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BuermaNet News: September 30





************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
**************************************************************

BurmaNet News: Saturday, September 30, 1994
Issue #27

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Contents:

1: BIG: WHY THE JUNTA DECIDED TO TALK TO SUU KYI
2: CARAVAN: "BEYOND RANGOON" COMING SOON!
3: KHRG:  THE SITUATION IN IN SOUTHERN SHAN STATE
4: NATION: THAI ARMY SPOKESMAN RESPONDS TO "JUST ONE OF THE MON"
5: BKK POST: LETTER TO THE EDITOR--"BURMA CARES ABOUT AIDS"
6: BBC: BURMESE ALSO WANT JAPANESE APOLOGIES OVER WWII COMFORT WOMEN
7: BURMANET: AN EXTRACT ON THE USE OF "COMFORT WOMEN" IN BURMA

***************************************************************
BIG: WHY THE JUNTA DECIDED TO TALK TO SUU KYI
from The Irrawaddy, 15 September, 94

According to Rangoon residents, the junta has decided to talk with detained
leader Aung San Suu Kyi because of the US decision to invade Haiti, Khin
Nyunt's recent visit to China and upcoming UNGA in Geneva.

WHen Khin Nyunt was in China, Chinese leaders signaled Khin Nyunt to talk
with Suu Kyi and reportedly said thney will not back the junta if there is
strong pressure from the UN and the west, in particular the US.

Everyone in Rangoon talking about  this believed that the US's action on
Haiti nudged the Rangoon regime to meet Suu Kyi. (Inside source).


***************************************************************
CARAVAN: "BEYOND RANGOON" COMING SOON!
September 94

[Editor's note: Caravan is an English-language magazine published in
Bangkok].

 ...Burmese soldiers shoot a girl student in the stomach and she collapses
into the pool.  Blood billows through the water as she lies face-down, inert.

"Cut!" and she resurrects herself, gulping ofr air, the casualness with which
she ignores her artificial wounds making them all the moure ghoulish.

Beyond Rangoon, the film which has been shotting in Malaysia, is now
complete.  The film is directed by John Boorman.  Dr Kyaw Win (Burma
Bulletin) has been working as a consultant.  He sayd that Beyond Rangoon is
the only movie about politcal repression in Burma likely to get a worldwide
relase.  It willl be screening in Bangkok later this year.

*************************************************************
KHRG:  THE SITUATION IN IN SOUTHERN SHAN STATE
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
August, 1994     

In December 1993, SLORC launched its first-ever major offensive
against the territory of the Mong Tai Army (MTA) led by Khun Sa,
who is generally referred to internationally as a 'drug warlord'.

The SLORC has put a lot of effort into publicizing this internationally
as a military offensive to eradicate narcotics, and has even asked
the U.S. for military assistance.  However, most Burma watchers
agree that this is not an anti-narcotics offensive, pointing to
the fact that the SLORC never attacked Khun Sa until he started
making very strong Shan Nationalist noises: demanding that all
Burmese troops leave Shan State, proclaiming its independence
and having himself declared President.  Furthermore, satellite
photos and other evidence show that most of the opium is not being
produced in Khun Sa's territory at all, but in territory controlled
by SLORC and its ceasefire partners like the Wa and Kokang.  It
seems more likely that the main purpose of this offensive is to
strengthen SLORC's control in Shan State, using 'drug eradication'
as an excuse for a brutal campaign.  Regardless of Khun Sa's real
or perceived faults and the question of his sincerity, many people
in Shan State are rallying to his Shan Nationalist line, encouraged
by the fact that his is the only army in Shan State currently
fighting the common enemy, SLORC.

Fighting between SLORC and the MTA has been intense with high
casualty figures.  There have been several fighting areas: a)
just west of Tachilek near the Thai border, where the MTA has
been trying to surround the border trading town of Tachilek while
SLORC has been trying to capture strategic Loi Gong Mon hill;
b) 60 km. further west in the Mong Kyot area, where SLORC has
been mounting a heavy attack to push west to the Salween and towards
the MTA's Ho Mong headquarters another 80-100 km. further west;
c) areas as widespread as Kengtung, Mong Ker, and even close to
Lashio, where the MTA has been mounting guerrilla operations.

In the process, SLORC troops have been intensively using all
their usual counterinsurgency tactics, including mass enslavement
of civilians as military porters, many of whom are killed, a scorched
earth policy and massacres of civilians in fighting areas, rape,
looting, extortion and other practices.  The MTA also takes civilians
as porters and takes food from villages, but not nearly on the
same scale and without the same brutal treatment of porters. 
The SLORC has also been using its Swiss Pilatus turbopropeller
bombers and attack jets, which have primarily inflicted damage
on civilian villages.  In some cases it appears their targets
are civilian villages in order to drive civilians out and cut
off any support for the MTA, while in other cases their targets
are MTA positions but the pilots don't want to go near the MTA
(who are well-armed and have good Surface-to-Air Missiles) so
they bomb nearby civilian villages instead and report that they're
attacking the target.  

One typical example:  On July 10 1994 four Pilatus PC7's flew out 
of Kengtung and attacked a defenceless village of Akhu people 5 km. 
north of the Thai border west of Tachilek.  This particular village 
is commonly known as Ban Akhu.

The planes dropped eight 80-lb. bombs on the village, fired rockets
and strafed the village with 30mm. guns.  When SLORC PC7's are
on attack, a squadron of 4 generally takes turns, 3 circling while
the fourth dives on the target very fast and quite low, then as
soon as it rises the next plane dives.  Being under it is terrifying,
and it can last 15 minutes or more.  In Ban Akhu two boys were
killed, aged 7 and 14, because they were playing outside.  One
had the back of his head blown off while the other was mortally
wounded in the body.  5 others were wounded.  People from the
area claim the pilots could certainly see that they were firing
on civilians from the way the people were fleeing.  There were
no MTA troops in the village - their position was nearby, on a
hilltop.  Over 50 km. to the west in the Mong Kyot fighting area,
several other villages have also fled because of aerial bombing.

Thousands of Shan, Akha, Lisu, Lahu, Palaung and other refugees
have flooded across the border, mainly in the Mong Kyot and Tachilek
areas, usually to be met by armed Thai troops and police who drive
them right back into the hands of SLORC, where they may be enslaved
as porters or killed.  For example, on May 22-23 hundreds of Shan
and other civilians fled across the border because SLORC troops
were rounding up hundreds of porters around Tachilek.  They were
held at Wat Wieng Hom (a Buddhist temple), then forcibly sent
back across by Thai authorities on May 24.  

There are reports from Tachilek that the SLORC was waiting for them, 
loaded them on trucks at took them all to a porter holding centre at 
Loi Hsa Htoong army camp.  Thus far, there has been little attention 
on such events from foreign governments or even human rights 
organizations, because the general attitude seems to be that this 
is just a dirty drug war.  In fact, these civilians have nothing to 
do with the drug trade.  Those farmers who do grow opium only do so 
because it is the only way for their family to survive the SLORC's 
constant looting and extortion of money.

On July 18, the fighting mysteriously stopped although neither
side had openly declared a halt.  From information available,
it appears that both sides were reeling from heavy casualties,
especially the MTA.  The SLORC may also have stopped because it
is traditionally at a disadvantage in rainy season, when its soldiers
and heavy equipment from the central plains are no match for guerrillas
who grew up in the malaria-ridden hills and forests.  However,
it seems almost certain that fighting will resume as soon as rainy
season ends in October.  Even in the absence of fighting the SLORC
has continued to abuse the civilians - they are still rounding
up hundreds of porters and keeping them in guarded holding camps
ready for the resumption of fighting.  On August 1 SLORC troops
reportedly burned down the Akha village of Wan Ya Aye (near Tachilek)
and drove out the 50 to 60 families living there after accusing
them of supporting the MTA.  One or two hundred of them crossed
into Thailand August 2 but were immediately met by Thai army and
police and forcibly handed back to SLORC authorities the next
afternoon by order of the governor of Chiang Rai province, Kamluen
Moonchut.  While they were in Thailand no one was allowed to speak
to them, not even Shan refugee officials.  

The Thais have now sealed the entire Shan border off in this fashion,
particularly where they are forcibly repatriating Palaung, Lahu and 
Lisu refugees opposite the Mong Kyot area, where outsiders are no 
longer allowed anywhere near the border.  At the same time, a Lahu 
villager from the Mong Kyot area reports that starting on August 1, 
SLORC began forcing villagers to guard the entire length of the road 
from Thailand (known as the Chieng Dao logging route to Chiang Mai)
from the Thai border north to Mongtung and from there to Mong
Hsat in the east and the Salween River in the west, a total road
length of about 100 miles.  Groups of 4 villagers have to rotate
standing sentry 24 hours a day at posts spaced less than a mile
apart.  If they see anyone they must bang on a stick, then the
next group has to pass the signal up the line all the way to the
nearest Army post.  The villagers say they have never been forced
to do this before.

*************************************************************
NATION: THAI ARMY SPOKESMAN RESPONDS TO "JUST ONE OF THE MON"
September 26
[Editor's Note: BurmaNet carried the "Just One of the Mon" letter on
September 23.  On the 26th, The Nation ran the letter along with a reply from
an Army spokesman.  Here is the original letter again as well as the reply.]


"JUST ONE OF THE MON"

     Dear Sir,

     I am replying to some remarks made by General Wimol regarding the Mon
     refugees and the proposed pipeline to bring natural gas across Mon
     territory to Thailand--something the Mon have yet to be consulted about.

     First, sir, it is untrue that the Thai army in any way whatsoever tried
     to assist the Mon refugees who recently fled from a military attack on
     the refugee camp at Halockhani.  In fact, the army did precisely the
     opposite.  It harassed and started the refugees into repatriation.

     Secondly, it is patently untrue that the army forced the refugees back
     to Burma because Thailand, being a poor nation (its poverty, by the way,
     is largely with respect to morality) can't afford to support the Mon
     refugees.  The simple fact of the matter is that Thailand has never had
     to expend a single baht in support of the Mon refugees.  Their support
     has come wholly from non-government sources.  If anything, you made
     money off the refugees.

     Thirdly, please don't be shooting off your mouth about what you will do
     if the Mon forces decide to sabotage the pipeline.  If the pipeline were
     to be sabotaged and there is every likelihood it will be--it would be
     done deep inside Mon territory.  Given the fact that the Thai army is
     noted for its financial rather than its fighting skills, I rather doubt
     that you'd do anything other than groan.  However, were your soldiers
     ever to enter Mon territory in answer to any action taken by Mon forces,
     we'd have our womenfolk shoo them off with brooms.

     Finally, we are given to understand by the newspaper that you are
     enamored of the public practice of piety, a sort of `religion as a
     weekend hobby' wherein you frequent various Wats to burn joss sticks and
     make abundant prostration.  I hate to disappoint you , General, but none
     of this has anything to do with being religious--at least, not from the
     standpoint of Buddhism.  Buddhism, as we Mon understand it, is about
     truth and compassion, and I rather doubt from your recent words and
     actions that you are interested in either.

      /signed/

        Just one of the Mon

*********
In reply:

     In response to the letter written by "Just One of the Mon", in which the
     writer accused the Thai Army of cutting aid to the Mon, I would like to
     say that the accusation is untrue.  The Thai Army did not use any
     forceful tactic on the Mon while repatriating them and the Amy did not
     put the Mon in a life-threatening situation.

     Repatriation is a government policy and the Army is simply following the
     policy of the Thai government.  The government cannot allow the Mon to
     stay in Thailand permanently because the territory belongs to the people
     of Thailand.  Thailand must look after its sovereignty and outsiders
     cannot come into Thailand and make various demands.  The accusation
     regarding the Thai army is very disturbing and without any evidence. 
     The Army would like to assure (the public) that we did not use forceful
     tactics as accused by the writer.

     In response to the threat of sabotaging the natural gas pipeline running
     between Thailand and Burma, it is the Army duty to maintain peace and
     the Army will not tolerate such action in Thai territory and I assure
     you that the Thai Army is capable of keeping peace and protecting the
     citizens of Thailand.  The Thai need not worry and we are not making any
     threat to the opposition.

     The evidence provided by the writer is untrue.  By making such
     accusations, the writer is hoping to attract sympathy from foreign
     countries and put Thailand in a bad light as far as humanitarianism is
     concerned.  The Army has never made any terrible remarks about the Mon. 
     We have always used peaceful means when dealing with the Mon and such
     accusations are very disturbing and the Thai people shouldn't have to
     put up with it.

     The writer also made remarks about General Wimol's visits to the wat. 
     The Army believes that the writer is entitled to his or her opinion but
     it is obvious that such an accusation is an attempt to attract attention
     and to discredit the Thai Army.

      /signed/ Army Spokesman

*************************************************************
BKK POST: LETTER TO THE EDITOR--"BURMA CARES ABOUT AIDS"
September 29, 1994

Sir: HIV/AIDS--two works which raises the concern of all and sundry,
worldwide.  It was therefore with great surprise and consternation that I
read Stuart Isett's article "Burma's victims of apathy" (Outlook, Sept 16). 
A number of factual errors exist--the most glaring one in the second
paragraph, where it states, "Now back in Rangoon, Dr Htwe works at the
Contagious Diseases Hospital..."  Actually Dr Htwe, not being a clinician,
has not been involved in the care of patients and has never worked at the
Contagious Diseases Hospital--known as the Infectious Diseases Hospital as of
1966.  The article paints a grim picture of the hospital, and the plight of
AIDS patients, which lacks factual reliability.  Perceptions are liable to
subjectivity and this is one such example.

Burma, like all countries in the world, is facing the HIV/AIDS problem and is
combatting it, using a multisectoral approach.  In this the government sector
and the NGOs, both national and international, have joined hands.  Education
being a cornerstone for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, much emphasis is
being put on educating and informing the general public as well as
individuals with high-risk behavior.  To make the messages more effective and
to develop a communication strategy for the prevention and control of AIDS,
socio-behavioural research is being conducted.

This is but one of the numerous studies carried out in Burma on the socio-
behavioral, clinical and epidemiological aspects of HIV/AIDS by social
scientists, clinicians, epidemiologists and academics from research
institutions, schools, hospitals and the health department.  In fact a
separate clinical research unit for HIV/AIDS has been established at the
Department of Medical Research.

The Infectious Diseases Hospital is a 200-bed hospital (not 32-bed as stated
in Isett's article) in Rangoon which provides health care to both adults and
children with infectious diseases.  It has basic equipment such as X-ray,
ECGs and laboratory facilities required by physicians.  When more
sophisticated investigation is needed, the resources of other hospitals and
laboratories in Rangoon are utilised.  Essential drugs and medicine in all
forms are provided by the government and international organisations.

In the Infectious Diseases Hospital, patients with AIDs are admitted.  The
policy of the Department of Health in Burma, as in many countries, is not to
isolate AIDS patients unless they are "open" cases of TB or have diarrhoea. 
Thus, people with HIV/AIDS are kept in the same wars as those having other
infectious diseases such as viral hepatitis or enteric fever.

Family members are encouraged to support and care for AIDS patients and not
to abandon them in the hospital.  This, it is not due to lack of health
personnel that family members help in patient care, as stated by Isett. 
Rather, it is to obtain a commitment from family members to provide a
supportive physical environment, first in the hospital, and alter, at home. 
In fact, at the hospital, the majority of physicians and nurses caring for
HIV/AIDS patients have been trained in national and international settings to
improve their skills in clinical care and counselling. 

The garden and grounds of the hospital have been painstakingly developed to
provide a serene and pleasant atmosphere for HIV/AIDS patients and their
families.  A place for worship and meditation has also even provided for
spiritual comfort.

As in any other hospital, there are terminally ill AIDS patients, but by and
large, most AIDS patients and their families do not feel an overwhelming
sense of despair.  Seeing fellow patients whose conditions improve and who
return for follow-up care is cause for hope that they, too will be AIDS
survivors.  The devotion and support of physicians and nurses who care for
the AIDS patients are a source of strength to both patients and family
members.

No one denies that HIV/AIDS problem is a daunting and challenging one,
worldwide.  The recognition of this in Burma has led to a growing public
concern, as manifested by the increasing participation of local NGOs int he
fight against AIDS and the rising awareness of the community.  Resources are
being drawn not only from the government and international agencies but also
from the community.

/signed/  Dr Ela Myint
          Director General
          Department of Health
          Rangoon



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BBC: BURMESE ALSO WANT JAPANESE APOLOGIES OVER WWII COMFORT WOMEN
During japanese Prime Minister Tomichi Murayama's recent Southeast Asia tour,
Maung Nyunt, a half Burmese-Japanese living in Magwe, upper Burma, sent a
letter to the BBC World Service expalaining that his mother (a Burmese) was
one of the "comfort women" during the Japanese occupation in World War II. 
He said that other Burmese-Japanese women should also ask for compensation
and apologies.

Another human rights lawyer based in Rangoon also suggested to inform the
plight of Burmese "comfort women" to Tomichi Murayama like other Korean and
Philippina women.  They should not be left alone, the lawyer said to the BBC
World Service.

***************************************************************
BURMANET: AN EXTRACT ON THE USE OF "COMFORT WOMEN" IN BURMA
from Burma: The Longest War, 
J.M Dent and Sons: London, 1984
pp 595-599

There was no question of wives accompanying general officers--who though much
of the Japanese Army in Burma was, for long periods in certain areas, an army
of occupation.  The Siberian expedition (1918-20) taught the Japanese Army
what the risk of venereal disease was.  They lost 1387 men killed in that
period and had 2065 wounded, but the VC casualties reached 2012.  When the
Japanese Army moved into China in the 1930s, a system of brothels was
inaugurated, known as ianjo or "comfort houses", staffed by ianfu, "comfort
girls", prostitutes from Korea, China and Japan.  The Japanese prostitute,
usually from the southernmost islands of Amakusa, off Kyushu, and known by
the generic name of `Karayuki San' had long been a feature of life in
Southeast Asia.  But the majority of the girls in the army comfort houses
were Korean.  The system began in January 1938.  The first house established
was the Yang Chia Chia (Willow House) in Shanghai, where the Line of Command
General Headquarters controlled brothels.  The set-up was under the
supervision of a Japanese Army medical officer, Aso Tetsuo, later head of a
hospital in Fukuoka.  The reason was not simply the one put forward by Army
authorities in nineteenth-century India, namely that only in this was could
rampant venereal disease be controlled.  That was a factor, but it was also
important to control the excesses of the soldiers in Shanghai and Hangchow in
case they repeated their performance at Nanking where they raped at will
after taking it by storm.  10 Army covered 200 miles in a month, with
repeated daily battles, before it reached Nanking,a nd that may explain what
happened there.  `No virgins after the Japanese Army passed by', was what was
said, and in the Tokyo trial there were witnesses who claimed to have seen
gang-rapes of one woman by thirty Japanese soldiers.

This violence was reported by foreign missionaries on the spot to diplomats
in Shanghai and Nanking, and repeated by journalist for overseas consumption. 
The Army's prestige was at stake, and so, too, was the future of the
occupation, for which it was necessary to `win the people's hearts'.  Hence
the higher command's decision to institute `comfort houses, to calm the lust
of their troops and ensure that, with the control and inspection of
prostitutes, venereal diseases were kept in check.

The collection of the girls was carried out in Japan by officially authorized
traders who used Army funds.  The price paid for a girl was 1000 yen, so
after she had earned this sum she was theoretically free to return.  At 2 yen
per soldier, this meant freedom after 500 men.  An early contingent travelled
by train to Hang-Chow, which was over a two-day journey.  When the curious
garrisons of the wayside stations learned who they were, they asked them to
pause for a while en route.  Railway wagons were turned into temporary
comfort houses, and at a rate of three minutes per soldier-the usual rate was
two yen for thirty minutes-the girls had more or less earned their liberty
money by the time they reached their destination.  There was no time for them
to sleep,a nd they simply napped as best they could with a soldier riding on
top of them.

>From the point of view of prestige again, it was felt to be undesirable to
have the houses under direct Army control, so they were run by civilian
traders, the Army retaining the responsibility of medical inspection.  The
need was calculated on the bases of one girl to forty men, so 80,000 girls
were drawn into the system before the war was over.

In Japan itself, the system was treated as secret, and newspaper articles or
photographs which touched upon it were stopped by the censor.  There are some
photographs surviving, though: a group of girls in kimono bashfully or
calculatingly eyeing the camera, a pretty girls smiling happily as she wears 
naval cap and reads a book, a row of wooden huts with a soldier waiting
outside, and the notices displayed: `We welcome with our hearts and bodies
the brave soldiers of Japan.'

Strict rules were laid down for the use of the ianjo:

     1    Entry to this comfort house is authorized only for personnel
          attached to the Army (Army coolies excepted).  Personnel entering
          the house must be in possession of a comfort house pass.

     2    Personnel must pay the required fee in cash and obtain a receipt,
          in exchange for which they will be given an entrance ticket and one
          condom.

     3    The cost of entrance tickets is as follows: N.C.O.s, other ranks,
          attached civilians: 2 yen (A sergeant earned 30 yen a month in
          1945, a private first class 10.50 yen, but the pay was higher
          overseas.  Pay was every ten days, and a PFC overseas would receive
          7.80 for that period).

     4    The validity of the ticket is for the day of purchase only and if
          the comfort house is not entered the amount will be refunded.  No
          refund is payable once the ticket has been handed to the attendant
          (shakufu).

     5    Ticket purchasers must enter the room indicated by the number shown
          thereon.  

     6    The ticket must be handed over to the attendant upon entering the
          room.

     7    The consumption of alcohol inside the room is strictly forbidden.

     8    After use of the prophylactic solution, the user must leave the
          room forthwith.

     9    Those who fail to observe the regulations or infringe military
          discipline must leave the room forthwith.

     10   It is forbidden to have intercourse without the use of a condom.

Some more fatherly Japanese medical officers preferred to advise young
soldiers to indulge in masturbation or homosexuality, a state of affairs not
alien to the samurai tradition.  Nakamura Isamu, a medical lieutenant from
Kokura in Northern Kyunshu is shown introducing a class of recruits in sexual
hygiene" `No going to comfort stations for you lot.  Just show some love for
your comrades in arms, and masturbate each other. You're better off doing
that than going with clandestine prostitutes who are sure to be riddled with
VD....'  

The indication is that the system, though theoretically well supervised, was
by no means always effective in preventing disease.  The bureaucratic detail
of the regulations Senda quotes may be the result of the efficiency of
medical personnel.  They could also be a joke on the part of the comfort
house staff, says Ito Keiichi, who also claims that the system was not so
brutalizing as we might suppose.  Where love begins normally from first
impressions, he says, and develops step-by-step, the relation in the
battlefield int eh very opposite.  It starts suddenly as a purely physical
relationship, but feeling can become involved afterwards, even though speed
is of the essence for the soldier, who does not know whether he will return
from the next battle or not.

There was also a difference in attitude between regulars and conscripts. 
Not, as we might expect, between tough, experienced old sweats and timid
young men fresh from the household' rather the opposite.  The old regular was
often occupied with military chores, and an eye on promotion and his army
life had not left him much leisure for chasing women.  The young conscripts
fresh from civilian life might in fact have more expensive sexual experience,
and therefore stronger needs.  In China it sometimes happened that they would
go off on their own, liking for a woman, and end up as the victim of some
plain-clothes guerrilla.

In burma, there was something else.  When the tide of battle turned against
the Japanese, the comfort girls were often trapped in beleaguered garrisons,
and although they were told they were not under military command and could
leave, the preferred to stick it out, witht he soldiers.  Int he fighting in
Yunnan in September 1944, where the garrison at Lament was finally reduced to
eighty men, who decided to commit suicide, the Japanese comfort girls said to
their Korean counterparts: "You should escape from here.  You owe no duty to
Japan, so save your own lives and return to your country.  You are orientals
as they are, so the Chinese soldiers won't harm you.  We are going to stay
behind with our soldiers."  The Korean girls waved white cloths and went out
to surrender.  The Japanese girls swallowed the potassium cyanide with which
the troops killed themselves, and the Chinese found seven Japanese female
corpses among the dead they took the town.

The girls in Myitkyina were luckier.  Just before it fell, the garrison
commander had rafts built and sent the wounded and the comfort girls to
safety down the Irrawaddy.  

Elsewhere in Burma, life was not always so hazardous.  In Moulmein, engineers
of a naval unit shared their bungalows with comfort girls, but they seem to
have been greedy as well.  Not content with what they had, they set out of
the hills, where native labourers had told them there were women.  They found
the women, in thatched nippa huts and paid them tow or three rupees each. 
One of them had the sense to get a supply of disinfectant from a nurse before
he left, a purple tablet which he dissolved in water.  He washed himself with
the solution and was safe.  His friend was not so lucky, and soon swellings
began to appear on his thighs.  He was `crimed' for this, being guilty of the
offence of using other than Army comfort girls, and was reduced to private
first class.

Since Burma was in theory a friendly country, whose people were to be won
over, it was naturally desirable to avoid rape incidents.  Ito Keiichi give
an account of one division in Burma in whose area the incidence of rape was
high.  Its men had seen long years of hard service, and although often, after
six or seven years, whey would be demobilised, in practice they were put on
the reserve the same day there were released, sop their service seemed never
ending and they never once returned home.  It was not easy to enforce sexual
discipline among such men, and the division decided on the extraordinary
device of letting it be known that if troops raped a woman, they should kill
her, so that the crime should not be discovered.

On one occasion, when three men confessed to rape, after the woman had
brought a complaint, their warrant officer asked them, `Why didn't you kill
her?', to which the reply was, `We felt sorry for her and couldn't do it.' 
The Warrant Officer perjured himself on their behalf, but the men were
sentenced, returned to Japan, and jailed.  In light of the surrender, this
may not seem such a harsh outcome, but as Ito points out, it was a deep
disgrace at the time and the men would never dare to return to their homes
later.  As it was, this sentence almost certainly saved them from death by
disease or starvation along witht he rest of the division.

The characteristic Japanese regulations do not imply that everything was
carried out with mechanical seriousness.  When a soldier entered the comfort
girl's room, those waiting outside would shout out, `What's happening? What
are you doing? Get a move on!', even if the man had only been there five
minutes.  If the girls was Burmese she would usually say, `Master, gowngde-
la? 'Was it alright, Master?'.  These girls, and the Indian girls, stayed
behind when the Japanese surrendered and simply plied their trade for the
Allied troops when they moved into Tenasserim, according to Senda Natsumitsu. 
Besides Moulmein, there were comfort houses in Meiktila, Mandalay, Rangoon,
Toungoo, and Pyinmana.  In most of them the proportion of girls was ten
Koreans, four Burmese, two Indians and Chinese and Japanese 0.8.  How Senda
arrives at his fraction for the Japanese is not clear, but Japanese girls
were for the use of officers only.  The girls were usually around twenty
years old, though int he early days one medical officer complained to
headquarters that prostitutes who had reached the limits of their usefulness
in Japan were being sent abroad as ianfu and he insisted that the troops of
the Imperial Army were entitled to the very best.

There were also in Burma geisha houses, where the girls carried out their
more refined entertainment of music and classical dancing for an audience of
officers, among whom each girls would have a special client...

**************************************************************

ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:

 AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
 AFP: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
 AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
 BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
 BI: BURMA ISSUES
 BIG: BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
 BKK POST: THE BANGKOK POST
 CPPSM: COMMITTEE FOR THE PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
 FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
 NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)

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