Caught in the Crossfire video docum (r)

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Subject: Caught in the Crossfire video documentary reviews

HEADLINE:	RAPE CASE AGAINST SLORC TROOPS CONTINUES TO BUILD
			The NATION, November 17, 1995
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The UN and NGOs are compiling a growing dossier of testimonies, video 
tape and witness accounts detailing Rangoon's dirty war against rthnic 
rebel, AUNG ZAW reports.
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				(Part II)

	A soldier who defected revealed what they did to villagers.  
"When we arrive in a village, we take all the goods except cloths and 
money.  But we take all the food.  If we don't get what we want, we get 
something else.  If there isn't really anything, we just get porters and 
beat them up."
	The soldier said they were usually drunk and violent.  Upon 
arriving at the next village, they did the same thing.  "Not one village 
is left untouched," he said.
	The villagers, who live in of the world's poorest countries, do 
not have much, but soldiers robbed them anyway.  "They took everything 
and raped us," said a women.
	The Karen women said: "In Nomboh, the SLORC was searching for a 
KNU soldier.  But when they couldn't find him, they beat up his wife. One 
soldier went too far.  He forced the young daughter to hold his penis 
while he kicked her unconscious."  The Karen National Union(KNU) is the 
remaining rebel group which has not reached a ceasefire agreement with SLORC.
	Torture wasn't confined to prisons, said a human rights worker in 
Chiang Mai who has seen many refugees fleeing to the Thai border.  "Many 
came because of the economic situation in Burma, which is so bad."  The 
human rights worker, who has been monitoring the situation since the 80s, 
added, however: "I saw many women from Shan and Karen state come here 
because they did not want to be raped or harassed by soldiers."
	In this recent trip to Rangoon, Professor Yokota was able to meet 
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  But he was not able to meet and talk 
freely to as many victims as he requested.  However, Yokota said in his 
well-documented report: "Violations include undressing women in 
public..raping and gang-raping women individually or in groups."
	The SLORC has denied the allegations and asked how can anyone 
from Burma commit such outrageous crimes as those mentioned in the 
summary of allegations.
	A member of Images Asia said delegate at the Beijing Conference 
were shocked to see one scene.  In it three soldiers holding guns were 
standing at the bank of a river, questioning a women who was in the 
water.  Suddenly, a soldier pulled down his pants and underware.  While 
showing his penis, he began thrusting his waist.  It was taken in Mae Sai 
River from the Thai side of the border.
	Even though the junta has repeatedly announced that 15 of 16 
armed insurgent groups have returned to the "legal fold" thousands of 
internally displaced persons are still in the jungle.  They face 
harassment, abuse and possibly death if seen by soldiers.  Some have been 
taken as porters, while others are routinely accused of being informers 
and supporters of rebels.  They are interrogated or killed in front of 
fellow villagers.

AUNG ZAW IS A FREELANCE WRITER.  HE CONTRIBUTED THIS TO THE NATION	

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