6/4/98: SOCIETY OF THREATENED PEOPL

[uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

29-Jan-99; 7:30am

REPORT FROM SOCIETY OF THREATENED PEOPLE (6/4/98)
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[Source: UN Commission on Human Rights homepage]

UNITED NATIONS
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL
E/CN.4/1998/NGO/102
6 April 1998
ENGLISH
Original: ENGLISH/FRENCH/SPANISH

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-forth session
Agenda item 16

RIGHTS OF PERSONS BELONGING TO NATIONAL OR ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS AND
LINGUISTIC MINORITIES

Written statememt submitted by the Society for Threatened Peoples, a
non-governmental organization in special consultative status

The Secretary-General has received the following written statement,
which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council
resolution 1296 (XLIV).
[31 March 1998]

1. Year after year, the Commission on Human Rights has discussed,
condemned and made recommendations about the military regime of Myanmar
regarding all types of human rights abuses committed by its troops and
authorities. Respected human rights organizations like Amnesty
International, Asia Watch and the Society for Threatened People have
referred large dossiers of gross human rights violations in the Shan
State, Karenni State, Karen State, and Mon State, not to mention the
harassment of the democratic forced within the whole country. Despite
such publicity, pressure and recommendations, the military regime of
Myanmar remains indifferent and continues to push forward its policies
of "Burmanization", coupled with ethnic cleansing and forced
assimilation.

2. We would like to focus on the ethnic cleansing within the Shan State.
Ethnic cleansing, in effect, is a strategic issue and encompasses
self-determination (and all that it entails), human rights, gender
issue, the rule of law and legal rights (covering land, resources,
property, livelihood, etc.), social justice and other issues. Ethnic
cleansing is more than an atrocity. It is a systematic policy aimed at
the wholesale deportation of a targeted ethnic group or groups through
the use of the coercive instruments of a State, for example, forced
evacuations of a people from its homeland by the armed State forces. The
ultimate goal is to empty the area of one ethnic group and resettle it
with another; to drain a particular area of its ethnic population and
take over their land and other resources. Ethnic cleansing is a war of
ethnic aggression as it targets the unarmed population, especially
women. Wholesale terror inflicted on the targeted ethnic group is aimed
at traumatizing children, on whose shoulders rest its future survival
and vigour.

3. The military Government of Myanmar has been trying to achieve the
above-mantioned goals by making life unbearable for the Shan people.
This involves all kinds of harassment; violations of all their rights
(including livelihood and means of sustenance), the systematic
employment of terror, and, most commonly, the mistreatment of women
(rape) so as to humiliate the men and psychologically scar the children.

4. The military regime of Myanmar started its ethnic cleansing policy in
early 1996 when some armed resistance movements refused to surrender but
offered to sign a ceasefire agreement, an offer which rejected by the
military. In order to destroy those groups they subsequently started a
large "relocation"campaign, mainly in the central Shan State.  Since
then hundreds of thousands of households have been moved from villages
to "relocation centres". During this expulsion from their homeland many
women have been raped, men have been forced to contribute "voluntary"
labour, and many civilians (including Buddhist monks have been killed by
the soldiers. Appeals of resistance groups to be recognized as
non-hostile forces have been rejected by the military regime which
continues its offensive against them and against the civilians in the
Shan State.

5. This shows that the Myanmar Government is not serious about restoring
peace, and that its real intention is to empty the central region of the
Shan States of their inhabitants. Many of those who survived the
killings fled to Thailand where they were not recognized as refugees.
The sudden downturn of the Thai economy has changed the situation for
the worse. Now the forcibly displaced people are faced with a terrible
choice: to go back to the Shan States where they would be subjected to
persecution, neglect and starvation, or to remain in Thailand and risk
the danger of arrest and forced repatriation.

6. After a short respite during the monsoon season, the military regime
continue the forced relocation of civilians from the Shan States. In
Mongkung and in Kesi, 20 battalions are involved in this terrible
operation which is affecting approximately 100,000 people. Since 1996,
more than 200,000 villagers have been forced at gunpoint to abandon
their homes and move to relocation sites near main roads and towns.

7. The latest development reported by the SHAN (Shan Herald Agency for
News) on 10 March 1998 was that relief organizations trying to send food
and medicine for the Shan refugees in Pang Yone (Pangmapha district in
Moehongson province, Thailand) are being denied access to their
makeshift camp.

8.  To stop this policy of expulsion and ethnic cleansing, the Society
for Threatened Peoples calls upon the Commission on Human rights to:

(a) Maintain pressure on the Government of Myanmar to respect human
rights and humanitarian law with regards to all minorities in the
country, especially in the Shan States;

(b) Recommend that the Security Council authorize a contingent of
full-time United Nations human rights rapporteurs to observe and
investigate human rights violations -- especially forced relocations--
in the Shan States;

(c) Recommend that the Security Council authorize a contingent of
full-time United Nations human rights rapporteurs to observe and
investigate the situation of refugees from Myanmar in Thailand. The
Commission should call upon the Government of Thailand to refrain from
repatriating the refugees until the human rights situation in Myanmar
improves.
/* Endreport */
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