachin people in Burma and abroad have voiced their opinion and suggested that the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the biggest Kachin ceasefire group in the country break the ceasefire agreement and resume war with the Burmese military regime.

kachinnews

Thousands of Refugees Flee Ler Per Her Camp as Burma Army Attack Begins

2009-06-08T03:47:00.001+06:30

Some 3,295 people have fled Ler Per Her camp as Burma Army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army soldiers started the bombardment of the camp at 11.30am on June 6.
Hundreds of soldiers surround the camp which is on the Thai/Burma border north of Mae Sot and refugees are crossing the border into Tha Song Yang district in Tak province, Thailand, to escape the attack. Those in the camp had already fled attacks from the Burma Army in eastern Karen State numerous times and had established homes there, which now have to be abandoned.

Since October 2008 over 60 families have arrived in Ler Per Her, 40 of those from within the last week from Htee Per village. They fled because of Burma Army/DKBA activity and because the Burma Army was looking to recruit over 800 soldiers from the area. Soldiers have already arrested and forced villagers from Pa-an District and Myawaddi Township to porter supplies for this campaign. The attack is being led by Light Infantry Battalions 81, 201, 202 and 205, supported by some 300 soldiers from DKBA 999.

Those who have fled across the border are in Mae U Su, Noh Bo and Mae Salik and are in urgent need of shelter, medical assistance, food and clothing. An FBR team in association with Partners Relief and Development are bringing desperately needed supplies. So far PRAD has delivered 30 pots, 25 large tarps, mosquito repellant, food, rolls of plastic sheeting, two trucks of clothing and medicines for 200 cases of each of the following illnesses: malaria, diarrheal diseases, respiratory illnesses, wound care and painkillers. The leader of the camp confirmed that women and children had left the camp by June 5 leaving the older people and men. He asked for prayer for his people.

FBR/BNN

Girl Gang Raped and Man Has Hands Cut Off by Burma Army soldiers in Shan State

2009-06-08T03:42:00.002+06:30

A 15-year-old girl was raped by 12 Burma Army soldiers in Shan State according to information from the PaO National Liberation Organization. The soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 426, including battalion commander Nyunt Oo, raped the girl on May 14 in an orange grove where she had been working. She is now in Taunggyi hospital.

Soldiers from the same LIB cut the hands off U Khun Lon, 35, from Kawn Tai village, Tan Yaan village area, Hsi Hseng district, southern Shan state, on May 18. The 13 soldiers forced the villagers together, tortured them and accused them of communicating with the resistance groups. Another man called Win Bo was hit several times with the butt of a rifle and seriously injured. The soldiers also burned down a house and took Win Bo and a further 18 villagers to Chee Ta Lee temple and tied them up. An attack on Burma Army soldiers on May 3 in the same area left 12 of these soldiers dead.

U Khun Main, 43, headman of Pan Nyo village in Sai Khow village area, also Hsi Hseng district, was cut around his head with a machete and beaten with rifle butts on May 23 by soldiers under Captain Sun Aung from the same LIB. He was seriously injured and is confined to his bed according to the PNLO.

On May 20, the LIB 421 led by Major Yae Htut came to Daw Na Kalu village on the Shan/Karenni border and stole from the villagers. They took five and a half kyat Tha of gold (worth approx US$2,619) and 11 silver coins worth about US$70 and 1.57 million kyat in cash (worth approx US$ 1,246). The soldiers also stole animals and told the villagers in East Paung Chaung they could not leave the village between 6pm and 6am.

According to information from the PNLO, since May 24, LIBs 425 and 426 are not allowing the PaO National Organization to go east of the road connecting Ho Pong and Hsi Hseng and are arresting anyone in camouflage clothes.
Some 500,000 PaO live in Shan State. The PNO signed a ceasefire with the SPDC in 1991, but soldiers of the PNLO continue to fight for independence.

Teenager recruited by Burmese army

2009-06-05T04:24:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–A teenager who went missing after being arrested last year in Burma’s central Bago division has been recruited by the army, his family said.

Tin Myo Naing, a resident in Latpan Thonegwa, and his wife San San have been looking for their 16-year-old son Kyaw Myo Paing since he disappeared on 16 December last year after being arrested for selling pork without a license.

The couple received a letter said to be from Kyaw Myo Paing on Tuesday which he had dropped from a train heading south from the capital, Naypyidaw, as it passed their village.

The letter was found by a villager and brought to them.

“The letter has my son’s hand writing; he said he is now in the army and being transferred to Light Infantry Battalion 118 in Thahton, Mon state,” said Tin Myo Naing.

“He now has a new name, Kyaw Ko, and his serial number is 406290. He told me not to come find him [in Thahton] as the area is a harsh place to travel.”

“I don’t care how difficult it is to travel there. I’m still going there to find my son - I’ve been looking for over five months. I will find him and ask him what he wants to do.”

Yesterday the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on a ceremony held in Rangoon, attended by UNICEF and Save the Children, in which the army returned eight child soldiers to their parents.

Use of child soldiers contravenes even Burmese domestic law, although Human Rights Watch in 2002 named Burma as the world’s leading recruiter of child soldiers.

“If they’re releasing eight children, then great for those eight children, but that’s not all of them and a lot more needs to be done before the problem goes away,” said David Mathieson, Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch.

The issue has been cited by former senior legal adviser to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Morten Bergsmo, as a reason for bringing Burma’s ruling general, Than Shwe, to trial at the ICC.

Similarly, a report released last month by the Harvard Law School said that the situation for Burma’s child soldiers warranted significant attention from the UN Security Council.

The problem however is not confined to the government, with several of the armed opposition groups, including the Karen National Union, believed to also recruit child soldiers.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet and Francis Wade

Youth Trial 7 Months After Incident

2009-06-03T01:58:00.000+06:30

Dhaka: 24-year-old Tun Aye Kyaw from the central Arakan town of Min Bya is scheduled to appear before the Min Bya Township court on 4 June for an incident that took place in the town seven months ago.

A relative of the youth confirmed the court date for Narinjara, saying, "He will be put on trial before the court on 4 June. Army official Major Naing Win Aye filed charges at the police station that he disturbed the army official's duty."

In November 2008, an incident occurred in Min Bya in which local youths and army officials clashed after the officials attacked the youth. Several Arakanese youth, including Tun Aye Kyaw, were severely injured. Tun Aye Kyaw was moved to the Sittwe hospital from Min Bya due to the seriousness of his injuries.

According to a local source, the conflict broke out after some inebriated army officials assaulted a bicycling youth in the town on 11 November, 2008. Local elders intervened and stopped the fighting.

However, a group of ten army officials and 20 soldiers, led by Major Naing Win Aye, Deputy Commander of Light Infantry Battalion 379 based on the outskirts of Min Bya, entered the town again at night in army vehicles to attack the local youths.

One witness said the army vehicles sped through the streets of the town with their lights turned off, attacking and beating whoever they happened to find. Many local youths who were out at night were injured in the attack.

The army officials also tried to bring about ten youths to army headquarters in their vehicles for interrogations. At the time, many residents from the town came out into the streets and surrounded the army vehicles to rescue the youths from the officials. The youths were kicked out into the streets in front of the police station.

Among the youths attacked, seven were hospitalized immediately with serious injuries. The hospitalized youth are: Tun Aye Kyaw, son of U Tha Tun Ha; Maung Hla San, son of U Aung Tha Kyaw; Pho Hla Pyi, son of U Nga Mae Daung; Nyi Nyi Aung, son of U Kyaw Wa; U Tun Lin, son of U Tun Aye Maung; Nyi Nyi So, son of U Wa Lon Chay and Aung Thein Win. Tun Aye Kyaw was transferred to the Sittwe hospital after a day.

The parents of Tun Aye Kyaw are government civil servants and his mother, Daw Aye Khin Nyo, is Chief Auditor of the Township.

Tun Aye Kyaw's mother Daw Aye Khin Nyo was displeased with the attack on her son and tried to bring charges at the police station against the eight army officials who led the attack.

The eight army officials she tried to charge are Major Naing Win Aye, Captain Zaya Tun from LIB 379, Lieutenant Aung Pyo Thu from LIB 370, Lieutenant Kyaw Naing Soe from LIB 379, Lieutenant Si Thu Aung from LIB 379, Lieutenant Aung Moe Htut from LIB 379, Lieutenant Kan Min Zaw from LIB 379, and Lieutenant Soe Pai Oo from LIB 541.

Police officers in Min Bya refused to accept the charges because army officials pressured the police chief, who transferred into his work in the police department after serving in the army and is close associate of Major Naing Win Aye.

The day after the incident a team of senior army officials from Western Command based in Ann came to Min Bya to deal with the problem. They invited Tun Aye Kyaw's parents to army headquarters and pressured them not to act against officials on the case.

Tun Aye Kyaw's parents finally withdrew their file for charges against the army officials because they feared losing their government jobs.

When Tun Aye Kyaw arrived back home from his hospital stay in Sittwe, Major Naing Win Aye filed charges against the youth at the police station, claiming he had interfered with his service of duty.

The relative of Tun Aye Kyaw said, "It is Burma and the Burmese army is above the law in our country. The township court summoned Tun Aye Kyaw on 4 June to hear the charges. We do not know what will happen on that day. We can tell you details after Tun Aye Kyaw's case is heard in court on 4 June."

narinjara

Forced recruitment of tribal youths into Burmese Army

2009-06-03T01:48:00.001+06:30

Dhaka: Officers have forcibly recruited Khami tribal youths, especially from Pelatwa and Buthidaung Township on the western Burma border to serve in the Burmese Army, said Aung Soe a Khami youth in the area.

“Army officers from LIB 55 and 289 have recruited our youths in the border area with the help of some Khami leaders who are supporters of the Burmese Army. Some Khami youths have joined the army while some have fled from the areas to avoid recruitment,” Aung said.

Khami is an ethnic nationality of Burma and most Khami people live in Arakan state and southern Chin State.

“Most of our youths are unable to speak Burmese language fluently but yet the army officials recruited them. The Burmese Army needs more youths to serve in the armed forces, so they have recruited young men no matter who they are,” Aung said.

Army officials have to provide some assistance like rice and money to the family after recruiting youths from the families.

Aung Said, “Two bags of rice and 10,000 Kyats have been given by army officials to the families whose youth joined the Burmese Army.”

The Burmese Army has recently registered a decrease in the number of youths joining in two western provinces after many youths in Arakan and Chin went looking for jobs in Thailand and Malaysia illegally.

“Most of our youths were engaged in mountain cultivation with the family before but they are now leaving for neighbouring countries like Thailand, Malaysia and India as well as Bangladesh looking for jobs. There are good jobs for our young people,” Aung said.

The Burmese junta has disallowed mountain cultivation in the western parts of Burma to prevent deforestation. Because of this many Khami young people became jobless and later left for neighbouring countries. The remaining youths in the area have been forced to join the army.

The recruitment of Khami youths started this year and local army officials are carrying out the plan in accordance with the instructions of senior Burmese Army officials from the western command based in Ann.

narinjara

Kachin youths assaulted and detained for preventing rape by Burmese soldiers

2009-06-03T01:13:00.001+06:30

Many ethnic young Kachin men and male students in Mayan Village near Namti city in Burma's northern Kachin State were brutally assaulted and detained last night by Burmese soldiers in the village-based Burmese Army Artillery Battalion No. 372. The army action came after some youths prevented a rape of a minor girl by four Burmese Army soldiers.

Following directives from the battalion commander Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe, who is known to treat villagers cruelly, only ethnic Kachin young men were targeted, said villagers of Mayan.

Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe ordered his soldiers to "Kill all Kachin young men in the village," villagers quoted the military officer as saying.

Villagers said over 20 youths have been severely injured. More than three persons have been hospitalized and over 10 young men and village headmen have been put in a prison cell in Namti city which is near the Mayan Village.

Over 30 youths have fled the village since last night for fear of being assaulted and arrested by the soldiers, added villagers.

Teenagers, Middle and High School students, headmen of wards in the village and several Kachin Independence Army (KIA) soldiers, who temporarily returned home, were among the victims, said their parents.

Villagers told KNG today that the mayhem was started yesterday by Burmese soldiers when a young man called Latsai Naw prevented the rape of a girl called Wa Sha Ki on the road in daylight. A knife was held to her throat by four soldiers who attempted to rape her.

Latsai Naw called several young men and they beat up the soldiers after he was assaulted for preventing the rape by the four soldiers, said locals.

Following the incident, the angry battalion commander Lt-Col Ye Yit Twe gathered 30 of his soldiers and they circled the Dai Hkawng video theatre to arrest Kachin youths but some fled, said eyewitnesses.

The soldiers began searching for the youths in the village by entering each house. Every young man in the houses was beaten up by the soldiers, said villagers.

Eyewitnesses said many were rounded up from their homes while some were picked up from the village train station by local Burmese soldiers. They used guns, knives and wooden sticks, added eyewitnesses.

The innocent students, Brang Awng, Labang Naw Ding and Hpuwan La San were severely beaten up in their homes by soldiers and had to be hospitalized in Namti, said family sources. The events started around 7 a.m. and ended at 10 a.m. Burma Standard Time.

Mayan Village is home to over 300 families, mainly Kachins. They have been threatened not to tell the truth by the battalion commander Ye Yint Twe. They have been told to say that the trouble was not between the soldiers and local Kachin youths but among the villagers

Night Curfew has been set from tonight at 7 p.m. by Lt-Col. Ye Ying Twe and whoever breaks the Night Curfew in the village has been threatened to gun down by soldiers, said villagers.

Forced labour victim denied medical care

2009-06-03T00:48:00.000+06:30

(DVB)–A woman who broke her collar bone whilst being forced by Burmese authorities to work on the construction of a road in Irrawaddy division has said she has received no medical attention for her injuries.

Reports of forced labour in infrastructural development projects in Burma are common.

A resident in Irrawaddy’s Ingapu township said that township authorities had ordered the expansion of a two mile-long road between Thegone and Thargaung villages on 21 May. Both men and women were forced to work on the project.

Three women from Thegone village were hurt when a bullock cart flipped over, with one sustaining a broken collar-bone and the other two receiving facial injuries.

“One of the women named Daw Ma Kyi broke her collar bone but the village authorities refused to take her to a hospital in nearby town of Kwin Kaut,” said the Ingapu resident.

“So she instead went to a shaman in Kyaynapyan village.”

One of the villagers told DVB that the locals, although aware that they could report the forced labour incident to the UN International Labour Organisation (ILO), were unable to do so because they were afraid they would get punished.

“We know we can report to the ILO about this but no one has guts to do so,” he said.

“We are afraid of our village authorities as they showed us examples in the past.”

Complainants of forced labour are often intimidated, with some even imprisoned after authorities learnt of the complaints.

The ILO office in Rangoon maintains that they have an agreement with the Burmese government that complainants will not be persecuted, although acknowledge that it is an ongoing problem.

Ingapu’s township Peace and Development Council office was unavailable for comments.

In a separate incident, villagers in Mongyang township in Shan state were last week reportedly forced by authorities repay the cost of a visit by Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein.

Authorities claimed the cost of the visit could not be fully subsidised by the township council, although villagers doubted this.

“The cost could not have been much,” a village headman told the Shan Herald Agency for News.

“The visitors just stayed for about an hour and they only had coffee and juice. It’s just another way to fill up his pocket.”

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Soldiers Commit Gang rape in Karen State: Villagers

2009-06-01T19:30:00.000+06:30

A gang rape against an ethnic Karen woman committed by Burmese soldiers has been reported in Karen State in eastern Burma

Villagers in Kawkareik Township claimed that a 30-year-old Karen woman was taken from her farm hut to the jungle and raped by soldiers of Infantry Battalion 283 led by Capt Htay Win on May 25, according to the Karen Information Center, a Karen news organization.

In his article at The New York Times newspaper on May 27, the former UN human rights special rapporteur to Burma, Sergio Pinheiro, urged the UN Security Council to undertake an investigation into crimes against humanity in Burma committed by the Burmese military regime.

Pinheiro said that for the past two decades, ethnic minorities in Burma—more than one-third of the population—have not received enough of the world’s attention, adding that, “For Burma's process of national reconciliation to be successful, the
plight of the minorities must also be addressed.”

In 2007, the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) released a report titled: “State of Terror,” highlighting the campaign of abuse against women in Karen State, including rape, torture and forced labor.

The KWO said it documented more than 4,000 cases of abuse, including rape, murder, torture and forced labor over the past few years in more than 190 villages by troops from more than 40 Burmese Army battalions. Many of the human rights violations were from late 2005 through 2006.

Many of the abuses took place during o¬ngoing military offensives in eastern Burma since early 2006, which have displaced more than 25,000 civilians and have forced thousands of refugees to seek safety along the Thai-Burmese border.

The former UN human rights envoy also advocated that the UN Security Council form a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and impunity in Burma.

Meanwhile, Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the ethnic Karen National Union, said that it is time for the UN Security Council to take action against the Burmese regime’s use of systematic rape in ethnic minority areas.

Pinheiro also said that he received a report in 2000 estimating 625 women were systematically raped in Burma's Shan State over a five-year period. However, there was not a single account of a successful prosecution.

The former UN special rapporteur said in December 2008 a Burmese soldier went into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Burma and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year-old girl. Authorities refused to arrest the soldier; instead, officers threatened the parents with punishment if they did not accept a cash bribe to keep quiet.

During the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed more than 3,300 villages
in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups, Pinheiro said. UN reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor, he said.

irrawaddy

Solo protestor arrested outside Insein

2009-05-29T04:52:00.002+06:30

(DVB)–An elderly solo protestor demonstrating today outside of the prison courtroom where Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial was arrested by plain-clothed security officials and taken away.

Security has tightened outside of Rangoon’s Insein prison where Suu Kyi, her two caretakers and US citizen John Yettaw are on trial.

Observers say there is an increase in numbers of both uniformed and plain-clothed security officials, including members of the Swan Arr Shin militia group.

The man, said to be in his 50’s, was identified as retired army officer Zaw Nyunt, who is a member of activist group 88 Generation Workers. He held a banner saying ‘Release Mother Suu at once’.

“He had about less than a minute to protest and was quickly taken away by government officials nearby,” said an eye witness.

“He was seen being taken into Insein market located nearby the prison.”

An official on duty at Insein township police station said they heard about the protester but were unable to give out further detail as he didn’t arrive at the station.

“We don’t know where he was taken to or who took him,” said the official.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

16-year-old child soldier abducted by Burma Army escapes

2009-05-27T00:29:00.001+06:30

(Photo:Child soldier Myint Myint Win)

In the midst of accounts of capture and forced labor, one cruel form of this is the kidnapping of children who are then forced to join the military. Such is the case of Myint Myint Win, now aged 16, who escaped from LIB 2XX. He was living near Hla Gone Byone SPDC camp in Dwelo Township, Papun District, when he was forced to enter the army. He was around the age of 15. The older soldiers were very harsh in their treatment and the army officer did not give him his salary. Later on, he escaped and contacted the KNLA. He remembered that his officer told him, "If you dare to run away, you can run. But if you meet the KNLA they will kill you." However, he gathered information from civilians who told him this was false and the KNLA could help him. He believed the civilians and tried to contact the KNLA. On April 26, 2009, he was able to contact the KNLA and arrived to the local KNLA Battalion headquarters, where he surrendered his rifle and three magazines. He was cared for and provided civilian clothes.

Forced relocation in Nyaunglebin District

2009-05-27T00:24:00.005+06:30

(Photo:MOC 1 Headquarters at Baw Ga Ta camp)
One of the ways the Burma Army attempts to crush resistance to its rule in many areas of Burma is by forcibly relocating entire villages. There are multiple reasons why this is done. First, by moving villages closer to Burma Army camps, they can exert more control over the day-to-day lives of the people and further restrict freedoms. Second, those villages become a more convenient pool of forced labor for nearby camps. Third, uprooting communities and forcing them to keep rebuilding over and over again is done in an attempt to weaken the population's will for resistance against the regime, and demonstrate the regime's ability to dictate people's lives.

One example of relocation close to a camp is a group of six villages forcibly relocated to Baw Ga Ta Burma Army camp. The villages were brought together around the new Burma Army camp in the middle. These villagers are regularly forced to help make improvements to the camp and provide additional labor upon demand. In addition, as a result of their displacement, villagers can not farm their fields and often find it extremely difficult just to feed their families. This poverty is compounded by regular extortion by the local authorities. On one nearby road, Burma Army troops charge every bullock cart a 3000 kyat fee to pass, equal to 2 days' wages for a day laborer. A relief team leader says of the villages relocated around Baw Ga Ta camp, "they have to work today to get food for tomorrow". FBR teams were able to provide medical assistance for over 500 people in this area.
(Photo:FBR medics provide care at Thu Ka Bee village)

Sometimes villages that have been relocated are able to return to their original area. This may result from either a decrease in Burma Army presence and scrutiny, the ability of villagers to sneak back without detection, or, in very few cases, permission from the Burma Army to do so. Those who do return must start from scratch, as they usually find their homes gone, their livestock dead or missing, and their fields overgrown. Such is the case for Da Ka La village, which after spending three years in a relocation site were able to return to their home area in April 2009. They returned to find their homes destroyed by Burma Army troops, and now must rebuild everything. They also face food shortages: of the 72 families in the village, only 5 have farms. While in their relocation sites, they often fell into debt paying for medical treatment and still owe those debts.

(Photo:Da Ka La villager rebuilds house after return from relocation site)
There are times, however, when a village collectively decides to defy relocation orders in order to keep the limited freedom they have in their existing area. In 2008, the five villages in the Thu Ka Bee area received relocation orders and four complied, but one village refused to move. Said one villager, "Whatever will happen I will stay in my own village, even if I was afraid of the Burma Army I will not run." An FBR team member in the area remarked that "the people in this village are much more united than the other four villages". This parallels a truth evident all over Burma: that a major factor in a community's ability to stand up to external oppression is the strength of its unity.

Capture and Forced Labor

2009-05-27T00:21:00.002+06:30

Capture and Forced Labor
The Burma Army continues to arrest and capture civilians without cause and subject them to forced labor. In early 2009 in this one area alone, the following incidents were reported:

January 5, 2009: IB 53 commander Kyaw Thi Ha captured and tortured Saw Ta Thaw, 21; and Saw Ba Doe, 19; Saw Ku Kaw, 19; and Saw Nay Ku - all of Haw Hta Plaw village - and sent them to Kyaung Bya army camp. They were later released.

March 5, 2009: Burma Army LIB 590 and LIB 599 captured Mg Mg, village doctor for Aung Chan Tha village, and sent him to Ye O'Zin battalion headquarters. On the same day, IB 73 captured Saw Pa Lo of Paw Pi Dor and sent him to their battalion headquarters.

l March 7, 2009: Burma Army LIB 599 captured U Kyi Lwin and his friend, both of Maladaw, while they were looking for a lost cow. The charge was that they did not have permission to venture into the area where they were searching. They remain imprisoned at Ye O'Zin battalion headquarters.

March 30, 2009: MOC 5 led by Kaung Mya arrested four villagers in a grove of betelnut trees - Saw Doh Kain, aged 60; Saw Hai Kler, 30; Naw Hla U, 38; and Naw Thu Lu, 28. They were then forced to walk in front of advancing soldiers as human shields against land mines.

l April 12, 2009: Saw Htee Wah, 40, a village headman; and Saw Tha Ghay, 42, were interrogated under torture by the Burma Army, which demanded that they give away KNU positions in the area. They were tied, beaten, and had boiling water poured on them. They escaped but cannot return to their village.

May 2, 2009: LIB 599 entered Aung Soe Moe village and captured 3 men -- Saw Pah Saw Law, Saw Ka La and Saw Nya Plaw Htoo - and forced them to carry supplies to a Burma Army camp.

In addition, here are reported incidents of forced labor in the same area:

March 12, 2009: LIB 590 forced 15 villagers to bring their bullock carts for work for them.

March 13, 2009: MOC 1 forced 10 bullock carts from Ta Kaw Pwa and Wai Swan villages to carry food and military supplies from headquarters at Ton Daw to Mebok camp.
April 4, 2009: Burma Army soldiers forced 18 villagers from Play Hsa Lo to help with construction of a car road.

April 23, 2009: LIB 351 under Commander Shan Nyut demanded 2 new soldiers from each of 9 village areas. Villages that could not send new soldiers had to pay 180,000 kyat (US$144) in place of each person.

At Ton Daw camp as well as at Ye O'Zin battalion headquarters, villagers are forced to farm 500 acres of rice paddy field, from which the profits go entirely to the military. They are also forced to cut firewood and raise pigs and chickens which will be sold to profit the military.

In the lowland areas of Mone Township of Nyaunglebin District, Burma Army LIB 599 and LIB 590 force villagers to work for them every day, especially at times when work is most needed in villagers' fields.

Along the Mone-Kyauk Kyi car road, also in Mone Township, the Burma Army set up eight security huts along the road and nearby villages must send three people for 24 hours a day to each hut to work there. The same villages were forced to help build new camps in the area for LIB 599.

Villager tortured when blamed for destruction of bulldozer

2009-05-27T00:18:00.001+06:30

An FBR team spoke to Saw Hla Po (this and other names in this report have been changed for security reasons) who was tortured by the Burma Army after being accused of planting a landmine which destroyed a bulldozer.

The man, 41, from a village in Mone Township, Nyaunglebin District, was seized after a bulldozer was blown up on the Busakee to Tha Pyi Nyut road on April 22.
Later on the same day, he was told by the Burma Army he had three choices - destroy all the village's food crops, burn down the village or pay for the bulldozer (up to 3 million kyats (US$2,400)). Then a pistol was held against the side of his head and shot twice on both sides and then up to six times in front of him. He was then tied to a durian tree and thinking he was going to be killed, he asked to see his wife and children. When they saw his condition, they began crying before being sent away by the Burma Army soldiers. Hot water was then poured on his legs and head and his back was beaten with a gun. He was also smashed in the mouth with a gun by troops whom he said were drunk. The torture began at 1pm and continued until nightfall when he was released.

Junta’s violations severe in Northern Burma: CSW

2009-05-26T04:08:00.001+06:30

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an advocacy group, said human rights violations continue to be grave in areas where ethnic minorities live and have come out with fresh accounts of violations during their field trip to Northern Burma.

CSW, in a report released after their three-week field trip to Kachin state in northern Burma, said they heard horrifying testimonies from victims of human rights violations committed by the ruling junta’s army.

“The situation in Kachin State is bad, we found first hand evidence of rape, religious discrimination, land confiscation and human trafficking,” Benedict Rogers, CSW’s South Asia Advocacy officer, told Mizzima.

He said, during their trip, they were able to meet victims of rape, religious discrimination and people whose land were confiscated by the army.

During the trip, from the end of April to the first week of May, 2009, the CSW team was also able to meet the Kachin Independent Organization, an armed rebel group fighting for self-determination but which has a ceasefire pact with the junta.

Rogers, who was the team leader visiting Burma, said they have seen ethnic Kachin people living under constant fear, especially women, as they fall easy prey to Burmese soldiers and no one dares to intervene as they are scared of the Burmese soldiers.

“Despite the ceasefire, human rights violations continue and people suffer,” said Rogers, referring to the more than one decade old ceasefire agreement between the KIO and the Burmese junta.

The KIO in 1994 entered into a ceasefire agreement with the ruling junta on grounds that continued war had devastated the people. But their expectations were belied because the pact turned out to be worse than the people expected as the junta’s army slowly expanded in the areas, which were earlier controlled by the rebel group.

The KIO was officially banned from making fresh recruitments.

During their visit, Rogers said, he met a 21-year old Bible school student, who narrated her experience of being raped by two Burmese soldiers, and how she is left helpless.

The girl apparently did not get any compensation and the perpetrator went unpunished.

“Every woman should be careful. My experience is an example for other girls … I want justice to be done,” the CSW quoted the girl as saying in its press release on May 22.

The girl did file a case at three different military courts and requested for investigations but there hasn’t been any action or compensation except 100,000 Kyats she received for medical care, a rice bag and cooking oil, she said.

“Many rape cases in Kachin State go unreported because victims are afraid and to ashamed to report it. There are many more cases we don’t know about,” said Rogers.

“No women are safe in Kachin State,” he added.

Rogers said, even the KIO, cannot provide protection to their people except within their controlled areas, said Rogers.

In July last year, Burmese soldiers reportedly raped and murdered a 15 year old girl, Nhkum Hkawn, from the Din Nam Sai villiage in Kachin State but the army closed the case after paying the girl’s parents of 500,000 Kyats (US$ 500) as compensation and took no action against the accused soldiers.

Awng Wa, Chairman of the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), which is working inside Burma said, human rights abuses such as rape, torture, forced labour and land confiscation are common and are not strange in Kachin State.

“You can hear of rape cases everywhere, if there is a military camp set up. But no one dares to complain because they are afraid that it could create a backlash with more repression,” said Awng Wa.

“Instead of getting support or action, the authorities usually punish the complainants. So many cases have gone under reported,” he added.

He said, before the ceasefire between the military government and the Kachin Independent Organization and its armed wing the Kachin Independent Army(KIO/A), which represent the Kachin people, there were human rights violations of the highest order within the ethnic people and after ceasefire abuses continue.

“Land confiscation and forced labour are common too,” said Awng Wa. He said, forced labour, however, changes during war into use of porters but during peace, people have been forced to cultivate physic nut trees.

The report also talks about the plight of Chin refugees. Rogers, who had also visited Malaysia and met Chin refugees, said life of Chin refugees is not favourable as they live and work in deplorable conditions.

“The situation in Northern and Western Burma of Kachin and Chin State, have gone unknown and are ignored by many in the world,” said Rogers.

“It is time that their voices were heard, and that the international community responded to the political, social, humanitarian and environmental disaster in northern and western Burma,” said Rogers in the press statement.

“The international community needs to know that the ceasefire areas are not really in peace. People in ceasefire areas are really suffering seriously,” Rogers told Mizzima.

mizzima

Burmese Soldiers Torture Civilians in Shan State

2009-05-24T19:43:00.000+06:30

The Burmese army arrested and tortured villagers in Hsi Hseng Township in Shan State on Tuesday including village headmen and school teachers, accusing them of having connections with ethnic rebels, according to ethnic sources.

On May 14, a 15-year-old girl was raped by a group of 12 Burmese soldiers led by Myint Oo when she went to her garden, villagers said. The girl is now in Taunggyi Hospital in Shan State.

Burmese soldiers also cut off the hands of a villager named U Lone, said Khun Joi Hto, a spokesperson for the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO).

The incidents followed a clash in which soldiers of the PNLA and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) attacked Burmese troops on May 3 near His Hseng in Shan State. The PNLA is the military wing of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO).

Twelve Burmese soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 426 led by Myo Aung were killed, sources said.

On Tuesday, the Burmese army returned to the village. “They beat villagers and asked them where the rebels were,” said Khun Joi Hto.

The PNLO split from the ceasefire group known as Shan State Nationalities Peoples’ Liberation Organization (SSNPLO) in late 2007.

Local villagers said that Burmese soldiers beat and tortured them in revenge. Some villagers are still in hiding in jungle while others have fled to the Thailand-Burma border. The Burmese army also threatened local villagers that it would burn villages.

Sources also said that Burmese commander Bri-Gen Myo Aye who leads Military Operation Command 7 told the Pa-O ceasefire group, the Pa-O National Organization (PNO), that he would seize its region because the ceasefire group was not able to control the region.

The PNO, led by Aung Kham Hti, signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese regime in April in 1991.

irrawaddy

The Development of Border Areas Department has financed road project worth Kyat 120 lakh, but construction workers have not got any salary till date

2009-05-21T18:42:00.001+06:30

According to a source the department had given Kyat 120 lakh to the Township Planning Department in order to construct a road between Lungler and Ralpel Village, Than Tlang Township, in Chin state, western Burma. The road would be 8 miles in length. However, the Planning Department has not given any salary to the workers.

“Chin State Tactical Commander, Hung Ngai had sanctioned Kyat 120 lakh to an official, Shwe Ki, of the Than Tlang Planning Department. However, we have received Kyat 3 lakh only just for the construction,” the Chairman of Than Tlang Municipality said.

According to the statement of Mrs. ShweKi, the total amount Kyat 60 lakh has already been taken from the authority. Of this Kyat 30 lakh has been spent for buying construction tools and Kyat 10 lakh has been spent for extending the Lungler Government High School. An amount of Kyat. 20 lakh is still required and Kyat. 60 lakh is still pending and has to be withdrawn.

“We have received Kyat 3 lakh with the construction tools, but it was very less. However we are afraid to ask for the detailed expenditure list and we are keeping quiet,” a member of the Municipality said.

The road which will link the Than Tlang town to Lungler-Ralpel-Dawn road; and Ralpel to Dawn road will be continued later. Most workers are from Lungler, Khawbung, Ralpel and Dawn villages. The average man power is 200 per day and the road will probably be inaugurated in the last week of May 2009.

The military government has called people to work under the development of border areas not only in Than Tlang Township, but also in Matupi Township. However the authorities never pay wages to these people. Khonumthung News

Day Laborers Work Overtime on Railway Without Pay

2009-05-19T03:57:00.000+06:30

Sittwe: Day laborers have been working overtime on construction of the Ann-Sittwe railway route but have not received compensation for the extra work.

A worker from the construction site said, "We asked for wages from the contractors of the company for overtime, but they denied us the money. We have to work two hours overtime every day but we have not received wages for the overtime."

The Ann-Sittwe railway route is being constructed by companies from Rangoon with local day laborers after the companies got contracts for the work from the military government.

The government authority recently pushed the companies to complete some sections of the railway near Sittwe in a short time, so the companies have forced the day laborers to work overtime.

"We are now working on the construction of the railway route phase between Sittwe and the technical college. The authority wants the route to be completed within the first two weeks of May, so the company used our wage for the two hours extra every day," the worker said.

At the railway construction site there is a work timetable for the day laborers that list the scheduled work day as 7 am to 5 pm every day. However, the workers have been required to work until 7 pm everyday.

"Our wage is only 1500 kyat per day, but we receive only 1400 kyat. 100 kyat is taken by the worker leaders for a worker fund. However, we have not been receiving our wage everyday. Even though we are day laborers, we receive our wages every five days," he said.

According to labor sources the day laborers, most of whom are women, are doing manual tasks at many construction sites, including carrying stone, digging soil, crushing stone, and transporting materials from one site to another.

The high military authority has instructed the companies working on the railway route to finish the work before the rainy season begins this year. Because of this early deadline, the companies have been working laborers overtime to complete the task.

narinjara

SOS : Myo Yan Naung Thein's Health is Deteriorating

2009-05-18T04:29:00.001+06:30

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) expressed very seriously concerned and worried over military government denial of giving medical treatment to political prisoner Myo Yan Naung Thein who become paralysed in 2007 as the result of the severe tortured he received during interrogation. Currently Myo Yan Naung Thein is held in Than-Dwe prison which is hundreds of miles away from Rangoon, his home town.

Myo Yan Naung Thein’s health situation is worse than before and no medical treatment is received more than two months now since he complained about his deteriorating health situation.

His legs are stiff and cannot bend at all and people got to carry him for moving. This is the new development of illness build up apart from his neurological problem. He cannot sleep and eat well as the sequences he lost weight.

“I am very sad to learn that in Than-Dwe prison, there is no doctor or medics to look after prisoners. I am sure that this is regime's systematic attempt to kill political dissidents”, said Myo Thein, Director at the Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) in United Kingdom.

Visiting him is very difficult for the families members due to natural barriers. By coach it takes 2 days to get there and roads are very bumpy and dangerous as it built through mountains and jungles. A ticket for the Bus is also very expensive and risky trip indeed.

“The reason why military junta sent political prisoners to remote prisons is that they are also punishing political prisoners' families”, said Khin MAung Win, Director at the Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) in United States.

Myo Yan Naung Thein served 7 years in prison in 1997 due to his leadership in 1996 Students demonstrations. It is second time military regime arrested him after 2007 Saffron Revolution due to his leading role. Military regime tortured him very severely during interrogation and he becomes partially paralysed. According to the neurologist, he needs to take medication regularly and treat his illness appropriately.

"Whenever international attentions divert from these vulnerable political prisoners, they are treated very inhumanely and medical treatment are ignored" said Kyaw Lin Oo, Director at the Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) in Thailand.

BDC

Military movements, forced labour and extortion in Nyaunglebin District

2009-05-16T03:54:00.002+06:30

In some areas of Nyaunglebin District, north-western Karen State, frontline army camps from which SPDC troops withdrew at the end of 2008 remain empty. Elsewhere in the district, however, the Burma Army is active with regular patrols amongst villages in both the plains and hills. In those areas where the SPDC maintains a consolidated hold on the civilian population, Burma Army personnel continue to demand forced labour and extort money and supplies from local communities. This report describes the military situation in Nyaunglebin District from January to March 2009 as well as the Burma Army's continued use of forced labour and extortion of the local population.

Local Burma Army forces operating in Nyaunglebin District of north-western Karen State are currently not as active amongst some displaced communities hiding in the hills as they have been over the previous three years. Nonetheless, Burma Army patrols continue (in some areas twice a month) as do the problems they cause for local communities. However, these patrols have focused more on communities living in the plains and the base of the hills than they have on those communities living higher up the slopes. At least this has been the case from late December 2008 until March 2009 - the period covered in this report.

At the end of December 2008, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Military Operations Command (MOC) #1 replaced SPDC Light Infantry Division (LID) #101 as the primary Burma Army unit operating in Nyaunglebin District. Since that time Burma Army forces under the command of MOC #1 have been primarily active in Kyauk Kyi and Mone townships of central and northern Nyaunglebin District respectively, especially along the vehicle roads connecting towns and SPDC army camps and bases.

After LID #101 army units operating in Nyaunglebin District were removed in December 2008, newly deployed troops from MOC #1 were stationed at just some of the camps from which LID #101 troops had been withdrawn. The withdrawal without replacement of troops from some frontline army camps in Nyaunglebin District parallels the Burma Army's similar withdrawal of troops from 13 army camps in Papun District, further east.[1] The Burma Army has invested significant time and resources over the past three years in its efforts to extend military control and establish new army camps across Nyaunglebin District and elsewhere in northern Karen State, especially higher into the region's forested hills. It is therefore not clear what has motivated the SPDC's recent reduction, if only partial and temporary, of its military presence and abandonment of some relatively new army camps.

Some local observers have speculated that the reason for the withdrawal (without replacement) of troops from some frontline (especially upland) army camps is motivated by the large number of casualties sustained by the Burma Army due to Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) attacks in these areas. Alternatively, it has been proposed that the SPDC intends to train and redeploy the withdrawn troops as security for the country's 2010 elections. However, there is little evidence for either of these hypotheses. It may simply be that resource and capacity deficits within the Burma Army have finally undermined operations in Karen State of the regime's long-overstretched troops.[2]

It is important not to overemphasise the reduction in SPDC military units from some upland areas of Nyaunglebin District. Many Burma Army troops remain in the region and continue to harass local communities. For example, troops from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #502 have been active in the area of Gkwee Lah, Ler Wah and Gklaw Pah Hta and Meh Koh villages, which lie in the forested uplands of Kyauk Kyi Township outside of firm SPDC control. Also, starting in February 2009, SPDC LIBs #115, 501 and 503 under the command of MOC #1 began patrolling the areas of Ta Gkaw Der and Thaw Weh Der villages which are located in the hills of Kyauk Kyi Towhsip. These patrols have remained in the area of Ta Gkaw Der and Thaw Weh Der villages for typically a week at a time before returning to their camp. However, on some occasions the patrols have remained in the area for up to two to three weeks. These patrols have continued until at least mid March 2009.

When Burma Army patrols are operating near to villages and hill fields outside of firm SPDC control, local residents are typically unwilling to risk openly tending their farm fields due to the threat of detection and attack by Burma Army forces. Therefore, in some cases villagers have remained nearby, monitoring troop movements, and returned clandestinely to tend their farm fields when the patrols have moved on.

Ongoing Burma Army patrols have posed a tangible threat to local communities in the hills of Nyaunglebin District due to the SPDC's continued shoot-on-sight policy and deployment of landmines in and around civilian areas. On January 16th 2009, soldiers from Column #1 of SPDC LIB #115, under the command of Moe Zaw Hla, shot and killed Cho Bpyo, a resident of Hsaw Mee Loo village, Mone Township, while he was resting in a field hut at his betel nut plantation. After he Cho Bpyo was shot, his body was removed from the area. Local villagers were thus unable to retrieve it and conduct funeral rites. Before he was killed, Cho Bpyo had been the primary breadwinner supporting his single mother.

Both SPDC and KNLA forces continue to deploy landmines in Nyaunglebin District, threatening civilians living in the region and in some cases preventing them from travelling to earn their livelihoods. Some local villagers have explained to KHRG that while KNLA soldiers have informed them of the locations of mined areas, SPDC soldiers have not. On February 26th 2009, at around 1:00 am, 23-year-old Saw Maw Gkya, a resident of Hsaw Mee Loo village, Mone township, stepped on an SPDC-deployed landmine at Bla Lay Koh while he was walking to his betel nut plantation. When the mine exploded Saw Maw Gkya was killed.

Forced labour
Forced labour is one of the most common abuses in SPDC-controlled areas of Karen State, including Nyaunglebin District. Forced labour is used by SPDC soldiers active in contested frontline areas as well as by soldiers based in areas under more established SPDC control, such as in the plains and along vehicle roads. A KHRG field researcher operating in Nyaunglebin District explained that forced labour is, in some areas, a daily occurrence which local villagers have had to learn to deal with. Being a frequent abuse, forced labour has significantly impacted the wellbeing households and communities as individuals must repeatedly take time away from their own livelihoods in order to meet the demands for labour imposed upon them.

Villagers engage in forced labour repairing an SPDC-controlled vehicle road from Htaik Htoo relocation site[3] to Kyauk Kyi Town on April 2nd 2009 as ordered by Burma Army personnel based at See Bpay Tha Ya army camp, Kyauk Kyi Township. Those ordered to comply with the forced labour include villagers previously relocated from Ay Neh, Bpa Ta Lah, Thoo Gka Bee, Noh Gkaw and Weh Lah Taw village tracts. Burma Army personnel ordered one person from each household to contribute to the road repair. Women and children were amongst those engaged in the forced labour. [Photo: KHRG]

Local SPDC personnel in Nyaunglebin District appear to be aware of the widespread documentation of forced labour and the international dissemination of evidence of such abuse. According KHRG field researchers, SPDC personnel have threatened local villagers against informing anyone about the continued use of forced labour.

In one case, on January 10th 2009, Min Thu, commander of the SPDC's Gkyo Bpay Seit army camp in Mone Township, ordered villagers in the area to provide thatch shingles and bamboo poles and to build bunkers at the army camp with these materials. Residents of See Pah Leh, Noh Nya Lah, Gko Nee, Haw Hta Bplaw, Aung Laung Say and Wah Doh Gkla villages engaged in this work on January 10th, 11th and 12th 2009. Each village was responsible to build one bunker using the supplies they had brought. The villagers were also responsible for bringing their own food for the duration of the work.

"Yes, we have to do it [forced labour], [including] both women and children. Some of the children are just 11 or 12 years old and they've had to go in place of their parents... They [SPDC] have ordered us to work for them such as by building their army huts and cleaning out the compound of their army camps. We sometimes feel weary of working for them. They don't do their work themselves. They don't pay us and also don't feed us anything when we work for them. We have to bring along our own food and water."

- Saw B--- (male, 46), B--- village, Mone Township (January 2009)

Villagers in Nyaunglebin District have also reported to KHRG that they have had to serve as porters carrying supplies for KNLA patrols operating in the area. While some villagers have said that they are willing to porter for the KNLA, those engaged in this work must nevertheless take time away from their own livelihoods for the duration of the labour.

"Yes, that [portering for the KNLA] is our duty to them. We agree to do it for them. They provide us with food when we work for them. As for the SPDC, we have to bring along our own food [while portering], but sometimes when we walk on a long trip they feed us just one time per day."

- Saw B--- (male, 46), Bp--- village, Mone Township (January 2009)

Extortion
"Each month we have to provide them [local SPDC authorities] with two milk tins [0.39 kg] of rice from each household. We have to pay for the village militia so each year we have to send 50,000 kyat [approx. US $48] in cash to the village head and the village head sends it to the military commander. When they needed anything they come to the village head and the village head must arrange everything that they order. The villagers must also provide them with money for their monthly salaries."

- Saw B--- (male, 46), Bp--- village, Mone Township (January 2009)

SPDC military and civilian personnel operating in Nyaunglebin District continue to use their positions of power over civilians to extort money and supplies. While the impunity with which SPDC personnel operate contributes to extortion, so to do corruption within the military (as commanding officers often steal the rations of subordinate low-ranking soldiers who then turn to theft and extortion to feed themselves) and the military policy that local army units 'live off the land'. SPDC troops operating near to villages demand money and food from the local residents as part of regular 'taxation' and on an ad hoc basis.

In February 2009, San Myit, a officer in SPDC MOC #1, ordered three village heads to collect money from 12 villages in Bpa' Deh Gkaw village tract allegedly as contribution towards a new dam to be built on the Theh Loh River in Kyauk Kyi Township. There are a total 117 households in these 12 villages and each household was ordered to pay 2,000 kyat (approx. US $1.90). The village heads collecting the funds were obliged to send the money to San Myit between February 22nd and 28th 2009.

In March 2009, SPDC officer San Myit of MOC #1 ordered Saw W---, the head of Bp--- village, to collect taxes from resident bullock cart owners. The owners had to pay 5,000 kyat (approx. US $4.80) for each cart. The village head delegated the responsibility of collecting the money to another villager. San Myit then reportedly took 3,000 kyat from the 5,000 kyat 'tax' for each bullock cart and divided the remaining 2,000 kyat equally between the village head and the villager who did the actual collection work. San Myit also threatened the local villagers against informing anyone about this incident.

"When they [SPDC] need anything, they come and order the village head and the village head must arrange everything that they order."

- Saw B--- (male, 46), B--- village, Mone Township (January 2009)

Conclusion"None of the villagers have enough food to eat. If SPDC army soldiers didn't come to disturb us, we'd have enough food from cultivating our hill fields as in the time of our grandparents. We believe that we could get sufficient food as they did. Now we dare not cultivate our hill fields [that are] far away from our homes. We just cultivate our hill fields [that are] near our homes [where] the soil isn't rich enough with [natural] fertilizer to produce [enough] paddy for us."

- Saw H--- (male, 23), Th--- village, Kyauk Kyi Township (March 2009)

Despite the withdrawal of soldiers from some frontline army camps in Nyaunglebin District, the Burma Army presence in the area continues, as do regular patrols. Local villagers thus continue to face demands for labour, money and other supplies as troops seek to support themselves. These demands have in turn exacerbated poverty and undermined food security for villagers in the area - many of whom now rely on food and medical aid from local aid groups such as the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), the Karen Office for Relief and Development (KORD) and the Backpack Health Worker Teams.

"They [CIDKP] have come to provide [aid] for us twice per year. KORD has come to provide [aid] for us more than twice per year. As for medicine, Backpack [Health Worker Teams] have sometimes come to supply us."

- Saw H--- (male, 23), Th--- village, Kyauk Kyi Township (March 2009)

khrg

Villagers are spread thin after meeting uncompensated labor demands

2009-05-15T21:13:00.000+06:30

HURFOM:Villagers are being forced to work for their headman and local battalions without pay, and face a monthly tax of 1,000 kyat. This disturbance poses a significant problem to villagers who make a living working in the fields.

Since April villages throughout Alaesakhan, Kyaukadin Kyauktalin Kaleinaung Sub-township, Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division have been forced to provide daily workers, for both the town headman and soldiers from Light Infantry Battalions (LIB). No. 282 and No. 273.

Operating on a daily rotation, a villager is expected to arrive at the headman’s house at 6am, and to remain there until 6am the next day when another villager arrives. The villager carries out daily chores for the headman, from collecting firewood, to carrying water from the well to the house, to posting letters to other villages, to buying liquor, and acting as a sentry outside headman’s house. No payment or compensation is offered, and villagers are expected to cover their own costs, like meals.

According to a villager from Kyauktalin, this is the time when villagers must go and work on their farms to improve the land for coming rice crop. If a villager from the rotation does not show up to work at the headman’s house, they either must find a replacement amongst the other villagers, or pay a fine of 4,000 for the missed duty. The Battalion appoints the headmen of every village.

“We are now like their slaves - we have to do everything they want, and sometimes we are kicked and punched if the headman is disappointed in us” said a 35 year old villager from Kyauktalin.

Additionally, the headmen come and collect 1,000 Kyat every month from every household. When the headmen collect the money from villagers, they explains that all money they collect will be spent on the local high ranking commanders of LIB No. 282 and No. 273 if they come to visit the village, Accordion to a Kyaukadin villager.

Based on their needs, soldiers from both LIB No. 282 & No. 273 go to the village headmen to collect villagers to work as porters or perform manual labor. On these occasions villagers will sometimes be required to work as porters for over a week.

“At this point I just want to leave home and move away, because I have no time to farm or do any other work that will provide an income,” said a 35 year old Kyaukatlin villager, “I’m only working for the headman and the battalions. Now I have no food for my family, and yet still have to pay this tax every month. I am going crazy!”

Soldiers will also order villagers not to leave or work outside the village for a month citing concerns over a Mon rebel group, known as Chen Dein, operating out in the area. For many of the villagers who farm, such an order is catastrophic as their farms lie outside the village limits, and in the surrounding hillside. The villages’ fall in what is described as a ‘black area’ by the military, meaning it is not yet fully secured, and that there continues to be rebel group activity in the area. As a result villagers are expected to pay an additional yearly tax of support, one to the Chen Dein group and one to LIB’s No. 282 and No. 273 Battalions.

rehmonnya

Army Authority Uses Villages for Forced Labor in Arakan

2009-05-15T21:11:00.000+06:30

Maypon: Burmese army authorities from Western Command based in Ann Town have been forcing villagers to work on construction of a road between Kam Daunt Gri and Shauk Kon Village in Mraypon Township, said one villager.

He said, "We were forced by army officials to collect and gather stones from one small mountain located by Kam Daunt Gri Village. After that, the army officials forced us to transport the stones to the road construction site." All villagers from both villages have been working on the road every day.

The road is a rural road that connects Kam Daunt Gri and Shauk Kon. Authorities are using Kan Htin Fri as a government model developing village in Arakan State.

"The army authority is building up the village of Kam Daunt Gri in accordance with government projects, but local people have been forced by army officials to work at many project sites without pay," he added.

The villages are located near the Arakan coast and most of the villagers work as fishermen.

"We are fishermen and our survival depends on the daily work of fishing. But recently we can not go to the ocean for fishing. So we have lost our daily income," he said.

One major from the Military Operation Planning Bureau in Western Command came to the area and ordered the villagers to transport the stones to the road construction site.

"The official told us that the road is constructed for us, so we should construct the road ourselves. He said we would get "kutho" [merit] by contributing our wages to the road construction," the villager concluded.

narinjara

Military forces people to construct fence

2009-05-15T04:00:00.003+06:30

The Burmese Army battalion Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)No. 289 based in Simi village, Paletwa township, western Chin state, Burma, is forcing people to construct fences and it will fine Kyat 2000 if a person fails to work.

The villagers were informed about this in April. In the first group of workers there will be 100 people and they will work for three days. People who are absent will have to pay Kyat 6000 for three days, said a person who went to work.

He added, “We had taken some wood and bamboos from a place six miles away from the army camp. The working hour was from morning 6 to 10, after breakfast and them up to 5 pm. We had requested that we be allowed to work at night as it is very hot and sunny in the afternoon, but they refused. They had asked us to bring all necessary things like food and tools for fencing the camp.”

A student of class ten waiting for his result works during school holidays to earn some money doing part time jobs. The military had called him to work. At the same time most of the workers also face many problems regarding cultivation and family livelihood.

The LIB No. 289 had been shifted to Simi village in April 2009 and they had called the villagers to construct fencing immediately. This kind of forced labour has been used before.

Similarly, military regimes based in Chin state called Chin people in order to construct fencing or walls, camps, digging pitches and cleaning camp areas every year. Khonumthung News

Battalion set fire to 36 homes in Yebyu Township

2009-05-15T03:57:00.001+06:30

HURFOM, Yebyu Township:
A fifty strong column of soldiers from LIB No. 107, led by Major Khin Mg Chin entered Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township on April 17th and set fire to 36 homes. Villagers believe this act was in retaliation for perceived insurgent group support and follows the recent killings of four village officials on April 2nd and 3rd, victims of a power struggle between the battalion and the armed Mon rebel group, Chan Dein.

A young man from Paukpinkwin who witnessed the events said, “ The soldiers separated into two groups of 25. One group entered the village from the north and the other from the south. Then they started to burn the 36 houses near the Ball Ta Moi Monastery. After that they fired their guns and ordered the people inside to get out their houses. People took anything they could and ran way.”

A local monk commented, “ I think this has happened because of the murders on April 2nd and 3rd and the ongoing power struggle between the army and Chan Dein group. Major Khin Mg Chin ordered the villagers to inform the army if the rebel group were in the village. The burnings are a punishment because they know that there is communication between the villagers and the rebels.”

“The battalion knew that Chan Dein and his members entered our village for the water festival. So they punished people by burning the houses,” said a Paukpinkwin villager.

Of the 36 houses that were burnt, 17 were almost destroyed and the remaining 19 houses were badly damaged. The residents who were left homeless had to live in the Monastery for two days before moving elsewhere.

“ Now, the situation is very bad. All the villagers are terrified and they are afraid to do anything”, said the monk. “ The village quarter which was burnt by the army is near the monastery, so the monks no longer receive food from the people there. Now we have to cook for ourselves.”

On the 2nd and 3rd of April, the headman of the Paukpinkwin Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) and 3 other members of the council were executed in separate incidents by Battalion No. 107 and the Chan Dein group. All four officials are yet to be replaced and many villagers have left to move to safer locations.

rehmonnya

Soldiers shoot two villagers in Yebyu Township; one dead, one hospitalized

2009-05-15T03:56:00.001+06:30

HURFOM: Two men form Alaesakhan village, Kaleinaung Sub-Township, Yebyu Township, were shot by Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 282. One died at the scene and the other has been hospitalized for over a month.

At around 7pm on March 4th, Nai Khin Taung and Nai Ah Bu, 22, encountered troops from LIB No. 282 as they returned from cutting wood in the forest near a farmed owned by Nai Ohwn Kyaw in the Kyaungywa Kwin area. The troops shot the two men for a still unknown reason. Nai Ah Bu was killed on the spot; Nai Khin Taung was wounded with two shots to his thigh, two to his chest, and a head wound from a bullet that glanced off his skull.

The next morning, troops from LIB No. 282 encountered two villagers from Alaesakhan. The soldiers informed the couple that two bodies needed to be recovered, gave them the location and told them to contact their headmen. The troops also confiscated a packet of candles, one pyi (2 kg) of rice and one pyi (2 kg) of sticky rice.

According to a source who spoke with the two villagers, they then immediately went to the location of bodies. “We found a dead body on the ground with a chainsaw near Nai Ohwn Kyaw’s farm at around 8 am. I feel afraid after what we saw there,” the source quoted one of the villagers who found the body.

The source also said they found the wounded man on the ground nearby, who had spent the night alone bleeding and untreated. A month later, he remains hospitalized and in serious condition in Ye Town.

LIB No. 282 had taken no responsibility for the shooting or the treatment of the men. The employer of the two woodsmen has provided compensation, including compensation to the family of Nai Ah Bu, as well as the cost of his funeral. He also paid for Nai Khin Taung’s medical expenses.

“Nai Wel who employs the two chainsaw workers compensated Nai Khin Taung’s family and Nai Ah Bu for over 2 million kyat,” said a 45-year-old woman from Alaesakhan village.

Nai Ah Bu’s parents buried his body close to a stream near Nai Ohwn Kyaw’s farm.

HURFOM has not been able to confirm why the two men were shot. One villager, 50, from Alaesakhan village speculated, “ The men were coming back from the forest very late with a chainsaw. The army battalion probably suspected they were supporting the Mon rebel group’ in some way, and killed them.”

Yebyu Township continues to be home to a small number of armed insurgents, and villagers in the area are routinely accused of offering them support. These accusations include harsh punishments, including detention, torture, summary execution and forced relocation. Just 20 miles to the northwest, in April 2 village headmen were executed and 36 homes burned in Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township. The victims were accused of supporting insurgents lead by Nai Chan Dein.

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Men posing as Thai police rape 12-year-old Burmese migrant worker

2009-05-15T03:54:00.000+06:30

WCRP: A twelve-year-old Burmese migrant child was gang raped by five Thai men posing as police in Minburi Sub-district, Bangkok.

Early in the morning, at around 2am on May 2, a group of five men came to the apartment where a Burmese migrant worker family was living. Pretending they were Thai policemen coming to check their work permit cards, they ordered the workers to open the door. Upon entering they half-heartedly checked work permit cards, ignoring some of the residents, and proceeded to search each room.

According to the aunt who is living with the child, “They captured the two children by showing us their gun and also stole a mobile phone which cost around 5,000 Baht as well as another 25,000 Baht in cash.” The girl who is from Ye township works with her aunt at a construction site in Miniburi, while her mother works farther away in Bangkok.

The men then drove away with the two children and after a few minutes stopped their car near a banana farm. One man held the 18-year-old boy at gunpoint while the others took girl out beside the road. According to the 18-year-old boy, each of the men then raped the young girl.

“During the rape she nearly lost conscious because of pain. After they raped her, they left both children on the road side with 100 baht to get a ride back home. The girl was so terrified she couldn’t speak,” said the victim’s aunt.

Lost and unable to get back home, the children proceeded to just walk along the road. Back home the aunt had prepared a search party to sweep the neighborhood, and luckily found the two children at about 6am.

The 5 men were not immediately followed for fear an encounter would bring additional violence. The Burmese workers were also worried about being arrested as some of them did not posses a work permit card.

Additionally the victim’s mother didn’t want to contact the police about the case because, as a migrant worker, if the police needed to question her about the incident, she would have to go to the police station. Leaving work and missing that time could result in the loss of her job.

The migrant family did inform their employer about the incident, but he took no action other than to send the child to the hospital for a medical check. The employer never contacted the police for fear the 5 might have actually been police officers. He was concerned that if they were real police the men would make problems for him and his business, as well as the potential loss of face over the incident.

However the doctor who preformed the medical examination informed the employer that in fact the rape of the 12 year old was not a small issue, and because of its significance the police should be contacted.

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