Fugitives tell of Burma's jungle reign of terror
Source : The Observer (U.K),Sunday October 22, 2000
Idealistic young Britons have risked their freedom to campaign against Rangoon's repressive regime. Yesterday James Mawdsley flew home after his release from jail. Last month another former prisoner, Rachel Goldwyn , returned to the region to record the destruction of a persecuted hill tribe. This is her poignant account..
As I scrambled through the mud towards the refugee camp, the sounds and scents overwhelmed me. I could hear logs being chopped, children playing, pigs squealing, cockerels squawking, and could smell the woodsmoke and the wet jungle. Memories came flooding back and I found myself terribly anxious.
Would people remember me? Would they be happy to see me? But my welcome at the camp in Thailand, near the Burmese border, could not have been warmer. Many of the students I had taught English now had children. One was named after me, born while I was in jail. 'Gold Rachel' was delightful and, unlike most Karenni babies, didn't scream at the sight of a white face.
And then there were the new arrivals, with terrible tales of persecution and suffering. They had been living in the jungle for several years, having fled the relocation decreed in the Nineties by Burma's military dictatorship, one called 'Slorc' and now known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
Their individual stories formed a picture of genocide. In the jungle they had to move five or six times a year, and slept without a roof over them. Their hiding place was discovered when their fifth child had just been born. Samuel is a skinny, unusually tall Karenni. 'The placenta hadn't even come out yet. I was terribly worried about my wife, I carried her through the streams as I was afraid about her walking through the cold water. But when we got to the border I couldn't carry her as we had to walk in the stream a long way. Now she gets migraines all the time.' The family walked for three weeks. They had to evade not just troops but mines and had to rely for guidance either on hired guides or resistance army soldiers.
The Karenni are among the many persecuted ethnic minorities in Burma. Those that have no ceasefire agreement with the dictatorship have had their areas declared free-fire zones. Human rights abuses are rampant and hundreds of villagers victimised in an attempt to turn them against the resistance. The so-called 'Four Cuts' campaign tries to stop food, recruits, information and money reaching the resistance armies.
Forced relocation began in 1974 in Karen and Chin State. In 1996 the scale of relocations increased dramatically, with 25,000 people forced into 'relocation centres' within Karenni State: roughly one eighth of the Karenni people torn from their ancestral lands in 12 months.
Many areas of Karenni State, as well as other parts of Burma, have been cleared: 30,000 people used to live in an area approximately 100 miles by 30 miles in eastern Karenni, now it is completely depopulated. Escapees described to me the appalling conditions in relocation sites. There was no access to clean water, no land to cultivate, no materials for housing. Troops were everywhere.
The old villages were burnt down and the remains mined to stop people returning, animals were slaughtered, and those determined to stay in their homes were burnt alive. Torture, beating and arbitrary execution accompany the SPDC soldiers wherever they go.
When Paw Moo, now in her thirties, decided to go to a relocation camp, they had five days to vacate their own village four kilometres away. They had to do forced labour at the military base.
She said: 'About six months ago the soldiers called all the villagers together, and arrested all the men. They took some as forced porters and others to Loikaw - the capital of Karenni State. Some managed to escape, others were put in jail, about 20 men disappeared. My husband hid in the jungle, many men did. After they arrested the men, they called the women together and said "if we hear gun shots or that rebel groups are in the area, then we will kill you".' When she and her family made the treacherous journey to Thailand, many of the men were still in jail.
Sonny, from the same village as Paw Moo, confirms her story. 'The SPDC arrested 32 men and one woman because of fighting near the border. The resistance troops came near to our village, but they didn't come in or get food.'
As we sat in the early-morning mist, Mee Reh told me his painful story. He was a subsistence farmer relocated from a village called Wha Lo. 'In 1995 the SPDC burnt down our village. Some people were killed, we ran away.' The years of sleepless nights and desperate poverty were written on his face. His youngest child, now two but the still the size of a six-month-old baby, will never fully develop, physically or mentally.
They dodged troops, hiding in the jungle or in a cave. Often the sound of shooting kept them awake all night. They drank rice water and ate bamboo shoots. Because of malnutrition a child died. 'I became very depressed.'
Mee Reh's wife breastfeeds her underdeveloped child. His infant features sit uncomfortably on his baby-sized face. She describes the story of her cousin's family, also in hiding, camped on the riverbank. They were hit by a flash flood.
'All the children and Htoo La Paw were washed away, but two children were thrown to safety on the land. Htoo La Paw was badly injured. Later they found the elder girl under a log, her feet were sticking out from the freshly deposited sand and mud. They dug out her body, her head was crushed. The youngest daughter they found hanging in the bushes, dead, after the flood receded. They have been internally displaced people for five years, and want to come here. Everything they had was washed away, so they have no money to pay for a guide, or to be able to buy food on the way.'
Mee Reh's wife reflects on how lucky they are that her eldest child is attending school. The village school in Wha Lo was closed by the SPDC before the village was burnt down, and there are no schools in the jungle for those in hiding.
Villagers are forced to work without payment on government 'development projects' like building roads and barracks, farm clearance and cultivation.
Mary was only 19 years old. She had been forced to work for the soldiers 20 days per month, mainly in digging and building projects. She was terrified, particularly after two women in her village were raped by soldiers. They asked her father, an old man, to fetch bamboo and beat him with their gun butts. They had to leave him behind because he was too old and frail to walk. Mary was clearly depressed by her feelings of helplessness. 'I'm not happy here, but I feel better than in my village. Our life is just waiting and eating donated rice.'
For villagers asked to carry arms and supplies, it was a terrifying prospect. Tired porters are beaten or killed. Many of them never return. One escaped porter showed me the scars on his shoulders from the tremendous weight he was forced to carry. Porters are often marched in front of advancing battalions as human minesweepers. Gang rape of women porters is common.
Bor Reh was forced to be the village headman, as he was the only person who could speak Burmese, and so translate the labour demands of the SPDC to the locals. The village head was once a prestigious post to hold, now it is a responsibility better avoided.
The SPDC's General Aung Gyi, head of Light Infantry Battalion Number 54 operating in this area, is infamous for his cruelty in punishing villagers, and for administering the punishments personally. Brutality against ethnic minorities is commonplace. Regular taxes, in the form of money and rice, are collected by SPDC troops, who also demand free food and alcohol when passing through the village. Curfews are often imposed.
Deforestation, initially from low-impact logging by the Karenni but now widescale by the SPDC, has led to decreasing rainfall, which also has had impacts on rice yields. All these compound major food shortages for even those who still have land.
Kyaw Te's trembling hands spoke of his life of fear in hiding. 'When we stayed there we were afraid all the time. The Burmese government, they want to destroy our people, to kill us all off.'
The refugee camp is an increasingly insecure haven. Thailand's attitude to the ethnic minorities is changeable. Previously considered as a necessary buffer zone between Thailand and its aggressive neighbour, Burma, the resistance forces and the asylum-seekers are now deemed a nuisance in the growing closeness between the two nations.
Hundreds of asylum-seekers have been forcibly repatriated, and new arrivals find it increasingly difficult to enter. Thailand and Burma have brokered a number of huge cross-border projects, fostering closer relations through economic ties. Two major gas pipeline projects, Yadana and Yetagun, including Total (France) and Premier Oil (Britain), are already complete and functional in an area south of Karenni State.
Their impact on the local area has been devastating. There are plans afoot to dam and divert the Salween river that flows through Karenni State, feeding it into Thai waterways and starving three million people in downstream Burma of water. Among them are the Karenni.
Last year I went to Burma to make a solidarity action for the many peoples of Burma. It was a simple act of defiance: to sing songs about democracy and freedom. The military response was rapid. I was arrested within 13 minutes.