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Villagers forced to be human minesweepers, suffer other abuses by Karen cease-fire group

Fri 20 Mar 2009,HURFOM/ IMNA
Residents of at least eight villages in Karen state are being forced to provide food for soldiers from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), as well work as porters, guides and human minesweepers.

Beginning in February, residents report that each village has been required to provide 20 baskets of rice and cooking materials to DKBA Battalions No. 901, 906, 907 and “special force.” Affected villages include Kyait Kwin, Maw Hto Ka Lay, Kawk Sign, Pine Ka Lar Don, Ason, Thaung Oot, Tawbawbo and Larm Pharn villages. Read more

Villagers forced to relocate, provide materials to pave way for road project

Tue 17 Mar 2009, Kon Hadae, IMNA

Villagers are being forced to provide construction materials and move their homes to facilitate a road expansion project in southern Mon State. At least four households have been required to relocate or partially dismantle their homes to make room for the road expansion, say local sources. Read more

Clash with Karen rebels wounds two after Burmese army forces civilians to stay at encampment

Tue 17 Mar 2009, Kan Hadae and Blai Mon, IMNA
One civilian was wounded in a clash with Karen rebels after the Burmese army forced passenger trucks to stay the night at their encampment. A Burmese soldier was also wounded in the fighting.

On March 15th, a column from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 357 ordered passenger trucks on the Three Pagodas Pass to Thanbyuzayat road to stop at their camp near Maezeli. Maezeli is a small outpost approximately 25 kilometers from Three Pagodas Pass, in Karen State on the Thai Burma Border.

Though vehicles using the 60 kilometer road are sometimes stopped a checkpoints if they attempt to pass late in the evening, one source who spoke with IMNA said his truck was stopped at an unusually early 3:45 pm.

“Even though [the Burmese soldiers] did not give us any reasons why they stopped the cars, in my opinion I think they tried to make us like hostages for their [safety]. They thought that, if passengers were with them the Karen soldiers would feel sorry and not fight them,” said the IMNA source.

“We were afraid of the soldiers, so we were going to sleep in Mae Sali. After we had taken a rest for about 15 minutes, the gun sounds came out. There were another 8 passenger trucks and many passengers with me. Just in my car, there were 60 passengers,” said a male passenger in the truck that arrived at 3:45.

A source at the New Mon State Party (NMSP) Tadein checkpoint, 15 kilometers away, differed slightly and said that the fighting occurred at 4:48 pm.

According to sources present for the clash, the fighting lasted about 10 minutes with the hundred-strong column from LIB No. 357 responsible for the preponderance of the small arms fire.

One passenger and a soldier were wounded, though unarmed civilians were unprotected and exposed during the firefight. The passenger was shot in the arm, the soldier in the leg; neither wound is serious.

“After the fighting, one soldier was injured. After the army doctor treated him, he came and treated me,” a source that spoke with the wounded man quoted to IMNA. “And then they gave me a supporting letter so that other soldiers would not find fault with me.” Without such a letter, a civilian bearing an obviously military-related injury would likely be presumed for an insurgent.

After the fighting and through the course of the evening, a total of 20 civilian vehicles arrived and were made to stay the night. Civilian sources report being terrified as they worried over the prospect of another KNLA attack.

“We had to sleep there. But I could not,” said the source whose truck was stopped at 3:45 pm. “I dared not to sleep all night because I was afraid the KNLA would come and shoot again.”

An officer in KNLA 6th Brigade, meanwhile, told IMNA that the clash was inadvertent. According to the officer, 5 soldiers from Battalion 16 of 6th Brigade arrived at Maezeli planning to levy a road tax on a group of what they thought were civilian vehicles. The soldiers were not aware of LIB No. 357’s presence, said the source, who could confirm which side initiated the clash. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union, which has been waging an armed insurgency against successive central Burmese governments since the country’s independence.

“Because of us one passenger is wounded,” said the KNLA source. “We are very sad for him – we did not know the Burmese soldiers would be there. We were fighting, but we did so unintentionally. If we knew soldiers and civilians were together, we would not have come.”

Army Battalion commits human rights violations

HURFOM: An army battalion has been committing human rights violations in all the villages in Khawzar Sub-township, forcing them to labor on a local road and stand sentry duty against rebel groups as well as demanding that villagers pay for rifles for the Peoples Militia Force (PMF). Villagers have also been forced to pay illegal taxes to military appointed headmen before and after they travel abroad to work. Read more

Bound, beaten body of human trafficker found after arrest by Thai border police

HURFOM/IMNA: The body of a 35-year-old Mon man was found Saturday after Thai Border Patrol Police arrested him on Friday as he attempted to traffic undocumented workers into Thailand. His neck was broken, his hands bound and his body bore the marks of a beating, say sources among the search party who found him. Read more

Six villages suffer actions by DKBA

HURFOM: In the second week of January the Democratic Karen Buddha Army (DKBA) committed a number of abuses in six different villages in Karen State. They demanded rice and bamboo some from villagers, forced some to works as porters, accused others of being members of the Karen National Union (KNU), demanded money, took property and used some villagers for protection from a KNU ambush. Read more

A woman’s life, displaced on the border

Grass leaves cover the small hut and the floor is laid with bamboo. The poles are only the thickness of a thin man’s wrist. The hut has three rooms and it was built as many months ago. In the bedroom there is one blanket and two pillows; in the kitchen there are two pots and four dishes. A woman named Mi Kyae is sleeping on the floor as two children play on the ground near her. Their situation is not so different from the situation of many displaced people and refugees on the Thai-Burma border.

The New Mon State Party (NMSP) has had a ceasefire with Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) government for around 13 years, but the villagers still suffer from war. Conflict is still happening in southern Mon State and Tanessarim Division because Mon and Karen rebels are active in the area. The SPDC calls the region a “black area,” and treats it as a free fire zone. Read more

Twenty eight migrant workers lied to by work permit agent

WCRP : Twenty eight Burmese illegal migrant workers in Mahachai, including twelve women and five children, were lied to by a work permit agent, 22 year old Min Than Htike from Warkyi village, Pound Township, Mon State to whom they paid 6800 Baht each for work permit cards which they did not receive. Read more

Army battalion threatens villagers by shooting

HURFOM :In the third week of February a battalion of the Burmese army shot their weapons in two villages, took some of the villagers’ property and forced thirty three people in another village to work for them as porters. Read more

Living on a one-way ticket: self-reliance in the Mon resettlement sites

I. Introduction

The primary armed group fighting in the name of Mon people agreed to a cease-fire in 1995. Though this ended armed hostilities between the group and Burma’s State Peace and Development (SPDC) government, human rights abuses committed against residents of Burma’s southern peninsula continue. This abuse, combined with a weak economic situation directly related to army abuses, has resulted in the movement of thousands of people whose homes are unsafe and/or economically untenable. Many of these people have, as one academic has said, “found their backs to Thailand” and have ended up in resettlement sites along the Thai-Burma border.
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