CHRO

Rhododendron publication – VOL.II No.VIII AUGUST 1999

100 Civilian men detained in the Church

On 26 June 1999 a Burmese soldier disappeared from a patrolling army unit enroute to Tlangpi village from Lung Ding village of Thantlang Township, Chin State.

The disappeared soldier was among the 34 soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 266 led by 2nd Lieutenant Kyaw Soe, based at Lungler army camp located north of Thantlang town near the Indian border.The soldier who was extremely exhausted due to hunger was left behind half way during the patrolling.

Upon noticing the disappearance on arrival at the destination village, the commander 2nd Lt. Kyaw Soe ordered a section of army to search for the lost soldier overnight. However, instead of searching for the soldier, the assigned soldiers met on the way with smugglers who herded cattle to be sold in Mizoram State of India and extorted Kyats 50000 from them.

On the next day the commander with his soldiers vainly headed for Farrawn village to find the soldier. They returned to Tlangpi and ordered the villagers to find the soldier. However, the attempt too proved to be futile. They returned to Lungler camp to report the matter to Captain Phyu Win, 266 Second Battalion Commander & temporary camp Commander who just arrived to the camp ahead of him.

Under the Command of Captain Phyu Win the soldiers again immediately went back to Tlangpi village.On 1 July 1999, the Captain forcibly ordered a total of more than 100 villagers, 40 villagers each from Lung Ding and Tlangpi villages, members of Village PDC of Tahtlang village and another 15 villagers from the same village to search for the lost soldier. Some villagers who were afraid of being forced to find the soldier had to go on hiding in the farm. Worried that those already taken to search the soldier will escape, the soldier kept them in a Church in Tlangpi and strictly guarded them outside.

The arrested villagers had to sleep without blankets and had to be fed by Tlangpi villagers. Despair of the search, the Captain finally ordered his inferiors to arrest every male in the village indiscriminately at midnight to clear trees and bushes around the cart way linking Lungding-Tlangpi-Farrawn. The villagers however dared not defy the order.

The lost soldier is still yet to be found and the villagers are facing immense difficulty as the incident coincided with the cultivation season by which they make their living. This forced labors by the army had badly affected the farm work of the villagers and they(villagers) are likely to face a new wave of crop shortage within the next years. The 100 arrested villagers are still in the army detention.

Village Life in Rural Chinland

The following interview is conducted in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh by a human rights monitor from Images Asia in February 1999 Name : Ral Lian ( not his real name) Sex : Male Age : 64 Ethnicity : Chin Relegion : Christian Occupation : slash-and-burn farmer From : Tahai village, then Rkhan village, Paletwa township Marital status : widow and remarried, 1 child from first marriage Interview date : 7.2.1999

Q : When did you arrive in Bangladesh? A : On 10.1.1998. We could not bear the Burmese Army. They always make troubles to us. We always had to go for forced labour. They always ordered us to give money, food, animals, whatever we had. And we always had to go as porters all the time.

Q : Is your village near an army camp? A : Shinletwa camp is about 6 miles away. The soldiers often came to our village. At least once a week, sometimes even twice or three times.

Q : Have they ever arrested or beaten anyone? A : No.

Q : What forced labour did you have to do? A : Portering and working in their camp. Wherever they went, we had to go along with them. We also had to work at the Shinletwa camp. If we could not go, we had to pay a fine of 300 Kyats.

Q : Have you been a porter yourself? A : Yes, of course. But because of my bad health, I didn’t have to carry any heavy load but I was always sent as a messenger to carry letters from the army to other villages, and to bring messages to people.

Q : What about your wife? A : In our village, the women, do not have to work in the army camp.

Q : How do they collect people for portering? A : First they sent an order to the village headman. If we do not go, they come themselves to collect us. When they demanded one person per family, we usually provided them with less people. There were 40 families in our village, so we provided 30 porters, and the other 10 people stayed at home. We could not send every family every time! But those who did not go had to pay for that.

Q : How long were the portering duties? A : Generally for 3 or 4 days. When they called us to work at their camp, they ordered us to build one house. If our villagers could complete the house within one day, then they could go home.

Q : How often were the people called? A : I cannot count how many times we had to go. If needed, we had to go twice a week. If they get information that some opposition groups are operating into the border area, then we must go along with them as far as the Bangladesh or the India border. It is difficult to say how often. It really depends.

Q : Were you often called as a messenger? A : Yes, all the time. I had to go twice or 3 times a week to the army camp. Back and forth between the camp and our village.

Q : When did these problems start? A : Since 1988.

Q : What did the Burmese Army do in your village? A : They demanded us chickens, pigs. We have to give them according to their demand. They usually requested a fixed amount. We had to provide them with 6 kg of meat per month. If we could not provide 6kg of chicken, then we had to give them pork meat. And if we couldn’t, they even demanded cattle meat. They never paid for that. But we had to pay money as labour fees when we could not go to work for them.

Q : Do the opposition groups also collect taxes? A : Yes, of course. AA, the Khumi party and CNF were all collecting money in our village. A demanded 300 Kyats per year and per family. CNF, 100 or 200 Kyats, according to the situation. If we requested them to reduce the amount, they would agree. But the Khumi party always collected money at random. We cannot say per week, per month or per year. Every time they came to our village, they demanded money.

Q : Is it the combination of all these extortions that is so hard for you? A : In Tahai, our old village in upper Paletwa, every time the opposition collected money, the Burmese Army came and fought with them. In 1996, we left Tahai because of all these problems. We walked for 3 days and moved to Ra Khan [near the border], at least there was no fighting. There was a little more security because the CNF soldiers protected us.

Q : So, where did you have to do the portering and camp labour? A : The labour situation was the same in both places. The taxcollections were more in Tahai. The situation in Tahai was very serious. Tahai is empty now. We fled to Rakhan and other people went to stay in Anu Tlang.

Q : Did the army order to move? A : No. The army did not order, but we were afraid and we left.

Q : What happened to Rakhan now? A : Some people are remaining there. I fled again because the soldiers always ordered me to be messenger and my health is not good. I could not walk all the time. That is why we came here.

Q : Tell me about Tahai. Did you have a school and a clinic there? A : There were 25 houses, including Chin and Khumi. We had a school up to 4th Standard [Primary school]. It was a self-supported school, not a government school. There was no clinic. In Tahai, if someone was sick, we had to go to Turuai, 14 miles away, or about 6 hours’ walk. In Rakhan we had to go to Shinletwa, 6 miles away.

Q : Could you carry some of your belongings? His Wife : No, only one basket that I carried alone. [Ral Lian can hardly walk and is unable to work. His wife is supporting the couple by doing day labour]. The few things you see in our house have been given to us. We didn’t even have a tool to work in the field. I have nothing else to say. You can see by yourself!

The Plight of Burma’s Women Refugees in India
( Source: Rangoon Post )

Thousands of refugees from western and north-western Burma still remain in terribly poor conditions through-out the Chittagong Hills and in India. Many women are finding jobs as live-in maids, nanies etc. These jobs have no only found them income, but also beatings, rapes, and hundreds of un-wanted pregnancies.

Many can not report the rapes and beatings fearing both that they will loose their job, but many are illegal and would likely be deportedback to Burma where they could be put into slave labor, robbed or raped by the military SPDC forces. What do these people do? Who will help them. For now, no one can help … or will help in India.

100 Civilian men detained in the Church

On 26 June 1999 a Burmese soldier disappeared from a patrolling army unit enroute to Tlangpi village from Lung Ding village of Thantlang Township, Chin State.

The disappeared soldier was among the 34 soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 266 led by 2nd Lieutenant Kyaw Soe, based at Lungler army camp located north of Thantlang town near the Indian border.The soldier who was extremely exhausted due to hunger was left behind half way during the patrolling.

Upon noticing the disappearance on arrival at the destination village, the commander 2nd Lt. Kyaw Soe ordered a section of army to search for the lost soldier overnight. However, instead of searching for the soldier, the assigned soldiers met on the way with smugglers who herded cattle to be sold in Mizoram State of India and extorted Kyats 50000 from them.

On the next day the commander with his soldiers vainly headed for Farrawn village to find the soldier. They returned to Tlangpi and ordered the villagers to find the soldier. However, the attempt too proved to be futile. They returned to Lungler camp to report the matter to Captain Phyu Win, 266 Second Battalion Commander & temporary camp Commander who just arrived to the camp ahead of him.

Under the Command of Captain Phyu Win the soldiers again immediately went back to Tlangpi village.On 1 July 1999, the Captain forcibly ordered a total of more than 100 villagers, 40 villagers each from Lung Ding and Tlangpi villages, members of Village PDC of Tahtlang village and another 15 villagers from the same village to search for the lost soldier. Some villagers who were afraid of being forced to find the soldier had to go on hiding in the farm. Worried that those already taken to search the soldier will escape, the soldier kept them in a Church in Tlangpi and strictly guarded them outside.

The arrested villagers had to sleep without blankets and had to be fed by Tlangpi villagers. Despair of the search, the Captain finally ordered his inferiors to arrest every male in the village indiscriminately at midnight to clear trees and bushes around the cart way linking Lungding-Tlangpi-Farrawn. The villagers however dared not defy the order.

The lost soldier is still yet to be found and the villagers are facing immense difficulty as the incident coincided with the cultivation season by which they make their living. This forced labors by the army had badly affected the farm work of the villagers and they(villagers) are likely to face a new wave of crop shortage within the next years. The 100 arrested villagers are still in the army detention.

Land Confiscation

According to CHRO field monitor, 6000 acres cultivatable land in Chin State, managed by Haikhawl village (Haikhawl is a Chin Village in Sagaing Division and the land is inside Chin State) was confiscated by the Burmese military in 1997. And now the villagers are paying a very high price Kyats 50,000/- per house hold to get back their land. There are more than 200 house hold in Haikhawl village.

In 1992- 93, the then SLORC was logging in the junction of Chin State and Sagaing Division. Thus all the teak( forest ) reserves in the area were cleared, mostly inside Chin State. After the forest was cleared cut, the authority tried to re-plant trees in the area. However the plan was not successful due to corruption, and after making efforts for two three times they gave up the plan. So, the land was lying in vain.

Since the land have fertile soil and was lying in vain, the villagers asked permission from the authority to make the virgin land into cultivation land. They got permission from the authority. In this way the villagers turned 6000 acres of virgin land into cultivation land. When the transformation of the cleared land to cultivatable land was in progress, the Burmese military Battalion 228 based in Kalay Myo confiscated all the land in 1997 in the name of Land Reform Acts and made it their own. The military tried to cultivate by using convicts labourers and soldiers. But they were not successful due to malaria epidemic and many other hardship. Thus, the military had to give up the land for the second time.

The villagers were reluctant to see a vast expanse of land with fertile soil lying in vain. So that they approached the SPDC officer whether there is any possible way to get back the land which they had invested much of their labours. The officer replied them that if they could pay Kyats 50,000 /- per house hold, he will approach the case to the higher authority. Thus the villagers collected Kyats 50,000/- per house hold and gave it to Falam District Peace and Development Council chairman. There are more than 200 house holds in Haikhawl village which is about10 miles from Kaley Myo.

Collecting Cane Sticks From Villagers for Army
Name : Ngo Sa Age : 45 Gender : Male Religion : Christian Occupation : Farmer / vallage in charge of Tlaupi village Family members : 8 members(6 children, husband and wife)

Major Hla Ko Oo from LIB 740 ( Myaut Oo battalion ) of Arakan State was appointed as the company commander of Shinletwa army camp in Paletwa township, Chin State. He called the villages in the area to attend the meeting every month. In Shinletwa area there are 9 village tracts: Para tract, Shewlake, Ponemoo, Gonepyine, Shiao, Patheinplan, Maobin, Sineowa and Shinletwa.

In January of 1999 Major Hla Ko Oo, camp commander, summoned villages’ Chairmen and Secretaries of the 9 village tracts for a meeting. He ordered to bring 1,500 cane sticks from each village tract to the army camp in February. The total number of 13,500 cane sticks had to be sent by the 9 village tracts.

The canes were carried through riverine route to Akyap and sold them at 50 Kyats per cane.They were not paid for their labors at all.They just did it for the army’s profit. The forest where the cane plants are available is very far away from the village, and therefore they were not able to get them. Since the villagers are very poor, they had to sell their domestic animals and even rice which they kept for themselves to pay the army because they were not able to provide the canes which the army demanded. “That’s why I paid Kyats10,000 which I collected from the villagers for 500 cane at the rate of Kyat 20 per cane to company commander on 22 March 1999″ said Mr. Ngo Sa, the incharge of Tlaupi village . The consequence of such kind of inhuman treatment by the army, the villagers now have faced shortage of food for the year to come

In the end part of March 1999, Major Hla Ko Oo was transfered and Capt. Than Naing Oo from LIB 233 Bothitaung Battalion replaced him as company commander. Capt. Than Naing Oo followed the footsteps of the previous commander. He summoned for a meeting every month. “He ordered us to give Kyats 4,000 instead of 200 canes. So I went to the army camp and paid it. A total which I paid was Kyats 14,000” said Mr. Ngo Sa.

Village Life in Roral Chinland

The following interview is conducted in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh by a human rights monitor from Images Asia in February 1999 Name : Ral Lian ( not his real name) Sex : Male Age : 64 Ethnicity : Chin Relegion : Christian Occupation : slash-and-burn farmer From : Tahai village, then Rkhan village, Paletwa township Marital status : widow and remarried, 1 child from first marriage Interview date : 7.2.1999

Q : When did you arrive in Bangladesh? A : On 10.1.1998. We could not bear the Burmese Army. They always make troubles to us. We always had to go for forced labour. They always ordered us to give money, food, animals, whatever we had. And we always had to go as porters all the time.

Q : Is your village near an army camp? A : Shinletwa camp is about 6 miles away. The soldiers often came to our village. At least once a week, sometimes even twice or three times.

Q : Have they ever arrested or beaten anyone? A : No.

Q : What forced labour did you have to do? A : Portering and working in their camp. Wherever they went, we had to go along with them. We also had to work at the Shinletwa camp. If we could not go, we had to pay a fine of 300 Kyats.

Q : Have you been a porter yourself? A : Yes, of course. But because of my bad health, I didn’t have to carry any heavy load but I was always sent as a messenger to carry letters from the army to other villages, and to bring messages to people.

Q : What about your wife? A : In our village, the women, do not have to work in the army camp.

Q : How do they collect people for portering? A : First they sent an order to the village headman. If we do not go, they come themselves to collect us. When they demanded one person per family, we usually provided them with less people. There were 40 families in our village, so we provided 30 porters, and the other 10 people stayed at home. We could not send every family every time! But those who did not go had to pay for that.

Q : How long were the portering duties? A : Generally for 3 or 4 days. When they called us to work at their camp, they ordered us to build one house. If our villagers could complete the house within one day, then they could go home.

Q : How often were the people called? A : I cannot count how many times we had to go. If needed, we had to go twice a week. If they get information that some opposition groups are operating into the border area, then we must go along with them as far as the Bangladesh or the India border. It is difficult to say how often. It really depends.

Q : Were you often called as a messenger? A : Yes, all the time. I had to go twice or 3 times a week to the army camp. Back and forth between the camp and our village.

Q : When did these problems start? A : Since 1988.

Q : What did the Burmese Army do in your village? A : They demanded us chickens, pigs. We have to give them according to their demand. They usually requested a fixed amount. We had to provide them with 6 kg of meat per month. If we could not provide 6kg of chicken, then we had to give them pork meat. And if we couldn’t, they even demanded cattle meat. They never paid for that. But we had to pay money as labour fees when we could not go to work for them.

Q : Do the opposition groups also collect taxes? A : Yes, of course. AA, the Khumi party and CNF were all collecting money in our village. A demanded 300 Kyats per year and per family. CNF, 100 or 200 Kyats, according to the situation. If we requested them to reduce the amount, they would agree. But the Khumi party always collected money at random. We cannot say per week, per month or per year. Every time they came to our village, they demanded money.

Q : Is it the combination of all these extortions that is so hard for you? A : In Tahai, our old village in upper Paletwa, every time the opposition collected money, the Burmese Army came and fought with them. In 1996, we left Tahai because of all these problems. We walked for 3 days and moved to Ra Khan [near the border], at least there was no fighting. There was a little more security because the CNF soldiers protected us.

Q : So, where did you have to do the portering and camp labour? A : The labour situation was the same in both places. The taxcollections were more in Tahai. The situation in Tahai was very serious. Tahai is empty now. We fled to Rakhan and other people went to stay in Anu Tlang.

Q : Did the army order to move? A : No. The army did not order, but we were afraid and we left.

Q : What happened to Rakhan now? A : Some people are remaining there. I fled again because the soldiers always ordered me to be messenger and my health is not good. I could not walk all the time. That is why we came here.

Q : Tell me about Tahai. Did you have a school and a clinic there? A : There were 25 houses, including Chin and Khumi. We had a school up to 4th Standard [Primary school]. It was a self-supported school, not a government school. There was no clinic. In Tahai, if someone was sick, we had to go to Turuai, 14 miles away, or about 6 hours’ walk. In Rakhan we had to go to Shinletwa, 6 miles away.

Q : Could you carry some of your belongings? His Wife : No, only one basket that I carried alone. [Ral Lian can hardly walk and is unable to work. His wife is supporting the couple by doing day labour]. The few things you see in our house have been given to us. We didn’t even have a tool to work in the field. I have nothing else to say. You can see by yourself!

The Plight of Burma’s Women Refugees in India
(Source: Rangoon Post)

Thousands of refugees from western and north-western Burma still remain in terribly poor conditions through-out the Chittagong Hills and in India. Many women are finding jobs as live-in maids, nanies etc. These jobs have no only found them income, but also beatings, rapes, and hundreds of un-wanted pregnancies.

Many can not report the rapes and beatings fearing both that they will loose their job, but many are illegal and would likely be deportedback to Burma where they could be put into slave labor, robbed or raped by the military SPDC forces. What do these people do? Who will help them. For now, no one can help … or will help in India.

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