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Mon Information April 6 1995
- Subject: Mon Information April 6 1995
- From: ojasti@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 07 Apr 1995 05:50:00
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THE NATIONAl COUNCIL OF MON
M0N INFORMATION SERVICE
APRIL 6 1995
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1. WHO ARE THE MONS?
2. MON ORGANIZATIONS
3. "THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT" BANGKOK POST MARCH 11 1995
4. THE MON NEGOTIATION TEAM WILL SOON LEAVE FOR TALKS WITH SLORC.
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1. WHO ARE THE MONS?
Concentrated between Burma and Thailand, there are an estimated 8 million
Mons in the world today. Yet, their rights often go unrecognized. Like
many indigenous peoples of this region, for the past forty years the
central government in both Rangoon and Bangkok have ignored and attempted
ethnocide of the Mon people -- who were the orignial inhabitants in the
Burmese-Thai region. The Mon language is a distant relative of the Khamer
(Cambodia) langauge group, having no similarities with Burmese and the
Burmese alphabet is based on the Mon alphabet.
After successive waves of Burman and Thai immigrations from the north in
the last milenia, and after repeated attacks the kingdom of the peaceful
Mons was defeated in 1757 and the higher culture taken as war booty to
upper Burma by the Burmese king and many hundred thaunsand of Mon jhad
been facing genocide. Meanwhile, in Thailand Mons were given speical
areas to live and found sympathetic favor under the Thai king, himself a
descendent of the Mons, mostly in areas around Bangkok's main river.
Present Situation
Today, however, the situation is radicaly different with assimilation
rampant on both sides of the border. Centralization and capitalism are
working hand in hand to annihilate all indigenous peoples. A planned gas
pipeline from Burma's Gulf of Martaban will dissect Monland on its way
into energy-strapped Thailand, and so foriegn policy in the era of
"constructive engagement" does not favor the Mon people (as was seen by
the recent Halockhani attack by SLORC troops and the Thai starving out of
the refugees to return across the border).
The refugee situation is increasing due to forced labor on
"infrastructure" projects in the area, such as the gas pipeline and the
110 miles long dead Ye-Tavoy railway construction. Villages regularly
undergo forced relocation while harrassment, violence and pillaging
continue under SLORC's reign of terror. Also, many Mons have been
targetted for arrest in the Sangkhlaburi area and Kanchanaburi District,
which is viewed as an attempt by the Thais to put pressure on the New
Mon State Party to sign a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military
junta.
One of the biggest problems for the Mon people is recieving outside
information and spreading out inside information to international
communities.
Approximately 50-60% of the Mon people cannot read or write in Burmese,
and less are able to use English. Thus access to much information is
prohibitive, especially about health care, politics and international
news. This is in addition to strict censorship controls and added ethnic
suppression by the Burmese junta.
For more information on the Mon, Please contact
MIS (NCM)
GPO Box. 375
Bangkok 10501
Thailand.
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2. MON ORGANIZATIONS.
The New Mon State Party (NMSP): Fighting against Burmese military junta
by both arm struggle and political activi-
ties;
Mon National Relief Committee MNRC : Working for Mon refugees in the
Thai-Burma border;
Committee for Publicity of People Struggle in Monland (CPPSM) : Mon Human
Rights Group;
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3. "THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT" March 11, 1995 THE SUNDAY MAGAZINE, BANGKOK POST
The Mons are a beleaguered minority in Burma, but once they ruled the
country and more. They're down now, but ask any of them and they'll tell
you, they will be back. STORY AND PICTURES BY VINAI DITHAJOHN
PICTURES ; 1. THE MONS CELEBRATING THEIR NATIONAL DAY WITH AN HOURNOUR
GUARD MADE UP OF YOUNG MON MEN AND WOMEN, 2, A YOUNG MON WOMEN
SOLIDER, READY FOR SURVING FOR MON FREEDOM, 3, MON TEENAGERS
DANCING TO THE STEPS OF ROCK MUSIC RAISE A CLOUD OF DUST THAT ALMOST
HIDES THEM FROM SIGHT,
The Burmese are very frightened of the Mons," insists Nai Shwe Kyin,
president of the Mew Mon State Party in Burma. "Don't forget, at an
earlier time in history, the Mon kingdom was larger than Burma is now."
As he spoke of the glorious past, Nai Shwe Kyin was sitting in the yard
surrounding the small hut that serves as his residence in a military area
deep in the jungle near the Tenessarim Mountain range on the Thai-Burmese
border. The greatness of the Sawadee Period is long gone, but the Mon
people are still a strong presence in Burma.
They occupy a small state near the Thai border, and are active opponents
to Burma's military government. At present, the hostility that exists
between Rangoon and the Mons is threatening to erupt once again into
fighting_the latest episode in a continuing war that shows no signs of
ever reaching a conclusion.
"We believe a time will come when the Mon people will regain the
greatness of the past," says Nai Shwe Kyin." It's predicted in the
'Mengjen'. We look at that chronicle the way westerners look at the works
of Nostradamus.
"It says, 'When the Golden Hong (a legendary bird ridden by Brahma) is
powerful, it will be pursued and killed by the Forest Hunter. Then the
Hunter will be burned to death by the Sun. The heat will be extinguished
by the Lion. The Lion will raise a Pea-cock, and the Peacock will give
birth to another Hong'."
The meaning of this prophesy can be learned by decoding its symbolism.
The time "when the Golden Hong is powerful" alludes to the period when
the Mon people ruled Hongsawadee and all of present-day Burma(the Hong is
the symbol of the Mon nation). The Forest Hunter who kills the Hong is
the Burmese from Mukchobo who defeated the Mons (the actual Forest Hunter
is Along Phya, the Burmese dynasty that burned both Hongsawadee and
Ayutthaya).
The Hunter being burned by the Sun refers to the occupation of Burma
during the Second World War by the Japanese, whose flag depicts the sun.
The Lion that comes in and dispels the heat is England, which got the
Japanese out of Burma. The Lion raising the Peacock is England ruling
Burma until the country achieved self-rule in 1948 (the peacock is the
symbol of Burma).
The final part of the prophesy, in which the Peacock lays an egg which
hatches to give birth to a Hong, means that in governing its populace,
Burma will oppress the Mons and try to force them to yield up their
nation and become absorbed by Burma. But the Mon people will band
together and fight this oppression until finally the Mon nation belongs
to them again.
Burmese chronicles state that the Mons were the first people to inhabit
the area of present-day Burma, and were already flourishing there many
centuries BC. It is thought they descend originally from the Mongol
Austroasiatic peoples. Mon annals state that 241 years before the
Buddhist Era, the plain around the lower Irrawadee River was the home of
the most prosperous and highly-developed of the realms that existed in
the region during pre-Buddhist times. It was called the Sathoem Kingdom,
or "Suthamwadee".
At some point over 1,000 years into the Buddhist Era, on the first day of
the full moon in February, two princes from Sathoem named Saamala and
Wimala founded a city on the Irrawadee Plain called Hongsawadee. This
location was chosen because of the Buddhist tradition that, about eight
years after he attained enlightenment, the Lord Buddha had travelled
there to teach, and saw two hong alight on top of a small hill that
projected into the sea.
Observing this, he stated that the till, which was only slightly above
sea level, would become a powerful nation that would be a stronghold of
his religious teachings. Thus, the Mons believe that the Hongsawadee
Kingdom was the second Mon realm to flourish in the region, and celebrate
the first day of the full moon in February as their National Day.
This year, that day fell on February 15. At 7 a.m., when the day was
still new, the Mon flag fluttered in the breeze as it was carried by a
procession of Mon soldiers at their base in Burma's Tavoy Province, which
adjoins Sangkhlaburi District in Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province. A
cloud of dust arose around the marching feet of an honour guard made up
of young Mon men and women soldiers whose uniforms were brightened by
multi-coloured scarves and shoulder bands identifying their units.
They marched in file, carrying their M-16 automatic weapons, their faces
intense with expressions of determination. The parade included women
soldiers and students, and was cheered by the crowd of Mons who had been
gathering at the site since dawn to watch the ceremony and hear the
speeches of the military leaders who were present.
The scale of this year, Mon National Day celebrations were not as grand
as in the past when Mon territory extended along the Burmese-Thai border
as far as Three Pagodas Pass. At that time _ between 1983 and 1989 _ the
Mon National Day celebrations held at the Pass were festive occasions
attended by over 10,000 Mons from every part of Burma and from Thai Mon
communities all over central Thailand.
The Three Pagodas Pass was an ideal location, both because of its safety
and its geographical position at the symbolic point of union between the
Mon people of Burma and Thailand.
But in 1990, not long before the Mon National Day celebrations were
scheduled to take place, three battalions of Burmese soldiers from the
southeastern region of the country attacked. During the ten days of
fighting that followed, the Mon military was forced to yield to the
superior numbers of the Burmese forces and retreat almost to the Tanaosri
Mountains. Mon villages in the Three Pagodas Pass area found themselves
directly in the battle zone, and their inhabitants were forced to flee.
In the years since, National Day celebrations have been more modest. They
are held in Mon refugee encampments scattered along the Burmese border
with Kanchanaburi Province. The road that joins these communities is an
unpaved thoroughfare that winds its way through the mountains. It was
built by wealthy Thai contractors who entered Burma to engage in logging.
>From first daylight on February 14 of this year, Mons all along the red
dirt road sit or stand on the porches of their houses, craning their way
to the event. There are very few. At most, there is likely to be a
pick-up truck rented on the Thai side of the border to bring in goods for
sale, or to carry rice or other merchandise that villagers want to sell.
If such a vehicle shows up, they are in luck, because they may be spared
the long trek to the site of the National Day celebrations. If they are
unable to get a ride, they must make a long and exhausting journey on
foot, negotiating steep mountain paths and fording streams in the intense
midday heat of summer and the surprisingly cold nights.
Many of them have already started off on foot, though, because hard
experience has taught them that it's not a good policy to wait for
something that may never come: if they waste too much time they may miss
an event that is the high point of every year.
For those who do manage to get onto a vehicle, the trip is an ordeal:
travellers are packed into every available bit of space, and others hang
on so tenuously that it appears that every bump in the road will knock a
few of them off.
If a centimetre of toehold space remains, if there's anything that can be
grabbed and held on to, it will be taken immediately. But nobody seems to
be bothered. Whenever the truck passes a group of people on their way to
the event on foot, or moves past a cluster of travellers relaxing next to
a stream, there is an atmosphere of laughter and shared fun.
On the evening of February 14, there are various performances on stage at
the site of the celebrations. Musicians play, and there is likay and a
variety of different kinds of plays to watch. This is also an opportunity
for Mons from different villages to meet and exchange stories and gossip,
and for young men and women to get to know each other.
The bright colours and brilliant lights are especially exciting for
people who have to endure the dangers of wartime conditions in a hostile
natural environment as part of their daily routine.
For the entire night of February 14, the single stage set up for the
celebrations is constantly in use, with music and entertainment changing
regularly to satisfy every taste. There are brightly-costumed likay
performers, traditional plays, songs by sweet-faced young women, and even
rock music.
The rock music brings the young men to their feet to dance with such
abandon that they raise a cloud of dust that almost hides them from sight
and sends adults scrambling with their young children to spots far from
the stage where the air is easier to breathe. They can return to enjoy
something a little quieter when the music changes and the dust settles,.
Small stands are set up along the road selling sweets and drinks that
range from tea and coffee to sugar cane juice and canned soft drinks. All
that's missing are alcoholic beverages and ice. There is no ice machine,
so everything is drunk lukewarm.
Liquor is absent because even though the Mon s have their own traditional
alcoholic drunks, they are subject to arrest if they sell them. Anyone
who wants to get drunk has to sneak off into the forest to drink on the sly.
If anyone is seen drinking at the celebrations, or if anyone gets drum
and starts causing trouble, he risks being locked up in big wooden stocks
that will hold him fast, to the great amusement of onlookers.
At dawn on February 15, National Day itself, every Mon dresses up in his
or her finest clothes. The women and girls are especially striking. Mon
women with their magnificent complexions and bearing , are certainly
among the most beautiful in the world, and on this day they take special
pains to look their best.
An atmosphere of celebration, with everybody in high spirits, chatting
excitedly in Mon, fills the air everywhere for the entire day.
But after it's all over, the smiles may not come so easily. Farther
north, the guns are blazing as the Burmese military continues its
offensive against the Karens, and the defeat of these allies of the Mons
in the National Democracy Front (NDF) has alerted them to prepare for the
worst as the storm clouds of war gather.
Today, however, the Mon flag is waving proudly on the territory that is
their home. The image of a hong soaring toward a star embodies the firm
belief of the Mons that, as predicted, their day will come again. It is
an ideal that inspires them to continue in a struggle that shows no signs
of ending happily for them. The splendid mythical bird, which today is
represented by a greatly diminished Mon nation, asks only to be free.
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4. THE MON NEGOTIATION TEAM WILL SOON LEAVE FOR TALKS WITH SLORC.
A new negotiations will take place between NMSP, New Mon State Party and
Slorc, State Law and Order Restoration Council, Burmese military junta in
cmoing this week. The previous talk were suspended by NMSP since November
last year. This round is the forth time of official negotiations between
Mon and SLORC. There are also some secret meeting took place between
NMSP and SLORC delegates.
The previous rounds of talking team, however, were led by Nai Tin
Aung, the NMSP official in charge of foreign affairs, the new team led by
the General Secretary of NMSP, Nai Rott Sa. He is the third authorized
person in NMSP and was chosen to lead the negotiation team by the Central
Committee member of NMSP durinr their emergency meeting which just ended
two weeks ago. The talk wil ltake place at the same town as previous
rounds, Moulmein, the coastal city because the SLORC have never agreed to
talk with the arm-ethnic group in the capatal of Burma, Rangoon.
Although some NMSP leaders hopefully expected that the SLORC will
offer more than the previous rounds, most of the leaders do not trust
the SLORC. However, all the Central Committee member of NMSP are
instrusted to stand by at the Head Quarters while the negotiation team is
away for peace-talk with the SLORC in order to made necessary decission
urgently regarding the out come of negotiation.
Both Thai and Rangoon put pressure on the New Mon State Party to
sign a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military junta. Even the
refrgee camp, which located only 2 kilos far from Thai border was set on
fired by the SLORC troops in August last year.
One NMSP official who does not notify his name said SLORC would
ask NMSP delegate to give up the arms this time. I worried that if NMSP
reach agreement for cease-fire with SLORC without political settlement,
there will a new Mon arm-struggle to be set up and the conflict can be
occur between two Mon groups, he added.
In ths new team, there are 5 members including Nai Rott Sa. Nai
Tin aung Nai Kyaw Soe, Nai Tin Aung, the NMSP official in charge of
foreign affairs, Nai Kao Rott, military committee member of Mon National
Liberation Army (MNLA) and official incharge of Military Intelligance,
Nai Myint Swe, Chief of supply deport (MNLA) and Nai Kyaw Soe, deputy
commander of Margue district regiment will accompany with secretary gene-
ral of NMSP.
The new team had met with the delegades of SLORC already in
Bangkok in last week of March. But they have not mentioned the fixed date
of leaving.
MIS. 3/4/95
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