BurmaNet News: September 23, 1994

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"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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BurmaNet News: Friday, September 23, 1994
Issue #23

QUOTES OF THE DAY:

"They [the military regime] must have been sincere and had good reason to
hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.  There is nothing else that we can think
of."

                         Don Pramudwinai, Director-General of the East Asian
                         Affairs Department, Thai Foreign Ministry


"It is difficult to trust Slorc's motives when you know that while they were
planning to meet Ms Suu Kyi they were also arresting her political
supporters," 
                         Amnesty International

*************************************************************
Contents:

1:  BKK POST: FIRMS DOING BUSINESS WITH SLORC WARNED
2:  REUTERS: AMNESTY GIVES CAUTIOUS WELCOME TO SUU KYI TALKS
3:  BKK POST: THAI FOREIGN MINISTRY SEES ENCOURAGING SIGNS IN BURMA
4:  BURMANET: TIME TO PAINT HOUSES AGAIN
5:  REUTERS: KARENS, TATMADAW BATTLE NEAR MYAWADDY
6:  BURMANET: MONS TELL OF FIGHTING NEAR PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN
7:  OVER SIXTY ILLEGAL ALIENS HELD IN KANCHANABURI
8:  WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
9:  BURMANET: "JUST ONE OF THE MON"
10: KHRG: SLORC IN SOUTHERN SHAN STATE, PART 1 OF 2
11: REUTERS: BANGLADESH SEIZES THAI FISHERMAN


*************************************************************
BKK POST: FIRMS DOING BUSINESS WITH SLORC WARNED
September 23, 1994

The prime minister of the democratically elected government of Burma, Dr Sein
Win, last week formally warned companies seeking business with Burma's ruling
junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

He said that their contracts will be reviewed and possibly cancelled when the
legitimate government of Burma is installed in Rangoon.  U Sein Win made his
remarks during a morning press conference at the National Press Club in
Washington.  A copy of his statement was obtained by the Bangkok Post
yesterday.

"I am warning companies doing business or thinking of business contacts with
SLORC, you stand an excellent chance of losing your investment when the
democratically elected government is returned to power," Sein Win said.  "
In particular, US oil companies such as Unocal, Texaco, and Total [French],
should think very seriously about divesting themselves from their joint
venture with SLORC.

U Sein Win was referring to the agreement reached recently between Unocal and
Total on a joint venture offshore drilling field located 70 kilometers off
Burma's coast.

Plans call for an underground pipeline that will send gas to a power plant in
Thailand.  Texaco is conducting drilling and oil exploration in Burma and has
secured rights to drill offshore in the Yetagun gas field and will provide
energy to Thailand.

"There is clear evidence that slave labour and human rights abuses are
occurring in connection with the Unocal-Total project," he stated.  "The
Burmese Army has moved whole villages and thousands of people have been
relocated, their lives ruined, to secure that pipeline area.  Companies that
participate in this kind of project deserve as much blame as SLORC," he
added.

"The blood of the Burmese people is upon their hands and this will not be
forgotten."  According to US and United Nations' reports, the SLORC is one of
the most egregious violators of human rights in the world.

"Investment in Burma only props up a group of drug smuggling thugs who happen
to run the country," U Sein Win said.
The US has failed to certify Burma as cooperating on narcotics issues since
1988.  Since that time, opium production has skyrocketed and, according to a
report by the State Department, the Burmese army has been implicated in drug
trafficking.

Burma is the world's top producer of opium and the source for approximately
80 per cent of the heroin n ow flooding the streets of America.  "The
military junta is not only getting rich off US companies, but also from
heroin being produced and shipped to the US," U Sein Win stated.

"The time will come when we will again return to power.  We have contacts and
are organising inside Burma.  Or movement has hundreds of thousands of
followers who still believe in a democratic, free Burma," he said.

"One only has to look at what occurred in East Germany, Poland, Hungary,
Romania, the former Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, and the Philippines
where democracy has triumphed over tyranny.  The events in Cuba only remind
us that a regime which attempts to maintain stability through terror is
doomed to fail"

*************************************************************
REUTERS: AMNESTY GIVES CAUTIOUS WELCOME TO SUU KYI TALKS
September 23, 1994

This week's meeting between Burma's dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
junta leaders was encouraging but the regime should release her and scores of
other political prisoners, according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty, in a statement received in Bangkok yesterday, said it hoped
Tuesday's meeting in Rangoon between Suu Kyi and two top generals was the
first step towards further talks between military leaders and the opposition.

It was the first time Suu Kyi met leaders of Burma's junta, officially known
as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), since she was placed
under house arrest in July 1989.

"While we welcome this first meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi since her
detention more than five years ago, we do not want to see it become an empty
gesture," the UK-based human rights group said.

"We are still calling for her immediate and unconditional release, along with
more than 70 other prisoners of conscience detained by the military
government."

Burma's state television on Tuesday briefly showed pictures of the 49 year
old Suu Kyi talking at an army guest house with junta leader General Than
Shwe and military intelligence chief Lt Gen Khin Nyunt.

The official media released no details of the discussion, nor did it say how
long it lasted.  Echoing analysts and opponents of the regime, Amnesty said
there was a possibility Tuesday's meeting as a public relations exercise by
Slorc to deflect international criticism.

Amnesty also pointed out that critics of military rule were still being
arrested and charged with political offences.  Four dissidents, including two
elected members of Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party, were arrested last month.

"It is difficult to trust Slorc's motives when you know that while they were
planning to meet Ms Suu Kyi they were also arresting her political
supporters," Amnesty said.

The Slorc was formed in September 1988 when the military, which has ruled
Burma since a 1962 coup, crushed a nationwide democracy uprising which swept
the country that year.

*************************************************************
BKK POST: THAI FOREIGN MINISTRY SEES ENCOURAGING SIGNS IN BURMA
September 23, 1994

The Foreign Ministry views the meeting between the Burmese military junta nd
the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday as an improvement in
their internal situation.

Director-General of the East Asian Affairs Department Don Pramudwinai said
although the topics of their discussion was still unknown, friendly dialogue
is always a good sign.

"They [the military regime] must have been sincere and had good reason to
hold talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.  There is nothing else that we can think
of," he said.

Mr Don made the comment in response to the report that Gen Than Shwe,
chairman of the SLORC, had a "friendly discussion" with the symbol of Burma's
democratic movement after her five years of house arrest.

The director-general however, said the meeting did not appear t be a turning
point for the SLORC to free Aung San Suu Kyi.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri, speaking before the Association
for Foreign Policies in Germany on Tuesday said he had received a report that
the dialogue would take place.

He said ASEAN remains convinced that the policy of constructive engagement is
the most suitable approach towards Burma.

"We have played our role to make its leadership aware of the benefits that
would ensure their political and economic reforms and encourage them to keep
the momentum of the changes going," Sqn Ldr Prasong said.

The foreign minister said ASEAN was also encouraged but he positive changes
in Burma as its participation in the ASEAN meeting in Bangkok last July
reflected the mutual recognition of the need for ASEAN and Burma to foster
better understanding and cooperation.

*************************************************************
BURMANET: TIME TO PAINT HOUSES AGAIN

Burma's government has ordered Rangoon residents to paint their houses once
again.  The order, announced on Radio Rangoon, gives residents until the end
of the year and threatens unspecified punishments for those who fail to
comply.

*************************************************************
REUTERS: KARENS, TATMADAW BATTLE NEAR MYAWADDY

Ethnic Karen guerrillas shelled a Burmese border village opposite Mae Sot
district on Wednesday, killing two villagers and wounding a number of others.

Thai border sources said the attack started about 2 am.  The Karen forces
fired six 107-mm mortar shells into Yebu village, which is about three
kilometres from Thailand.

Sources confirmed the number of dead but could not be certain of the number
of wounded.  They said the injured were sent by Burmese troops to a hospital
in the Burmese border town of Myawaddy.

The same evening, Karen forces also attacked a small Burmese army post south
of the Karen's 101st Kawmoora base, and killed one non-commissioned soldier,
the sources said.

Fighting along the border between the Burmese army and Karen guerrillas has
been less frequent than previously for nearly two years, following the
Burmese junta's attempts to bring various armed ethnic movements to ceasefire
negotiations.

Rangoon is trying to convince the Karen National Union, the largest remaining
armed group, to attend truce talks inside Burma.  The KNA however, insists
that any negotiations take place outside Burma and in the presence of
international observers.

*************************************************************
BURMANET: MONS TELL OF FIGHTING NEAR PRACHUAB KHIRI KHAN

BurmaNet has a report from a Mon source of fighting near Prachup in the
Tenasserim Division, which is accross from Prachuab Khiri Khan in Southern
Thailand.  According to the source, fighting occured in the village of Kwe
Pak in Mergui Township on the 21st of September between a column of Tatmadaw
troops and a mixed force of Mon, ABSDF and Tavoyan rebels.  The SLORC troops
were reported to have been moving from Mergui to Prachub camp.  No casualty
figures are available.

*************************************************************
BKK POST: OVER SIXTY ILLEGAL ALIENS HELD IN KANCHANABURI
September 23, 1994

More than sixty illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Mon from Burma who are
illegally living in Sangkhla Buri District of this province, were rounded up
by a combined force of police, immigration officials and Border Patrol Police
yesterday.

During the round-up the authorities used 10-wheel trucks travelling to many
places not only in Sankhla Buri municipal area, but also to nearby villages
where the ethnic Mon are illegally living.

*************************************************************
BURMANET: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

The story above raises several questions.  Much of Sangkla Buri's population
consists of "illegal immigrants" from Burma.  Although the majority in the
area are probably Mon, there are also large numbers of Karen, Burman, Indian
and other ethnic nationalities.  That the authorities concentrated on
arresting Mons is curious.  That they went to the extent of hunting around in
nearby villages is even more so.

Sangkla Buri is the nearest large town to the Halockhani Refugee Camp, which
is about 20 kilometres away.  There is speculation that the roundup of Mons
in the area is in retribution for the refusal of refugees at Halockhani to
accept their repatriation to Burma quietly.  It is also possible that the
roundup is related to the New Mon State Party's announcement that it will no
longer negotiate with SLORC for a cease-fire.

*************************************************************
BURMANET: "JUST ONE OF THE MON"

BurmaNet has obtained a copy of a letter sent by a young Mon to the Bangkok
newspapers in reponse to Thai Army Chief Gen Wimol Wongwanich's warning to
anyone who would attempt to destroy the natural gas pipeline to be
constructed from Burma to Thailand through Mon territory.  The letter is
fairly intemperate so it is unlikely to be printed.

     Dear Sir,

     I am replying to some remarks made by General Wimol regarding the Mon
     refugees and the proposed pipeline to bring natural gas across Mon
     territory to Thailand--something the Mon have yet to be consulted about.

     First, sir, it is untrue that the Thai army in any way whatsoever tried
     to assist the Mon refugees who recently fled from a military attack on
     the refugee camp at Halockhani.  In fact, the army did precisely the
     opposite.  It harassed and started the refugees into repatriation.

     Secondly, it is patently untrue that the army forced the refugees back
     to Burma because Thailand, being a poor nation (its poverty, by the way,
     is largely with respect to morality) can't afford to support the Mon
     refugees.  The simple fact of the matter is that Thailand has never had
     to expend a single baht in support of the Mon refugees.  Their support
     has come wholly from non-government sources.  If anything, you made
     money off the refugees.

     Thirdly, please don't be shooting off your mouth about what you will do
     if the Mon forces decide to sabotage the pipeline.  If the pipeline were
     to be sabotaged and there is every likelihood it will be--it would be
     done deep inside Mon territory.  Given the fact that the Thai army is
     noted for its financial rather than its fighting skills, I rather doubt
     that you'd do anything other than groan.  However, were your soldiers
     ever to enter Mon territory in answer to any action taken by Mon forces,
     we'd have our womenfolk shoo them off with brooms.

     Finally, we are given to understand by the newspaper that you are
     enamored of the public practice of piety, a sort of `religion as a
     weekend hobby' wherein you frequent various Wats to burn joss sticks and
     make abundant prostration.  I hate to disappoint you , General, but none
     of this has anything to do with being religious--at least, not from the
     standpoint of Buddhism.  Buddhism, as we Mon understand it, is about
     truth and compassion, and I rather doubt from your recent words and
     actions that you are interested in either.

      /signed/

        Just one of the Mon

*************************************************************
KHRG: SLORC IN SOUTHERN SHAN STATE, PART 1 OF 2
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
August 20, 1994     /     KHRG #94-24


Notes - purpose of this report not to discuss politics or drugs
in Shan State, but the too-often ignored civilians who live and
suffer there

- geography including Tachilek/Mae Sai, fighting sites, Ho Mong
- interviews in Mae Sai July 31-Aug 3
- Akha forced across, Thais have now sealed whole border
- fighting sitn. at printing time
- SLORC's proposal for US aid
- topic summary
___________________________________________________________________________

+++++++++
NAME:     Sai On         SEX: M    AGE: 50   Shan Buddhist, gem trader
ADDRESS:  Tachilek area, southern Shan State

As a gem trader, Sai On constantly travels around southern Shan
State and talks to the people of many areas.

The SLORC is commandeering porters every day.  Lately they've
been doing it even in Tachilek town, and in Mong Pyak 60 miles
to the north, Mong Yawng 90 miles to the north, in San Sai, Hong
Luk, Huay Kai, Mae Hoke, Mong Yang, and in the village tracts
around them.  Also, if you go about 60 miles east of Tachilek
you'll find Mong Pone village tract, and Tah Ler village tract
30 miles to the north, they're taking porters there too.  At night
the troops surround the village and take everybody.  None of the
men are spared, they take them all.  In Mong Pone the monk pitied
the villagers so he pleaded with the SLORC authorities not to
take them as porters.  They told him he'd have to buy them 10
mules or else they'd take the people, so he bought them the mules
and now they've promised not to take the people there.  They use
everything as porters, people, mules, even people's private cars.
 The people are so afraid that they'll have to go as porters that
they're running away to Thailand, but the Thais won't accept them.

The next day they drive them back into Shan State at Tachilek,
and then they're all taken as porters by the Burmese.  The Thais
drove out more than 200 people one time, and the SLORC knew they'd
be driven back so they were waiting on the other side of the border.

The people didn't even reach their homes.  They were arrested
and taken to Loi Hsa Htoong, and the SLORC is keeping them there
until they need them as porters.  They're still there now.  The
Thais drove them back on June 6.

Loi Hsa Htoong is a SLORC Army headquarters.  They've put the
people inside a barbed wire fence and they're not allowed to see
any of their relatives.  It's impossible to say how many people
they're keeping there, because every day people are taken out
of there as porters, others come back from being porters and new
people are brought in.  I can't be sure, but I think there are
about two to three hundred people being held there.  People who
have fled being taken have told me about this, and many people
in Tachilek know about it.

On June 8 the MTA attacked SLORC at Loi Gong Mon, and the MTA
occupied it.  Now the SLORC is planning to retake it.  For now,
the attacks have lessened, but the MTA are still using guerrilla
tactics against them by night.  Now I've heard that the porters
at Loi Hsa Htoong are being sent to Mong Ker in northern Shan
State [near Hsipaw] because the SLORC is fighting big battles
there against the MTA and they need porters.  That's why the ruby
miners at Mong Hsu can't do business now.  Some of them came to
sell rubies and told me about it.  Fighting started at Mong Ker
10 days ago and it's still going on now, so the ruby business
has stopped.  The people being taken as porters around here and
held at Loi Hsa Htoong are now being sent up there.  They're taken
by truck to Nam Sang and kept roped tightly together on the truck.

The trip takes 2 nights and 3 days at this time of year.  They
let them get off the trucks to go to the toilet, but they're still
tied together with rope and under guard.  They can have no shame.

Some have even been taken by airplane to Nam Sang [because it
is now rainy season and the muddy roads are almost impassable].
>From there they have to go on foot.  It's 20 days walk.  None
of them have arrived up there yet, they're still on the way and
more are being sent now.  SLORC is also sending reinforcements
to the area from Lashio now.

To take porters in Tachilek town, at first they captured people
who were walking to their fields or to work and sent them to the
frontline or to Loi Hsa Htoong.  Then when people were afraid
to go out anymore, they started surrounding houses in the evening,
then at dawn they took whoever was in the house.  For 20 days
they even rounded people up in the market, so people from Thailand
didn't dare go across to Tachilek because they were afraid they
might be taken as porters [Tachilek is directly across the border
from the Thai town of Mae Sai, and a lot of trade goes across.

Thais are also racially related to the Shan, and could occasionally
be mistaken for Shan by Burmese soldiers].  Some Thais from Chonburi
came to Tachilek to buy rubies and 10 of them were taken as porters.
Their friends from Thailand had to buy them back.  Whoever is
taken, he has to pay if he wants to go free no matter who he is.

If the Thais hadn't paid, they would have had to go to the frontline
as porters.  First the SLORC demanded 100,000 Baht for each of
them, but they gave them 2,000 or 3,000 each and the soldiers
let them go back.  When they got back to Thailand they went to
the Thai provincial authorities and said Thailand should protest
about it, but the Thai Government didn't dare say anything.

They take everyone they see, even in the marketplace and in teashops,
even the women.  The youngest are 12 or 13 and as for the oldest,
even some people over 60 have to go as porters.  Some have been
porters for 2 months already and haven't been released yet.  Some
who are lucky return home in 10 days.  Sometimes they get sardines
with their rice, but usually they just get plain rice.  It's very
little, and often it's not enough.  Many get exhausted and die
along the way.  As for me, I have to pay bribes.  If I couldn't
pay them I'd probably have to go.  All the people just look on
SLORC as a bunch of bandits, not a government.  Their army too,
people say they're not an army, they're just bandits.

Now they're not going around to take porters as much, because
instead they give orders to the headmen in both the villages and
the towns to each have 20 people ready each day to be porters.

When the SLORC asks for them they have to be sent.  They started
this 3 months ago, and since then they've called for those people
all the time, so many times you can't even count it.  Every village
and section of town has to keep money ready as well.  The amount
depends on the size of the village - every household has to pay
40 to 200 Kyat regularly.  In very small villages with not enough
people to send porters, they have to send cash instead.  Whether
there's fighting or not the people have to do all of these things.

Even before when there was no fighting in Shan State, they took
people from here to go as porters in Karenni or Karen States.
Shan and Palaung people are taken the most often, but people
from every ethnic group have to go.

Every day the villagers also have to rotate going to fence the
military camps, cooking for them, fetching water for them, and
farming for them as unpaid labourers.  The villagers aren't even
fed.  They even have to wash the soldiers' clothes for them. 
The villagers' farms have been confiscated, and then the owners
are forced to go back and farm the land but all the profits go
to the military.  The farmers who have their land taken are in
trouble because they have no way to earn their living, so they
have to sell everything they own to survive, then when that's
exhausted they have to do something like run away to Thailand.
But the Thais never allow them to stay, and drive them back.

Those who are lucky have some relatives on the Thai side of the
border, so they can go one by one and stay very secretly.  Now
the SLORC is also bombing the villages.  Maybe they want to bomb
the soldiers, but they don't dare come down low enough so they
usually bomb the civilian villages instead.  The planes are from
China.

In every 10 households there's now at least one informer for Military
Intelligence.  They're forced to do it, they have to report everything
that happens in those 10 households every day, every hour.  If
anybody comes visiting, they have to report that such-and-such
person came to such-and-such house, what time he came and what
time he left.  They have to report every day.  If they don't obey
they'll be arrested, taken away and tortured.

The SLORC only wants the riches in Shan State and enough people
to serve them as porters.  The rest of the people they don't want,
just the land.  They want to occupy Shan State.  If the United
Nations comes and helps them it's a great mistake because their
aid will only help the SLORC, and in the future there won't be
any ethnic groups left except the Burmese.  I think the United
Nations doesn't know what's happening.  If they want to help the
people they should go to the people, not the SLORC.  [Several
UN Agencies, led by the UN Development Programme, are financing
SLORC's "income generation" and other projects in Shan State.]

Now the SLORC has brought in Chinese arms but they're mostly
useless, so they're trying to convince the Americans to send them
arms if they want the SLORC to eradicate opium.  Eradicate it?
The SLORC is even farming opium themselves!  Now most of the
poppy fields are owned by SLORC.  If you don't believe me, I'll
take you and show you.  Maybe the DEA [the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency] is sincerely trying to eradicate opium, but the SLORC
only lets them stay in Taunggyi, they don't let them see the countryside.
If you want to know where some of SLORC's poppy farms are, any
Shan farmer can take you and show you.  But if you ask SLORC,
they won't let you go into the countryside to see.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NAME:     Sai Naw Suk         SEX: M    AGE: 30   Shan Buddhist, farmer
ADDRESS:  Tachilek, previously from Mong Pyak, southern Shan State

Sai Naw Suk was taken as a porter for SLORC's offensive against
the MTA.

I'm a farmer, but sometimes I go to Mong Hsu to buy rubies to
trade.  About 2 months ago I went to Mong Hsu and bought some
rubies.  I was coming back by public car, and when I arrived at
Mong Pying [west of Kengtung] I was arrested.  All the travellers
were searched and all their valuables, like jewellery and money,
were robbed from them.  The soldiers said we could come back later
and ask for it back.  So I lost all my rubies.  Then they commandeered
another car and put us on it.  I was sent to Mong Hsat [west of
Tachilek], then to Mong Tung, then to Na Gong Mu, and on to Mong
Kyot by car [Mong Kyot is near the Salween River - it was the
area of the main fighting at the time].  They took 51 of us, and
there were many other similar groups.  About 200 of us altogether
were attached to #244 Battalion.  When we got to Mong Kyot there
were no people there because they'd already run away.  The SLORC
soldiers shot the pigs, buffalos, ducks, chickens, whatever they
saw they shot and ate.  Then we were taken into the hills as porters.

There was fighting with the MTA, and I had to carry artillery
shells.  The soldiers said all the villages were the villages
of rebels, so they arrested the men and went and slept with the
women.  They killed all the villagers' animals, and the people
cried.  The soldiers killed the people, even the children.  They
slept with the women, and some of their children escaped but others
were killed.  The men were taken as porters.  I saw some orphans
left alone because both of their parents had been killed.

We only got a handful of boiled rice to eat, only once a day.
At first it was twice a day and not as bad, but as soon as we
went to fight the MTA it was only once a day and it wasn't enough.
I had to carry six 75mm. shells at a time, 3 kilos per shell,
so my load weighed about 18-20 kilos.  I've still got these wounds
on my shoulders - at the time there were even worms in them. 
We weren't given any medicine or treatment.  People got sick,
but when they asked for medicine they were hit with rifle butts.

When soldiers got sick or wounded, we had to carry them to their
camp.  If people had money when we were arrested, the SLORC took
it and kept it, then when we were porters they beat those people
badly all the time because they wanted them to die or escape.
I myself was beaten because of this.  There were 2 porters who
were a bit deaf, so they didn't hear the soldiers' orders and
one time they just kept walking when they were ordered to stop.

The soldiers thought they were trying to run away, so they shot
at them and hit both of them in the leg above the ankle, breaking
their legs.  Then we had to carry them to the senior officer,
the soldiers told him what happened and the 2 men were sent to
the hospital for treatment.  At the same time 2 other men who
thought they'd be shot too ran away but fell into a ditch, and
both of them broke their knees.  Then they were beaten and didn't
get any treatment because they'd tried to run away.  They were
beaten with rifle butts, then just left along the side of the
path.  I think they must have died.

One old man was very weak because he'd only been given so little
rice each day.  He got stomach trouble, so one night he unintentionally
made some noise and the soldiers said "You must not make noise
or the enemy might know where we are", but he was sick and he
couldn't help it.  He made some more noise, and I saw them stuff
some blankets in his mouth and then kick him down the mountainside.
 He was killed.  I also saw with my own eyes 4 old men beaten
to death.  They were from Mong Tun and Mong Hsat.  They were too
old and couldn't carry heavy loads, so they were given duties
fetching water and cooking rice for the soldiers.  Then after
the rice was cooked all of us were ordered to carry the rice up
the mountain to the soldiers on top, and they told us we had 1
hour to get there.  The rest of us made it up in time, but the
4 old men took an hour and 15 minutes to get to the top so the
soldiers went wild.  
They beat the old men on the head and all over their bodies, 
then left them laying there for a day.  The next day they were 
all bruised and swollen and they couldn't walk, so the soldiers 
beat them again all over their bodies with rifle butts until they 
were dead.  They beat those men to death.  I was there and I saw 
it myself. I also saw some 3 porters wounded in battle, one in the 
forearm and two others in the shoulder.  They were wounded very badly
- the medics gave them saline intravenous transfusions and then
sent one of them back to their Mong Pying camp.  The other two
had to stay with us.  Another time I saw three soldiers firing
a big mortar, and the porters had to carry all the shells to them
so there were about 8 people there.  

At about 8 p.m. that night one of the shells exploded right there, right 
near me.  All 3 soldiers and 5 porters were killed.  The next day when 
the officers came to examine the splinters, they said it was their own shell
[probably a misfire].  I also saw planes bombing 2 or 3 times,
very high and going very fast.  The SLORC battalions in the fighting
area are 329, 244, 333, and 65.  I was with 244.

I was a porter for 40 days.  Then one night the SLORC made a night
attack and I had to carry shells.  I was too afraid of the fighting,
so I just dropped my load on the path, rolled down the hillside
and ran away.  I didn't know where I was going, I just ran and
whenever I saw some fruit in the jungle I just ate that.  I was
alone and I had no food for 7 days.  Sometimes I could hardly
do more than crawl.  Then I came to a field hut in the night so
I slept there, and in the morning I walked through the fields
and I saw some Thai soldiers.  They asked me where I came from
and why so I told them I was a porter who ran from the Burmese
troops.  They sent me to Wat Wan Lan in Fang District [a Buddhist
temple west of Mae Sai].  There were about 30 people there already,
and food and supplies [from foreign donors].  After 3 days there
they told us we had to go back.  The Thai authorities wouldn't
listen to our pleas, they just told us we must go back, so we
asked them if they would take us to the border near Tachilek.
 Four people came and took us to the border - one in uniform from
the Immigration Department, one in uniform from the Army, and
two in civilian clothes.  There were 39 of us, and they took us
in 2 trucks close to the border bridge to Tachilek and just told
us to go across as we liked.

Now it's been about 20 days since I escaped [meaning he escaped
on July 10 or 15].  Since I've been back in Tachilek the SLORC
haven't bothered me, but one of my friends who was also there
was arrested and questioned after getting back.  They just questioned
him about what he saw at the frontline, the number of casualties,
etc.  I don't see them rounding up any porters in Tachilek right
now, but I see soldiers guarding the perimeter of the town and
along the road up to Mong Pyak.  They're guarding every bridge,
and after 6 p.m. nobody can cross.  In Tachilek, if Military Intelligence
hears anyone talking about the situation or sees a group of more
than 3 people sitting around, those people are arrested.  People
are angry.  I was taken from my family to be a porter.  We thought
that as porters they'd treat us fairly and carry according to
our strength, but now I've seen boys as young as 11 or 12 and
old men of 50 or 60 forced to carry the same loads as the rest,
and if they can't carry it then they're beaten or killed.  The
Burmese don't treat us like humans so we want to free ourselves
of them, but there's nothing we can do, just hope for help from
other countries.

The SLORC is stopping the Shan people from progressing either
economically or politically.  If they get involved with anything
political the SLORC arrests them.  On the other hand, in areas
the SLORC controls you can grow opium, but you have to pay a tax
and it's not cheap.  In the fields which aren't very good or near
the road, the SLORC cuts down the poppies to show that they're
eradicating poppy, but if the field is good they just keep collecting
the tax.

All of us, you can ask anybody, we only want justice, to be treated
as human beings and to live in peace.  We'll accept anyone to
govern us if they rule according to law and give us justice and
peace.  That's all we want, because now our life is horrible.

We want to get rid of this SLORC administration because there's
no justice or rule of law.  If you buy a house, the next day the
government might come and confiscate it without any compensation
and build a road.  The farmland is confiscated from the farmers,
and then they have to go and do forced labour in the fields. 

The women are abused and they take people to beat, to do labour
and to go in the Army.  Nobody gets any payment, we're just forced
to serve them.  They force everyone to give contributions but
give nothing in return.  Even if you go as a soldier in the Burmese
Army you'll only get one tin of rice for one month.  And everyone
else in society gets nothing at all.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NAME:     Sai Khorn Mong SEX: M    AGE: 34   Shan Buddhist, farmer
ADDRESS:  Kengtung, southeastern Shan State
FAMILY:   Married with 2 daughters aged 6 and 8

Sai Khorn Mong lives in Kengtung and has often been called to
do slave labour for SLORC.

I left Kengtung the day before yesterday, and arrived the same
day in Tachilek.  In Kengtung now, people are miserable because
#244 Battalion takes people and forces them to cut down all the
trees in the nearby forest.  They also use porters from other
places to cut down the trees.  Everyone has to go, cut them down
and take them to the Army base, and then they send them some other
place.  Not only the trees in the forest, but also trees which
were planted by the villagers for their own use - but when the
villagers protest, the soldiers won't listen.  So all the mountains
are becoming barren.  Now #244 Battalion has moved to another
place and #245 has come to replace them, and they too are ordering
all the forest cut down.

This work started 3 months ago.  Everyone in the town and the
area has to go in rotating shifts.  Each village and section of
town has had to send people on 60 of the last 90 days.  Each day
my section of town has to send 2 or 7 or 10 or 20  people, depending
on how many the soldiers demand.  There are 60 houses in my section.

I've had to go twice to cut the trees, for one day each time.
We had to take all our own tools, machetes and saws.  They have
a list of types of trees for firewood, and if we see any of these
we have to cut them down and send them to the Army camp.  They
make us cut everything down, even the bamboo trees.  Then we have
to dig out the stumps too, and give them to the Army.  It's all
taken away by Army trucks.  When the trucks are full, the people
have to transport the remaining trees to the army camp at their
own expense, on carts, pulled by buffalos, or however they can.

The best wood is taken away somewhere else, and we have to split
all the rest into firewood.  They take away the myo sang, ha kong,
gaw long, mak mong, lo haw, sak mong and other valuable trees.
Some of them are very big, because the villagers have always
preserved this forest fo various uses.  There are also shrines
to the spirits that guard each village so the villagers preserved
the trees around the shrines, and even those have been cut down.

They'll never stop cutting down the trees   Now the land for
5 or 6 miles around Kengtung is all barren.  It was jungle before.
All the trees around the water ponds were cut down so the ponds
have all dried up, and so have most of the streams and wells,
so now there's a water shortage problem.  We can't understand
why they're doing it.  There are no rebel soldiers there.  [however,
the MTA is not far away.  SLORC often clears forest just to eliminate
cover for rebels.]  The soldiers told us the land will all be
confiscated and they'll plant a butter bean plantation.  The labour
will have to be provided by the people, and all the produce will
be owned by the Army.  They haven't planted anything yet though
- the land is just cleared and lying there barren.  They've already
cut down about 5 miles in every direction, and we don't know when
they'll stop.  For example, Nong Pan village still has forest
around it, but they've got a plan to cut that down too.  From
Kengtung up to Mong La on the border of China [about 70 km. northeast
of Kengtung] all the big trees have been cut down, and there's
only a small bit of forest left.

The SLORC is also taking people's tea farms.  They order people
to go cut down all the tea trees and take the land to grow something
else.  As for the paddy fields and hill rice farms, they wait
until after the villagers harvest the crop, then they come and
take all the rice away.  The farmers grow 2 rice crops a year.

The first crop is confiscated, and then they have to sell half
of their second crop to the Army.  Market price is 450 Kyat for
4 baskets [of unmilled rice], but the Army only pays 60 Kyat for
4 baskets.  Then the farmer has to survive on the rice that's
left.  I live in a suburb of Kengtung.  I have land, it takes
me about 20 baskets of seed grain to plant it, and they confiscate
my crops like that.

If I talk about SLORC, there are just too many things to tell.
We have to provide porters, some of them die along the way and
some are gone almost 2 months before they come home.  We have
to provide labour for their farms, we work our own farms only
to have them take our crop, we have to provide labour to cut down
all the trees, and we have no time to work for ourselves.  When
they take people as porters they won't let them go home unless
the person pays them money.  So they get the money, then as soon
as the person gets home the troops come for more porters and take
him again.  This year I was drafted to go twice, but I gave somebody
money to go in my place.  I had to pay 15,000 Kyat each time.

I also had to do labour on the Mong Kwan electric power plant
project.  It's about 10 miles south of Kengtung.  It started 3
years ago.  I had to go work on it 4 times a year, including this
year.  Each time I had to go for 15 days and take my own food.

We weren't paid anything.  There were about 80 to 100 people
working there all the time, and there were two or three hundred
prisoners working there too.  They had to work in chains.  It
was all slave labour.  If you refused, you'd have to run away.

Some people ran away from the labour.  The soldiers didn't beat
us, but sometimes they made us work in the night as well as the
day.  The dam was very long, about 12 feet broad, and the height
of 3 or 4 people.  We had to level the ground, carry dirt for
the dam, and build roads too.  There were soldiers working too,
about the same number as the civilians.  The project was just
finished on 24/7/94, and now it's sending electricity to the town.

Not everybody in the town, though.  They've asked for applications,
and the people who apply have to pay in advance.  It's not for
everybody.  It's only for street lighting, all the army offices
and selected people in the town.  They promised everyone would
get power, but we don't expect to.  I know I won't, because I
live in a suburb.

Now people in Kengtung are living in fear because the SLORC is
arresting people at random and forcing some of the young people
into the army.  I saw 2 or 3 people arrested because SLORC suspected
them of having contact with rebels.  Now Burmese Intelligence
are everywhere, so we all have to stay in fear.  We can't even
trust each other, because some of the Shan are working for the
Burmese.  They're forced to, they have no choice.

As long as SLORC is still there, it can't be good.  If we could
prosper under them, then we must be very prosperous right now
because we've been under them for 30 years already.  But we're
still miserable and in trouble, so it would be better if SLORC
just left the country.  Now I'd like to leave the country if I
could.


To be continued.

*************************************************************
REUTERS: BANGLADESH SEIZES THAI FISHERMAN
September 23, 1994
Chittagong

A Bangladeshi navy gunboat detained 27 Thai and Burmese fishermen and
impounded their trawlers for illegal fishing in the Bay of Bengal, police
said yesterday.

They said the gunboat fired shots and forced two Thai trawlers with 18
fishermen and two Burmese mechanised fishing boats with nine crew to
surrender over the past two days.

The navy said they were fishing in Bangladesh territorial waters.

The arrested crews were handed over to police with confiscated arms, nets and
fish.  No other details were available.



*************************************************************

ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:

 AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
 AFP: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
 AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
 BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
 BI: BURMA ISSUES
 BIG: BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
 BKK POST: THE BANGKOK POST
 CPPSM: COMMITTEE FOR THE PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
 DA:  DEPTHNEWS ASIA
 FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
 NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)

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