In Burma (also known as Myanmar), the new President Thein Sein (former Gen. Thein Sein) has attempted to move towards democratization or a democratic transition, by establishing a dialogue with pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and allowed her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to participate in the general elections.  In order to show a positive change, the government also released a small number of political prisoners.

However, the Burmese Army still operates military offensives against ethnic rebel groups in Karen State, Shan State and Kachin State whilst the government has conducted ceasefire talks. Human rights violations have continued in these areas and thousands of ethnic civilians continue to suffer from abuses committed by troops of the Burmese Army. [Download Report in PDF format] | [Map]

In many non-conflict ethnic ceasefire areas, government authorities and troops of the Burmese Army continue to commit human rights violations in the rural areas.  The change of governmental system – from military regime to democratically elected government – has contributed too little change for Burma’s rural ethnic population. Subsequently, the changes that have been applied are not appreciated by those affected by them.

From [October to December, 2011], Human Rights Foundation of Monland – Burma’s (HURFOM) field reporters gathered human rights violations cases through conducting interviews with local residents of the villages under the administration of Yebyu, Ye, and Thanbyuzayat townships. These villages include those that are situated on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and nearby it, in Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division, and some in Ye Township, while most are lying along the highway of Ye Township to Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State.

The fact-findings in this report show that those residents from the villages mentioned above experience various human rights abuses: such as extortion, arbitrary taxation, forced labor, land confiscation, ill-treatment, sentry duty and obstructing village security in their daily life committed by local based government’s battalions and navy units.

Furthermore, it reveals that 10 years after the gas pipeline construction between Kanbauk and Myaing Kalay, villagers residing along the highway of Ye Township to Thanbyuzayat Township are still demanded to provide security fees for the gas pipeline, its sentry and duties of village security. Villagers have also had their lands seized and marked to be confiscated recently. Additionally our information unveils that the villagers are forced to give information of ethnic insurgency groups to local government officers and required to report every day even though no such groups travel by, or enter the villages. Consequently, these villagers have to leave their work behind as they have to report, and because they are unable to go to work, they face difficulties for their survival. In addition, the villagers living on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island not only have their land seized, but also have to provide the local based Navy Army with allowances for them to work on their own rubber and betel nut plantations and other long-term crops plantations. In addition, the villagers on the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and its surrounding villages have to provide woods and other materials for buildings of local based Burmese Army offices and barracks; yet those villagers are also charged to pay a large amount of money if they could not provide the woods.

HURFOM’s objectives are to document and report human rights violations cases, taken place mainly in three regions: Mon State, Karen State, and the Tenasserim Division, to promote human rights and lessen the chance of future violations. Thus far, HURFOM has found out that like in the periods of previous governments, the human rights violations are still committed by the government troops even though a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is formed in Burma. Also, despite a new civilian-led government has been formed, Burma’s local residents do not see any signs of change in their villages. In fact, the villagers are facing human rights abuses more frequently by the government troops of the government that was inaugurated in, 2010, than during the time the government was led by Senior General Than Shwe.

In Burma, to show the signs of heading toward reforms, President Thein Sein has conducted many rounds of dialogues with pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in addition to allowing her party the National League for Democracy (NLD) to take part in the upcoming by-elections and releasing a small number of political detainees.

On the afternoon of August 19, 2011, Burma’s President Thein Sein held the first talk with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at his office in the Presidential Residence in Naypyidaw. People in the country hoped that the meeting would bring about changes and prominent development in political spheres. Suu Kyi and the president reportedly enjoyed a cordial conversation, though no details of the meeting were released by either site. Burmese state newspaper -The New Light of Myanmar – reported the meeting from a different angle: “The president and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi tried to find out the potential common grounds to cooperate in interests of the nation and the people putting aside different views.” However, the news report did not explore what “potential common grounds” were discussed.

Between July 25 and October 30 2011, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi met government’s liaison minister U Aung Kyi four times. During her talks with the liaison minister, she revealed her widespread concerns about the recent conflicts in Kachin State, Shan State and Karen State. Whatever assurances she received, sceptic caution that the previous regime’s divide and rule tactic between minority ethnic groups and democratic forces will come back into play remain. Suu Kyi still believes that the regime will continue to exclude ethnic groups from the dialogue.

Despite minor reforms and the release of approximately four hundred political prisoners, a vast majority of Burma’s political prisoners remains detained. Here again, the government’s motive to release political prisoners is aligned with promoting international relations. Combined with the significant increase in human rights abuses by the Burmese Army, including the use of gang-rape against ethnic minority women and children, the outlook for genuine reform in Burma remains bleak.

“The release of political prisoners should be welcomed, but these releases are not enough to justify the lifting of any sanctions”, said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon. “Today is a day of joy for the families of those who have been released, but for many more, it is a day of sadness and disappointment, as their father, mother, husband, brother, or sister remains in jail. This is a reality check; change has not come to Burma yet.”

While many people deeply believe that the regime’s authorities are making remarkable steps implementing various forums posing as democracy advocates, spouting pipe-dream visions of approaching democracy through peaceful means, the government’s battalions shock-troops are violating the rights of ethnic minority groups in Kachin State, burning their villages and crops, making sure there is no peace in the homeland of ethnic Kachin.

As the result of the civil-war in the Kachin territory, an estimated 40,000 locals have been displaced in war-torn areas of Kachin State, but until Tuesday the Burmese government authorities had only allowed the UN World Food Program to distribute foods to the nearly 6,000 refugees in the government-controlled areas of Kachin State. Fighting in the region continues despite the reports that President Thein Sein, issued a written statement signed on Dec. 10 ordering Burmese army chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to halt military operations against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) except for self-defense purposes. The statement has not yet been publicly announced, but its existence was revealed to local journalists by the Kachin State chief minister at a fund-raising ceremony for Kachin war refugees.

There does not appear to be any current prospect of a formal ceasefire agreement between the KIA and the government troops because the KIA’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), has explicitly said that it is seeking a political dialogue with the goal of autonomy and will not accept Burma’s current parliamentary system dominated by former military generals under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, which they say includes only minimal rights for ethnic minority groups.

“We are not informed of the reported order by President Thein Sein to the army to hold attacks against us, but nonetheless the fighting will go on because the government army has already occupied a number of our military bases in its recent offensives and because we are yet to hold a true political dialogue with the government,” said by KIO/KIA spokesperson La Nan, adding that the Burmese army reinforced its troops in Myitkyina and Bhamo townships of Kachin State on December 12th, 2011.

On the other hand, the regime continues building dams which will adversely affect not only ethnic minority farmers, but farmers throughout the land. Land is still confiscated for pipelines & railways, which keep the stolen resources flowing out of the country, and agro-projects, which usually replace rice fields with non-edible cash crops.

The people in the communities in Mon State, Karen State and the Tenasserim Division under the government’s controlled areas have known that there was a change of government due to 2010’s elections and know well who won in the elections.  However, many of these people rural areas said there have been no changes in administrative system because the people still suffer from paying taxes, and the authorities are still corrupt.  Many types of human rights violations such as illegal taxation, extortion, forced labor and land confiscation have continued.

Many people in conflict zones and those that did not have the right to vote during the last election feel the situation remains the same. People are still displaced due to fighting and human rights violations.  Still many face problems in terms of getting food and trying to find stable sources of livelihood.

HURFOM has closely monitored what is happening in both conflict zones and non-conflict areas.  Its human rights workers in the field have traveled to various parts of Mon State, Karen State and the Tenasserim Division and interviewed local people to document human rights violations.

In many parts of Mon State and Karen State, the Burmese Army is still deploying their battalions close to villages and the local villagers are suffering from abuses by Burmese Army soldiers.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the then-ruling military junta – the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) – instituted the ‘Four Cuts Policy’ (Pya Ley Pya in Burmese), that successfully undermined insurgent forces belonging to Karen and Mon political parties. While the agreement to a ceasefire between the New Mon State Party (NMSP) in 1995 officially ended the hostilities with the Burmese military junta, the ceasefire failed to guarantee the well-being of communities on the periphery of Mon territory. Due to the continued presence of insurgent Mon splinter factions and Karen armed units, the Burmese military government, reconstituted in 1989 as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) declared nearly 90 percent of the territory in northern Tenasserim Region and southern Mon State a ‘black area’ or a ‘free fire zone’, in which military units were given designated regions to carry out policies of extortion, seizing of goods and land, arrest, rape, torture, and even summary execution.

Since HURFOM’s inception, its field reporters have documented the extensive and continuous abuses committed by SPDC battalions against villagers, often regardless of the verifiable presence of insurgent forces. This number of insurgent groups’ presence in the area since the days of the ‘Four Cuts Policy’ have been few, and ever deceasing in number compared to the presence of Burmese army battalions. Currently active insurgent forces are predominantly the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), unknown Mon insurgent splinter groups (locally known as the Nai Hapwe group) and units from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade No. 4 are periodically active in the area. The local Burmese Army units include LIBs[1] No. 282, No. 273, IBs No. 61, No. 31 and No. 409, coastal army units, Navy No. 43 which operates under Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No. 8. These battalions have the capacity to field between 80 to 300 soldiers each at any one time.

The regions of focus in this report, southern Mon State and Northern Tenasserim Division, are geographically mostly comprised of mountainous and hilly terrain. This difficult terrain is a natural gift to armed insurgent groups desiring to hide from their enemies. However, while the area is home to an extremely high number of battalions, this is more due to government’s demand for security over the presence of the Kanbauk to Myaingkalay natural gas pipeline, which provides the military junta a significant income from foreign investment. According to analyses of the military movement in this area regarding the excessive positioning of military bases, issues surrounding pipeline security are the key causes behind the continuous commitment of human rights violations.

The industries of local rubber and betel-nut plantations, paddy fields and perennial fruit-orchards that employ local residents have been hit hard by the abuses documented in this report. HURFOM researchers have learned that 75% of these crops could not be harvested in the area due to travel restrictions ordered in the last two and a half months, according to the information gathered during interviews with residents. This research indicates that due to the severity of abuses, loss of crops and much needed income threatens a possible collapse of the areas’ agrarian economy.

Methodology

The majority of the facts in this report are based on field data collections conducted in Southern Mon State, in townships such as Thanbyuzayat and Ye, and in the Northern Tenasserim Division, such as northern Yebyu Township, Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island in which Navy Unit No. 43 began confiscating land in December 2010. In order to collect the evidence, five field reporters in two teams interviewed 38 subjects in 22 villages; these include 11 interviews from villages in Thanbyuzayat Township, 10 interviews from villages in Ye Township, and 7 interviews from Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, northern Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division, southern Burma. This report also includes 4 interviews collected by telephone from farmers who were recently violated by money extortion regarding their owned land.

Due to area restrictions and security toll-gates set up by local government battalions, gathering data and directly asking questions to local farmers in the targeted areas were intensely difficult and in some cases members from local based Community Based Organization (CBO) assisted with important information that HURFOM felt added to the strength of this report. HURFOM also drew extensively on the knowledge of three local residents who helped with gathering information from individual incidents, background information, and confirmation on facts in the interviews as well as invaluable context and assistance in replying to targeted follow-up questions.

The people of southern Burma continue to live under a highly authoritarian military regime that is widely condemned for its serious human rights abuses. HURFOM field reporters have conducted interviews with villagers residing in the villages located between Ye and Thanbyuzayat townships. The following findings are voice files recorded from the villagers who are the witnesses and victims of human rights abuses committed in their areas. The majority of those who committed human rights abuses are local based battalion officers and their fellows. Their oppressing of local residents has not changed since human rights violations committed during the last’s government term. These voice-recorded files below are gathered from males and females from 14 villages.

Lives for the villagers living in Ye and Thanbyuzayat townships do not seem to have changed, even though signs of change have been cried out across the country under the administration of this new government. Instead, villagers face the same abuses, which are forced labor and extortion – charged as gas pipeline’s security fees that were also levied during the last government’s term.

The villagers in Wae-rat village are still charged with security fee of gas pipeline by Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 62 despite the aftermath of new civilian-led government installation.

“Now, many people believe that there are changes in the country in the phase of this new government. But, we, the villagers from our village still have to pay 15,000 Kyat to Thanbyuzayat based Burmese Army — Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 62. That is the fee for gas pipeline security”, said by Nai Kyaw Moe (not real name), 55, from Wae-rat village, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State.

Quoted below, a Karen person, 28, from Bae La-mu village, Ye Township, remarked what kind of changes are taking place in his region:

“It was announced that the country [‘s government] would move to reform and changes in a right direction after the 2010 general elections. But, now the year 2011 is almost over and nothing changed in our region that shows reform. Yet, one thing has changed, that is the ‘name’ [of local based government offices]. Before, the local authorities demanded us to call them District Peace and Development Council (DPDC), Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC), and Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC). But now we’re required to call District Administration (DA), Township Administration (TA), and Village Administration (VA). This is what has been changed so far,” remarked by A Karen villager, 28, from Bae La-mu village, Ye Township, Mon State.

The Burmese Army still charges security fees of the gas pipeline and forces villagers to go on sentry in the villages situated between the railway and highway of Ye Township to Thanbyuzayat Township, during this civilian government’s term. According to U Htun Hla (not real name), a Mae Paw villager, the villagers in his village are still demanded by Burmese Army Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 62 to pay the security fees and to carry out sentry duties. And, from the same battalion, two groups are formed and one group comes to collect the fees while another group orders the villagers to go on sentry.

“Now, the village where I live is located between the railway and highway linking Ye Township to Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State. There are 10 villages in total lying nearby Wae Ka-mee, Ah-nin, and Kyaung Ywae villages situated between the high-way of Ye-Thanbyuzayat. Those villages are located right along the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline. For the security of the gas pipeline, we the villagers are demanded by the Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 62 led by Major Tin Maung Htun to go on sentry in turn. Like before, those who can’t guard the pipeline have to pay; each household has to pay 1,000s – 15,000 kyat. Sometimes, we have to be guards while we also have to pay fees for pipeline security. There is one group giving orders to us to go on sentry, and there is another group collecting money for pipeline security. So, two groups were made from IB No.62. What I meant here is that we as villagers who have no power are affected for two reasons. We cannot go to our work but we are used as free laborers for them. And, we have to take our saved money to pay them as they demanded. So, nothing changes; it is just the same as before,” said by U Htun Hla.

U Htun Hla is 52 years old and he is working on rubber plantation. HURFOM conducted an interview with him on November, 22, in Mae Paw village, Thanbyuzayat Township.

Local Area Security and Abuses

That is not only what villagers have faced as a result of the constructed the gas pipeline, but they also have faced many other abuses committed by government troops guarding the gas pipeline. The following is an incomplete list of what the Burmese Army has demanded of villagers:

• They [Burmese Army] order villagers to go on sentry for the security of gas pipeline.
• They order villagers to patrol the villages (in addition to guarding the gas pipeline)
• They demanded villagers to pay security fees to those who ordered them to pay. And if these villagers cannot guard designated areas themselves, they have to compromise by paying fees.
• They demanded villagers to support village militia troops and to provide the troops with rations.
• They use villagers guides if they get informed about the insurgency groups ( while sometimes these villagers are used as guides, sometimes this task implies being a human shield for Burma Army troops).
• They order the villagers to carry the army’s rations.
• They steal fruit, vegetables, and livestock of villagers.
• They ask villagers about insurgent groups and ask whether these villagers have contacts with insurgent groups when they are on the front line heading into jungle eastern of Ye Township. (If the villagers do not know about that or do not have any contact with, they are asked by them whatever they want and then blamed. And, if the villagers are males they will be used as porters besides taking over what they, the troops, wanted)
• When villagers are in the frontline, those who living in the countryside along the way where they [the Burmese battalion’s troops] are heading to are verbally abused. Those local people are the young girls and married women from the families of Mon, Karen, and other ethnic people. Sometimes, they are questioned about rebels, and they are even asked questions concerned with sexuality, causing shyness.
• They told off those local people who cannot speak Burmese well, and they look down and discriminate them.
• They beat up and torture local people.

Those abuses continue to be committed by government troops just like before and those are the ongoing abuses. This account above was remarked by U Thar Myint Aye, former member of VPDC committee, and he is from Ka-nin Ka-maw village, Ye Township, Mon State.

Human Rights Abuses in Bal La-muu and Ka-nin Ka-maw villages, Ye Township

The interviews conducted with two villagers as shown below reveal that although the new civilian-led government has been installed and steps of changes have startled in the country, the villagers do not see any signs of change in their region. Rather, they face some human rights abuses committed by the government’s battalions. Due to the ongoing human rights abuses, they urge the ministers from President Thein Sein’s administration and respective regions and townships to come and monitor those abuses.

Bellow, a 42 year old Karen villager from Bal La-muu, Ye township, Mon State, describes what kind of abuses the villagers have to face and how they have to respond if they can not provide information required by the government’s battalion :

“Last August and September, when LIB No. 591 and LIB No.583 based in Kyaung Ywae village merged with IB No.61 based in Ye town, they staged an operation to drive KNLA battalion No. 16 and No. 18 away. While doing this, they abused villagers by using these villagers as porters and as human shields. The LIBs and IBs would arrest people for no reason and, as punishment, abuse them in the ways that I just mentioned. They would also order villagers around to inform them about rebel groups. If people did not know anything about rebel groups, they would be charged by paying bags of rice, bottles of cooking oil and livestock. That is what has changed; people are still charged with crimes they did not commit. There have not been any changes. Like before, locals are still forced to be laborers and are still oppressed,”

As an observer of political issues and the military situation in his region, U Kyaw Hlaing (not real name), 60, gives his opinion and describes how military men have more influence than the government and how the locals are suffering:

“My opinion is that, in this region, the military government is more influential than the civilian government. U Thein Sein’s government and respective region and township ministers should see the oppressions made by the troops and monitor this.  Claims about positive changes don’t have any value, as they are not real. That is what the politicians talk about, they say things as “There are changes in the country; we are heading to a path of reform”, I think they are just dreams. In reality, like before, we are still oppressed. And then, our life which has been stamped gets torn apart. That is how the government troops have oppressed us. If the army does not suppress or cause us to suffer, we would not suffer. We do not want to see our people abandon their homes and lands and go aboard to work as slaves.”

U Kyaw Hlaing is 60 years old and he is from Kyaung Ywae village but lives in Ka-nin Ka-maw village.

Ma Hla Than [not real name], 30, who is a Mon villager living in Ah-Nin village, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State, remarked the human rights violations that are taking place in his village and its neighboring village:

“Now, the sentry for gas pipeline security, fee for security, measuring lands and selling the lands after taking over have started happening in Wae Ka-mee village and Ah-nin village. This started last August.”

A Wae Taw villager, 40, whom sells lottery tickets to make a living, explained how land is surveyed and measured by managers and government staff of an unknown company from the department of the Land measurement and Survey Department:

“Uncultivated lands and virgin soils are sold by the government to different companies. This land is divided into plots and sold by the company to local residents. We saw that the company managers and staff came with their cars to do surveys and measured the land from end of August tothe second week of September. The government staff from Land Measurement and Survey Department came to measure the land. I do not know what that company is,”

An interview with Nai Thein Myint [not real name], 67 from Thanbyuzayat, shows how land intends to be seized in Ah-nin village:

“I have lived here my entire life. How can there be uncultivated lands and virgin soils here? We have lived our whole lives farming these lands and plantations. Those lands have just been left about 3 to 4 years without cultivating them as the owners face difficulties for their survival. And, since they do not have enough money to invest, they cannot afford cultivating their lands. To keep working on the land, the owners have to hire labors and buy fertilizers. Yet, they invest more money on the products they need to cultivate their land than the profit they get from their land. Additionally, as landowners, we get extorted by Burmese Army troops, so that is why we just leave our lands without cultivating. And, we heard that now, the government and company owners will come to take over the lands. If they take over, the owners will definitely fall apart. These companies will also measure fourteen acres of my daughter’s. She is very frustrated and depressed. That is what happens here now. No one knows when they will come to confiscate our lands yet. But, we are sure that someone in the name of the government will seize our lands.” In regards to the new government Nai Thein Myint mentioned that “We know that there is a new unjust government installed but like I said earlier, there is no positive change and reform,”

A villager, 36, working as a Karen literature and culture teacher in Wae Ka-mee village, Ye Township, Mon State described how his ethnic people have faced sufferings, rights abuses, injustice, and oppressions and no changes promoting human rights have been taken place yet:

“If we look back since the nationwide elections and ask how the government troops have oppressed us – the Karen people, the questions can be answered by Wae Lay villagers as witnesses [and victims]. Today still, human rights abuses are still happening. Like what my cousin faced, many other Karen people were degraded by government’s troops said. We would hear: “You are Karen people born as rebels whom for us to kill” and mentally and physically suffered, before getting killed, by the Burmese troops. That is what happened after the elections. We Karen people are the ones that are suffering the most abuses committed in the armed conflicts compared to other ethnic groups. It is also true that Mon people have suffered by losing their businesses. But, regarding deaths, we Karen people suffer more. However, if we look back, we will see that the news spreading in Naypyidaw and Rangoon is about positive political changes. The only positive changes are in theory, but not in real life. We are just like “the sand was poured into water. And, yes, there will be visible if water was poured in the sand.” Now, we will only recognize changes if there is no injustice and oppression inflicted by the government troops even if these troops say they are part of a new government or democratic government.”

While the vast majority of the villages in the region faced multiple instances of gross human violations, such as forced labour, land confiscation, money and properties extortion, torture by accusation as rebels, at least eleven villages in southern Mon State and northern Tenasserim Division have faced abuses by the SPDC army, including forced portering and forced labor on the construction of a village fence, as well as day and night security duty. The fencing project around these affected villages is compounds designed to entirely encircle the village, an unusual order compared to previous demands for fence construction that required only partial fence construction. The apparent aim of the battalions that issued these orders is to separate each village from outside contact not made through any of army controlled gates. Local residents are forced to construct this project using wood pillars, bamboo, iron nails, gathered with their own time, money and resources.

Villagers from rubber and betel nuts plantations, paddy fields and fisheries who often cannot afford to pay their way out of the work due to their already hand to mouth subsistence income, have little choice in following orders given. Forced portering and labour undermines villagers’ ability to survive by not only forcing them to work without compensation, using their own resources to feed them, but more significantly taking them away from their own work that normally provides for their own livelihoods. Villagers who refuse or are unable to filly these duties are punished severely, ranging from heavy fines, and instance that the work is filled, to heavy fines and arrest, or torture. Nan Myint Wai, a resident of Wae Kha-mee village, Southern Thanbyuzayat Township expressed her opinion regarding on the current ongoing human rights violations in her areas.

 “If I have to tell, there is at least one abuse case committed by Burmese troops to villagers residing in this village track since the new government was installed. The abuses committed in this area are forced labor, porter, land confiscation, extortion; go for sentry duties, fee for security forces, and sentry for gas pipeline; serving unpaid work at the battalions’ bases, beaten-up, and accusation as rebels. Sometimes, villagers from our village faced those abuses while sometimes our neighbors did as well as we ourselves encountered those abuses. It happens like that. ….. They just become civil militia. Local authorities are just changed. What I want to say is that there are still injustices and oppressions going on in this area. I see nothing changes. I can say that the government troops are still practicing those kinds of abuses and the abuses are ongoing,” recited by Nan Myint Wai.

Nan Myint Wai (not a real name),38, a former middle-school teacher, Ye Township, Mon State.

Most of the local villagers expressed that they wanted to see the genuine peace in the country and stop civil war targeted to ethnic armed groups. Many of them have been suffering from the armed conflicts painfully.

“There will be real changes in our area, if both armed groups established peaces and there are no more Burmese troops in the region. We only consider the changes if there are no oppressions committed by the government troops like what they have done to us before. If that change really happens, there will be no such difficulties/sufferings in this region,” said by Saw Aung Tin (not real name), 39.

Saw Aung Tin is a Karen villager, and he is from Set-kaw village, Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State.

Forced to provide the Information of rebel armed groups’ movements to government troops

The local residents from Ye and Thanbyuzayat townships are forced to provide information of rebel armed groups to government troops. Because the residents are said to be given any relevant punishments if they do not inform or report to the troops, they have to abandon their work and find the information to provide.

“Just like this; we have to leave our work behind and we, every villager, have to inform [about rebel groups to government’s troops]. Now, we have to inform more often. It is nonsense: if we think that we still have to report to them when there is no rebel group is around. We have to report them every day, and if we do not do so, we’ll be punished with related punishment types. Because they frighten to us like that, we have to put our work aside and report them,”

“To have access to information about unusual and insurgents’ activities from people”, that is one of the policies used by the government army in Ye and Thanbyuzayat townships. That policy is one of the policies causing abuses to local people and it has been used for a long time. But, just like before – no changing, they still use it even though the new civilian government has installed.

That is the order from the battalions under Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No. 19. The order requires every household in every village to report in turn daily whether or not the troops from the Karen National Union (KNU) brigade No. 6, Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Nai Khin Maung led Mon splinter group, are being active in the region. Organized by the respective village administration members, the villagers have to provide the information to local based battalion offices prior to 5 PM.  After gathering the information, they have to come to offices and report verbally or provide written report about whether they opposed armed groups travel by, collect extortion fees, buy rations, get medical treatments, and come to visit their relatives.

Ordering the villagers to do this, the government troops can avoid the danger of attacks by opposed armed groups and save their personals.

However, if the villagers are unable to report, the troops will find fault with them and as a punishment, they charge the villagers with money or food supplies. The local residents criticize that the government troops are not active in the local areas during this new (civilian) government administration.

Nevertheless, if we look back on the effects that they face after being forced to work, we can see that villagers have to put aside their work, which they depend on for their survival. Additionally, they have to provide information, by writing reports in Burmese after gathering information obtained while asking others for help with translating. And, they are found fault by the office authorities when they come to report the news verbally [expressed in spoken words]. They have to provide money or food supplies if they cannot report when that’s their turn, not to be blamed, and they have to face the punishment given by rebel armed groups anytime. Those are facts collected from the local residents through interviews.

Local residents expressed that in general, even though we can deduce that the whole country is heading to the path of reform, if we look closely and observe carefully, we can see that the government’s troops are still committing human rights abuses.

HURFOM’s field reporters collected information finding the following facts from early October to late November. Local residents living in several villages located in Ye and Thanbyuzayat townships were forced to provide information. HURFOM conducted 14 interviews from 21 Karen and Mon villages and HURFOM documented their stories and accounts.

“Including our village headman and representative, the village headmen and representatives from 21 other villages located along the highway from Thanbyuzayat to Ye, were invited by tactic Captain Tin Maung Cho and his men to attend the meeting on October 29. The meeting was about how local residents have to report any news – weather they find it significant or not – of rebel armed groups that are active in southern, eastern, and northeastern Ye Township to [the closest] local based [government troops] office. The villagers have to report the news in person. All villagers from the 21 villages, attended the meetings held by their respective heads and representatives, and were told to provide news in turn,” remarked by grandpa Saw Htuu, 62, from Hnin Sone village, Ye Township.

“MOMC No. 19’s tactic No. 2 Captain Tin Maung Cho currently based in LIB No. 343 based close to Ahruu Taung village, Ye Township. Including the village head and members of the Village Administration (VA) from the Hnin Sone village tract, the village heads and VA members from other villages, had a meeting with the Captain his men, and every villager, of which all had to report about rebel armed groups. At the meeting, it was said that it is the responsibility of villagers to report. If the villagers can not report about their enemies to them daily, these villagers have to face punishments. Also, if the information they report is false, they will be punished more,” said by a VA member, who attended the meeting and serves villages that are predominantly Karen in La-mine Sub-township, Ye Township.

“I think, during this new government period, the villagers are forced to work much more than during the last government. Now, whether the villagers got news or not, they have to report. This leads to villagers with a high function in society, such as leaders to lose faith in the system. Before, we typically report unusual news to them. Now, it is not just unusual news, but the villagers have to provide news just like daily reports. It is good for the villagers to report when that’s their turns after observing two days ahead. For us, the village headman has to inform the villagers if that day is their turn, help write the report in Burmese and help them with anything. As I have to do this every day, it affects our livelihood. Now, it has affected us a lot; I do not have time to go work in my orchard,” said by the VA member.

Because three villagers whose failed to report during their turns about one unit from KNLA, when battalion No. 16 came to Bee-kain village to buy food supplies and tools for communication, those villagers were beaten up and demanded to pay fines. This account is given by Nai Yin [pseudonym], 48, a Mon villager, working as orchard worker, from Hnin Sone village, on Nov.22.

“On that day I went to Bee-kain village to sell my oxen, and I heard from the villagers that tree villagers were beaten up by troops from LIB No. 343. I forgot to ask the names of those villagers. I heard that those villagers are 30 – 50 years old and they work in betel nut and rubber plantations. The troops already got news that the Karen armed groups came to buy foods and batteries to use for communication devices. The villagers got hit and beaten up. One of the three villagers, got some of his teeth broken and got his head cracked. That is because the villagers did not provide this news in the report. And, as punishment, they were detained for one night and in the next morning; their families and the Bee-kait village headman came to get them in exchange for 50000 Kyat. That is what I heard from a Bee-kain village family when I went there to sell my oxen. In our village, we also have to report in turn, but no one has faced abuse like this, yet. And, we, the villagers, could not go for work.

According to Kalate Taung village head Saw Tar Sal, MOMC No. 19’s tactic No. 2 Captain Tin Maung Cho himself said at a meeting that if the government troops and KNU’s troops engaged in fighting around the village, the villagers from that village have to move out of the village.

“At a meeting concerned about local security, when I present to him [Capt. Tin Maung Cho] “if the villagers still have to report even though there is no news, it will cause villagers unable to go for work, and please think about that for us.” He replied “Whenever the rebel groups are active in this area, the villagers have to provide the news. And, if there is a fight between the enemy and our troops, you, the villagers, have to move out the village.” I think, that was on October 12. Being a village head, I have to face a lot of trouble. Although the government has been changed, the system of governing our region has not changed. It is just like before. Now, regarding this case, it’s worse,” said by the village head.

According to an interview conducted on Nov. 28, with Saw Kyi Khin, 35, who is a Bin Kalwae villager has reported news three times, thus far. He has reported about KNU troops and other insurgency groups. Reporting to the government, may have exempted him from facing mistreatment inflicted by the government. However, Saw Kyi Khin now fears for his safety, as he is rightfully frightened of insurgency groups.

“I just have to report information as I’m afraid of government troops. No one knows whether insurgency groups forgive us for reporting about them to government troops. Most of the KNU troops know the government troops’ members. They may understand us and why we inform the government. But, the Mon splinter group, led by Nai Khin Maung, will kill us, if he finds out that we have been informing the government. They will probably think that we are the government troops’ informants. That is why I’m afraid. Beside me, there are also lots of villagers who are worried about this and afraid but they have to work [provide the info]. Also, we can not go to our job when we want, we are too scared.”

Below is the list of villages that are located along the highway that links Ye to Thanbyuzayat townships. And, the villagers in those villages are forced to report about the government army’s opposed armed groups.

1. Hnin Sone village
2. Bin Ka-lwon villge
3. Tabin Taing village
4. Kon Duu village
5. Sar Ka-lae village
6. Kalea Dop village
7. Kalea Taung village
8. Bee Kain village
9. Min Hla Aye village
10. Thu Lae village
11. Thee Pow Muu village

Below is the list of villages under Wae Ka-mee village track, Thanbyuzayat Township, where the IB No.62 is based. And, the villagers from those villages have to not only pay the fee of pipeline security but also report daily.

1)     Bay Lamine village

2)     Aung Tha-byay village

3)     Wae Ka-mee village

4)     Wae Taw village

5)     Pain Naetaw village

6)     Inn Ka-bar village

7)     Ywae Tar Aye village

8)     Nga-pyaw Taw village

9)     Lainmaw Chan village

10) Payar Kon village

11) Aung Taryar village.

Seized rubber plantations near Lae Gyi and Maw Gyi villages

The villagers have to pay local based battalions the fees for them to be allowed to work on their own rubber plantations, betel nut plantations, and other long-term crop plantations. Before, there were records of villagers that could work on their plantations for one year as they gave the amount of one year of fees. But, later on, because there were no records made by the battalions and because of their carelessness, the newly-transferred battalions extorted land owners with fees and allowances again for them to work on their lands during their [newly-moved battalions’] periods.

“We have to pay the Captains 10,000 Kyat for permits to work on our rubber plantations. All of us have to pay the fees; for example, to get permit for our 3 sons and 2 hired workers to work on our 8 acres rubber plantation, we have to pay 50,000 Kyat for each person. Before, we had to pay the fee to Commander Htun Tet Naing and his group for a one year permit, and they gave us a permit [letter] to work. But, later, we found out that that permit is not valid for one year. We paid the fee in early May, but we are charged again 7 months later. They shut down that project again. And, now the newly arrived Captain Myit Oo and his group said the permit letter is not valid anymore. If we, as the villagers, want to keep working on our plantations, we have to register for permission again. This happened yesterday morning (November 26) when the order came. How can I repay that fee? Now, we are not allowed to tap our rubber plantations anymore,” mentioned Ko Khin Shwe, 40, who depends on his rubbers and betel nut plantations for survival.

Ko Khin Shwe’s native place is Yebyu Town, but now he lives near Lae Gyi village, and HURFOM field reporter conducted an interview with him on November 27.

The villagers living in Lae Gyi, Maw Gyi, and Min Tar villages and on the island of Kywe Thon Nyi Ma own thousands of acres of rubber trees, betel nuts, and other year long fruits plantations. These villagers are charged large amounts of money by locally based Navy Army No.43 and LIB No. 282 and No. 273 under the command of Kadike based government navy regional command to get permitted to work on their plantations. Yet, besides extorting local land owners with large sums of money for permits to work on their own lands, the Navy has also confiscated numerous acres of lands.

Last June-July, HURFOM released a report about thousands of the acres of rubber plantation owned by local villagers, who heavily depended on the plantations for their livelihoods, were seized by Kadike based Navy No. 43 for expansion of their bases. Also, in addition to land seizure, the navy marked other over 3000 acres of rubber trees and betel nut plantations, belonging to locals. These navy and army troops charged 10,000 Kyat per plantation owner, while they demanded the whole family of plantation to pay 30,000 Kyat for the permission of working on their own plantations.

“To get a permit to work, we the whole family has to pay 30,000 Kyat. Recording 4 persons are able to work; they give that permit [letter]. We have to pay them for us to tap our own rubber trees. We are all here though that they recorded the lists of and accounts of the land owners and kept them away as they produced permits. Now, as the Captain and Commander that produced the permits moved away, the permits are not valid anymore (since November).  As we have to register for the permit again, it costs us again. Before, we owned over 30 acres of rubber plantation. But, earlier of this year, the navy took over 12 acres of the plantation. Yet, of the remaining 18 acres, we only have rubber trees left in 12 acres. And we are working on those remaining acres by paying allowances [taxes]. How can we pay the allowances to them over and over again? We are now in difficulties. Now, the government has changed but here in our village, no one comes to change anything and the situation is worse than before. As we could hardly save for our survival, and we have to pay the government, it is just that if we cannot pay, we cannot work,” recounted by Ko Htun Naing (not real name), 44, from Min Thar village, Yebyu Township.

Ko Nyan Phay who has to pay  to work on his own plantation describes how locally owned rubber plantations were seized, and how he and other plantations owners have to pay for permission of working on their rubber plantations, explains their situation as follows:

“To tap our own rubber plants and to work on our own plantation, we – the villagers had to pay money to the government army units.  If you don’t believe this, please come and stay here for a month.  People from other regions can’t imagine as they have never encountered it.  We became slaves of the army a long time ago.  We know via the news and radios that the military government has already transited to a civilian government, but I would like to mention that nothing has changed here.  This is because my land and plantation in this region, which were plots of land handed down by my family from one generation to the next, were confiscated by the local army units No. 282 and No. 273 and the Navy Unit No. 43 based on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island.  Before confiscation, they said the land would be used for constructing military bases and the State needed the land.  Now, the State does not use the land, but the captains and majors from the army units occupy our land,” said Ko Nyan Phay.

“Between ten and thirty-thousand Kyat had to be paid to get permits to work on our own plantations that are controlled by the Burmese Army.  Last July, my wife and I had already paid twenty-thousand Kyat. This November, they (Kywe Thone Nyi Ma based Navy Unit No. 43) demanded money again.  Now they said that if we are unable to pay (the money), our permit can’t be extended and our plantation will automatically be confiscated.  Therefore, we had to loan two thousand kyat for the payment.  This process means that our land is already confiscated and only a work permit was sold to us.  You can imagine how our situation is miserable.  Our Lae-Gyi Village has over 380 houses and almost every household works for the rubber or betel nut business.  If two people per household work on these plantations, you can estimate how much money the army units earn,” he continued.

Ko Nyan Phay is a 46-year-old Lae-Gyi village resident, and his family depends on rubber plantation for survival.  In the early May, Ko Nyan Phay’s 4-acre betel nut plantation and 8-acre-plus rubber plantation were put on the list of land confiscation by the locally based joint army units of Coastal Regional Command – Navy Unit No. 43, LIB No. 282 and 273 for expending the military.  After that, the villagers, including Ko Nyan Phay, who had their rubber plantations confiscated, have been paying the money to the army to gain the work permit.  The work permit is just a small piece of paper and includes the official stamp of the particular army unit in charge of a designated area.  Ko Nyan Phay and all other villagers said that the mark could clearly not show the annual fee or the monthly fee arranging to be able to demand as they like.

Having to pay many kinds of extortions, such as fees for village security, army rations, local militia member welfare, and permits for working on the plantations for many years in the periods led by this and the former government, many villagers have faced financial difficulties and had no chances to sustain themselves. Therefore, those villagers want to bring an end to those extortions

“We, ordinary villagers, have no money to feed ourselves.  We have to earn money to pay Burmese Army troops.  We have been paying large amounts of money for village security fees, rations fees, local militia welfare fees and permission fees to go to plantations for a specified number year. We still have to pay now, during the rule of the new government.  We want to stop these events.  That’s all we wish,” cited by Nai Htaw Ong (not real name).

As mentioned by Nai Htaw Ong, a Mon villager of over 60 years old. He is a Han-Gam resident, but he now lives in the South part of Moe-Gyi Village. In an interview with HURFOM, November, 28, he explained how he has financially been extorted in many ways by the local government army units.

On November 3, 2011, in order to construct military barracks and offices in the confiscated land on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, Yebyu Township, money or wood from the villagers of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma and six other surrounding villages were demanded.  Colonel Ye Linn Tun of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island based Navy Unit No. 43 and Deputy Commander Minn Zaw Moe ordered, via particular village administrators, the villagers of over 1,000 houses from six villages – Lae-Gyi, Moe Gyi, Min Thar, Kywe Thone Nyi Ma, Ye Ngan Gyi and Sinswe, to purchase woods and construction materials or to pay the money if they could not do the purchasing.  Therefore, the collection of extorted money has started on November 11, 2010 and has not ended yet, according to the locals.  The demand of woods had happened at the same time as the human rights violations such as collecting money for work permits and village security fees.

“It was ordered that each household had to pay a long or a plant of wood or three wood poles.  The order was accepted in the early of November.  The village headman reminded (the villagers) on the 9^th (of the November) if they had already collected the wood demanded by the Burmese Army.  When the wood was collected, they would be sent (to the army units) via the village headmen.  We had to give a piece of wood, with a 4-inch diameter and a length of 13-feet, which we reserved to repair our house. Additionally three 4×3-inch wood poles which were stored under our house had to be given to the army.

All these pieces of wood together will cost about thirty thousands kyat.  Moreover, the regular fees we have to pay are thirty-thousand Kayt for our work-permits, for four persons, which were initially ten thousand kyat per head.  However, the fee was lowered by the army unit,so four people had to pay thirty thousand kyat instead. We also had to pay a three thousand kyat fee to hire a village security guard who will replace me when my term is over, and we have to pay one thousand kyat per month for the welfare of local militia.  Captain Min Zaw Moe ordered the village headman to list the households who didn’t pay the fees.  Recognizing the speech of that captain, I paid the fee early ‘to make my ear peaceful’ (a Mon saying that means ‘to be freed from having problems’). My family could make our livelihood and live comfortably in the past, before Navy Unit No. 43 confiscated over half of our plantation at the beginning of this year.  Moreover, we have to pay the money to get permission to work on the rest of the 10-acre rubber plantation, as a result we have become the poor now,” said Nai Htun Aye (not real name), a 50-year-old resident of East Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Villlage.

In the interview with HURFOM at the end of November, Nai Htun Aye explained how he lived in fear, yet solved the problem where he was forced to supply wood for construction of military barracks and offices of the government Navy unit.

Villagers, from Kywe Thone Nyi Ma and its surrounding villages – Min Thar, Lae-Gyi, Moe Gyi, Ye-Ngan Gyi and Sin-swe villages, are disappointed and dissatisfied with the wood demand unfairly required by the navy.

Most of the available wood in that region is of rubber trees; however the government army units do not accept this sort of wood. Even though the quality of this type of wood is low, it can be used for construction, stated in the written order of the Navy read by the village administrators, according to Ma Htay Win (not real name), a 32-year-old Min Thar resident and a shopkeeper.

“Only rubber wood is available for us and people in our village.  Other types of wood we are not allowed to cut down, nor are they available here.  All people have to struggle for their livelihoods so the people from rich households just paid extortion fees.  Our aunt had paid twenty eight thousand kyat in cash for a wooden pole, wooden planks, or three long wood poles to village headman Nai Aye and he signed to confirm the payment.  We were unable to pay in cash as we had other such fees to pay to ensure our security, to allow us to work, and to pay towards welfare of militia.  We struggle to feed our family so we were disappointed by this order.  We have been abused many times.  We want these abuses to stop quickly.  I don’t know when these abuses will disappear from our region.”

In February 2011, Ko Lwin, the husband of Ma Htay Win, who is a Tavoyan and resident of Long-Lone Township, was beaten by Sergeant Zaw Htet Lwin and his group of frontline soldiers of military column No. 282, who accused that he was an informer who connected with the rebels.  His mandible was cracked and he could not eat foods for months.  He lost his watch during the event and fifty thousand kyat had to be spent for his escape.  Ma Than Than Htay explained the abuses of the local army units.

The pile of wood collected by the villagers from 220 houses in Min Thar Village in order to please the demands of Navy Unit No. 43 could be seen nearby the village administrative office. The pile of wood consisted of various sizes and shapes of wood and the locals estimated that it weighed about 20 tons.

“In reality, all demands to construct things for the military were said to be for the State, in particular for its captains and commanders.  In the proposal, the map of the land where military constructions were built are signed by officials of the Land Survey Department.  In the army, the cost of the sketch and small samples (of the construction) drafted by military engineers’ unit was also proposed.  Therefore, the wood or money collected from civilians would go into the pockets of the officials and commanders when the proposed budget was granted.  The army has abused us villagers with the powerful ranks in society, just because they wanted to get loads of money while not working for it.  I had encountered a similar event at an army unit in my hometown– Yebyu-Kanbauk-based LIB No. 273.  In any army unit, chief commanders, commanders, and officials who have much power are really frightening.  That’s my own experience,” explained a former soldier who ran away from a frontline battle of the SPDC government army unit No. 273 and now lives in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.

Because wood is scarce in the region and newly-cut wet woods were not accepted, most households planned to pay cash instead of wood to still meet the demand of wood requested by militia.  Interviews with these households were collected in the late November, 2011.  “There is always a fine to be paid and fees to pay at any given time, and this is very expensive”, grumbled Daw Nyo, a 57-year-old widow and mother of five, who resides in Lae-Gyi Village.  Even on November 27 when her interview was taken, she had to pay thirty thousand kyat to the village administration team for the fee of a wooden log, a plank, or three wood poles demanded by the government Navy Unit No. 43.

Nai Shwe Hla (not real name), a 50-year-old Min Thar resident, who owns a passenger boat mentioned that his boat might be seized if he will not carry wood piles in his village even though he had already paid a fee to pay off his debt.

“During the period of forced labor demanded by the Own-pin-kwin-based Danyawaddy Navy Command, my boat was seized to transport villagers and laborers.  The military said they would just take my boat for three days but it lasted for two weeks.  I had to use my labor and my own petrol but gained nothing.  Now, I can imagine that my boat might be seized for transportation (of this wood) and both I and my boat have to struggle with those giant blocks of wood.”

It is obvious that the residents from the three townships of Yebyu, Ye, and Thanbyuzayat are still facing human rights abuses in their daily life. These human rights abuses include, but are not limited to; extortion/arbitrary taxation, forced labor, ill-treatment, sentry duty, and fees to provide village security. These abuses are common in those three townships, and are committed by the local based government’s battalions and navy.

The findings in this report reveal that the locals are forced to continue to provide the security fees of the gas pipeline, guarding duties for the security of gas pipeline and act as safeguards for village security. Additionally these villagers are victims of forced labor and extortion/arbitrary taxation by the government’s troops and navy forces. Their actions have led to extreme hardships for the villagers, who are unable to work or not permitted to work on their own lands without if they do not have work permits, and continue to struggle for their livelihoods. Additionally, as they are also demanded to present/report to the local based government offices with information about the movements of ethnic insurgency groups, they are worried that they will face the dangerous situations or death caused from knowing the position of these groups.

In the interviews conducted with the local residents, it shows that the villagers face human rights abuses more frequently by the government’s troops under the administration of this new government than by government troops during the last government’s term. Also, in spite of the exclaim of signs of change taking place in the Burma, local residents experience no such change in their regions yet, except a change of names of locally operated government offices.

In addition, the National Human Rights Commission is established in the country with a task of promoting and safeguarding fundamental rights of the country’s citizens. Despite of its proclaim, in reality, it fails to accomplish the competence and responsibilities which include stopping human rights violations, investigating and monitoring them and taking action for the prevention and lessen the violations.

It is clear that despite the transition to new supposedly civilian-led government and the formation of National Human Rights Commission, the human rights abuses continue to occur throughout those three townships. Consequently, the villagers can only expect more of the same sufferings, hardships, and human rights abuses.

1. We want UN Special Rapporteurs to reach into ethnic areas, to investigate past human rights violations and notice how the human rights continue to be systematically violated.
2. Burma (Myanmar) National Human Rights Commission must actively record cases of human rights violations from its citizens and protect its victims.  All human rights victims must be protected after they report their cases.
3. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) must train local people how to correctly and systematically administer cases of human rights violations.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Fact finding conducted in this report took place after significant political developments in Burma. On the 31st of January, the newly-instated parliament convened for the first time in the country since the Burmese regime officially dissolved the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The transfer of State power from the old government to the new was finalized on the 30th of March. Despite these structural changes and the appearance of civilian government, human rights abuses committed by the military regime continue unabated in the Mon ethnic territories of Southern Burma. [Download PDF version here] [High Resolution PDF version 10.8mb]

Beginning in December 2010, Burmese Navy Unit No. 43, under the command of Ka Dike-based government navy regional command head quarters, began to confiscate the rubber plantations and household plots of villagers on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, Yebyu Township, Tennaserim Division. Since then, all land on which red signboards were placed by the navy has been confiscated. This report documents the confiscation of over 1,000 acres of land on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. However, HURFOM found that Navy Unit No. 43 has surveyed and marked out a total of another 3,000 acres of land to be consficated from the residents of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and the easterly neighboring villages across the water in Yebyu Township.

Officials from Navy Unit No. 43 explained that the land seized would be used as a training field for military skills training and constructing army barracks and hostels. Land was confiscated from around 240 rubber plantation owners without compensation, and a decree was issued banning landowners from cultivating or entering their plots. Seizures ranged from four to ten acres and consisted of already-in-production rubber plantations and paddy lands that provided villagers in the area with sustainable incomes and future monetary security. Without means to support themselves. they are unable to feed their families and send their children to school. And in some cases, they are forced from their homes.

According to the United Nations statute on Crimes Against Humanity, “the forcible transfer of a population” constitutes a crime against humanity. By seizing land already owned and cultivated by villagers on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and nearby villages in Yebyu Township, the Burmese Government, led by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has effectively confiscated and forced the former population to evacuate the island and their own land plots. Not only has the Burmese government blatantly disregarded the UN’s statutes on crimes against humanity by robbing its citizens of their livelihoods and forcing them to re-locate, but the government has committed these crimes even after it supported the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

The data gathered by HURFOM field researchers clearly shows that the seizure of land, though informed of beforehand by the placement of red signboards, took no account of the individual owners’ permission. And months later, former landowners have received no compensation. Also, within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, there is a specified protection of ethnic minorities native to the area. It is evident by the land confiscation conducted on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, in which the total population is ethnic Mon, that this protection of ethnic minorities was completely disregarded. Now, many ethnic Mon have been forced off their native land and household plots, and are obliged to make a life elsewhere.

Recommendations

To Mon Political Party: All Mon Region Democracy Party

Though the national elections, which the Burmese government held on November 7, 2010, were deemed fraudulent and unfair by most international bodies, a small number of officials from the ethnic minority parties gained political positions within the new parliament. Amongst these new officials are politicians from the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMRDP). The AMRDP ran on the basis of fighting for the rights of the ethnic Mon people in Burma.

According to their pledges, it is recommended that the AMRDP take note of the land confiscation and human rights abuses ongoing in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, most of which are directly affecting the Mon population living on the island. As parliamentary members in a government-designated “democracy,” HURFOM implores AMRDP to take issue with these human rights abuses in Yebyu Township and seek change and compensation.

To International Labour Organization in Burma:

Burma has also ratified a convention against the use of forced labor with the International Labor Organization. Many cases of land confiscation in Burma have led to the use of forced labor to cultivate land seized from villagers. HURFOM advises the ILO to pay special attention to the land confiscation abuses ongoing on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island in order to insure that forced labor does not occur.

To UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Myanmar:

Finally, to Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations Special  Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, who finished a tour around Thailand in May 2011 in order to discuss the ongoing abuses conducted by the Burmese government, must insist on a Commission of Inquiry on the violations committed by the Burmese government constituting Crimes Against Humanity. A Commission of Inquiry is a step forward towards making the Burmese government take responsibility for the abuses it inflicts on its citizens as well as pressure the government to change its ways and insure the rights of its citizens by providing them with sustenance, shelter, and the ability to make a living.

SITUATION BRIEF

Beginning in December of 2010, Burmese Navy Unit No. 43 began to place red flags on farmland, rubber plantations, and household plots of villagers on Kywe Thone Nyi MaIsland, Yebyu Township, Tennaserim Division. Since December 2010, the land on which the red flags were placed has been confiscated by the Navy. Navy Unit No. 43 seized land from over on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, without compensation, and a decree banning these former landowners to cultivate and enter upon their acreage and plots.

Seizures ranged from four to ten acres and consisted of already-in-production rubber plantations and paddy lands that provided villagers in the area with sustainable incomes and future monetary security. Without means to support themselves. they are unable to feed their families and send their children to school. And in some cases they are forced from their homes.

BACKGROUND OF KYWE THONE NYI MA ISLAND

Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island is four miles wide and nine miles in length.It is divided into eastern and western halves. There are approximately 930 acres of paddy land owned by the residents in the southern, northern and western parts of the island. The rubber plantations, which are situated throughout the northern part of the island and run towards the eastern and western villages, total around 1,400 acres. When data was collected for this report, over 1,000 acres of farmers’ land had been confiscated by the Burmese Navy.

Navy Unit No. 43 has a base in Eastern village of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. The unit is commanded by Ka Dike Naval Command, under the Mawrawaddy Naval Region Command Head Quarter based in Mu-pon, Moulmein, the capital of Mon State. Before 2004, the unit based on the island numbered only 10 soldiers; but after 2004, and by the time HURFOM interviewed victims of land confiscation on the island, troop numbers had increased to 40 members. Before 2004, the naval force came to Kywe Thone Nyi Ma temporarily, conducting security patrols, and crossed the frontier for short periods of time. After 2004, the naval force built military a barracks and set up a base on the island. Navy Unit No. 43 is based in the eastern half of the island near the eastern village and is commanded by Colonel Ye Linn Tun and deputy commander Captain Minn Zaw Moe.

This navy unit has marked out a total of 3,000 acres of rubber plantations, farmland, and household plots from the residents of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and the easterly neighboring villages of Maw-Gyi, Lae Kyi, Min-Thar, Ye-Ngan-Gyi, and Sinswe villages, laying east of the island, across the water. All are in Yebyu Township. These areas off Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island have not yet been confiscated, but red flags have been placed to indicate future seizure. During the seizure of land on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, an official fromNavy Unit No. 43 explained that the land seized would be used as a training field for military skills training.

HURFOM’s field reporters collected information in mid-May 2011 that reveals only eight of the first 300 acres of confiscated land will be used for army barracks and hostels. The acreage seized by the navy is located between the coast and the entire western part of the Ye-Tavoy Railway. This land includes both rubber plants which have been cultivated for ten years and young rubber plants which were newly farmed as an additional investment.

Due to the loss of their rubber plantations, which they had depended heavily on for their families income, many villagers are out of work. Later interviews conducted in June 2011 reveal that at least 32 villagers who’ve had their land confiscated left their homes to search for new jobs in northern and western Ye township, as well as Thailand.

METHODOLOGY

Most of the facts in this land confiscation report are based on field data collections conducted in Kyol-don Nyi-ma Island and neighboring villages areas in which Navy Unit No. 43 began confiscating land in December 2010. In order to collect the evidence, five field researchers in two teams interviewed 41 subjects in six villages; these include thirty-one interviews from Kyol-don Nyi-ma Island (including the eastern and western villages located on the island), four interviews from Min Thar villages, a village located in the eastern part of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, two interviews from Maw Gyi village, two interviews from Lae Kyi village and two interviews from Cha Pon village, Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division.

This report also includes five interviews collected by telephone from farmers who recently lost land and have subsequently fled to Southern Thailand to work as illegal migrant workers.

HURFOM also included information drawn from its extensive database, developed through 16 years of documentation. Gathering data and obtaining direct questions from local farmers on the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island is intensely difficult and in some cases members from local the Mon Youth Organization assisted with important information that HURFOM felt added to the strength of this report. HURFOM also drew extensively on the knowledge of three local residents who helped with information on individual incidents, background information, and confirmation on facts in the interviews as well as invaluable context and assistance in replying to targeted follow-up questions.

THE START OF LAND CONFISCATION ON KYWE THONE NYI MA ISLAND

In an interview conducted in May with Nai Htun Lin, 45, a former rubber plantation owner in Kyol-don Nyi-ma who now works as a day laborer in Prachuab Khiri Khan Province in Thailand, he tells how he and his wife and four children were forced to leave in April after their land was confiscated:

Before, I mean December 2010, they [the navy] marked the [farm]land and rubber plantations that they wanted to take over. They marked the land and rubber plantations by planting 3 ft-long bamboo poles with small red flags [on the land plots] … One major, and his 15 men, came to mark the length of the land that they wanted to take over. Since then, the land owners who had land marked to be confiscated had been worried about that. Then, on February 2011, they came to replace the bamboo poles [with signs that indicated this was the Burmese Army Land]. The flags were triangle-shaped and colored red. That’s the color of their navy [unit]. We also met some sailors from navy ship No. 224 setting down its anchor near our island.

That time, stationing in our village, the naval Commander Min Zaw, together with his men, came to set up the red flags [at the already marked land]. They said they will take over the land that they marked with planted red flags. According to the marked land, there are 290 acres of rubber plantations and about 30 acres of farmland marked to be confiscated. To give a total figure, it’s estimated that there are more than 300 acres of land belonging to villagers that have been marked to take over. We have not heard anything about compensation from the naval captain for the marked land to be confiscated. But we heard that they are definitely going to confiscate this land.

No one was allowed to enter into [or to pass through] the land marked with planted red flag poles, according to an order defining it as ‘restricted land.’ Because of this, we already considered land confiscated. The order was given right after the Thingyan [Water] festival celebration. Now, it’s been 20 days since I left my village. And, I still have contact with [people in] the village… The land has been taken over, but no one has heard about compensation of the confiscated land yet. Some of the rubber plantation owners, who lost many acres of land, are considering sending a petition letter to Nay Pyi Daw [the Burmese central government]. But, there is one problem in the village: there is no well-educated person who can write a letter and lead a petition. And, in the Buddhist community, the abbot in the village cannot help at all also. He [the abbot] himself, is part of a group who are afraid of doing anything against the naval forces. Now, what we need for justice is that we need the land owners and villagers who can help.

At the moment, the naval base that is stationed in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma is Naval base No. 224¹, which has been in the village for about 8 years. The strength [in numbers] of the naval base No. 224, is 20-40 men/personnel (including the officers). Even though they [the navy troops] gave an explanation that they will construct military barracks and hostels for army families or buildings for the army on the confiscated 300 acres of land, [in reality] we do not know how many barracks and hostels or buildings [with collection rooms for army servants] will be built there yet. Right now, that land is 95% rubber plantations.

Nai Htun Lin’s account is a prime example of the range of effects on the local population and of the problems they face after the land was confiscated by the Navy. Previously he had been able to sustain his family on the rubber plantation acreage that he owned. But after receiving no monetary compensation for the confiscated land, he was forced to leave with his entire family to find a job in Thailand that could support them.

1 : The number 224 refers to the number of the ship that Navy Unit No. 43 uses.

“NEW” GOVERNMENT ACTS LIKE THE FORMER, LEADING TO LOSS OF LIVELIHOODS

Nai Thin, who used to be a member of the New Mon State Party (NMSP)’s Township Officials and now works as an observer of military affairs and human rights cases commented:

As they are still threatening the civilians, I generally think that the policy of the new government and the [former] SPDC is the same². I mean, there is no halt in torturing and threatening. And, if we look at the land confiscation case, they are still confiscating land for the purpose of building bases and doing business for Army families.

During my term of serving in the NMSP, I lived in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village for about three years. At the time, the rubber plantation owners worked very hard on their plantations, and there were hundreds of acres of rubber plantations. Now, many acres of rubber plantations are included in the confiscation zone, and because they [the rubber plantation owners] lost their plantations, after they had started to benefit from them, we feel sympathy for how their lives are falling apart. …. It’s obvious that the government profits from the investment and work of the plantation owners – the rubber plants have already begun to produce sap and are ready for tapping. They have done this before and now they’ve done it again. Yet, the worst is that for those who lost their way of life and everything – property and belongings – have become migrants and have to start from the beginning.. They have to go abroad and slave there. Obviously, this new government is no different than the former government.”

In Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village, there are two divided wards…Those Mon residents living on the island are heavily dependent on long-term rubber plantations, fruit plantations, farms, and digging minerals. As stated above, the land that the government navy confiscated includes a large part of those two villages and plantations, paddy land, and lead-rich land used for mining.

The island is straight up and down. Now, the rubber plantations that the Navy took over include most of the rubber plantations located in the western and middle parts of the island.. And, as for the farmland taken over by the navy, it is located in between the eastern and western ward . Because the soil where the rubber plantations and farmland are located is very fertile, everything grows well. I arrived on this island about 25 years ago. The rubber plantations that have been taken over were not planted then. Of the confiscated rubber plantations, some rubber plants were planted 15 years ago, some were planted 10 years ago, and some were planted only three years ago.

Rubber plant cultivation is an extensive process. Most farmers go into debt in the early years of beginning their own rubber plantation because rubber plants and land are expensive. The cultivation of rubber trees takes up to seven years before the trees begin to produce rubber and one can start tapping. Once trees start producing, however, the rubber trees become quite profitable. Nai Thin’s comment on the land that held trees that were 10 or 15 years old is meant to emphasize that the land confiscated was highly valuable.

Grandpa Myint, 68, born in Ma-kyi village in Southern Ye Township but is now a resident of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village, reported on the losses to villagers:

The rubber plantations owners whose plantations were seized have just fallen to pieces. As far as I know, of the rubber plantations, some plantations have numerous rubber plants, while one has 7,000 plants owned by just one owner [which was] confiscated. It is really pitiable. I think that they seize the land not just to construct barracks for their servants, but for their businesses – just like what they have done in other places. Most of the farmland is in the hands of the military servants. If we estimated how many acres included [here alone], it could be 20 – 30 acres…[There is a saying that goes] if the authorities are not good, the lives of the civilians will be affected by starvation.

Nai Htun, another observer of the land confiscation process in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma, explained how military officials deceived the villagers:

Before, there were only bamboo poles set up. But, in the last week of the month, a captain came from the regional naval base, which is the naval base from this island; three clerks from the Land Survey Department in Yebyu Township; and one member from the Township Administration here and they did a land survey. And, they came to do land measurements and survey here over and over again throughout February. Then, navy Commander Min Zaw, with his group, came to re-plant red flag poles at the surveyed land and prepared to take over the land. At first, the Commander Min Zaw gave reasons for the take over, saying it was for village development purposes. That’s when they came to do land surveys in December of last year. According to what they said, they will construct a good bridge linking this island to the main land. They will also use highway land for transportation [they will extend the island road to the mainland].

But, later on, it [what they said] changed; [they took over the land] to construct buildings for government servants. Now, not only were the rubber plantations, but also the farmland, were marked with flags. Still, they did not talk about paying compensation; but we expect they will. We do not expect the price we want, and we think, they will threaten us. Now, five owners of the rubber plantations together with their entire families, have moved to villages in northern Ye township, where their relatives live. That was during the time their land was taken over because they became very frustrated. Having their own land taken over, some families will become unemployed as they depended on their land heavily. Some made investments in orchards and rubber plantations, changing from their previous businesses. For example, before, they had invested in digging minerals business as a private business; but they also had to pay the authorities from this region a lot. Therefore they could not make a profit and subsequently changed their investment from mineral business to rubber plantations. Some of those rubber plantation owners were included among those who got their land seized. For them, it’s just like losing their lives.

In an interview on May 14th, 2001, a relative recounted how Nai Shwe La-yaung lost his plantation, paddy land, and lead mining site:

Nai Shwe La-yaung, a 54-year-old resident of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village, lost a lot of land, including both rice paddy land, rubber plantation, and lead mining land, which was started [the business] by his mother. When his mother was alive, they had focused on a lead mining project and after his mother passed away, he has been working on paddy land and especially on the rubber plantation. As far as I know, not even including his paddy land and lead mining site, about 2,800 of his rubber plants were seized… He was hit hard.

Nai A-shwe, a 40-year-old rubber plantation owner who owned 600 rubber plants, spoke with a field reporter on May 12th in Cha-Bon village about wanting to report the land confiscation:

The land reportedly confiscated by the Navy, though with promises of compensation, includes the site of the old sea dock, which is in the eastern part of the island; it’s the [old sea dock] associated land and the land currently settled on by the Navy. This 20-acre land will be bought from the particular owners, said the military commanders. Last December, Major Min Zaw from the Navy army said that. The estimated area of land, plantation, and mining site, which has been seized by the army marking with the flags is not less than 300 acres in total. Maybe it’s even more than this amount. We haven’t heard anything related to the land being bought in cash and compensation, which equals the current value. The condition is very worrying. The land could be confiscated without any awareness [without official documents]. As for me, I want to report [this case] at least to the Mon State Chief Administer of the South East Command and the senators of the Mon [political] party. That is all we can try to do, but one person can’t do it alone, reporting in one letter. In unison is good: Pain together, gain together.

Nai A-shwe continued saying that most of the land owners have been looking for justice and people who can help them seek it.

The newly-instated Burmese government purports itself to be a democracy. Yet, in a democracy, there must be transparency in government. The former Burmese government, still ruling in December 2010 and until March 2011, conducted the beginnings of land confiscation on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. The land confiscation continued under the rule of the new government. This self-proclaimed “democracy” by the current government has unlawfully seized land owned by citizens and refused to pay any form of compensation. The land seizure has even gone so far as to forbid former land owners and residents to work on their land. With no other available option to support themselves, the villagers have been forced to leave their homes.

Nai Ga-Lae, also known as U Kalar, is a 50-year-old resident of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village, and a rubber plantation owner of around 7,000 currently producing rubber plants. In terms of profitable plants confiscated, he talked about how he has suffered the most by the confiscation led by navy Major Min Zaw:

Since 13 years ago, with all of my investments and some money received from my parents, I have been working on developing this rubber plantation. There were 7,000 rubber plants in total. They all began producing five years ago. My plantation is located north of the sea dock and adjacent to 20-acres of land which has been designated for a military barracks. All plantations alongside my plantation were included [in the land-confiscation]. All the plantations were marked with the red flags by the Navy and the land-surveying clerks since the second month [February]. Some lost 2,000 plants and some lost nearly 3,000 plants. I am the person who was struck most. There are about 15 people, including me, who lost a large number of acres. The rest, over 30 people, are those who lost about hundred plants. As soon as our land was surveyed, we went to meet with the Navy Lieutenant Colonel and asked for the reason. That was before Songkran [the Theravadan Buddhist New Year]. What they replied was that more roads were needed to be constructed for our village development because all old roads were constructed on the hillside, and the wider roads would be made by repairing [the old roads] or newly constructing. They continued that the road which connects the west and east halves of the village was very narrow and needed to be widened; therefore, “the State needed the land,” yelled the officer. After that, no plantation owner was allowed to work on their plantation. I have been depressed and don’t know how to deal with it. The thing I hoped for I won’t be getting back. I want to appeal to the designated higher officers. Please instruct me how to do so.

Nai Rog, 56, a paddy land owner and Kywe Thone Nyi Ma resident told HURFOM of her plight:

My land was seized for making a military training field for the soldiers of the military government. It is eight acres in total. They said before that they would purchase [the land] but they have seized [it] now. That happened in April [when they confiscated the land]. My land has good soil. Any sort of farmed paddy can produce at least 80 [baskets of paddy]. The primary business of my family is farming. We have 12-acres of land inherited from our grandfather. I gave my younger brother four acres of land and I work on the rest of the eight acres of land. [My land] is precious because it is near the village and free from worry of sea water flowing on it. They [the Navy] show no pity and they make a military training field on such good land. Now the navy unit doesn’t purchase anything. Their commanders didn’t talk about any compensation. Only our villagers have been circulating rumors that we would get compensation or something. In fact, the army unit said nothing. I will hit rock bottom if there is no land. I would have no alternative but to go to Thailand for work if I still wanted to work as hard labor.

2 : State Peace and Development Council, the former Burmese government.

NO RECOURSE, NO COMPENSATION

Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island has seen three village headman since 2004. The first held the position from 2004 to 2009, the second lasted one year from 2009 to 2010 and the third is the current. Nai A-Lay, the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma headman, is 28 years old. He finished his high school education, and after the former village headman, Nai Sein, passed away, Nai A-Lay temporarily accepted the village headman role. In May, he remarked on the land confiscation by the Navy:

The prominent persons and the senior monks of the village elected me as the headman just a few months ago. No one wants to be a village headman – neither do I – but they finally elected me. I can’t work as a permanent one. We generally agreed that I would temporarily work for the village. The land confiscation occurred during my duty as village headman. From the end of the last year to now, the Navy here has been preparing to seize the land on this island (Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village), owned by the rubber plantation and paddy land owners. Now it has all been confiscated. As a village headman, I can help with nothing. I can do nothing except feel embarrassment. A month ago, the prominent people of the village met with the commanders of the Navy [He said that the Navy currently based on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma has its base in Ohnpinkwin village [south of the island on the mainland], Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division]. Even though they [the prominent people] appealed against the seizures,[the commanders] replied it was done according to the State’s needs. What else can be done? The last thing I knew was that the land owners of the village united to write a letter of appeal. I suggested to them to write the letter only after discussing it with a lawyer in order to protect them from being charged with the so-called acts [‘Electronic Law’]³ because of their appealing letter. That’s all [I can do]. A lot of land of my relatives’ was also included in the land confiscation by the Navy. I am embarrassed because I can’t help them.

During an interview in early May with Nai Own Thaung, who owns four acres of rubber plantation, which includes over 1,500 rubber plants and was seized by the Navy in late April, he explained that he felt frustrated that the senior monks who currently live in the village couldn’t protection them against land-confiscation:

Now, the village abbot is Young Monk Tun Tin. Most of the senior monks, including him, aren’t active [as representatives] like monks in other villages. I want to say that for example, in Ka-la-Goat Island, La-mine Sub-township, Ye Township, there were land confiscations and seizures of houses, like us, and in those villages, the senior monk from Your-Out monastery [a monastery located in the southern part of the island] made a complaint to the authorities and the government army units for his villagers. He stood up for his villagers. For us, we can’t rely on anyone for this land confiscation case. It’s really depressing. Even for making an official appeal letter, the village monks have no network. We have known that the State government has forbade the religious staff to deal with politics. But this case is not a political one – just to convince the government not to seize the land and plantations of their [the monks'] supporters. That’s why we, the villagers, aren’t satisfied with the senior monks. Moreover, our village has lowly educated people. Even though we had some, most of them have already moved to a metropolitan area. We have no educated person, so we can rely on no one when we encounter such a case. It’s our bad fortune that our village has no well-educated person or monk.”

3 : The act he is most likely referring to is the Electronic Transactions Law from 2004, with which the government would be able to charge those who used any type of electronic device such as a computer, printer, etc. to write a petition or letter to the government, in this case about the land confiscation.

IMPACTING THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS OF THE LOCAL INHABITANTS THROUGH ETHNIC INFILTRATION

Whenever HURFOM field reporters conducted interviews with residents in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village, the natives usually mentioned that they had set their hopes for the future on these rubber plantations – with which they had spent their lives cultivating. Most residents have been living on their land for generations.

Nai Ha-tay, a 60-year-old resident from the western part of the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village, who has had to cope with the seizure of five acres of his rubber plantation land explained his predicament:

We are clear that the government naval force took over the rubber plantations for business projects of their own. Given the reason by the Navy Unit No. 43, they will expand their cantonment area and construct more barracks. They just explained that they took the plantations for the construction of the training field for their army. But, the length of the land they seized is too large, how will they build what they said they would? Like other places in Mon State, where they took over, they confiscated the ready-to-use rubber plantations for their families and army budget… Our family has not moved to another place yet. We have some difficulties moving out with the whole family. And, we have six acres of farmland left in the southern village. Since we still have the farm, we have to work hard on it for survival. Yet, my sons are thinking about going to Thailand to work there tapping rubber. As for me, I would like them to go. Unless these army dogs leave from this island, there will be some problems coming up between young men here and them [the Navy troops] or their relatives called to come here along with them. Yes, there have already been some problems. I think, it’s the best to avoid [the Navy and their supporters].

Nai Ha-tay continued talking about the impact on the island after bringing in the navy and other citizens from other areas of Burma onto the mainly ethnic Mon island:

If there is a violation committed on this island, the side that is able to bribe can definitely win [has impunity]. This habit became very common after the naval force moved here. Worse yet, what we are even more dissatisfied about is that if there is a conflict between native residents and Burmese newcomers who were brought in by the naval forces, the Burmese newcomers always find a way to win. If there are any crimes committed, the authorities from the naval force always give the advantage to the Burmese guy’s side over the Mon guy’s side when they sort out the matter. Now, there are 40 households owned by Burmese people alone. And, the number [of the Burmese households] is just going to increase. Now, the naval force wants laborers to work in the rubber plantations that they took over. It seems some more problems will come up.

Increasingly evident in the interviews conducted is the difference in the way that the local residents and ethnic Mon people are treated in comparison with the navy and the ethnic Burman population, which arrived with the influx of the navy buildup. The native residents and some local abbots mentioned that the transfer of the army unit to the area in 2004 caused subsequent problems in the community, noticeably affecting the island’s ethnicity, language, religion, literature, culture and customs.

Nai Pae, a 37-year-old resident of the eastern part of the village on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, who is actively involved with Mon literature and culture, explained during his interview in June that the arrival of more outsiders has caused problems:

Before, there was no family that spoke Burmese. After they [Navy Unit No. 43] arrived here in 2004, other ethnicities also arrived. What could we say as they came to settle down here? But, they, the different ethnicities, Burmese people, think that we are dumb and deaf and can’t speak their language; and they also have an attitude that looks down on us, discriminating against us because they feel noble. The native islanders have never admired them because they don’t own any piece of land and are day laborers. Just like that, problems are happening in this community. Now, it’s getting worse. It’s like that more in the village where the naval force communities live. [They are] getting married here and settling down here. It’s fine to live here, but discriminating against the community is the main problem. For those Burmese families living close to the naval force base, they do not have to support any rations for the naval forces and they are not on the lists for tax collection. Also, the Burmese people who support the Navy give information to the naval forces. Because of this, the village once was very peaceful, and has now become a suspicious, unsafe place. Now, taking over the plantations, they will send for more upper Burma people, the Ah-nyar people, to come down here in order to hire them to work on the rubber plantations, scraping rubber trees. If they cannot get along well with the communities in this village, it will definitely cause problems.

Nai Pae continued that after 2006, the tradition of holding cultural celebrations and teaching the native [Mon] language in schools became restricted. Before the arrival of the battalion, Mon language and culture schools opened every summer, teaching Mon language and culture to the people on the island in the hopes of preserving their heritage. When Navy Unit No. 43 arrived on the island they tried to ban the Mon language and culture school, declaring it to be illegal. Then, the Mon Buddhist monks who were supporting Mon literature and culture continuously negotiated with the local communities to keep opening the school [for the summer term]. However, later, the Navy sent an order to local areas explaining that residents in both the eastern village and western village on the island could celebrate their traditions only after receiving permission from the authorities of the naval force and the village administration committee.

One 33-year-old Mon man, who wished to remain anonymous, gave an interview with a HURFOM field reporter on June 28th. He is a native resident of the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma eastern village, but he moved to Ye Township in 2009. He used to be involved in the Mon literature and culture activities committee on the island. In the interview he described the nationality/ethnicity problems:

After the naval force came here, whatever we did, we had to do as they [the Navy] ordered. We still opened a Mon literature training/school for the kids and youths annually, but when we did, we had to get a permit from them. We also had to ask for the permit when holding a school closing ceremony. We couldn’t give any type of speech or say we wanted. The Burmese people gradually became their informers [of the Navy]. What happened later on is that they accused us, the ordinary people, of being in contact with and supporting the rebel groups. The Navy build-up and the land confiscation have worsened tensions between the ethnic groups on the island. Now, they [the Navy] already took over hundreds of acres of rubber plantations. On those seized lands, they will do their business projects and call more Ah-nyar people down here. I know the feelings of the villagers here. It’s true that they won’t keep living here even for a second longer because their land was seized. And, more people will leave the village. With new ethnicities, this island will change. What mainly will change are the language, culture and customs.”

AREA RESTRICTION DURING THE LAND CONFISCATION BY NAVY NO. 43

Across the water, on the Mon State mainland, in Yebyu Township, land confiscation is also rampant. Interviews collected on May 29th in Ohnpinkwin, Yebyu Township show that Navy Unit No. 43 has continued confiscating land from Kywe Thone Nyi Ma and into other areas of Yebyu Township.

Nai A-Nyan, a 34-year-old from Min-Thar village, Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division confirmed that the rubber plantation there included at least 900,000 plants and was currently under the control of the army:

[The navy] is well known as the Mu-pon Unit. It’s commanded by the Mawrawaddy Navy Command based in Mu-pon region, Moulmein [the capital of Mon State]. A navy unit from that command has been based in our Ohnpinkwin [village] of Yebyu Township for a long time. Colonel Ye Lin Tun of the Ohnpinkwin Navy Unit and his group has continuously been seizing the previously mentioned rubber plantations in the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. This time, the rubber plantation owners have hit rock bottom. Some land owners were disappointed and fled to Thailand with their entire families for work. [The land] from the west side of the railway to the coast mostly belongs to Min Thar village’s cultivators. Just their [Min Thar's plantation owners] loss is equal to 70 percent of the seized 3,000-acre land. The rest of the plantation owners are from Maw-Gyi, Lae Kyi, Ye-Ngan-Gyi, and Sinswe [villages]. In fact, the amount they need for the firing range of Ohnpinkwin’s Navy is small. I believe that they have intentionally seized the already-farmed rubber plantations for their [the Navy's] families.

Between January and March of this year, travel restrictions on local people’s comings and goings were imposed by the local army unit, especially for those travelers arriving from far away. Travel restrictions have intensified, along with the addition of fines. Locals interviewed expressed the belief that Navy Unit No. 43 has systematically controlled the region in order to prevent awareness of land confiscation spreading to the media.

On June 14th, Nai Myaing, a resident of west Kyol-don Nyi-ma, who moved to Cha-Pon village, located on the opposite coast of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma, explained the travel restrictions he has had to deal with:

I’m a native of the west part of the island. I farmed on this island for the last three years and then moved to my mother’s native village [Cha-Pon village, Yebyu Township] with my entire family when I couldn’t farm anymore because of a break in the dike. On June 14th, during a visit to my relatives, [I saw that] a sergeant and his four privates of the Navy Unit No. 43 sitting at the check point of the seaport. I hadn’t taken my national ID card because I just travelled around my village. When I came up from the seaport, I found that everyone had been checked for a national ID card and inquired in detail where they would stay, how long they would stay, what they came to do, where they came from, etc. I also found that those who couldn’t speak Burmese fluently were cursed in foul language. When my turn came, I had no ID card so they didn’t allow me to land on the island. [They] ordered [me] to go back. I apologized to them as I am a resident of this village, [but] they didn’t allow me to set foot on the island. I was cursed in foul language and expelled. After that, I gave [them] 2, 000 Kyat, [but they] didn’t accept [it]. I thought [the amount of the money I gave] was little so I gave an additional 2,000 kyat. After that I had to tell the sergeant a detailed address of where I’d stay, the name of my host, a detailed reason for my coming, and the name of the village I came from – even though I am from Cha-Pon village. People from faraway places could be arrested and checked according to my old friend’s [the owner of the house where he, U Myaing, stayed] experience. I realized later that they controlled the area because they feared that the news of the seizure of rubber plantations by the Navy would leak to the public…Every plantation owner living on the island has encountered land confiscation, more or less. Some people had to leave the island because all [of their plantations] were seized.

Referring to a source from the Navy, an old man who used to work as one of the village-appointed officials said the area restriction, controlling of the flow of information, and the restrictions on travel had all been ordered by Ka-Dike Navy Command, which commands Navy Unit No. 43:

I used to be familiar with the soldiers who were members of the village administration. According to them, an order was given that reports about the current land confiscation must not leave this island. [There is] a soldier [whose name he knew but refused to mention] from up-country [upper Burma] who married here. According to him, the Mawrawaddy Navy Command, which is located at the Mu-Pon region, Moulmein directly instructed the Ka-Dike Navy Command to control information [on land confiscation] and to suppress [to kill] those who aren’t satisfied with the land confiscation. Therefore, leaking information can endanger lives. I don’t know who is the highest ranking officer in the Mawrawaddy Navy Command. In Ka-Dike Command, Colonel Ye Linn Tun has the highest rank. He is the one who has carried out the orders from Mawrawaddy. He also is the most responsible person.

It is easy to assume that the wish to control information on land confiscation conducted by the Navy stems from the desire to appear to be a free and fair government. Similar to the November 7, 2010 elections, in which foreign media was not allowed to view the election process, the Burmese government has taken measures to limit the flow of information on abuses committed against the residents living in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and villages nearby.

In Min-Thar village, situated across the east bank of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, some army units from Tavoy-based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 375 have encamped on a hill outside Min-Thar village and check all travelers coming by car and train. This information came from Ko Maung Shain, a 33-year-old Tavoyan and local resident, who gave HURFOM the following interview on June 22nd:

They – the Army units – have encamped here with about 25 members in total. At the check-point in this village, about ten members of the military, the militia and the police force, stand guard every day. None of the travelers can escape [from being checked]. When there was no national ID card, if you were lucky, you’d be expelled; and if you were unlucky, you would be arrested and checked. Persons with Mon State and upper Burma national ID cards have thoroughly been checked. Those who speak Burmese fluently have been checked more. They have seized video cameras, phones and photo cameras at once. In this region, the military is the most powerful. During the second month [February], two young grandsons from Rangoon visited their grandmother in Min-Thar village and they brought a good digital camera. The captain of the check-point in the mid-village seized it. When its owner requested him to give it back, [he was] punched in the face.

Every Mon and Tavoyan resident living in the villages of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village track, Min-Thar village, Maw-Gyi, Lae Gyi, Ye-Ngan Gyi, and Sin-swe villages has to hold a village pass for their particular village when they are leaving or entering their village. There was a statement given in a monthly notice that if one has no pass to enter or leave the particular village, the local military can punish him/her as they wish. These monthly notices are announced at the Village Administration Offices by the local military. An anonymous source described the situation to HURFOM:

If it was in the past, I would accept the conditions of requiring a pass for entering and leaving the village because the region was unstable. But now, no armed group has come to this village. Requiring a pass for entering and leaving the village is a money maker for them[the government military]. It is really embittering that the military men who are from a distant region live in our region and check us – [the residents of this village]. Amongst the government soldiers, there are some half-caste Indians [half Indian, half Burmese]. You will laugh if you see that the Indians are punishing the indigenous people of this country who have no pass for entering and leaving village. [These types of incidents] have really happened in this region [laughing while he spoke]. For a pass to enter and leave the village, everyone has to pay about 2,000 [kyat] per month. A photo of the holder must be included. Thumbs need to be fingerprinted. And then, the signature of the local military officer or governor is included.

EXTORTION

According to Ko Maung Shain, it is on the Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village trail that everyone has to pay a monthly fine for work permission, in addition to the pass for leaving and entering the village in order to scrape the rubber plants. These fees are adding a healthy income to troops’ pockets. Residents have had to pay the fee since the Navy Unit No. 43 seized rubber plantations on the island. The fees were reported on more extensively on June 23rd by Nai Pan Maung, a west Kywe Thone Nyi Ma resident and a five-acre rubber plantation owner:

Both on this island, where the Navy has been based and in Min Thar village of the east island, the rubber plantation owners have to pay a monthly fine to the particular military group fo permission to scrape their rubber plants. This started five years ago. The owners have to pay in unison. There are two types of fines. The plantation owners in both the western group and the eastern group of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma have to pay 100, 000 Kyat for the food costs of the Navy on the island. And then, for the Ka-Dike Command, an additional2500 to 3000 thousand [kyat] per month has to be paid. This occurs every month. [We] have to pay without fail. If there is a missed payment, [the Navy] creates a problem. Therefore, depending on the area of the plantation, the rubber plantation owners have to pay [the fine] in ratio. The owners like me who own five-acre plantation have to pay at least 20,000 kyat every month [and I have been paying the fine] to get permission to scrape the rubber plants up to this year when [the plantation] was seized. After Songkran, the Navy Unit No. 43 had placed a signboard reading, ”Army Land” at my plantation, and after that I didn’t do any rubber scraping. That was last month. Even though the plantations were seized via the new village headman Nai A-Lay, the responsible persons from the Navy had announced that if the designated monthly fine can be paid, the rubber scraping can be made. Therefore, my younger son has re-scraped the rubber plants now by paying 30,000 [kyat] per month. If the heavy rain comes, [scraping rubber] has to be stopped. In conclusion, they have come and managed our own resources using their power. Please ask every plantation owner on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. Even relatives of the village headman had to give up [their plantation] to the Navy if they are a plantation owner. Now the land has been seized, so no rubber scraping is done. It is natural that people don’t want to deal with things which are not theirs.

This interview with Nai Pan Maung clearly shows that not only did the navy wrongfully seize villagers’ land in the area, but further exploited the villagers by charging unfair fines in order to pay for the Navy’s food supplies and other amenities.

A Tavoyan-Karen youth from a village in Yebyu Township, who received a law degree and currently works with rubber trading, opined that the reason for the local military to make strict checks on the locals, to restrict the travel, and to put the navy base directly in the villages is to get regional control and to cut the information flow:

The seizure may be for both their military business and their base extension. Anyhow, they [the Navy] had already broken the international standard of human rights. If they cut the information flow now, the real events can’t reach the media and activists. They aren’t allowing any leak of this sort of information during this time – the starting era of their so-called ‘civilian government’. I think the violations have occurred due to that reason [making an effort to appear like a civilian government that respects the rule of law]. According to human nature, if one has done something wrong, they don’t trust anyone, or their surroundings. These violations prove they [the Navy] already know they have done immoral things [unfairly seized land].

LAND CONFISCATION RESULTS IN FORCED MIGRATION AND A SEARCH FOR NEW LIVELIHOODS

According to a former Village Peace and Development Council (currently known as the Village Administration) staff member ( who served from 2004-2009), after the Burmese government’s naval force No. 43 confiscated the rubber plantations, some villagers fell apart, emotionally and financially. They were unable to keep living in their home areas and were bereft of the means to a living which they had formerly depended. Unable to work on their own land, they could only watch as other villagers worked on their plantantions. This former staff member tells of how, consequently, some of the victims of land confiscation left their home villages to start a new life elsewhere:

Everyone who lives here would see [the signs] and hear [the orders]. It’s very frustrating. We have heard the making clicking sounds with the tongues [a sign of strong displeasure], depression, and sobbing since the beginning of this year. Some rubber plantation owners fell apart when their plantations got taken over right away because they had planned the land to be a long-term business. Most of them were originally working as rubber plantation workers. They are rubber farmers, so what else can they do? After the army set up red-colored signboards, saying, ”Army Land” [or literally Tat-Myay in Burmese] [on the rubber plantations that they confiscated] in late April and May, some of those plantation owners who lost their land began to move out of the village. As far as I know, there have been 32 families which have moved out of both villages, the westerly and easterly village. Nothing was taken along with them [when they left]. Just packed their clothes and then they left the villages. Some of those families are very close to me.

Daw Ma Yee is among the villagers, mentioned above, who lost their land and had to move. She is 45-years-old and had lived in the eastern part of Kyol-don Nyi-ma before moving with her family to a suburban area of Thanbyuzayat Township.

One Mon villager who is 61-years-old, and formerly served as a member of the VPDC from 2004-2009, gave an interview on June 24th⁴ about the fate of villagers who lost their land:

My relative, Nai Han-Sein, lost 6 acres of rubber plantation, from the eastern part of the village. [Afterward] Together with his family, they moved to La-mine Sub-township, Ye Township, and had to rely on what they could find to work and live on. Another family, Nai Kyaw Win and Ma Htwe’s family, moved to the Yebyu Township area, working in another owner’s plantation [for survival]. Just like the other villagers who lost land After the naval forces took over the rubber plantations, the villagers moved away and it seemed very silent and empty [in the village].

According to detailed accounts of certain villagers living in the western area of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma, nine families chose to move to western and northern Ye township, in order to work as day laborers on other owners’ rubber plantations.

Mi Ei Yin, a 44-year-old resident of the western village part of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma island, explained how her family moved to Ye township, settling down there temporarily and working in order to survive:

We chose to work here as we are only capable of working like this. The difference is that we changed from being the employer/owner of a rubber plantation into an employee of a rubber plantation. Now, my husband and I have jobs working at this rubber plantation. The plantation owner is not a stranger, he is our relative. Having to work as an employee, scraping the rubber trees, cutting bushes, and making a route which prevents fire from reaching [the trees]… At the moment, we are thinking about growing some kind of fruit between the rows of rubber trees. …they already started growing pineapple plants. As long as we can work, it is okay for our daily meals. To support our kids [going] to school in this upcoming rainy season, we, wife and husband, have to work harder. Just like this [as you can see]: life restarts at the beginning.

Mi Ei Yin’s husband’s name is Nai Hla-Oo, [estimated to be 45 years old and a former resident of the western village part, Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village ward]. Nai Hla-Oo is only able to understand a little bit of Burmese, yet cannot speak Burmese at all. Nai Hla Oo recalled that because of having difficulty with the language and a low education level, he and his wife were forced to give away their five acres of rubber plantation which lay in the northern part of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village ward:

We are persons being forced and have no power at all. We cannot speak their language either. And we just left the village like this because it was not only us whose plantations were seized, but others as well. We tell ourserlves that property is just an impermanent thing, and it is not too late: we can start a new life if we can work. After that, we, my wife and I together with three kids, left our home village as other families departed. Regarding the law, if someone is able to help, I still hope to get my plantation back. That’s because we feel deep regret for working very hard [on our plantation] and devoting our investment in it [and losing it].

Some residents currently working and living in a new area, stated that they had not wanted to move out of their home villages, where their families had been living for four decades. But they were forced to leave because they had no other opportunity to work and sustain their families.

Like those who decided to settle down in a new place and restart their life, some left their home villages for Thailand, choosing to work as illegal migrant workers. On June 26th, HURFOM made contact with three families who had recently moved to Thailand after their rubber plantations were confiscated on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. The families spoken to ended up in Prachuab Kiri-khan Province, southern Thailand, in the beginning of May this year.

Nai Maung Aye Lin, a 42-year-old former resident of the eastern part of Kywe Thone Nyi Ma village ward, explained that his seven acres of rubber plantation took him 15 years to grow. His parents planted the trees first and then, around five years ago, he began to gain an income from tapping the rubber. He explained, though, that he had been forced to pay the naval force tens of thousands of kyat per month just to be allowed to tap his own rubber trees. After his plantation was taken over, he left his village for northern Thailand, along with two other families in May, to work with his younger brother’s family. In an interview, he told HURFOM he worries about working in Thailand illegally:

Here, everything is okay for me at the moment. When I see the rubber plantations here, I am reminded of my rubber plantation. I still have a feeling of attachment [to working on my rubber plantation]. I am working illegally, but since the Thai government will issue migrant worker cards now [in June], I will do my best to get one –that’s to be able to work legally. Here, as it is not my native place, I have to be careful for everything. No security yet. But, in my mind, it is a time I have to struggle to get out of from the worst time just like in a tale. For me, no late night is later than midnight [Burmese proverb]. Nothing will come true if I keep being frustrated. As much as the time I have, I’m here to work. One thing that is better here is having no army dogs [referring to the naval force from his home village]. We do not have to pay monthly fees either.

Yet, I am just afraid of the Thai police as I have not got any Thai migrant worker card/work permit card. The other two families, Nai Ah-kyaw family and Nai Bal family, which came to Thailand along with our family, are working in another Thai owner’s plantation, which is not really far from here. I hope everything will gradually become okay. I want to get my rubber plantation back if we can manage to do that legally.

Nai Ah-kyaw, 40, and Nai Bal, 46, also have their own hopes for the future. Nai Ah-kyaw commented that he has not been able to forget how his rubber plantation was taken over without him allowing it. He also explained how regretful he feels about the fact that his now 12-year-old trees on his five acres of rubber plantation were tappable. Below he describes his current situation in Thailand:

I feel like I’ve become very weak as I found out that there is nothing left for me after 10 years of working hard [on my rubber plantation].They, a group led by Sergeant Htun Wai came to set up a red-colored signboard, illustrating “Cantonment Area” in late April. At the time, I knew that my land was being taken over by the government. My wife was so regretful and she became very depressed. I got her back, cheering her up by suggesting a new start and we left for Thailand. For my two sons, we had to take them out of school to come with us to Thailand. As we came here with the whole family, we faced many different difficulties getting into Thailand. Now, it is not really okay to settle down; but rather we focus our mind on getting good jobs, and then settling down. We are urged by our employer to get a work permit. We might do that to become legal.

Thailand has over one million registered migrant workers from Burma and even more unregistered workers. Most migrants from Burma have come to Thailand in search of better economic opportunities than they originally had in their hometowns inside Burma. The individuals that were previously interviewed by HURFOM before the land confiscation were indirectly forced to leave their homes with their families due to government policies, which effectively kicked them off of their own land. Without any financial security and means to support themselves, many have been forced to work as daily unskilled labor, living on day-to-day subsistence. And consequently, they are unable to plan for the future.

4 : Note: concerned with rubber plantations confiscation, names of some sources and local places are not unveiled in the report, that’s for the security purposes, but if you want to find out furthermore, you can directly conduct HURFOM.

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

According to the United Nations statute on Crimes Against Humanity, “the forcible transfer of a population ”⁵ constitutes a crime against humanity. By seizing land already owned and cultivated by villagers on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island and nearby villages in Yebyu Township, the Burmese government has effectively confiscated and forced the former population to evacuate the island and their own land plots. A report which analyzed the effects of land confiscation on the citizens of Burma explains that, “when rural households are driven off their lands, or are gradually and continually impoverished, then the ability to improve the family’s condition is denied and the survival of the family is jeopardized.”⁶

Not only has the Burmese government blatantly disregarded the UN’s statutes on crimes against humanity, by robbing its citizens of their livelihoods, but the government has committed these crimes even after it supported the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which stipulates that, “No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.”⁷ The interviews conducted by HURFOM field reporters clearly show that the seizure of land, though informed of beforehand by the placement of red flags, took no account of the individual owners’ permission. And months later, former landowners have received no compensation. Also, within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, there is a specified protection clause of ethnic minorities native to the area. It is evident by the land confiscation conducted on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, in which the total population is ethnic Mon, that this protection of ethnic minorities was completely disregarded. This is especially clear given that many ethnic Mon have been forced off their land and are obligated to make a life elsewhere.

Burma has also ratified the Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) .
⁸ Both conventions prescribe the necessity by the government of insuring the rights of both women and children and therefore forbidding the government to take action against these two groups in ways that impede their rights to shelter and sustenance. Article 27 of the CRC states that “States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development .”⁹ By forcing families off their land, the rights of the child and the rights of women have been violated.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To Mon Political Party: All Mon Region Democracy Party

Though the national elections, which the Burmese government held on November 7, 2010 were deemed fraudulent and unfair by most international bodies, a small number of officials from the ethnic minority parties gained political positions within the new parliament. Amongst these new officials are politicians from the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMRDP). The AMRDP ran on the basis of fighting for the rights of the ethnic Mon people in Burma. Considering their pledges, it is recommended that the AMRDP take note of the land confiscation and human rights abuses ongoing in Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. Most of these problems are directly affecting the Mon population living on the island. As parliamentary members in a government-designated “democracy,” HURFOM implores AMRDP to take issue with these human rights abuses in Yebyu Township and seek change and compensation.

To International Labour Organization in Burma

Burma has also ratified a convention against the use of forced labor with the International Labor Organization. Many cases of land confiscation in Burma lead to the use of forced labor to cultivate the land formerly seized. HURFOM advises the ILO to pay special attention to the land confiscation abuses ongoing on Kywe Thone Nyi MaIsland in order to insure that forced labor does not begin to occur.

To UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Myanmar:

Finally, Tomas Ojea Quintana, tthe United Nations Special  Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, who finished a tour around Thailand in May 2011 to discuss the ongoing abuses conducted by the Burmese government, must insist on a Commission of Inquiry on the violations committed by the Burmese government constituting Crimes Against Humanity. A Commission of Inquiry conducted is a step towards making the Burmese government take responsibility for the abuses it inflicts on the citizens of Burma as well as pressure the government to change its ways and insure the rights of its citizens by providing them with sustenance, shelter, and the ability to make a living.

5 : http://www.un.org/icc/crimes.htm#humanity

6 :Hudson-Rodd, Dr. Nancy, Dr. Myo Nyunt, Saw Thamain Tun, and Sein Htay. The Impact of the Confiscation of Land, Labor, Capital Assets and Forced Relocation in Burma by the Military Regime.Http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/land_confiscation1-20.pdf. Online Burma Library, May 2003. Web. 20 July 2011.

7 : The Burma-China Pipelines: Human Rights Violations, Applicable Law, and Revenue Secrecy. Rep. no. Situation Briefer No.1. Earthrights International, Mar. 2011. Web. June 2011. <http://www.earthrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/the-burma-china-pipelines.pdf>.

8 : The Burma-China Pipelines: Human Rights Violations, Applicable Law, and Revenue Secrecy. Rep. no. Situation Briefer No.1. Earthrights International, Mar. 2011. Web. June 2011. <http://www.earthrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/the-burma-china-pipelines.pdf>.

9 :http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

APPENDICES

Appendix -1
Appendix -2
Appendix -3
Appendix -4

*The original version of this report was modified on April 10th 2010 to correct a translation error in inset no. 2 on p. 12. The change is made to the name of the company that owns a cement factory that benefit from the pipelines output in Myaing Kalay, correcting the name Myanmar State Enterprise Company Limited (MSEC Ltd) to the Myanmar Sebwayei Corporation (MEC).

——————————————————————————————————————————————–

I. Introduction
II. Methodology
III. Background
IV. Smoke and fire: militarization of the pipeline area
V. Dirty work: building the pipeline
VI. Life on the line: maintaining and protecting the pipeline
VII. Conclusion

I. Introduction

In November 2000, the military government in Burma¹ began construction of a 180-mile pipeline running south to north across the country’s southern peninsula. Designed to supply cement factories and electricity generation projects, the pipeline carries the government share of gas produced by the controversial Yadana gas fields. The Yadana gas project – and a sister Yetagun project, which both transport gas to Thailand via a 40-mile overland pipeline – has seen intense international controversy; careful field research, public relations campaigns and legal battles have made clear that the project is responsibile for massive human rights abuses.²

Branching off the Yadana/Yetagun pipeline, however, is the much longer Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline. This pipeline originates near Kanbauk in Tenasserim Division and ends in Karen State’s Myaing Kalay, passing close to hundreds of villages and bisecting farms and plantations by the thousands of acre. Though it has received much less international attention, the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline has been responsible for another expansive set of human rights violations. The following report documents these abuses.

Clearing the route for the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline required the seizure of more than 2,400 acres of land from villagers, losses for which they received little or no compensation. Once the route was under control, villagers were forced to work as unpaid forced laborers on the construction of the pipeline itself, clearing timber and brush, digging and filling trenches and hauling materials. Nearly a decade after construction of the pipeline was completed, villagers continue to be required to work as forced laborers; not only must villagers work to help maintain the pipeline, they must stand sentry and patrol it, under constant threat of violent retribution should an attack or accident occur. Battalions of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)³ army have been present at all stages of this process, ostensibly to provide security but also to provide threatening supervision to villagers required to participate in the project. The construction, maintenance and continued protection of the pipeline have fundamentally relied on the SPDC army, whose deployments have tripled since construction began. Housing and supporting these troops has lead to its own set of abuses, and the battalions responsible for the pipeline have seized more than 12,000 acres of land as well as demanded daily support from local villagers. These “pipeline battalions” have also been responsible for a raft of violent abuses, including torture, murder and rape. In many cases, these abuses have been a deliberate part of SPDC pipeline security strategy. In other cases, these abuses have simply been the product of a SPDC army that operates without accountability.

This report is divided into three main sections. After a discussion of the national and regional background to the pipeline, the first section (IV: Smoke and fire) details the increased militarization of the pipeline area as new battalions were deployed to support the project. This section provides details on the land confiscation and forced labor during the initial deployment of pipeline battalions, and the abuses inherent in their continued presence. The next section (V: Dirty work) documents abuses during the construction period, including land seizures to clear the way for the pipeline and forced labor to build it. The closing section (VI: Life on the line) details daily life along the pipeline, including the constant threat of explosions and forced labor related to pipeline maintenance and security.

1 : The military government officially changed the country’s name to “Myanmar” in 1989, though neither opposition groups nor the international community have universally accepted the switch. The United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, for instance, continue to use “Burma” rather than “Myanmar.”

2 : Much of this controversy was generated by the campaigns of Earth Rights International and the Burma Campaign – UK. See, Earth Rights International. Total Denial, July 1996; Earth Rights International. Total Denial Continues: Earth rights abuses along the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines in Burma, December 2003. Burma Campaign – UK. Totalitarian Oil: Fueling the Oppression in Burma, February 2005; Earth Rights International. The Human Cost of Energy, April 2008.

3 : Burma’s military government changed its name from the State Law and Order Restoration Council to the SPDC in 1997.

II. Methodology

Information in this report is primarily based on field research conducted along the pipeline during the second half of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. Nine HURFOM field reporters interviewed 69 subjects in four townships, including:

7 subjects from 4 villages in Mudon Township, Mon State
7 subjects from 5 villages in Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State
20 subjects from 8 villages in Ye Township, Mon State
35 subjects from 10 villages in Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division

HURFOM also drew extensively on the knowledge of 7 field reporters who reside inside Burma, as well as 4 stringers generously made available by the Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA). These resident reporters provided information on individual incidents, as well as invaluable context, background information, confirmations and assistance finding answers to targeted follow-up questions.

This report also includes information drawn from HURFOM’s extensive database, developed during 14 years of human rights documentation in Mon areas. In some cases information in the following report has already been published, either online in short incident reports or in monthly print issues of the Mon Forum.

HURFOM makes occasional use of quotations and information from IMNA and Kaowao News, two independent media organizations that cover the pipeline area. No incidents documented by HURFOM rely solely on information from these media reports. Gathering information and obtaining direct quotations from residents inside Burma is, however, intensely difficult and in some cases IMNA and Kaowao simply did good work that HURFOM felt added to the strength of this report. In all cases except comments from political leaders, names of sources have been changed for their protection. Rather than publish source names as a blank or series of dashes, however, HURFOM feels that it is important to put names to testimony so that it remains clear that the pipeline affects real people, not anonymous subjects or statistics. In cases where villagers requested anonymity, however, they have been listed as “anonymous.”

This report ends with 6 appendices, 5 of which are collections of individual documented abuses. These appendices should not be taken as comprehensive, and reflect neither the total number of abuses along the pipeline nor even the total recorded by HURFOM. Incidents included in the appendices are instead only those for which HURFOM has the absolute highest quality information, including confirmed eyewitness reports, victim testimony or exact details including the names and ages of perpetrators and victims. Appendix 3 should especially be taken as a selection of samples rather than a comprehensive audit, for at any given time many of the abuses on the list are occurring in multiple villages. Instead, Appendix 3 is designed to demonstrate the sheer breadth – and at times perverse creativity – of pipeline battalion “fundraising” efforts. In the case of Appendix 5, much of the information included was gathered independently by HURFOM’s Woman and Child Rights Project (WCRP).

III. Background

A. Burma, pipelines and military rule Successive military governments have ruled Burma⁴ since a coup in 1962. Through the 1990s, the juntas waged an intense civil war against armed ethnic and prodemocracy groups and the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). Though civil-war level fighting subsided as major groups agreed to ceasefires or disintegrated in the 1990s, conflict continues in the country’s border areas. Across the rest of the country, meanwhile, the military government continues to treat the population as if it is an internal enemy. In perhaps the country’s most infamous moment, ⁵ in 1988 soldiers opened fire on hundreds of thousands of unarmed protesters, killing at least 3,000 people. Two years later, when the junta annulled the results of an election in which it suffered a crushing defeat, the international community began to enforce political and economic sanctions in earnest. Little has changed however, and 20 years after outcries over the events of 1988 and 1990 the international community continues to be shocked by the junta’s actions; in 2006, the United Nations again announced “grave concern” at the human rights situation in Burma:

[T]he Assembly express[es] grave concern at ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar; the continuing use of torture; deaths in custody; political arrests and continuing imprisonment and other detentions, denial of freedom of assembly, association, expression and movement, and the prevailing culture of impunity.⁶

In spite of international pressure, not to mention armed opposition that at times seemed capable of sacking the country’s capital, Burma’s military governments have clung to power. Though economic mismanagement means the government lacks sources of traditional revenue, it has largely financed its position through the sale of raw materials and commodities. The bulk of this income comes from the Andaman Sea, location of the lucrative Yetagun and Yadana gas projects. In May 1990, the British company, Premier Oil signed the first gas contract with Burma’s military government, which granted it permission to harvest gas from the Yetagun Gas Fields in the Andaman Sea. ⁷ Two years later, in July 1992 the French oil company Total signed an agreement to harvest gas from the Yadana Gas Fields, also in the Andaman Sea. ⁸

Both the Yadana and Yetagun projects are jointoperating agreements with the government-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprises (MOGE), the primary corporation responsible for gas exploration and production in Burma since most sectors of industry were nationalized in 1962. As a result, a significant portion of the income generated by the projects flows directly to Burma’s military government, netting the SPDC 2.486 billion USD in 2008⁹. This is down from the SPDC’s 2.7 billion dollar 2007.¹⁰ Notably, these figures are based upon calculations using the official government exchange rate, which registers 6 kyat as equivalent to 1 USD. ¹¹ This overvalues the kyat by almost 200 times its market value, masking the substantially larger income earned for the regime by gas sales. ¹²

Even calculated at the official rate, income from the Yadana and Yetagun projects is the SPDC’s primary source of foreign exchange, making up more than a third of its exports for 2008.¹³ This revenue is crucial to the SPDC, whose fundraising opportunities are otherwise heavily restricted by strict international sanctions, including by the United States, European Union and Canada. ¹⁴ The bulk of the income does not, however, make it into services that benefit the people of Burma. The SPDC spends just 1.4 percent of GDP on education and health, a rate that is half that of neighboring countries and amongst the lowest of countries anywhere. ¹⁵ Predictably, Burma’s social services are amongst the worst in the world; only a quarter of children complete primary school¹⁶ and Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) ranked the country among the world’s top-10 Humanitarian Crisis of 2008. The consequences for the population are dire; the country’s infant mortality rate is among the highest in Asia, at 7% for children under 1 and 10% for those under 5. These numbers are closer to 10 and 20% in Burma’s rural areas, ¹⁷ due largely to preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia. ¹⁸ More difficult to treat conditions, meanwhile, go all-but ignored, and in what MSF calls “one of Asia’s most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics” only a small fraction of the estimated 240,000 people tested positive for the disease receive ARV treatment. ¹⁹

In spite of the steady income generated by the gas projects, not to mentionBurma’s abundance of other natural resources, Burma’s economy remains stagnant after decades of economic mismanagement by successive military regimes, beginning with the economy-wide nationalizations of General Ne Win’s “Burmese Way to Socialism.” The UN categorized Burma a “Least Developed Country” in 1987, a label the country has continued to carry for over 20 years²⁰ even as other Southeast Asian countries have experienced economic booms. Its Gross National Income (GNI) per- capita of 220 USD is less than half that of Cambodia (480 USD), the country with the next-lowest GNI in the region and just a fraction of neighboring Thailand (2,990 USD) or similarly developing ex-colony Indonesia (1,420 USD). ²¹ According to the SPDC’s own Central Statistical Organization (MCSO), 70% of household income is spent on food,²² the highest proportion in the region and a solid indicator of the thin line separating households from times when they can feed themselves and times when they cannot. According to the World Food Program, a third of children suffer from malnutrition. ²³ These numbers worsen markedly in rural areas; in 2006, a joint survey by the UNDP and MCSO found 50% of the population in rural areas to have incomes insufficient to pay for food and other basic needs.²⁴

That income from projects like Yadana and Yetagun has not been effectively used to promote economic development should not be surprising. The SPDC is among the most corrupt regimes in the world²⁵ and, in the words of one respected Burma economic analyst, “has little understanding of the dynamics of a market economy, and mistakes the building of roads, bridges, dams and other physical infrastructure as constituting ‘economic development’ in themselves.” ²⁶ In the last few years, this mismanagement has manifested itself in egregiously high levels of spending on projects like a nuclear reactor²⁷ and the construction of Naypyidaw, an opulent, built-from-scratch 4-5 billion dollar city to which the regime recently relocated the capital. ²⁸

A substantial portion of SPDC budgetary expenditures, meanwhile, goes to funding the military, or Tatmadaw. Though accurate calculations are difficult because official figures are nonexistent or closely guarded, commentators estimate actual spending on the Tatmadaw to account for 25 to 40% of the national budget, or more than twice the percentage of GDP spent on health and education. ²⁹ Importantly, this spending is further augmented by significant funds from military-owned economic enterprises³⁰ as well as a “self-reliance” policy that encourages front-line battalions to procure supplies through commandeering and purchasing at government prices ³¹ The result has been a steady increase in the ranks of the Tatmadaw, which at more than 400,000 troops is now the second largest army in Southeast Asia, second only to Vietnam.

4 : See footnote 1.

5 : The infamy of 1988 is now likely challenged by the military government’s response to Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, which consisted of such intransigence that thousands of lives were lost as international aid agencies struggled to gain access to affected areas. See, After the Storm: Voices From the Delta, EAT and Johns Hopkins University, March 2009.

6 : “Third Committee Approves Draft Resolutions on Human Rights in Myanmar, Belarus; Rejects Texts on Canada, United States,” United Nations Sixty-first General Assembly, Third Committee 51st and 52nd Meetings, November 22, 2006.

7 : Within a few years, Premier, the operator with a 27% share of the project, was joined the Malaysian company Petronas, the Japanese company Nippon and Thailand’s PTT -EP.

8 : The Yadana consortium is made up of 4 partners: Total, the operator with a 31.2% share, is joined by Chevron (Unocal prior to 2005), PTT-EP and MOGE.

9 : According to government figures, cited in “Myanmar’s foreign trade hits over $11 bln in 2008,” Xinhua March 21, 2009. This figure saw an interesting surge upwards in the last quarter of 2008, after the government announced income from gas to be just $1.69 billion over the first three quarters of the year. See, “Myanmar trade surplus shrinks as gas exports fall,” AP January 6, 2009.

10 : According to figures provided by the government-controlled Myanmar Times newspaper, cited in “Myanmar earned 2.7 bln dlrs from 2007 gas exports: report,” AFP April 8, 2008. A few months later, figures from the country’s customs department revised the figure downwards, to $2.594 billion. See, “Natural gas tops Myanmar exports in 2007-08,” Xinhua June 15, 2008.

11 : For more on the difference between the official and actual market values of the kyat, see Inset 4.

12 : In May 2009, the widely used black-market exchange rate converted kyat to dollars at a rate of 1,090:1. For analysis of the way the official exchange rate impacts government budgets, see Turnell, Sean. “Burma’s Economy 2008: Current Situation and Prospects for Reform,” Burma Economic Watch, Macquarie University, Australia, May 2008.

13 : According to government figures, 2008 saw exports totaling 6.413 billion USD. See, “Foreign trade breaks $11b barrier before end of fiscal year,” Myanmar Times, March 30-April 5, 2009.

14 : Renewed most recently by the European Union. See, “EU extends sanctions on Burma for another year,” Mizzima News, April 27, 2009.

15 : Turnell, 2008. See also, The Gathering Storm: Infectious Diseases and Human Rights in Burma, the University of California Berkeley and John Hopkins University, July 2007.

16 : Turnell, 2008; “Beyond the International Spotlight, Critical Needs in Myanmar Remain Unmet,” MSF Top Ten Humanitarian Crisis of 2008, MSF December 2008.

17 : After the storm, 2009.

18 : Backpack Health Worker Team, Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Burma, September 2006.

19 : See, A Preventable Fate: The Failure of ART Scale-Up in Myanmar, MSF Special Report, November 2008.

20 : United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries. “Myanmar Country Profile,” June 2008 http://www.unohrlls.or /en/orphan/305/Accessed 4/1/2009

21 : UNICEF, Information by country: East Asia and the Pacific, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/eastasia.html Accessed 4/1/2009

22 : Daw Malar Aung, Deputy Director (Statistics), Central Statistical Organization, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. “Country Brif Note – Myanmar” (Sic), Inception Seminar/ Workshop on Upgrading Statistical Capabilities on MDG Indicators, Trivendrum, 13-15, December 2004. www.unsiap.or.jp/mdg_project/ Inception/DOCS/CBN_Myanmar_016.doc Accessed 4/1/2009.

23 : The WFP also labels Burma’s status as “serious” on the Global Hunger Index, which ranks countries based on child malnutrition, rates of child mortality and the proportion of people who are calorie deficient. See the WFP’s Myanmar profile, http://www.wfp.org/countries/myanmar. Accessed 4/20/2009.

24 : Impact of the UNDP Human Development Initiative in Myanmar, 1994-2006. UNDP 2006.

25 : According to international corruption monitoring group Transparency International, Burma is the second most corrupt country in the world, ahead of only Somalia. Transparency International. “Corruption Perceptions Index 2008,” Transparency International, 2008.

26 : Turnell, 2008. Turnell goes on to describe the SPDC as “almost wholly predatory… not so much parasitic of its host as all-consuming. If in other countries ruling regimes behave occasionally as racketeers in skimming a ‘cut’ from prosperous business, then Burma’s is more like a looter – destroying what it can neither create nor understand.”

27 : Bertil Lintner, “Burma’s Nuclear Temptation,” Yale Global, December 3, 2008; The Guardian, “Russia to build atomic plant for Burmese junta,” May 17, 2007.

28 : The New York Times, “Built to Order: Myanmar’s New Capital Isolates and Insulates Junta,” June 24, 2008; The Irrawaddy, “Dragging Burma Back to the Past,” November 2008 – Volume 16 NO.11; BBC News, “Burma’s new capital stages parade,” March 27, 2006.

29 : Andrew Selth. Burma’s Armed Forces: Power Without Glory (East Bridge: Norwalk, 2002); David Steinberg. Burma, the state of Myanmar (Georgetown University Press: Washington, DC, 2002).

30 : The Tatmadaw controls a variety of business operations, including banks, construction, agricultural and importexport companies. The Tatmadaw-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, for instance, is one of the largest businesses inside Burma. See, “The Enemy Within,” The Irrawaddy, March 2000 Vol. 8 No. 30. For a discussion of SPDC army investments and the lucrative logging industry in Burma, see A Conflict of Interests: The uncertain future of Burma’s forests, Global Witness, October 2003.

31 : The SPDC is reported to have begun this “self reliance” or “self sufficiency” policy in 1996 or 1997. Front-line battalions are often poorly outfitted in terms of rations and other living requirements. Given the general lack of oversight or culpability for officers or soldiers, this has lead to abuse and exploitation as battalions seek to cover shortfalls. For details on the March 2009 policy change that replaced rice rations with a weekly payment of 800 kyat for rank and file soldiers, see “Lack of army food could lead to corruption,” Democratic Voice of Burma, April 29, 2009. For details on the general lack of support for rank and file SPDC army soldiers, see “Myanmar army document spotlights low morale,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, March 26, 2007. For other reports on the SPDC self-reliance policy, see Running the Gauntlet: the Impact of Internal Displacement in Southern Shan State, Humanitarian Affairs Research Project, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, 2003; Myanmar Ethnic Minorities: Targets of Repression, Amnesty International, June 2001. For examples of the way the SPDC military “self reliance” policy results in villagers forced to support troops, see Internal Displacement and International Law in Eastern Burma, Thai-Burma Border Consortium, October 2008.

B. The Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline

The Yadana and Yetagun projects have received significant international attention, generated mostly through careful documentation of human rights violations by advocacy groups like Earth Rights International (ERI) and the Burma Campaign UK. ³² Beginning in 1996, ERI also began conducting a legal advocacy campaign, filing lawsuits first in the US that were soon replicated in Belgium and France. Receiving less coverage, however, is the government-owned pipeline bringing Total gas to domestic users inside Burma; as part of its contract with Total, MOGE is entitled to as much as 20% of Yadana’s production. ³³ This gas is routed to two primary locations: first to cement factories in Karen State, and then onwards to Rangoon where it is used for electricity generation. ³⁴ According to numbers released by Total in 2008, MOGE initially took less than half its share – 40 to 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd). In December 2006, MOGE increased this daily take to 100 mmscfd.

MOGE’s share of the gas must travel through 183 miles of 20-inch diameter pipeline, construction of which began in November 2000. This pipeline begins at the Total Pipeline Center near Kanbauk, a town in northern Yebyu Township, Tavoy District, Tenasserim Division. ³⁵ The gas travels briefly through Yebyu, before passing into Mon State 41 miles further on. For the next 116 miles, it travels through 5 townships in Mon State before entering Karen State, arriving 26 miles later at twin cement factories in Myaing Kalay ³⁶ From Myaing Kalay, some of the gas continues roughly west towards electricity generating projects in Rangoon, including a gas turbine power station funded by the Japanese government. ³⁷

The Kanbauk-Myaing Kalay pipeline is an extensive overland pipeline, and passes through areas that are varied in terms of terrain, ethnic make-up and political situation. The majority of the pipeline takes more or less the same route as the Moulmein to Ye and Ye to Tavoy railway lines, which also run along the main road connecting Moulmein, Mon State’s capital, to Tavoy, the capital of Tenasserim Division. For approximately the first third of the pipeline, in Yebyu Township and southern Ye Township’s Khaw Zar Sub-township, the countryside is relatively mountainous and home to dense forests. This terrain has made it home for the remaining armed insurgent groups, who have dwindled since major groups like the Communist Party of Burma’s (CPB) last southern outpost finally disintegrated in 2000 and the New Mon State Party (NMSP) agreed to a ceasefire with the SPDC in 1995. Since construction of the pipeline began in 2000, armed insurgent activity has been mostly limited to the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and small MNLA splinter groups. ³⁸ Much of this area is classified a “black” area, making it a virtual free-fire zone for SPDC army troops and the site of some of the worst human rights abuses in southern Burma. ³⁹

By Ye Town, 30 miles to the north of Khaw Zar Town, the terrain begins to level out and remains relatively flat for the next 80 miles, though mountains to the west are never more than a few miles away. These remaining three quarters of the pipeline pass through the northern end of Ye Township and into Thanbyuzayat and Mudon Townships, before skirting Moulmein and entering Karen State. Though activity by armed insurgents has also been reported in these areas, particularly in Lamine Sub-township north of Ye Town and as far north as Thanbyuzayat Township, ⁴⁰ they are classified as “white,” and fully under government control. As the pipeline stretches towards Moulmein, then, it passes from a “black” free-fire zone where human rights abuses such as forced relocations and arbitrary killings are common to increasingly more pacified “white” territory, where the human rights situation is pressing though less severe. The pipeline chiefly traverses agricultural land, primarily paddy fields and rubber plantations, though plantations of betel nut, durian, rambutan, palm and other orchard products are also common, especially in the more mountainous southern areas. Fishing villages dot the coast, while in Thanbyuzayat Township salt is

produced in villages like Panga and Setse. ⁴¹ Though Mon State’s paddy fields and plantations are fertile and the area’s economy has been relatively stronger than other parts of Burma, it is by no means affluent. Baseline income for an average laborer in 2009 is just 50,000 kyat a month, or less than 50 USD. The area has also been hit hard by the global economic downturn, with the value of key crops like rubber dropping by as much as 75%.⁴²

The pipeline area is primarily home to ethnic Mons, who more or less controlled the region for centuries.⁴³ It is by no means ethnically homogenous, however, and is also home to ethnic Karens, Burmans, Indians and, in the south closer to Kanbauk, Tavoyans. Mon State’s relatively strong economic position vis-?-vis other parts of Burma means that it has also increasingly become a destination for ethnic Burman migrant workers from middle and upper Burma. ⁴⁴

Preparation for the construction of the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline began in 1998 when SPDC engineers first surveyed the route. Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) officials, who are responsible for administering all government departments in each township, were required to participate and provide information about how many people lived and worked on land traversed by the pipeline. The route was then cleared and trenches were dug during 1999 and 2000, after which sections of the pipeline were delivered to the area, welded together and placed in the ground. From 2001 to 2003, villagers were required to cover the pipeline with soil. Pervasive human rights abuses have characterized all stages of this project – from its initial preparation to the ongoing maintenance and security efforts that sustain it. The first section of this report details the militarization that has accompanied the project, including the arrival of more than 20 new battalions to the area and the abuses that go hand in hand with the increased military presence. The second section details abuses during the construction process, which entailed forced labor and the confiscation of over 2,400 acres of land. The last section of the report explains the situation along the pipeline following its construction, and includes details on conscription of villagers who are made to repair the pipeline and stand sentry against attacks by insurgents. This section also includes details on the pipeline’s frequent explosions and ruptures, as well as the considerable abuses including torture related to post-explosion investigations.

32 : See footnote 2.

33 : Total. Total in Myanmar: a sustained commitment, 2008. Downloaded from the Total website,
http:// burma.total.com. Accessed 3/1/2009.

34 : Total, 2008; U Kyaw Nyein, “MOGE Country Report for Myanmar.” Presented to MOGE, Undated.

35 : For more on the organization and administration of States and Divisions in Burma, see Inset 1.

36 : For more on the cement factories in Myaing Kalay, see Inset 2.

37 : According to a June 2006 evaluation by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the JICA-funded Thaketa gas turbine power station was poised to increase the amount of gas it burned, by drawing an additional 22 million MMSCFD later in 2006. Atsushi Tokura, “Ex-Post Monitoring for Completed ODA Loan Projects,” Myanmar Gas Turbine Power Station Project (Yangon), JICA June 2006.

38 : For more on the insurgent activity in the pipeline area as well as the NMSP and KNLA, see Inset 3.

39 : For more on “black areas” and the way SPDC counter-insurgency strategy hinges on targeting civilians, see Section IV, B.

40 : In March 2009, villagers in Thanbyuzayat and Mudon Townships were restricted to a 9 pm curfew after SPDC battalions claimed they had intelligence indicating 200 armed insurgents had entered the area. It is questionable whether a group of 200 could operate secretly in an area home to 5 Burmese army battalions and made up mostly of paddy fields and rubber plantations. Nonetheless, one resident interviewed at the time said he had recently seen 30 KNLA soldiers taxing a bus bound from Moulmein to Tavoy near Waekami village, Thanbyuzayat.

41 : Salt production in Mon State saw a boon in 2008/2009 following the May 2008 devastation of Burma’s primary salt producing areas on the Irrawaddy Delta by Cyclone Nargis.

42 : For more on household incomes and the economy in Mon State, see Inset 4.

43 : The last Mon Kingdom of Hongsawatoi, which encompassed Burma’s southern peninsula, as well as significant other portions of Burma and Thailand, fell to the Burman King Alaungpaya in 1757. For more on the early history of the Mon people, see Ashley South, The Golden Sheldrake: Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma (New York: Routledge, 2003).

44 : Increasing numbers of ethnic Burman workers and the families of SPDC soldiers moving to primarily ethnic Mon villages have led to some tensions. HURFOM interview subjects have complained about theft by the “new arrivals,” and reported fights between young Burman and Mon men. Villagers also complained that newly arrived ethnic Burmans are favored by authorities when conflicts arise, as well as given positions of authority in the local VPDC, militia or fire brigade. As a result, some villagers have cited Mon-Burman tensions as their reason for supporting continued insurgent activity by armed Mon groups. See, “Living Between Two Fires: villager opinions on armed insurgency,” The Mon Forum, HURFOM January 2009.

IV. Smoke and fire: militarization of the pipeline area

A. The pipeline, militarization and “self-reliance”

Construction of the Kanbauk-Myaing Kalay pipeline is inextricably linked to militarization of the pipeline route, which saw an increase of more than 20 new battalions assigned to the area beginning at approximately the time construction began. By 2003, a newly formed Military Operations Management Command (MOMC) No. 19, based in Ye Town, commanded 10 battalions tasked with guarding the pipeline, with an additional 11 new battalions and a total of more than 32 in areas along the pipeline. The influx of new battalions is highlighted in Maps 2 and 3, which contrast the number of battalions in the pipeline area before and after construction.

Military interests in the area partially explain the concentration of army battalions along the pipeline. Following a 1995 ceasefire between the SPDC and the New Mon State Party (NMSP), the largest armed Mon political group, the party retained control of 12 “permanent ceasefire zones,” which it administers and uses as a base for Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) troops.⁴⁵ Though the ceasefire agreement included stipulations regarding how close to NMSP territory SPDC army battalions could base themselves and operate, SPDC troops have repeatedly moved close to and even inside ceasefire territory. ⁴⁶ NMSP sources have subsequently described the increased SPDC army presence in the area as designed to counter any potential MNLA resurgence. “They are trying to tie us up… The NMSP totally relies on the local people. When we go to a village, we have a chance to tax and also to set up communication and networks with the people. The Burmese authorities worry too much about that,” a MNLA major told HURFOM in February 2009. “Also, they would like to show clearly that there are more SPDC troops than in the MNLA. They do this so that the MNLA troops feel weaker in their minds [decreasing morale].”

Neither the continued presence of the MNLA nor the limited activity of other armed insurgent groups fully explain increased SPDC deployments along the pipeline. The strongest insurgent group on Burma’s southern peninsula is the KNLA, ⁴⁷ whose 4th Brigade operates only in the area near the southern end of the pipeline and is chiefly relegated to north and eastern Yebyu Township, although there are also small operations in eastern Thanbyuzayat bordering with Karen State. The area that would become the pipeline route was relatively bereft of Mon insurgent activity during the construction phases, meanwhile, until the formation of the MNLA splinter group initially known as the Hongswatoi Restoration Party (HRP) in 2001. ⁴⁸ But by the time the HRP began launching attacks the pipeline area was already largely occupied by the new SPDC battalions, making it unlikely that the HRP could have motivated the deployments. Today, no Mon insurgent group can field more than 40 men.

The best proof that the increased deployments are related to the pipeline project is, however, the simple fact that the new SPDC army battalions have been intimately involved in preparation of the pipeline’s route, its construction and subsequent security and maintenance. Many battalions are headquartered along or near the pipeline, in places far from the operating areas of active insurgents. This report will repeatedly document the involvement of these SPDC battalions in affairs related to the construction, maintenance and security of the pipeline, including specific mention of more than 10 battalions in testimony and incidents described below. Abuses were not limited to these battalions, however, and the others shown in Map 3 have also been responsible for pipeline security – and human rights abuses.

Confidential internal order documents obtained by HURFOM also provide irrefutable proof of the relationship between SPDC army battalions and the Kanbauk-Myaing Kalay pipeline. HURFOM has on file 7 documents specifically mentioning 6 battalions and their security duties relating to the pipeline, an example of which has been translated and included as Appendix 1. The document, distributed in March 2001 to at least 4 SPDC battalions⁴⁹ in northern Ye and Thanbyuzayat Townships, lists its explicit goal as the successful construction of the pipeline. The document then goes on to detail each stage of the construction project, as well as outline areas to be secured by each battalion.

Though Mon and Karen insurgent activity on the southern peninsula would certainly have lead to a maintained and even increased deployment of SPDC army battalions over time, it is undeniable that a
significant portion of the battalions in Yebyu, Ye, Thanbyuzayat and Mudon Townships would not be
deployed in their current locations without the pipeline. The increased deployment of SPDC army battalions has, in turn, led to massive human rights abuses as the new battalions carry out the SPDC’s military self- reliance policy with rapacious fervor. The basing of new battalions from 1999 to 2003 alone resulted in the seizure of 6,000 acres of land, while the subsequent maintenance of barracks and army agricultural and economic projects has lead to the seizure of an additional 6,000 acres and countless instances of forced labor.Military self-reliance has also lead to capricious taxation of villagers, who are made to pay a variety of fees as well as see their possessions, equipment and agricultural products commandeered or simply stolen. Importantly, the simple fact that large numbers of troops now occupy the pipeline area has also meant that villagers have been subject to arbitrary and violent abuse, killing and rape.

45 : For more on the NMSP ceasefire, see Inset 3.

46 : Residents of the Tavoy resettlement sites in NMSP Tavoy District, Tenasserim Division, for instance, report that SPDC troops frequently enter their villages. Nai Maung, 60, Kyonebai village, NMSP Tavoy District: In this January [2009], the Burmese troops arrived here two times already. But what they were looking for we cannot say. We are really afraid of them. Some of my neighbors told me there are some rebel supporters in the village. Because of them I think the soldiers want to observe the situation of the rebels. That is why they came to the village. If fighting happens in the village or near the village, we will have a big problem.

47 : For more on the KNLA, see Inset 3.

48 : For more on the HRP and other Mon insurgent groups, see Inset 3.

49 : Battalions listed in the confidential document translated in Appendix 1: IB 31, IB 62, LIB 106 and TB No. 4.

1. Land confiscation

The influx of SPDC army battalions into the pipeline area resulted in the confiscation of hundreds of acres of land as the army built bases and housing for soldiers and their families, and then commandeered agricultural projects to support them. In 2003, HURFOM released No Land to Farm, which extensively documented land seizures in Mon State, including those by newly arrived battalions. Over the course of 5 years from 1998-2002, at least 6,000 acres of paddies, plantations and homesteads were confiscated to make way for the bases and agricultural projects of pipeline battalions.⁵⁰ In the years since 2003, pipeline battalions have seized another 6,000 acres. Information on both these sets of seizures are included in Appendix 2.

Saw Eht Htoo, Sanpya village, Ye Township:
As I know, the MOMC No. 19 has already deployed 10 military battalions in Ye Township. They have already confiscated many acres of land. Now, they claim that they confiscated land for new artillery regiments again. Most land in this area is owned by our Karen villagers. My land and plantations cost about 4 million kyat. They took it without paying me one kyat. Many other plantations cost more than mine. Nobody received any compensation.

Though Burma’s rules regarding land rights lack clarity because law in the country is generally by decree, land confiscation is perversely, arguably legal. Burma’s 1974 Constitution, which was the default land law for both the SLORC and SPDC, classified the state as the “ultimate owner of all natural resources above and below the ground, above and beneath the waters and in the atmosphere, and also all lands.”⁵¹This was reiterated by SLORC directives in 1988 and 1990 clarifying its full control over paddy land as well as land for orchards, brick and salt production and other uses. ⁵² Chapter I of Burma’s new constitution, approved in a widely criticized referendum in May 2008, ⁵³ adopts virtually word for word language from the 1974 Constitution and maintains ultimate government control of land.

Nai Kao Talot, the Kundu and Arutaung village area, Ye Township:
From these confiscated plantations, the growers could produce many thousands pounds of latex and many hundreds of thousands of betel-nut and many thousands of durian fruits… Under the military dictatorship, there are no property rights. The civilians have no rights for the ownership of their lands. The government can confiscate land and properties whenever they want. Although [it is] heritage… land from their ancestors, they do not have the rights to own the land.

Land confiscation victims received no compensation or compensation at levels so low as to be akin to nothing at all. In a few other cases, villagers report being forced to sign “sale” agreements and accept “payment” so that the seizures had the veneer of legitimacy.

Replacement of seized land is difficult, and contingent on the unlikely chance that victims have sufficient capital – and can find land to purchase. For many, even purchasing land would do little to replace the loss. In most cases, this was because the army seized homes and properties passed down within families for generations. For many, the lost land also represented years of investment. A typical rubber plantation, for instance, requires 7 to 8 years of continuous investment in labor and inputs like fertilizer before the trees have matured enough to be harvested from and the project sees any return.

Nai Kyaw, 53, Phalein village, Ye Township:
My fruit plantations of about 3 acres of lands were seized by the local Burmese army based near my village. This is the reason I left my native village. I really feel painful, whenever I think about my land… I can still remember the day they… said that they are the soldiers from the battalion nearby and the reason they came to meet me is to let me know the land is no longer owned by me… Since then, I felt disappointed and hopeless at the same time. Finally, I discussed with my wife and decided to leave the village in order to find a new job for us to survive. Farmers with limited education and lifetimes of experience working in only a single sector found themselves struggling to find new work. Victims forced to become laborers had to enter a suddenly swollen labor market; a typical farm or plantation employs regular and seasonal laborers, who also found themselves without work following confiscation. After LIB No. 586, LIB No. 587 and LIB No. 588 confiscated over a thousand acres of land from 77 families in eastern Ye Township, for instance, an additional 100 permanent laborers and 200 seasonal laborers were left unemployed.

Ultimately, many were forced to go hungry, relocate their families or seek employment in neighboring
countries like Thailand.

Karen villager, 60, the Sanpya & Donphi village area, Ye Township:
I own two plots of land in the area. Now, the Burmese Army confiscated both plots. I have nothing to eat. My children cried when they heard that the army confiscate[ed] our land. We had no more food. Only my son, who is a monk, shared some food with our family.

Mehm Kon Chan, son of a land seizure victim, now working in Thailand:
When I was living in my village, I had no other job except working in my father’s rubber plantation. After my father’s rubber plantation was confiscated… the soldiers threatened us… [and] forced us to abandon our properties. Therefore, I communicated to my brother [the son of his uncle], who was working in Thailand, and as you see I had to flee the village to seek work in Thailand.

50 : HURFOM. No Land to Farm, 2003.

51 : Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma, COHRE Country Report November 2007.

52 : Nancy Hudson-Rodd and Myo Nyunt. “Control of Land and Life in Burma,” U Wisconsin-Madison Land Tenure Brief, April 2001.

53 : The government announced that the constitution was approved by an approval vote of 92.48% and 98.12% turnout of voters. This is a highly dubious claim, given that wide swathes of the Irrawaddy Delta region were at the time recovering from Cyclone Nargis, which had just killed over 130,000 people.

2. Forced labor

Villagers in rural eastern Burma are routinely required to work as unpaid forced laborers on development projects like roads and repairs to government buildings. This is true also in the context of the pipeline battalions, which have consistently demanded that villagers work on a variety of projects that range from building and maintaining barracks to working as porters carrying ammunition and supplies on army patrols.

During the initial period when new pipeline battalions began arriving, villagers were made to work as unpaid forced laborers providing materials and labor to aid the construction of new army barracks and headquarters. Villagers have described clearing land, cutting and hauling timber, digging bunkers, trenches and irrigation canals and constructing buildings and fences.

Villager, Kaloh village, Ye Township:
When we arrived to the new battalion site… we had to cut many young betelnut trees and gathered them to one place. The soldiers also sold the trees in the market to earn extra income for their battalions. Then we were instructed to clear the ground. We had to dig the roots of the betel-nut trees and fill the holes with dirt, and level the ground to construct the barracks. And one sergeant ordered us to dig trenches… I was forced to work there for five days without pay.

In the subsequent decade, villagers have been frequently ordered to help maintain the army living areas. As a result, villagers have had to provide quotas of materials like bamboo and gravel as well as work clearing brush and repairing bunkers and fencing. These types of projects are especially common following the rainy season, when villagers must repair damage done by the heavy monsoon rains.

Nai Soe, 40, Alaesakhan village, Yebyu Township:
I asked a Karen lady from the village why the Burmese Army gathered the men from this village… She said that the Burmese soldiers [from LIB No. 273] collected these villagers to build the battalion’s barracks and dikes.

One of the results of the SPDC’s military self-reliance policy is the seizure of thousands of acres of plantations and farmland. In the case of the pipeline battalions, over 12,000 acres of plantations and paddy fields have been seized since pipeline battalions began arriving in 1998.⁵⁴ Adding insult to injury, in many cases victims have been required to work as unpaid laborers tending to the very land taken from them by the army.

Nai Naing Oo, Ye Town, whose land was seized by LIB No. 586 in 2005:
They [LIB No. 586] don’t even think how people survive and instead, they seized the land that belonged to our villagers. Those confiscated lands are full of rubber plantations. After they seized it, they are ready to make money from the confiscated lands because [all the work] was done by our villagers’ sweat.

Nai Ein, Arutaung village, Ye Township:
Just last year, the rubber plantation… belonged to my family. This year, the rubber trees belong to Burmese soldiers and the battalion base. They took my land to fund the battalion. Then a Sergeant came to me and told me to help them. They forced me to collect [rubber] in the morning and give them all of it.

In other cases, villagers were granted permission to work on their former land under the condition that they shared a percentage of the raw products or paid local battalions high fees. Every year since confiscating over 300 acres of rubber plantations in northern Ye Township in the early 2000s, for instance, LIB No. 586 has permitted former plantations owners to work their land if they made high payments or shared a portion of their products. In some cases, local battalions claimed that they were only carrying out orders issued by the Southeast Command in Moulmein. In these cases, however, villagers noted that the fees they were paying exceeded those ordered by the higher authorities.

Nai Shwe Hlay, 45, Ye Township:
We signed the contract… we were told we have to pay 950 kyat for [permission to harvest rubber].When we read the contract, we [saw] what was said differed with the contract. In the contract it was 700 kyat. The army officers told us that the contract was prepared by Military Operation Management Command No. 19 in Ye.

Pipeline battalions IB No. 31, LIB No. 343 and LIB No. 586 also earn income by operating at least 4 brick factories in Ye Township. Built on confiscated land, villagers in areas around the factories are made to provide wood for firing the brick kilns. In February 2009, for instance, IB No. 31 ordered four villages in Khaw Zar Sub-township⁵⁵ to provide 130 kyin of firewood. ⁵⁶ Every household in the villages had to provide one laborer, who had to work for a week cutting and hauling the timber to the factories, as well as pay for the rental of trucks to transport it.

Nai Ong, 40, Yindein village, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township:
We have been experiencing these kinds of abuses since almost ten years ago. The abuses are not only one at a time. They come on top of one another, for instance like with this firewood quota. We have to collect firewood to fill the amount needed [by IB No. 31]. Then, we have to pay for transportation fees.

Underscoring the way that military self-reliance is really reliance on local villagers, residents are subsequently required to buy quotas of bricks from the army factory, bricks that are priced above the market though they are of below market quality.

Though not part of military self-reliance, civilians are frequently conscripted as porters in areas where SPDC army battalions conduct patrols or offensives against armed insurgents. In spite of the high level of expenditures spent on the SPDC army, it is relatively low-tech and, particularly in the relatively rugged areas like Yebyu and southern Ye Township, relies heavily on foot patrols. This is a labor-intensive practice, and the SPDC army makes it possible by using civilian porters to carry ammunition and supplies. Civilian porters are also often made to walk in front of army columns, where they are the first to encounter landmines or ambushes, a practice dubbed “atrocity demining” by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).⁵⁷

Nai Chain, Yebyu Township:
LIB No. 282 always used the porters as human-shields. The soldiers made the porters walk in front of the military column to trigger the mines. When fighting happened between the rebels and the Army, porters were used as human shields for the Burmese troops… The soldiers threatened us that if we refused to [willingly help] we would be killed… Sometimes, when the porters were not able to walk or caused a delay, they were severely beaten.

Nai Lot, 65, Mihtawhlagyi village, Ye Township:
In one month, I was forced three to four times to be a porter… It was difficult, and we were beaten all the time. According to my age, I was getting old and I could only walk slowly. But the soldiers kicked me and I fell down on hard stones and was injured around my eyes [a scar on his face is still visible]. I also witnessed a villager from Kyauktalin, a 40-year-old man, who was unable to carry their big basket and who was shot dead in the middle of the road. Out of fear, I had to flee from them.

Pipeline battalions made frequent use of civilian porters on security patrols during the construction process, the practice of which is described below [Section V, B2]. Conscription of porters did not end with the conclusion of construction, and battalions along the southern third of the pipeline continue to conscript civilian porters as they attempt to eliminate Mon and Karen insurgents. This portering typically takes two forms, with villagers sometimes conscripted for short periods during patrols in specific areas and sometimes conscripted for a month or more during sustained offensives. In many village, battalions also demand monthly “porter fees” of 1,500 to 2000 kyat, which villagers ostensibly pay in lieu of being conscripted, though residents of villages that pay the fees have reported continued conscription as well. ⁵⁸

Nai Manoit, Asin village, Ye Township:
Since January 2008, when armed clashes happened between some Mon guerrilla soldiers and the Burma Army battalions, [the Burmese Army] have started forcing all of us to pay them this kind of monthly [porter] fee… But I don’t understand why they increased the amount of payment even though there are no more clashes between those groups in this area.

Nai Kyi Aye, 59, Kabyar village, Ye Township:
Before the pipeline started there were no troops in the village. Sometime the troops came but the troops could not catch villagers because villagers ran away before the military column arrived. If the military column could catch male villagers, they would take them as porters. The portering was for a long time. Villagers did not allow the military column to catch them easily.

In all cases, villagers are not compensated for their labor, though they are sometimes given the option of paying money to avoid working as unpaid laborers. For villagers who primarily survive as farmers and agricultural laborers, unpaid work for battalions is an exhausting addition to an already hard scrabble life. Making things worse, the army does not appear to have any sympathy for the scheduling demands of farming; workers are demanded at times when farmers have tasks that must be completed quickly, like harvesting orchard products before they become over ripe.

Nai Soe, 40, Alaesakhan village, Yebyu Township:
At this time, most farmers in the village are busy with their own jobs. Farmers have been harvesting their paddy and some are preparing their lands to grow [beans] and other crops. Now, most of them have to stop their farm work and instead build dikes for the battalion.

Nai Nyein, 32, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township:
I have a lot of my own work to do during these days. I am a betel nut farmer, and this month is very important for me to produce betel nuts. Most nuts are ripe and it is the time to pick them, but I am forced to work here [repairing the road for IB No. 31] and I don’t think my wife can finish all the work on the plantation alone.

Villagers working for local battalions find themselves subject to beatings and abuse from soldiers, and describe being treated like chattel rather than human beings. In a not-so-unusual example that illustrates the degree to which villagers are exploited, villagers in Tow Tet Ywa Thit, Ye Township, were forced to pay for the cost of bullets used by a soldier from LIB No. 343 who fired over their heads following their late arrival to a forced labor project. Villagers injured in the beatings or accidents that occur while they are working are not compensated, and subsequently find themselves permanently struggling to survive. This is particularly true of porters, who face high degrees of danger as they brave landmines and ambushes.

Nai Seik, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township:
Everyday, the Burmese Army that is based in the village forced 10 villagers to work… The villagers were always beaten by soldiers. They beat at least one every day. There were about 3-5 soldiers guarding when the villagers were working. They beat the villagers if they did not like them. A week ago, when our group was forced to work, three men… were inhumanely beaten until nearly dead because they took a while to rest. While you worked on the construction, even if you felt tired you should not look up to the soldiers. If they saw you, they would come and beat you with sticks or kicks with their jungle-boots.

Anonymous, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township
Because… [the military] often used forced labor, we can’t do our own job. We don’t want to live here. But we don’t dare to oppose them. We were wounded sometimes in the forced labor field. But we don’t get the payment.

54 : See Section IV, A1 and Appendix 2.

55 : Villages confirmed to have been ordered to provide firewood for IB No. 31: Singu, Yindein, Yinyae and Toe Tat Ywa Thit villages, Ye Township.

56 : A “kyin” is a Burmese measurement, referring to a 10-foot square of wood stacked 1 foot high.

57 : ICBL. “Burma/Myanmar,” Landmine Monitor Report, 2008.

58 : In February 2009, HURFOM confirmed monthly porter fees being levied by IB No. 61, IB No. 62 and LIB No. 299 in Tamoh Kraing, Hangan, Duya, Abaw, Asin, Kaloh, Chaung Taung, Koe Mile, Kyaun Ywa, Demin Seik and Zebyutaung villages in Ye Township. A reliable HURFOM source that travels throughout western Ye Township also reported that every village in the western half of Ye is required to make similar payments

3. Taxation, extortion and commandeering

Pipeline battalions augment income from projects like brick factories and seized rubber plantations by forcing villagers to make a variety of payments. The combination of general corruption, lack of oversight and the demands of military self-reliance means that villagers continue to be forced to make a variety of payments to support the army, as well as see their property and agricultural products routinely commandeered, seized or stolen. Because villagers rarely have the option of directly refusing demands made by soldiers, virtually every interaction with the army carries with it the specter of making a payment of some kind. Details of over 70 instances of taxation and commandeering by pipeline battalions are included in Appendix 3.

In many cases, these payments are explicitly for the support of pipeline battalions. Villagers in a confirmed four townships along the pipeline are made to pay monthly security fees, which go to local battalions.⁵⁹ For villagers not immediately proximate to battalions, payments and “donations” of food and agricultural products have to be made when patrols enter the area. This is particularly true of villagers in the southern third of the pipeline where the SPDC army continues to actively pursue Mon and Karen insurgents.

Nai Gyi, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township:
We normally pay about 2,000 kyat every month… But when the soldiers come, we have to give more money to our headman to pay for feeding them while they stay awhile in the village. ⁶⁰

Villagers all along the pipeline have also been required to provide quotas of agricultural products and building materials. Though the SPDC officially ended a policy of forced paddy procurement in 2003, villagers continue to report being required to sell paddy at below market prices, provide paddy “donations” or pay for the right not to. After the 2008 harvest season, for instance, 4 townships, including sections of Mudon and Ye Townships through which the pipeline passes, were required to provide some form of paddy support.⁶¹ “Every family who has a paddy field has to pay. The soldiers said if people do not want to provide paddy, they have to pay 3,000 kyat of money,” said a farmer from Taung Pyin village, Ye Township.

Soldiers also routinely commandeer or steal villagers’ property. In Ye Township, pipeline battalions require villagers to provide them with trucks and motorcycles to use for personal and army business. Villagers are not paid for the use of the vehicles, which often represents a loss of business for people whose investments in the machines are often predicated on income generated by their daily use. Villagers are also sometimes made to pay for petrol, and are often left with damaged machines and no compensation. Consequently, villagers are understandably reluctant to loan out their vehicles, and say that soldiers treat them carelessly and provide no compensation for damage. “I bought my bike not so long ago,” IMNA quoted a young man in Yebyu Township during January. “But now my bike is nearly broken, because of soldiers and the headman.” Another source quoted by IMNA described similar damage, for which he was never compensated – even after lodging a complaint. “If you are going to come and ask about your motorbike again,” the source quoted the officer’s response to one complaint, “I will introduce you to my gun.” ⁶²

Agricultural products and livestock are also frequently taken, especially in rural areas along the southern third of the pipeline. “Because of [LIB No.] 583 and [LIB No.] 591, my ox was stolen,” said a woman in Kyaun Ywa, in southern Ye Township. “When I went and met with the commander, he denied it and said it was not his troops. ‘You misplaced your ox,’ he said to me.” Another man in the same village recounted a similar experience: “I know for certain that a soldier from [LIB No.] 583 came and stole my hens. I saw with my eyes, but they deny it. Within two weeks, all 30 hens were gone.”

Nai Chain, 37, Yebyu Township:
They [soldiers from LIB No. 273 and LIB No. 282] looted belongings owned by villagers. I saw the soldiers go into villages like Byaw, Chabon and Maesantaung… The soldiers looted food, livestock like chickens, ducks, goats and even valuable belongings owned by local villagers. They were like robbers.

Villagers are also often made to pay for projects spearheaded by local battalions, whether they want them or not. Villagers report having to work as forced laborers and make payments to construct and repair roads, though these projects are sometimes necessitated more by the military’s desire for quick access to strategic areas than anything else. Villagers also report being made to pay for projects that never materialize, or were supposed to have received government funding. Villagers have also been required to pay for festivals and celebrations spearheaded by the army. In the second week of December 2008, for instance, 19 villages in Khaw Zar were required to purchase lottery tickets and help pay for a week of celebrations commemorating the IB No. 31’s 52nd anniversary. ⁶³

Nai Kyin Naing, 28, Doebaung village, Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township:
They collected at least 500 to 1,000 kyat [for the IB No. 31 anniversary celebrations]. Everything is by force. The other thing was they sold lottery tickets [mandatorily]. But I did not hear of anyone winning a prize in the lottery. For my family, I had to buy two tickets – one is for my parents and the other for my sister’s family.

Pipeline battalions extract income from local villagers in a variety of other ways that are less overtly explained as fundraising. Soldiers operate frequent road checkpoints, whose ostensible security functions are often belied by the fact that they sometimes appear to follow each other by just a few hundred yards. Entering Ye Town from the north along a road running parallel to the pipeline, for instance, requires passing through a total of 8 checkpoints, 2 of which are less than 600 yards apart. Exiting from the south of Ye Town requires passing through another 2 army checkpoints, separated by just 200 yards. Underscoring the economic rather than security motivation for the checkpoints, villagers returning from Thailand – villagers who are ostensibly flush with newly earned income – are targeted and made to pay extra at road checkpoints.

Maung Myint, Mudon Town, Mudon Township:
They [the military check point] know which vehicles are carrying travelers coming back from Thailand. And they always extort [extra money]… They don’t allow passengers to leave the gate if they are dissatisfied.⁶⁴

A Kyaw, 30, Hneepadaw village, Mudon Township:
They told me to register my bike for 10,000 kyat. Then, they took down information about the brand of my bike and license number and gave me a card granting me permission to use the road. Each time I pass this gate, I have to show this card… 150 to 200 farmers from just Hneepadaw village use this road, and most of them ride motorcycles. The soldiers will make a lot of money.

Residents of villages that have been placed under travel restriction are often made to purchase permission to leave their villages and travel to work their farms, conduct business or visit family. These restrictions – and subsequent payments – are a frequent occurrence in the southern third of the pipeline as well as a not unusual fact of life as far north as Mudon Township.⁶⁵ The restrictions create intense difficulties for farmers. Travel restrictions keep farmers from their farms, while curfews shorten workdays for owners of faraway farms and plantations, forcing them to hire extra laborers and leading to debt cycles. Rubber plantation workers face special difficulties, as they must tap trees at night before the heat of the day thins sap and it dissipates throughout each tree. “It is very difficult for us to work in that amount of time,” a rubber plantation worker told HURFOM after a nighttime curfew was enforced in Mudon and Thanbyuzayat Townships. “We just cannot finish our job.”

59 : 45 villages are confirmed to have been required to provide fees for the support of pipeline battalions:
Mudon Township:
Kalawthut, Kamawet, Seintaung, Doma, Kwankabwi, Settwe, Yaung Daung, Hneepadaw, Abit, and Kwanhla villages.
Thanbyuzayat Township:
Paungsein, Kyarkan, Wagaru, Waethunkyaung, Waeyet, Waekali, Waekami, Sakhangyi, Kaleinpadaw and Waewinkara villages.
Ye Township:
Baylamine, Lamine, Kaninkamaw, Mawkanin, Leinmawchan, Kundu, Sonnatha, Pophtaw, Chaung Taung,
Tumyaung, Balaingkee, Arutaung, Taungbon, Chaung Taung, Kaloh, Koe Mile and Hangan villages.
Yebyu Township:
Lort Taing, Lae Kyi, Kayuktalin, Natkyizin, Yapu and Kaleinaung villages.

60 : See, “New round of capricious taxation in southern Mon State,” IMNA October 29, 2008.

61 : Paung and Chaung Zone Townships, both north of the pipeline, were also required to provide paddy.

62 : “Authorities commandeering motorcycles in Yebyu Township,” IMNA January 22, 2009. A captain from LIB No. 587 with a motorbike commandeered in Ye Township

63 : Villages confirmed to have been required to pay for the IB No. 31 52nd anniversary celebration: Ko Mile, Man Aung, Kwan Hlaing, Singu, Toe Thet Ywa Thit, Theh Khon, Yin Ye, Yin Dein, Win Tamout, Ma Gyi, Than Ee Kyaw, Mi Tar Ka Gyi, Mi Tar Ka Ley, Kyone Kanya, Do Baung, Pok Htaw, Yin Dein Lamwat, Kabyar Gyi, Kabyar Ley villages in Khaw Zar Sub-township, Ye Township.

64 : See, “Troops extort money from passengers at check points,” IMNA Sep 4, 2008.

65 : In March 2009, residents of every village in Mudon and
Thanbyuzayat Townships were banned from leaving their homes after 9 pm following rumors of armed
insurgent activity in the area. See footnote 40.

B. The “Four Cuts” strategy and arbitrary violence

The Tatmadaw has been carrying out a scorched earth campaign in the country’s ethnic areas since shortly after independence. In the mid 1960s, this campaign took a more organized form and an official new name: Pya Ley Pya, or the “Four Cuts” strategy. The “four cuts” refer to food, funds, intelligence and recruits. In application, the strategy is an attempt to sever the connection between insurgents and their civilian supporters by systematically clearing rebel controlled, “black” areas by killing, threatening and forcibly relocating villagers. Such areas became free fire zones, with all remaing residents assumed to be rebels or rebel supporters. The strategy has proven effective, and over the last five decades has been a determining factor in weakening large and powerful armed-groups like the CPB and KNU/KNLA.⁶⁶

Though the Four Cuts strategy has since been officially discontinued, its shadow can clearly be seen lurking behind present-day SPDC conduct. This is particularly true in Yebyu and southern Ye Townships, where the SPDC army seeks to eradicate armed insurgents. There, villagers face routine surveillance and travel restrictions; villages are placed on nighttime or 24-hour curfews any time there are reports of insurgent activity. Households and entire villages also continue to be forcibly relocated. In November 2008, for instance, IB No. 107 forced over 60 households in Amae village, Yebyu Township to leave their homes after accusing the residents of supporting the Mon insurgent group lead by Nai Chan Dein.

Nai Chit Noy, Amae village, Yebyu Township.
One young man from the village asked the captain, ‘if you do this, where will we go to live?’… The captain replied, ‘you can go and live anywhere, but not in this area.’ After that, he grabbed the young man and hit him in the head with the butt of his rifle. Once the young man had fallen down, the captain hit the young man’s leg and it broke.

Villagers suspected of involvement with armed insurgents are also detained and interrogated. Soldiers use frequent violence as part of the interrogation process, and over the last 6 years, HURFOM has documented villagers being made to dig their own graves, bound and left in the sun, beaten, burned and subjected to “shin rolling” and electric shocks. Details on 39 instances of torture are recorded in Appendix 4. Soldiers also use violence to intimidate villagers into general compliance even if it provides no information, particularly following clashes with armed insurgents. Villagers have been arbitrarily beaten and had their homes and plantations burned down, while whole villages have been made to pay fines or be forcibly relocated. After a soldier was killed in a landmine blast in February 2008, for instance, troops from LIB No. 408 burned down all the betel and rubber plantations around Yindein village, Ye Township.

Anonymous woman, Toe Thet Ywa Thit village, Ye Township:
[A man from my village] was beaten on his back and legs with a bamboo pole. His face is covered with black welts from the torture he received. They [LIB No. 586] accused him of being a reporter for a Mon rebel group. They interrogated him and when they were dissatisfied with his answers, they beat him. We can hear him crying in pain, even from far away.

Civilians are also executed summarily, sometimes for being suspected rebel supporters or sometimes simply for working or traveling in a “black” area, dubbed to be under rebel control and, consequently, a free fire zone. Details on 29 killings are listed in Appendix 4. A few months after the forced relocation of Amae village, for instance, 3 people, including the former headmen, were executed by soldiers when they returned to their former village to retrieve abandoned property. ⁶⁷

Anonymous, Baraung village, Ye Township:
We found his body [the body of Nai Maw, 35] at Dikekrok… Since he was arrested, we heard that he was seriously beaten by the soldiers [from LIB No. 583 and LIB No. 591] as a consequence of selling some pork to the Nai Bin rebel group. Finally he was accused of being a supporter of the rebel group and beaten to death.

Colonel Nai Pan Nyunt, leader of the HRP/MRP:
Killing and arresting villagers with inhumane torture is a common habit of the Burmese army. It is cruel and inhumane to our people. They [the SPDC army] brought the headmen from Magyi and Mihtawhla villages [in Ye Township] and killed them. And they lied to the villagers that headmen were killed in the fighting with our HRP.

Village leaders are often particularly subject to abuse as they must deal with the SPDC army on behalf of their villages, a thankless task in which they are often punished for events over which they have no control. Compounding fears related to dealing with the SPDC army is the likelihood that villagers whose first language is Mon will be punished for misunderstandings or simply not speaking fluent Burmese. ⁶⁸As a result, in Yebyu and southern Ye Townships villagers are reluctant to serve in village leadership roles. This is a marked change from traditional village life, in which it is a great honor to occupy a village leadership position. “The village headman becomes the ‘porter’ for the army,” Nai Pae, from Magyi village, Ye Township, told HURFOM, drawing an analogy between the treatment of the headmen and the way the army frequently forces civilians to carry supplies. In April 2009, for instance, LIB No. 107 executed 2 village leaders in Paukpinkwin, Yebyu Township, for supporting Mon insurgents. Illustrating the way that villagers often find themselves caugh tbetween the twin fires of the SPDC army and insurgents, the executions came less than 12 hours after Mon insurgents had executed two other village leaders for cooperating with the SPDC army. ⁶⁹

Nai Dit, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
I saw the army tie [two headmen from Paukpinkwin] to a coconut tree near a small hut on the farm. They questioned them for a while but I was too far away to hear what they said. Then they shot them dead. Afterwards Major Khin Mg Chin proclaimed loudly that they would weed out anyone from this area who supported any of the rebel groups… After the soldiers left the villagers gathered by the bodies, which were still tied to the tree. Everyone was distressed because four members of the VPDC had been killed in only twelve hours.

For villagers in Yebyu and southern Ye Townships, abuses like those described above are an inevitable, deliberate part of the SPDC army’s strategy for countering Mon and Karen insurgents; some abuses would in all likelihood occur without the pipeline. But the pipeline fundamentally raises the stakes, increasing the strategic importance of securing the area.

Unrelated to the Tatmadaw’s continuation of the Four Cuts strategy in Yebyu and Southern Ye Townships, however, is the reality that the basic presence of the SPDC army carries with it violence and abuse. In areas all along the pipeline route, villagers have reported beatings, arbitrary killing and sexual violence by the SPDC army. No amount of even the most perverse rationalization can connect these abuses to counter-insurgency strategy. Instead, they are simply the product of the army’s virtual impunity and the lack of accountability with which soldiers interact with local residents. In this sense, it is a simple matter of degrees: the more soldiers posted in an area, the more villagers are likely to suffer from arbitrary, violent abuse.

As a result, villagers have reported beatings and even killings for seemingly minor offences or because
soldiers have been drinking alcohol. In a typical example from April 2009, for instance, an officer from LIB No. 299 in Koe Mile village, Ye Township, severely beat the driver of a motorbike for driving through a puddle and splashing his wife. A second man on the motorbike fled the scene, after which the officer went to his home carrying a bottle of gasoline and threatened to burn the house to the ground unless the man came out of hiding and apologized. When the man came to make an apology, the officer beat him as well. ⁷⁰

Nai Win, 37, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
In 2002, three villagers were killed by soldiers from LIB No. 273 without reason… Nai Ha Rai was killed when he came home from the plantation, but a little bit late [after a curfew]. The soldier… shot him because the soldier was drunk. As for Nai Jews, he was in the VCD [Video Compact Disc] store. When he opened the door of the VCD store, the door hit the soldier. He prayed to the soldier to forgive him because he did not see him. But the soldier did not listen to him and shot him in front of the VCD store.

Woman in areas around army battalions face increased risk of sexual harassment and rape. In 2005,
HURFOM’s Woman and Child Rights Project (WCRP) released a report documenting 37 cases of rape by SPDC army battalions in Mon State, including 20 incidents by pipeline battalions.between the twin fires of the SPDC army and insurgents, the executions came less than 12 hours after Mon insurgents had executed two other village leaders for cooperating with the SPDC army.⁷¹ Since 2004, HURFOM and WCRP have documented another 21 cases of rape by pipeline battalions not included in the 2005 report. These are detailed in Appendix 5. More than half of the incidents involved girls of ages 17 and younger, including one victim who was just 10 years old. Villagers reported women being taken as servants and made to cook, clean and massage officers before being raped. In other cases, women were raped while they worked on rubber plantations or their homes. In at least one case, an officer ordered the victim’s husband arrested on specious charges so that his wife would be home alone. In the majority of the cases, perpetrators were not punished, though some families were threatened after complaining. In cases where villagers made a complaint, higher authorities occasionally promised trials, although in only one case has HURFOM confirmed substantial punishment for a perpetrator.

Mi Aye Yi, Amae village, Yebyu Township, quoting the mother of a girl raped by soldiers from IB No. 107:
My daughter is only seventeen-years-old. She was raped by seven soldiers… Those soldiers are not human. They are like animals. They are the same evil, both the captain and his solders. My daughter nearly died, and now she has tried to kill herself many times.

66 : For more on the way the Four Cuts strategy affected the course of civil war in Burma, see Martin Smith, Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity (Zed Books Ltd: London, 1993). For analysis of the Four Cuts strategy in Mon State prior to the 1995 NMSP ceasefire, see Ashley South. The Golden Sheldrake: Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma (New York: Routledge, 2003).

67 : See, “Three villagers killed after they defy a forced relocation order in Tenasserim Division,” HURFOM January 16, 2009.

68 : For more on abuses suffered by Mon speakers who cannot understand Burmese, see Inset 5.

69 : For more on the April 2009 events in Paukpinkwin, village, see “Mon rebels and SPDC army execute four village leaders in span of 12 hours,” HURFOM, April 9, 2009. For more on the way villagers must carefully negotiate the competing demands of the SPDC army and insurgents, see “Living Between Two Fires,” HURFOM 2009.

70 : See, “Officer beats villagers for accidental splashing,” IMNA April 21, 2009.

71 : See, Catwalk to the Barracks: Conscription of women for sexual slavery and other practices of sexual violence by troops of the Burmese military regime in Mon areas, WCRP and HURFOM, July 2005.

V. Dirty work: building the pipeline

After the pipeline route was decided upon in 1998 and 1999, it had to becleared of homes, trees, farmland and other obstacles. First, this entailed the surveying and then seizing land through which the pipeline would pass. These land seizures, amounting to more than 2,400 acres, are documented in Section A and Appendix 6. Construction then began during 1999, when private companies including SMART and PEC⁷² cleared the route and dug trenches, using machine as well as human labor. With the pipeline route prepared, sections of pipeline were brought from Rangoon and welded together, then left for local residents to cover with soil. In the southern third of the pipeline, this included forced labor for construction as well as portering as villagers were made to carry supplies for soldiers tasked with providing security for the project. This is documented in Section B.

SPDC army battalions were involved in every stage of the construction process, conscripting laborers, patrolling the area and providing security for MOGE, SMART and PEC employees. Villagers report being forced to provide materials for soldiers, as well as work as forced laborers building army barracks and carrying materials as porters during army patrols. Further details on abuses of this nature, already discussed in Section IV A, are in the following Section B.

A. Preparing the pipeline route

1. Land confiscation, on the record

Before the pipe could be laid, SPDC army battalions, worried about security, required 50 feet on either side of the route to be cleared of everything that could aid or provide cover to potential saboteurs. Plantation owners were ordered to cut down their trees; farmers were made to abandon their paddies and gardens; villagers were made to abandon, move or, in a few cases, modify their homes. In 2002, a HURFOM researcher in Nainghlone village, Mudon Township, described seeing a house that resembled two long, narrow huts stacked on top of each other. The home belonged to family that lived halfway inside the 50-foot buffer zone, and they had simply cut what had once been a relatively large home in half.

Nainghlone village is the only village through the center of which the pipeline crosses, and its residents were made to clear just 10 feet on either side of the route. Along the rest of the route the larger 50-foot buffer remains in place. Affected villagers were given varying degrees of warning, with some receiving as much as 6 weeks to move and others receiving just 3 days. In either case, not only were villagers required to abandon homes and farms, but they were required to remove all traces of their one-time existence; villagers had to leave, and then they had to ensure that what they left behind was bereft of all trees, brush and homes.

According to confidential data obtained from the Myanmar Land Records Department [MLRD] in Mon State, over 2,440 acres of land were seized to make way for the pipeline in Ye, Thanbyuzayat, Mudon and Moulmein Townships. According to the MLRD, land seized for the pipeline can be roughly organized into four
categories:

A. Households and developed properties
B. Farm land, made up most of rice paddy fields
C. Plantations, made up mostly of rubber trees and orchards of betel nut, durian and other orchard products.
D. Wild lands.

Organized into these categories, the pipeline caused villagers in Mon State to lose a minimum of 130
household units, 1,190 acres of farmland, 1,065 acres of plantations and 185 acres of wild lands. For more details, see Appendix 6. Importantly, these are losses along only 2/3 of the pipeline; HURFOM could not obtain MLRD data for 60 miles of the pipeline route, including the section connecting Kanbauk to the edge of Ye Township in Mon State and from the edge of Moulmein Township to the end of the line at the factories in Myaing Kalay.

Nai Pai, 60, Kwanhla village, Mudon Township:
Three acres of paddy land out of 10 acres that I owned were destroyed forthe pipeline project. In reality, only 50 feet on both sides should be destroyed. I could use the rest apart from the 50 feet. But my land was split into two parts, so it became useless. And at that time, in Thanbyuzayat the commander of IB No. 32⁷³… told me to not use this three acres of land because it is a gas pipeline restricted area… At that time, the market price of the land was 200,000 kyat per acre. The total sum of my loss was about 600,000 kyat. I felt it was unfair, but I have to be quiet and I did not dare to say anything.

Nai Win, 37, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
During the pipeline building time, villagers had to work every day… and on farms and plantations near by the pipeline, soldiers did not allow people to work. In Paukpinkwin village there were six hundred households at that time. Around one hundred families lost their farmland and plantations.

2. The impacts of land confiscation and limited compensation

At the beginning of 2002, the MLRD records were used to provide limited compensation to some villagers in Thanbyuzayat, Kyaikmayaw, Mudon and Moulmein Townshipsbetween the twin fires of the SPDC army and insurgents, the executions came less than 12 hours after Mon insurgents had executed two other village leaders for cooperating with the SPDC army. ⁷⁴ who lost their land, though HURFOM could not confirm how many households received payment. It would hardly matter if every single person that lost property to the pipeline received compensation, however, for in every instance of compensation documented by HURFOM the amount provided was insufficient. Villagers reported being given pittances, amounts that reflected neither the market price of their land nor the fact that they lost not just land, but homes and agricultural investments sometimes generations in the making. In other cases, villages reported being ordered to sign forms saying they received compensation, and then left empty handed.

Villagers who received compensation described massive shortfalls between the compensation offered by the SPDC and their actual losses. On January 9th, 2002, for instance, Thanbyuzayat TPDC and VPDC authorities as well as officials from the Ministry of Energy held a ceremony to compensate 7 households who lost land to the pipeline route. The villagers were provided with 18,000 kyat per acre, though local sources said market prices valued the land at closer to 100,000 kyat, plus additional losses for houses and investment in crops and plantations. In a similar ceremony in Mudon Town during the same period, villagers were compensated even less. Farmers were provided with 2,000 kyat per acre of land. According to local sources, in 2002 paddy land in the area was worth between 150,000 and 200,000 kyat per acre, in some cases representing a 99% percent gap between the compensation and actual land value. In spite of this, farmers were still required to attend the ceremony. One reported that his “compensation” did not even cover the cost of travel between his home village and Mudon Town. ⁷⁵

Anonymous, Thanbyuzayat Township:
Nai Aung Shein’s family lost one acre of land and the whole of their house when the pipeline passed through into their garden. He had to destroy his house and moved into his relatives’ house in the same village, Waewinkara, and had to build a new house… He lost about 400,000 kyat for both land and house. He also lost another 100,000 kyat to build a new house by buying building materials…. But in the ceremony, he received only 18,000 kyat from the authorities for his one acre of lost lands… After receiving the money, the headmen of Waewinkara… took 5,000 kyat from Nai Aung Shein, at the end he received only 13,000 kyat. The village headmen also took a cut from the other families of 1,000 kyat to 3,000 kyat per family depending on the amount of money they received.

The result of the land confiscation for some was the loss of years of investment, as described in Section IV, A1; rubber trees take years of care before they are mature enough to sap, while orchard products like durian and cashews take even longer. For others, the losses represented homes and lands kept in the family for generations. In both cases, the shamefully small payments were insufficient to match the loss at market prices, let alone enable villagers to adequately replace their loss with new property and extended agricultural investment. In all the cases, even compensation at market prices would not change the fact that the land seizures and displacement were forced and against the will of local residents.

72 : Further details on the SMART and PEC companies could not be obtained by HURFOM, but they are mentioned in the confidential SPDC order document translated in Appendix 1

73 : Though IB No. 32 is normally based in Kyainnseikyi, Karen State, it came to Mon State temporarily to help with security for preparation and construction of the pipeline.

74 : Some residents in Ye Township were also provided compensation, but HURFOM could not confirm which villages or how much they received.

75 : For more on compensation paid to villagers who lost land to the pipeline, see “Kanbauk-Myaing Kalay Gas Pipeline and Negative Impacts to the Civilians,” The Mon Forum, HURFOM July 2002.

B. Laying pipe: forced labor during pipeline construction

1. Clearing the route and digging trenches

Villagers along the entire length of the pipeline were required to work clearing brush and hauling soil excavated by the private companies building the pipeline. The worst instances of forced labor occurred in the pipeline’s southern third section and southern Thanbyuzayat Township. Villagers were required to work as laborers, clearing brush and large trees, digging the pipeline trench and hauling soil. Orders issued by SPDC army battalions were relayed through village headmen, who organized rotating work parties. Each household in villages near the pipeline was required to provide one person to join village labor parties, which traveled to the pipeline site to work for spans of 3 days to as much as a month. In all cases, villagers received no compensation.

Nai Sain, 35, Sattaw village, Ye Township.
The villagers had to clean the place to put the gas pipeline and dig the ditch for burying the gas pipeline. The head of the village had to make groups of 7 or 8 villagers… [each group] was forced to work on the gas pipeline in turn. One group had to work one week. When the villagers went to work on the gas pipeline, they had to bring [tools] and food themselves… When the villagers worked on the gas pipeline, the soldiers from [LIB No.] 282 and [LIB No.] 273 guarded with guns.

Many villages in Mon State appear to be populated by children and their grandparents because large numbers of working age people are abroad earning in countries like Thailand. Households in such situations were not exempted from demands for forced labor, however, and had the option of either paying fees to hire a replacement or sending children or an elder.

Ma Shew Lion, 35, Mintha village, Yebyu Township:
When the pipeline project started we had to work as unpaid workers one week per month… for nearly 3 months. We had to bring food by ourselves. If someone could not go to work, they have to find a replacement. We have to hire someone. The price was so expensive – it cost 3,000 kyat [for one day]. That is why many women and children were involved as workers on the pipeline.

For many families, “replacement” fees of 3,000 to 8,000 kyat were simply too high a percentage of household income to be afforded. ⁷⁶ With SPDC army battalions making virtually no delineations based upon age or gender, large numbers of men and women as young as 12 and as old as 70 were made to work.

Mi Nue Yin, 62, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
Each household had to provide one person to work on the gas pipeline. The head of the village made a group for the forced labor. The groups worked 5 days per turn. Men and women, anyone who was over 12 years old, all worked clearing the place for the pipeline and digging the ditch. Though the companies contracted to build the pipeline used earth moving equipment to dig the pipeline trench in Mon State’s northern townships, villagers in the southern third of the pipeline were required to do much of the labor by hand, clearing brush, timber and root systems, digging trenches and hauling excavated soil. Backbreaking work at the best of times, villagers were made to undertake the tasks with only what tools they could provide, sometimes miles from their home villages and without provisions for shelter, food or health care.

Ah Hein, 27, Sinswe village, Yebyu Township:
While working on the pipeline… the whole village, people of ages between 17 and 70, both male and female, had to go there and had to bring food and materials from their homes. Villagers had to clear forest and dig the ditch for the pipeline. When villagers worked for the pipeline, the soldiers guarded them and did not allow them to take a rest. When villagers rested, soldiers shot over their head and sometimes kicked them too.

Villagers working on sections of the pipeline far from their villages faced added difficulties as they struggled both to complete the labor projects and provide themselves with food and shelter. Given little time to prepare living quarters, workers report having to sleep exposed and vulnerable to mosquitoes carrying malaria and dengue fever. Given that Burma is home to high levels of the world’s most virulent type of malaria, some of the exposed laborers consequently became infected. ⁷⁷ Sick workers were given no medical treatment or respite, accused of malingering and threatened or beaten.

Ah Hein, 27, Sinswe village, Yebyu Township:
Villagers had to live in the forest and cook there and sleep there without mosquito nets. Some villagers got malaria. When the villagers got sick soldiers did not allow them to take a rest.

Nai Kyi Aye, 59, Kabyar village, Ye Township.
During working time… there was no medical care and if villagers got sick, the soldiers also beat them. They accused them of being lazy and beat them. If there was no one to replace [the sick] person, soldiers did not allow [the sick person] to stop working. The villager had to work until a replacement person came.

Nai Thoung, 36, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
When the pipeline project started, villagers had to work to clear the forest and dig the ditch… They had no health care treatment and when they got sick the soldiers did not allow them to rest and ordered them to continue work. At that time, one man died because he was seriously sick with malaria.

2. Portering, commandeering and theft

Villagers did not only have to provide tools, materials, food and shelter for themselves as they worked as unpaid laborers: they had to provide for the soldiers securing the construction process as well. The soldiers, there to ensure the laborers worked as much as to secure the pipeline, demanded villagers provide supplies or simply took what they needed without permission or payment.

Nai Kyi Aye, 59, Kabyar village, Ye Township:
When the pipeline started more soldiers came to the village… Villagers not only had to work on the pipeline but they also had to… give food such as rice, vegetables, oil, onion, fish paste, salt and other things. Sometimes soldiers took alcohol from shops without paying. The headman had to collect money from villagers and give back to the shopkeepers. Sometimes commanders demanded money [and the] headman had to collect from villagers. Three women were also raped by soldiers.

Nai Sain, 35, Sattaw village, Ye Township:
They came with about 20 soldiers and changed the troops every 20 days. When they arrived at the village, villagers had to give chickens and sometime had to cook the food for [the soldiers]. Chickens and other animals raised near houses were grabbed forcefully by the soldiers. Additionally, when the IB came to the village, the villagers had to give money… for the cost of food. The headman of the village collected the money from the villagers, one household had to pay… each month 4 or 5 times.

Throughout the entire construction process – from surveying to completion – columns of SPDC army battalions conducted patrols in the area in attempts to locate and eliminate Mon and Karen insurgents in the southern third of the pipeline as well as around ethnic Karen villages in Thanbyuzayat. ⁷⁸ Consistent with SPDC army practice, villagers were required to carry ammunition and supplies. In many cases, portering for army battalions formed a part of pipeline labor rotations organized by village headmen. As a result, many villagers returned from work on the pipeline only to be immediately taken as porters for the army.

Nai Tun Thein, 33, Lae Kyi village, Yebyu Township:
When the pipeline started there were more soldier columns that came to village… The headman divided villagers into groups and he sent them towork in a rotation system… While waiting for their rotation, villagers had to work as porters because military columns had to guard the pipeline and they needed people to carry things. Villager had to work on both the pipeline and portering.

Nai Thoung, 36, Paukpinkwin, Yebyu Township:
During the time after the pipeline started some villagers had to work as porters. Villagers had to carry food and bullets [for the soldiers]… Soldiers also used villagers to go in front of the line when the place was dangerous or if they thought it was a landmine area. During the time the villagers worked on the pipeline project, one young woman was raped by soldiers. The victim is Mi Min, 14 years old.The presence of SPDC soldiers during the construction created special difficulties for women, who faced sexual harassment and increased risk of rape.

Ah Hein, 27, Sinswe village, Yebyu Township:
Rape cases also happened while villagers were working on the pipeline. While villagers stayed in the temporary camp, the soldiers came to a woman while she was sleeping. She screamed and the men [workers] came and stopped the soldiers. Then some of these men were tortured by the soldiers. The soldiers tied them to a tree and beat them.

Nai Soe Naing, 35, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
The soldiers at that time were from [LIB No.] 273 and [LIB No.] 282 under different commanders. They were very rude… During working time the soldiers were bad. If the old men could not work, they kicked them and where the young women were, they came to talk and sexually harass them. Also, three women were raped.Male villagers also faced abuse by soldiers, who acted with virtual impunity. HURFOM interview subjects described being beaten or threatened for little or no reason.

Nai Thoung, 36, Paukpinkwin, Yebyu Township:
Sometimes soldiers got drunk. During work time, if soldiers were disappointed with the villagers they just came and kicked the people without reason. Sometimes soldiers fired guns over our heads. Our villagers had to work on this project for three months without stop. There was no compensation for the people who had lost their plantations, farms and home gardens.

76 : For more on incomes in Mon State, see Inset 4.

77 : Burma is home to the highest number of malaria deaths in the Southeast Asia region. The area along Burma’s nearby eastern border, just 86 miles from the pipeline at its farthest point, is also home to some of Southeast Asia’s highest rates of plasmodium falciparum malaria infection. P. falciparum is the most serious of the four types of malaria and one of the world’s leading causes of death from a single infectious agent. For discussion of P. falciparum in general and in Burma specifically, see World Malaria Report 2008, Maru Aregawi et al, World Health Organization, 2009. For discussion of P. falciparum in eastern Burma, see “Prevalence of plasmodium falciparum in active conflict areas of eastern Burma: a summary of cross-sectional data,” Adam K. Richards et al., Conflict and Health 2007, 1:9.

78 : In Thanbyuzayat Township, the primarily ethnic Karen villages of Waekami and Sakhangyi received extra scrutiny because the SPDC assumed them to be supporters of the KNLA.

VI. Life on the line: maintaining and protecting the pipeline

A. Frequent explosions and accidents

Residents who live along the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline generally describe it as poorly constructed. Built by welding sections of approximately 30 foot pipeline, leaks, ruptures and explosions at the joints linking sections of the pipeline are common. “No one has the confidence to believe in the strength of the gas pipeline,” a villager told IMNA after a February 2009 rupture near Kamawet village, Mudon Township. “The joints in the pipeline have cracks in some places. It is very dangerous – it could explode near the village. Most of the explosions are not because of the rebels. They are just from the weak joints.” ⁷⁹

Pipeline leaks are often ignored, and villagers report watching gas escape from the pipeline in submerged sections for months, without repair. “The gas that exploded this time was the gas that was leaking since the rainy season,” a Kawdut resident told IMNA after a large rupture north of Lamine in March 2009. “Nobody repaired the pipe even though the rainy season finished. That’s why the pipe could not stay [intact] any longer. That’s why it exploded.” ⁸⁰

These slow leaks have resulted in at least 11 large ruptures, depicted on Map 4 and Inset 6. ⁸¹ Typically, these ruptures lead to thunderous rushes of escaping gas that villagers can hear for sometimes miles around. “We heard the sound of an explosion at 9 in the night,” said a woman from Lamine Town after a rupture in February 2009. “I thought it was a bomb explosion. After that, we heard a sound like thunder for about 1 hour.” ⁸² Villagers reported being afraid of the sound and unsure of its origin. After a 2002 explosion between Kwanhla and Yaung Daung villages in Mudon Township, residents fled to high ground thinking that a canal from the nearby Winphanon dam had burst. “The sound made fear for the villagers. It exploded… [and] made a big hole 3 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep in the ground below the pipeline,” described Nai Nyan Ong, 60, a villager from the area. “It made a big sound at that time. As it was the very first of the explosions, most of the villagers had never experienced anything like that. Most of the villagers who lived in that area ran away.”

In a development that perhaps best demonstrates the frequency with which the pipeline fails, seven years later villagers along some sections of the pipeline report that they are no longer surprised by the sound of pipeline explosions. “I heard a sound like thunder for about two hours… The explosion came again after it had already happened not even a full month ago,” said another woman from Lamine after the rupture in March 2009. “But we are not so afraid of it [anymore] because we hear leaks like that regularly.” ⁸³

That some villagers have grown accustomed to the sound of pipeline ruptures does not, however, mean that others do not live in fear of such failures. Villagers have good reason to fear the ruptures. Pipeline explosions in which the escaping gas ignited, sometimes burning surrounding homes and plantations, have occurred at least 14 times, depicted on Map 4 and Inset 6. Villagers along the pipeline have been incredibly lucky that only a few explosions have spread into wider fires, the worst of which burned no more than an acre of rubber plantation. ⁸⁴ The experience of villagers in Thaton Township, where the pipeline runs west from Myaing Kalay towards Rangoon, illustrates how the explosions can be much more damaging: on September 17, 2004, an explosion in Thamasaing village lead to fire that consumed 5 homes and a vehicle. “Houses belong[ing] to five families in the village were seriously burnt,” said an area villager. “The explosion threw [up a] huge fire which is higher than a tree and burnt five houses and a truck nearby.” No one was killed. Villagers received no compensation for their lost property.
⁸⁵

79 : “Pipeline leak prompts massive gas release in Mon State,” IMNA February 6th, 2009.

80 : “Gas pipeline bursts after leak neglected for months,” IMNA March 2nd, 2009.

81 : Based upon independent documentation by HURFOM. Additional leaks and explosions have also received coverage by IMNA and Kaowao News. In the most extreme example of the frequency with which the pipeline fails, large failures occurred 3 times in a span of less than three and a half months along the same section of pipeline near Lamine Sub-Township, Ye Township. For IMNA coverage neatly tracing the ruptures, see “Gas pipeline fails near Lamine,” IMNA December 3, 2008; “Gas pipeline bursts after leak neglected for months,” IMNA March 2, 2009; “Gas pipeline bursts, less than month from earlier blast,” IMNA, March 17, 2009.

82 : “Gas pipeline bursts after leak neglected for months,” IMNA March 2, 2009.

83 : “Gas pipeline bursts, less than month from earlier blast,” IMNA, March 17, 2009.

84 : In March 2007, a blast 7 miles north of Ye Town set a fire that burned approximately 150 trees on an acre of nearby rubber plantation. See, “Gas pipeline blast burns rubber plantation,” HURFOM, March 27, 2007.

85 : “No compensation for the houses burnt by gas explosion,” The Mon Forum, HURFOM September 2004.

B. Abuse following explosions and accidents

Even more dangerous than the actual escaping and igniting gas are the reactions of SPDC army battalions, who sometimes blame large explosions on sabotage by insurgent “terrorists.” ⁸⁶ In these situations, local residents suspected as insurgent sympathizers have been arrested, detained for long periods and tortured. Entire villages are also put under travel restrictions, and made to pay extra taxes and fees. “The villagers worry too much about the gas exploding again because they have had very bad experiences,” said Nai Nyan Ong, 60, from Kwanhla village in Mudon Township. “They worry very much about the next explosion. Including me, I also am very worried about that. Because wherever there is an explosion, the abuses occur.”

1. Arrests, detention, torture

Following one of the explosions, which SPDC officials blamed on an attack by armed insurgents, villagers suspected of aiding the attacks were detained, interrogated and, in some cases, tortured. In February 2006, an unknown group attacked the pipeline near Kwanhla village, Mudon Township.⁸⁷ The attack caused a large explosion and fire, which villagers reported to be taller than a large palm tree and visible from over 10 miles away. Immediately following the explosion, at least 100 people were arrested, questioned and released, including farmers with land adjacent to the area and bystanders who had simply come to watch the gas burn.

Over the next few weeks, a total of 10 people including officials in the Kwanhla VPDC were arrested and taken away for extended interrogation. ⁸⁸ Though none were ever charged, all were held until May. ⁸⁹HURFOM could not independently confirm details of their interrogation, but overwhelming evidence indicates detainees in such situations are generally tortured [See, Section IV, B or Appendix 4]. Kaowao news, however, reported in February that a source within the family of one of the arrested VPDC officials said that the official was tortured until he suffered brain damage. “The secretary of Kwanhla village, arrested for suspicion, was tortured by electric shocks,” said Kaowao’s family source. “Now he has lost his memory.” ⁹⁰ Even in the case of accidental ruptures rather than attacks, villagers have been threatened and abused. Following a leak in the same area near Kwanhla in September 2005, local VPDC leaders were threatened by the commander of AR No. 315, Major Thit Naing, who also had 6 soldiers publicly beaten for failing to maintain the pipeline. “The ugly military officer threatened to Yaung Daung village headman as, ‘your face is equal to my fist,’ that means he would like to [punch] the village headman because… the gas leaked out near his village,” another VPDC member present at a meeting called by Major Thit Naing told IMNA soon after.⁹¹

2. Travel restrictions and increased security

Residents are also placed under strict travel restrictions following ruptures and explosions. Villagers are sometimes prevented from traveling to areas near sites of explosions or leaks, ostensibly for safety because the gas is flammable. Belying the safety rationale, however, is the fact that villagers are also put on extra nighttime restrictions, and are unable to travel to farms or plantations at night.

After the blast in Kwanhla, Commander Soe Myint of LIB No. 209 informed VPDC headmen in 6 area villages along the pipeline that residents were not permitted to cross the pipeline and would be under a 6 pm to 6 am curfew. ⁹² “The Commander and village authorities declared that we must be punished [by a] beating… if they go close to the gas pipeline route [during the day time] and if anyone [goes close to the pipeline] at night time, they must be killed by shooting,” a HURFOM field reporter said in July 2006.

The restrictions caused intense difficulties for villagers, who needed to travel to farms and plantations. The nighttime restrictions caused problems for workers on rubber plantations and villagers with far-away farmland. The restriction on crossing the pipeline at any hour, meanwhile, created problems for all villagers who needed to travel to areas on the other side of the pipeline, including the substantial amount of farmland to the pipeline’s west.⁹³

Nai Ong Ngwe, 47, Kwanhla, Mudon Township:
I have seven acres of paddy field near Kwankabwi village. To get my farm, I have to cross the pipeline. So, early morning I have to ask permission to cross the pipeline via militiamen. It is not easy and sometimes I have to pay money to get the pass from them. As you know, the beginning of the rainy season is very important for our farmers to plant the paddy.

Importantly, while the increased restrictions in Kwanhla relaxed after two months, they are the norm for villages in the southern third of the pipeline. In these places, even livestock are in danger when they approach the pipeline.

Kyin Kyi, 57, Natkyizin village, Yebyu Township.
Sometimes the soldiers shot oxen, buffalos, goat and pigs that went around the pipeline. After the soldiers shot them, the animals were eaten by the soldiers.

Villagers have also reported living in climates of fear and confusion following explosions. Such fear is understandable given the way, for instance, SPDC authorities cast about desperately for suspects following the 2006 Kwanhla blast; at least one villager who had simply traveled to the site to view the fire was arrested and interrogated. “The villagers are frightened. Nobody dares to trade and travel like they used to,” said one villager a full month after the 2006 Kwanhla explosion. “Everywhere there is silence.”⁹⁴

Villages in the Kwanhla area were also made to provide increased numbers of residents to guard the pipeline, on top of the normal complement. Villagers had to build huts every 500 meters along the pipeline and provide an estimated 100 men from Kwanhla, Yaung Daung and Hneepadaw villages to stand 24-hour sentry duty. Three months after the fact, the increased requirements for sentry duty remained in place.

Nai Tone, affected village, Thanbyuzayat:
On February 7, 2006, IB No. 32 commanders ordered the village headmen from Kwanhla, Yaung Daung and Hneepadaw in the southern part of Mudon Township, to build one hut every 500 meters… along the pipeline route and instructed that 3 villagers needed to stay in one hut for 24 hours.

The SPDC has also mined sections of the southern third of the pipeline, where signs have been installed warning people “caution: landmines!” HURFOM could not independently verify whether mines are actually in place, and there is no evidence of any mine-related explosions to date. It would not be suprising, however, if mines have actually been laid. According to a 2008 report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), antipersonnel mines continue to be used by the SPDC; according to a 2004 report by the same group, Burma has one of the highest landmine casualty rates in the world.⁹⁵ Mining of the pipeline is also characteristic of a focus on security that, as the English proverb goes, “loses the forest for the trees;” mining the pipeline may deter sabotage, but it also drastically increases the chance of an explosion born of accident rather than attack.

3. Taxes and repairs

Following leaks and explosions, villagers have also been required to pay for and participate in repairs. Within a few weeks of the February 2006 blast in Kwanhla, at least four villages were forced to pay taxes by AR No. 315 and IB No. 62, who said that they were collecting funds to pay for damage caused by the blast.⁹⁶ Each household, regardless of income, was ordered to pay 10,000 kyat.

Nai Ngwe, Yaung Daungvillage, Mudon Township:
The soldiers said they were going to reinstall underground the parts of the gas pipeline which have been exposed by the explosion and they were collecting the money to meet the costs. They collected the same amount from each family… They collected 10,000 kyat from each household and as our village has nearly 500 houses, the Burmese troops received a lot of money from our villagers. I don’t think they will spend all these funds to repair the pipeline.

Then, in the third week of March, villagers in Kwanhla were again made to make payments related to the explosion. Officials from the Southeast Command in Moulmein traveled to the village and demanded money to reimburse MOGE for the value of gas lost in the fire. Households were made to pay between 50,000 and 100,000 kyat, depending on income. “The poorer villagers cannot afford to pay, they are borrowing the money to give to the authorities,” IMNA quoted a man from Kwanhla in a story on the issue in March.⁹⁷ Villagers have also been made to participate as forced laborers on repairs to sections of the pipeline where accidents or attacks have occurred.

86 : See, for instance, “Three KNU terrorists blow up gas pipeline,” New Light of Myanmar, May 2nd, 2002.

87 : The SPDC has alternately accused the KNLA, the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), the National Council of the Union of Burma and an individual NMSP member of launching the attack. Interestingly, prior to the explosion, the SPDC stepped up security and announced that a group of four Burmese men, two Karens and two Indian-Burmese men from Thailand were planning on attacking the pipeline in the area.

88 : Villagers arrested following the Kwanhla explosion included: Kwanhla VPDC chairman Nai Kon Seik and his wife Mi Pan; former VPDC chairman Nai Than Town; former NMSP medic Nai Tala Aie and his wife Mi Sajin; accountants in the Kwanhla VPDC office Nai Pai and Ma Win; villagers Nai Shwe, Nai Dort and Nai Win.

89 : All of the arrested villagers from Kwanhla were released after paying 1 million kyat and signing statements placing the blame for the explosion on NMSP member Nai Ong Janie, who had already fled the area after being accused of taking part in the attack.

90 : See, “Human rights abuses as result of gas pipeline explosion in Mon State,” Kaowao, February 8th, 2006.

91 : See, “Threats to Village Headmen for the Leak of Gas in Pipeline,” IMNA Sep 2, 2005.

92 : Villages confirmed to have been placed under travel restrictions following the 2006 Kwanhla explosion: Kwanhla Yaung Daung, Hneepadaw, Abit,Kalawthut and Phedaw villages, Mudon Township.

93 : For more on the consequences for farmers facing travel restrictions, see Section IV, A3.

94 : See, “Military targets villagers over gas pipeline explosion,” IMNA, March 10, 2006.

95 : ICBL. “Burma/Myanmar,” Landmine Monitor Report, 2008; ICBL. “Burma/Myanmar,” Landmine Monitor Report, 2004. Importantly, the ICBL also recognizes that armed insurgents including the KNU/KNLA, the “Karrenni Army,” the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, the Shan State Army-South and the MRP continue to use anti-personal mines in addition to government forces.

96 : Villages confirmed to have been required to pay pipeline repair taxes following the 2006 Kwanhla blast:
Hneepadaw, Kwanhla, Wagaru and Yaung Daung villages, Mudon Township.

97 : “Military demands money from villagers for gas lost in
pipeline explosion,” IMNA March 19, 2006.

C. Maintaining the pipeline

Daily life along the pipeline is punctuated by SPDC security efforts ostensibly related to preventing future attacks. Travel restrictions are common, with villagers prevented from crossing the pipeline – and hence accessing their farms and plantations – during certain times. Residents of nearly every single village along the pipeline are required to aid the security effort. Villagers are required to guard the pipeline or pay “pipeline security taxes” and fees for the maintenance of militia forces that guard the pipeline. Villagers are also required to work as regular forced laborers, clearing brush and building fences along the pipeline so that attacks are more difficult.

1. Pipeline security duty

In the years since construction of the pipeline was completed, HURFOM has documented villagers being required to guard sections of the pipeline in villages near the pipeline in 4 townships through which the pipeline passes. ⁹⁸ Interestingly, villagers have not been required to guard the pipeline every day since 2000, but rather are ordered to guard the pipeline for various stretches of time as, for instance, 8 villages in Thanbyuzayat were required to do for 5 months beginning in December 2008, mirroring a similar 4 month stretch in 2007.⁹⁹ It is not clear why the pipeline security orders come and go, but local VPDC headmen are nonetheless consistently directed by SPDC battalions to provide daily complements of guards sufficient to monitor nearby sections of the pipeline. VPDC headmen subsequently organize guard duty rotations, and groups of villagers are sent to monitor the pipeline in 12 or 24-hour shifts. Every household in the affected village is required to provide someone to guard the pipeline, or pay a “tax” or “substitution fee” to avoid the guard duty.

Saw Nay, 45, Waekami village, Thanbyuzayat Township:
The Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Than Swe, 50, of Burmese Army IB No. 62 from Thanbyuzayat,
demanded we guard the pipeline. They set up a timeline [for patrolling periods] of at least the next five months, starting from this month. He [Lt. Col Than Swe] instructed our village headmen to send two villagers every day. Those who are absent have to pay 4,000 kyat.

Depending on the demands of the particular SPDC battalion, villagers are sometimes required to walk along the pipeline, sometimes required to stay stationary at designated locations. In many cases, villagers are also required to build and maintain small huts along the pipeline. In the area around Kwanhla, for instance, these huts are visible every 500 meters.

Nai Shein, 46, Sinswe, Yebyu Township:
After the gas pipeline finished, the villagers became guards for the gas pipeline. The villagers had to build two sentry huts themselves. Then, 4 villagers had to guard the gas pipeline security each day in turn… [If] the villager who had to guard the gas pipeline was found sleeping or not in the guard hut, they had to pay soldiers 2 to 3 viss of chickens.” ¹⁰⁰

Villagers have reported varying fees required for the right not to guard the pipeline. Differing by only a few thousand kyat, however, the fees are consistently too high for many villagers to afford. For these villagers, even a few hundred kyat is the difference between eating or not, let alone making provisions for medical care and education.

Nai Akya, 35, Waekali village, Thanbyuzayat Township:
My duty will come soon. I don’t want to pay 4,000 kyat. That amount of money is enough to feed my family for two days. So, I have to go and guard the pipeline… Normally every year we are forced to look after this gas pipeline for no pay. Last year in February, we [the entire village] were required by [AR] No. 318 to take responsibility for the security of the pipeline for four months.

Nai Min, Kaleinpadaw, Thanbyuzayat Township:
The households that could not go and guard [the pipeline]… need to hire a substitute to perform the duty. If you could not… the village headmen ordered you… [to] leave the village immediately… We are in a difficult situation… day-to-day seeking money and food even when there is no instruction for guarding to the pipeline. We, the poor families, faced a difficult situation, if we go and guard we could face food-shortage problems. We could not pay the fine, 2000 kyat per day because we could earn only 1000 kyat per day.

Families subsequently find themselves in a desperate situation: they must either pay money they cannot afford, or send a family member to work. For many, the latter option is hardly better, for it means losing time that needs to be spent tending to farms and plantations. As a result, villagers report women, children and elders guarding the pipeline in the stead of working age male family members. For their part, the SPDC army battalions do not appear to make any differentiation based upon age or gender.

Nai Zaw Tun, Hneepadaw village, Mudon Township:
They [the SPDC soldiers] did not specify men, women or children. They said they want everybody to take responsibility in guarding the gas pipeline.

Maung Min Aung, 13, Yaung Daung village, Mudon Township:
I have to patrol the gas pipeline and the railway route the whole night [from 6 pm to 6 am), because my parents are too busy with their paddy farm.

Nai San, 35, Sattaw village, Ye Township:
In the village, for one day two villagers had been to guard the gas pipeline for security… Not only women, but also children who are over 7 or 8 years of age have to guard the gas pipeline.

Villagers guarding the pipeline find their duty fraught with dangers. By design, they are often posted in remote locations far from their villages, and must stay there through the night armed with only what weapons they can provide themselves. Women pipeline sentries posted in such situations face special dangers, and HURFOM has confirmed that a female pipeline guard was raped in 2003.¹⁰¹ For all sentries, regardless of gender, the specter of an attack by armed insurgents is fearsome; if they oppose armed insurgents, they are likely to be killed or injured. If they succumb to fear and leave insurgents unmolested, they will be punished with equal ferocity by SPDC army battalions. Villagers also face the constant prospect of punishments by SPDC soldiers dissatisfied with their performance, even if no insurgent activity occurred.

Kyin Kyi, 57, Natkyizin village, Yebyu Township:
Villagers were sentries for the pipeline. In Natkyizin, there were some who had to guard the pipeline in the nighttime, some in the daytime… The villagers who had to guard the pipeline did not have guns; they just had a bow and arrows or slingshots to protect themselves… During the sentry time, they had to walk the whole night. If the sentry fell asleep, they had to be punished. For punishment villagers had to pay in chickens. Some had to give money and some were kicked and punched in their faces. In 2006, two sentry men were killed by a rebel army group. Those two sentry men had no [protection] from soldiers.

Nai Thoung, 36, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
While villagers took sentry duty if someone fell asleep and soldiers saw them, their punishment would be a punch in the face and kicks with army boots… If someone could not come for their sentry duty they had to be replaced with someone else, that is why some children and women were involved.

2. Pipeline security fees

Villagers are also required to make monthly “village security” and “pipeline security” payments. Alternately described as for the maintenance of local militia forces, SPDC battalions or general “security,” the taxes are levied by VPDC officials at the behest of local SPDC battalions. “We are not happy to collect your money, but we have to do this because of the order from the brigade,” a villager from Thanbyuzayat quoted his headman to HURFOM in December 2008. Households are typically required to make payments of 2,000 to 4,000 kyat.

Nai Win, 37, Paukpinkwin village, Yebyu Township:
Since the pipeline finished villagers have to pay for militia fees, soldiers food fees and security fees. For the militia it is 2,000 kyat per month and for the soldiers it is 1,500 kyat per month. For security fees it depends on what the military column demanded. If someone could not go and do sentry duty they had to… send their child.

In villages in Mon State, People’s Militia Forces (PMF) have been formed under the orders of local SPDC battalions.¹⁰² Volunteers are given basic training – and increased power and authority – by the SPDC army. In cases where volunteers are wanting, villagers are forced to join against their will. “The villagers had to draw lots for the people’s militia each a year,” Mi Nue Yin, 62, from Paukpinkwin in Yebyu Township told HURFOM. “Once a villager been chosen by drawing his lot, he had to be in the people’s militia for one year. If he did not want to join, he had to give 50,000 kyat for hiring a replacement.” In areas near the pipeline, PMF forces are sometimes responsible for organizing village sentries or guarding the pipeline themselves. Villagers, meanwhile, are required to provide for PMF forces in the same way they must provide for regular army soldiers as a part of the SPDC’s self reliance program.

Ma Shew Lion, 35, now a resident of an NMSP controlled area after fleeing Mintha, Yebyu Township:
After the pipeline finished another duty came… We had to the pay militia fee. In our village there are fifteen militiamen and we [each household] had to pay thirty baskets of paddy… If someone can’t give thirty baskets of rice a headman will detain them. Sometimes the headman put them in a prison cell. After we gave money or thirty baskets they allowed us go home.

Nai Sain, 35, Sattaw village, Ye Township
When the situation is bad [because there has been insurgent activity], the people’s militia comes to the village often. For each one time they came, the cost for their food was… about 5,000 kyat from each household. And the villagers had to give about 160 baskets of paddy for one year to the people’s militia.

As with the fees villagers are required to pay in other circumstances, the security taxes and PMF fees are sometimes too much for households to bear. “Now the value of many products from our farms is very low and we can earn only a low income. But the cost of the security fees is very high. Where can we get the money to pay the brigade?” Nai Kon Blai, a villager in Thanbyuzayat, asked a HURFOM reporter after villagers were made to guard the pipeline or pay pipeline security fees in December 2008. Another villager in the area, Nai Chan Blai, concurred: “If the costs continue like this, we will have to sell our farms and leave the village.”

Ma Shew Lion, 35, in NMSP controlled area after fleeing Mintha, Yebyu Township:
When our family was in the Mintha village we did not have enough food to eat. We worked so hard. We had to pay for soldier’s food and the militia’s fees. My husband was detained three times. We had no food to eat but we had to find food for soldiers. That is why we had to escape from Mintha village and live [in an area] under New Mon State Party control. This village is not very nice like our old village, but there is no torture and no taxes. All the food we get, we can eat.

3. Pipeline maintenance

The SPDC army also attempts to protect the pipeline by making attacks on the pipeline difficult. With this in mind, the majority of the pipeline is buried in ditches underground, covered with heaped earth aboveground or, in places like river crossings, surrounded by protective fencing. Ground on either side of the pipeline is also kept clear of brush, limiting cover for potential attacks, clearing lines of site for sentries and aiding the movement of patrols. Each year from June to October the monsoon season brings heavy rains to Mon State. The rains often carry away dirt and fencing, exposing sections of the pipeline. Following the rainy season – and often right before it, as a preemptive measure – villagers along the pipeline route are made to work as unpaid forced laborers reburying the pipeline and repairing fences.

Acting under orders from local SPDC battalions, VPDC headmen organize forced labor parties made up of workers from each household in villages in four townships.¹⁰³ Villagers are made to collect stones and dirt, transport it to the pipeline and bury exposed sections.

Nai Sain, 35, Sattaw village, Ye Township:
In the village, for one day two villagers had to guard the gas pipeline for security. The villagers had to build the guard hut themselves… After the raining season, as the land is wet, if the gas pipeline comes into view, the villagers have to re-cover it.

Natural topography makes burying the pipeline everywhere impossible. SPDC battalions appear to view sections of the pipeline that cross rivers and streams as particularly vulnerable, and villagers are forced to maintain fences around the pipeline made of bamboo, wood and sometimes concrete and brick. HURFOM field researchers in Thanbyuzayat Township, for instance, estimate that the pipeline is exposed in a total of 28 places, including 8 stream crossings. Villagers in at least 12 villages in Thanbyuzayat¹⁰⁴ have subsequently been required to work repairing fences by Military Training Center (MTC) No. 4, AR No. 315 and IB No. 62. On April 11th 2009, for instance, 200 villagers from 4 villages were required by AR No. 315 to bring tools and materials to rebuild fences in the area.¹⁰⁵ Earlier in March 2009, LIB No. 299 and LIB No. 343 required an unknown number of residents to make similar repairs near 2 more villages to the south. ¹⁰⁶ Though the projects typically only take a few days, materials like stones, timber and bamboo are not always available near repair sites and villagers must make extensive preparations collecting and transporting materials. As is common army practice, villagers were also given the option of paying fees to avoid working as unpaid forced laborers.

Anonymous, Thanbyuzayat Township:
[Villagers] were forced to cut many hundreds of bamboo… After the villagers carried their bamboo to the set places, again the army forced the villagers to fence the pipeline. When they made fences in each part of the pipeline, they used many hundreds of bamboo to complete the fence. In some place where the pipeline passes through on the stream, the villagers are forced to make fences even in the water.

In addition to being built with forced labor, the pipeline fences and earth heaped on raised sections of the pipeline also create problems for farmers by obstructing agricultural activities and causing flooding. Heaped earth, which covers the raised pipeline in almost all of Thanbyuzayat Township, acts like a dike and restricts the flow of water during the rainy season. Built along sections of the pipeline that cross streams or pass over topographic low spots, fences also obstruct the flow of water, encouraging streams to overflow their banks. In Kaleinpadaw village,Thanbyuzayat Township, the flooding was so severe that in 2006 a group of farmers organized the construction of a canal to drain the floodwater.

Nai Mangae, Kaleinpadaw village, Thanbyuzayat Township:
Soil in farms and paddy plants were destroyed by flood and wastes, which flow together with water. Many other farmers’ paddy plants were also destroyed and so they came together… to dig a water canal to bring the [extra] water away from their farms. The group of farmers [dug a] canal and they also hired some more laborers to dig together with them. One farmer said that each farmer had to spend about 40,000 kyat to hire laborers, to rent trucks to carry earth and for food. He also added, if they did not build that canal, they could not produce the paddy crops and their families could not survive.

Farmers with land divided by the pipeline are also prohibited from planting paddy or other agricultural
products within 50 feet of the pipeline. For farmers among those who more than 2,400 acres of land to the pipeline route, this sometimes means working a small section of land before undertaking the difficult task of moving equipment over the pipeline to work another small section. In situations where there are travel restrictions, this sometimes means traveling miles to cross at a designated crossing spot, and then returning on the other side of the pipeline to complete work just 100 feet from their starting point.

Anonymous, Kwanhla, Mudon Township:
Because of the gas pipeline route, my farm was divided in two parts. I have about 6 acres of land and about 4 acres are in the west of pipeline and the remaining are in the eastern part. [The pipeline creates] difficulties in ploughing the land before we can plant paddy plants… we often have to carry our equipment when we move from one space to another. These equipments are heavy.

Residents of villages along the entire length of the pipeline are also made to keep the route clear of brush, trees and undergrowth. The forced labor occurs at least twice a year, often at the start and finish of the rainy season. As is typical practice, villagers are required to bring their own tools, materials and food, are not compensated and must pay fines if they cannot or will not participate in the project.

Anonymous, Thangankyun, Ye Township:
The commander of LIB No. 586, Lt. Col. Ngwe Soe also forced all the villagers from Thangankyun village in the northern part of Ye Township for the whole day to complete clearing the bushes and small trees, which are in their village area… [The next day] LIB No. 586 forced the villagers from Kyonepaw village to clear the gas-pipeline route from 6 in the morning until 10 at nighttime… They found they could not complete [the project] and then [LIB No. 586] forced about 40 villagers from another three villages… to come and contribute labor in clearing the gas pipeline route from 8 pm in the evening of June 11 until 3 am on June 12. The conscription of forced labor was at nighttime. Why did the army force the villagers at nighttime? Because the next morning, a senior commander… [came to] check for the security of the pipeline.

Nai Htwee, Kwanhla, Mudon Township:
The militia force from Kwanhla village of Mudon Township forced 24 villagers from that village to clear the bushes, grasses and small forest from the area of their village to Paungsein village, which is about one mile… The villagers were forced for the whole day to clear these bushes and small trees. During this process, two militiamen from the village also guarded the villagers… Other villages in Mudon Township… were also forced to clear bushes and grasses along the pipeline route.

98 : 44 villages were confirmed to have been required to provide pipeline sentries:
Mudon Township:
Kwanhla, Hneepadaw, Yaung Daung, Kalawthut, Kawnkabwi, Doma, Settwe, Taungpa, Seintaung, Htaungkay and Abit villages.
Thanbyuzayat Township:
Waekami, Anin, Kyaungywa, Waewinkara, Sakhangyi, Taungout, Peinnedaw, Kaleinpadaw, Waeyet, Hnapyaw Daw and Waekada villages.
Ye Township:
Sattaw, Donphi, Hnin Sone, Arutaung, Kyaungywa, Kyonepaw, Balaingkee, Sonnatha, Kundu, Hnin Sone, Chaung Taung, Kaloh, Koe Mile, Hangan and Kaninkamaw villages.
Yebyu Township:
Sinswe, Lae Kyi, Lort Taing, Kyaut Kadin, Natkyizin, Yapu and Kaleinaung villages.

99 : Villages confirmed to have been required to provide pipeline sentries in December 2008: Waekami, Anin, Kyaungywa, Waewinkara, Sakhangyi, Taungout, Peinnedaw and Kaleinpadaw villages, Thanbyuzayat Township. Notably, 2008 marked the first time Anin villagers were required to provide pipeline sentries. Anin is farther from the pipeline than the other villages.

100 : A viss is a unit of measurement used in Burma, equivalent to 1.633 kilograms or 3.6 pounds.

101 : See, Appendix 5 and Catwalk to the Barracks, 2005. Catwalk to the Barracks documents the rape of a 17- year-old girl from Kyauktan Kyauk Tan village, Ye Township, who was raped by a sergeant from LIB No. 587 in
February 2003 as she returned from nighttime sentry duty along the pipeline.

102 : At least 10 PMF troops are confirmed to be required in the following villages:
Mudon: Hneepadaw, Yaung Daung, Kwanhla
Thanbyuzayat: Paungsein, Kyagun , Waekali, Waewinkara , Waeyet, Waekami and Sakhangyi villages.
Ye: Taungbon, Arutaung, Balaingkee, Sonnatha, Chaung Taung, Hangan, Kaloh and Koe Mile villages.
Yebyu: Lort Taing, Kyauktalin, Kyauk Kadin , Yapu, Kaleinaung, Paukpinkwin and Mintha villages.

103 : Villages confirmed to have been required to provide forced laborers for pipeline maintenance:
Mudon Township:
Kwanhla, Hneepadaw, Yaung Daung, Kalawthut, Kawnkabwi, Doma, Kamawet, Taungpa, Htaungkay and Abit villages.
Thanbyuzayat Township:
Waewinkara, Waekali, Kaleinpadaw, Sakhangyi, Peinnedaw, Sot Palaung, Gon Myint Taya, Waeyet, Waekami, Waethunkyaung, Thayagone, Hnapyaw Daw and Waekada villages.
Ye Township:
Koe Mile, Kaloh, Seingyi, Balaingkee, Sanpya, Paiwan, Thingankyun, Taungbon, Kyonepaw, Balaingkee,
Sinpyan, Thayargone, Sattaw, Lamine, Hnitkayin, Leinmawchan and Baylamine villages.
Yebyu Township:
Sinswe, Kyauktalin, Lort Taing, Lae Kyi and Chaught Gone villages.

104 : Villages in Thanbyuzayat Township confirmed to have been required to repair fences for MTC No. 4:
Waewinkara, Waekali, Kaleinpadaw, Sakhangyi, Peinnedaw, Sot Palaung, Gon Myint Taya , Waeyet, Waekami, Leinmawchan, Waethunkyaung and Baylamine.

105 : Villages confirmed to have been required to repair fences for AR No. 315:
Waewinkara, Sakhangyi, Peinnedaw and Waekami villages, Thanbyuzayat Township.

106 : Villages confirmed to have been required to repair fences for LIB No. 299 and LIB No. 343: Lemongyan and Baylamine villages, Thanbyuzayat Township.

VII. Conclusion

The Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline is responsible for human rights abuses that are systemic, shocking and ongoing. A minimum two-thirds of the 180-mile pipeline route runs through land seized from local villagers, who lost more than 2,440 acres of homes, farms and plantations. Few of these villagers were compensated, and none were compensated fairly. Construction of the pipeline hinged on the labor of villagers, who pipeline battalions forced to work clearing dense jungle, digging trenches and hauling equipment. This work was without pay, sometimes for weeks at a time. Already toiling in exceedingly difficult conditions, conscripted pipeline laborers were subject to mistreatment by the soldiers overseeing their work, which included violent beatings and rape, all while being exposed to the world’s most virulent form of malaria and denied medical treatment. Throughout the whole construction process, battalions providing security conscripted civilian porters, who were made to carry ammunition and supplies as well as walk in front of army columns so that they would be the first to suffer the pains of landmines and enemy ambushes.

The entire construction process of the pipeline was made possible by the SPDC army. This involvement, as well as confidential SPDC documents obtained by HURFOM and the consistent basing of battalions near the pipeline, leads to a clear conclusion: the threefold increase in battalions deployed to the area over the last decade is fundamentally due to the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline. A raft of human rights abuses has accompanied this militarization. In the initial years of the deployments, pipeline battalions seized over 6,000 acres of land to construct barracks, house soldiers’ families and contribute to military “self-reliance”. In the subsequent years, the army has seized another 6,000 acres [See, Appendix 2]. As with the land seizures to make way for the actual pipeline, villagers have not received fair compensation. Pipeline battalions have also forced local villagers to provide support, including levying taxes that border on extortion, demanding quotas of agricultural materials and commandeering or stealing livestock, agricultural products and personal possessions. Appendix 3 details 72 examples of this type. Separate from the data in Appendix 3, HURFOM has confirmed mandatory monthly payments for the support of pipeline battalions in 44 villages across 4 townships [See, Section IV, A3].

As a constant background to the exploitation born of the military’s self-reliance policy is the general impunity with which officers and soldiers abuse villagers. Testimony in this report describes beatings, murders and rape, particularly in the southern third of the pipeline and often for minor offences – or no offence at all. In the majority of cases, there were no repercussions for the perpetrators. Of the 62 instances of rape and sexual harassment detailed in Appendix 5, for instance, only 1 incident was followed by a confirmed, just punishment. Abuses of this sort, then, appear to be a matter of degree; the greater the concentration of soldiers and officers, the greater the number of abuses. In the pipeline area, both counts are high.

The abuses described above are the predictable result of deploying large numbers of soldiers and encouraging them to extract what they can from the countryside, without oversight. But abuses along the pipeline are also a deliberate, calculated part of the pipeline security effort. HURFOM has documented forced labor for maintenance of the pipeline itself in 45 villages in 4 Townships [See, Section VI, B3]. HURFOM has also documented forced labor for providing pipeline security guards in 44 villages in 4 Townships [See, Section VI, B1]. In all cases, not only do villagers receive no compensation for their efforts, they are made to pay if they wish to avoid conscription as unpaid forced laborers.

Along the southern third of the pipeline, these security efforts are augmented by an aggressive counter-insurgency. As with the antecedent Four Cuts strategy, battalions seeking to protect the pipeline from insurgents do so largely by targeting civilians. Villages are thus subject to frequent travel restrictions and curfews, and are constantly monitored for contact with insurgents. Villagers suspected of supporting insurgents are detained and interrogated, often tortured and sometimes killed. Appendix 4 details 68 examples of torture and killings by pipeline battalions, involving 632 victims.

Burma currently has two major overland gas pipeline projects. Abuses along the Yadana/ Yetagun pipeline have been widely reported. This report conclusively proves that abuses warranting similar attention occur every day along the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline. There has perhaps never been a more important time for recognition that, in SPDCcontrolled Burma, gas pipelines go hand in hand with human rights violations: in December, China signed a 30-year contract agreeing to purchase gas from Burma.¹⁰⁷At the end of March, the two countries agreed to transport that gas 1,200 miles across Burma, from the Bay of Bengal to southwestern China.¹⁰⁸Construction has not began but, given the scale of the project, the process risks violations on a scale that will dwarf everything experienced on Burma’s southern peninsula.

Download Appendices as PDF [ 6.67MB]

107 : The Irrawaddy. “China Signs Burmese Gas Deal for 30-year Supply,” December 26, 2008.

108 : The Irrawaddy. “China, Burma Sign Oil Pipeline Agreement,” March 27, 2009.