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Subject: HRW/Asia press release: Burma
Status: R

     July 8, 1996
     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
     
     For further information:
     Zunetta Liddell (London)           44-171-713-1995
     Sidney Jones (New York)            212-972-8405 ex.290
     
     
     HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DEMANDS END TO FORCED RELOCATIONS IN BURMA
     
        Human Rights Watch today calls on the Burmese government to end 
     massive forced relocations in the Shan and Karenni States which since 
     March1996 have resulted in at least 70,000 villagers being sent to 
     makeshift shelters and ten known deaths of children from malnutrition 
     in the new sites. In Shan State, those displaced were warned that if 
     they were found in their villages after a certain date they would be 
     considered insurgents and shot, and in both states, the removals were 
     accompanied by human rights violations that included forced labor, 
     arrests and reports of at least one extrajudicial execution. The 
     removals have also resulted in a new influx of refugees into 
     neighboring Thailand. The motivation for such massive displacement is 
     unclear but appears to be related in Shan State to the creation of new 
     armies by the remnants of drug lord Khun Sa's troops and in both 
     States to the desire to improve infrastructure for tourism.
        As three key meetings approach in Asia at the end of July -- the 
     ministerial summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 
     (ASEAN), the post-ministerial summit, and the Asian Region Forum -- 
     Human Rights Watch asks all participants to urge the State Law and 
     Order Restoration Council (SLORC), Burma's military government, to 
     cease the relocations and allow international agencies to assist the 
     displaced and monitor their safe return to their homes. The newly 
     appointed U.N. Special Rapporteur on Burma, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, and 
     U.N. agencies operating in Burma should immediately visit the affected 
     areas to assess the situation and make additional recommendations to 
     the Burmese government. Finally, Human Rights Watch urges the Thai 
     government to permit all those fleeing abuses to be given refuge and 
     assistance inside Thailand.
        In the Shan State, over 450 villages -- at least 50,000 people -- 
     have been displaced since March.  The relocations, which are still 
     going on, are taking place in an area between the towns of Nam San, 
     Mong Nai and Kurn Heang (Kun Hing). Nam San is about eighty miles east 
     of Taunggyi.  Villagers received written orders to move from local 
     military commanders, and in most cases, were given just a few days 
     notice to pack up all their belongings and move to areas along roads 
     or near towns under the army's control.  Most reportedly have been 
     forced to provide free labor to widen and improve roads and other 
     infrastructure projects.  Others have had to work on the military 
     airport at Nam San, while still others have been forced to work on a 
     railway line connecting Taunggyi and Hsi Seng.  Both the road 
     development and the railway are being built to encourage tourism in 
     the area. None of those who have been relocated have received food, 
     medical supplies or other assistance from the military, leaving them 
     dependent on the local community. Most villagers reported that they 
     were prevented from bringing their own rice supplies with them, and in 
     some cases the entire village was burned to ensure they would not 
     return. 
        The removals have sent thousands of Shan and Akha people fleeing 
     across the border to Thailand. Here the Thai government has denied 
     them the right to seek asylum, forcing them to join the estimated 
     500,000 migrants working illegally in Thailand. 
        In Karenni State, ninety-six villages in an area northeast of the 
     state capital, Loikaw, between the Salween and Pun rivers received 
     relocation orders between May 31 and June 15, 1996.  The orders, 
     copies of which have been obtained by Human Rights Watch, stated that 
     the villages all had to move to Sha Daw town by June 7. There is a 
     large military garrison in Sha Daw, built on a hilltop over looking 
     the town.  Fifteen of the villages had to move to Ywathit, a town to 
     the south. The orders stated that anyone remaining in the area after 
     that date "would be considered enemies and dealt with accordingly."  
     It was reported by refugees from the area that two men were arrested 
     by the military from Daw Moo Mar village, and one boy from Daw Leh Du 
     village was shot and killed soon after the villagers received the 
     orders to move.  Families were not permitted to take their livestock 
     or rice supplies with them and had to leave with just the bare 
     essentials - cooking pots and what clothing they could carry.  At the 
     beginning of July, there were signs that further relocations were also 
     taking place south of Ywathit, affecting some 5,000 people.  
        In total, some 20,000 people in Karenni State were affected by the 
     orders. Around 10,000 of them went to Sha Daw as ordered, but there 
     they found that the SLORC had made no provisions for them. The people 
     were housed in schools and churches and others built makeshift 
     shelters. The SLORC gave only six small tins of rice for each family, 
     and local residents in Sha Daw helped with other food. After some 
     weeks, the overcrowding and lack of food lead to a deterioration in 
     people's health, and at least ten children are known to have died.  
     The villagers were also ordered to register with the Immigration and 
     Manpower Department, and some were able to bribe officials to get 
     passes to leave.
        An estimated 2,300 people fled to Thailand, where they have been 
     permitted to stay in the existing Karenni refugee camps near Mae Hong 
     Son (Karenni camp 2).  According to aid workers, new arrivals continue 
     to enter the camp every day, reporting in some cases that their 
     villages were razed, after soldiers had taken all the livestock in the 
     village and destroyed the remaining crops.  In Ka Ya Kee village, it 
     was also reported that all Bibles in the Roman Catholic church there 
     were also burned. 
        Forced relocation has been a strategy of the Burmese military for 
     decades, although the scale of the current relocations is 
     unprecedented. Relocations are usually planned as a means of cutting 
     off the aid that ethnic minority villages may give to rebel armies.  
     However, it is especially alarming that relocations should be taking 
     place now, when SLORC has declared that it has brought peace in ethnic 
     minority areas by signing military cease-fire agreements with fifteen 
     rebel groups since 1989.  In the Shan State, the leader of the main 
     rebel army, drug war lord Khun Sa, surrendered to the government in 
     January 1996. However, an estimated 2,000 members of his Mong Tai Army 
     refused to surrender and have joined with other Shan nationalist 
     groups or created new armies in the central and southern Shan State. 
     It is in these areas that the relocations have taken place.  This area 
     is also the center of the opium trade in Burma, the world's largest 
     exporter of heroin, and efforts by the government to control the drug 
     routes following the cease-fire with Khun Sa may be an additional 
     reason for the relocations.
     
        In the Sha Daw area of the Karenni State no rebel groups have 
     operated since the beginning of 1996, when the SLORC launched a major 
     offensive against the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the 
     only Karenni group still fighting the government. Following the 
     relocations however, the KNPP attacked the hydroelectric power station 
     at Lawpita, near Loikaw, on June 6.  The KNPP had signed a military 
     cease-fire agreement with the SLORC in March 1995, but it broke down 
     in July after the SLORC transferred new troops into KNPP territory and 
     continued to take KNPP-protected villagers to work as porters for the 
     army.  It is believed that the relocations in this area are designed 
     to pressure the KNPP into signing a new and binding cease-fire 
     agreement, which would enable the government to open up the area to 
     tourism after October 1996, the start of Visit Myanmar Year.
        The estimated 70,000 people relocated in the Shan and Karenni 
     States are in desperate need of assistance and of international 
     intervention which would make it possible for them to return to their 
     homes.  There are few international aid agencies operating in Burma, 
     mainly due to government restrictions, and none of them currently have 
     access to the affected areas. The United Nations High Commissioner for 
     Refugees (UNHCR) is working in Burma's westernmost state, Arakan, to 
     resettle some 200,000 Muslims who have been repatriated from 
     Bangladesh. The UNHCR's Working Group on International Protection 
     recommended in August 1992 (A/AC.96/799) that the UNHCR should seek to 
     become involved with the monitoring and protection of internally 
     displaced persons as a preventive measure to avert refugees outflows.  
     In addition, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), which is also 
     present in Burma, is mandated to monitor the safety and health of all 
     children, including the internally displaced. Human Rights Watch urges 
     these organizations to seek access to the displaced villagers as soon 
     as possible and negotiate a safe return to their homes. 
     
     Human Rights Watch/Asia
     Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization established in 
     1978 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally 
     recognized human rights in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East 
     and among the signatories of the Helsinki accords. Kenneth Roth is the 
     executive director; Cynthia Brown is the program director.  Robert L. 
     Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W. DeWind is vice 
     chair.  Its Asia division was established in 1985 to monitor and 
     promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in 
     Asia.  Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is 
     the Washington director; Robin Munro is the Hong Kong director; 
     Patricia Gossman is a senior researcher; Jeannine Guthrie is NGO 
     Liaison; Dinah PoKempner is Counsel; Zunetta Liddell is a research 
     associate; Joyce Wan is a Henry R. Luce Fellow; Diana Tai-Feng Cheng 
     and Paul Lall are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant. 
      Andrew J. Nathan is chair of the advisory committee and Orville 
     Schell is vice chair.
     
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