Like water poured in the sand: Southeastern Burma in a post-ceasefire world

May 26, 2010

Introduction:

On April 22^nd, 2010 the New Mon State Party publicly announced its final refusal of the State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC) Border Guard Force (BGF) proposal. The refusal was issued despite widespread reports that Southeast Command Major General Ye Myint had informed the party at an April 7^th meeting that such a move would lead to a return of the NMSP’s “pre-ceasefire relationship” with the SPDC[1]. Adobe Acrobat PDF Download report as PDF [184KB]

[1] “New Mon State Party announces final ‘government militia’ decision”, The Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA), April 24, 2010, http://monnews.org/p=258

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During the week of NMSP deliberations, held at party headquarters in NMSP-controlled territory in Tavoy District, Tenasserim Divison, tensions rose. SPDC battalions were cited amassing along the border of NMSP-controlled territories in Tavoy District and farther north, near Three Pagodas Pass. Sensing the threat of an impending battle, hundreds of residents living in NMSP territory in Tavoy District and southern Mon State fled their homes, finding refuge in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps along the Thailand-Burma border.

The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) would like to express its grave concern regarding the repercussions of the end of the NMSP’s 15 year-long ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government. While the agreement failed to halt many of the human rights abuses levied against the citizens of Mon State and NMSP-controlled areas, HURFOM’s evidence, collected since mid-April 2010, indicates that a total removal of the ceasefire, either in the immediate future or in the time period following the upcoming 2010 Burma elections, will prove disastrous to the region. Such a move potentially threatens southeastern Burma with massive population displacement, the overcrowding and impacted security of IDP camps located along the border, economic upheaval, and widespread human rights abuses; in essence, a return to, or even an exacerbation of, pre-ceasefire conditions.

Methodology:

Information for this report was gathered by HURFOM field reporters during April and May of this 2010. Reporters interviewed recent arrivals from Tavoy District, Southern Ye Township, and Three Pagodas Pass Township currently residing in the Halockhanee and Blehdonphite resettlement camps, located on the Thailand-Burma border; interviews were also collected from families still living in the above mentioned areas, and from individuals residing along the major routes from Tavoy District to Halockhanee IDP site. Interviews were also collected from volunteers and aid workers representing the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), and the Mon Relief and Development Committee (MRDC).

The report will be divided into 4 major sections: (I) A thorough background on Mon State’s pre- and post- ceasefire periods, and a description of the current mass influx of new arrivals into NMSP-controlled IDP sites; (II) a description of the sites, along with the needs and security concerns that accompanied the NMSP’s April 22^nd announcement and the resulting influx of IDPs into these camps; (III) coverage of the potential agricultural and economic impacts of the ceasefire’s breakdown; (IV) and finally a presentation of select personal accounts from residents of Mon resettlement sites along the Thailand-Burma border.

Editor’s Note:

As of this report’s publication in the final week of May 2010, the security situation in Mon State remains highly fluid; the number of IDPs taking refuge at the camps along the Thailand-Burma border varies by the day. HURFOM’s audience should note that evidence for this document was gathered during the weeks between April 18^th and May 10^th 2010, and is meant to give an overall understanding of the current state of affairs in Mon State and NMSP-controlled areas.

All names have been changed for security purposes

I. Background

Pre-ceasefire period:

From 1989 to 1994, the armed conflict between the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Burmese military government, the State Law and Restoration Council (SLORC), forced the multi-ethnic residents of southeastern Burma to flee from their homes and villages, and subjected the citizens of this area to a wide variety of human rights abuses.

According to data collected by HURFOM in the early 90s[2], SLORC soldiers often assaulted and beat villagers during attempts to extract information about the activities and locations of various insurgent groups in Mon State. Summary executions were also employed when villagers were not compliant with battalion demands or when individuals were suspected members of insurgent groups. Such abuses were particularly common in “black” or “free fire” zones, located predominately in what is now southern Mon State.

[2] From No Land to Farm, The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), 2003.

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Civilians were frequently conscripted to work, without payment, on projects like: the Ye-Tavoy railway, the Yadana gas pipeline to Thailand and various army barracks and buildings at battalion bases. During SLORC offensives or patrols, villagers were also conscripted as porters and made to carry munitions and other supplies. As a result, many villagers who lived in black areas from 1993 to 1994 fled to resettlement sites along the Thai-Burma border.

Southeastern Burma was also plagued with abuse and conflict generated by a number of armed groups. The Karen National Union (KNU), the Burma Communist Party (southern), as well as a collection of Mon insurgent groups who had splintered off from the NMSP, were a few of the key actors. In an effort to weaken the insurgent groups, SLORC employed the “Four Cuts” policy, a military stratagem that targeted civilian support to the NMSP and other anti-SLORC armed forces, typically by confiscating suspected economic and agricultural support bases; such strategies were extremely detrimental to the villagers who owned the farms and businesses seized by Burmese troops . During the finial years of the pre-ceasefire area, the SLORC also launched the “Self Reliance” policy which encouraged troops to extract resources from local communities, confiscate land and control areas to influence insurgent territories. The “Self Reliance” policy is still prevalent in certain areas of Mon State.

Post-ceasefire agreement period

On June 29^th 1995, the NMSP agreed to a ceasefire with SLORC, a move intended to end the widespread suffering incurred by human rights violations in the region. The party was granted the right to station its armed wing in 12 separate areas of Mon State and granted territories outside the state, in Thaton District in the north and Tavoy District in the south; land confiscation and forced labor were to end.

Despite the agreement, human rights abuses committed by Burmese soldiers in southeastern Burma continued. Per the demands of the ceasefire agreement, the NMSP decreased the number of its Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) troops in Tenasserim Division and several areas of southern Mon State. After the removal of MNLA troops, SLORC stationed battalions in southern Ye and Yebyu Township in Mon State, and Tavoy District in Tenasserim Division; human rights abuses committed by these battalions continues to be reported. According to the ceasefire agreement, forced labor is banned, however the SLORC (and currently the SPDC) government continued to conscript villagers. From 1995 to 1997, SLORC forcibly recruited thousands of villagers to build a railway from Ye to Tavoy District. The Burmese military’s ongoing “Self- Reliance” policy continues to result in the widespread seizure of property and lands.

Due to the constant conflict and political unrest throughout southern Burma, largely caused by the increasing militarization of southern Mon State and Tavoy District through the addition of 27 new battalions in the region, civilians in southeastern Burma and Mon State continue to flee persecution in their native village, often choosing to relocate to IDP camps in NMSP-controlled areas along the Thailand-Burma border. In August 2006, the Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) estimated that there were 70,000 IDPs living in NMSP-controlled areas and border camps; this figured has likely increased dramatically.

Current Period

Starting in early April 2010, HURFOM received several reports from the field reports that residents of NMSP-controlled areas in Tavoy District, specifically in the villages of Johaprao, Pananbein and Suvanabhum, had begun moving their families and possessions from the region in order to avoid a potential war between Burmese troops stationed in the region and the NMSP. According to reports, the mass relocations began in mid-April, when the NMSP was still in deliberations about its decision regarding the SPDC’s Border Guard Force offer.

On April 21^st of this year, HURFOM field reporters commenced interviewing groups of Tavoy District residents in NMSP-controlled areas. The reporters interviewed families still living in their native villages, individuals who had relocated to NMSP-controlled camps located on the major motorway stretching between Southern Mon State and Halockhanee IDP site, as well as individuals who had opted to flee with their families all the way to various resettlement sites on the Thailand-Burma border.

Many interviewees expressed uncertainty regarding the safest area for a potential relocation. A military telegram, tracked by the NMSP, further indicated that LIB No. 409, normally covering Mon State’s Kanbauk – Myainkalay gas pipeline’s security, sent 200 troops to the southern part of Dooplaya district, a northern border of NMSP-controlled area, and very close to Three Pagoda’s pass and Halockhanee resettlement site. Several Burmese military battalions – specifically Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) Nos. 282, 273, 591, 583 and Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 31- were documented relocating to various postions both north and south of Mon State, effectively ringing NMSP territory. The threat of attack from all sides has led many to question the wisdom of relocating to NMSP-controlled IDP sites.

Nai Gon, a 40 year-old resident of Johaprao village, located in NMSP-controlled area in Mon State’s Ye Township, agreed to an interview with HURFOM reporters in his village on the week of April 24^th. He explained his fears regarding relocation:

“You know, it’s very difficult to choose the destination, I mean choosing the safest places. We don’t know which places are safer. Also, a leader of our village suggested traveling to the far eastern border, to Halockhanee IDP site. This place now we currently live in cannot be called a ‘safe place’, because this location is very close to the Burmese battalions that are based in the Three Pagoda Pass [near Dooplaya District, where Burmese battalions are being stationed].”

Researchers learned that Tavoy District residents in possession of sufficient funds have opted to flee to presumably more secure cities in southern Mon State, such as Ye town. Mi Ah Jee, 37, a mother of three children reported to HURFOM from her home in Tavoy District, on April 18^th, 2010. :

One of my neighbors and her family members arranged to flee to her native village, in northern Ye township. Of course she has money to spend for transportation from this place to her destination. As for us, we are just preparing to run like others.

On May 10^th, 2010, a team of HURFOM reporters went to the Halockhanee, Kyaiksoimon and Blehdonphite resettlement sites on the Thailand-Burma border to gather updated numbers of arrivals and information about the newest Tavoy District additions to the camps. According to MRDC records as of the first of May, and comments from resettlement sites’ committee members, 600 families had reached the three sites in search of shelter.

A HURFOM field reporter cited in his documentation of a visit to the Bledonphite site in early May:

We found about 200 families who were originally from the areas located close to New Mon State Party (NMSP) headquarters [in Tavoy District]. Women, elderly persons, under-aged children were included [in the new arrival lists]. Residents who live in Chedike, a village located on the way [from Tavoy District] to Halockhanee IDP resettlement site are also packing up their belongings and leaving their homes, to avoid the military offensive that are going to occur in the area.

II. IDP Camps:

Many residents of IDP camps along the Thailand-Burma border have resided in these sites for over a decade. Between 1989-1990 Burmese troops attacked and overran Three Pagodas Pass, the hub of NMSP control along the Thailand-Burma border. According to figures from the Mon National Relief Committee [MNRC, re-named the Mon Relief and Development Committee (MRDC)]]in a year 2000 monthly report, over 12,000 civilians then fled to Thailand, and several Mon refugee camps were resultantly set up in Thailand’s Sangkhlaburi District of Kanchanaburi Province. Following the ceasefire agreement in 1995, many refugees opted not return to their native villages deeper in Mon State, and decided instead to take up temporary residence at the Halockhanee, Bee Ree and Tavoy resettlement sites. Over a decade later, at least 10,000 of these people continue to live at these three sites. These “resettlement sites” are in fact clusters of villages, and often resemble the native villages of their inhabitants, excepting for the fact that their population densities are higher and huts are clustered unusually close together.

According to the MRDC staff workers interviewed during April and May 2010 , the Halockhanee site, founded in 1994, includes Baleh-hanee, Kyaiksoimon, Balehdonphite, Hteewadoh, Kyaungkwee and Chedaik villages, although the area between and including Baleh-hanee and Kyaiksoimon villages is often referred to locally as Halockhanee. The Bee Ree site, founded in 1996, includes Johaprao, Pananbein, Suwanaphum and Burksurk villages. The Tavoy site, also founded in 1996, includes Meipzeip, Kronebaing, Jaodon, Wengnaike and Torlawi villages. According to MRDC figures from January 2009, these sites are home to 3,896 people, 3,265 and 2,226 people respectively. The official MRDC numbers are without question lower than the actual population and include only those who receive aid from the organization. Not reflected, then, are children under 5, “dispersed families” who reside in the camps for shorter spans of time, and new arrivals.

Nai Chan Kohn, an administrator at the Baleh-hanee site told HURFOM’s reporters during an interview in the third week of April 2010:

Most new arrival families are not registered by the MRDC [so they receive no support]. We receive new families from other places because of armed conflicts in the deep south of Mon State. When I go to Kyaitsoimon village, every month I find at least 3 or 4 new families building their huts.

IDP Camp Security

If the ceasefire agreement between NMSP and SPDC army does break down, the two groups will likely focus their energies on gaining and maintaining control of what are currently Mon and NMSP-controlled territories accorded to them in the 1995 ceasefire agreement. Most Mon resettlement sites are located in NMSP-controlled areas, and may become the sites of front-line offenses between the SPDC and the NMSP. Fearing such developments, most of the Mon, Karen and Tavoyan ethnic people who have been living in resettlement sites in Tavoy District have gradually fled to presumably safer sites – the Halockhanee, Blehdonphite and Kyaiksoimon resettlement sites – located near the Thailand-Burma border.

A former NMSP intelligence member, who specializes in monitoring the stratagems and movements of SPDC forces predicted for HURFOM’s field team during the 3^rd week of April that should a war between NMSP and SPDC forces take place, the Halockhanee, Blehdonphite, and Kyaiksoimon resettlement sites will prove to be anything but secure, both for their long-term residents or any new arrivals.

This source was particularly concerned about the camps’ proximities to Burmese military bases in Dooplaya District:

There is no guarantee for [the camps’] security. We passed a period of 15 years [since the ceasefire] but the military junta has created brigades and Infantry Battalions, in order to control these regions, at Three Pagodas Pass and Kyainnseikyi, which are not so far from this area [these resettlement camps]. Then, during the ceasefire period, these resettlement sites are the sites where the Burmese troops and their supporters come frequently. I mean that these places are not strange to them. If they fight with a lot of forces, there is no place to flee except to Thailand.

On the date of HURFOM’s reporters’ May 10^thinterview session at Halockhanee, the majority of the new arrivals were women and children. Many of these recent arrivals reported that their fathers and husbands had advised them to flee from Tavoy District in advance of themselves, ensuring that women and children could reach the camp before rainy season, when travel is difficult.

This strategy also allows farmers to care for and earn incomes from rubbers plantation and rice crops that would otherwise be abandoned during a flight to the Thailand-Burma border. While risky, this option is in fact really the only means by which families of new arrivals have any chance of making incomes. MRDC workers interviewed by HURFOM in April explained that the new arrivals from NMSP-controlled territory currently make up a mere 10% of the population already previously settled in IDP camps along the Thai-Burma border. Finding employment in the camps is nearly impossible.

The information by HURFOM’s field reporters during the April 27^th and 28^th interviews shows that most of the recent arrivals in the camp had been touched by pre-ceasefire abuses; previous experience had prompted many to make the moves into IDP camps along the Thailand-Burma border, despite the financial risks involved. Nai Tin, a 64 year-old Johaprao resident, who fled from the NMSP controlled area with the whole family since April 22, told HURFOM that pre-ceasefire trauma had influenced his family’s decision to flee:

The situation before the ceasefire was terrible. When the military entered a village, you had to prepare to run. You have to be involved in portering. You were inquired about the rebels. If you could not speak Burmese fluently, you would be bound and hit. If you were unlucky, you would be shot. A lot of my friends died in front of me in this way. We were afraid of the Burmese, and did not dare to face them. Now, the Mon and Burmese are having conflicts. Even the high-rank leaders of the NMSP are collecting their property and starting to move [from NMSP controlled territory in Tavoy District], so we have to do the same, because if we do not move, we are very stupid. We already know that this place […..camp] is not safe if there is a battle, but we have to play it by ear.

Current circumstances and needs of of Halockhanee and Blehdonphite resettlement sites

Since the arrival of the first wave of Tavoy District IDPs in April 2010, supplies at the Halockhanee and Blehdonphite have become increasingly strained. Shelter is limited – reporters learned from MRDC sources in April that the new arrivals are being housed in monasteries in the camps. Aid workers and residents of the camps alike report that without immediate reinforcements of food, water, and other necessary items, the camps will face an immediate supply crisis.

Said a volunteer from a private donor group, who asked to remain anonymous:

According to our research, the camps’ most urgent needs are: a basic water supply system and a drinking water supply system, a sanitation system, average daily food supplies for 600 people, huts or some kind of shelter, medicine, and clothes. We did a field study and this list of needs was made when we were arranging to help them [the new camp arrivals] as best we could.

Beyond the tangible necessities of food, water, and medicine, residents at the two camps are becoming increasingly concerned about long-term needs, should the new arrivals from Tavoy District opt to remain in Halockhanee or Blehdonphite for extended periods of time. Large numbers of the new arrivals are children under the age of 18, and the educational needs of this under aged population have yet to be addressed.

A male teacher from Blehdonphite resettlement village, shared his worries about the camps’ education systems:

We don’t know how deep the friction is and can’t predict when the war starts. One is sure, that children and ladies have to stay here till the situation calms down. I don’t want children to feel sad whenever there is a battle. Now, even though they have to flee from their homes, I want to provide them, as best I can, with educational support wherever they are. Now, I am teaching the children poems and literature in the compound of this monastery. I guess that most of them cannot attend the school when the schools start with the rainfall. I suggest that supporting materials [for teaching] are needed to create a chance to continue their education.

Many interviewees indicated that a deadly health crisis could quickly develop within the two camps without an immediate response to the two sites’ supply needs. Nai Bai who has lived in Halockhanee for over 10 years and was born in Paukpingwin, Yebyu Township, told HURFOM that he was concerned about the effects of malnutrition in the camp:

The basic foods, (I mean rice, cooking oil, salt, fish paste, etc;) shelters, and medicine are needed. Some groups of children lack food. They have no money to purchase food. It will be very bad if they are ill. If donors don’t want to make donations after the [potential] battle, these children and people will die of hunger and malnutrition. There are many examples of people dying while running from war, even if there is no war. We want to say nothing if there is a job to do. However, even the people who are already here do not have a certain job, so they could earn no money.

Economic Impacts of War

Flight from villagers’ native communities is proving to be financially problematic. Those who have resettled at IDP camps rarely find replacements for the jobs and the regular incomes they enjoy at home. Tavoy District residents who have fled with their families include farmers and investors in rubber and betel-nut plantations. To document the economic impacts of their flights from their communities, HURFOM field reporters met with both plantation owners who have fled, and those who have chosen to remain in their properties.

Many of those who have relocated to NMSP controlled resettlement sites in April and May 2010 are attempting to continue farming according to traditional methods, although some have had to resort to working on others’ plantations in order to earn a living. Many must supplement their incomes with food rations.

Mi Tin Sein, 47, a Meetzeap village resident from Tavoy District, and mother of 4 who currently lives in Blehdonphite, told HURFOM about here family’s struggle to maintain its livelihood:

“In the past in Meetzeap village, our paddy field would provide for 8 months. We farmed and harvested it ourselves and kept the rice seeds. We all did the work with a family spirit, and so we got everything done. When we realized we would have to flee, we immediately hid some rice. My husband is now going back for that rice, and if possible he will arrange to transport that rice here. If we leave the rice where it is hidden, we worry that if there’s a battle, the Burmese Army will destroy the rice once they find it. We had a similar experience before the ceasefire. in this new place, we can’t farm anything, and so we have to depend on the support of the Mon Relief and Development Committee for 10 – 15 years in the past. If we are to continue living here, the rice from the Mon Relief and Development Committee is essential for us.”

Nai Myo, 44, who has lived in Johabrao village for 9 years, but was born in Magyi, Southern Ye, told HURFOM that he felt as though his family’s rubber crop had been wasted during their flight from the village:

As you know, we Mon are people who are often in the plantation business. When even the NMSP President moved from our village, most of the villagers felt there was no security for them and so they fled here without taking care of their rubber and betel plants. There are many plantations, valued at 200-400 millions kyat at current prices. We arranged to sell the plantations when we heard about the instability, but we’re no longer able to, as the buyer too has been deterred. Although the plantations can still produce a lot of rubber, we feel that we’ve got nothing for all our effort over the years, because we had to flee as soon as we saw the Burmese soldiers coming. Our loss pales in comparison to some; for we had only two acres but Nai Tin Aye, from Johaprao, had 20. The most important thing for me is that I am still alive. I wish the fighting would end and that the situation would become stable, so that I could leave my family here and go back to work. If fighting breaks out, I will lose my plantation. The military is sure to seize it.

Some heads of household have continued their work to the extent possible, while sending their families to the Thailand-Burma border, and preparing to flee in the event of Burmese troops arriving at their villages. Most of the individuals left behind work at rubber plantations; in late April 2010, only 40 households had remained in Johaprao and Pananbein villages, in Tavoy district near NMSP headquarters.

Mi Ange, 28 years-old, a mother of two who lives in Phalan village and arrived at Blehdonphite on April 24^th told HURFOM’s reporter that her father and husband had both opted to stay behind:

My father and my husband remained in the village, but they always hear military movements while they are working. If the situation deteriorates they will flee and rejoin the family in order to avoid war. Or else we’ll all starve because there is nothing here.

Impacts on Local Businesses

As both sides prepare for war, the deteriorating relationship between the MNSP and SPDC has had a negative impact on the transportation industry and a knock-on effect on food and other business costs.

From late April until early of May car transportation and commodity exchange figures declined, causing hardship especially for those employed as drivers. According to Nai Ba Lai, 43, a driver based on the Thai-Burma border:

We drivers usually come together to make the Halockhanee-Phalan Road passable each year. We have to pay an annual tax to the NMSP. In the past, we could afford this tax and had enough left once the season when we could work had ended and the rains began. Now, although the road is not yet closed, passenger numbers are very low, since rumors of a coming war began even before the Songkran festival. There are more cars than passengers, and so, many cars are left idle. The situation is so bad, we now offer to take passengers on the short Sangkhlaburi to Halockhanee route, but even then we’re still waiting for passengers to hire us”.

Locals say that the current situation has had not only a direct impact on the transportation business, but also an indirect effect on the commodity market, which includes raw and high-value materials. The transportation problem particularly affects villagers living near the NMSP-controlled resettlement village of Blehdonphite who make their living producing charcoal and collecting broom sedge grasses.

Ma Than Nu, an ethinc Tavoyan woman who lives near Blehdonphite, told HURFOM that the costs of transportation have now overridden any financial gains she once would have made selling charcoal:

It is difficult for us because we produce charcoal and that is a seasonal business. Usually we transport it by hiring Ye-Phalan passenger cars. We earn enough money to feed ourselves after paying the costs of crossing the MNSP and DKBA checkpoints and meeting our labor and transport costs. There are one or two cars but they don’t work. If you want to go, you have to hire the whole car. But this fee is equal to what we would get from selling the charcoal, so it’s not economical for us. We don’t know when the war will come, so we don’t know how to plan for the future.

Land Seizure

Since the 1995 ceasefire agreement between between the Burmese military regime and the NMSP, the residents living in the Tavoy District villages of Johaprao, Pananbein, Nyisar, and Suvanaphum, near NMSP headquarters, have cultivated “long term plantations”, such as, rubber, fruits, betel nuts and traditional hub. About 15,000 Mon residents have lived in these villages since the 1995 ceasefire, thinking their labor-intensive crops safe thanks to the ceasefire’s anti-land seizure mandates. The looming end of the ceasefire agreement has made many Tavoy planters fear that their 15 year-long efforts at establishing themselves are wasted.

Nai Min Thein, a 52 year-old merchant, who lives in NMSP controlled area, predicted a grim image of plantation seizure to HURFOM’s reporters:

If it [a war] happens, they [the Burmese troops] will seize the plantations. They will build up brigades to produce rubber to fund themselves, or they will hire the people from upper Burma to work on the plantations. For example, you can see them seizing plantations in Ayutaung and Kaloh villages in Ye Township. There, they have no destroyed the rubber plantations which give them a daily income.

Indeed, the vast majority of the new IDPs are rubber tree cultivators who face leaving their valuable plantations at the mercy of the Burmese troops if they flee to safety. According to a 55 year old resident from Phalan village, in Ye township, there are more than 5,000 acres of rubber and 3,000 acres of betel nut in NMSP administrated area near the party’s [located near the Head Quarter zone]. Most plantations belong to the members of the NMSP, community leaders and ordinary villagers living in Johaprao, Pananbein, Phalan, Nyisar and Suvanaphum villages. A 34 year old NMSP private from Chedaik explained to HURFOM’s reporters that these rubber plantations are the main sources of many recent IDP’s incomes. Some households are able to earn between 7,000 and 10,000 kyat per day by selling their rubber products in Ye township. The loss of such funds has been devastating to many.

The plantation owners that HURFOM interviewed often became very emotional when discussing the potential loss of their crops; many told HURFOM’s field reporters that the loss of their crops felt as though all of their efforts to rebuild Mon State’s economy in the 15 years since the ceasefire had been wasted.

A 46 year old ethnic Mon woman from Phalan village in NMSP-controlled area, who told HURFOM that she and her husband had been forced to abandon their 8-acre rubber plantation, cried as she explained:

As a long plants cultivator, I am very disappointed because all of my efforts between 10 years gone like pouring water in the sand.

IV Personal Accounts from IDP Camp residents

The personal accounts within this report have been selected due to their representations of both the failure of the 1995 ceasefire to prevent human right abuses inside Mon state, and the losses and human rights violation that might plague the entirety of Southeastern Burma should the ceasefire ultimately be discarded. The three young women presented here are all from Kyauktalin village in Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division; all three have already had to settle at the Banaing resettlement site in Tavoy District, and were currently en route to Halockhanee resettlement site to find shelter for a second time, a common trait amongst many new arrivals to the site. Each of the three women were forced to flee their homes after being caught between Burmese government forces and rebel groups, a common problem during the pre-ceasefire period. Just as many of the recent Tavoy District IDP’s fear for themselves, their rubber plantations have been confiscated by government forces; as the TBBC and the MRDC have predicted for future refugees arriving at border camps, each of the three women interviewed here face extreme difficulties finding food and shelter on a daily basis.

Between April 18^th and April 22^ndthe HURFOM team collected testimonials from families and new arrivals who are originally from the Meip-zeip, Kronebaing, Torlawi Johaprao, Pananbein, Suvanaphum and Burksark resettlement villages in Tavoy District; these individuals were interviewed in Balehdonphite and Chedaik , villages located on the major motorway running from Tavoy District to the Halockhanee IDP site. At the time of these interviews, a total of 420 families were en route to Halockhanee.

Mi San Dar

On April 18 HURFOM’s field reporter met with a woman who, in January of this year, who fled from here home in Kyauktalin village , in Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division, and currently lives in Pananbein-Hakoh resettlement camp in the NMSP-controlled area of Tavoy District, on the Thailand-Burma border south of Halockhanee.

Mi San Dar has been accused of being a rebel armed group supporter, and told HURFOM’s reporters that she is wanted “dead or alive” by Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 282 , which has placed a price of 2 million kyat on her head, for giving aid, food, and shelter to the Mon National Defense Army rebel armed group on January 10^th of this year.

She reported that on January 28^th, a people’s militia force led by Nai Ha Lae, the chief of the people’s militia in Kyaukthalin village , and her village headman came to her house with the aim of interrogating and arresting her, but on a tip from a neighbor she left her home before the force arrived. Here neighbor had told her that on first week of January two Kyauk-kadin villagers were arrested and taken away by Nai Ha Lae, and that she was next.

According to Mi San Dar, she, her sister, and her daughter arrived in the Pananbein-Hakoh resettlement camp on that same day. She had nowhere to live and no food to eat. She went to the headman house in the resettlement camp and got some food; she and her family stayed in the headman’s home for a week. The next week, she was granted a place besides the headman’s home to build a hut.

“I have nothing from my home, even my clothes I did not have. The headman had to provide both food and things for household usage such as a pot, plates, and building materials to me,” she explained.

She informed HURFOM that while she was not physically injured, she lost all her belongings, her house, her plantation, and other household items. Her life in the resettlement camp is reportedly a “hand to mouth situation”, while when she lived in her native village she never needed to be concerned for food and money because her parents maintained stores of goods for use in her home and plantation. All of those stores were left behind in her village.

Mi San Dar informed HURFOM that daughter, who she brought with her to the camp, is in grade one in her native village, and recently won an award for being first in her class, three days before she and her mother fled their home. Now, the child is constantly asking her mother when she can return home and attend school.

Mi Sein Nu

Mi Sein Nu is Mi San Dar’s sister, who accompanied her sister on her flight from Kyaukthalin village, the one who was fled home because of the headman accuse as a rebel arm groups supporter. On January 11 she accompanied her sister San Dar in buying cooking materials for the MNDA; San Dar is her youngest sister.

She reported to HURFOM that after Mi San Dar fled home, she was worried and scared, because she had accompanied her sister in taking care of the MNDA. She therefore fled with her sister to Pananbein-Hakoh camp in Yebyu Township. She received word that her home and plantation had been seized by her village headman, and that none of her remaining family members are allowed on the property. Mi Sein Nu informed HURFOM that she had also left home “with plain hands.”

Since arriving in the Mon resettlement camp, she explained to HURFOM’s reporter that she has faced many difficulties, such as finding a place to live and finding food. When she first arrived at the camp in January, she cried every day because her life had changed so dramatically from her life in her village.

“As for now, my life is a hand to mouth situation. Sometimes other families have to provide me with food, in my life I never have faced anything like this before,” Mi Sein Nu explained.

Mi Ei Soe

Mi Ei Soe is a 22 year-old woman from Kyaukthalin village, also accused of being a rebel supporter after the MNDA spent the night on her plantation on January 10^th of this year, and asked her for food.

Before Nai Ha Lae, the leader of the region’s militia force came to arrest her, she fled from the village, after receiving a tip that other rebel supporters were being arrested. She informed HURFOM’s reporters that now that she has left home, she cannot go home again.

She explained that since she arrived in Pananbein-Hakoh resettlement camp, she has faced great difficulties finding food and a place to live. The village headman in the camp has had to provide her with food, a pot, materials for cooking and a place to live.

She complained to HURFOM’s reporter, “I don’t want to live here, I want to go back home, but I know it is not easy to go back there after left home. I miss home a lot. I have to think what is important between life and accommodation in the village.”

Conclusion

While the social and economic gains accorded to residents of southeastern Burma for the last 15 years might fall sadly short of those they were supposed to gain through the NMSP’s 1995 ceasefire agreement, a break in this agreement has the potential to send the region spiraling into a scene of widespread human rights violations and economic strife. Mass migration and resettlement is already disrupting long-established communities NMSP-controlled areas in Southern Ye Township and Tavoy District. IDP sites along the Thailand-Burma border are threatened internally from overcrowding and insufficient supplies, and externally from insecure locations and nearby SPDC military battalion bases. Economic and agricultural losses have left hundreds of new IDPs desperate to recapture their incomes for the year; land seizures threaten to undo 15 years of growth.

In light of interviews, statistics, and commentaries collected by HURFOM’s reporters between the months of April and May 2010, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland believes that immediate measures must be taken to prepare IDP sites situated on the Thailand-Burma border for an even greater influx of displaced individuals, should a break in the NMSP’s ceasefire agreement with the SPDC lead to war in the near or distant future. Increased funds from the TBBC and international donors are needed in order to gain increased supplies of food, water, medicine, and other necessary items. The sites’ proximities to Burmese military bases must be considered, and the sites’ security must be made a top priority of the NMSP within any military stratagem that it might plan.

Without a ceasefire agreement to protect the welfare of its citizens, Mon State and southeastern Burma are threatened with a return to the very problems that the NMSP sought to eliminate through the ceasefire agreement made over a decade ago; years of economic development and social change will be, in essence, as wasted as “water poured into the sand”.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under Monthly Report