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Burma Junta Accused of Mass Poisoni
- Subject: Burma Junta Accused of Mass Poisoni
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 01:53:00
Subject: Burma Junta Accused of Mass Poisoning
(UPI Focus)
Burma junta accused of mass poisoning
BANGKOK, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Activists monitoring human rights
abuses in Burma say (Tuesday) soldiers used dead rats to poison
the water supply of some 10,000 ethnic Shan villagers, killing at
least 400 of them since May.
The Shan Human Rights Foundation says the villagers began
falling ill in large numbers in May of 1998 after the soldiers
dumped thousands of poisoned rats into the Pawn River, which is
the only source of water for more than 10,000 Shan villagers in
the central Shan state district of Parng Long.
A representative of the privately funded foundation told United
Press International the poisoning reports were based on Shan
refugees crossing the border from Burma into Thailand.
Says the foundation representative, "I was skeptical, but after
we talked to people coming out we were convinced the reports were
absolutely genuine."
The villagers were quoted as saying military authorities in the
area ordered residents to bring rats, most of them poisoned with
cheap, Chinese-manufactured poison, to the soldiers, who then
dumped the dead rodents into the river.
The poisoning symptoms reportedly included severe headache,
followed by fever, vomiting, severe dehydration and blurred
vision, followed by death.
Children who swam in the river were among the first to die, and
the deaths have continued until as recently as last month,
according to the refugee accounts.
The Shan Human Rights Foundation has issued an urgent appeal for
independent medical experts to visit the area, which is largely
closed off from the outside world by Burma's xenophobic military
rulers.
---
Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
---
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Myanmar-Poison/
Shan human rights group accuses Myanmar junta of poisoning villagers=
úúúChiang Mai, Thailand (dpa) - Shan human rights activists said
Tuesday that Myanmar's (Burma's) military junta had poisoned the
water supply of 10,000 Shan villagers, killing at least 400 of them
since last May.
úúúThe allegations of mass poisoning were made in a detailed report
sent via the internet to diplomats and news agencies by the Shan
Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), a non-government organization based
along the Thai-Myanmar border.
úúúThe group claimed that since May 1998 more than 400 Shan villagers
have died with symptoms of poisoning in the central Shan state
district of Parng Long.
úúúThe group's report, based primarily of refugee accounts, could not
be independently verified.
úúúAccording to Shan human rights activists and villagers, the sudden
deaths began occurring after the dumping by the Myanmar military of
thousands of poisoned rats into the Pawn River, the only source of
water for the more than 10,000 residents of 144 villages in Parng
Long.
úúúParng Long is famous within Myanmar as the town where the Parng
Long Agreement was signed in 1947, in which the leaders of Shans,
Kachins, Burmans and Chins agreed to join a Union of Burma to regain
independence from the British.
úúú"We are convinced that the massive number of deaths in the Parng
Long area is a direct result of the dumping by the army troops of
poisoned rats into the Pawn River," said a SHRF activist.
úúúAccording to the SHRF activist, in April of 1998 the Myanmar army
ordered each Shan in Parng Long to collect 5 dead rats and deliver
them to the authorities. The rats had mostly been killed with Chinese
rat poison, which is cheap and readily available in central Shan
state.
úúú"It was strange that they had never issued such an order before,"
said Nahn Ho Kham, an SHRF activist, noting that rats had always been
plentiful in Parng Long area.
úúúLater the army dumped the dead rats into the Pawn River, according
to Shan farmers who said they witnessed it. "That happened twice in
April and in July of 1998," Kham said.
úúúWithin days after the rats were dumped, villagers began falling
sick. "They (villagers) are Tai Loi (Hill Shan). They said they have
never seen such diseases," Kham said, adding that the first to begin
suffering were children from the houses nearest the river, who often
went swimming.
úúúThe poisoning symptoms reportedly began with severe headache,
followed by fever and vomiting. The victims would then be unable to
keep down any food or drink, and would quickly become weak and
dehydrated, and their vision would start failing.
úúúThis would continue for five or more days until the patient died.
After death, the victims' lips and the palms of their hands would
turn black, and dark blotches would appear on their skin.
úúúAccording to the report issued by the SHRF, Myanmar government
authorities and health workers did not show up in the area until
recently.
úúú"They (local health workers) did not come but they knew that
people were dying," Kham said.
úúúKham said most of the villagers, except educated ones, did not
connect the deaths with the dumping of the rats in the river.
úúúDeaths of relocated Shan villagers from poisoning are continuing
to be reported this year.
úúúKham said the fact that villagers were still dying in January
indicates that there is still poison present in the water of the Pawn
River.
úúúThe SHRF issued an urgent statement asking for independent medical
experts from international health organizations to demand immediate
access to the central Shan state. But the group admits that outside
access is unlikely to be granted by the Yangon (Rangoon) junta.
úúúAnalysts in Thailand pointed out that there was no solid evidence
to prove that the dumping of the rats was a deliberate attempt to
kill the villagers, but the refusal of local officials to address the
health emergency shows that the military authorities were content to
let the villagers die in large numbers.
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231047 GMT Feb 99 nnnn
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