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shan Report1/6
FORCED RELOCATION IN CENTRAL SHAN STATE
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
June 25, 1996 / KHRG #96-23
[PART 1 OF 6 - SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 2 THROUGH 6 & APPENDIX]
In December 1995 Khun Sa and his Mong Tai Army (MTA) officially
surrendered to SLORC. While this was publicized as a victory against the
opium and heroin trade, there has been no evidence of any decrease in
drug production in newly SLORC-controlled areas. Meanwhile, a
common feeling among people in Shan State (many or most of whom never
trusted Khun Sa) is that Khun Sa has betrayed the Shan national cause.
Because of this, large segments of the MTA have refused to surrender,
instead continuing to fight SLORC using guerrilla tactics in various parts
of Shan State. The largest of these groups is commanded by Yord Serk, a
former MTA officer with hundreds of men under his command, who has
renamed his army the Shan United Revolutionary Army (SURA). SLORC
wants to force all such groups to surrender unconditionally, and also
appears to be afraid that these groups will make contact with armed
groups which have already agreed to ceasefire deals - such as the Shan
State National Army (SSNA, led by former MTA officer Garn Yod, who
defected from the MTA with his men in 1995 and made a deal with
SLORC), and the Shan State Army (SSA) and Pa'O National Army (PNA),
both of which made ceasefire deals in 1991.
In an apparent attempt to weaken all Shan forces and prevent any contact,
in March 1996 SLORC began a massive campaign of forcibly relocating
civilian villages. So far at least 450 villages have been ordered to move
on pain of death, almost every village in an area from the Salween River
120 kilometres westward to Lai Kha and Mong Kung, from Lang Ker and
Mong Nai (just 60 km. north of the Thai border) northward for 180 km. to
Kay See Man Sam and the area west of the Mong Hsu ruby mines. (See
the map accompanying this report.) Even areas where ceasefire groups
operate, such as SSA areas west of Mong Hsu and PNA areas south of
Nam Sang, have been affected with the possible aim of weakening these
groups.
Information collected by the Shan Human Rights Foundation and KHRG
already includes the names of 320 villages, as well as 22 other village
tracts (averaging 5-15 villages per tract) for which lists of village names
are not yet available. A full list is included as an Appendix to this
report.
The villages already known to be included are in the following townships:
Township # of Villages # of Families
Relocated Relocated
Kun Hing 52 min. 2,032
Mong Nai 27 min. 1,365
Nam Sang 81 min. 2,829
Lai Kha 100 min. 3,408
Mong Kung 44 min. 1,465
Lang Ker 16 min. 472
Mong Nong min. 90 min. 2,700
Kay See min. 40 min. 2,600
------------------------------------------------------
Total min. 450 min. 16,781
Many of the households are extended families. At an average of 5 people
per household, the above list already represents over 80,000 people.
SLORC Battalions conducting the relocations include Infantry and Light
Infantry Battalions #55, 64, 66, 99, 246, 247, 248, 249, 515, 518, 520,
524, 525, and 551, each with bases at several locations in the area. The
relocations follow a standard pattern: SLORC troops come to the village
and order all villagers to leave within 5 days, after which they will be
shot
on sight. If any objections are raised, village elders are beaten and some
houses are burned as an example. Some people have had their houses set
alight while they were still inside, and in several cases reported from
Mong Kung and Chiang Tong areas some elderly people who refused to
move have been burned to death inside their houses. Others have been
shot for returning to their villages to retrieve belongings or food after
the
relocation deadline.
In some cases the soldiers order them to move to specific sites along car
roads or around big villages, but in many cases they are just ordered to
move to a town or a patch of scrub on the outskirts. Some troops even tell
villagers to go to Thailand if they want, as long as their villages are
cleared. Nothing is prepared at the relocation places. Most people
cannot take all their belongings, and large herds of livestock have been
left
behind to be killed by SLORC troops. At many relocation sites the SLORC
troops confiscate all the villagers' rice, then ration it back out to them
at
a rate of only 3 small milktins per person per day (supposedly to make sure
that they will not have any to give to Shan soldiers; however, this is not
even enough for sustenance). Most villagers are not being allowed to go
and farm their old fields; in some areas they are, but they must get a 5-
day pass to do so and only one person per family can go. Even the person
who goes can only take 3 milktins of rice per day, and can be shot for
straying back to their village or going outside their field. People from
the
area say that the whole area is in chaos, that thousands of people who
used to have farms and livestock are living in shelters along the roads
begging for food, and that in the towns every house has at least 5 families
living in it now. In areas like Chiang Tong 50 villages have been forced to
move into 3, and villages which used to have 60 families now have 7,000
people. Some of the relocated people are now being used as forced labour
on projects like the Nam Sang - Kun Hing road and the Lai Kha - Mong
Kung railway. SLORC soldiers tell the relocated villagers that they will
only be allowed to go home when every Shan soldier has surrendered.
The SLORC troops seem to think this will happen within a few months, but
the villagers know better and they have no idea what will become of their
future.
It appears that at least 15,000 people have fled to Thailand, where they
disappear as labour in the Thai lychee orchards or to building sites and
sweatshops in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, because there is no refugee camp
for Shan people. People along the main entry routes confirm that 200-500
people per day have been crossing at each of the 4 or 5 main crossing
points. Numbers have decreased through May and June, because the
roads on the Burma side of the border have washed out and because many
people do not have the 4,500 Kyat it costs for the car fare from Nam Sang
to the border.
The accounts in this report were given by Shan villagers interviewed by
KHRG in May/June 1996 after they had managed to escape to Thailand.
For months now they have been flooding across the border in several
places, many without knowing where to go or how to survive, ending up in
the fruit orchards, the building site shantytowns, the factory sweatshops
and bonded labour brothels of Chiang Mai and Bangkok that serve as the
only Shan refugee camps. Most of their stories will never be told. Three
young boys walked right through the border unnoticed because they only
had the ragged clothes on their backs - 10 km. further on a monk asked
where they were walking to, and they asked "Is Chiang Mai far?" Chiang
Mai was 100 km. away. After being relocated and seeing SLORC soldiers
taking female porters, a 14-year-old girl and her 16-year-old sister from
Mong Kung crossed the border and reached a Shan temple with nothing.
They each took their waist-length hair, which is deeply treasured by Shan
women, and cut it off at the shoulder "to look more Thai". Then they set
off for Chiang Mai and Bangkok. With nothing else to give, they each left
their swath of hair as an offering to the temple. The Abbot hung the
tresses beside the shrine, so passersby could remember the situation of the
Shan people.
The issue of human rights in Shan State is too often ignored in favour of
the issue of drugs, and villagers are brutally abused with impunity as a
result. This is not a report about drugs, and the people interviewed in it
are rice, fruit and livestock farmers and Buddhist monks, not heroin
traffickers. They have little or nothing to do with armed opposition
groups other than paying the food and cash which is demanded from
them. Some opium may be grown around some of their villages, but it is
a cash crop, a means of survival for some people in desperate
circumstances. Before judging village farmers from Shan State, please
read what they have to say in this report.
The names of all of those interviewed have been changed, and false names
are enclosed in quotes. In transliterating Shan to English, spellings can
vary between this and other reports; for example, SURA commander Yord
Serk (a.k.a. Yod Serk, Yord Suk), SSNA commander Garn Yod (a.k.a. Kan
Yord, Karn Yod), and place names such as Mong Kung (Murng Kerng),
Nam Sang (Nam Zarng), Mong Nong (Mong Nawng), Kay See (Keh Si),
Lang Ker (Langkho), etc. In particular, 'Mong' occurs frequently and can
also be spelled 'Murng', 'Merng', 'Mung', etc. 'Wan' is a common prefix
for village names, so 'Wan Nong Hi' and 'Nong Hi' are the same village.
In the interviews people often used Shan calendar dates, which have been
translated to the corresponding dates on the English calendar.
TOPIC SUMMARY: Forced relocations (all stories), killings (#2),
shootings (#2,11,13), beatings (#8,9,10,14), rape (#7,8,17), burning
houses (#1,2,4-7,14,17), burning houses with people inside (#1,2,14,17),
looting/theft (#1,4,8,12,17), confiscation of relocated people's rice
(#3,12),
going back to farm (#1,3,4,11,12), overcrowding at relocation sites
(#1,5,7,12,17), effect on monks (#3,11,13,17), forced conscription for
SLORC militia (#3), MTA (#8,11,13,15,17), PNA (#8), SSA (#13), opium
(#15), life in Thailand (#15,17), northern Shan State (#13,15).
Forced labour: At army camps (#1,3,13,15), as porters (#8,14,15), as
road and village sentries (#12,13,17), on Army farms (#2,15), Nam Sang -
Kun Hing road (#15,17), Chiang Tong - Kun Hing road (#15), Lai Kha -
Pang Long road (#17), Lai Kha - Mong Hsu road (#13,17), Mong Kung -
Tsipaw road (#10), Lai Kha - Mong Kung railway (#7), Lashio - Mu Seh -
Kyu Kote road (#15).
____________________________________________________________________________
_
#1.
NAME: "Loong Seng Mong" SEX: M AGE: 46 Shan Buddhist farmer
FAMILY: Married, 5 children aged 2-17
ADDRESS: Loi Yoi village, Loi Lat tract, Nam Sang township INTERVIEWED:
1/6/96
I'm a farmer. This is my first time in Thailand. I got here about 20 days
ago [he arrived on May 19]. My village is east of Nam Sang, one day's
walk. I left because the Burmese soldiers forced us to move. They called
all the headmen to Loi Lat and gave them the order to move within 5 days.
Then the Burmese soldiers came to the village with the order on April 9th.
#55 Battalion, from Mong Pan. Loi Yoi has about 70 households. About
300 soldiers came. I was there. At first they didn't do anything, they
just
came and said nicely that we had to move within 5 days, and they said
"after 5 days, if you come back you'll be shot". They said they would shoot
us and accuse us of giving food to the rebels. Then they shot our cattle,
pigs and chickens for food.
It's true, we had given food to rebels. They [the rebels] didn't do
anything
to us. After the order to move, we all had to carry our things on our
backs.
The way is too steep for carts, and there is no road. We went to Wan
Nong. And Kun Mong. It is 3 hours' walk to the west. Wan Nong is a big
village. Before it was about 70 houses. Many villages had to move there -
Kong Tat, Loi Lai, Loi Lat, Loi Yoi, Moi Tang, Loi Un, Kung Lao, Loi Ai,
Ho Derg, On Kaen, Kong Sah, Mong Yau, and Nong Pay. That is two
village tracts, Loi Lat and On Kaen. Both village tracts had to move to
Wan Nong or Kun Mong. No place was prepared, it was up to us and our
relatives. Those who had relatives went to stay with their relatives.
Those
without relatives there just spread out in different places. It's like if
you let cattle loose, and they just scatter everywhere. People went to get
bamboo to build huts and to collect food in the forest. They tried to get
work doing day labour, but there were so many of them that it was difficult.
Some people made long rows of shelters with separate rooms, all joined
together. They helped each other, like they were making a hotel. There are
about 7,000 people in Wan Nong village now. To survive, if we have money we
buy food. We need to work for food and share with each other. We hired
ourselves out to the local villagers to do farming.
Some people tried to stay in their villages, but not in our area. I heard
that in another village someone refused to move and the Burmese burned her
house. The Burmese soldiers burned her together with her house. That
was at Wan Ko Lam village. She was an old woman. All her relatives
moved but she did not want to move.
We didn't have to give our rice to the Burmese, but they took everything
that was left behind in the village. They allowed us to go back and farm
our
fields, but you cannot take any rice with you. You must go early in the
morning and come back home in the evening. You're not allowed to sleep
at the farm. And it's 3 hours' walk each way. Some are going. I didn't,
but
some people did. You have to get permission each time to go for farming.
When I was there they didn't give a paper [pass], but they said that later
they will do that. The people who go have to be afraid of getting shot, but
the new place is so crowded so they have no choice but to go back and
work their fields [it's the only way to get food].
I stayed at the new place for about 20 days. We couldn't earn our living
there, and if we stayed there we would have to work for the Burmese. As
soon as they need labour they will give the order. Their base is at Nam
Sang. At the new place at Wan Nong they have a temporary camp. They
haven't started building their permanent camp yet, but they have a plan to.
The same Battalion, #55. When I left there were about 10 [soldiers] there
all the time, but the others are all out patrolling so I don't know how many
exactly.
We came by truck, from Nam Sang to Lang Ker, then to Mong Pan and to
Thailand. Ordinary trucks can't come, it has to be 4 wheel drive. It's not
surfaced. They didn't stop us. The Burmese said only when there is peace
we can go back to our village. It will be a long time before we can go
back.
I will work as labour here. 9 of us came together. When we left we had
60,000 Kyat. Now I only have about 1,000 Kyat left, and I don't have
work yet.
____________________________________________________________________________
_
- [END OF PART 1 - SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 2 TO 6 AND APPENDIX] -