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New Kabaw valley Project in Sagaing



Subject:       New Kabaw valley Project in Sagaing Division


NEW KABAW VALLEY (OR) DEATH MESSENGER PROJECT
BY THE MILITARY REGIME IN BURMA


Kabaw Valley, a fertile agricultural place, is situated
in Sagaing Division and bordering with India. The
present military regime, SLORC, has been trying to
establish this deserted valley to be a human-settled
place. This project, namely "New Kabaw Valley Project"
is being assisted by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP). Although the regime officially stated
its objective of the project as a part of its "border
developmental programme", the two ulterior motives
behind the project are : (1) to counter armed groups
based in the region and (2) to prevent any external
invasion (of India, in this case) in future.

However, the SLORC, starved with the foreign exchange
reserves at hand, has been misusing the financial
assistance provided by the UNDP. Instead of spending
the money for its stated objective, SLORC is using it
for the military expenses of its armed forces. The
prisoners, mostly political prisoners, are being used
in the construction works under the project. The
villagers from the Upper Burma were lured with money
and job opportunities to settle and work in the Kabaw
Valley but later they were forced to work as "voluntary
labourers" without providing any finance and materials
as they were promised. Hundreds of local people in the
region, particularly from Sagaing Division, are being
forced to work in the various construction projects as
"voluntary labourers" as the government terms it.

The "New Kabaw Valley Project" was started in 1990. It
is being monitored and implemented by the Office of
Regional Control under the army based at In Thein Kyi
in Kalay Township of Sagaing Division. In the beginning
of the project, the authorities lured the farmers from
Shwe Bo, Mon Ywa, Ye Oo, Pa Le townships with (20)
acres of land, Kyat 5,000.00 for house building and
materials for farm ploughing for each person to come
and settle down in the valley. New villages, such as
"Aung Zay Ya", "Ba Yint Naung" and "Yan Gyi Aung" were
set up in the valley and the farmers were moved into
the new villages. However, after some time, they run
away from the villages to other parts of the region due
to difficult terrain, pronged with several diseases and
not getting any assistance from the authorities as they
promised before.

"Prisoners Camps" are set up in the townships of Aung
Zay Ya, Yan Gyi Aung, Watt Shu, Myo Thit, Tha Nan, Yar
Za Gyo, Sa Khan Gyi  in Sagaing Division for the use of
labour of the prisoners in the construction works of
the project. The camps are under the control of Prison
Department and the various units of the Office of Army
Regional Control. The makeshift huts awe made inside
the camps for the prisoners to stay. The camps are
being surrounded by three-layers of barbed wire. About
250 and 300 prisoners are put into a camp and total
4,000 prisoners are in all the camps to use for the New
Kabaw Valley Project. According to the information
given by an escapee from a camp, between 1 and 5
prisoners die in a week due to mal-nutrition, over-
fatigue, malaria, typhoid and other seasonal diseases
and lack of medicines. Sometimes, in bad weather, from
15 to 20 people die in a day. The escapee who was
interviewed by the members of ABSL in Moreh said that
half of the prisoners either died or run away during
the past four years.

The vacancy, which was caused because of the death or
escape, was filled up by the new prisoners from Insein
(Rangoon) Jail, Tharawadi Jail, Myin Gyan Jail,
Mandalay Jail and Mon Ywa Jail. Between 1,000 and 1,500
prisoners whose jail sentence are above one year are
rotationally sent to the camps every six months for the
New Kabaw Valley Project. A prisoner has to bribe the
concerned jail authorities with 25,000-30,000 Kyats for
not to be sent to this infamous project. Therefore, the
project is named by the prisoners as "Death Messenger
Project".

One of the escapees from these camps is Maung Maung Oo,
aged 18, from Dawae Township. He escaped from Kan Gyi
Village Camp in 1995. Due to family's economic
hardships, he decided to board a boat as a boatman at
the age of 14. He came to know only when he was in the
sea that the boat he was boarding is a smuggling boat.
At his first trip itself, he along with 15 boatmen were
caught by a Burmese navy boat. While others were
released by bribing the concerned persons, he without
any money was arrested and sentenced to 7 years
imprisonment by a trial court in 1992. His age was 15
at that time. After serving one and half year in Insein
Jail, he was sent to the Kabaw Valley to use as a
labourer. He run away from the camp in July 1995.

The Imphal-based ABSL members interviewed him in 1996.
According to him, a camp has only one tractor supposed
to be used for ploughing new land. However, this only
one tractor was usually occupied by Camp Officials for
their trips and transportation. Therefore, most of the
hard works were done by the labour of the prisoners.
The prisoners were made to work in digging, ploughing,
cutting trees and clearing forest in the areas. For
ploughing purposes, iron roles of length-six feet and
weight-500 to 750 Kilos with four people sitting on it
were pulled by four prisoners. The prisoners were
forced to work from 7 A.M to 4 P.M with one hour lunch
break from 11 to 12 noon. Moreover, the prisoners were
being shackled while working. The prisoners suffered
from mal-nutrition, typhoid, malaria, skin diseases and
there was no enough medicines for them. When they could
not bear any more of pain and suffering, the prisoners
had to take care of themselves with whatever medicinal
leaves and fruits available in the jungle. Although a
prisoner got two pairs of rough clothes at the time of
their arrival at the camp, their clothes were easily
torn apart within 3 months of their work in the area.
They did not have spare clothes and had to wear all the
time. Sometimes, they had to dry themselves under the
sun without any clothes. The regular meal for them is
rice, watery pea and Ngapi.

One civilian who took part in the project estimated
that total 3500 to 4500 prisoners died between 1990 and
1996 and 6000 acres of agricultural land were explored
in the above-mentioned period. There are news coming
out that in March 1997, a 12 year-old prisoner died
because of the camp officials' beating in Yar Za Gyow
Camp situated on Kalay-Tamu road. The prisoners of this
camp are made to work in the farms owned by Burmese
Army. It was estimated by the officials that more than
3000 Tins (one Tin is approximately equal to a bushel)
of pigeon pea. However, in reality, only 1500 Tins of
pigeon pea were received when the army came and
collected. The prisoners were accused of stealing of
pea by the camp officials and the said 12-year old
prisoner was beaten to death in the process of
investigation.

In fact, the prisoners were often beaten to vomiting
the blood if they were caught of eating the pea even
before they were reaped. Usually, camp officials and
concerned departmental personnel smuggled the pea out
of the camps and the prisoners were made to be victims
of their actions.

Therefore, the project being done by the military
government as a part of their "Border Area Development
Programme (BADP)" is given a new name by the local
people and prisoners as "UN-sponsored BAD programme).



Compiled by :

News and Information Bureau
All Burma Students League
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