NEWS - BURMESE ARMY DEFECTORS REVEA

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - BURMESE ARMY DEFECTORS REVEAL SPDC INVOLVMENT IN DRUGS TRADE AND A  LITANY OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.

KAREN NEWS AGENCY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Source: Mahn Kyaw Swe (Karen Community of Canada) - September 24, 1999

BURMESE ARMY DEFECTORS REVEAL SPDC INVOLVMENT IN DRUGS TRADE AND A
LITANY OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.

Aung Min, a soldier in LIB (66) was somewhat surprised to find himself
confronted by a written order from his commander, Lt.Col. Win Maung,
that
under no circumstances should he destroy poppy fields around the village
of
Nam San in Shan State where he was stationed.  For years he had
witnessed on
state run television the the public burnings of poppy fields and heroin
organized by the Junta to convince the Burmese people and the wide world
that it was seriously trying to eradicate the drug problem.

Instead he was confronted with a written order signed by his commander
that
"No one serving in the army, police  service has the right to destroy
poppy
fields".  He and the other soldiers were paid 50 kyats each to remain
silent
when the poppy seeds were harvested and taken secretly to local army
headquarters. Gradually the truth about the Junta's policy on drugs
emerged.
In essence there are three aspects of the drug trade: the first is that
grown by the villagers themselves.  If caught they can be executed and
their
produce destroyed in well publicised, self-righteous burnings.  The
second
form is that organised by the army itself which forces villagers to grow
poppies, often hidden behind tall stand if maize.  The military buys the
seed at one-third the market value and pockets the rest.

Villagers are forced to take the seeds to factories closr to army
headquarters where they are processed into heroin. Thirdly there is the
shadowy world  of the major drug barons which the army protect in return
for
bribes.  Aung Min described how he and his fellow soldier
were ordered to protect and escort drug caravans; especially those run
by
the notorious Khun Sa decribed by his commanding officer as " An ally of
the
Burmese army.  In a final twist to the whole story is the junta's
success in
conning the wider world such as Interpol and the US Drug Enforcement
Agency
that it is really tackling the problem.


Only equipments such as helicopters designed for combating drugs are
simply
used to promote the regime's brutal war against the indigenous people. 
Even
the public televised burning of heroin is an organised sham worthy of
Goebbels: a thin layer of heroin is placed over other substances such as
a
lime and the whole pile burnt in front of  a gullible public.

Aung Min should know; he sometimes was on guard at the burning to ensure
no
one got too close to find out what was really destroyed.   In addition
to
this collusion with drug trade, the defectors confirmed the horrifying
catalogue of human rights abuses we have come to expect from Burma.  One
revealed how his company burnt down four villages in Karenni (Kayah)
state,
another how thirty porters were used to "Clean" the fields of 
landmines,
all being blown up before his eyes.  Another described having to shoot a
sixty years old porter who could walk no further.  LIB (250) was
provided
with five women for sexual servicing, two of them no older than twelve
years, both of whom were raped to death.  These stories of rape,
torture,
arbitrary killings, forced relocations into concentration camps etc. can
be
retold endlessly by the 100,000 refugees in the camps on the Thai
border.

What is remarkable about these particular stories is that they are told
directly by the Burmese soldiers themselves.  It is as though a few
German
soldiers as escaped into neutral Switzerland and reported the reality of
the
holocaust.

Behind their stories lies the terrible possibility that something akin
to
genocide may being implemented against the indigenous people in the
Northern
Burma.  The soldier quoted one commander as saying " As long as there
are
civilians in this state there will be rebellion: the answer is to clean
the
state of civilianss".  The soldier stationed in Karenni (Kayah) state
described how women with AIDS in the Mandalay area have been
deliberately
bussed into the state to spread AIDS amongst the local population. When
I
asked him hoe he  knew this he described the radio message to him while
on
road duty commanding him to let the bus through and and giving reasons. 
In
addition , junta soldiers in neighbouring Shan State are paid 2000 kyats
and a sack of rice   to marry a Shan woman, provided that is they
abandon
her after one year with a child.  This is done in order to undermine the
community  and its sense of ethnic identity. What redeems the situation,
if
only partly, is the heroism of these soldiers who have had the courage
to
defy their own regime.  One of them described how
he preempted a massacre when his battalion, high on a cocktail of
amphetamines and whisky were preparing to kill local villagers, quietly
and
methodically he removed the firing pins from their weapons, before
disarming
the commanding officer and fleeing to Thailand.

Others were not so luckly.  Four soldiers who declared support to Aung
San
Su Kyi were killed by being cut up into three pieces. These young men
lived
precariously in refugees camps under constant threat of  deportation, a
quite unimaginably barbarous fate. Their action have, however, partially
redeemed their country and ensured the survival of  the human spirit in
this
heart of darkness.

For further information please contact to Khu Oo Reh, Director of the
Karenni News Agency for Human Rights, PO Box 19, Mae Hong Son, 58000
Thailand.  Tel: 6653 613 045, e-mail: ooreh @cm.ksc.co.th