READERS’ FRONT
VILLAGERS BEATEN AND FINED FOR NOT SPEAKING
BURMESE
SPDC’S LAND CONFISCATION FOR ARMY VILLAGE
MON POLITICAL PRISONER AT RISK OF LOW BLOOD
PRESSURE
PADDY FARMS DESTROYED DUE TO FLOODING
MON AND THAI LANGUAGES CLASS OPEN AT THE BORDER
CATTLE FROM BURMA BANNED
20 PERSONS CONTRACT GOAT DISEASE
BURMESE JUNTA CUTS SUPPORT FOR NMSP
CHINS IN THE USA CELEBRATE ‘CHIN NEW YEAR
FESTIVAL’
DOWN THE RAT HOLE: ADVENTURES UNDERGROUND ON
BURMA’S FRONTIERS
READERS’ FRONT
Dear
Readers,
We
invite comments and suggestions on improvements to Kaowao newsletter. With
your help, we hope that Kaowao News will continue to grow to serve better
the needs of those seeking social justice in Burma. And we hope that it
will become an important forum for discussion and debate and help readers
to keep abreast of issues and news. We reserve the right to edit and
reject articles without prior notification. You can use a pseudonym but we
encourage you to include your full name and address.
Regards,
Editor
kaowao@hotmail.com,
www.kaowao.org
___________________________________________________________
On “Global Warming Hits New
Orleans”: By Jeremy Rifkin
Great
article. Burma’s military leaders are also not concerned with our natural
resource and environment. I wonder the reason why the U.S is not
interested to help Burma. It may be a good reason that we don’t have
enough oil and gas like Iraq.
Zaw
Zaw (Malaysia)
___________________________________________________________
Thank you for
posting a great essay.
It is about time we look beyond
our borders and start seeing ourselves as part of the planet.
Zarni
___________________________________________________________
Hmm! I wonder
what would happen to the Canada’s Alberta economy if America turned off
the oil spigot.
ES (Canada)
Human Rights
VILLAGERS BEATEN AND FINED FOR NOT SPEAKING BURMESE
(Kaowao: September
14, 2005)
Villagers who
cannot speak Burmese were beaten and fined, a source from Ye township, Mon
state said.
“Three villagers
from Bop Htaw village were beaten and fined 3 Viss (about 5 kilograms) of
chicken each,” a Mon community worker who recently fled to Thai-Burma
border said. The newly arrived refugee explained that his villagers were
beaten by Burma Army after being demanded to speak Burmese to them.
Mon villagers Nai
Chit Tin 43, Nai Oung Tin 41, and Nai Hline 29 were beaten and kicked
several times and then fined three Vises of chicken last July.
The SPDC Light
Infantry Battalion No. 299 is in charge of the southern Ye area where
majority of the local population cannot speak Burmese.
A village headman
of Pauk Pin Kwin from Ye Byu Township, told Kao Wao that most of the
villagers in southern Ye area cannot speak Burmese and assimilation policy
is used by the SPDC soldiers while staying in the villages.
Civilian in this
area rarely has any citizenship cards or ID cards since the immigration
officers cannot go into this area. Many villages in southern Ye and Ye Byu
area is defined by the SPDC as a Black Area (free-fire zone) and they also
lost the chance to vote in Burma’s general election in 1990.
SPDC’S LAND CONFISCATION FOR ARMY VILLAGE
(Kaowao: September
12, 2005)
Ye -- Burma Army
confiscated thousands of plantations and ordered the local people to build
a new village for BA’s family members.
The local sources
reported they were ordered to cut down trees and clear the area to build
the houses for the construction of army village near Khao Jear sub-town,
southern Mon State.
The plantations
around the area were seized for the military families, forcing the Mon
owners out of their homes and off their land, thereby displacing them.
Over 30 tons of
timber in southern Ye was also collected from local villages to build SPDC
schools, a Mon political activist from the area said.
“Over ten
villages, namely Bop Htaw, Krone Kanyear, Weng Ta Moh, Mi Htaw Hlar Dut,
Mi Htaw Hlar Janoh, Ma Herh, Wear Kwao, Mang Glon and Khao Jear, provided
timber to build government controlled schools in KhawZar (sub town),” said
the activist under condition of anonymity.
“Villagers were
ordered to work as unpaid laborers on a daily basis to build the schools
for the elementary, secondary and high schools. Each village was ordered
by the Burma Army to send four laborers on daily basis. All villages
including Kao Jear sub-town were forced to pay 1000 Kyat per month for the
project run by the army, there are about 20 villages,” he further
explained.
Last year, over
three hundred acres of plantations in the eastern part of the sub-town,
where the new military village is located, were seized.
“The whole part of
the eastern sub-town is owned by the SPDC. The local Mon people owned the
plantations for generations but they (Burmese government) now owns the
land,” he quoted the soldiers as saying to the villagers. “No one can go
to the new military village, once they are built,” he added.
According to a Mon
human rights activist from the Nationalities Youth Forum Program, the
local SPDC battalions work with the logging companies from the northern Ye
township, both are cutting down rubber and other species of trees from
land the Burmese Army confiscated over five years ago.
Forced off from
their land, the Mon farmers and their families have split up and migrated
to Thailand and Mon IDP camps controlled by NMSP along the Thai-Burma
border.
MON POLITICAL PRISONER AT RISK OF LOW
BLOOD PRESSURE
(Kaowao: September
6, 2005)
The health of NMSP
member Nai Yekkha (Ne Win), who was charged with attempting a state
assassination plot against the SPDC, worsens, reported his family.
“He is suffering
from low blood pressure and he is collapsing all the time, he’s too weak
and cannot eat well,” his family said.
“His health
condition is getting worse day by day,” a source from his party said. “He
may die from low blood pressure and he is not coping well from the poor
diet they give him,” his family said.
“His family is not
able to provide the extra food for him, who themselves are unable to make
ends meet being a poor family,” the party said.
The State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC) arrested 12 suspects including two NMSP
members Nai Yekkha and Nai Chem Gakow and Mon National Democratic Front
leader Nai Min Kyi on July 17, 2003. They were charged with being involved
in a number of explosions in Moulmein and other cities. Some of them were
released. The SPDC’s Military Intelligence used poor information to
accuse Nai Yekkha with being involved in a state assassination.
Nai Yekkha was a
popular student leader from Moulmein University who joined the NMSP before
it reached a ceasefire agreement with the military junta.
PADDY FARMS DESTROYED DUE TO FLOODING
(Kaowao: September
2, 2005)
Paddy plantations
in southern part of Pa-an township of Karen state along the Gyaing river
have been destroyed due to a month-long flood in the area.
About 5,000 acres
already planted with paddy at Zar Ta Pyin field were lost in the flood.
It lasted for a month and all of the rice fields were under water for 21
days, according Nai Ting, a local farmer. There are six Mon villages in
the area, namely; Zar Ta Pyin, Kyone Peh, Khayar Atwin, Khayar Apyin, Kaw
La Muu, Than Hleh, Kaw Tin, he added.
A Mon widow farmer
said that she had lost about 100,000 kyats in growing paddy on her
five-acre farm and she is concerned how she will be able to pay back the
money that she borrowed.
Many paddy fields
along the rivers in Kawkareik township in Karen state and Kyaikmayaw
township in Mon state are also affected by flood, according to local
sources. But they were unable t confirm how many acres had been destroyed
during the flood.
Most of the motor
roads and trails in the townships were under water for a long time and
local Mon and Karen people had to use small boats to get around. The
primary and middle schools in southern Pa-an township were closed because
of concern for the safety of the students.
Culture and literature
MON AND THAI LANGUAGES CLASS OPEN AT THE BORDER
(Kaowao: September
1, 2005)
Three Pagodas
Pass – The opening ceremony for Mon and Thai language evening classes were
held here for the first time yesterday evening, a Mon language teacher
told a Kaowao reporter today.
“We will teach Mon
and Thai languages voluntarily starting between 6:30 and 8:30 daily
(Burmese local time).” Over 200 students are registered to attend the
classes, said the teacher.
The classes, which
are arranged by the township Mon Culture and Literature Committee and the
youth organization, are separated into four sections. ‘We received
permission from the township authority and the local commander to open
them,’ the teacher said.
Most of the
students are teenagers who are interested in learning both their own
language and Thai. The classes are sponsored with the aim of preserving
the Mon language and of encouraging people to attend, the teacher said.
The organizers are
also planning to include English language classes, as well, the teachers
said. The New Mon State Party liaison officer also attended the opening
class and delivered a speech.
Business
CATTLE FROM BURMA BANNED
(Kaowao: September
2, 2005)
Three Pagodas
Pass – Thailand has closed its border to cattle crossing from Burma due to
a cattle disease discovered by a Thai doctor, according to a source at
Three Pagodas Pass.
There are over 200
cows and buffalos on the Burmese side waiting for transport to Thailand, a
Mon cattle trader, Nai Win told Kawao from the border crossing point two
days ago. It is the first time in many years that cattle from Burma have
been barred from entering Thailand, he said.
The cattle
business in the area is slow due to high taxation by SPDC and government
control organizations, another source said.
“The cattle
business at the border town is going downhill because the various check
points under the control of the SPDC and ceasefire groups are charging too
much,” said a Three Pagodas Pass resident. “Cattle businessmen are
limiting their travel to the area under the control of the New Mon State
Party (NMSP) to avoid the high taxes collected by the SPDC’s organizations
and cease-fire groups.”
The cows and
buffalos are brought from Mon state and Tenasserim Division by a long trek
through mountainous terrain that is heavily forested. It takes about a
week to reach to Three Pagodas Pass. Some cattle die during the journey
water is scarce at the high highest elevation from which it almost a half
day’s journey into the valley. As a result, owners have to sell the
cattle at a much lower price amounting to about 30 bahts per kilo, Nai
Darm from a Mon village in the area said.
The cattle traders
usually bring only fat cows and buffalos, since the ones cannot make the
trip through the dense forest, the source said.
Related story
20 persons contract 'goat disease'; smuggled animals slaughtered in
brucellosis outbreak
(Bangkok: TNA:
06-09-05)
Nearly 1,400 goats
smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar have been culled and slaughtered in
Thailand's western province of Kanchanaburi following the first major
outbreak of brucellosis in 30 years, according to Agriculture and
Cooperatives and Public Health Ministries officials. Nineteen workers from
a goat milk dairy and meat farm in Kanchanaburi have been infected, along
with one government animal husbandry worker.
Agriculture and
Cooperatives Minister Khun Ying Sudarat Keyaraphan said on Tuesday that
the Maboonkrong Dairy Goat Farm had been declared an outbreak area and
1,363 goats smuggled from "a neighbouring country" were culled after being
infected with the bacteria. In an attempt to allay fears about a
re-emerging infectious disease, brucellosis, which two years ago returned
for the first time in 30 years, the Public Health Ministry assured the
public that the disease could not be transmitted from human to human, nor
cause miscarriages.
Dr. Kumnuan
Ungchusak, Bureau of Epidemiology Director, said there had been 20 people
reported infected so far, with all but one are workers in the farm, who
had direct contact with the infected goats and other products from the
animals, such as meat and raw milk. The other infected persons was an
extension official from the provincial animal husbandry center, according
to Dr. Kumnuan. He said the disease had previously been a problem until
the mid-1970s, but was not indicated in medical records from then until
2003 when the disease re-emerged in four patients found in the central
province of Ratchaburi and three patients in the southern province of
Satun were reported last year.
However, Dr.
Kumnuan assured the public that there had been no case of human-to-human
transmission. "There is also no evidence that it can cause miscarriage,"
Dr. Kumnuan said. "Those who are at high risk are persons who have direct
contact with the animal or animal products that are contaminated with the
bacteria." The epidemiology director said that the bacteria could be
destroyed at temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius; therefore, eating cooked
goat meat or drinking pasturised milk is safe.
Brucellosis is an
infectious disease caused by the bacteria of the genus Brucella. These
bacteria are primarily passed among animals, and they cause disease in
domesticated animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, swine, and dogs. Wild
animals, too, can be infected and can be carriers. In humans brucellosis
can cause a range of symptoms similar to influenza and may include fever,
sweats, headaches, back pains, and physical weakness. Severe infections
of the central nervous systems or lining of the heart may occur. Khun Ying
Sudarat vowed to punish any officials who allowed illegal smuggling of the
animals.
BURMESE JUNTA CUTS SUPPORT FOR NMSP
(Louis Reh,
Irrawaddy: September 09, 2005)
The New Mon State
Party’s economic support from Burma’s State Peace and Development
Council—a condition of the 1995 ceasefire agreement between the two
parties—has been cut off for the last two months, along with support for
local business interests, said a spokesperson for the NMSP.
The SPDC has
traditionally supplied the NMSP with four million kyat (nearly US $3,500)
in economic aid each month for the political body to function in Mon
State, Burma.
“There is no clear
reason why they (SPDC) have cut the support,” said NMSP spokesperson Kwe
Hong Mon, adding that “the SPDC has also placed restrictions on the
party’s business interests.”
Kwe Hong Mon
suggested that the party’s participation in the National Convention—set to
resume in December—may have something to do with the suspension of
funding.
“I think the
reason for the cuts is that the NMSP has been blacklisted because of its
participation in the National Convention and the party’s insistence on a
free referendum and a genuine federal democracy in Burma,” said Kwe Hong
Mon.
The SPDC has also
tightened restrictions on the party’s business interests, particularly the
logging industry. The NMSP had previously been allowed limited logging
rights and permission to export to Thailand. “The party’s permission to
log in Mon State, Burma, has been revoked. We cannot log where we are not
specifically permitted by the SPDC,” said Kwe Hong Mon.
The NMSP has never
before experienced delays in payments received from SPDC’s Southeast
Command or restrictions on business activities.
Other ethnic
ceasefire groups claim to be facing similar difficulties with the SPDC.
The Karenni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front reached a ceasefire
agreement with the SPDC in 1994.
“The KNPLF now has
to provide for itself because the SPDC no longer gives us any assistance,”
said a member of KNPLF. He added that the group must rely on profits from
limited logging rights and control of the Maw Chin mine in Karenni State
to fund the group’s security forces and administrative offices.
CHINS IN THE USA CELEBRATE ‘CHIN NEW YEAR FESTIVAL’
(Reported by Hre
Mang)
Coming together
from across the United States, more than 500 Chins gathered together,
celebrating the waited Chin National Festival with dances, shows, sports,
etc. nourishing their young generation with their traditional values and
social images. The celebration lasted for two days from September 3rd
to 4th, 2005 at Battle Creek, Michigan, USA.
The Chin Community
of Burma, USA, Inc. organized the celebration successfully. The Chin New
Year Festival has been celebrated in the United States since 2002and its
scope and influence is increasing among the Chin community in the USA. The
Chin community board, with the warmed welcome from National Area Chin
community leaders, decided that the 2006 Chin New Year Festival
celebration to be hosted by the National Capital Area Chin Community.
The celebration
has tremendous impact on the lives of the Chin immigrants, refugees,
visitors, and political asylees in the United, drawing old/new friends,
relative’s together from across the nation. The celebration not only
generated enormous social capital toward promoting and preserving the Chin
traditional and social cultural values in their exiled lives, but it also
promotes the social and psychological health, relieving their stress and
loneliness in a strange land.
It is expected
more Chins and friends will gather together during the next Chin New Year
Festival in 2006 which will take place in Maryland/Washington D.C.
At the end part of
the celebration, Pu William Ngun Lian sang his farewell cultural folk
song, “Stay with me one moment darling, one moment darling, because I may
ever see you again, again again, never never see you, one moment darling,
‘cause I may never see you again.”
Book Review
The story of
Edith Mirante travels among the indigenous peoples of Burma's remote war
zones, bordering China, India, Laos and Bangladesh.
DOWN THE RAT HOLE: ADVENTURES UNDERGROUND ON BURMA’S FRONTIERS
ASIAN NON-FICTION
Teri Fitsell
Edith Mirante has been aptly described by her publisher as "a dedicated
writer with the soul of a poet and the passion of a revolutionary". She
describes herself simply as a gatherer of information on Myanmar. It's a
task to which this American artist has dedicated nearly 20 years of her
life. Her commentaries are regularly broadcast on the BBC World Service,
she's lectured for Amnesty International and Greenpeace, and she's given
evidence about Myanmar before the US Congress.
Mirante's first book, Burmese Looking Glass, was about her clandestine
journeys into Myanmar from Thailand in the mid-1980s. It was subtitled A
Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution and described how her eyes
were opened to oppression in Myanmar. In 1986, she founded Project Maje (www.projectmaje.org)
to disseminate information around the world about the plight of the
Myanmese people. Her efforts in Thailand resulted in her being jailed
twice and then deported in 1988.
Mirante's new book is as interesting as the first. Starting in 1991, it
describes her journeys through China, Laos, India and Bangladesh to talk
secretly to indigenous people struggling to gain their freedom. She visits
the rebel Chin National Front, active on the Bangladesh/Myanmar border;
she crosses treacherous hills on the China border with members of the
Kachin IO's 3rd brigade to visit the Kachin State; and she hides out in
Chittagong, Bangladesh, awaiting her chance to reach the Hill Tracts of
Bandarban.
The book is so named after the words of an Arakan ruler who described "the
futility of an army pursuing hill tribe raiders as an elephant trying to
'enter the hole of a rat'". However, Mirante says that, "in modern Burma,
the elephantine Tatmadaw tramples everything in its path, rat holes, nests
of insurgents, peaceful villages, alike".
The book details not only human rights abuses but also the destruction of
the Burmese environment under SLORC (the State Law and Order Restoration
Committee, now known as the SPDC), "the junta ruling Burma following its
suppression of the 1988 democracy uprising". She describes unregulated
logging, strategic deforestation, gas and oil exploration and gold mining,
the use of dangerous pesticides such as paraquat and increases in
pollution.
The list of environmental crimes is almost as long as the list of
different factions of rebels struggling in these remote areas. There are
the Chins, the Was, Kachins, Karens, Rakhines, Mons and many others. The
succinct glossary helps sort any confusion.
It's the author's no-frills passion for her subject, as well as her wit
and humour that make the book so readable. Her journeys comprise arduous
days of hiking over hills, wading through streams and hiding from the
authorities. Her aim is to reach the people who live in the midst of the
struggle and destruction and tell their stories to the world. She rarely
focuses on herself or how (or why) she endures the dangers, rigours and
hardships that go with her task. Nor does she indulge in polemic or cries
of outrage. She tells it as she sees it - quietly, without fuss, simply
gathering information with which to confront the authorities later.
In Burmese Looking Glass, Mirante traveled among opium drug lords and
troops of women soldiers. In Rat Hole, she enters the worlds of guerilla
warfare and heroin and jade trading, and realizes the full extent of the
AIDs pandemic in the region.
The book covers one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century -
the typhoon and tsunami that engulfed Bangladesh in April 1991, killing
139,000. As she relates seeing bodies washed ashore and caught in trees,
the passage has deep resonance, given the events of December 26, 2004.
Among the hardship and tragedy, there's humour and irony. At one stage
Mirante narrowly avoids being caught at a dangerous checkpoint because a
truck in front of hers nearly swerves off the road, and by the time it's
salvaged the guard agrees there's no time for security. She spends much
time in cockroach-infested hotel bathrooms repeatedly dying her blonde
hair black so as to blend in.
In the end though, Mirante's message is a simple one, just the two words
that close the book: "Free Burma."
South China
Morning Post (Hong Kong). 29 May 2005.
___________________________________________________________
"DOWN THE RAT
HOLE: Adventures Underground on Burma's Frontiers" is the new book by
Edith Mirante (author of "Burmese Looking Glass") published by Orchid
Press:
<http://d30021575.purehost.com/indiv_titles.html#rathole>
In Asia, order online from:
<http:www.asiabooks.co.thbrowsebookinfo.asp?ProdID=9789745240506>
"Down the Rat Hole" is available at Powells.com:
<http://www.powells.com/s?kw=down+the+rat+hole>
It can also be requested from your local bookshop or ordered at:
<www.amazon.com>
