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SITUATION OF FORCED LABOUR IN ARAKA
Subject: SITUATION OF FORCED LABOUR IN ARAKAN IN 1992.
/* Posted 19 Jun 6:00am 1996 by DRUNOO@xxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:reg.burma */
/* -------------" Forced Labour in Arakan, May 1992 "-------------- */
[ Following is excerpt from Amnesty International report on May 1992,
describing the situation of forced labour and porterage in Arakan, which
contributed to the original influx of Rohingyas refugees into Bangladesh.
Full report may be obtained from your local AI office. Regards, U Ne Oo.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MAY 1992 (PP 1-15)
****************************************
AI index: ASA 16/06/92
UNION OF MYANMAR (BURMA)
Human Rights violations against Muslims in the Rakhine (Arakan) State
Introduction
During February and March 1992 Amnesty International conducted over 100
interviews in Bangladesh with Burmese Muslim refugees from the Rakhine
(Arakan) State, which is in the southwest of Myanmar(Burma) [1] bordering
Bangladesh. All of those interviewed told Amnesty International that they
had fled from their homes in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung township areas of
the Rakhine State to escape a wide range of human rights violations at the
hands of the Myanmar security forces, including illtreatment, deliberate
killings, and arrests on religious and political grounds. In thier
testimonies, these refugees said they were themselves victims of human
rights violations, or had witnessed such violations committed against
others, or were personally acquainted with the victims of such abuses.
The human rights violations documented in this report are part of a general
pattern of repression by the Myanmar security forces against Muslims in the
Rakhine State. Troops have entered Muslim villages in Buthidaung and
Maungdaw townships, occupied and closed mosques, confiscated farmers'
livestock and crops, seized villagers for forced labour, and evicted they
from their houses. One refugee described the situation in Maungdaw:
"Marakesn mosque was closed nearly a year ago .. there were at
least 800 people inside. Everyone went home peacefully, though some
of them older men, who couldn't bear to see their mosque closed,
tried to stay and were beaten."
Several refugee mentioned that Muslims were beaten if they were caught by
the security forces listening to the radio. Others spoke of being forced by
the army to build new villages for the non-Muslim Rakhine [2] ethnic group,
and of being forcibly evicted by security forces from their own homes and
land. A man from Buthidaung township showed Amnesty International a
document which ordered some 1,500 villagers to leave their homes in January
1991. He described the eviction:
"All the villagers were affected. They had to give up their land
and everything they had to the new Rakhine people."
Another refugee from Maungdaw township recounted his experiences:
"I left because of forced labour. I was used as forced labour to
build a Rakhine village. At the beginning we did not know what we
were building the houses for, but later Rakhine people came and the
government gave them our cultivated land, and when we protested we
were told to eat the sea breeze."
Muslims were also theratened and intimidated routinely, as one refugee told
Amnesty International:
"When we were beaten at different times we were often told that we
should leave and that we weren't wanted in Burma. They said also
that we would be killed if we tried to go back."
Some villages in the area have lost over half their population as Muslims
have fled to Bangladesh to avoid these abuses. A refugee from Buthidaung
township described the situation in his village:
"We had about 20 acres of land and seven cows. Everything was taken
from us. Of the 700 families in my village, I think maybe 100 are
left there now. The mosque in the village was smashed up by the
army last year. We are only able to worship at home."
Those who gave testimonies to Amnesty International consistently expressed
fear of ill-treatment or harassment by the authorities on thier return to
Myanmar if their identities were revealed or could be established. In the
material that follows Amnesty International has therefore often left out
details that would readily identify its sources.
The government's response
The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has on many
occasions denied that Muslims who have recently fled from the Rakhine State
had been subject to any repressive measures by the Myanmar security forces.
It has given varying and sometimes conflicting explanations of their legal
status. The government has claimed that the legal status of Muslims from
the Rakhine State is defined in the 1982 Citizenship Act. However, there
remains a lack of clarity about precisely what their status is under
Myanmar law. The SLORC has also variously described the refugees as illegal
immigrants or migrant workers, and denied that they constitute a separate
group. For example, on 21 February 1992 U Ohy Gyaw, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, stated in a press release that:
"In actual fact, although there are 135 national races living in
Myanmar today, the so-called Rohingya people is not one of them.
Historically, there has never been a 'Rohingya' race in Myanmar ...
Since the First Anglo-Myanmar wqar in 1824, people of Muslim faith
from the adjacent country illegally entered Myanmar Naing-Ngan,
particularly Rakhine State. Being illegal immigrants, they do not
hold any immigration papers like the other nationals of the
country. In the present case, the number of people who dare not
submit themselves to the routine scrutiny of national registration
cards by immigration officials fled to the neighbouring country. It
is not a unique experience for such occurrences regularly took
place when immigration checks are executed. It should be
categorically stated that there is no persecution whatever based on
religious ground."
The official government newspaper, The Working People's Daily stated
recently that the refugees were in fact migrant workers:
"(a) A majority of those who fled are landless and homeless
seasonal labourers. (b) The time now, when they are going across
the border, is a time when the year's harvests are over, when they
have no employment and when they are in straitened circumstances."
Background
Nationwide protsets at 26 years of one-party military rule in Myanmar began
in 1988 and were met by massive repression by the government. The military
reimposed control in a September 1988 coup d'etat, and proclaimed severe
martial law restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, while at
the same time legalizing political parties and promising elections in May
1990. Although the National League for Democracy (NLD) won the election,
the SLORC refused to transfer power to the elected civilian government, and
has arrested hundreds of political activists, including students, monks and
elected members of parliament. Amnesty International has documented the
arrest and detention of over 1,500 political prisoners since the coup. Many
of them have been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment by military
tribunals using summary trial procedures which do not meet international
standards of fair trial.
The repression of Muslim in the Rakhine State is part of the gross and
consistent pattern of human rights violations committed by the SLORC
against all forms of political opposition and dissent against vulnerable
and weak sectors of the country's population, such as ethnic minorities,
whose military authorities suspect may not support its national ideology.
All the available evidence indicates that Muslims are targeted for
repressions by the Myanmar security forces simply because they belong to a
particular religious minority, some members of which seek greater autonomy
from central Myanmar control.
Muslims from the Rakhine state, sometimes referred to as Rohingyas, are
distinct lingusitically from the Buddhist Burman majority of Myanmar[3].
Unofficial estimates of the Muslim population in the Rakhine State range
from one to two million people. One third of Myanmar's total population of
some 40 million people are members of ethnic minorities, who for the most
part live in outlying regions which surround the central Burma plain.
Since 1984 the Burmese army has waged intensive counterinsurgency campaigns
against various armed opposition groups, including minority movements
fighting for greater autonomy from the central Burmese authorities. Two of
these groups, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Arakan
Rohingya Islamic Front (ARIF), claim to represent the Muslims of the
Rakhine State. They also claim that their armed wings operate in the
Rakhine State and along its border with Bangladesh. However, the extent of
military conflict between the Myanmar armed forces on the one hand, and the
ARIF and RSO on the other, appears to be extremely limited in scope.
Reports of human rights abuses against MUslims in the Rakhine State by
Myanmar security forces rose sharply in early 1991, and they began to leave
Myanmar in thousands to seek asylum in Bangladesh. Those numbers increased
dramatically in late 1991 and early 1992, with more than 200,000 now
believed to be in Bangladesh [4].
The ill-treatment and killing of Muslims during porter duty
Amnesty International has documented the forcible conscription of Myanmar's
ethnic minorities as porters by the Myanmar armed forces in several
deteiled reports abut human rights violations against the Karen, Mon,
Kachin, and Shan minority groups [5]. Since the mid-1980s, ethnic
minorities have been taken for porter duty by the military as punishment
for suspected involvement with armed insurgencies; seized because they are
not the majority ethnic Burman group; or seemingly taken simply at random.
This report documents the circumstances and treatment of Muslim and Hindu
porters seized by the Myanmar military in 1991 and 1992 in the Rakhine
State.
Amnesty International interviewed over 50 Muslim and 2 Hindu refugees from
the Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships in northern Rakhine State who had
been forcibly conscripted to serve as porters for the Myanmar armed forces,
particularly its light infantry divisions. Over 20 refugees gave testimony
about relatives and friends who had been taken as porters, some of whom
never returned.
Circumstances of forced portering
The circumstances of forced portering varied, but typically troops first
coerced the village headman into recruiting porters from his village.
Porters were often taken in rotation, with each man taking his turn for
duty. However several refugees indicated that this system was used less by
late 1991, when porters were seized in a more random manner. The military
often took porters from their homes or while they were in the markets or on
local roads. One refugee described the process:
"They do it in all sorts of ways, depending on what they need
people for. Sometimes they came at night and just grab people from
their beds, sometimes they ask the village headman to make lists of
people they should take. Ane then sometims they are taken for 10
days, 15 days, tow months. You can never tell."
A village headman from Buthidaung town ship gave Amnesty International a
document the army had given him which ordered him to find 41 men for porter
service. He described his situation:
"If i can't find the men then I am in trouble. That is why I left,
I was friightented of what they would do if everyone left. There
are people from the village wo did not return from portering ...
they make us work very hard, and often beat us when we are taken. I
myself was taken twice."
Muslims were taken from their villages and made to carry heavy loads of
food, bricks or ammunition for troops; were forced to work on building and
road construction projects digging trenches and moving eirth; or were made
to act as servants for troops in army camps. They were also frequently
forced to build new villages for Rakhine settlers which the Myanmar armed
forces moved into the area. Porters were kept in army custody for periods
varying from a few days to a few months. One refugee described it as "...
like being in prison, but worse because of the heavy work we had to do." In
almost all cases, those interivewed said they had been taken for porter
duty several times. Many said that they had been taken so frequently that
they could not remember the exact number of times. Most male villagers were
in effect completely at the disposal of army troops because they might be
arbitrarily seized at any time.
The interivews reveal that Muslim men of all ages, school children and even
a malawi[6] were forced to be porters by the army. Most of those
interviewed by Amnesty International were poor farmers or day labourers
from villages in northwest Rakhine State, although some held leadership
positions in their villages and appeared to have been more wealthy. Many of
them said that since late 1991 there had been an increase in the numbers of
Muslims taken as porters and the frequency with which they were taken. This
coincided with an increase in Burmese military presence in the Buthidaung
and Maungdaw township areas, both in the number of troops and the size and
number of military camps. Former porters reported that much of their labour
entailed building military camps and c onstructing or improving roads
between them. Those who worked within the camps looked after livestock, dug
bunkers, cleaned latrines, washed soldiers' uniforms, and constructed
buildings. Two of the refugees said that they had served troops in active
combat against minority armed insurgency groups. These porters, who carried
supplies when soldiers were patrolling the area, mentioned having been near
fighting between government troops and insurgent groups.
Muslims who have been taken as porters are in effect detained by the army
and those who attempt to escape from the army's custody are often
ill-treated or even killed. A refugee from Maungdaw township described what
happened to a fellow villager:
"One person who had managed to escape from forced labour was caught
and had to carry an extra load and was beaten after falling was
stamped on by army boots. He died, and I saw the body. The man was
about 30. The body was carried to the army camp captain to try and
get some justice and to guarantee that later on they wouldn't be
blamed for having killed him."
A man from Buthidaung township recounted the ill-treatment of the local
leader:
"The chairman of our village was trying to escape from forced
labour and was chased by the army and slashed with a sword down his
back. He was very badly injured, but not allowed to go to hospital
and was treated at home. He was surrounded by the army to stop him
going."
Ill-treatment of porters
Almost all of those interviewed said that they were either given no food or
only a small amount of rice a day. They had to try to gather their own
food, such banana roots. If they were detained close to home, their
families were sometimes able to bring them food. Porters were sometimes
tied up at night, which made sleeping impossible. Those who became weak and
could not perform their duties to the satisfaction of the army were kicked
with heavy boots, beaten with bamboo sticks, iron rods, and rifle butts,
burned with cigarettes, and slashed with bayonets. They were sometimes
verbally abused at the same time. One porter said, "...the soldiers were
drunk and swore at me, saying that my life was less valuable than a pig.
They told me I should 'go back to your own country.'"
Testimonies of victims
Amnesty International obtained direct testimony from over 20 refugees who
had been ill-treated while forcibly conscripted as porters. Typically, they
were beaten, kicked, or slashed with bayonets because they were too ill, or
too weak from exhaustion or lack of food and water, to carry loads as
required by army troops. Thirteen refugees showed Amnesty International
scars which they said resulted from wounds they had received during
ill-treatment at the hands of the Myanmar armed forces.
A 30-year-old man from Buthidaung township, described the type of treatment
he and his fellow porters received:
"...I had to carry things for the army up to the mountains. Some
people couldn't manage to carry their loads and when they fell down
they were beaten. I saw 10 men beaten in this way, though I don't
know if they died. They were just left there. It is impossible to
try and help them since I had my own heavy load, and if we stop wer
are beaten too. Also about 40 others were badly injured from
beatings. Everyone who makes it back is ill for some time
afterwards, sores on the shoulders, bad legs and the like."
A 28-year-old man from Buthidaung township, described how he god a deep
scar on his hand whild serving as porter in mid-february 1992:
"I had a fever from malaria so I complained that I was too weak to
carry their goods for them. One soldier asked me to put out my hand
so that he could feel the pulse to see how bad I was. I put out my
hand and he slashed it with his bayonet. Then they told me to stop
complaining and made me go off as a porter to carry things for 10
days. They didn't give me anything to stop the bleeding, I just
tied it up with a bit of my longyi[7]".
Another refugee fell ill during porter duty because he had not eaten in
four days. He fainted, and in order to ascertain whether he was still alive
or not, soldiers burned his legs in various places. He showed Amnesty
International what he said were the scars from his burns. He was later
found by his father and taken back to his village in Buthidaung township.
The evidence about ill-treatment of porters gathered by Amnesty
International includes testimonies from refugees who were being treated in
a Bahgladesh hospital for injuries they received in Myanmar. One of the
patients there, a 39-year-old man from Buthidaung town ship, had severe
open wounds on his hips, thighs and chin, and possible hip injuries. He
described his experience as follows:
"I was taken as a porter and after four days with no food I was not
able to carry my load. I fell down and the soldiers beat me
viciously with a large bamboo stick, from the thick end of bamboo.
Then they threw a large rock at me and it hit me on the hip. I was
left there for three days before someone from my village found me
and told my family to come and get me. I was not allowed to go to
the hospital in Burma, and was just treated at home. This all
happened about three months ago. When I was sufficiently recovered
my family carried me out to here."
A 45-year-old man from Maungdaw township was taken by the army in early
December 1991 as a porter. After three days with no food he could not carry
his load and fell down. He was beaten on the knee with a rifle butt and as
a result could no longer bend his leg. He was also kicked by soldiers with
army boots and finally lost consciousness.His relatives found him on the
side of the road and took him back to the village to recover, until he was
well enough to be carried to Bangladesh. He showed Amnesty International a
scar and an open wound which he said was sustained from the beatings and
kickings.
Another porter beaten until he lost consciousness was a 25-year-old man
from Buthidaung township. He was taken by the army in early 1992. After
being forced to carry a sack of bullets for three days without any food, he
collapsed and was kicked by soldiers until he lost consciousness. He showed
Amnesty International scars which he said he received when they burnt him
with lit cigarettes to determine whether he was still alive. Eventually
some people from his village found him and took him home. He said that as a
result of the assaults he coughed up bolld, and he was still in pain at the
time of the interview.
In mid-January 1992 a 30-year-old man from Maungdaw township, was taken to
work in the Kyinchaung military camp for 10 days. He said Burmese soldiers
had ordered him to eat his own excrement. When he had refused, he had been
beaten with an iron rod across his knees. He and the other porters were
kept with their hands tied being their backs at night, making it impossible
to sleep. At the time of the interview, he was still unable to bend his
knee. He showed Amnesty International a scar on his knee which he said wqs
q result of his beatings.
In mid-February 1992, a 35-year-old man from Buthidaung township was forced
to carry bricks for three miles to a military camp. When he fell down, he
was kicked and coughtd up blood for several days afterwards. He showed
Amnesty International scars on his side and chest from his injuries.
While most of those seized as porters are younger males, older Muslim men
have also been forced to serve as porters in the Rakhine State. A man who
was over 60-year-old from Buthidaung town ship was taken in early February
1992. He was unable to carry his load and was beaten by soldiers and left
behind on the ground. He showed Amnesty International scars across his
knees and a large wound on his shoulder from his beatings. He left for
Bangladesh as soon as he was able to make the journey, too frightened even
to return to his family home first.
A 62-year-old man from Buthidaung township showed Amnesty International
scars on his shoulders from carrying heavy loads during porter duty. He
described what he had seen before he escaped to Bangladesh:
"I was in a group of 300 people as porters, taken 50 to 60 miles
northeast from Taungbazaar to military bases ... In the last three
months more than 50 men died. I saw 20 men who were kicked and died
like this. It was impossible to help them because I was carrying
heavy load too... If a village does resist sending porters the
village is attacked. This happened in my village when 12 houses
were burnt down because the men had run away."
If the men from a village flee to evade porter duty, the women risk being
taken in their place, raped in the army camp, and held as hostages for the
return of the men. A villager from Buthidaung township described how 30 men
fled from soldiers who had come to seize them for porter duty.
"I was fishing in the river when the army came to get the men. When
they found that everyone had gone they went into the 30 houses and
took the women. I saw them taking them off in a mortor boat. They
were taken to Dahdan army camp. I was nearby and the women called
to me and asked me to help by getting their husbands to come back.
All 30 of them were kept in the camp and raped.
"I went back to the village and told the chairman and the men of
the village what had happened. There was an army captain there who
had stayed behind. He said that if the 30 men gave themselves up
they would swap them with the women. All the women were between 20
and 25, young and pretty.
"So, all the men came back and gave themselves up. Among the women
was my younger sister. Her husband had not returned and so I gave
mylself in his place, even though I wasn't on the list, so that she
would be freed.
"We were all beaten badly because we had tried to avoid being
taken. Then the next day we left, each carrying 40kg of rice.
Although it wasn't the rainy season it had rained a bit and the
track was very slippery. I saw three men fall down with their loads
and they were thrown over the side of the hill. Their bags went
over with them.
"We were away for 12 days altogether, going up steep mountain
tracks. The army were looking for the communists in the hills. We
were given only a half tin of rice a day, and many people got weak
and ill. Twenty-seven of the 30 made it back, but we were all
injured and had to wait some days to recover before trekking out
here."
A villager from Maungdaw township said that he left Myanmar after he had
been badly beaten by soldiers fro objecting to their taking two women to
serve as porters. A refugee from Buthidaung township, described his
punishment:"The last time I had to work for one month...I was beaten twice
becuase I objected to the fact that we had to work without being paid." He
said that he left Myanmar in mid-1991 because he said the army told him to
do so.
Hindus as well as muslims were subjected to ill-treatment during forced
portering duties. A 20-years-old Hindu man from Maungdaw township was
forced to carry a heavy rice sack in early February 1992 up a mountain road
to a military camp in Paletwa. After he fell down, he was kicked and then
dragged by soldiers to the top of a hill "like a doll". He was then forced
to work in the camp for 10 days, and as soon as he was released he fled to
Bangladesh. Another HIndu man was taken in mid-February 1992 with about 20
other people from his village to work building houses. They were given
almost no food by the army. He commented on the army's attitude towards
minorities in the Rakhine State: "they make no differentiation between
Muslim and Hindu, we are just Kala[8] to them."
Soldiers often take several members of the same family for porter duty.
Many former porters interviewed by Amnesty International mentioned sons,
brothers, and relations by marriage who had also been taken by the army. A
25-year-old man from Buthidaung township was taken with his uncle about
brother in mid-September 1991 to carry food to Wenyone military camp. He
described their journey:
"We had to walk for about seven days, and were given only the
tinest bit of rice a day...many of the porters became weak. During
this time we were all beaten if we could not manage our loads. My
brother was beaten with the butt of a gun - two of his teeth were
knocked out, and my arm was broken."
He showed Amnesty International his twisted wrist joint and his brother
indicated which two teeth had been knocked out. He and his brother had
witnessed their uncle being beaten to death during the same journey (see
below).
Testimony of relatives and eyewitnesses to deaths of porters
Amnesty International was able to gather testimonies from witnesses or
relatives describing the deaths of over 70 porters as a result of
ill-treatment or deliberate killing. Refugees also mentioned a further 17
people who had not returned from portering duties, and whose fate was
unknown. In almost all of these cases, if porters collapsed from exhaustion
or could no longer stand after being beaten or kicked, they were left lying
on the ground to die by army troops.
Several women interviewed by Amnesty International related how their
husbands had been ill-treated while performing porter duties, or had never
returned after being taken away by the military. One woman's husband had
been taken as a porter in late 1991 and never returned. She had been told
by other men taken at the same time as her husband that he had been teaten
because he could not carry his load and then shot dead.
Those hwo resist being taken as porters risk being killed. A 30-year-old
woman from Buthidaung township described what happened to her husband:
"He ran out and tried to escape. We heard them catch him and
beating him. I ran to help him, but was kicked into the river.
There days later the army brought the body back to me and we buried
him."
Family member who protested to the army after thier relatives have been
taken away as porters were subjected to physical punishment. A 40-year-old
man from Maungday township recounted what happened to his mother:
"About a month ago the council headman came to take me as a porter.
They came into my house and tried to drag me out. He was with some
soldiers. My children andmother were in the house and they were
very frightened. they didn't wh]ant me to go as a porter, so my
mother was hanging on to me and trying to get the army to leave us
alone. In the end they just kicked her away, with their army boots.
I was away for 10 days. When I returned I found that my mother had
died from her injuries. We left striaght away after that."
Many former porters had witnessed the ill-treatment, often resulting in
death, of other porters. A 45-year-old man from Maungdaw township relates
how he saw a relative beaten to death in early 1992:
"...Nur Islam, aged 35, was beaten to death with the butt of a
gun... It happened about five miles away from the village, in the
mountains. We were carring ammunition. he couldn't carry his load,
fell down and was beaten to death. They just left his body by the
side of the track. When I was freed, I came back the same way and
found his body and with some other people from the village carried
him home to bury him."
The 25-year-old man who was himself beaten (see above) saw 20 people, among
them his uncle, beaten to death in mid-September 1991:
"They also beat my uncle, who collapsed unconscious. When he was
lying on the ground the army tested with the end of a burning
cigarete to see if he was alive or not. We were not allowed to help
him but just had to leave him there and keep on walking. That night
my brother and I managed to escape, and we went back to where my
uncle had been left so that we could take him home. When we got
there though we found that he was already dead. We carried his body
back home and buried him."
A refugee from Maungdaw towhship was taken to work on a dam-bulding project
for over a month and saw four men being beaten because they could not carry
their loads. He then saw them being thrown into the sea by soldiers. A
25-year-old man from Buthidaung township was taken as a porter in
mid-February and saw another porter, Abdul Mozid, from Mairinchaung,
beaten because he could not manage his load of rice sacks. He was once of
five men left on the mountain, and did not return to his village
afterwards.
A 35-year-old man from Buthidaung township was taken as a porter for 18
days and saw and old man killed after the victim could no longer carry his
load:
"We were on a steep hill, and he fell down onto a lower ridge. We
were told to keep moving, not to look. We heard him screaming
though, so them a soldier went to the edge and we heard a gunshot.
He was shot dead. His name was Zuri Ahmed."
A 90-year-old man from Maungdaw twonship had a som who was taken as a
porter in early February 1992. He was told by other Muslim porters who had
been forced to build Ywa Thit, a new Rakhine village, that his son had been
kicked into the river and died. Another refugee reported that while he was
forced to be a porter, he saw Jaffra Ahmed die while they were digging
bunkers for an army camp.
A 37-year-old man from Buthidaung township, who was forced to carry rice
for the army up a mountain track, was three men who fell under the weight
of their loads being kicked down the mountainside by soldiers. Many other
refugees interviewed by Amnesty International gave similar accounts of how
they witnessed other porters collapsing, beaten or kicked, and left for
dead.
Refugees interviewed by Amnesty International named porters who had been
taken by the army and not seen again by relatives or friends. A refugee
from Buthidaung township reported that Abdul Husso was taken as porter in
early 1991 and that there has been no news of him since then. He also said
Hafis Ayu and Moli Amirakhin, a Malawi, from Taminchaung village, in
Buthidaung township, were taken in late 1991 and are still believed to be
missing. Shwe Hla alias Shonsul Llu, aged 30, from Bolikindchaung near
Maungdaw, was believed to be missing after being taken as a porter.
Other porters who have not returned are Beshir Ahmed, Rashid, and Mahmood:
those who were with them reported that they had collapsed and were beaten
and left on the road. One 24-year-old man from Buthidaung township had
brought his 12 and 14 year old sisters to Bahgladesh after his father had
been taken as a porter and killed, and his mother had not returned after
being taken by the army.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Myanmar is official name of the country preoviously known as Burma. The
name change was proclaimed by the ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC ) in June 1989.
[2] The Rakhines are an indigenous Buddhist ethnic minority in Myanmar,
distinct from the majority Burman population.
[3] Those who use the term Rohingya to refer to themselves claim that they
were the descendants of Arab and Persian traders who have lived in the area
for centuries.
[4] Muslims from the Rakhine State fled in similar numbers to Bangladesh in
1978, and were later repatriated after an agreement between the two
countries was reached. Burma was then ruled by the Burma Socialist
Programme Party, which had initiated what they claimed was an immigration
check on Muslim residents in the Rakhine State.
[5] see Allegations of Extrajudicial Executions, Torture and Ill-treatment
in the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, September 1987, AI Index
16/03/87; Burma: Extrajudicial Execution and torture of members of ethnic
minorities, May 1988, AI Index ASA 16/05/88; Burma: Extrajudicial
Execution, Torture and Political Imprisonment of Members of the Shan and
Other Ethnic Minorities, October 1988, AI Index ASA 16/10/88; the Kayin
State in the Union of Myanmar [formerly the Karen State in the Union of
Burma]: Allegations of Ill-treatment and Unlawful Killings of Suspected
Political Opponents and POrters Seized Since 18 September 1988, August
1989, AI Index ASA 16/16/89; Myanmar(Burma): Continuing killings and
ill-treatment of minority peoples, August 1991, AI Index ASA 16/05/91.
[6] A malawi is a Muslim cleric in a mosque who leads people in prayer.
[7] A longyi is a long piece of fabric worn tied around the waist by both
men and women in Asia; also known as a sarong.
[8] Kala is a derogatory term used by ethnic Burmans to describe people
from and descendants of people from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka.
[FROM PUBLICATION OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AI INDEX ASA 16/06/92,PP 1-15]
/* Endreport */