News, Personal Accounts, Report & Analysis on Human
Rights Situation in

Issue No. 9/2001
The Publication of Human Rights
Foundation of Monland (
CONTENTS
News:
(1) SPDC's land confiscation for naval base in
Kalargote island, ye
Township,
(2) Kya Inn Seikyi township authorities
forcibly bought paddy from farmers,
(3) New military battalions collect fund in Ye
Township,
Report:
SPDC attempts to grip in power and
cycle of corruption in southern part of
SOME
ACRONYMS IN THIS ISSUE
SPDC- State Peace and Development Council,
SLORC- State Law and Order Restoration
Council,
BSPP- Burmese Socialist Programme
Party,
IB - Infantry Battalion (of
Burmese Army),
LIB- Light Infantry Battalion
(of Burmese Army),
MOC- Military Operation Command (of
Burmese Army)
NMSP- New
MNLA- Nationality Unity Party,
USDA- Union Solidarity and Development
Association,
ILO- International Labour
Organization
NEWS
SPDC's land confiscation for naval
base in Kalargote Island, Ye Township
(September 2001) After
land confiscation by MOC. No. 19 to deploy their military battalions, on
August 15, 2001, with objective to deploy Mawrawaddy
naval base, SPDC's Southern Command that bases in Moulmein, the capital of Mon
State, confiscated about 300 acres of Mon civilian lands which was in
Kalar-gote island, which is in Andaman Sea and west of Ye town. On that day, Ye
township based military battalion, LIB No. 343 and a military command MOC No.
19, confiscated about 300 acres of lands owned by villagers from three villages
in Island, namely, Upper Kalar-gote, Middle Kalar-gote and Lower Kalar-gote
villages. The ci-vilians in this

A Mon fishing village in Te Township,
After land
confiscation, the same commanders have forced all vil-lagers
in three villages to clear bushes and small trees in new confiscated lands. On
the next day, they forced another 50 villagers every day,
that shared 20 villagers from
At the
moment, in September, the army started building their mili-tary
barracks first in 5 villagers' owned lands. The army especially built military
barracks, trenches, canals and helicop-ter landing
place and others. Five families who owned these lands are: (1)
Nai Min-Mi Than Ye; (2) Nai Shwe Tun-Mi Kyae; (3) Nai Gled-Mi Kyuu; (4) Nai Shwe-Mi Shwe Mi; and (5) Nai Kalar Htee-Mi Pyar Shin. These five families lost about
54.5 acres of plantation lands with betel-nut, Durian, Coconut fruit trees and
rubber trees. The estimated cost for these lands is about 8. 6
million Kyat totally. 45 members of these families who arc relying on
these lands lost both works and income. However, the army
have not cut all valuable trees in lands, just cut in the space that
they needed to build barracks and others.

Location map of Kalar-gote island in Ye Township,
(September, 2001)
With objective to provide food
supplies to their military battalions in township area,

A paddy-buying center in
they have forced the village
farmers to sell their paddy at low price even the time is not harvest season.
In Kya Inn Seikyi township, there are many battalions,
which are taking bases and launching military
battalions to prevent the activities of KNU ad-ministration and KNLAs military activities. The main military battalions in
Township are: IB No. 31 that bases in Kya Inn Seikyi town; LIB No. 548 and
No.549 that are deploying their troops in Pha-ya-nyote-to
village; LIB No. 232 that bases in Taung-dee village;
and other battalions, IB No. 106, LIB No. 299 and IB No. 109 that came from
other areas and have launched military activities. Both military battalions
base in Township and came from other areas have required food supplies and fund
to operate their military activities. To pro-vide them with enough food
supplies, Township authorities and regular army base, IB No. 31 have to take
responsibility and so that they forced the local village farmers to sell their
paddy at low price. The civilians in this area is not only suffered from to
sell their paddy at low price, the battalions which both launch the military
activities and deploy forces in various parts of township also used the civil-ians to be forced labourers in their works, porters for
military offensives and extorted fund from the civilians.
New military battalions collect fund
in Ye Township
After many military battalions under
the command of MOC No. 19 in Ye Township, Mon State, these battalions have
gathered some types of fund to spend for their own battalions and other
requirements that supporting their military activities.
On August 15, when a new military
battalion, LIB No. 586 that bases northern part of Ye town and close to town
launched a military patrol and arrived into Kyone-por
village, they found that a bridge is not strong enough for the passage of their
army truck. Immediately, the battalion commanders called a meeting of headmen
and demanded 500, 000 Kyat from the villagers to fix that bridge to be able for
the passage of army truck. Thus leaders have to collect money from villagers
and paid to battalion commander.
For the villagers who used this
bridge passing through it by foots or oxen-carts do not have to rebuild it
because it was still possible to use. However, when the army traveled with objective
to launch patrol in the area, they found it could be dangerous for their trucks
and that was why they ordered the head-men to collect money for them and they
will rebuild it. Might be, the commander of that battalion would report to MOC
No. 19 that they rebuild a bridge.
On August 13, another military
battalion, LIB No. 591 under the command of MOC No. 19 also called a meeting
with village headmen from Kan-hla, Kyaung-ywa and
villages and the commanders de-manded them that these
villages must provide them with 600, 000 Kyat to repair their army truck. Their
reason was they have to take security of this area and will use army truck. The
truck they received from higher military command was not strong enough to use
in this area and that was why they tried to fix it again.
These purposes are not concerned to
the local civilians, however, as the local military
battalions do not have enough budgets to spend in their battalions' purposes,
they tried to take money from the civilians like many other battalions in
township area.
Since April, the main military
command MOC No. 19 and its subordinate 6 military battalions
con-fiscated nearly 1000 acres of lands to deploy
their bases in this township. Because of this land confiscation, many village
families from Tamort-kanin, Done-phee, San-pya, Aru-taung, Kun-duu, Son-htit-thar, Kyaung-ywa
and Kan-hla villages lost their lands, which were
grown with rubber, lime, betel-nut, orange and other fruit trees. Some families
also lost their paddy growing farmlands. (Look in the Report of The Mon Forum, Issue No. 8/2001)
Soon after land confiscation, die
villagers have been continuously conscripted as unpaid labourers to contribute
their labour in many construction works related to the deployment of these
military battalions. And, more and more military patrol have launched around
the villages, the villagers also had to provide the battalions with foods and
some fund required by them.
The more SPDC military battalions in
one area, the more the villagers have been suffered to support the army with
labour, money and foods.
REPORT
SPDC Attempts to Grip in Power and
Cycles of Corruption in Southern Part of
I. SPDC's Plan to Grip in Power
Even UN General Assembly put more
attention on
Currently although SPDC is arranged
some "talks" with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, key leader of demo-cratic force, there has been no much improvement except
SPDC have released some political prisoners, while many of them still remain in
prisons. At the same time, SPDC plans
to re-convene the sham Na-tional Convention, which
was boycotted by NLD and could not move forward for some years. Although talks
have been arranged for many rounds, no sides have declared die results and no
sign of power transfer or political change has occurred right now. On the other hand, SPDC is still
strengthening its power through its supporting group, such as Union Solidarity
and Development Association (USDA), Nationalities Unity Party (NUP) and other
government servants to be its supporters.
And, the regime still does not allow NLD to operate its party function
freely and nationwide and at the same time, it grows its supporting political
force by various methods.
In June, 2001, SPDC's Minister of
Home Affairs hold its four months annual meeting for General Administration
Department in Rangoon, he gave a long speech and reflected the policy of the
regime on NLD, tripartite negotiation and international community, especially
ILO, which recently investigate about requisition of forced labour in Burma.
A. Policy on NLD
His explanation against NLD or policy on it in
his speech is as below:
“One political party (he
referred to NLD), bad made a confrontation against the government in the
past. The leaders and the members of
that party had activated as they thought they were representing the people, but
later the people has not interesting on them and their objectives were
useless. Thus, they changed their
policy of confrontation and adopted a new policy that was keeping good
relationship to govern-ment. As we (SPDC) held
administrative power and judicial power, we have prevented intensively against
their activities that created unstable

propagandize its legitimacy
situation in the country. Now, as they changed their policy, we have
also softened our
policy. Even they have requested, for
the existence of their party, we have allowed to put
up their party's signboards again phase by phase by township to township. When only the township (SPDC) officials
received "instructions" for higher authorities (of Ministry of Home
Affairs), Township authorities have to work for that party. If not, we ordered, exactly that you must
practice as before (or treat NLD members as before). You should not misunderstand that when we
allowed them to operate some of their activities in Tangoon
(
That party has taken more opportunities that we
allowed. They have selected and
replaced more executive committee members in their township office and
complained they are allowed to conduct this activity because the headquarters
of that party (NLD) allowed to operate like that. In this case, all parties must have to
follow the rules of election commission exactly. Their aim still does not change as they
expected for power transfer accordingly to the results of 1990 elections. According to their aim, they still plan to
call for the convention of (people) parliament. But as they changed their tactics, now, they
apply under the name of "meeting of people assembly" (to be low
profile). This is their new tactics to
keep the number of their members from reduction and to keep the party's
activities from losing. Even we know their
aim and activities, as we would like to solve the politics by means of politics, we have kept softening to them alike. Thus, State/Township administrative officers
must be careful in their works and cleverly to understand the situation. If they don't know what to do for some case,
they must have to ask their higher authorities. In May Day, when they released an opinion
statement, they mentioned they supported ILO in giving pressure against the
government (SPDC). Similarly in their
election winning statement on May 27, they declared that they must go until
they reach their destination. This described their inner mind. So that, for our side, if
they planned what they like, we must also go to reach to our destination.
This is the main excerpt of speech given by Minister that
reflects SPDC's policy to NLD, the main opposition led by Nobel Peace Laureate
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. According to this
speech, they must now allow NLD freely to operate their activities and have restricted
as much as they can. Due to NLD's
soften policy, they just soften their policy to NLD, but they have no exact
plan to abandon power or share power with NLD.
B. Policy on Ethnic Nationalitites
The SPDC has no desire to include
ethnic nationalities to be a dialogue partner in tri-partite negotiation and
the following excerpt of speeches reflect SPDC policy on ethnic nationality
people and their political parties.
"...........outside
(border based) opposition groups and radio broadcasting have always asked for
the politicalnegotiation and the issue of the
involvement of ethnic nationalities'' oppositions. Concerning to this issue, when we met with
UN people, we talked to them that the ethnic organizations have taken
"peace" with the State not so long and they have worked for the
development and economic activities and so, this have not take a strong root in
their area and they need more time. A t the moment, as they
are holding their arms, and so they should not go for political negotiation. International organizations have not much
applying this issue, but only theoppositions in
border area and insurgents in foreign countries have constantly claimed about
this issue and tried to disable the country situation, for our government, I
would like to inform to all State/Division Administrative Authorities that we
definitely will not accept any "tri-patite"
negotiations, as they claimed."
Actually, the regime even would not
like to accept bi-partite negotiation with NLD and its leaders. However,
because of international pressure, they have to talk with this main opposition
party and its leaders, to reduce international pressure and to have some
international assistance. Thus, the
involvement of ethnic people a dialogue partner will take more time, because
even the talks with NLD had no any results.
C. Response to International Labour
Organization (ILO)
From the beginning of 2001 until
half of the year, SPDC and its administration authorities had worried about the
visit of ILO because they had no readiness to halt all practices of requisition
of forced labour, mostly violated by army commanders from various battalions in
rural areas. In the meeting, Minister of Home Affairs also admitted that even
the regime already issued Order 1/99 that relating to stop local authorities to
not use forced labour, the requisition of forced labour still occurred in the
form of civilian porters in military offensives in frontier.
In his speech, he mentioned that:
"Concerning to Order No. 1/99,
all State/Division administration authorities must be careful and it is the
main responsibility to maintain this order. Although prison authorities had
provided (prisoners) for the requirement of military operations to be porters,
however, these were not always enough for many military commands' regular
regiments. Whenever they did not receive the enough number of porters, they
always arrested tke civilians in cinema theaters, in
villages. Sometimes, township authorities, village tract and village
authorities and policemen have requested civilians far porters and let them
stay at homes for many days, sometimes, telling them for short days for porterage, but took them many days. Now, we are in
discussion with respective commanders to change their tactics using of
"forced labour" to replace it with "paid labour" and if
they used the civilians for 7 days tocarry supplies,
they might have to pay labour cost with money. We need to find the way of not
using labour by force, but paid those civilians for constributing
their labour. In the current situation, I would like to request all TownshipPDC authorities, Town ward/village PDC authorities,
they should not issue any order relating to requisition of forced labour, in community
development case, you must be careful to not ask money and labour from the
civilians, but if they would like to involve to contribute their labour
voluntarily, we would accept."
The regime SPDC had ordered to stop
requisition of forced labour since 1999, however, in practice, the use of
forced labour was not stopped. As the
use of forced labour was not stopped, the regime added another order in October
2000 order supplementing Order 1/99.
Until the situation before ILO High-Level Team visit to
In a meeting in June,"
officials of Ministry of Home Affairs adopted some action plans to do before
ILO Team arrives. The action plans in
the minutes of the meeting are at below:
"Minute No. 3: ILO was
formed in 1913.
"Minute No. 4: ILO
High-Level Team will come. They will go
and investigate in States and Divisions. The authorities must show them that
there is no forced labour. Although there are changes in legislative measure,
they must find whether the authorities have enforced the laws and orders. We must have to explain the people and
inquired whether there is use of forced labour, what actions have taken against
violators, what evidence we have, it is a need to conduct interview with
people. These are preparations that we
have to do to say them there is no forced labour.

Requisition of forced labour by
members of Brumese Army still remains
a serious labour rights violation in
"Minute
No. 44: ILO will talk firstly about
the acts concerning to Order 1/99. We
already solved this problem. Later,
they talked more how we implemented according to acts. ILO will come in September to many areas and
investigate how we implemented
the orders. We need to work as below:
a. To show the evidence that we had
implemented and how we did for all people knew (about the orders).
b. To prepare office copies and files.
c. To keep all records of instruction orders
(let the SPDC authorities including general administrationoffice,
town ward/ village PDC authorities and section leaders, sign as records that
they explain about Order 1/99 and supplementary for Order 1/99).
d. To put the
Order 1/99 and Supplementary for Order 1/99 in blackboards in all
administration office. If some offices did not follow accordingly to order,
they will be punished. On August 10,
please inform the citizens in villages with loud-speakers or any ordinary
way. (To clearly explain to civilians
that whenthey decided to work voluntarily for those
who were in hardship for traveling, living is not meant forced labour. Please explain the villagers.)
By referring to their activities,
while the regime could not apply "rule of law" for all level of their
authorities, to exactly follow according to the order of 1/99 to stop the
requisition of forced labour, the authorities have forced the villagers to not
tell truth about the use of forced labour in villages to ILO Team. On the other
hand, whenever the ILO team members, SPDC's Intelligence people went along with
them and so that the civilians who worried for the future punishment did not
dare to tell truth.
During SPDCs ail levels of
authorities hold explanation meeting to civilians about the visit of ILO Team,
they expressed one threatening word that "you must be careful, because of
you, the country should not be in bad name in the international community,
please love your country". It
meant if the civilians told truth about the requisition of forced labour and if
Burma was sanctioned by international community, they might be punished for
their words. (The use of forced
labour before ILO High-Level Team visited to Burma, and SPDC preparation to
close the cases of forced labour are described in the previous The MonForum. Issue No. 8, 2001)
II. SPDC supporting groups to grip in power
A. United Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA)
USDA has
been a main organizations that formed in 1994, after
1990 general elections and SPDC decided to not transfer power to people elected
representatives. Most of its members are former BSPP (Burmese Socialist Program
Party) and Socialist youths during BSPP time. Most members are hand-picked by
the local SPDC authorities and formed with many cells. By giving better
opportunities to some young people, it tried to organize many millions of
people to become its members.
In the
past, USDA members hold big ceremony to support SPDC's National Convention and
the role of Burmese Army to involve in politics and play in an important role
in the people parliament or govern-ment even without
elected by the people. NLD has against this comments
and boycotted National Con-vention. Again, USDA hold several public assemblies in die whole country and
accused NLD as foreign puppets and colony followers.
Later in
1998 while NLD and other non-Burman ethnic political parties, which won 1990
elections called to convene People Parliament and the formation of Committee
for Representing People Parliament (CRPP), the opposition groups were accused
as "destructive elements" and as they are relying on foreign power.
On behalf
of SPDC, USDA members hold public assemblies in all States and Divisions in the
whole country and forced die civilians to attend the assemblies to against the
NLD and CRPP Especially, USDA members actively involved in organizing the
assemblies and they gave strong speeches and applied term papers that described
that NLD and CRPP were destructive elements, who did not respect national sover-eignty and asked SPDC to abolish NLD and CRPP. After
these serial assemblies, SPDC arrested many NLD members, 1990 elected MPs, CRPP
members and ethnic nationality leaders including some Mon leaders from Mon
National Democratic Front (MNDF), which won 5 seats in 1990 general elections.
Until now, USDA remains the main supporters to SPDC and the regime has provided
assistance to this organization and let them operate itself
to get fund and activities. SPDC adopted the main policy to them as to keep
like the political agenda of SPDC. On the other hand, SPDC also instructed USDA
members to against NLD and report regularly about the activities of NLD.
In 2001,
Mon State USDA hold their annual meeting on August 18
and invited all Township USDA Executive Committee members to attend that
meeting. The meeting was held in
"USDA members must do
registration of the political parties in their own area and monitor their
activities and reported to concerned SPDC office or Intelligence Office as
quick as possible.
"USDA members must be careful
all the time about the security of their areas and when they know sometimes
that could make harm to the security of an area, they must inform to concerned
government office or Intellligence Office.
"Although USDA team's stance at
the moment is as social team, but in the future it will be transformed to a political organization, so the members
should endeavor for the betterment of the association, and to conduct more
activities."
And, the Mon State USDA Chairman, U
Aung Khin, also gave a speech and instructed to the members that:
"USDA members must be careful
in politics and security of the State.
Some political parties attempted to get power in shout-cut way by
cooperating with armed insurgent groups and tried to disrupt the security of
the State.
"USDA will have to enter in the
future elections and so we must prepare to win in the future elections.
"USDA must discover the
activities of political parties and their members in every area of
According to their speeches, when
SPDC completed their national convention and drawing the constitution as they
liked, they would transform USDA as a political party and would enter in
elections. Their plan is quite clear and they have no plan to transfer power to
elected people representatives during 1990 elections.
On the other hand, while the regime
is banning the activities of other political parties except National Unity
Party (NUP), it has officially and openly supported USDA activities. The concerned military commands provide fund
and arrangement in strengthening the organization.
Township USDA regularly holds the
monthly meeting and they have helped the regime for information and many other
activities.
As an instance, the excerpts of some
minutes written from Kyaikmayaw Township USDA's August Monthly meeting are:
"............As
the team (USDA) age is 8 years old, at the moment, it needs to improve its
organizing force and the executive committee members must need to go to the
fields to review the works. Currently,
Township USDA has about 73, 000 members from 220, 000 town population and is
about 33% of the total. We need to
organize more members to enter into this organization to increase up to 50% of
the total population. We need to do it
before the coming next USDA annual meeting.
"............All
village USDA executive committee members must attend basic military training
and need to coordinate with village militiamen, local military battalions and
anti-insurgent force to take security of the area.
".........The
team members also need to collect information on NLD activities and their
programs against the government and reported to concerned authorities.
"........The
team must find the way to raise fund and fund collection from the people. To describe who support
the fund and where they lived."
The regime also gives basic military
training to these USDA members and also appointed to close work with militia
force in the villages and sometimes, worked with the local military
battalions. Most of them are given
responsibility as "informers" to the nearest Military Intelligence
(MI) Units. Due to their agenda and decisions from serial meeting, USDA members
also actively involved in many activities in town and villages as they have
full authorities from the concerned SPDC regime. When USDA organized to have
more members, sometimes, they cooperated with local SPDC
authorities and forced the villagers to be members in the organizations.
As
an instance,
"On June 26, 2001, Ye Township
PDC authorities gave an order to headmen of Taung-bon village, a Mon village in
northern pan of the town, that as the village had no USDA team, the village
headmen needed to form the team with 100 members. When the village headmen asked to Township
USDA how they would form with 100 members in village USDA, the authorities
instructed all headmen, section leaders and militiamenwould
be members in the team. When the
headmen formed the team, they got only 62 members and so thatTownship
authorities instructed them to force another 38 villagers to be members in the
team. Then, the headmen sent the list
of the USDA members and their ID cards for records in Township USDA."
By this way, USDA in
At the same time, not only they
organized some people to become USDA members and they also tried to organize
the family members of team members be their supporters. In June 2001, before the 8th Annual
Meeting of USDA was held, they also let all levels of USDA teams filled up a
registration form of each member's family information, including their names,
birth dates, ID numbers, separation of sex and ages, occupation and other
information.
On the other hand, when the regime
SPDC implemented some project as state level, the authorities have especially
relied on USDA in all levels. The
higher SPDC authorities officially give duties to those USDA members in all
levels to work instead of them.
As
an instance,
"In an order sent to Kawkareik
Township PDC authorities from Karen State authorities dated, on May 18, 2001,
when SPDC's Central Population Registration Office to collect information about
some sample families' incomes and expenses, they have asked all village/town
section USDA members to involve and help registration team to get
information."
Similarly, in May, 2001, when SPDC's
"Agricultural Products Trading Department" planned to borrow money to
farmers in
As
an instance,
"From
In USDA, the members are mostly
young people and when they have better opportunities than other people such as
they have more and more authorities to do what they liked and are not used to
be forced labourers and avoid from various types of tax, many opportunists
tried to enter in this organization.
Most of them are young people and BSPP former supporters, who have less
experience of the regime's oppression entered to this organization for power.
B.
Nationality Unity Party (NUP)
NUP is also the main political party
that supports the rule of SPDC and it also is supporting the sham National
Convention. This political party was
formed since 1988 and entered into general elections hold in May 1990. As the party was formed with former members
of BSPP leaders, the people in many parts of
However, while the regime banned the
activities of NLD and other ethnic political parties, it has constantly
encouraged NUP activities. In most
towns in
As the result in 1990 general
elections, SLORC/SPDC knew that NUP was not popular among the people. So that the regime again
formed USDA as social organization and planned to transform as new political
party. In new coming SPDC
planned elections, which is not sure when, both NUP and USDA (may be with a new
name) will enter for elections.
Currently as a main duty of NUP is
to hold the National Convention again, which started since
1993 and came into standstills for many times. This National Convention aims to draw a new
constitution that guarantees the role of Burmese Army to be in politics.
In an excerpt by Col. Tin Hlaing in
the 1st four months meeting with officials from General
Administration Department, he mentioned about NUP as below:
" ........... We
have to be careful to the veteran politician group because they cooperate with
opposition party (NLD), and created misunderstand between our government and
the people, between us and internationalgovernments
as well. NUP also declared their opinion
statement that they constantly opposes NLD activities
that follows foreign instructions! and as destructive
elements. It said, if we aim for the
real national reconciliation, bi-partite (between the SPDC and NLD) negotiation
is not enough, all political parties must go and talk
in National Convention. NUP also asks
NLD that they must go to National Convention again, if theywould
like to do for the works of national duties .............. "
According to his speech, he
completely supported the opinion statement of NUP and the regime also wanted
NLD to attend National Convention.
III. Circles of Corruption
While the regime is strengthening
its activities to grip in power, on the other hand, it could not provide the
full financial supports to their all levels of administrative authorities,
members of armed force, police force and militia force to run their activities. However, SPDC only instructed them that to
collect fund from the local civilians to run their offices or operate their
activities.
With the name of porter fee or
security fee, the battalions which base close to villages or even in towns
always collected fund from villagers because they are not fully provided from
their military battalions.
Sometimes, the commanders from the concerned battalions also needed for their
personal expenses and for their families.
Even the civilians have known about these types of corruption, nobody
can complain because they would be punished.
As
an instance,
"IB No. 61 that bases in
Thanbyuzayat town gathered fund from the civilians from Mon villages close to townwith 300 Kyat per month per household until March of
this year for the security of villages and gas-pipelinethat
connected from Tenasserim Division to Karen State for a cement factory. In April, the battalion commanders ordered to
increase to 500 Kyat per month. Because
of this more fund, extortion, the, villagerscomplained
to headmen. When monthly meeting with
that battalion in village monastery, the headmen from Wel-win-ya
village also explained the poor situation that the villagers were facing and
demanded to battalion commanders to reduce the fund collect as before. Battalion commander was too angry and he
said, now the army was taking security for villages and the whole areas, and he
added if they would not like to pay for security cost to army, each man from
every household must join village militia force. He continued that if they did not want to
join, each household must have to provide 3600 Kyat for them to do duties as
militia forces. As many villagers would not like to join to militia force, at
the end, they agreed to pay again. The
commanders gave two months time to 'pay them with 3600 Kyat per household. As Wel-win-ya village had about 500 households, the battalion receive a lot of money. Accordingly to villagers, after they received
from the civilians,the army
also bought a car for the battalion and to use for commanders."
Among the regime authorities and
armed forces, the polices are the most vulnerable
group that have less income and faced more difficulties to have enough foods
and other expenses for families. Like
other departments, they are also instructed by the regime that to seek their
own fund to support their activities which are adopted from higher authorities.
Thus, the police departments in State/Division and Township always have to find
the way, which they can raise fund for their own department.
As
an instance,
"In April, 2001,

The regime's an investment in
pipeline construction, to supply energy to
a cement factory in Pa-an Township,
Not only the police and army have
involved ill various types of corruption and fund raising program, even the
village headmen in villages have involved in corruption. Normally, whenever the higher authorities
came and visited to a specific area and villages, Town ward leaders or village
leaders always got an opportu-nity to collect fund
from civilians by showing the reason that they spent for special guess. This type of corruption has taken root in
As an instance,
"On August 16, Commander in
Chief of South east Military Command, Brigadier Myint Swe and manyhigh rank commanders arrived Kaw-bein village,
villagers, they would spend not more than 200, 000 Kyat in providing foods and
beverages to commanders and other SPDC authorities. They put the remaining money to their
pockets."
For the regime, as they need
supports from the government servants, especially from all levels of
administration authorities, those authorities have became opportunists and they
would do what they like in their own area.
Although the higher authorities knew about that, they just blind their
eyes.
Even in some cases, the civilians
knew that the authorities involved in corruption, but they could not complain and
have to accept the demand of authorities.
As
an instance,
"In Paung
township of Mon State, although the civilians knew that when they renewed ID
card in Population Registration Department they have to pay 500 Kyat according
to the existing law, however the officials from that department asked 5000 Kyat
from civilians whenever they renewed their cards. But no civilian in that township can
complain because they knew that the higher authorities would not punish their
men."
Sometimes, those authorities confiscated
lands from the civilians, which were grown with valuable trees and crops and
shared the lands among them, or sometimes, they re-sell these confiscated
lands. With the commands of Southeast
Military Command, every township build pagodas and established
some religious monuments. In most
cases, the authorities collected fund from civilians for donations and they
almost the extra money for their own uses or administration expenses.
IV. .Conclusion
Many people who follow the political development in
On the other hand, the regime have attempted to encourage the people to forget
about the politics and allows to involve on the daily illegal lotteries,
gambling and casino in many parts of
Only the authorities and their
supporters including business people who close to them have great opportunity
in administration and business or taking money from civilians with illegal
ways. At the same time, the majority
people in the country faced a lots of poverty and
hardship for survival.
Under the rule of the SPDC, the
people face the following conditions on their daily basis. The conditions are: (1) the civilians face a
lot of hardship in their living; (2) unemployment; (3) the children have less
and less chance for education and need to help their parents; (4) high
malnutrition among women and children; (5) the people have less interest in
community work; (6) young people have less interest in sports; (7) cannot have
enough health care when they have health problems and (8) more and more
stealing, lies and corruption happened in the country.
While the regime is increasing the
number of army and attempting to grip in power, they mostly spent the money in
army especially purchasing army supplies and warplanes. Because of very little
percentage of expenses in health, education and agriculture fields by the
regime, there is a high humanitarian crisis in Burma, that claimed recently by
some UN agencies in Rangoon, the capital of Burma.