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REPORT(S) ON HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION (r)
Received: by pilot.physics.adelaide.edu.au (5.61+IDA+MU/UA-5.23)
id AA10010; Tue, 14 Mar 1995 13:55:38 +0930
Subject: REPORT(S) ON HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN BURMA-4.
/* Written Mar 14 13:51:05 CST 1995 uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on igc:soc.culture.burma */
/* --------------" HRSUB: Dr U Ne Oo "--------------------------*/
[Subject: To inquire into and report on the human rights situation
and lack of progress towards democracy in Myanmar(Burma) by the
Human Rights Sub-Committee of the parliament of Australia.
Submissions made to this enquiry by various people and
organisations are re-posted here.
Following materials were also distributed to reg.burma on
12/10/94. -- U Ne Oo ]
# SUBMISSION NO. 4.
Part 4 of 6.
INCORPORATED DOCUMENTS
----------------------
[ B - 2] ABSDF: Repression of SLORC upon Arakan: As viewed by
ABSDF(Arakan)
The fascist military junta State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) has been running Burma by resorting to repression, reign
of terror, and flagrant lies. Now their propaganda campaign
includes such language as "the various conditions of Burma, under
the SLORC RULE are impriving in a state of peace and prosperity
formerly unknown."
This is a shameless lie told to cover up th ebrutal repression and
human rights violations upon the masses. The economy, education,
society and health-care of the entire country is quickly crumbling
down under the all-powerful grip of the tyrannic control over all
sphere of life.
In Arakan state (Rakhine state), the evil hands of the SLORC grip
more control than in anywhere else. The basic agricultural
produces, catches of fish, etc. on which the economy of the
backward and unindustrialized Rakhine state solely depends on, are
not allowed to be transported to feasible markets even within
the state. Rice-growing - the mainstay of Arakanese economy - has
fallen under the wrath of SLORC. The entire crop of the state,
forced to be sold for a song to the military authority, is
exported, not even leaving enough for meeting the local
requirements.
The result is widespread starvation and famine threateningly
looming over the entire state which produces rice only second to
the Irrawaddy delta - known as rice bowl of Burma. Such large scale
misery has invited a brisk trade in rice being smuggled from the
bordering Bangladesh.
The famine did not occur because of crop failure or natural
disaster. It came as the direct outcome of the fascist oppression
inflicted upon the Arakanesse nationals. The rice that was
forcefully procured at gunpoint was exported to China. Under the
"Mutual Border Trade"; act, the rice was exchanged for arms and
ammunitions that would be used to kill and brutally repress the
civilians.
The number of deaths owing to famine is reported to go up everyday.
Where a labourer can be hired for fifty kyat aday , one kilogram of
rice now costs forty kyat. Scarcity of work and jobs has given a
death blow to the entire situation. So the majority of the
population go half-fed of starved.
Besides, consumption of such unhygienic and non-food items as wild
aurum tubers has caused innumerable deaths from food poisoning or
intestinal disorders. That makes for only every fifth person going
with food.
The inhuman oppression and violations of the norms of civilized
behabiour in Arakan did not only bring famine, but also
1. caused unnecessary and stupid deaths to the civilians population
which could well have been prevented;
2. brought moral degradation to the teenagers, especially the
girls;
3. caused rise in criminal offences;
4. compelled a large section of the Arakanese jobless youths to
join the much-hated army;
5. spread a number of diseases related to nutritional deficiencies;
6. added to the number of school drop-outs, destroying the future
of a large chunk of the growing-up genereation; and
7. helped the military to use food as a weapon to put down popular
discontent by reducing the Arakanese people to a state of begging.
The list of horrifying tales of man's inhumanity continues at the
hands of the fascist SLORC. The army now make the villagers build
their granaries near army camps and allow only the minimal quota to
be taken by the owner for mere substence. While during the night,
the army in collaboration with the grain smugglers smuggle out
foodgrains from the granaries.
To give a face-lift and cover up their misdeeds, the army now has
issued orders to the towns peoples of Alyab (Sittwe) requiring them
to roof their houses with galvanized iron sheets which is
considered as a luxury in otherwise thatch-roof houses in Arakan.
It has been done to give an impression to the visiting students
from other states and divisions hoped to come to Akyab in Nobember
1993, to celebrate the much flaunted Students' Festival.
Therefore, forcing starving Arakanese people to spend their life's
savings for lodging visiting students is the typical repressions
committed by the SLORC.
The ABSDF (Arakan) always denounce such deplorable inhuman acts by
the SLORC. It also appeals to all the nations of the world not to
be fooled by the eyewash goven by the junta.
The ABSDF (Arakan) is resolved to fight the SLORC to the end to
establish rule of Law, Democracy and Human Rights in Burma.
Military Region Committee
All Burma Students' Democratic Front (Arakan)
BAngladesh - Burma border
Date: October 20, 1993.
INCORPORATED DOCUMENTS
----------------------
[ B - 3] FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW, JULY 21, 1994.
BURMA: PLAGUE WITHOUT BORDERS
Drugs-and-Aids cultres spreads across the region
By Bertil Lintner in Chaing Rai, Thailand.
To the picturesque northern town of Chaing Rai, set amidst the lush
green hills of the Golden Triangle, goes the dubious distinction of
having the highest rate of HIV infection and Aids in Thailand.
More than 40% of all Aids-related deaths in the country occur in
Chiang Rai and the nearby province of Payao. "People are dying at
the rate of one a day," says an Aids expert in the north. What
makes the situation especially frightening is that Chiang Rai may
be only the tip of the problem. "The actual iceberg may be
diveloping across the border in Burma and further up the golden
Triangle," says a source in Chaing Rai. " This will make the Aids
epidemic far more difficult to control."
Burma may be isolated from the rest of the world in more ways than
one, but there's no stopping its drugs-and-Aids culture from
infecting the surrounding region. Vice-Admiral Than Nyunt, Burma's
health minister, stated in late June that his country has 261
full-blown Aids cases and 200,000 people carrying the HIV virus.
but a recent report from the United Nations International Drug
Control Programme paints a much more desperate picture of the Aids
epidemic in Burma. The reports says that 74.3% of all tested drug
users, 9% of the prostitutes, 0.5% of blood donors and 1.4% of
pregnant women in Burma were HIV positive.
The figures are alarmingly high, yet most of those tested live in
towns and cities, where thesituation is not as grave as in the
rural areas of the less-developed north. The most shocking
statistics come from the jade mining centre of Hpakan in northern
Kachin State, where 72% of tested drug addicts had never heard of
Aids -- and 91% were HIV positive. Most of them were sexually
active yhoung men, but only 20% of them had heard of condoms. Some
96% of 209 tested intravenous drug users in the jail in Bhamo --
another town in Dachin State -- also turned out to be HIV positive.
In northern Shan State town of Lashio -- often described as "the
drug capital of northern Burma" -- 40% of drug users carry the HIV
virus. The situation in other Shan towns such as Kengtong, 200
kilometers north of Chiang Rai is believed to be equally serious.
In Tachilek, across the border from Mae Sai in Chiang Rai province,
31-35% of all drug users are HIV positive. Even some towns in
central Burma have been hard-hit. In Mandalay, the rate of
infection among drug addicts rose from 58% in 1992 to 84% in 1993.
Burma's first reported case of HIV infection was 37-year -old
patient at Rangoon General Hospital who tested positive in 1988.
Since then, the Burmese Aids epidemic has spread at a phenomenal
rate, and medical experts in northern Thailand say it follows a
pattern similar to that seen in Thailand and southern Yunan prvince
in China. This indicates that the disease has spread across the
borders in the region.
Of the two types of known HIV viruses, Type B is common in Europe
and North America and affects mainly drug addicts and gay men. It
is rarely transmitted through heterosexual intercourse. Type E,
which affects heterosexuals, is found almost exclusively in
Chetral Africa -- and in Southeast Asia. "Type B is found amont
drug addicts also in Thailand, and may have first been spread in
prisons by foreign addicts sharing needles with Thai inmates," a
medical expert toldthe REVIEW in northern Thailand. But the most
common HIV virus here is Type E, which is spread through the
brothels in the north."
It is suspected that the Type E virus first came to Thailand with
Afracan drug couriers and then spread in prisons in Bangkok and
Chiang Mai, where many of them were incarcerated in the late 1980s.
Drug addicts as far north as Ruili in Yunnan are infected by the
Type B virus, while all infected female sex workers in the same
town carry the rare Type E virus. A large proportion of such women
in northern Thailend come from Burma's Shan State and Yunnan, and
they carry the virus with them when they return home.
Thailand has been widely praised fro its effective Aids awareness
programme. Because of the country's relatively well educated
population and extensive network of hospitals and health centres,
even in remote parts of the country, health workers hope that the
disease will eventually be brought under control in hard-hit Chiang
Rai.
Burma, however, presents a situation almost as difficult as that
faced by Africa. Although Burmese doctors and nurses are
well-qualified, the country suffers from poor sanitary conditions,
outdated hospital equipment and an underdeveloped health
infrastructure, especially in the more vulnerable areas upcountry.
Medical experts stress that although the Aids epidemic in Burma
began a few years later than in Thailand, Burma does not have the
means to cope with the mounting crisis. The recent United Nations
report states that the absence of independent non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) in Burma is a major problem, and recommends
htat such organisations be established to undertake anti-drug and
Aids-control activities.
The only two official "NGOs" are organised by the government and
are hardly in dependent. These, the Myanmar Medical Association
(MMA) and the Myanmar Maternal Child Welfare Association, are both
engaged in limited Aids-related projects. World Vision
International is undertaking an Aids project in collaboration wiht
the MMA, and the Swiss based Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud
has sent several fact -finding missions to Burma.
The problem already has reached regional proportions. Ruili, across
Burma's northern bordre with Yunnan, has the highest incidence of
Aids and HIV in China. A centre for the lucrative cross border
trades with Burma, Ruili county has a permanent population of
83,000 and at least 30,000 temporary residents, most of whom have
come from Burma to work and do business here. The area is home to
two thirds of the approximately 1,000 peoplethe Chiense government
has let it be known are HIV positive. But the actual number of
infected people is believed to be much higher.
The northeastern Indian state of Manipur -- which also borders
Burma -- has the highest rates of Aids and heroin addiction in
India. The state, with a population of 1.8million, has an estimated
30,000 to 40,000 heroin addicts. More than half are believed to be
HIV positive.
"The iceberg, or whatever you want to call it, is there. Burma is
the weakest link in the chain that stretches from northern Thailand
to southern China and northeastern India," an Aids expert says.
"Something has to be done very quickly. The situation is already
out of control."
INCORPORATED DOCUMENTS
----------------------
[ B - 4 ] AN ACCOUNT FROM A RECENT VISITOR TO BURMA
DIAKONIA News from the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific
Issue 31, NOVEMBER 1993
Travelling in Burma, to Rangoon, Mandalay, Taungyi, Lasho, and
Maymyo, one noticed that people , both Burmese and ex-patriates
talked of changes. Changes they had seen, hoped for, or feared.
people pointed to the well-stocked food and commodities markets of
Rangoon and Mandalay, the new Japnease cars, even the new
billboards, as signs of positive change. Others spoke of their fear
of the government, the repression of political dissent, the rickety
infracture and the unalleviated poverty as sighs that nothing had
changed. Still others spoke of dislocations, newly stationed army
regiments, the rising price of rice and the repression of minority
culture as signs of increased economic disparities,government
control, and a final loss of minority rights and identity. The
government's policies of loosening economic controls while
increasing its control over its people and territory certainly
seemed to have produced many, often contradictory, changes.
Burma appeared fraught with contradictions and disparities. Along a
road in Shan State shops displayed imported cognac and whiskey
while the only modes of transport are ox carts or wildly overloaded
trucks of buses. Young men with golf bags trundle out of a Rangoon
guest house while children around the corner beg tourists for ball
point pens. Two story concret homes with balconies, gates, and
glass windows are erected along the main roads while the shaky
wooden homes of the poor are built in th evalleys below, just out
of sight. At the money change counter at the tourist office a man
offers to change money at the black market rate.
These contradictions are the result of the economic and political
policies of the ruling military junta, the State Law and Order
Restoration Committee(SLORC). Over the past year the government has
legalized the border trade, loosened economic controls, encouraged
foreign investment, and supposedly begun the transition to a market
economy. Howiver these reforms have in many cases exacerbated
economic disparities or are simply irrelevant to people struggling
to find enough to eat. Similarly the new abundance of consumer
goods presents a stark contrast to the infrastructural problems.
There are medicines, bedding, cutlery, tools and auto parts at the
market but they are sold out of rickety stalls, converted house
windows, or on mats on the ground. Car tail lights were seen
displayed on the gates of a temple.
Other aspect of the infracture are in equally bad condition. Most
roads, especially outside of the central plains, are full of holes.
Rural areas have no running water, electricity, or sanitation
systems. Even in the towns, electricity is often out and many
people only have access to well water. Even in Mandalay people were
bathing at public wells.
According to some in Western embassies only those favored by SLORC
have benefitted from the reforms. They are allowed access to fues,
land, foreign currency bank account, furthermore their operations
and profits are not threatened by the regime. In the case of
others, the government may seize profits or capital plants if they
are noticed. In one case a small manufacturer had spread his work
over four different sites in order to escape government notice.
Burmese, except those involved in border trade, said conditions are
the same, if not worse. I asked one man about what the main social
issues were in his area, he replied that there is only one issue:
food. The price of rice has been rising steadily, making this issue
more and more important. A bag of rice which will feed five persons
for a month coats 1,000 kyat and workers earn 100 kyats or less a
day. Professionals may be paid just over 1,000 kyat a month. The
government is at best indifferent to the needs of the people and in
many cases exploitative, taking as much as possible from them and
giving nothing back. Social services appear largly non-existent.
Even schools and hospitals are woefully lacking. One hospital
reputedly serves the whole area around Mandalay. There are no
programs for the handicapped, no serious rehabilitation programs
for drug addicts, and basic medical services and education are not
available in the country's many remote areas. In the central areas,
medicine and education is too expensive for many people.
On the other hand people, particularly women and teenagers, even
children, are sent out on "voluntary labor" projects. The SLORC
calls them out for perhaps a couple of days a month, a few days a
week, or even months at a time to word on public projects, like
roads, public buildings or railways. In the Shan States, I saw
people working on roads, using their bare hands to move dirt or
place large paving stones. In Rangoon, teenage girls at a building
site were carrying platters of concrete on their heads. The
government argues that these projects are for the good of the
people therefore they should contribute their labor.
Moreover, SLORC continues to dislocate people from their land. In
areas where there is armed conflict between the government and
ethnic minorities, SLORC troops force people to leave their
villages in order to keep them from collaborating with the
opposition, to discredit and weary the opposition and to maintain
control of the territory. Even in states where peace treaties have
been concluded, the government still moves people. In some cases
the government still moves people. In some cases the government
disginates areas where the people should re-settle. in other
casese people simply move to marginal land, go deeper into jungle
areas, or, especially in the case of young men, join the anti
government forces on the border. Once people are off the land, the
government sometimes uses it to build army barracks. The army has
almost doubled in numbers since 1988, creating a need for new bases
and barracks. In and around Taungyi, in Shan State, there are
several new army bases, as well as billboards exhorting the people
to abedience and fraternity eith the army. Generally, outside
Rangoon, there were soldiers everywhere, many of them very young.
The government also uses the land as patronage gifts for army
officers and loyal civilians (who in most cases, previously
belonged to the armed forces) or sells it to investers from China.
The recipients of the land often turn around and sell it
themselves, making large profits.
The SLORC appropriation of land produces thousands of internally
displaced people as well as refugees. Among the displaced people,
particularly children, there are many deaths from disease and
starvation. Furthermore they are given no assistance in building
new homes and gardens and re-building their communities. The homes
the displaced people hurriedly construct are very basic, with
patchy roofs, thin walls, dirt floors, and cook stoves made of a
few stones between which a fire can be lit. Rooms are partitioned
only by mats or curtains and are over-crowded. People do their best
to help each other build houses and re-plant gardens. Since the
government provides no assistance to the displaced, the Catholic
Church in some areas has tried to provide aid. But they too are
very limited, both by their budgets and the vigilance of the
government. Often they can only offer assistance - food and housing
- to the children.
In addition to the suffering caused by the dislocation, there are
other insidious aspects of SLORC's program. In some areas where
villages have been removed and the land re-distributed, new towns
have been established. In the new towns ae orderly rows of
two-story concrete houses owned by "the big shots" os one man put
it. On the surface, this appears to be legitimate and effective
"development" a rise in the standard of living. The suffering
caused by dislocation and that they too may be displaced is
invisible.
Similarly, in areas where the new peace treaties are in place, the
government is building new schools and hospitals. However they
often have no supplies or staff. As the government continues to
court foreign investment and aid, these new towns and development
projects may be used as show-case to demonstrate the sincerity of
the government in its efforts for the people.
Finally, some feel that the dislocations of people and the
redistribution of land also fits into SLORC's efforts at
"Burmanization" i.e. the repression of the minority cultures and
religions. Those displaced are ethnic minorities and the people who
move in are mostly Burman. In the same areas, the government has
discouraged the use of minority languages, banned their use in
schools, and is subtly suppressing minority cultural and religious
practice. Reputedly SLORC has even encouraged its many young
soldiers to marry girls from the ethnic minorities. The government
is actively fostering Buddhism as the state religion, both through
generous donations to monasteries and pagodas and by proclaiming
its unique status in the nation-state. Members of the Buddhist
establishments have also been coopted by the government. After the
1988 uprising those monks who were critical of the government were
purged from the Buddhist organization and in many cases imprisoned
of killed.
The condition in Burma are made that much more poignant by the land
itself. The land is beautiful and green, with many species of
plants and flowers, and in many areas wonderfully unpoluted. It is
fertile and thinly settled in many areas. The people themselves,
were on the whole, surprisingly open, friendly, and generous.
Unfortunately, as long as the governmennt continues its present
policies more people will still be forced to leave their lands and
seek refuge on the border or live hand to mouth on the edges of the
"new towns".
Part 4 of 6.
END\