------------------------- BurmaNet --------------------------- "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" -------------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: 12th May 1995 Issue #171 -------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: NATION: EVIDENCE OF SLORC GAS ATTACK MOUNTS BKK POST: THAI COUPLE FREED AFTER 2 MONTHS IN BURMESE DETENTION BKK POST: PREMIER WARNS THAIS NOT TO BE SWAYED BY BURMESE ALLEGATIONS BKK POST: SANAN TO BE QUESTIONED OVER BORDER OPENING BKK POST: NORTHERN TROOPS SENT REINFORCE BURMESE BORDER BKK POST: INDIA PAYS TRIBUTE TO SUU KYI BY HONOURING HER WITH AWARD NATION: SLORC MISRULE SENDS FLOOD OF ILLEGALS OVER THAI BORDER NATION: SLORC INTENT ON SWITCHING OFF THE FLICKERING LIGHTS OF MYANMAR NATION: BORDER PANEL'S ABILITY TO HOLD TALKS WEIGHED BKK POST: US COMPANY FACES BOYCOTT IN ROW OVER `LINKS' TO JUNTA NATION: SLORC ACCUSED OF JOINING DKBA TO ATTACK KAREN REFUGEES HERE NATION: CHATICHAI STUDIES BORDER PROBLEMS, FUTURE ARMY ROLE NATION: THAILAND SUBMITS THIRD OFFICIAL PROTEST TO BURMA ABOUT RAIDS BKK POST: STILL WATERS RUN DEEP BURMA FORUM: SLAVES CLEAR LAND FOR UNOCAL IN BURMA ADELAIDE VOICES: SOME ARTICLES ON REFUGEES -------------------------------------------------------------- o-------------------------------o The BurmaNet News is an | | electronic newspaper | Iti | covering Burma. 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Burma Issues is a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization that documents human rights conditions in Burma and maintains an archive of Burma-related documents. Views expressed in The BurmaNet News do not necessarily reflect those of either NCGUB or Burma Issues. -------------------------------------------------------------- ===== item ===== EVIDENCE OF SLORC GAS ATTACK MOUNTS 12 May 1995 Claims that Burmese government troops used chemical weapons in their February offensive against the Karen guerrilla stronghold of Kawmoora were initially greeted with scepticism. But the allegations which were brushed off as an unprobable excuse for the loss of the border camp were treated more seriously after many of the defenders of the base came down with mysterious ailments. Equally surprising was the reluctance of the Burmese troops to seize the mountaintop base even after it and been abandoned by the Karen National Union. Instead, Burmese government troops continued their fierce artillery barrage of the base for another days, leading the Karens to speculate they were trying to destroy the last remnants of the chemical attack. KNU official sited the use of chemical weapons, which are banned under the Geneva conventions, as one of the main reasons for the defeat at kawmoora. The base had withstood repeated Burmese assaults since 1984. Other reasons for its fall on Feb 20 were the deployment of huge "siege mortars" obtained from China and defections by Buddhist soldiers. KNU sources say the decision to use the chemical weapons, which caused ugly seeping wounded on the victims, was taken after a visit to the front line by junta strongman Lt Gen Khin Nyunt on Feb 14. A high ranking Burmeses officer later confirmed the attack in an interview with the Thai language Daily News. "We use it because it is necessary to use it," he said of the chemical weapons attack. (TN) ===== item ===== THAI COUPLE FREED AFTER 2 MONTHS IN BURMESE DETENTION 12 May 1995 A Thai couple, who had been detained in Burma for two months, were yesterday released in Burma's Myawaddy town opposite Mae Sot District of this northern province. The two were arrested by Burmese troops at the border on charges of carrying weapons in a restricted area, trafficking in narcotics and illegal logging in Burmese territory. Task Force 34 deputy commander Col Yuthapong Puangthong led a group of Thai officials to pick up the couple, 34-year-old Somyos Sarnjum and his wife Sunate, 33, from Lt-Col Myo Kyin, commander of Light Infantry Regiment 355, in Myawaddy. They were taken to the Task Force 34 headquarters for questioning and later to a hospital for medical check-up before they were sent home. The couple, who are residents of Ban Huay Pong in Mae Ramat District, went missing on the Thai border in Ban Wangpa on March 12. Burmese troops from Ye Gyaw Camp reportedly seized the two while they were washing clothes on the bank of the Moei River near their field. Only their motorcycle was found abandoned on the scene of the capture. After learning of the incident, the local Thai-Burmese Border Committee in Mae Sot wrote to the Burmese authorities in Myawaddy to seek the couple's release. Third Army Commander Surachet Dechatiwong also helped push for their release at the 11th meeting of the Regional Thai-Burmese Border Committee held in Phitsanulok Province last month. Southeastern Force Commander Maj Gen Ket Sein, who represented Burma at the meeting, had promised that the couple would be released soon. On May 10, Lt_Col Surachet, Maj-Gen Ket Sein and other Burmese officials had another round of talks on the matter in Myawaddy, which led to the release of the Thai couple yesterday. Commenting on the incident, Col Yuthapong said the Burmese troops had been hunting seven suspected members of the rebel Karen National Union who had illegally felled trees near the Ye Gyaw Camp and fled across the river to the Thai side. The pursuing Burmese ran into the Thai couple on the river bank. (BP) ===== item ===== PREMIER WARNS THAIS NOT TO BE SWAYED BY BURMESE ALLEGATIONS 12 May 1995 Thais should not be swayed by Burma's accusations that Thailand supports minority groups fighting Rangoon. The problems on the border are strictly Burma's internal affairs, Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said yesterday. His statement came as a prominent academic joined a call by the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the Government to review the country's constructive engagement policy with Burma because it has failed. Mr Chuan said Thailand did not allow minority forces to use its territory as a spring-board to attack Burmese troops. Nor did it tolerate incursions by government forces of other countries to arrest or kill their people taking refuge in Thailand. Everyone should clearly understand the facts as they were not complicated, he said. They should not be swayed by Burma's attempts to distort the problems. Burma's deputy military intelligence chief Colonel Kyaw Win early this week accused Thailand of cooperating with and supporting anti-Rangoon groups, a move which contributed to tension along the border. He said problems involving drug warlord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army and Gen Bo Mya's Karen National Union were Burma's internal affairs. Thailand supports peaceful settlements between the Burmese government and minority groups through negotiations. Mr Chuan said his Government would not adjust its main policy on Burma in the wake of border clashes between Burmese troops and minority forces which have affected Thai border areas and local villagers. The Government has been accused by some quarters of not acting strongly against Burma's violation of the Thai border. Charnvit Kasetsiri, rector of Thammasat University, who monitors Thai-Burmese relations, said the thinking behind the constructive engagement policy was mainly economic and not based on national security. It did not improve the security of Thais along the border. "Thailand has taken advantage of this policy to exploit illegal workers from Burma and that country's natural resources. It's policy of private enterprise, not a state," he said. He said the policy, initiated by Thailand and supported by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) six years ago, did not foster a peaceful Burma in the long run. The Thai Government's claims of non-interference in the internal affairs of Burma was just an "excuse" and had no weight since Thailand exploited cheap labour from its neighbour. Charnvit suggested the Government play a mediating role in Burma, consider incidents along the border on a case-by-case basis at local level, and not allow them to affect overall relations between Thailand and Burma. He said that while the policy did not bring any clear results in the short term, isolating Burma, an option supported by some Western countries, especially the United States, would be in vain. But Mr Chuan said: "We can't change the policy every day. Some incidents were too small and could not be cited as reasons for changes in the main policy." He said border problems could recur in future as Thailand and Burma share a border about 2,400 kilometres long. People must be able to distinguish which problems were important and which were not. Mr Chuan said a recent meeting of the Joint Thai-Burmese Border Committee in Phitsanulok had also tried to clear up accusations that Thailand helped anti-Rangoon groups, but the results might not be satisfactory because Burmese officials had limited authority in discussing such an issue. Mr Chuan said it would be good for Thailand if Burma wanted to take back Karen refugees with Burmese nationality now exiled in Thailand. But the safety of the refugees must be guaranteed. Local authorities of both countries should hold talks on whether repatriation was possible, he said. He will hold discussions with the Defence Minister, Foreign Minister and National Security Council secretary general to find out whether the joint border committee has the power to negotiate on that issue. The Foreign Ministry yesterday issued a press statement saying two more protest notes were issued to Burmese Ambassador U Tin Win by Deputy Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs Saroj Chavanaviraj. The ambassador was summoned to the ministry for the seventh time to discuss incidents along the border. The statement referred to a previous aide memorie, dated April 28, saying that 100 armed men intruded on Karen refugee camps and also burned seven houses of Thais at Ban Kaemalaeko in Tha Song Yang district, Tak provinces. The incidents caused damage totalling 1.23 million baht. Another protest note referred to an incident on May 2 at 6 a.m. in which a group of 15 armed military men crossed the Moei River from Burma and abducted three unidentified Karens taking refuge at Ban Kaemalaeko. On May 3, at 12.15 a.m. a group of 10 intruders armed with machine guns raided a Thai security check point at Mae Nago Village, Tambon Mae Suat, Sob Moei district, Mae Hong Son. Three Thai policemen were shot dead. Around 4 a.m. the same day, about 50 armed elements crossed the Salween River into Thailand and set fire to 50 deserted houses at Ban Mae Sam Laep, Sob Moei district, Mae Hong Son. The statement said that in the absence of a positive response from Burma, and failing means of protection against "these inadmissible acts of violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Royal Thai Government is left with no choice but to fully exercise its right of self-defence and to repel these intruders as it deems appropriate and necessary". The Burmese embassy was urged to transmit Thailand's views to the State Law and Order Restoration Council and to swiftly investigate the incidents. Army spokesman Col Palangkul Klaharn yesterday denied an allegation made by a senior Burmese military officer who claimed earlier this week that several Burmese villagers were killed and their houses destroyed while the army was conducting a military assault on Karen forces of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army known to have a base in Burma. The spokesman did not elaborate by the senior Burmese officer, Col Kyaw Win, should be substantiated by evidence. Col Palangkul said the 3rd Army had collected military information before it launched the attack on a military target, which the spokesman insisted was DKBA forces and not Burmese civilians, asa claimed by Col Kyaw Win. The spokesman yesterday also declined to give any details to back up his earlier claim that Col Kyaw Win's allegation was motivated by business interests along the border area. (BP) ===== item ===== SANAN TO BE QUESTIONED OVER BORDER OPENING 12 May 1995 Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart will be asked to explain his order in March to open a checkpoint on the Thai-Burmese border to allow a private firm import 400,000 cubic metres of processed wood from Burma into Mae Hong Son, Opposition sources said. New Aspiration Party (NAP) member and former deputy finance minister Boonchu Trithong, while confirming the opening to allow the import of a huge volume of wood could be the cause of the conflict along the border. One Opposition source claimed Maj-Gen Sanan, in his capacity as the Interior Minister, had ordered the opening of the checkpoint on March 20, to allow the Thai Veneer Industry Co to import the wood through it. He claimed the checkpoint had been closed by NAP leader Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, then the interior minister, after conflicts had developed due to the log hauling activity. It has been estimated that the 400,000 cubic metres of wood is worth 1,000 million baht. The wood must be imported through the checkpoint by September 19, when the border pass is to be closed. (BP) ===== item ===== NORTHERN TROOPS SENT REINFORCE BURMESE BORDER 12 May 1995 Troops from Meng Rai Maharaj military camp in Chiang Rai were yesterday sent to the Burmese border in Mae Sai and Mae Chan destricts and Mae Fah Luang sub-district. The reinforcement was meant to strengthen defence at the border already manned by troops of the Naresuan Force, Mae Sai district chief Pakdi Rattanapol said. Mr Pakdi said more reinforcements are needed for an area opposite Ban Kong Thoun on the Burmese side of the border across the Sai River. This part of the river is narrow and easy for foreign forces to cross, he said. Mr Pakdi said the situation at Mae Sai was still normal but trade had been quiet because the Burmese border checkpoint was still closed. Col Somboon Iam-opas, deputy director of the provincial internal security command, said the Thai-Border has been manned by soldiers of the Naresuan Force and Mae Rai Maharaj camp, defence volunteers and border patrol police. (BP) ===== item ===== INDIA PAYS TRIBUTE TO SUU KYI BY HONOURING HER WITH AWARD 12 May 1995 India has made a discrette gesture in support of the pro-democracy movement in Burma by conferring the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding on the movement's imprisoned leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Over the past two years, India has taken several steps to normalise economic relations with Burma, with which it shares a long border. The two countries, during a visit to India by Burma's trade minister last month, inaugurated border trade provided under an agreement they signed last year. The move came after Indian's Commerce Minister P. Chidambaram assured Burma of Indian investors interests during his official visit to Rangoon in February. The choice of Mrs Suu Kyi - who has been under house arrest in Rangoon since July 1989 - for the award instituted in the memory of India's first prime minister is a signal to the military junta in Burma that India supports Burma's pro-democracy people notwithstanding the normalisation of trade relations. Observers here in New Delhi feel the choice is unlikely to go down well with the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) in Rangoon. The high-profile jury for thee award, headed by Indian Vice-President K.R. Nayaranan, commended Mrs Suu Kyi for her "brave, non-violent, and unyielding struggle for freedom, democracy and human dignity - the ideals that promote international understanding and goodwill". The award, which carries a trophy and cash prize of 1.5 million Indian rupees (about $48,000), is given annually by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an outfit under the control of the Indian Ministry for External Affairs. Earlier recipients were Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Helmut Kohl of Germany. In an editorial comment, the Times of India, a mainline independent daily published in New Delhi, noted that the award symbolises India's commitment to democratic rights, and reflects its fervent hope that Mrs Suu Kyi would not spend a seventh year in solitary confinement. The jury's decision to confer the award on Burma's most famous political prisoner, the paper said, will once again draw attention to her crusade for the restoration of democracy. The award should serve as a reminder to the ruling junta that its repression of democracy in Burma has not been forgotten even though India's trade with Burma has increased in recent times. Slorc has also enjoined more trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with which India is cultivating more ties. The choice of Mrs Suu Kyi for the Jawaharlal Nehru Award, other observers here noted, is a bid to check the Burmese junta's attempts to gain political legitimacy through trade relations. The choice also indicates a step toward checking China's growing military and political relations with Slorc, developments which India has monitored with some concern. At the same time analysts feel there has been a slackening in recent months of international pressure on Slorc, which is seen to have made only cosmetic gestures towards change. Mrs Suu Kyi, 49, is not unfamiliar with India, and is a known personage here. She studies in New Delhi, at the Convent of Jesus and Mary and the Lady Shiram College, before going to Oxford. Her receipt of one of India's most south-after awards is also a moralebooster for the 200-old Burmese students who took refuge in India in 1988, after Burmese leadership's nationwide crackdown on pro-democracy people in Burma. The students have been pursuing their pro-democracy efforts from India and are said to be planning to organise like-minded young Burmese studying in some capitals in the West. (BP) ===== item ===== SLORC MISRULE SENDS FLOOD OF ILLEGALS OVER THAI BORDER 12 MAy 1995 Aung Zaw writes The stroy of a Burmese woman thrown in jail and separated from her sick baby following a raid by Thai police shocked newspaper readers in Thailand. A relief worker described the conditions at the Immigration and Detention Center (IDC) as "almost intolerable" with temperatures rising to 43degreeC during the day. Some inmates said, "It is like staying in hell; crowded, fifthy, smelly with daily fighting among inmates. Only the laws of the jungle apply there." Thai police regularly conduct raids around Suthisarn, Ramkhamhaeng, Ladphrao, and Sukhumvit 71 areas where many illegal aliens arebelieved to be staying. "Last week, approximately 100 Burmese were rounded up in Bangkok," said a source. "Some are Burmese asylumseekers, who are recognized as 'persons of concern' by the United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights (UNHCR)," he added. Hundreds of Burmese detained at the IDC are waiting to be deported to the border areas. Their crime? - illegally entering Thailand. Despite this, many Burmese continue coming to Thailand. Last month, the Interior Ministry ordered the Police Department to crack down on illegal immigrants in order to protect national security. More than 500,000 illegal immigrants are now in the country, a ministry source said. The same source added that Burmese make up the highest number - about 300,000. Thai authorities, NGOs concerned individuals have expressed their concern on the matter. The immediate question is how to control or halt the continued illegal immigration. Is there any plan at all to address this problem? To date, the answer is none. A police officer recently said, "The country's border stretches to about 800 kilometres, so it is difficult for us to prevent illegal entries." He also admitted that corruption is rampant among the Thai police and immigration officials. More importantly, Thailand needs cheap labour. The situation in Cambodia and Burma also contributes to illegal immigration. Whatever the case, more Burmese are coming to Thailand. Ethnic minorities in Burma, including the Shan, Karen, Mon, Akha, Kachin, enter Thailand on foot after sneaking through forest and mountains. Some come by boat. "It is hard for us make the decision to leave our home, but the situation is so bad that we have no choice but to come to Thailand," said one Shan illegal worker. But Sai Khun Pha said he is homesick and wants to go back home. "Do you think I'm happy here? He shook his head. Nevertheless, he said, "It's easier to earn money in Thailand. I only left because of the Burmese soldiers." IN 1988, Sai Khun Pha was forced to work for the Burmese army for a week. He could not pay the fine of 5,000 kyat, the amount needed avoid conscription. "How can I possibly raise this amount? He managed to finish Grade 4. When his mother died from heart disease, he tried to find a job in order to survive. Sai Khun Pha said he was not interest studying . "The Burmese government provided good and skilful teachers and we will never taught our own language," he said. :if the students at our school spoke Shan, they were beaten," he recalled. Only those who were rich and from the army were able to enjoy special privileges at his school, Sai Khun Pha added. "All then men in our village left for Thailand and the border area. Burmese soldiers forced us to work in army camps and carry ammunition deep into the jungle," he said. As an illegal immigrant, Sai Khun Pha and his friends were harassed by police. But they usually paid their way out. "We are shan [Tai Yai] so we have no language problem. We explained our situation to the police in Thai and gave them some money." But his friends were arrested by police and sold to a farm near Mae Sot. "The policemen received Bt4,000 each, although my friends escaped later." At present, Sai Khun Pha has no immediate plans of going back to Burma. "Of course, I love my hometown, I miss my family and the food. I will go back only if there is no more fighting," he stressed. There are many shan women coming to Thailand. Some work at construction sites, farm, factories and department stores However, a few have been lured into prostitution. Ma Nahn Nwe's mother encouraged her to go to Thailand. "If I continued to stay there, I would have been raped by Burmese soldiers," Nahn Nwe recalled. she finished Grade 10, and like other shan people she was not allowed to speak her own language at her school. "We studied at a monastery instead," she said. In the past, her uncle who studied the shan language was severely punished. But there have been some positive developments. The ruling junta's mass organisation, the Union Solidarity development Association (USDA), began to teach Shan language in Shan State. But to Ma Nahn, that was nothing more than a show. "They demolished our historic palaces and now they want to teach shan language!" she said. A few years ago, Slorc demolished historic Kengtung Palace to build a hotel. "If they respect Shan people, and are sincere, why did they destroy our palaces? Why did they rape shan women?" asked Ma Nahn.(TN) ===== item ===== SLORC INTENT ON SWITCHING OFF THE FLICKERING LIGHTS OF MYANMAR 12 MAY 1995 Aung Zaw writes Is journalism in Burma dead? If not, it must be in a Coma. "There is a big gap over thirty years. Newspapers were nationalized in 1962 and finally in 1964," said 74-year-old Guardian Sein Win at a training session for journalism in Rangoon recently. About 16 young and energetic Burmese participated, which surprised some foreign visitors considering lack of press freedom in the country. Freedom of the press ended when Gen Ne Win staged his coup in 1962. All newspapers were taken over and only government-owned newspapers, Lok-tha-pyi-thu-nei-zin and English language, Working People's Daily were allowed to publish and report "within the accepted limits of the Burmese Way to Socialism." Further, all books , magazines, perodicals songs and films had to be submitted to the Slorc's censors prior to printing or distribution. At times pages of foreign news magazines are ripped out or offending sections inked over. Most Burmese who grew up under Ne Win's socialist regime do not know what freedom of press and expression is. Nevertheless, they did enjoy a brief taste of press freedom in 1988 when nearly 100 different private newspapers, journals, newsletters and bulletins sprouted as the government lifted controls. Even government-owned newspapers were coming out with accurate reports. But it lasted only up to September of that year when the military staged another coup. "I was surprised, but happy that journalism in my country had flourished again said Aung Win, who was publishing a successful weekly journal during that democracy summer. "We never had a chance to try out our journalistic skills, although we also learned how to practice self-censorship," he added. However, as far as Burma's military leaders were concerned, and especially intelligence chief Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, the summer of 1988 was merely an opportunity for those whom the junta considered dissidents and rebels. "I have not forgotten that during the 1988 disturbances certain journalists, who disregard their code of conduct and dignity, and influenced by leftist and rightist ideologies, instigated the rebellion. Some publications took advantage of the situation and concocted reports to please the neo- colonialists. This ever remain in the history as a black mark which cannot be erased any way," Khin Nyunt said. Burma's present newspapers, The Mirror (Burmese), the New Light of Myanmar (both Burmese and English) are completely controlled by Slorc. Their coverage of news is bland and limited almost exclusively to Slorc activities. One example was last year's meeting between two junta leaders and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which barely rated a mention in the state organs. The British-based anti-censorship group, Article 19, in a report released on March 20, called Burma "one of the most heavily censored states in the world." It noted the contradction between greater economic freedom allowed since Slorc took power and the suppression of free and open debate and said the disparity must end if Burma's chronic political problems are ever to be resolved. "The quickening pace of economic development is requiring at least some adptation of existing Slorc policies and attitudes. To date, however, these have been little more than cosmetic," the group said. But if anything, Slorc appears to be tightening its grip on the dissemination of news. Soon after the April water festival in Burma, Slorc stopped the publication of at least two privately-owned and well-known magazines, Kyi-pwa-yay and Mahethi. Sources in Rangoon said that both would remain shut for at least six months. Many still cannot find a reason for the closure. But some Burmese writers in Rangoon speculated the two were closed down because they published a classified advertisement from Burmese youths and students in Tokyo. The ad went like this: "Burmese in Tokyo will celebrate the water festival at the Tokyo Dome or known as the Big Egg from 10:00am to 4:00pm for further information please contact Water Festival Committee in Japan." The closure of Kyi-pwa-yay surprised many writers in Burma as the magazine had been running articles about free-market economy and had also been supporting Slorc's Visit Myanmar Year. The editor, Myat Khine, is close to some powerful Slorc ministers. About the same time, a writer reported, "there has been a new censorship system had been introduced by the Press Scrutiny Board (PSB), which regularly blackened out sensitives articles and sentences. But a PSB officer told to writers recently, "The practice of Inking out words does not speak well for a free market economy. Therefore, the style of censorship has to be changed. Instead of inking over the sentences, the whole article will be torn out." (TN) ===== item ===== BORDER PANEL'S ABILITY TO HOLD TALKS WEIGHED 12.5.95/The Nation Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said yesterday be will call a meeting next week of all government agencies involved in the border situation to determine whether the committee handing the matter is an effective mechanism for negotiation . "I will meet the Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry and the National Security Council to see whether the Thai-Burmese joint border committee can handle the matter , whether the Burmese side of the committee has a mandate to handle the current border tension ," Chuan said before attending the House session yesterday . Chuan made the announcement as the Rangoon government accused Thailand of continuing to aid and arm ethnic minorities fighting Burmese troops. His statement implied he would review the border committee's performance . The committee operates at a local level and there is growing concern that the current situation might be beyond its capability. Thailand and Burma have established three levels of working committees headed respectively by local authorities, the defence ministers and foreign ministers of the two countries. " There might be some discrepancies in the mandates given to the negotiators in committees. Thai negotiators might be too senior to talk details while the Burmese side might have been given only a limited mandate to talk," the prime minister said. Brushing aside Rangoon's accusation , the prime minister said the fighting between Burmese troops and drug warlord Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army and Bo Mya's Karen National Union is an internal matter. Rangoon should settle its own problem he said. "The Thai press should not fall prey to distorted information. We are living with reality," said Chuan. The prime minister said the rise in the number of border incidents should be attributed to the Burmese government's failure to bring these two minority groups into the fold. "We are the target of attacks simply because these two groups live near the Thai border," said Chuan. He has instructed the Foreign Ministry to respond to the accusation. It is in Thailand's interest to stick to its principle policy of engagement with Burma , given the long porous border with Burma. and to support the cause of peace in Burma by engaging in dialogue. " Our policy is based on reality ," said Chuan . Chuan defended a police raid on Karen refugees to confiscate smuggled weapons as the right approach "to show that Thailand does not tolerate any foreign forces using Thailand to fight their enemies " Former foreign minister Prasong Soonsiri yesterday blasted the Foreign Minister's performance . It should have taken diplomatic action much earlier to clarify the complex situation on the border and avoid misunderstanding. Praong, a Palang Dharma Party MP who lost his post to PDP colleague Karase Chanawongse in the last Cabinet reshuffle, said the ministry should have taken the leading role ,but was instead subordinate to the Army. He expressed support for the government's firm stance on constructive engagement with Burma . The confrontational approach should be the last resort , given the complexities of the border problem involving infringement of sovereignty and identified raiders, he said. ===== item ===== US COMPANY FACES BOYCOTT IN ROW OVER ` LINKS' TO JUNTA 12.5.95/The Nation The Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee company could face a boycott of its products for its refusal to suspend business links with Pepsi which has been accused of supporting the Rangoon military junta. The Seattle Campaign for a Free Burma reported that Starbucks pledged not to allow its latest product, a carbonated iced coffee beverage called `Mazagran', to be manufactured or distributed in Burma. However, the company refused to cut ties with Pepsi, which is its joint -venture partner in the production of Mazagran, following protests by Burmese activists. According to report released by the human rights group , the joint venture product made its debut on the markets last month at two of the company's locations in Santa Monica, California. But the launch attracted immediate protests by Burmese activists. The report said the two companies have refused to provide assurances that the names of the protesters will not be turned over to Burmese authorities. " My parents and my brothers were tortured by the Burmese military regime Pepsi works closely with these military thugs, closing its eyes to the suffering of my family and the Burmese people . " That is why I am here and that is why I will keep coming ," the report quoted " Kolatt" as saying. Kolatt is the pseudonym of one of the protesters, who fear military retribution against their families in Burma if they are identified. Pepsi claims to be non-political in Burma, although its Burmese partner has close ties to the military and Pepsi has cosponsored a trade fair with the regime. The company ,along with Unocal and Texaco, remains the subject of boycotts in the United States. Its rival ,Coca-Cola, and other US companies, Macy's, Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Reebok, Amoco and Petro- Canada, have shunned business ties with Burma. The Seattle City Council on April 24, unanimously passed resolution critical of the Burmese regime and the companies that support it. The University of Washington Board of Regents voted on March 16 to support a shareholder resolution that called on Pepsi to withdraw from Burma. In March , Berkeley-based companies ceased business with Burma in compliance with a law passed by the city of Berkeley, California, banning purchases from , or contracts with companies that do business in Burma. ===== item ===== SLORC ACCUSED OF JOINING DKBA TO ATTACK KAREN REFUGEES HERE 12.5.95/The Nation A Burmese dissident group yesterday accused the Rangoon military junta of collaborating with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army to attack Karen refugee camps in Thailand over the last month. In a statement released yesterday , the All Burma Students Democratic Front [ABSDF] said the series of raids on the camps over the past few weeks was part of a Burmese government plan to forcibly repatriate the refugees to DKBA controlled village of Myaing -gyi -ngu. The Burmese Army's First Command of the South Eastern Command has ordered the relocation of Karen living in the Papun township in Karen state to the village under the control of DKBA leader, U Thu Zar Na by May 21, the statement said. That corder extended to the Karen from Papun who are currently living in Thai refugee camps. The Papun -based Light Infantry Regiment No [434] , which was responsible for enforcing the border , has threatened to kill refugees and burn their villages if order was not observed and if they hadn't relocated before the deadline. ===== item ===== CHATICHAI STUDIES BORDER PROBLEMS, FUTURE ARMY ROLE 12.5.95/The Nation Chat Pattana leader Gen Chatichai Choonhavan , recently elected chairman of House committee on military affairs , said yesterday Thai-Burmese border problems and the Army's future role were both at the top of his agenda concerning the committee. Chatichai said he will call a meeting on May 16 involving the heads of the three armed forces, the Police Department and the National Security Council in order to be briefed about the present border situation. " One of my responsibilities is to supervise the performance of authorities handling the border problems," Chatichai told reports after a meeting of the committee. The new chairman said he believed that Thailand's constructive engagement was a good policy, but it should be reviewed to reflect the true relations between the two countries. He did not elaborate , but said he backed Asean's approach to invite Burma to join the forthcoming annual meeting in Brunei. "Burma should be encouraged to join the international community, so they can be shown how democracy works," he said. Chaitchai played down the accusations by the Burmese government that Thailand continued to give aid to the armed ethnic minorities which have led to the border incursions . "Thailand has a clear policy with the Burmese government to disassociate itself from minority groups. I don't understand why there are reports that these minorities were armed [in Thailand to fight in Burma ]. If we really did allow them to be armed [as accused], then that was wrong ," Chatichai said. Chatchai suggested that the Foreign Ministry should use diplomatic channels to talk with Rangoon about the whole situation in order to clear up all the misunderstanding. " I believe that as long as there is dialogue , the situation won't worsen," Chatichai said. Chatichai said one of the focal points in the Army's policy was to make the lower ranks fully well-versed with their responsibility . " To become professional soldier , they need to become more self- sufficient . We have to make sure lower ranking officers can take care of themselves in any situation ," said Chatichai, who was a former calvary officer before entering the political arena. The Chat Pattana leader was elected as committee chairman to replace Gen Arthit Kamlang-ek who became Deputy Prime Minister under the party's quota after the Cabinet reshuffle last December. ===== item ===== THAILAND SUBMITS THIRD OFFICIAL PROTEST TO BURMA ABOUT RAIDS 12.5.95/The Nation The Foreign Ministry yesterday handed its third official protest to Burma this year about incursions into Thai territory and banditry by armed Burmese , officials said . Burmese Ambassador U Tin Win was summoned to the Foreign Ministry where the Director General for East Asian Affairs ,Somboon Sa- ngiambutr, handed him the diplomatic note. The note referred to an incident which took place around midnight on March 2 when five Burmese soldiers armed with "heavy machine guns " raided a house in Tak's Tha Song Yang district. The group shot and wounded the householder , Prachuap Saenjai, and stole property and cash worth more than Bt 20,000. The second incursion cited in the protest note occurred in the same district about 11 pm that day, when approximately 20 armed people " clandestinely " entered a temporary shelter of people fleeing the fighting in Burma. The armed group forced Kyaw Rei , 68 , a Christian Karen leader, to return to Burma with them. " The Ministry of Foreign Affairs views the incidents with serious concern as they clearly violated Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity and ran counter to the principle of good neighborliness adhered to by our two countries, " the protest note said. The Foreign Ministry , therefore , advised the Burmese embassy to inform the relevant authorities and called for a " thorough investigation " of these " illegal and totally unacceptable incidents ." The note also urged Burmese authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of similar events in the future . The ministry in February submitted two notes , protesting that several artillery shells had been intentionally fired across the border incursions by a Burmese Karen group who kidnapped Karen leaders and took them back to Burma. A large number of Karen fled to Thailand when the Burmese captured their last stronghold at Kawmoora early this year. The Army blasted The Nation yesterday for running a letter criticizing its handling of refugees from neighbouring countries. "The accusations stated in the letter are groundless and obviously intended to frame the Thai Army . The newspaper's intention have been suspect from the beginning , despite the fact that it is owned by a Thai with a Thai family name , It has presented news which insulted the Army all the time , " Army spokesman Plangkoon Klaharn told a press conference. He was referring to a strongly - worded letter published in The Nation's editorial page yesterday criticizing Army chief Wimol Wongwanich's attitude toward refugees. " The Army does not want to respond aggressively . But this letter could cause resentment among junior officers who may find these accusations intolerable," Plangkoon said. ===== item ===== STILL WATERS RUN DEEP Bangkok Post Once a princess, later an armed rebel, Sao Yawnghwe has always been a progressive who sought to bring political enlightenment to her people. Today, half a world away, she looks sadly at her homeland, where all reminders of her contributions to democracy have been officially erased. PATRICIA ELLIOTT reports. Pictures by DON JEDLIC. (Bangkok Post, March 18, 1995) If the Burmese junta's much-touted Visit Myanmar 96 campaign is successful, next year thousands of foreign visitors will descend on Inle Lake. The lake's calm, narrow waters stretch like satin between two smoke-blue spurs of the southern Shan plateau. At its head is Yawnghwe, a languid little town where optimistic tourism authorities have called for a doubling of hotel rooms, from 200 to 400, within the year. The town features a crumbling old museum set in a large garden of tamarind and flowering paduak trees. A few squatters have taken over the museum's outbuildings. Graffiti adorn some of the walls. The main entrance is dusty, dark, and junk-strewn. Upstairs, attendants stand guard over a display of fading, curled photographs. There are few clues to this building's history and purpose. Much of the area's true history rests in the memory of a 79-year-old woman who lives in a nondescript city on the vast North American plains. It is a cold, windswept place far removed from the coconut groves and hyacinth-choked canals of Inle. The woman introduces herself as Sao Yawnghwe and adds, "Just call me Sao." On the surface, a simple, informal introduction, but the true meaning is: "I am a princess of Yawnghwe. Just call me princess." Thais would call her "chao" or "chao nang". She lives alone, her five children scattered across the continent. Her days are spent reading about history and Buddhism. She cooks her own meals in a tiny kitchen. Sometimes in the evening she joins her neighbours for a friendly card game. Although thin and often ill, she still moves and talks with the inborn quickness of a natural leader. Sao Yawnghwe was no coddled, spoiled princess: once she was a member of the Burmese parliament and, later, the leader of a rebel army. She was born on May 27, 1916 in North Hsenwi, a large Tai princedom in northern Shan State. Her father was a famous rebel chieftain who, through hard fighting and careful negotiations with the British colonialists, managed to take the throne as one of 33 independent rulers of mountainous Shan State. The young Hsenwi princess attended convent schools in the hill stations of Maymyo and Kalaw. She loved her studies and vowed to be a "modern girl" who would somehow escape the chains of feudal marriage. But in 1937, at age 22, she was given in marriage to Sao Shwe Thaike, the powerful ruler of Yawnghwe in southern Shan State. Forty-one-year old Sao Shwe Thaike had had two previous wives, commoners who had both died of tuberculosis. Rumour held this as a sign that only a true princess could live under the seven-tiered roof of Yawnghwe Palace Whatever the case, the Yawnghwe prince was impressed by his new wife's educated, confident manner. One year later she was elevated to the status of mahadevi, or Chief Queen. For the first few years of marriage, the mahadevi settled into the traditional life of a Tai ruling family. Some of this life may be glimpsed by today's visitors to the Yawnghwe museum. The museum is in fact the family's haw, or royal residence. Construction of the haw was completed in the late 1920s. It is a rambling structure built in the Mandalay tradition with hardwood from the injin tree. Sao recalls long days spent in her royal apartment, reading or simply gazing from her second-storey window. At first she felt isolated and defenceless amid the prince's extended family. "But it wasn't so boring you would die," she laughs. The royal family, which grew to include two minor wives and twelve children, occupied three attached apartments, each topped by a small altar room for private worship. The children loved to sneak out the altar room windows and scramble across the royal rooftops. The family's living quarters opened onto the first of three massive halls. The inner hall, today identified in English as "the Inner Levee Hall", is where the palace's main Buddha images were housed. It was accessible only to immediate family members. The middle hall is where the prince instructed his ministers on the administration of the state. When delivering official pronouncements he sat on a ceremonial gilt throne. The outer hall, huge and sunlit, is where the prince's subjects came to pay homage twice yearly, in April and November. On these ceremonial occasions the Buddhist clergy ascended to the hall via a decorative eastern staircase known as the Dragon Stairs. Ordinary people used a simpler stairway on the hall's north side. Inside, they knelt before the prince and his mahadevi, who sat side-by-side on gilt divans. The hall's impressive throne was reserved for the palace nat, or guardian spirit. The prince's subjects paid taxes to the state and were also expected to bring offerings to the Homage Ceremonies. In return they expected the ruler to provide education, health care, justice, roads, and other basics. Princes who ruled poorly faced endless popular rebellions and court intrigues. Today the great outer hall stands eerily quiet. Once it rang with the laughter of the royal children, who irreverently used the place as their favourite playroom. They raced each other from pillar to pillar and clapped their hands at the bottom of the Dragon Stairs to hear the echo. Beneath them, in the main floor offices, the prince and his officials busied themselves with the daily tasks of government. The administration of Yawnghwe principality was, for the most part, fair and progressive, according to Sao. It was also peaceful. "If we had one murder a year, it was rare," the former mahadevi says. Gradually, the lonely princess involved herself in state affairs, becoming a respected voice for Tai unity. During World War II, however, the main floor offices became the domain of Japanese soldiers. Prior to the war, the prince had served as a British Army officer. "The British were paramount," explains Sao. Like the Mandalay kings of old, their empire seemed indestructible. But, just like the Mandalay kings" the British melted away almost overnight in early 1942. Sao Shwe Thaike gathered his family and fled to a maze of canals and floating gardens that ring Inle Lake. They lived for a time among the Intha fishermen, who are famous for their ability to swiftly propel small boats by hooking one leg around a single oar. A ruler cannot remain in hiding forever, though. Eventually Sao Shwe Thaike presented himself to the Japanese officers, who were under orders to maintain a semblance of traditional government in Shan State. The family returned to the haw, where Sao remembers spending fearfilled days and nights on the second floor listening to the comings and goings of the Japanese soldiers below them. During that time, Sao carefully hid a phonograph recording of "God Save the Queen". The record was her eldest son Tiger's favourite. When the stubborn five-year-old finally found his record and put it on the gramophone, the entire family flew into a panic. Despite their worries, the family survived three years of Japanese occupation intact. The war signalled the end of a way of life, though. The British returned in 1945, but without a plan or commitment to Shan State. In February 1947, Shan leaders gathered at Panglong, where they decided to throw their lot in with the emerging independent Union of Burma. The date of signing, February 12, is still celebrated as Union Day, and replicas of Panglong's commemorative Unity Monument can be seen throughout Burma. Ironically, the real Unity Monument is off-limits to tourists because it ties in a so-called "black area" of continued civil war. In the old days, too, unity was often just a surface concept. Anxious to prove that their new country was multi-ethnic, in 1948 the Burmese selected Sai Shwe Thaike as president, a largely ceremonial position. That year the family packed their bags for a new life in Rangoon. There Sao Yawnghwe served as the First Lady and later as a member of parliament for her birthplace, Hsenwi. Husband and wife became outspoken proponents of the new democracy. The princes of Shan State gave up their traditional powers, although many went on to serve admirably in civilian positions. When the fledgling democracy crumbled on March 2, 1962, Sao Shwe Thaike was a major target. The Burma Army surrounded the family's Rangoon home and opened fire, killing Sao's third-eldest son, Sao Myee. The president was hauled off to jail, where he died on November 21. His remains were taken to Yawnghwe to rest beside those of his son and his first wife. One year later Sao gathered her children and fled to Thailand. "I don't know why, but I was never afraid," she says. Operating from Chiang Mai the exiled queen worked with her second son, Tzang, to form a rebel army. The Shan State Army (SSA), however, was soon swallowed into a complex netherworld of opium smugglers and Cold War intrigues. Alliances were made, deals were cut, and, in the end, Sao lost control of her army. She left to join eldest son Tiger overseas. It is her role as rebel leader which has ensured Sao's era- sure from official Burmese history. While her husband is still recognised as a founder of modern Burma, Sao's own considerable contribution is ignored. Photographs in the palace-turned-museum feature the prince's first wife who died of TB. The only official reference to Sao is contained in a book called "The Conspiracy of Treasonous Minions within Myanmar Naing-Ngan and Traitorous Cohorts Abroad" (SLORC, 1989). The book describes her as a traitor who "cajoled" students to revolt and organised "civil servants and police and even bandits and thieves" to fight against the government. Today Sao Yawnghwe still hopes for a peaceful, free homeland. Although she and her children live in scattered exile, they are united in their attempts to restore democracy to Burma. Sadly, with each passing year it seems increasingly unlikely that she herself will see this dream fulfilled. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, night falls on Yawnghwe. The haw's new guardians turn up their stereo to scare away the ghosts of the past, echoing their government's fear that Sao's dream still haunts the quiet waters of Inle Lake. ===== item ===== SLAVES CLEAR LAND FOR UNOCAL IN BURMA May 11 Two weeks before Unocal executives will face shareholder questioning at the company's annual meeting, the Bangkok Post has reported of refugees entering Thailand to avoid forced labor conscriptions clearing land for Unocal's pipeline. Unocal is in a joint venture with Total of France and Burma's State Law and Order Restoration Council regime. Unocal had distanced itself from SLORC's widely reported slave labor practices by separating the pipeline issue from construction of the nearby Ye-Tavoy railway, which intersects the pipeline route. Now, the refugees charge, forced labor, illegal land seizures and village destruction is being carried by SLORC directly along the route of the Unocal/Total/SLORC natural gas pipeline. "If the accounts given by the refugees prove accurate, the number of villagers subject to forced labour on the pipeline could be well into the thousands," writes the Bangkok Post on May 7, 1995. In mid-1994, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand stated that it was "likely that forced labour will be used on the pipeline." The refugees' eyewitness accounts stand in stark contrast to "Unocal in Myanmar (Burma)," a report sent to all stockholders. Under the heading "Absolute Respect for Human Rights," Unocal writes: Allegation: Forced labor is being used to clear land for the pipeline route. Fact: This is definitely not true...We would never allow such a thing... Company assertions have come under fire. Unocal executives admit that SLORC is in fact bringing seventeen battalions into the region - 30,000 soldiers in all - via the railway. Unocal's report to stockholders does not deny that this railway is being built by forced labor. An estimated 160,000 Mon and Karen peoples have been forced to work on the railway. Allegation: The pipeline construction project will be supplied by a railroad that's being built by forced labor. Fact: There is absolutely no connection between our pipeline construction and the railroad exten- sion...What's more...we can strictly control how roads and other infrastructure for our project are built. Evidently, Unocal has no control over the land clearing phase of the pipeline project. A human rights worker told the Bangkok Post that "SLORC has used forced labour in the preparatory phases of several previous old developments before foreign personnel were brought for the technology- intensive phases of construction" according to the article. "That way," said Kevin Heppner of the Karen Human Rights Group, "the white guys can say with a straight face that they didn't see anything." Unocal's report to stockholders continues: Allegation: Villages along the pipeline route have been depopulated and the residents forcibly relocated. Fact: Our observers saw no such evidence. Unocal's observers did not speak Mon, Karen, Tavoy, or Burmese and were escorted by SLORC personnel. During helicopter overflights, SLORC determined where Unocal was allowed to land. Unocal's investigative methodology was sharply criticized by a renowned Burma scholar at Rutgers University, Professor Josef Silverstein, following a January 4 meeting with Unocal. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the sole customer of the natural gas, revealed another contradiction in Unocal's rhetoric in an ad placed in the Bangkok Post on April 18. The ad supplement stated that "Myanmar has recently cleared the way by relocating a total of 11 Karen villages that would otherwise obstruct the passage of the gas resource development project." Refugees say that land clearing using slave labor began on February 3, the day after Unocal, Total, the Thai Petroleum Authority and SLORC signed a final contract. The Unocal/Total gas pipeline is SLORC's largest foreign venture to date. Numerous U.S. companies have withdrawn from Burma amidst a growing awareness of Burma's struggle for democracy -- Levi-Strauss, Amoco Oil, Liz Clairborne, Eddie Bauer, Macy's. Numerous other companies refuse to initiate business in SLORC-occupied Burma, and the Berkeley City Council has passed a selective contracting resolution aimed at eliminating contracts with firms involved in Burma. The pressure is increasingly being focussed on PepsiCo, Texaco and Unocal -- the most visible U.S. companies still doing business in Burma. SLORC massacred thousands of nonviolent demonstrators in 1988, has held Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest since 1989, and was voted out of office in 1990. Rather than cede power, SLORC imprisoned the parliament members-elect and terrorized the student democracy movement. Most of the students have left the country via the Thai-Burma border or live in encampments there. Unocal, meanwhile, still refuses to meet with leaders of the Mon and Karen who own the land along the pipeline route, and has yet to join The Burma Forum's call for an independent investigation into the human rights situation in Tenasserim Division. Unocal's president, John Imle, has dismissed this effort by saying, "we conduct our own investigations." At this point, Unocal is compelled to either ignore what the refugees are saying or withdraw from the venture because of the commitments made in the report to stockholders. The report states, "we would never allow our activities anywhere to be the cause of human suffering...If there were any possibility that our project was connected with human rights abuses, this would be absolutely unacceptable to us." # # # Note: The Bangkok Post article of May 7, 1995, is entitled "Refugees Allege Slave Labour on Gas Pipeline." To contact EGAT concerning its role in the joint venture, call 011-662-436-4824 (or 4884). 7-5-95/Bangkok Post Thai, French and American oil companies, already under fire for the Tavoy pipeline they are building in collaboration with Burma's military regime, now face allegations from refugees arriving at the Thai border of wide-scale slave labour directly on the pipeline. These are the first detailed accounts of slave labour on the pipeline itself. Previous allegations have focussed on the Ye-Tavoy railway line, which is being built by tens of thousands of slaves, but which the oil companies claim is not related to their project. If the accounts given by the refugees prove accurate, the number of villagers subject to forced labour on the pipeline could be well into the thousands. RELATED REPORTS (See Sunday Perspective, 17,24) "They took my field for our pipeline," says Kyaw Myint, one of the refugees from along the Thai pipeline. "They took my income. Before the pipeline, there was forced labour, but it was possible to live. Now it (forced labour) is all the time." "Now, I cannot eat with my family openly and in peace. I cannot sleep with my family openly and in peace. When they see a man, they take him for labour. I had to leave." Another refugee gives a similar account of the situation along the pipeline route, saying: "When they (Slorc) ask for money, I always gave. When they asked for forced labour, I went. But in the night, the soldiers still come to take 'emergency forced labour.'" The natural gas pipeline is being built by French and American oil-giants Total and Unocal, in partnership with Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc). The sole consumer of the gas is the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) with pipeline construction on the Thai side being done by the PTTEP (Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production Public Co. Ltd), a subsidiary of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand. Under the terms of a 30-year contract signed on February 2, Thailand will initially pay the companies and the Slorc $400 million per year for gas pumped through Yadana field in the Gulf of Martaban. The pipeline will cut through 65 kilometres of land belonging to members of the Tavoyan, Karen and Mon ethnic minorities in Burma. On February 2, in a ceremony held in Rangoon, representatives from Unocal, Total and the PTTEP and the Burmese gathered to sign a final contract. At the signing, J.M. Beuque, signatory for Total, refused comment on allegations that the pipeline would lead to human rights abuses, saying: "This is not the time to talk politics, this is the time to celebrate." At 6 a.m. the next day, land clearing using slave labour began at a village called Hpaungdaw, claims refugees from the area. According to the refugees, they were ordered to clear a 300-foot-wide right-of-way for the pipeline and accompanying roadway, starting at the sea. By the refugees' accounts, forced labour on the pipeline consisted of cutting trees and vegetation, pulling stumps, knocking down structures and breaking rocks. The villagers claim that no one was paid and that workers and their families had to provide their own food. Laying of the pipeline is not scheduled to begin until later this year or in early 1996, under the supervision of French engineers. By then, the forced labour phase of the construction is likely to be over. According to Kevin Heppner, a Canadian working with the Karen Human Rights Group, the Slorc has used forced labour in the preparatory phases of several previous oil developments before foreign personnel were brought for technology-intensive phases of construction. "That way," claims Heppner, "the white guys can say with a straight face that they didn't see anything." The Burma Forum Contact:Dr. U Kyaw Win ++(714) 432-5860 or ++(714) 831-2000 ===== item ===== SOME ARTICLES ON REFUGEES ADELAIDE VOICES Dec'94/Jan'95 EDITORIAL --------- (by Dr U Ne Oo -- Dr U Ne Oo is a Burmese refugee campaigning for human rights.) The outflow of thousands of Hutu refugees from Rwanda pouring into neighbouring Zaire has shed some light on thenature and meaning of refugees: refugees are people who have fled from persecution and violence. Most of the refugee movements around the world and the underlying rood causes for their flight, however, are not necessarily as obvious. While the public media usually focus on the most sensational aspects such as extremen violence, the movements of 18.2 million refugees today are hardly as newsworthy. The public perception of refugees, in large measure, is that they try to escape poverty and seek to enjoy asylum in richer countries. Such perceptions have little credibility when examining the true statistics of poverty and refugees: there are more than one billion people living in absolute poverty worldwide who have not become refugees. Furthermore, most of today's refugees reside in their neighbouring countries whose local residents also live in poverty. The root couses of the flights of refugees have been varied: armed conflicts, generalised violence, gross and persistence violation of human rights, repression of minorities and the violence entailed in the breakdown of law and order. There are anxieties in national governments that the granting of temporary asylum and giving humane treatment to refugees may encourage more refugees to enter their territory. Furthermore, such alien populations are vilnerable to being manipulated as scapegoats and targeted for persecution by political groups which are seeking public support. The national governments normally justified the inhuman treatment to refugees as a necessary deterrent element. A deprivation of food and basic necessities are often made as a means to discourage the refugees' stay in their territory. The international community therefore needs to give attention to such incidents and advocate that the treatment to refugees and asylum seekers be as humane as possible. When refugees return to their home countries, the logistic support of the international community is the most crucial element in the success of such an operation. Since these refugees usually return to an environment of continuing social and political strife, ongoing moral support and attention to their situation is necessary. Successful reintegration programs require financial support. The assistance to refugees in the repatriation programs is normally inadequate an has often been described as "the cooking pot and hand shake". The financial support to rebuild the communities and life of the refugees is useful not only for short term but also for long term stability. The community attitude to these refugee crises normally is sympathetic, but lacks understanding of the underlying root causes, such as human rights situations. It is therefore necessary to support and join human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to help in resolving the problems. Only when human rights are respected in those refugee producing countries, will there be an end to the refugee problem. /* -------------------------------------------- */ FLEEING IN FEAR --------------- (by Dr Robyn Grove -- Dr Robyn Grove is external relations officer with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Sydney ) Mass migration and the movement of refugees are both a symptom and a cause of the turmoil in the world today. It is estimated that in 1994 up to 80 million people are on the move for a multitude of reasons: as economic migrants, guest workers, internally displaced persons who are the victims of conflict , famine or drought and refugees. Refugees, currently thought to number 20 million, move for very specific reasons which distinguish them from other migrants. They flee from their homelands in fear of losing their lives or liberty. Today nearly 15,000 people a day become refugees; one in every 120 people in the face of the earth has been forced into flight. Nearly four million people from the former Yugoslavia have come to depend on international emergency assistance since late 1991, when the horrific term "ethnic cleansing" entered our vocabularies. One tenth of Somalia's entire population is outside its borders, also kept alive by international aid. Half a million Liberians have received similar life-sustaining assistance since 1990. New upheavals continue to drive out new victims: last year 280,000 fled political repression in Togo; 500,000 were uprooted by the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan; 60,000 from the clan-based struggle for power in Tahikistan and 100,000 from ethnic strife in Bhutan. In 1994, as the wourld watched in horror, two million Rwandese fled genocide to become refugees. Those who do not cross the borders of their country for whatever reason, are known as internally displaced persons. They are currently numbered at 25 million. The situation of the world's refugees is not entirely one of unbroken gloom. Sometimes conflicts subside and it is possible for refugees to return home and to pick pu the pieces of their lives. In 1993, 3 million refugees did so, including inn our own region, 360,000 Cambodians who had been living in exile on the Thai border for more than a decade. Almost 2 million Afghans returned home in 1993. Currently more than 1.3 million Mozambicans are returning home from 6 African countries. Meanwhile othefr solutions continue to be found for refugees unable to repatriate. Significant - if much smaller - number have been either to integrate permanently in the countries where they first sought asylum or to resettle in third countries where they have begun new lives. The total number of refugees continues relentlessly to grow. Teh international framework for meeting the needs of these people, which includes the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is being stretch to meet the new demands of larger and more complex refugee situations. It has at its core a simple but powerful commitment: refugees must be protected and helped towards a lasting solution to their plight. Today, the problems of refugees raise not only humanitarian and human rights concerns but also fundamental issues of international peace and security. The four major root causes of refugee outflows are now well known: 1. Politics ----------- At base, this is persecution based on who a refugee is (race, nationality, membership of particular social group) or what he or she believes (religion or political opinion). Persecution usually takes place in the context of fundamental political disputes over who controls the state, how society organises itself and who commands the power and privilege that go with political control. These disputes often erupt during periods of intense change, when entire social classes or ethnic groups may be perceived to hold political opinions in opposition to the state (the professsional classes in Cambodia under Pol Pot or the Kurds in Iraq under Saddam Hussein). A recent and alarming trend is for the majority of the refugee producing conflicts in the world to take places within states rather than between them (Mozambique, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda). Weak states are especially prone to internal violence, lacking as they often do, representative political institutions, credible mechanisms for resolving conflicts peacefully, impartial law enforcement or free elections. The vast majority of refugees today, as in te past, are fleeing not from targeted acts of individual persecution but from generalised violence that endangers civilians and radically disrupts everyday life. 2. Economics ------------- Poverty inevitably compounds ethnic and communal tensions, with minority groups often providing convenient targets. More than one billion people worldwide live in absolute poverty. Economic deprivation is a major factor in the instibility of conflict situations which produce refugees. When the conditions of dialy life, precarious to begin with, are disrupted by war, the ensuing famine and disease often become greater threats to the population then the fighting itself (Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia). 3. Environment -------------- Millions of people have been forced to leave their homes because the land on which they live has become unihabitable or is no longer able to support them. In some cases, the cause is natural disaster; in others, the catastrophe is caused by humans. The disruptin to habitat may be sudden (Chernobyl or Mt Pinatubo) or as gradual as the spresding of a desert or the retreat of a forest. The terminology for describing enviranmentally induced migration is controversial. People displaced by enviranmental degradation or natural disaster need help, ideally from their own government. They do not necessarily require the kind of international protection implied in the word "refugee". Occasionally, the destruction of habitat can equate with persecution - if it occurs as the result of deliberate governmental action or gross negiligence and no effort is made to assist or compensate the victims. In extreme cases, forexample in Iraqui Kurdistan, destruction of a habitat may be used as a deliberate weapon of war. Long-term strategies of prevention should address environmental damege as a potential contributor to refugee flows. 4. Ethnic tensions ------------------ Conflicts between ethnic groups have proliferated in recent years. Armenia and Azerbihan, Bhutan, Burma, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Sudan and former Yugoslavia are examples. The 190 or so independent states currently in existence contain at least 5000 ethnic groups. Predictably they do not always live together harmoniously. Ethnic tensions can be seen as a root cause of refugee flows for two reasons. First, they are highly suspectible to political exploitation. Second, in extremen nationalistic regimes, a minority ethnic group can be seen as an obstacle to nation-building, incapable of fitting into a hemegeneous national identitu (e.g. ethnic Albanians and Bosnian Moslems in conflict with "greater Serbia"). Members of the minority group may be exposed to discrimination, forced assimilation, persecution, expulsion or even genocide. Coerced departure is a violation of the human right to remain peacefully in one's home. In Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Myanmar, Gautemala and Rawanda, human rights violations - enforced military conscription, arbitrary arrest, detention without trial, torture, rape and murder - have been at the core of major humanitarian emergencies. The refugee's need for protection arises from the violation of his or her rights combined with his or her home government's failure to defend its citizens against such violations. This failure by government is now frequently, and correctly, seen as a threat to international peace and security. The would's twenty million refugees are part of a complex migratory phenomenon. Global migration proceeds across a specturm of motivation ranging from those fleeing persecution and serious danger, to those trying to escape misery and those who wish to leave behind a lack of opportuinty. The most privileged move for reasons of personal preference. Others flee for their lives. The distinction between refugees and economic migrants is most difficult to distinguish when people flee from countries where poverty is perpetuated through the political system. The line between the voluntary migrant and the refugee is often a fine one. Yet it is important for states to be able to make the distinction in a fair and consistent manner so that people who need asylum are granted it, and so that the protection system for refugees is not overwhelmed with economically motivated migrants.(ADELAIDE VOICES) [Adelaide Voices is some kind of activist news journal which most contributors found to be social justice/human rights advocates. A copy of AV can be ordered from Adelaide Voices, PO Box 6042, Halifax Street, South Australia 5000.] -------------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. 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