KAO WAO NEWS No. 16
An electronic
newsletter for social justice and freedom in
READERS' FRONT
JUNTA
ETHNIC LEADERS' HEALTH WORSEN
TENSION OVER STALLED UN TALKS
WLB: FUTURE PEACE BUILDER
KARAOKE SINGERS ARRESTED
FILLING THE QUOTA
NIGHTMARE JOURNEY TO
SONGRAN WATER WARS
MON EMBRACE SANGKRAN
______________________________________________________________
READERS' FRONT
Dear Readers,
All's quiet on the home front in
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Regards,
Editor kaowao@hotmail.com
Dear Kao-Wao,
Congratulation to hear the news of tension has eased among
the Mon groups.
Aunty Rosy
Dear Editor,
It is good news to hear that the Mon armed conflict has
eased. Thanks to MUL negotiation team,
all leaders and civilians who support unity and reconciliation. Please, continue for more solidarity among
the movement. The time is very critical now.
Nai Mae-Houh
KL,
JUNTA
(Kao Wao /
The
On
After the Songkran New Year, the
Burma Infantry Battalion No. 61 was reinforced by the Light Infantry Battalion
No. 343 based in Mawkanin, Northern Ye and Infantry
Battalion No. 29 from 14 Mile of Southern Ye Township to increase security to
build the road construction for logistics reasons. The military combinaton
force of about 300 troops were cautious, moving forward slowly to avoid
landmines and ambush attack by the KNU and HRP guerrlllas
according to a local villager. It is
believed the
The troops are very close to Halockhanee
Mon refugee camp making local villagers nervous over the intrusion of the
ETHNIC LEADERS' HEALTH WORSENS
(Based on Chinland Guardian and
Kao-Wao,
The health of Mon political prisoners at
According to an anonymous relative who visited the Mon leaders
at Moulmein prison, Dr. Min Soe
Lin is having vision problems and Dr. Min Kyi Win is having breathing problems
due to lack of proper treatment. He said
the leaders were mentally quite strong and have been
expecting their release because of international pressure and the visit of UN
Special Envoy Mr. Razali to
Mon National Democratic Front leaders Nai
Tun Thein, Nai Ngwe Thein, Dr. Min Kyi Win, and
Dr. Min Soe Lin were arrested in 1998 for urging the
armed New Mon State Party (NMSP) to reconsider its position on the cease-fire
agreement with the SPDC military junta and for supporting the Committee for
Representing Peoples Parliament (CRPP). Nai Tun Thein, the Chairman of
MNDF was later released from the prison and put under house arrest due to his
age and poor health. The remaining three
leaders were sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour, serving
their term at the Moulmein Prison,
Dr. Min Soe Lin is the General
Secretary of MNDF and elected MP of Northern Ye Township Constituency 1, Nai Ngwe Thein
is one of the founding and Presidium members of the United Nationalities League
for Democracy (UNLD), and Dr. Min Kyi Win holds the post of Joint-General
Secretary of the MNDF and elected MP of Mudon
Township (South).
Ethnic leaders are serving long prison terms, though some
political prisoners have been released as a result of the talks between Aung
San Suu Kyi and the military junta. DVB
Radio (Democratic Voice of Burma) interviewed a family member on
Chin professor, Dr. Salai Tun Than has been detained at InSein
Prison and another Chin leader Pu Do Thawng is still in
TENSION OVER STALLED UN TALKS
(Kao-Wao,
The All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), Democratic
Party for a New Society (DPNS) and Network for Democracy and Development (NDD)
jointly sent a letter to the UN Special Envoy to speed up reconciliation in
Hoping the seventh visit to
Due to lack of substantive results people are becoming wary
about the openness of the junta's commitment to national reconciliation and
civilian confidence has fallen. The 3 democratic organizations, ABSDF, NDD and
DPNS urged the UN special envoy to facilitate concrete steps and to take more
of a leading role to initiate national reconciliation in
The statement, sent out from the liberated area, recommended
Mr. Razali to strongly urge the SPDC to release all political prisoners, to
allow freedom of movement for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and freedom of existence
and association to all political parties.
It also urged for the immediate termination of human rights violations
and the withdrawal of the
WLB: FUTURE PEACE BUILDERS
(Kao-Wao,
The closing ceremony for ‘Women as Peace Builder
Facilitation Skills Training' was held in a liberated area on
The WLB (Women League of Burma), an umbrella women
organization, prepared the women training on
Mi Kyaik Soi
Norn a Mon mathematics teacher and Mi Hongsa Norn from MWO (Mon Women's
Organization) shared their views on the situation of women in
About a hundred people gathered for the closing ceremony
with speeches by Mi Su Pwint from Burma Women Union,
Ms. Shirley Seng, from the Kachin Women's Association
of Thailand and widow of Kachin Leader General Zau Seng, and Khin Ohnmar of WLB. The
workshop concluded with traditional and colorful dances from the ethnic
nationalities.
Migrant Watch
KARAOKE SINGERS
ARRESTED
(By Kaowao/ Mahachai,
Five migrant girls holding registration cards were arrested
for singing Karaoke songs at a fishing community near
Thai policemen patrolling the area on their evening shift on
According to their neigbours, the Tavoyan girls were singing at their own apartment and
enjoying the traditional New Year during their holiday but unfortunately were
singing too loud and in Burmese, alerting the police to take advantage and
extort money from the migrants.
FILLING THE QUOTA
(Kao Wao/ Samutsakhorn,
According to the Bangkok Post on
Nai Rorn
Sgong, a 28 year old registered worker from
The owner of the factory kept Nai Rorn Sgong's original registeration card having only the photocopy to prove his
registration. He was arrested at random
only to meet a quota imposed by the Thai authorities, said a community worker
who knows Nai Rorn Sgong.
NIGHTMARE JOURNEY TO
(Excerpt from
In early March, 13 bodies, including five children, were
found inside rice sacks, under sacks of fertilizer and animal waste at a
garbage dump in Muang district of Prachin
Buri province. There were no signs of murder or marks
on bodies.
Burmese banknotes and some short notes written in Burmese
were found on the bodies. Some were wearing Longyis,
Burmese sarong, so police assumed they were immigrants. A few days later,
police found a link to the human trafficking gangs arresting Boonta Pumi 42, a job broker,
together with two Burmeses, Mathui
and Thong. Warrants of arrest have been issued for three other persons. A 15- year old Mon girl, Mi Cho, was one of the few survivors and was sent to a remand
home in Nakhon Pathom
province.
"I live in the
They walked for three days and and
spent three nights in the jungle from their village to Myawaddy,
the Burmese town opposite Mae Sot district in Tak
province. "When we got there, some strangers greeted us. They said they
could take us to
"It was very hot inside and I was very thirsty. It was
difficult to breathe," said Mi Cho. Some time
during the next day, when the truck stopped and the tarpaulin was removed, 13
out of the original 16 men and 16 women had died. Mi Cho's
sister was one of them.
Commander Wichit Samathiwat of the Thai Institute of Forensic Medicine said
the 13 died of suffocation. This was verified by autopsies.
Three men and seven women aged between 18 and 30 had died,
two other victims were boys and one was a girl. The bodies were stuffed into
rice sacks and left in a 100- rai dumpsite in Tambon Nonthorn, Prachin Buri. Mi Cho said that they were never put in gunny sacks and were
never ill-treated during the journey. Police say the blue-black bruises on the
bodies could have been caused by asphyxiation and the combined body heat of 32
people. Mi Cho never smelled the stink of fertilizer:
only roses.
Mi Cho says they were sent off in
groups, in taxis, to various destination after the 13
would-be workers were found dead. She was put in a taxi with a man and taken to
a vegetable farm in Nakhon Pathom,
where one of her sisters was working. Two days later police arrived at the farm
and took the two sisters away. They were questioned at a police station before
her elder sister was released.
Mi Cho was sent to the remand home
in Kamphaeng Saen district
of Nakhom Pathom. "I
miss my parents and my village very much" she said. Her wishes will soon
be realized, said one of the officers. She will be sent to court for sentencing
within a month, then returned to Mae Sot and released.
Given another chance, would she return to
SONGKRAN WATER WARS
(By Lita Davidson in
In Chiang Mai, streets were packed to overflowing capacity
with people, trucks, and motorcycles converging into a twisted mass of wet skin
and metal. Plenty of water was on hand as people climbed into the back of
pickups arming themselves with high-pressured water guns, buckets, jugs, and
hoses, to team up along the moat to haul buckets of water into barrels in the
back of pickups. For 3 days the moat was the scene of trench warfare out of the
back of a pickup. Along with the stored water and large blocks of ice, provisions
of alcohol were thrown into the plastic barrels. Men took center stage in the
primal carnival, dancing wildly to loud disco music while swilling back alcohol
and doing the Thai hula hula with swinging hips and
exposed wet bellies. Roving gangs in the thousands wanting more of a thrill
raced on the highways in pickups with people hanging dangerously off of
tailgates and on top of roofs to scout out victims, motorcycles with 2 or 3
people to a bike roared along beside them.
It has been said there is a fine line between comedy and
tragedy. From the beginning to the end of Songkran
about 821 people were killed with close to 80,000 injuries. That's comparable
to two Boeing 767s taking a nosedive into Chiang Mai with no survivors, a
tragedy. Only in this case no one is assigned blame and since it is party time
all is forgiven, a comedy show. As one foreign observer noted after witnessing
a motorcycle death "What do you expect when millions of people (the actual
number is about 61 m) take to the streets." Most of those deaths are
motorcycle fatalities, as most don't care to wear motorcycle helmets. Most of
those injured are men.
Peace to all water revelers.
(Kao-Wao / Chiang Mai,
Burmese exiles joined in the annual celebration of the Songkran Water festival from April 13 to 16, gathering at
local temples and venues at various locales in
In Chiang Mai a small
MON EMBRACE SANGKRAN
(Based on MRC and Kao-Wao,
The Mon community of
Food was served to the monks and devotees received New Year
Chanting and blessing water from the monks. Part of the tradition requires
participants to line up in a queue to purify the Buddha statue and the monks
with ornaments and perfumed water. After, all guests and hosts were served with
the traditional Mon Sangkran food of dry fish, which
is mixed with sour mango. All teenagers and adults were gleefully throwing
water at each other while others were singing and dancing to Karaoke songs.
In
While the
The Mon communities at Thong Phapum
and Sangkhalaburi gathered at temples and private
homes donating Sang-Kran food and paid respect to
monks, relatives and elders who went to the temple for blessing and donation.
According to Venerable Dhamma Dinna, the Abbot of Mon Buddhist Temple in Indiana, most of
the Asian countries, Monland, Burma, Thailand, Lao,
Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Nepal and Srilanka change
the Cula or Jula era in
accordance with the Lunar calendar. In fact, the word "Sangkran"
is decended from Sanskrit or Sakkata
word of "Sakranti". It means
"Transition" from old to new or from old year to New year. The Mon adapted the Sanskrit word ?Sakranti" to "Sang-kran"
in Mon. The Thai pronouces it Songkran
and the Burmese call it "Thinkyan".
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