HRW press release item on Burma

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>From:	CCPNGW::"owner-hrw-news@xxxxxxx" 11-JUL-1996 10:04:24.66
To:	hrw-news@xxxxxxx
CC:	
Subj:	Burma--HRW Demands End to Forced Relocations

(July 9, 1996, NY)--Human Rights Watch today calls on the Burmese government
to end massive forced relocations in the Shan and Karenni States which since
March 1996 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 Regional 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.

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