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BurmaNet News Sept 10, 1994
************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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BurmaNet News: Saturday, September 10, 1994
QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"Thailand will provide the necessary humanitarian aid [for asylum-
seekers], and we would not send people back across a border if we felt
it was not safe for them to go back."
Abhisit Veijjajiva, Thai Government's Chief
Spokesman
"The Thai authorities cannot claim that this [Halockanie] is a safe
area. No one should be forced to go there."
Amnesty International
*************************************************************
Contents:
1: NATION: THAI GOVT SLATED BY AMNESTY AS MON REFUGEES RETURN TO BURMESE CAMP
2: AP: MON REFUGEES BEING 'STARVED BACK' TO BURMA
3: NATION: MONS AND THAIS: NO LONGER SO BROTHERLY
4: NDF: STATEMENT ON HALOCKANI REFUGEE ISSUE
6: BKK POST: MON FACTION IN TELEVISED SURRENDER TO BURMESE GOVERNMENT
7: BKK POST: FAIRNESS OF BURMA GAS DEAL QUESTIONED IN LIGHT OF PRICE
8: NGO ROLE IN AIDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO BE LIMITED
9: NATION: DRIVEN OVER THE EDGE--FRAGGING IN THE TATMADAW
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NATION: THAI GOVT SLATED BY AMNESTY AS MON REFUGEES RETURN TO BURMESE CAMP
September 9
Thousands of Mon refugees who have been taking shelter at a Thai border
checkpoint since a July 21st raid by Burmese troops on their camp at
Halockanie, have started to return to Burma.
The move coincides with the release of a scathing report by the human rights
group Amnesty International on Thailand's treatment of asylum-seekers,
particularly those from Burma.
The report expresses concern that such treatment "does not meet minimum
international standards."
"It is a disgrace that asylum-seekers in Thailand--who have fled from their
own countries often in fear for their lives--are treated no differently from
migrants working without a permit or tourists who have overstayed a visa,"
Amnesty International said.
The Mon National Relief Committee said yesterday that the refugees began
filing back to Halockhani from the Ban Ton Yang border checkpoint on
Wednesday. He said it was possible all 6,000 refugees would have returned by
today, but their move might not be completed until early next week.
Thai authorities had kept the refugees cut off from the outside world since
Aug 10th, and from their now rice supplies since Aug 31st. The refugees had
been living off rice soup and vegetables for the last week. The authorities
have promised to re-open access to rice supplies once the refugees have
returned to Halockhani.
Kasauh Mon said that the refugees are still asking for a written guarantee
from the Thai government, promising that they would be safe in Halockhani,
and for permanent access to Halockhani from non-governmental agencies
delivering supplies, such as rice and medicine.
Although Thai military officials have declared it is safe for the refugees to
return, the refugees had previously refused for security reasons to go back.
Their stance was supported by Amnesty International.
"The Thai authorities cannot claim that this is a safe area" the human rights
group said. "No one should be forced to go there."
The refugees would also like an international aid organization such as the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) to open a permanent office in Halockhani to monitor the
situation, Kasuah Mon said.
But a UNHCR representative yesterday said that, although a permanent
international presence in Halockhani would be a good idea, it probably would
not be feasible for the UNHCR.
"It remains unclear if the camp is in Burma or Thailand," said the UNHCR
source, who asked not to be named. "If it is in Burma, the matter would have
to be handled by the UNHCR's Burmese office, and I cannot see the Burmese
government allowing them a permanent office there.
"Also, if we had a permanent office in Halockhani, we might be asked to open
one in all the border camps, and financially we cannot afford that."
The source added that the UNHCR would request permission to have permanent
access to Halockhani from the National Security Council (NSC), rather than be
a permanent presence in the camp.
Amnesty International criticized Thai authorities for their failure to
distinguish asylum-seekers fleeing human rights abuses abroad and economic
migrants seeking work.
"Amnesty International is concerned that the treatment of asylum-seekers in
the Kingdom of Thailand does not meet minimum international standards and
that some refugees are subject to detention, ill-treatment and forcible
return to countries where they may face serious risk of human rights
violations." the group states in a report released yesterday entitled
"Thailand: Burmese and other asylum-seekers at risk."
"Thailand has allowed large numbers [of refugees] from Cambodia, Laos, Burma
and Vietnam to stay within its borders for many years, but recently the
treatment of asylum seekers and refugees has become increasingly harsh," the
report continues.
"In particular those from Myanmar (Burma), who now form the largest single
group of refugees in the country, as they are at risk of detention and
forcible return."
The human rights group claimed the Halockhani case was the latest event in a
Thai crackdown which was putting refugees at risk.
It was especially critical of the fact that "there are no procedures by which
asylum-seekers can gain legal protection in Thailand, and there is no special
recognition of their particularly vulnerable situation."
Both the NSC and the Kanchanaburi based 9th Infantry Division have denied
that the 6,000 Mon from Halockhani were refugees , and have claimed that they
must return to their home country along with other "illegal immigrants."
"Once an asylum-seeker is arrested and found not to have the appropriate
documentation, prosecution for "illegal immigration" follows," the report
added.
Amnesty International also decried the conditions at Bangkok's Immigration
Detention Centre, which it said fall "a long way short of basic international
minimum standards and in some cases amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment."
The report noted that the forcible return of refugees to countries where they
may face serious risk of human rights violations contravenes the principle of
non-refoulement, as stated in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees.
Amnesty International urgently called on the government of Thailand to accede
to and implement the terms of this convention, and to establish a fair and
adequate procedure that would enable all refugees to present their reasons
for fearing to return to their home country.
*************************************************************
AP: MON REFUGEES BEING 'STARVED BACK' TO BURMA
SEPTEMBER 6 1994
AUTHORITIES have starved hundreds of Burmese refugees out of
Thailand and back to their homeland by seizing their rice
supply,a activist chargedyesterday.
"They couldn't tolerate it any longer," said Kasauh Mon of the
MNRC. "They want to stay on the Thai side..but they no
choice." The Mon fled into Thailand on July 22, when Burmese soldiers
torched their camp. Thai authorities - who maintain good
relations with Burma's junta - have said the refugees must
return home. But MOn have so far refused, inciting that the area
remain unsafe.
Several week ago, Thai troops blocked access to the refugee
camp, cutting the Mon off from medicine and other international aid.
Last Wednesday, they stepped up the pressure and cut the
refugees off from about 70,000 kg in rice supplies alone the border.
Poldeg Worachatr, acting director of the Foreign Ministry's
Press Division, said Thailand had agreed to let the refugees stay
and never would have resorted to such pressure tactics to force
them out. He insisted authorities must have a good reason for
cutting the refugees off from their rice supplies but did not know
what that reason might be.
*************************************************************
NATION: MONS AND THAIS: NO LONGER SO BROTHERLY
September 6
Thailand's demand for Burmese resources, and its sudden
intolerance for refugees, has source its relationship with the
Mon, writes The Nation's James Fahn
MON official are fond of saying that the Mon and Thai peoples
are phi-nong kan: brotherly.
They reel off lists of famous Thais who purport to have Mon
blood in them, including both Anand Panyarachon and Suchinda
Kraprayoon. They also note that the same Burmese king who
sacked Ayuddhaya more than 200 years ago also destroyed the Mon
kingdom of Pegu.
More to point, Mon separatists who have been fighting Burma's
military regimes have always been able to count on Thailand's
tacit support to help keep its supply lines open.
So it is great consternation that they see Thai authorities
slowly but surely turning their back on the Mon - and other
ethnic groups fighting the Slorc - in favor of the
Rangoon-based junta, which has far more abundant resources under its
control.
Thailand's NSC, considered the architects of Thailand Burma
policy, has apparently decided that it is no longer necessary to have
a buffer between Thai and Burmese forces along the border.
While Thai in general do feel sympathy and kinship toward the
Mon, they also same fed up with harboring refugees created by
war in neighboring countries. Continuing squabbles with Cambodia
have add to this "compassion fatigue".
Hence the recent crackdown by Thai authorities on illegal
immigrants and refugees from Burma who have found sanctuary in
Thai border regions for years, in some cases decades.
Nai Pe Thein Zea, the assistant in charge of foreign affairs
for the NMSP, the Mon separatist movement's political wing,
claims party leaders did not even discuss the refugees issue
during their recent intensive meeting. "We have look after our people in
border areas, but we also have to respect Thai sovereignty," he says.
THE Mon,he points out, are eager to have good relations with
the Thai government. So he cannot state what many analysts clearly
recognize; that certain groups in Thailand are trying to force
the Mon into signing a ceasefire with the Slorc by pushing Mon
refugees into a vulnerable position.
"After the Thais decided to moved the refugees to Halockhani,
we realized they would be vulnerable to attack from the Slorc,"
Pe Thain Zea explains. "So we have try to talk the Slorc. But
that does not mean we have to do whatever they say."
Thailand, on the other hand, is chronically concerned about
the security of its energy supply, but the Burmese gas is
especially tempting for economic reasons.
"Thailand does not need Burmese gas. There are enough low-cost
energy alternatives in the region," says Dr Charles Johnson,
an energy analyst at the East-West Center who stresses that he is
neither arguing for or against the pipeline project.
However, Malaysia also has more bargaining power than Burma. A
PTT official told The Nation recently that negotiation to
import gas from Malasia were proceeding slowing were proceeding
slowly because Malaysia wants to refine the resource at home and
export only end-products to Thailand.
The NMSP's opposition is that the gas belongs to the Mon
people.Rather than benefitting from the gas, however, Pe Thein
Zea is afraid the pipeline will be built in much the same way
as the Ye- Tavoy Railway: with forced labor. "This violates our human rights,
so we will oppose the pipeline by any means," he says.
Nor is gas the only resource coveted by Burma's neighbors.
Thai investors have used the conflict between Slorc and opposition
groups to buy up timber concession in Burma, and have
contributed to the rapid depletion of Burma's marine resources.
" Many Mon fishermen have lost their jobs because they cannot
compete with Thai trawlers that have fishing concessions along
the cost, along with those from Japan, Malaysia and Singapore," says the Mon
official. By opposing the pipeline, the Mon are playing a dangerous
game.
Squeezed between Burmese soldiers and Thai business interests,
however, they seem to have little choice. In fact, BPP officials claim they
were at one point given an order to tear down the refugees' huts at New
Halockhani, but managed to reject it - a wise decision considering the
attention the issue has received.
*************************************************************
NDF: STATEMENT ON HALOCKANI REFUGEE ISSUE
National Democratic Front
Burma
The national resistance forces of the NDF have always endeavored for a
settlement of the long civil war in Burma by political means. Some of the
NDF members accordingly responded to the overturn for talks by the SLORC.
However, due to the refusal of SLORC to find a political solution, there
have been no positive developments.
While the New Mon State Party, a member of NDF, had been holding talks with
the SLORC, at the feasibility level, for cease-fire and peace, the attack by
SLORC troops on Halockhani Mon Refugee Camp was a serious matter.
The arrangement by the local Thai authorities to push back over 6,000 Mon
refugees from Halockhani Camp and the blocking off of assistance from the
UNHCR and the NGOs to them, before peace has been established, is a cause for
concern and distress, as this can lead to more complication, tension,
instability and insecurity in a wider area.
In fact, the Thai authorities should protect these refugees according to
international practices and in consultation with the Mon National Relief
Committee. The Mon refugees on the Thai-Burma border are not there for
economic reasons as has been alleged but because of extreme brutality and
systematic persecution by the SLORC troops.
The issue of Mon, Karen and Karenni refugees is closely related to the issue
of genuine peace and stability. The NDF has been endeavoring to secure this,
and therefore it should be treated with deliberate care and consideration for
the long term benefit of all concerned and not for the short term and limited
benefit of a few.
September 10, 1994
Central Executive Committee
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BKK POST: MON FACTION IN TELEVISED SURRENDER TO BURMESE GOVERNMENT
September 6
A faction belonging to the MNSP surrendered to the Burmese
military government in YE Township on Sunday.
The surrender was televised on Burmese television.About 25 Mon
freedom fighters, led by Battalion Commander Thala
pan,formally surrendered to the Ket Sein, commander of the MON state at a
ceremony after striking a deal with the Burmese military on
Sep 2.
Thala pan, 54, according from the Mon sources, retired from
the NMSP about 6 months ago. Nai Shwe Kyin, president of the NMSP
and Chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Burma, was said not to
be involved in the surrender.
The group which surrendered to the Burmese military regime
belongs to the faction led by Nai Pantha, 73, a central
executive committee member of the NMSP. He gave himself up at the
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok in March 1992.
Commander Thala Pan is said to be a close associate of Nai
Pantha. The surrender was arranged by Nai Saktho, a former officer of
the Mon National Liberation Army. The MNSP which operates in southeast Burma
near the border with Thailand, is on the two ethnic minority minority
guerrilla groups fighting the military dictatorship for greater autonomy.
The Mon and the Karen are still holding out against the Burmese
military regime's recent "peace overtures" to return to the
fold. Meanwhile, Mon sources said 500 more illegal Burmese
immigrants were trucked to the New Halockhani camp on Friday.
Later, about 130 illegal immigrants were given 6 condensed
milk tins of rice to make the journey back to Burma which takes
about five days. Mon sources say none of them attempted the trip.
On Aug 30, seven soldiers from the 9th Division closed down
the rice barn in New Halockhani camp and stopped the supply of
grain to the refugees at the Old Halockhani camp which is about 100
yards away from the Thai BPP checkpoint, say Mon sources in
Sangkhla Buri.
*************************************************************
BKK POST: FAIRNESS OF BURMA GAS DEAL QUESTIONED IN LIGHT OF PRICE
September 6
Gas piped from gulf of Thailand estimated to be 45% cheaper
by Boonsong Kositchotethana and Chatrudee Theparat
THE base price of natural gas to be bought from Burma under an
agreement scheduled to be signed later this week is
substantially higher than for gas piped from the Gulf of Thailand, casting
doubts on whether the deal will serve the country's best
interests.
Simple comparisons show that the agreed base gas price from
the Yadana field in Burma's Gulf of Mataban is about 45%
higher than what PTT is paying for gas produced from's Unocal
Thailand gas field in Gulf of Thailand.
Prime minister's Office minister Savit Bhodivihok, who is
accompanying Prime Minister Chuan Leeppai on a state visit to
Japan, yesterday confirmed that the current base price of
Yadana gas is US$ 2.52 per one million BTU(British terminal Units).
Using an annual 3% inflation rate as one of pricing factors,
the gas price of Yadana, to be developed by France's Total and
US based Unocal, will escalate to $3 per one million BTU by
mid-1998 when the field is expected to come on stream.
PTT now pays Unocal Thailand $1.74 (about 43,57bath) per one
million BTU for gas from the Erawan field under the first gas
supply contract based on the wellhead price basis.
The national oil company is expected to pay about 47bath per
one million BTU for gas coming from Unocal Thailand's gas
fields under the second and its extended contracts starting
next month at the start of the new contract year.
PTT is also required to invest billions of bath in laying a
pipeline from Pilok, Kanchanaburi, to be connected with the
offshore gas line at Yadana, some 320 kilometers south of
Rangoon. Investment in the pipeline on Burmese territory will
be shouldered by the gas field developers.
Dr. Savit said the cost of the pipeline, laid in Thai
territory, will add 70-80 US sent per one million BTU to the Yadana gas
price. This will increase the gas price even more.
Both parties have agreed on the YAdana gas delivery rate of
about 550 million cubic feet(MM cfd)
It was not known yesterday what factors are fuelling the
higher prices of Yadana gas compared to Unocal Thailand's Gulf
of Thailand prices. PTT officials yesterday declaimed to
comment.
But a Total executive said earlier that the Yadana structure
is less complicated than gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand.
Therefore, it is expected to be easier and less expensive to
develop and produce. "May be it can produce four trillion cubic feet(Tcf)
from only 40 well, whereas in Bangkok or Erawan(two major gas field
in the Gulf of Thailand) you need as many 300 well to produce
the same amount of gas," said the executive.
But one energy analyst said the Burmese govrnment's take may
be the key factor in the higher gas price. The Electricity Generating
Authority of Thailand is planning a 2,100-megawatt combined-cycle power
station in Ratcha Buri province to operate on Yadana gas.
*************************************************************
NGO ROLE IN AIDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO BE LIMITED
Chaing Mai
THAILAND will not become involved in Burma's internal affairs,
especially conflict with it minority groups, and it will limit
the activities nongovernmental organizations in helping
illegal immigrants from Burma.
NSC secretary Gen Charan Kullavanich said yesterday NGO
assistance for ileal immigrant could to misunderstandings
between the governments of Thailand and Burma.
Gen Charan said the seminar was aimed at explaining the
Council's policy under the new national security plan to about 100
senior officials including 35 county magistrates and police chiefs
from ten provinces bordering Burma.
Four major problems along the border, territorial boundaries
and drug smuggling. Illegal immigrants are the biggest problem for Thailand
as more them 300,000 from Burma are living in Thailand, not only at
border points but in major cities. Gen Charan said Thailand would provide
camps for Burmese immigrants escaping fighting in their country, but these
would only be temporary and the residents sent back as soon as the
fighting stops. He said Thailand was not rich but spent a lot
of money on this service every tear. Thailand will not accept the
immigrants as refugees despite the urging of other countries.
"We have to keep jobs for our own citizens and we believe the
Burmese Government is able to solve its internal problems. We
are willing to help but when everything in their country is
settled, they have to go back,"he said.
Gen Charan said he was confident a reduction in the number of
illegal immigrants would have solve the problem of drugs as
Thailand has successes in reducing opium growing where its
neighbors have not. He said, border point had been closed despite the effect
on the border trade because the security of the Thai people and the
solidarity of the country most come before trade benefits.
The boundary between Thailand and Burma must be finalized as
soon as possible, he said.
There will be a meeting next month to discuss policy and way
of cooperation to solve any problems. Chiang Mai Police Commander Maj-Gen
Sanam Kongmuang said Chiang Mai had become a target city for illegal
immigrants seeking work.
***************************************************************
NATION: DRIVEN OVER THE EDGE
by Kevin Heppner
August, 1994
On June 6 at a remote Burma Army post in the Papun Hills, a ragged
group of 11 young soldiers took matters into their own hands,
shooting their 3 superiors and fleeing to a Karen rebel camp near
the Thai border. This is their story. (Written by Kevin Heppner)
Note: In the following text the names of the deserters have been
changed so that SLORC cannot associate their names with specific
statements or acts, in order to help protect their families.
"I shot Corporal Thein Win myself. After killing him I was very
happy!" A note of childlike enthusiasm creeps into Ye Kyaw's
voice as he describes shooting his own Corporal in his sleep.
After all, Ye Kyaw is only 17 years old. He looks and acts more
like a schoolboy than a trained killer, but until last month he
was a member of Burma's notorious Tatmadaw army, condemned worldwide
for its horrific human rights abuses against civilians, including
massacres, executions, torture, gang rape and mass slavery. As
Ye Kyaw and his friends begin to tell their stories, though, it
becomes clear that the Tatmadaw is brutal to its own soldiers
as well - so brutal that in a final act of desperation, he and
his 10 comrades shot their two Lance Corporals and a Warrant Officer
and ran.
None of the 11 young soldiers was a willing recruit. The Tatmadaw
is the army of Burma's ruling military junta, the State Law &
Order Restoration Council, better known as SLORC, which has so
little popular support that it could only manage to win two percent
of the seats in a general election in 1990 - so it then ignored
the election. Now the SLORC wants to expand the Tatmadaw, already
over 300,000 strong, to a force of half a million men. It used
to be a volunteer army, but now the SLORC finds that it must rely
almost completely on forced conscription. According to Zaw Myint,
the eldest of the group at age 25, "None of us were volunteers.
We were all forced. Inside Burma, one person from each house
has to join the Army. If they don't, they're forced. Each month
my township has to provide 300 recruits for the Army." He explains
how the total is divided up among the town wards and villages,
a few people from each. "If the local authorities can't fill
the quota then they have to go themselves, or be sent to jail.
So they just grab anybody, no matter who. When we were in training
some of the draftees were over 50 - one man was 56 years old.
And the youngest were 15. The old men can't do the training,
so they just cook in the kitchen for 4 months and then they're
sent to the frontline."
Maung Thein Mya, now 16, was only 14 when he was recruited. "When
I was walking home from school in Da Ko Kanoh, a group of soldiers
grabbed me near the market. They said 'You must join the Army.
If you join your life will be very good'. I was so young and
I didn't know anything, so I agreed to join. They took me with
them to Rangoon, and my parents never knew. Now when I remember
it I feel very sorrowful." Shwe Hla was also only 14 when he
joined in 1991: "My brother was picked in the local draft lottery,
but he'd just finished high school so I told him 'You carry on
with school. I'll go in the Army for you', and I pretended to
be him. Now he's in college." Most of the others were simply
drafted out of their homes with no chance to refuse. "Some boys
refuse because they're the only child and have to care for their
parents", says Zaw Myint. "They're sent to jail for 2 or 3 years,
and even after that they're not released, but sent to do labour
on the railroads for SLORC". Conscription is for 5 years, but
these soldiers say that draftees reaching the end of their 5 years
are simply told they cannot leave.
After 4 months of basic weapons training fraught with daily beatings
by drunken officers and sand in their rice as a routine punishment,
each of these 11 was assigned to 434 Battalion near Papun and
sent to a tiny post atop Hill 1653. Here the Tatmadaw has been
fighting a dirty war against the Karen National Liberation Army
for over 45 years. Tatmadaw troops routinely take revenge for
Karen Army attacks by executing Karen villagers in the area and
destroying their villages, keeping the villagers down using brutality
and extortion. For the conscripted soldiers, life at the frontline
was unbearable. "The NCOs [Non-Commissioned Officers] ordered
us to massage them and if we didn't do it well they beat us.
If they thought we were complaining they beat us. When we were
sick they beat us. When they got drunk they beat us", says Maung
Hla Tint. "My salary was 750 Kyat per month, but I was only given
300 Kyat at the most. I don't know why they cut the rest. They
do this to every soldier." At current open market rates inside
Burma, 750 Kyat is worth about US $7, while 300 Kyat is less than
US $3. The others claim the NCOs and officers stole over half
their pay to buy alcohol. They also stole the rations, leaving
the soldiers only wormeaten rice and fishpaste full of insects
to eat. Zaw Myint says, "The higher authorities steal all the
supplies. If you get malaria, instead of giving you a whole tablet
of chloroquine they only give you a small piece of one. You have
to buy your own medicine. Some men couldn't bear it and shot
themselves. Within a month 4 or 5 men in the battalion shot themselves,
and many others died of malaria. The officers reported the suicides
as battlefield casualties." 16-year-old Maung Thein Mya was often
sick: "I had malaria. When I had fever and vomiting they didn't
care for me. If they had medicine, they didn't give me any because
they said I was faking it. They beat me with a cane for being
too weak to go and carry water".
The soldiers got no leave, weren't allowed to listen to radio
or read newspapers, and when 18-year-old Maung Hla Tint tried
to write a letter to his family, "It was just a very simple letter.
I didn't write anything about my life in the Army. But after
I finished it an NCO found it, crumpled it and tore it up". He
says things were even worse for those who got wounded: "If they
were only slightly wounded and could follow us, then the officers
let them come. But if a wounded man couldn't follow us, then
even if he wasn't terribly wounded they'd kill him. Sometimes
they'd kill him themselves with a gun or bayonet, or sometimes
they'd just leave him there. The company commander ordered this."
"It's a crime", adds Zaw Myint. "Our own soldiers, we must carry
them back but we don't. It's like frog eating frog, fish eating
fish". Regarding Karen prisoners of war, he adds "If they catch
a Karen soldier they don't let him live. They just say to him
'Pray to your God' and kill him with a bayonet. Then sometimes
the NCO's fry his heart and liver and eat them. I saw Corporal
Aung Myint do this once."
Local villagers were forced to come and work on fences and bunkers
at the camp every day, and were also captured to be munitions
and supply porters in the mountainous terrain. "They aren't given
enough food and no medicine, so they get weaker and weaker and
then the NCOs kill them", says Zaw Myint. "Others tried to run
away so they were shot. The officers made the porters go in front
in battle areas so they'd be shot first. The NCOs usually made
the porters wear their uniforms, and the officers didn't criticize
them for this." Ironically, a sympathetic relationship developed
between the abused soldiers and the suffering villagers. "Every
month the officers ordered us to go and get porters", says Zaw
Myint. "But we were all weak and thin from poor food, so when
the villagers saw us some of them were very kind and gave us food.
We didn't want to take them as porters. Then the officers yelled
at us: 'Are these your brothers-in-law? Are you a rebel?' and
put us in the camp jail. Once they beat me on the back 20 or
30 times with an iron bar for this, then tied me up in the hot
sun without food or water all day, with my legs in stocks and
only short pants on." He still bears the marks of the beating
on his back. He describes how some villagers secretly brought
him water during his torture, just as he had tried to slip them
some food while they were porters. Maung Hla Tint then lifts
his shirt, showing the scar from the time Corporal Than Tun put
a knife in the fire, then tortured him with it just because he
was asleep on his feet from a night and a day of sentry duty.
The officers repeatedly told them that their throats would be
cut if they ever ran to the Karen, and after seeing how their
own army treated Karen prisoners it was tempting to believe it.
But eventually they decided the risk just didn't matter anymore.
Maung Hla Tint describes the night of June 4, when it all became
too much for them: "That night the NCOs and officers were playing
cards. Every night they drank and played cards, and if one of
them was losing he beat and abused us. That night they were all
drunk and they'd beaten every one of us, and we said to each other
'We've got to escape'. We decided we'd have to kill them first,
so at 11 or 12 o'clock Zaw Myint, Ye Kyaw and the medic shot Cpl.
Than Tun, Cpl. Thein Win and Warrant Officer Han Tun in their
sleep. We took our guns and ran."
SLORC was quick to respond. On June 10, just 2 days after the
deserters had passed through the Karen village of Oo Ree Kee,
Battalion Commander Tin Maung Aye of their own 434 Battalion
summoned the head of every household in the village to come to
the army camp. Only 70-year-old village headman U Shwe Aye and
a 30-year-old villager named Maung Po Saw dared go. When they
got there they were immediately interrogated by Tin Maung Aye,
then he told them they could go. They were murdered by the security
guards as soon as they left the camp. The troops warned everyone
in their village to get out, and they fled into the jungle in
fear a week later. On June 18 the same troops marched into Nya
Sah Kee village saying they were looking for deserters, and executed
Maung Toe Nyo, the 50 year old village headman. "Now people there
don't dare go back to their villages, because they might be tortured
or killed", says Pado Yoshu, chairman of the Karen Office of Relief
and Development, which is now urgently trying to get help to the
villagers. "They weren't able to take more than 1 or 2 baskets
of food with them, and as it is rainy season they're facing a
lot of hardship. Some are just making huts out of leaves in the
forest". The Tatmadaw takes similar action whenever its soldiers
desert, hoping to use terror so that its deserters will never
be harboured by villagers. It doesn't work, because usually the
villagers don't even know what they're being terrorized for, they
only know that the Tatmadaw is doing it. Meanwhile, the number
of desertions is steadily increasing in all frontline areas.
"They all want to come", says Zaw Myint. "A lot more will come
now that we've shown them the way."
These eleven made it to a Karen Army post, where the Karen took
their guns, gave them civilian clothes and fed them their first
decent meal in a long time. The story of their mutiny ensured
them a friendly reception. However, the fate of their families
inside Burma is not so certain. Young Maung Thein Mya is fearful:
"Now that I've escaped from SLORC with a gun, I'm worried what
they'll do to my family. They might make trouble for them, or
arrest them as hostages and call me to come back." Such tactics
would not be new to SLORC, which has reportedly done the same
to the families of rebel officers before. Most Burma analysts
agree that there is nothing SLORC fears more than a split or mutiny
in the Army, and as a result "Attempting to Divide the Defence
Forces" is a worse crime than murder on their lawbooks.
All these worries now fill the thoughts of these young men from
day to day, as they pass the time in a Karen National Union camp
near the Thai border. But for most of them, any thought of joining
the Karens' battle against their old army is far from their minds.
"I want to get work doing odd jobs", says young Maung Thein Mya.
"I can't join the Revolution, because I'm too afraid to join
anybody's army any more".
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