NEWS - Just an ordinary day in Lai-

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Subject: NEWS - Just an ordinary day in Lai-Kha township, Burma

BURMA COURIER No. 197          Aug 29 - Sept 4, 1999

SHAN STATES

Just an ordinary day in Lai-Kha township

>From the monthly report of the Shan Human Rights Foundation:  August
1999

CHIANG MAI -- Cattle ranching has been an important part of the rural
economy in Lai-kha township in central Shan state where herds could be
seen
almost anywhere before the massive displacement of thousands of farming
families in 1997.  Since then the remaining cattle have wandered at will
throughout the deserted countryside.

On May 17, Loong Loi Hurng, 51, and Loong Lai Seng, 49, set out with
four
younger men from their families, Kaw-Na, Ma-La,  Khat-Ti-Ya and Kun-Na,
all
in their twenties, and two teenagers, Zaai Taeng and  Zaai Suay, to hunt
for some of the cattle they had set loose at their old village at the
time
of the forced relocation.  Luck was with them and they managed to round
up
15 head of cattle which they herded down the road to Lai-kha where they
have been living since the time of the move.

But as they got near town they ran into a patrol of fifty men from
Battalion 515 who arrested them and took them to the army base in
Lai-kha.
At the base, commanding officer Saw Hpyu demanded to know where they had
bought the cattle.  When they explained that they were really their own
cattle which they were retrieving from their old village, he accused
them
of going back to the village to provide rice to Shan insurgents who
operate
in the area and gave an order for the six men and two teenagers to be
punished.

The beating they received was so severe that some of the former
villagers
lost consciousness several times while they were receiving the blows.

On May 20, they were summoned by the captain of the patrol which had
arrested them and told that they would have to pay a fine of 2,000 kyat
for
each of the cattle and 5,000 kyat apiece for their release.  When the
money
was paid, however, only the villagers were released.  The 16 head of
cattle
remain in possession of the military.