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SPDC begins campaigning for referendum “Yes” votes in Mon State

SPDC authorities are calling meetings to lobby for “Yes” votes in the upcoming constitutional referendum, said a Mon human rights worker in Mon state.

The authorities ordered village headmen in Hnee-Padaw, Yaung-Daung and Kwan-Hlar villages in Mudon township, Mon State to arrange the meeting. “They want us to vote ‘yes’ for them. If we do not, they say the political crisis in the country will go on another fifteen years,” a person at the meeting reported. Read more

Legal document a must for Burmese migrant workers

Banyol Kin, IMNA :

With the Thai Immigration Ministry imposing restrictions on migrant workers working in Thailand, the authorities are reissuing documents to workers who had missed updating it in previous years.

On March 21 many NGO’s who represent migrant workers came together and asked government officials to take cognizance of rights of migrant workers. Read more

New Thai Governor targeting Mon workers

Lawi Weng, HURFOM

In Samut Sakhon, Mon migrant workers report that the new governor of the province has issued a slew of restrictions on the cultural expression of Mon workers.

The restrictions include bans on traditional Mon dress or involvement in Mon national issues. “We don’t know what the new Thai governor’s policy toward Mon workers will be,” the chairman of the Mon Cultural Center (MCC), based on the Thai-Burma border, said in reference to the restrictions “But we feel that our way of life is being threatened.” Read more

IDPs on Thai-Burma border tricked into signing up for referendum IDs

Observers on the Thai-Burma border are suspicious of IDs being issued by the Burmese military regime to people in areas controlled by the New Mon State Party.

Officers of the regime are enticing people to sign up for the IDs by promising they can be used for travel inside Burma. The IDs say they are good for travel within Burma for the next two years, but clarify that the ID does not make its holder a citizen. Read more

Cholera Outbreak in Mon State

Lawi Weng, HURFOM

Sixty-one Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Mon ethnicity have contracted cholera in Ananbon village in eastern Burma, an area controlled by the New Mon State Party (NMSP).

According to an NMSP health program coordinator in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, 45 Mon persons were diagnosed with cholera this morning, while the other 16 contracted the virus over the past two days. Two cholera patients died last week in the village, according to a local resident. Read more

Two people shot, one fatally, in Ye Township, Mon State

Lawi Weng, HURFOM

YE TOWNSHIP: On March 2^nd, two people were shot by the Burmese army in Ye Township, Mon State, after being caught violating travel restrictions.

Fighting between the regime and Mon rebels is ongoing in Southern Ye, and the army recently announced that Toe-Thet-Ywa-Thit village, Yin-Ye and Yin-Dein villages are under martial law. The regime considers Southern Ye to be a “black area,” which means it is under rebel control, and the government reserves the right to arrest, detain and torture people as well as shoot on sight. Read more

Is it a crime by ethnics to observe their National Day?

By Joi Htaw

The 61^st anniversary National Day has been celebrated around the world where the Mon people are located. The National Day has been observed not only by Mon people in Mon State but also in western countries, UK, Canada, USA, Australia and by Mon migrant workers in Burma’s neighbouring countries.

The Mon National Day in Thailand was observed in four places in migrant communities and in Malaysia, South Korea and other places where Mon people reside. Most of the migrant workers in Samutsakorn, Thailand got the chance to celebrate National Day even though they do not have any security document.

Although Mon people commemorated the National Day and Mon national flag flew world wide, the villagers in Southern part of Ye Township, were prohibited to unfurl the national flag and was forced to play Burmese songs instead of the national song. Read more

Another Cut: the SPDC Campaign to Erase Mon Culture

I. Introduction:

Burma is home to over a hundred ethnic groups and subgroups. While the military government has, quite deliberately, refrained from conducting a thorough or accurate survey of the country’s ethnic make up, it identifies eight “major national ethnic races,” of which there are over one hundred recognized subgroups. Of these groups and subgroups, official census date estimates that nearly seventy percent of the population is ethnic Burman, though this number is thought to be exaggerated in an attempt to bolster the legitimacy of the Burman dominated State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regime.

Burman dominance was not, however, always the rule; for over a thousand years Mon kings ruled territory that encompassed much of the Southeast Asian mainland. Most of the population in Northern and Central Thailand was Mon until only six or seven hundred years ago, and the Mon remained heavily in the majority throughout central and southern Burma until the 1700s, when they finally lost their kingdom to the Burman king Alaungphaya in 1757. Read more

There will be no free and fair People Referendum

The Mon Forum

In order to officially endorse a new regime-drafted Constitution in Burma, the ruling military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), will soon arrange for a People’s Referendum. But until now, the people in Burma have not seen any copies of the draft constitution. They have are not being given the chance to read the Constitution and discuss it. Even if they had the time, the Burmese Army also does not allow people the freedom of expression to discuss on the issue. Read more

Regime continues its assault on the Mon Cultural Museum in Moulmein

Lawi Weng, HURFOM

The Burmese regime has modified statutes in front of the Mon Cultural Museum in Moulmein to hide their traditional Mon garb. The statues were originally painted to look as if they were wearing red and white Mon national dress but are now painted completely white.

The move comes after the regime changed the name from the “Mon Cultural Museum,” to the “Literature and Cultural Museum of the Burmese Cultural Ministry.” The museum exhibits Mon artifacts including traditional Mon dress, palm-leaf scripts, musical instruments Read more

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