Burma News: August 12

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BurmaNet News: August 12, 1994

Contents:

1: BANGKOK POST: SOLDIERS CUT OFF WATER SUPPLIES TO REFUGEES
2: KACHIN LEADER, BRANG SENG DIES AFTER SUFFERING STROKE
3  BRANG SENG EULOGY
4: PRESS RELEASE, OVERSEAS MON YOUNG MONKS UNION: HALOCKHANI, SUVICHA,
   AND ALLEGED HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
3: BURMANET FAQ UNDER CONSTRUCTION


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BANGKOK POST: SOLDIERS CUT OFF WATER SUPPLIES TO REFUGEES

About 6,000 ethnic Mon refugees were without water for the second day
yesterday as the Thai army cut off supplies to their camp in a bid to force
them to return to Burma, sources said.

The action came despite please from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to
Thailand not to carry out an expulsion order against them because there was
no guarantee for their safety in Burma.

The Mons fled to Thailand on July 21 after Burma's 62d Light Infantry Brigade
carried out reprisal raids against them along the border, near the Three
Pagodas Pass, and arrested 16 Mon leaders.

The Thai government told the Mons to return to Burma or face expulsion  by
August 10.  Although the threat was not carried out, the army has not cut off
supplies to the camp.

But the secretary general of the MNRC told AFP yesterday "I tried this
morning to reach the camp.  I can confirm that the army and the Border Patrol
Police have blocked all access and that no supplies or medicine can reach
them.  

"The army officer responsible for the checkpoint told me he was acting on
orders form the 9th Division," based in Kanchanaburi.

"They are acting on their own" and ignoring Bangkok, he added.

On Tuesday, the National Security Council which is responsible for border
security, gave assurances that the refugees would not be forced to return to
Burma if their security could not be guaranteed.

The non-governmental organisation Medecines Sans Frontieres, which has two
people working among the refugees, said sanitary conditions were very based,
due to the lack of water and torrential rain.

"There is a lot of diarrhoea.  They cannot survive long without water," said
an MSF official in Bangkok.

The Mons, who number about 4 million are one of the major ethnic groups in
Burma.  They have been leading a sporadic guerilla campaign for self-rule for
several decades.  (AFP)


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KACHIN LEADER, BRANG SENG DIES AFTER SUFFERING STROKE
The Nation (Bangkok)
Yindee Lertcharoenchok

Brang Seng, the leader of Burma's armed ethnic Kachins, died on Monday night
during a journey from China back to his headquarters in northern Kachin
State.  He had suffered a haemorrhage from a second stroke last month,
according to senior Kachin officers.

Brang Seng was the chairman of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) the
latest and largest ethnic guerilla group to strike a ceasefire deal with the
Burmese junta.  He suffered the second stroke on July 29 during his routine
daily walking exercise.

He subsequently underwent brain surgery by Chinese doctors in a hospital in
Kunming, in southern Yunnan Province.

KIO Secretary General Zawng Hra and Brig Tu Jai, vice-president of the Kachin
Independence Council, decided to take the unconscious Brang Seng back to
Pajau, on the Sino-Burmese border, on Monday after the doctors gave up hope,
the officers said.

Brang Send suffered his first large stroke last October, and since then had
been under intensive medical care by a Chinese medical team, until recent
signs of recovery.

A KIO press release dated yesterday said Brang Seng "suffered a major stroke
in October 1993 and was well on the road to recovery when a second stroke
overtook him, which led to his untimely demise."

His sudden death shocked all anti-Rangoon ethnic movements, most of whom are
KIO's close allies and brothers-in-arms as he had been widely respected among
both foes and friends in the four-decades long armed conflict in Burma.

It is still premature to gauge the repercussions of his death on his Kachin
movement and on other ethnic allies, as his ailment and health condition had
been kept relatively secret from general public knowledge.

Some Burma watchers believe some changes in the Kachin leadership will take
place but will have "minimal effects" on the groups as a whole, as it is
known for its good discipline and clear line of command.

The release said Brang Seng initiated peace negotiations with successive
Burmese governments in 1963, 1972 and 1980 and "finally the latest ceasefire
with the State Law and Order Restoration Council in Feb. 1994."

The KIO reiterates its commitment to the peace process, which he [Brang Seng]
so dearly envisioned," said the statement.

The charismatic Kachin leader, who was born on June 16, 1931, was known for
his pragmatism, outspokenness, farsightedness and mastery of bargaining in
negotiations.  He earned respect and love from fellow Kachin leaders and from
the general Kachin public, as well as from leaders of other armed ethnic
groups.

The statement said Brang Seng's remains arrived "with full military honours
at the General Headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organization in Pa
Jau, Kachinland" yesterday.
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BRANG SENG EULOGY
[abridged from The Nation, by Yindee Letcharoenchok]

The sudden death of Kachin leader Brang Seng will send shock waves and grief
to people near and far who have been familiar with the guerrilla leader or
have been following the political turmoil and armed conflict in Burma.

 ...It is still to premature to gauge the repercussions of his death on this
Kachin movement and other ethnic allies as his illness and health condition
have been kept relatively secret..

Brang Seng, who had a good command of English, broke the geographical
isolation of the Kachins and brought the Kachin political cause for greater
autonomy to world attention by setting out on a worldwide campaign in the
late 1980s.

He embarked on a six-month overland journey in November, 1986, criss-crossing
the Kachin and Shan states down to the Thai-Burmese border to attend an
ethnic conference and later left on an eight-month overseas trip, which
brought him to several countries in Europe and Asia.

He has since travelled extensively to meet with government and opposition
leaders across the world to campaign for international support for his group
and other anti-Rangoon ethnic and opposition movements until he was
incapacitated by the first stroke in  late October last year.

The hopes of his followers were lifted when the Kachin leader recovered
quickly after his brain surgery.  They were waiting for his return to lead
the group through the more arduous task of settling the political agendas
with Rangoon.

Brang Seng himself was satisfied with his own convalescence and showed his
strong will and desire to continue with is duties.

"When I met the Chairman the last time, he told me he would soon travel to
Thailand and then to the United States, but unluckily he suffered a second
stroke," a senior KIO officer said yesterday.

It is still unknown if his death will affect the truce agreement signed in
late Feb. between the group and the SLORC.  But the KIO statement said the
group remains committed to the peace process in Burma.

Previous bilateral peace negotiations, the last one of which in 1980-81 was
led by Brang Seng himself to meet with Burma's strongman Gen. Ne Win, broke
down because of Rangoon's intransigence and demands that the Kachin
completely surrender.

The current official truce in the Kachin State is the fruit of three years of
tremendous efforts in a series of talks which started in 1990...

Brang Seng was born on June 16, 1931 in Hpakant, Kachin State and finished
his studies in 1954 with a bachelor's degree in education from Rangoon
University.  Upon his graduation, he joined the teaching staff of the Kachin
Baptist High School in the state capital of Myitkyina and became its
headmaster in 1957 and principal in 1959.

In 1963, he went underground and joined the fledgling KIO, which was founded
two years earlier, and rose rapidly through the structural hierarchy from
township organizer to township administrator and in 1966, to the KIO's
norther division secretary, and head of finance and foreign departments
between 1967-70.

Brang Seng was chosen to lead the KIO delegation to Beijing three times in
1967, 1968 and 1979 where he met and held talks with several of China's top
party, government and military leaders including the late Prime minister Chou
En-Lai.  The trips led to a close rapport between both sides and have been
followed by more visits.

He was unanimously elected to the dual posts of KIC president and KIO
chairman in 1976 after the death of Kachin leader Gen. Zau Seng.. In 1986, he
was the first chairman of the northern military zone of the National
Democratic Front, which comprised a dozen armed ethnic guerrilla groups
active along the Sino-Burmese and Thai-Burmese borders.

Brang Seng is survived by his wife and seven children.  His funeral will take
place in Pajau and already a number of dignitaries including the three Kachin
mediators in the latest ceasefire talks with Rangoon have gone there to
attend the ceremony.

It is not yet known who will replace him, but Kachin Independence Army (KIA)
Chief of Staff and KIO Deputy Chairman Gen. Zau Mai has been taking an active
political role and serving as acting chief since Brang Seng's ailment last
year.

The 58-year old general is known to be a tough and straight-forward military
man.  He rose steadily through battleground records from the KIA rank and
file to the topmost army position.

Zau Mai has travelled to the Thai-Burmese and Indian-Burmese border several
times in the past few years and met with leaders of other armed ethnic
groups.  He met with SLORC powerful leader Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt in the Kachin
State capital of Myitkyina last September after both sides finalized the
ceasefire agreement and both subsequently witnessed the signing of the truce
in February.

Despite his heavily built physique and straightforwardness, Zau Mai is media
shy and rarely gives interviews to journalists.
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PRESS RELEASE FROM OVERSEAS MON YOUNG MONKS UNION: HALOCKANI

Dated Aug. 10, 1994

As is commonly known, the Thai 9th Army Division in the early months of 1994,
forcibly repatriated some five to six thousand Mon-burmese refugees.  They
relocated them against their wishes from the Loh Loe Refugee Camp in Thailand
to a site just inside the Burmese border known as Halockhani.  The new camp
was within easy marching distance of the 62d Burmese Army Battalion
positioned at Three Pagodas Pass.

It is commonly believed that this forced relocation of the refugees by the
Thai Army was intended to put pressure on the Mon to sign a peace agreement
with the SLORC.  The Mon Leadership has to date, refused to do so.  The Thai
Army has exceedingly close relations with the Burmese military dictatorship
as well as lucrative lumber concessions valued in the millions of dollars. 
This, too, undoubtedly contributed to the readiness of the Thai Army to push
the refugees back to Burma.

We monks are seriously concerned with newspaper accounts linking the name of
Mr. Suvicha Hiranyapruek (Victor), an influential businessman, rumored to be
involved int he present Thai policy of forced repatriation.  Recent reports
likewise link his name as a close associate of the SLORC.  It is thought by
some that Mr. Hiranyapruek had a hand in the original scheme to force the Mon
refugees from Loh Loe back to Halockhani in Burma.  We believe this matter
merits further investigation by the press.

On the morning of June 21st, the worst fears of the refugees at Halockhani
were realized.  An outlying section of the camp came under military attack by
Burmese troops from the 62d Battalion.  In face of armed resistance by Mon
Army fighters, the Burmese army finally retreated, taking eighteen hostages
with them and setting fire to the village on the outskirts of the camp.  The
five to six thousand remaining refugees fled back across the border into
Thailand and where the Thai Army is ordering them to return at once to Burma. 
The refugees insist, as does the UNHCR and various Foreign Embassy officials
in Bangkok, that it is not safe for the Mon refugees to go back.  The Burmese
Army is presently reported to be advancing in large numbers upon the area. 
The refugees have been set up in a make-shift camp just inside the Thai-Burma
border.  In retribution for the refusal of the refugees to undergo forced
repatriation, Thai border police have now sealed off access to the make-shift
refugee camp on the Thai side of the border.  Absolutely no contact is being
allowed with the refugees, and food and medical supplies have been cut off.

Given the precarious health situation of the refugees (there are refugees in
the camp in serious condition from Malaria and diarrhea) this act on the part
of the border police can only be viewed as barbarous.  In no other part of
the world are refugees being deliberately blocked from receiving medical
attention.  This behavior seriously disgraces Thailand in the eyes of the
world.

The latest cruelty by Thai border authorities is part of a chronic pattern of
alleged abuse and misconduct.  Late last month a report was lodged by some of
our monks with Amnesty International, well-known for its monitoring of human
rights violations, wherein two Mon refugee furloughs are accusing the Thai
border police of detaining them in the Sangkhlaburi detention center for
seventeen days, during which time they allege they were forced to watch sex
videos in police sleeping quarters and were repeatedly raped.  On the final
day of their detention they claim they were raped by four of the five border
police who took them to Three Pagodas Pass, where they were put over the
border into Burma.  The two girls immediately made their complaint against
the Thai police in the presence of a number of Buddhist monks.  In our
opinion these rapes of the two girls most probably happened.

Likewise, a complaint was filed with Amnesty, alleging that four fully
ordained Mon-Burmese monks were stopped by Thai border police while
travelling to Thong Pa Pum, a village near Sangkhlaburi.  Because these
monks, having been ordained in Burma, did not possess Thai monk identity
cards, they were forcibly stripped of their robes by the police and made to
put on lay clothing.  They were then held for a number of days, fined and
then put back across the border into Burma at Halockhani.  In a nation which
claims to be Buddhist such a sacrilege should be inconceivable.

If these allegations are true, as we Buddhist monks believe they are, we
condemn them and ask the Thai government to take appropriate action against
those involved.  Crimes against refugees, especially those committed by
police, should not go unpunished.

We likewise ask the international community to register their indignation
with the Thai Government over the fact that access to the refugee camp has
been cut off.  Medical and food supplies must be allowed through, as well as
inspection of the situation by UNHCR or the International Red Cross.  NGOs
who have been providing relief assistance on a regular basis to the Mon
refugees should be accorded full and open access to them.  The blockade of
the refugees camp must be ended now.  The general public can help by
registering a protest on behalf of the endangered Mon refugees with their
local Thai Embassy, the Thai Government or UNHCR in Geneva.

signed,

   Phra Dhamma
   Vice-chairman
   Overseas Mon Young Monks Union (Thailand)



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