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hrw/asia press releases
Subject: HRW/Asia press release: Burma
Status: R
July 8, 1996
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For further information:
Zunetta Liddell (London) 44-171-713-1995
Sidney Jones (New York) 212-972-8405 ex.290
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DEMANDS END TO FORCED RELOCATIONS IN BURMA
Human Rights Watch today calls on the Burmese government to end
massive forced relocations in the Shan and Karenni States which since
March1996 have resulted in at least 70,000 villagers being sent to
makeshift shelters and ten known deaths of children from malnutrition
in the new sites. In Shan State, those displaced were warned that if
they were found in their villages after a certain date they would be
considered insurgents and shot, and in both states, the removals were
accompanied by human rights violations that included forced labor,
arrests and reports of at least one extrajudicial execution. The
removals have also resulted in a new influx of refugees into
neighboring Thailand. The motivation for such massive displacement is
unclear but appears to be related in Shan State to the creation of new
armies by the remnants of drug lord Khun Sa's troops and in both
States to the desire to improve infrastructure for tourism.
As three key meetings approach in Asia at the end of July -- the
ministerial summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the post-ministerial summit, and the Asian Region Forum --
Human Rights Watch asks all participants to urge the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Burma's military government, to
cease the relocations and allow international agencies to assist the
displaced and monitor their safe return to their homes. The newly
appointed U.N. Special Rapporteur on Burma, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, and
U.N. agencies operating in Burma should immediately visit the affected
areas to assess the situation and make additional recommendations to
the Burmese government. Finally, Human Rights Watch urges the Thai
government to permit all those fleeing abuses to be given refuge and
assistance inside Thailand.
In the Shan State, over 450 villages -- at least 50,000 people --
have been displaced since March. The relocations, which are still
going on, are taking place in an area between the towns of Nam San,
Mong Nai and Kurn Heang (Kun Hing). Nam San is about eighty miles east
of Taunggyi. Villagers received written orders to move from local
military commanders, and in most cases, were given just a few days
notice to pack up all their belongings and move to areas along roads
or near towns under the army's control. Most reportedly have been
forced to provide free labor to widen and improve roads and other
infrastructure projects. Others have had to work on the military
airport at Nam San, while still others have been forced to work on a
railway line connecting Taunggyi and Hsi Seng. Both the road
development and the railway are being built to encourage tourism in
the area. None of those who have been relocated have received food,
medical supplies or other assistance from the military, leaving them
dependent on the local community. Most villagers reported that they
were prevented from bringing their own rice supplies with them, and in
some cases the entire village was burned to ensure they would not
return.
The removals have sent thousands of Shan and Akha people fleeing
across the border to Thailand. Here the Thai government has denied
them the right to seek asylum, forcing them to join the estimated
500,000 migrants working illegally in Thailand.
In Karenni State, ninety-six villages in an area northeast of the
state capital, Loikaw, between the Salween and Pun rivers received
relocation orders between May 31 and June 15, 1996. The orders,
copies of which have been obtained by Human Rights Watch, stated that
the villages all had to move to Sha Daw town by June 7. There is a
large military garrison in Sha Daw, built on a hilltop over looking
the town. Fifteen of the villages had to move to Ywathit, a town to
the south. The orders stated that anyone remaining in the area after
that date "would be considered enemies and dealt with accordingly."
It was reported by refugees from the area that two men were arrested
by the military from Daw Moo Mar village, and one boy from Daw Leh Du
village was shot and killed soon after the villagers received the
orders to move. Families were not permitted to take their livestock
or rice supplies with them and had to leave with just the bare
essentials - cooking pots and what clothing they could carry. At the
beginning of July, there were signs that further relocations were also
taking place south of Ywathit, affecting some 5,000 people.
In total, some 20,000 people in Karenni State were affected by the
orders. Around 10,000 of them went to Sha Daw as ordered, but there
they found that the SLORC had made no provisions for them. The people
were housed in schools and churches and others built makeshift
shelters. The SLORC gave only six small tins of rice for each family,
and local residents in Sha Daw helped with other food. After some
weeks, the overcrowding and lack of food lead to a deterioration in
people's health, and at least ten children are known to have died.
The villagers were also ordered to register with the Immigration and
Manpower Department, and some were able to bribe officials to get
passes to leave.
An estimated 2,300 people fled to Thailand, where they have been
permitted to stay in the existing Karenni refugee camps near Mae Hong
Son (Karenni camp 2). According to aid workers, new arrivals continue
to enter the camp every day, reporting in some cases that their
villages were razed, after soldiers had taken all the livestock in the
village and destroyed the remaining crops. In Ka Ya Kee village, it
was also reported that all Bibles in the Roman Catholic church there
were also burned.
Forced relocation has been a strategy of the Burmese military for
decades, although the scale of the current relocations is
unprecedented. Relocations are usually planned as a means of cutting
off the aid that ethnic minority villages may give to rebel armies.
However, it is especially alarming that relocations should be taking
place now, when SLORC has declared that it has brought peace in ethnic
minority areas by signing military cease-fire agreements with fifteen
rebel groups since 1989. In the Shan State, the leader of the main
rebel army, drug war lord Khun Sa, surrendered to the government in
January 1996. However, an estimated 2,000 members of his Mong Tai Army
refused to surrender and have joined with other Shan nationalist
groups or created new armies in the central and southern Shan State.
It is in these areas that the relocations have taken place. This area
is also the center of the opium trade in Burma, the world's largest
exporter of heroin, and efforts by the government to control the drug
routes following the cease-fire with Khun Sa may be an additional
reason for the relocations.
In the Sha Daw area of the Karenni State no rebel groups have
operated since the beginning of 1996, when the SLORC launched a major
offensive against the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the
only Karenni group still fighting the government. Following the
relocations however, the KNPP attacked the hydroelectric power station
at Lawpita, near Loikaw, on June 6. The KNPP had signed a military
cease-fire agreement with the SLORC in March 1995, but it broke down
in July after the SLORC transferred new troops into KNPP territory and
continued to take KNPP-protected villagers to work as porters for the
army. It is believed that the relocations in this area are designed
to pressure the KNPP into signing a new and binding cease-fire
agreement, which would enable the government to open up the area to
tourism after October 1996, the start of Visit Myanmar Year.
The estimated 70,000 people relocated in the Shan and Karenni
States are in desperate need of assistance and of international
intervention which would make it possible for them to return to their
homes. There are few international aid agencies operating in Burma,
mainly due to government restrictions, and none of them currently have
access to the affected areas. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) is working in Burma's westernmost state, Arakan, to
resettle some 200,000 Muslims who have been repatriated from
Bangladesh. The UNHCR's Working Group on International Protection
recommended in August 1992 (A/AC.96/799) that the UNHCR should seek to
become involved with the monitoring and protection of internally
displaced persons as a preventive measure to avert refugees outflows.
In addition, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), which is also
present in Burma, is mandated to monitor the safety and health of all
children, including the internally displaced. Human Rights Watch urges
these organizations to seek access to the displaced villagers as soon
as possible and negotiate a safe return to their homes.
Human Rights Watch/Asia
Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization established in
1978 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally
recognized human rights in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East
and among the signatories of the Helsinki accords. Kenneth Roth is the
executive director; Cynthia Brown is the program director. Robert L.
Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W. DeWind is vice
chair. Its Asia division was established in 1985 to monitor and
promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in
Asia. Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is
the Washington director; Robin Munro is the Hong Kong director;
Patricia Gossman is a senior researcher; Jeannine Guthrie is NGO
Liaison; Dinah PoKempner is Counsel; Zunetta Liddell is a research
associate; Joyce Wan is a Henry R. Luce Fellow; Diana Tai-Feng Cheng
and Paul Lall are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant.
Andrew J. Nathan is chair of the advisory committee and Orville
Schell is vice chair.
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