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"Join the Army or Go to Jail!" - Saw Ehna
Burma Issues - Volume 14, Number 2, February 2004:

As the 12 year-old stood at the bus stop his young heart heavy with the fight he had just had with his mother, he was confronted by a group of Burmese soldiers.

Aung Tin had decided to visit his aunt in a town called Letpadan, from his own home, a small village called Moo oh Bin, in the Bago Division, north of Rangoon, the capital of Burma. His father had died and he was not getting on with his mother so he ran away from her. It was while waiting at the bus stop that he was forced into a situation that changed his life forever.

Over the next few years he would come face to face with death, rape and the destruction of people who were defenseless against The State Peace and Development Council, (SPDC) soldiers from the Burma’s brutal military government, who now stood before him. They asked him for his ID card and when he told them he didn’t have one they gave him a choice — “Join the army or go to jail”.

This huge decision to be made by one so young left him wishing that he was back home with his mother. Instead, Aung Tin was forced to sign a piece of paper that stated that he had now voluntarily joined the army.

For the next five years he became another child soldier, conscripted into an army that rules Burma with an iron fist.

An overwhelming number of children are “recruited” by SPDC soldiers at bus stops, railway stations, marketplaces, festivals and on the streets of Burma’s cities, towns and villages. Today, there are 300.000 child soldiers in the world, Burma is the biggest user with 70.000 of them serving in its army ranks.1

Burma’s Army forms part of one of the largest armies in Southeast Asia ruled by the generals of the SPDC. Children are also present in the opposition groups who have fought against this regime for 54 years.

This is Aung Tin’s story as told to Aung Kaw and Ler Wah who are documenting the abuse of Burma’s oppressed people. At the meeting held on November 6, 2003 he spoke openly about how he finally escaped from the death and the destruction that had destroyed his youth.

He was sent to Mingaladon, a main military base, half-hour drive from Rangoon to undergo training. As a child amongst men he endured four and a half months of extreme physical suffering, often with very little food in his stomach.

After training he was posted to a battalion in Thaton, 145 miles east of Rangoon. For three months he was treated violently by his commanding officers and older soldiers. The gun he carried was as tall as he was and he wore the smallest uniform
the soldiers could find for him.

“As a new soldier, I had to do everything. When the platoon commander got drunk he would make me do things for him. If I told him I did not have the time to help him he would beat me up or put me in the camp jail.”

“The sergeants always forced the new soldiers to work for them and told us they would give us coffee or tea but we never got it. They fed us good rice, but never curries. We had to work everyday. If we were not patrolling we had to grow vegetables for the battalions.”

After completing his three months at Thaton, he was sent into battle in the jungle to fight against the Karen resistance stronghold in Mae Tha Waw, in eastern Burma bordering Thailand.

One of the many ethnic opposition groups, the Karen National Union (KNU) have been fighting Burma’s military regime since 1949. They want their own homeland and equal rights in their country that has been ravaged by the longest civil war in the history of the world since World War II.

“We had no permanent base. We just roamed around the jungle passing through many villages, sometimes, patrolling, looking for Karen rebels. One day our column came under attack from the rebels. Bullets were flying in all directions.”

“ I was very afraid and did not know how to fight. We did not know who was shooting whom. After the clash, four soldiers were dead. When the battle ended my commander beat me up until I bled because I had fought so badly.”

This was not to be his last fight with the rebels and often when the soldiers could not find their enemy they went from village to village murdering the people who they accused of being the spies for Karen soldiers. “We patrolled in this area for two months. One day our platoon ran out of food. The commander ordered me to go to a village headman to get rice and chicken. The headman came with food but only enough for the higher-ranked soldiers so we had to steal from the villagers to feed ourselves.”

Soon the starving Aung Tin, with other young soldiers learnt the taste of power through their guns and preyed on the defenseless communities taking food whenever. “When the villagers refused to give us food, we beat them up. One time a
villager was killed when we met him on a path in the jungle while we were on patrol. Some of us did not want to kill him. But others said that he might inform the Karen soldiers where we were and that we would get into trouble from our commander so it was better to kill him.” Later the headman told Aung Tin that the dead man had no connection to the KNU soldiers.

As weeks went by he witnessed many deeds of torture and rape of the local people. One day at a village his battalion arrested a boy, accusing him of being a spy for the KNU. They tied him up. His mother begged for his life. The boy’s sister came and pleaded to the commanders for her brother. After he raped the girl, he gave her to his soldiers. They raped her and then the boy was released after he was savagely tortured, Aung Tin said.

After that he was sent to Mae Tha Lit, opposite the Than Song Yang a small border town in Thailand, where they had to patrol around another KNU military base. This part of the jungle was heavily mined. He saw seven men killed and 11 injured after they stepped on landmines.

He carried the images of the inhuman treatment he had witnessed like a dark shadow on his mind. The weight and pain his battalion had inflicted on the local people felt even heavier than the supplies villagers had to haul along with the troops. Not fed enough they were often killed, beaten or left behind exhausted in the jungle.

“A man who no longer could carry his load asked the soldiers if he could go home. They shouted at him to keep moving. After climbing another mountain he became even more exhausted. In desperation he tried to run away but they just shot him dead.”

Another porter confronted the soldiers and asked; “We are one, we come from the same country, is it fair to treat us like this?” Within seconds he too was shot dead by a lance corporal.

The battalion he was with then moved to the infamous Kawmoora – a KNU strong-hold that the SPDC have been unable to destroy for 11 years. Many thousands of men from both the government’s military and the KNU have lost their lives during numerous attacks on this base. Allegations that the SPDC have used a barrage of weapons containing chemicals, phosphorus and conventional munitions have surfaced over the years. It was here that the young boy came face to face with the reality of war that still rages between the KNU and the military Junta in Burma. “Everyday we had to dig bunkers as shells rained on us. Two or three of SPDC soldiers were killed daily. For three months we fought like this then eventually I was injured. I was sent back to the base for treatment.”

Once his wounds had healed he was sent back to the frontline to face the bloodshed and torture once again.

Finally the day came – five years after he had been arrested at the bus stop – he could return to his village. “I visited my family. My mother urged me to leave the army because my father, when he was alive, hated it. “ Once again he did not listen to his mother and the child soldier returned to the SPDC military base.

“I went back to my battalion where I had a fight with my Commander’s nephew and he put me into a cell for three months. But I was released after one and half months. Then I started to think about what my mother had said. I knew that I now had to listen to her and somehow get home.”

In 1996 he deserted the military base and went to his mother. For six years he has lived in constant fear of being arrested and thrown into jail.

***Many names and places have been left out to protect the lives of the people involved.***

Endtnote: 1 “My gun was as tall as me”, Human Rights Watch, October 2002.

Sunday January 28, 2001:

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad quoted as saying --

On Elections: "When an election is held, people must learn the limits of elections. Not use elections to undermine authority."

On Forced Labour: "For a government that is poor it is a way of taxing the people -- contributing the labour instead of money,"

Thai commandos raid hospital, nine gunmen killed, one escapes

From: "Alex Turner"Web posted at: 9:49 a.m. HKT (0149 GMT) - January 25, 2000

RELATED STORIES, SITES RATCHABURI, Thailand (CNN) --

Thai commandos early Tuesday stormed a provincial hospital that had been held by a group of Myanmar Karen guerrillas led by 12-year-old twin brothers, Luther and Johnny Htoo and reportedly killed nine of the gunmen. At least seven explosions rocked the compound as six truckloads of commandos rushed into the Ratchaburi hospital.

The commandos exchanged machine gun fire with the attackers inside the building, witnesses said. Automatic weapons fire and explosions thudded through the night skies, possibly from grenades or explosives and mines that the hostage-takers had rigged around the hospital after taking it over Monday morning. A Thai military spokesman reported that nine of the terrorists were dead and at least one other had escaped in the storming of the hospital which began about 5:40 a.m. (2240 GMT). It was believed there was a total of 10 terrorists but local news reports on Tuesday claimed there could have been up to 16. CNN has learned that Thai security forces infiltrated the hospital during the day-long seige dressed as hospital workers and fed intelligence on the situation inside to those planning the raid.

On Monday, the Myanmar rebels said they would not release the hostages until all their demands were met. The gunmen, believed to be from the insurgent group known as God's Army, swept into the hospital in downtown Ratchaburi, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) west of Bangkok, early Monday morning. They have released several elderly hostages, a schoolboy, a pregnant woman and a man and a boy who were carried from the hospital on stretchers. Thai Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said about 700 people were still inside the hospital, with about 200 in areas directly under rebel control.

A gunman who identified himself as "Knui," speaking by telephone to Thailand's Independent Television, said that the Thai government had received the group's demands "but have not accepted them." "We will go back (to the Thailand-Myanmar border) when our demands are met, when we reach an agreement," he said. Rebels demand medical assistance A Thai television cameraman allowed inside the hospital brought back pictures showing frightened hostages sitting on rows of benches. The video showed that the rebels appeared to be mostly in the general and emergency wards, and that staff was still treating patients.

The hostage releases, made in exchange for food, came after Thai army chief Gen. Surayudh Julanond said he had ordered his troops to stop shelling a rebel base on the border and allow unarmed refugees to cross the border for medical treatment, two of the rebels' demands. The group has also demanded that Thailand stop aiding Myanmar's campaign against them, that Thailand provide medical care for wounded soldiers and that Thailand open the border to wounded fighters. Provincial governor Komain Daengthongdee said he ordered the evacuation of nearby administrative offices and schools after the takeover. "I am now asking the army to send men to help us as soon as possible. At this moment, we believe that the armed men are Karen guerrillas. We are seeking more details.""

Ratchaburi province is home to a holding center for dissident students who fled military rule in neighboring Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees administers the center. UNHCR's spokesman in Bangkok said he had not yet heard of the hospital's seizure. Sanan told local radio he had ordered security forces to protect the hostages, but to stand firm against the insurgents. "Firstly, I have ordered security forces to protect the lives of the hospital staff and the patients. I have also told them to take tough action against the attackers," he said. Group led by twin 12-year-olds

While the gunmen did not name their group identity, Surayudh and Sanan said they were members of God's Army. That group, led by 12-year-old twin brothers Johnny and Luther Htoo, is a band of about 100 Christian fighters based just inside Myanmar. The group broke away from the mainstream Karen National Union guerrillas who have been fighting for greater autonomy from the Myanmar central government for more than 50 years. Followers of the twins believe the pair has mystical powers and are invincible in battle. God's Army is fighting Myanmar government forces near the Thai-Myanmar border, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the west. The rebels who took over the hospital hijacked a bus near the border earlier Monday, ordering the driver to take them to downtown Ratchaburi. God's Army is currently providing shelter and protection to five student rebels who raided the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok in October last year. The students were demanding democracy in their homeland, which has been ruled by the military since 1962. Bangkok Bureau Chief John Raedler, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.

Witnesses Say Rebels Killed in Cold Blood,

reported by Patrick McDowell BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) --

Thai commandos who stormed a hospital in a hostage rescue mission killed some of the 10 captors after they surrendered, Thai media said today, citing hostages. Thai leaders and the public, however, appeared satisfied that justice was done when police and soldiers stormed the Ratchaburi hospital, 60 miles west of Bangkok, on Tuesday and killed all the insurgents, who had trapped hundreds of patients and staff. Police said all had been killed in fighting.

The hostage-takers were identified as members of God's Army and the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, fringe rebel bands fighting the military regime in neighboring Myanmar from the rugged jungles on Myanmar's side of the border. Thai police stepped security today at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok and along the border to prevent revenge attacks. The Nation newspaper cited hospital officials and relatives as saying that four patients, one of them 78 years old, had died from natural causes during the 22-hour siege. It was unclear how much the crisis contributed to their deaths. The hostages were freed unharmed by the commando raid. Five police officers were wounded.

Public reaction to the insurgents' deaths was summed up by Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart in a statement bannered across the front page of The Bangkok Post: "They all deserved it since they've brought much trauma and suffering to the Thai people." The Post cited hostages who said some of their captors were shot in cold blood. One hostage, identified as a senior hospital official, said she saw police hold the rebels at gunpoint. "They were shot in the head after they had been told to undress and kneel down," the official was quoted as saying. Authorities displayed the bodies of the captors, wrapped in white sheets, to the press Tuesday before burying them without ceremony.

Top police officials, asked on Tuesday whether they had been summarily executed, said they had died fighting. The Khao Sod newspaper published photos of five of the men taken before they were shrouded. The bloody corpses were stripped to their underwear. Government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said an investigation would be made into how the photos were obtained. Many patients and their relatives said the captors deserved to die. The normally reserved prime minister, Chuan Leekpai, said they had crossed a line by seizing a hospital. The Nation reported that a pregnant woman, who had been brought to the hospital for a Caesarean, went into labor during the siege. She was sneaked out an unwatched back entrance to another hospital, where she gave birth to a girl.

Details of the rescue began to emerge. Plainclothes police began infiltrating the hospital -- a sprawling, 6-acre compound of 10 buildings that the insurgents could not fully control -- dressed as patients and medical staff hours after the siege began. They identified the number and locations of the hostage-takers and helped sneak what patients they could to safety. The insurgents, who entered from Myanmar, seized the hospital Monday to force Thailand to aid their beleaguered movement. Their camp was under attack by Myanmar government forces, and Thai troops had shelled them to stop them from seeking refuge in Thailand. They demanded Thailand cease the shelling and grant refuge to civilians and combatants. Talks were held into the small hours of Tuesday, when the commandos struck.

The Post reported that three hostage-takers took part in the seizure in October of Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok by the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors. They held some 40 people hostage for 26 hours but freed them unharmed in exchange for a helicopter to take them to the border, where they took refuge with God's Army, a fundamentalist Christian group of ethnic Karens led by twin 12-year-old boys believed to have mystical powers.

The following is the response to this incident of the Military Dictators who have colonized their own country, Burma, since 1962, and use teenage boys in their own armed forces.

Information Sheet Yangon, Myanmar No.B-1231 (I) 25th January, 2000

Myanmar Government Commends Thai Authorities For Its Actions Against Armed Terrorism

The Government of Myanmar is appalled and saddened to learn that the same armed terrorist group that stormed the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok in October of the last year taking the embassy staff and their families including some foreigners as hostages, has held the sick and the entire medical staff as hostages after storming a hospital, west of Bangkok in Ratchaburi yesterday. It is also very disheartening to know that this armed terrorist group called "God's Army" is exploiting the simple local ethnic people along the Thai-Myanmar border by staging 2 twelve- year old children as immortals and supernaturals and by manipulating locals to join its group in the service of the manipulators' interests.

It is also quite shocking to see a scene on one Thai TV Channel where a lot of very young children being recruited and trained as soldiers for this terrorist army. It is a definitely well-imaged concern for the World Community where terrorism is becoming a choice- weapon in this new millennium for all extremists and radicals around the world. In this regard, Myanmar would like to commend the Thai Government for its decisive way in handling and protecting its citizens from the perils of terrorism and making it a glaring example that under no pretext of guise can terrorism be accepted.

Burma: The Great British Betrayal - another tragedy is waiting to happen

Press Release - 24th February 1998

A member of the British House of Lords, David Alton, has just returned from the Thai-Burma border where he visited refugee camps and a military base of the Karen resistance inside Burma's jungle, on behalf of the British human rights group Jubilee Campaign. As Thai military officials reiterated their determination to uproot 10,000 of the 116,000 refugees Lord Alton warns that another tragedy in the saga of the long suffering Karen people may be about to occur.

January 4th 1998 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Burmese independence from Britain. A flag-hoisting ceremony was suitably subdued as Myanmar, or Burma as most of the world still knows it, commemorated half a century of human rights abuses and oppressive authoritarian government. Without any sense of irony, another ritual ceremony will take place next month of the occasion of armed forces day.

I have just returned from a human rights visit to refugee camps on the Burmese-Thai border, a visit which took me into an anti-government military base in Burma. From all I saw and heard I was left in no doubt that this half a century represents fifty tragically wasted years.

Britain needs to examine its conscience about the role which it played in the genesis of this tragedy and urgently challenge the repatriation of refugees to a country where torture, rape, slavery and death await them. Burma is a pariah nation. It is unconscionable that huge European and American investments should continue to be made in a country where the abuse of human rights is a daily pastime.

Eco-tourism ventures, the Ye-Tavoy railway, the Yadana pipeline - operated by the French company, Total, and the US-based Unocal (and which is due to supply natural gas to Thailand) are just some of the infrastructure projects which have involved the use of forced labour, including children and pregnant women, according to reports by Agence France Presse International.

Britain was reported, with US$600 million of trade under the last Government, to be one of Burma's biggest trading partners. The present Government has signalled its distaste for such investments and a Foreign Office Minister, Baroness Symons, told Parliament last June that we have not ruled out the possibility of further measures, including economic sanctions in line with those already imposed by the United States.

The ugly sounding, ugly acting, SLORC (State Law And Order Restoration Council) are now the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - although God knows there is precious little peace or development of democracy or human rights of which to boast. Burma's democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's National League for Democracy (NLD) was freed from house arrest by the SLORC in July 1995 but her movements remain severely circumscribed. Notwithstanding these restrictions the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and daughter of General Aung San, who led the struggle against British colonial rule, remains a potent symbol for democrats. Her father was assassinated in July 1947, aged 32. She was just two years old.

Corruption And Drugs

The military junta which has governed the country since 1962 has done its best to destroy the NLD. Following the massacre of thousands of people during student led riots in 1988, SLORC allowed free elections in 1990. But when the NLD achieved an overwhelming victory the military junta set aside the results. Following Aung San Suu Kyis six years of house arrest, mean spirited and provocative acts continue to be directed against her. At Christmas, for instance, her husband, the Oxford academic, Michael Aris, and her younger son, Kim, were denied visitors visas.

Even by its own feckless standards the Burmese Government has excelled in combining repression with corruption. In December last a group of high ranking military officers were placed under house arrest amidst charges of corruption. The seedy world of illegal drugs and racketeering involving foreign investment is umbilically linked to the highest reaches of government. A former American intelligence officer told me that half of the entire American heroin market comes from Burma's Wa State alone. Many believe that the systematic clearance of the border areas is to give greater control of the lucrative drugs trade to the country's murdering drugs peddling leaders.

Muslim Humiliations And Ethnic Cleansing

Less well known and less well documented than the odious behaviour of the evil clique who - aided and abetted by Chinas Communists - terrorise Burma, is the relentless forced submission and assimilation of its ethnic minorities. Muslims are just one example. 10,000 Muslims from all over Burma now live in the border refugee camps. The Burmese military have destroyed 42 of their mosques in all parts of the country. Mr Mohammed Yaseen, General Secretary of the All Burma Muslim Union and Dr Abdul Razzak, its Chairman, told me that no one had ever been to see them before to establish how they had been treated or how they are faring. Since 1996 Muslim people have been arrested and pressed into forced labour. The Burmese military have subjected them to humiliations such as forcing them to eat pork. And they have been cleared out of whole villages, such as Kyaikdon, Pahkloni, Maekatita, Sakhathat, and Mabu. Occupants were evicted, animals and possessions taken away, said Dr.Razzak.

Another group are the long-necked Karen women - the Padaung - who recently caught the public eye when a Thai businessmen turned these refugees into a human zoo. Exploitation is just another burden for the refugees to bear.

Statements which I have gathered in Burmas refugee camps reveal a story of ethnic cleansing every bit as terrible as Bosnia and genocide every bit as cruel as Rwanda. Through our indifference we are repeating a betrayal every bit as great as that which occurred some fifty years ago.

Another Anniversary: Britain's Forgotten Allies

A BBC television doccumentary, made by the respected S.E.Asia Foreign Correspondent of The Times, Andrew Drummond, was entitled Britain's Forgotten Allies. It is a phrase on the lips of all the Karen leaders I met.

On January 31st the Karen commemorated their Revolution Day - and forty-nine years of fighting the Burmese military government. This must surely be one of the worlds longest running civil wars - and one in which we played an undistinguished and even treacherous role.

The leader of the seven million Burmese Karen is the veteran General Saw Bo Mya. President of the KNU (Karen National Union). He has served in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) since being demobilised from Britain's Force 136 which bravely and valiantly resisted the Japanese during World War Two.

The Generals two sons are today engaged in active service deep in Burma's jungles in the continuing war of attrition against SPDC forces. The Myas are a closely knit family. Major Ner Dah Mya, aged 31, the General's second son, combines a gentle spirit with steely determination. This highly articulate American educated major, will carry the Karen torch for the next generation

The Karen are the largest ethnic group in South East Asia without their own country. The General lays the blame firmly at the door of the British. He told me that the British gave a cast-iron promise of independence to their war time allies but we are the allies you have abandoned and forgotten he says. Betrayal has led to enslavement.

Return To The River Kwai

In scenes reminiscent of the construction of the bridge over the River Kwai when the Japanese used British servicemen as their navvies, throughout the country millions of people from the ethnic minorities are being used as forced labour to build roads, railways and amenities - up to a standard suitable for the visiting tourists whom the Burmese are so keen to attract as a boost for their devastated economy. Since the fall of their military headquarters at Manerplaw in 1995, the KNLA has been forced deeper still into the jungles where it continues to fight a guerrilla war against the Burmese military. As David stalks Goliath - 5,000 troops pitted against 350,000 Burmese military - they know that this epic struggle is against a regime which routinely practices genocide, which takes no prisoners, and which will not rest until Karen people and culture are obliterated.

Armys Mind Bending Drugs

But they do at least have a cause: self determination within an autonomous Karen state in a federal Burma. The Burmese solders, by contrast, are conscripts who are often demoralised and resentful. I met a deserter who had crossed the lines four days earlier. He told me how alcohol and mind bending drugs are given to the soldiers before they go into battle to hype their courage. The Karen leaders report incidents where Burmese military keep advancing even in the face of machine gun fire. The drugs may temporarily mask fear and pain but they do not stop death. San Hla Maung was a corporal in the 119th battalion, 33rd division of the Burmese army. He told me that there is widespread disillusionment inside the Burmese military forces. Many don't like doing the regimes dirty work. If civilians refuse to become porters for the army and soldiers were made to beat them or kill them. All this for 6 dollars a month. He spoke about the use of forced labour to build Burmas new roads, railways and hotels. Men are used as buffaloes. How can western tourists consider coming to stay in these facilities when they have been built with our blood? he asked me.

When there is a general uprising against the military regime he believes that most Burmese soldiers would rather drown with the people than obey orders to annihilate them and he says that many soldiers are secret NLD supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Trail of Desolation

The regimes forces have left a trail of desolation behind them. One American missionary told me: Desolation is everywhere. I saw abandoned rice fields, empty villages, destroyed homes. Field upon empty field. The land was desolate. Not even the birds sing. The burning of the villages and the widespread desolation has also led to 116,000 refugees fleeing across the border into Thailand. The Thai government provided sites for the refugees but has never allowed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to administer the camps or even to have a permanent presence there. Thailand will not admit that they are even entitled to formal refugees status living in reasonable fear of persecution. Quite what criteria have to be satisfied to achieve such status cannot be imagined. The UNHCRs formidable Director for Relief Operations, Amelia Bonifacio, says that whatever the Thais think these are not merely displaced persons. But she is consigned to an office hundreds of miles away in Bangkok. She has to content herself with sending two officials to each camp once a month. "We have no-one on the border at all; we have no permanent presence," she told me. "It is not a satisfactory arrangement because we have to seek authorisation from the Thai government every time we wish to visit."

10,000 Hiding In The Jungle

If the situation is unsatisfactory for the refugees in the camps consider the plight of the 10,000 Karen refugees whom Major Ner Dah Mya estimates are desperately lying low in remote parts of the jungle hoping to make the dangerous border crossing: Many of them are dying of malaria or from dehydration. There are gross, enormous violations of human rights. We are desperate he says. The situation has become extremely dangerous in the most northerly of the refugee camps because of what is known in Thailand as the logging scandal. The Mae Hong Song Province is home to the northerly refugee camps and also to Thailand's Salween National Park which is rich in teak - or at least it used to be. When no one was looking 13,000 trees were cut down and the rare and highly prized wood mysteriously ended up on the international markets. Initially the refugees were alleged to have been the culprits - a convenient scapegoat - but as the story unfolded the sawdust trail has led to the door of Thai and Burmese military, and to high ranking Thai officials and politicians. Corrupt informal deals vie with the official trade and investment being cultivated by Thailand and Burma and other Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. In another betrayal of those whose human rights have been so badly degraded, Burma was admitted to full membership of ASEAN last year. The latest twist in the logging scandal involves the deputy chief forestry official who said last week that he had been sent an anonymous 5 million baht kickback which he wanted to hand over to the Government as a token of his honourable intentions. They have so far declined the brown envelope. But where does this leave the refugees?

Thai Pressure To Return

Under the cover of the logging scandal the Thai government has issued an ultimatum: go back to Burma or move to another camp a great distance away. The occupants of the three camps involved, Mae Ye Hta, Klo Pa and U Da Hta have all been told that they will be transported to Mae Ra Ma Luang camp if they choose not to return to Burma. This choice is already forcing some families back across the border. The British Embassy in Bangkok has intervened on their behalf and told me, on Monday, that at least twenty families are going to make the return journey imminently. Thai military announced the same day that they had postponed the removal of the 10,490 refugees for humanitarian reasons. The Bangkok English language newspaper, The Nation (24.2.98) said this was because senior officers feared media attention. The military source told the newspaper that the deadline for removal had now been shifted to March 15th or the very last date for the refugees removal would be the start of the rainy season in April.

Amelia Bonifacio is in no doubt that they will face persecution. She admits that UNHCR will have no way of monitoring what happens to them and that without unhindered access to returning refugees; without the ability to monitor and to assist them; and without a cessation of hostilities, any return is premature. This is a disaster just waiting to happen.

Repatriation Is A Daily Occurrence

As the world stands by refugees are already regularly evicted from Thailand. An elderly refugee at Bekhlo camp described to me how any refugee crossing the perimeter without permission is taken to a bamboo pen. There they are humiliatingly stripped to their underclothes and left to stand in the scorching sun for the remainder of the day. Relatives or friends have to pay the Thai soldiers 3-400 baht to redeem them. If they are unfortunate enough not to be collected they are sometimes tossed into a truck and taken to the River Moi - which separates the two countries - and, according to the refugee, tipped into the river and left to their own fate.

Last November the Thai military deliberately fired over the heads of Karen refugees. In December, in letters to me and to other British parliamentarians, the Thai Ambassador in London, Vidhya Rayananonda, insists that the attack was not the intention of the Thai soldiers. Two people were wounded and there was a report that a child had died. The Ambassador says there is no report of such a death. I have taken statements that two tiny babies died as a result of the attack. One was dropped by its mother and the other fell as panicking parents fled from the soldiers. Unarmed refugees, women and babies hardly constitute a grave military threat to the Thai army but the Ambassador says This situation was beyond their control.

Atrocities Abound

But this is not to be compared with the Burmese - to whom the refugees are being returned - and who do far far worse things than this. The stories which I will recount underline the terrible danger in which refugees find themselves when they are repatriated.

I visited Hway Ka Loke camp - the camp of the river and skull - situated five kilometers from the border. Burmese military attacked it in January 1997. 107 troops, accompanied by 50 porters, crossed the river and ignited the hospital. The Burmese arsonists burnt down 678 homes. Naw Ku Ser - whose name I have changed to protect her identity - is a Karen refugee whose husband and son-in-law were conscripted by the Burmans in 1996 as porters. When it was found that they could no longer continue due to malaria, they were simply shot dead. Naw Paw Wah, whose name is also changed, said her husband was brutally gunned down in identical circumstances: he couldn't go on carrying the loads any more, so they shot him, she said.

Lets be clear about the scale of the genocide which is underway.

Burma Star Veteran's Medal Protest

In one camp I met a British-Karen family from the north west of England, who were visiting relatives and friends.

Bruce Humphrey-Taylor, is of British-Karen extraction. His father was a British inspector of excises in the notorious Golden Triangle - still the heart of the Burmese sponsored drugs trade, which claims so many young European and American lives.

Humphrey-Taylor married an English woman, Mary, and settled in Great Sutton on the Wirral. He was one of the 50,000 Karen troops who fought for the British. A holder of the Burma Star, he says "I put my badges and medals in the bin. I refused to join the Burma Star Association because the British betrayed us. It would dishonour the thousands of dead."

Humphrey-Taylor alleges that the British Government failed to provide Karen troops, who as Britains allies were systematically persecuted by the Japanese, with even a pension. He adds that in 1948 a one-off payment was made by the Attlee Government to the Burmans but the money was never made over to the Karen.

Until the mid-fifties Humphrey-Taylor fought alongside KNLA forces and has devoted the rest of his life to ensuring that the world is not allowed to forget. He has personally seen Karen women who have been spiked by pushing a bamboo pole through their bodies. The Burman soldiers just stood there and laughed. He insists that torture and rape is practiced to this day. And dozens of human rights reports bear him out.

Raped And Killed

A camp leader told me how four women were killed in Papun District two years ago. They were first raped. Two, who were pregnant, had their stomachs stamped upon by the Burmese soldiers - first killing their unborn babies and then their mothers. The other two women were stabbed to death.

After the 1988 uprising students were burnt alive in cremation executions and others were buried alive as they screamed their final protests.

Last year the Bekhlo refugee camp was attacked by Burmese militia. One of the defenceless victims was a little girl aged ten. Hsa Gler Mu was hit in the stomach by rocket propelled grenade fragments. She will bear the physical scars for the rest of her life. Emotionally, she was terrified and is haunted by the nightmare that the Burmese will return and do it again. On that same morning, Naw Bway Tee, aged 85, had risen to cook the rice and fish paste provided by the foreign aid groups - without whom the Karen would starve and go without education, health, and clean water. Naw Bway Tee had four children and nine grandchildren, and despite her age she was always the first to rise. Her son, Hsa Law Lah - wonderful star - told me how the deadening boom of the attack woke the sleeping family. Fragments of the shells played on the bamboo screens like monsoon water in the rainy season. Engulfed by panic the family scrambled for shelter emerging to find the familys matriarch dead by her cooking pot. She had been killed instantly by shrapnel which struck her spinal chord. Theirs and sixteen other homes were raised to the ground.

The Evidence

I have in my possession, and will hand over to the British Government, the casing from the RPG7 (Rocket Propelled Grenade) used in that attack. Like much of Burma's military hardware it was made in China. On Friday I will meet the Thai Interior Minister and will present photographic evidence of the cases which I have described.

Landmines and Malaria

In another development, China has provided many of the anti-personnel landmines which now litter the border area. Major Ner Dah Mya estimates that 10,000 mines have already been laid by both sides. In total contravention of the Geneva Convention these have been laid indiscriminately in rural areas without any warnings being posted and without any mapping of where the mines have been laid. At the prosthesis centre in Bekhlo camp I saw some of the consequences. Maw Kehk lost his leg to a Burmese mine - now he skilfully makes artficial limbs for those who make it to the camps after detonating a mine on the other side of the border. Since April last he has provided artificial limbs for 130 people - and the daily toll is rising. Maw Kehk says the Burmese don't care about human beings. Their mines come from China and from the former Soviet Union - and the Burmese make their own. He says that because of the use of plastics and because of their tiny size the mines are often impossible to detect: when children come across them they are fatally attracted he says.

Ko Lah, now aged 27, was 21 years old when he stumbled on a mine in the jungle village of Shwe Kwin, in the Myang District. He lost a leg. How does he feel about the Burmese? "I feel nothing," he says stoically.

And, as if all of this were not bad enough, there is the jungle's most ancient of enemies awaiting repatriated refugees: mosquitoes.

Daniel Kuypers of the Mae Sot Malaria Research Centre at Mae Sot told me that the border area is officially the world's epicentre for the virulent P.F. drug resistant strain of malaria. The disease is the region's biggest killer and away from the camps it is difficult to see what medical support or care returning refugees will have.

Genocide On A Par With Bosnia And Rwanda

What is happening in Burma today is every bit as evil as the atrocities committed by the Bosnian war lords. The Karen people have a rich culture. It is being destroyed. Cultural and physical genocide has been compounded by betrayal and manipulation.

Atrocities in Bosnia shocked European sensibilities because courageous reporters ensured that the story was told. Politicians reacted with international and judicial sanctions. Trials for war crimes have been established at the Hague. Compare that with our reaction to Burma or to Cambodia. What is intolerable in Europe should not be any more tolerable because it is in South East Asia. Is a life in South East Asia worth less than a life in South East Europe?

The creation of an international War Crimes Tribunal to try Burma's military junta should be established without delay. Every European and American company - such as the oil giant, Total - who continue to invest in Burma should be subjected to massive disinvestment campaigns. The UNHCR should be given joint authority over the refugee camps with the Thais. And governments should become serious about attacking the military junta which has caused all this misery - not the refugees who deserve every protection which we can give them.

DAVID ALTON IS AN INDEPENDENT CROSSBENCH MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS PREVIOUSLY HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. HE IS TREASURER OF THE ALL-PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP ON LANDMINES AND HAS BEEN ON THE THAI-BURMA BORDER VISITING REFUGEE CAMPS AND KAREN MILITARY BASES ON BEHALF OF THE BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP, JUBILEE CAMPAIGN. HE IS PROFESSOR OF CITIZENSHIP AT LIVERPOOLS JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY.

GENOCIDE AGAINST THE KAREN PEOPLE IN BURMA

An interim report by Jubilee Campaign - March 1998

"What is happening in Burma today is every bit as evil as the atrocities committed by the Bosnian war lords. Atrocities in Bosnia shocked European sensibilities because courageous reporters ensured that the story was told. Politicians reacted with international and judicial sanctions. Trials for war crimes have been established at the Hague. Compare that with our reaction to Burma or Cambodia. What is intolerable in Europe should not be any more tolerable because it is in South East Asia. Is a life in South East Asia worth less than a life in South East Europe?" Lord Alton of Liverpool

1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This report is an attempt to focus more international attention on the plight of the Karen people in Burma and in the refugee camps in Thailand. Although the Karen are not the only ones suffering in a country where human rights abuses are extremely widespread and all sorts of people and minority groups are affected; the Karen are the second largest people group in Burma after the Burmans themselves and make up the majority of refugees from Burma in Thailand.

What the Burmese regime is presently doing to the Karen people amounts to genocide yet little attention has been given by the international community to this crucial issue. Atrocities by Burmese soldiers have driven about ninety-five thousand Karen across into Thailand where they seek refuge. Over ten thousand Karen men, women and children are currently hiding in the jungle in Burma, on the run from the Burmese army who will not hesitate to shoot them on sight. Karen villages in eastern Burma are being systematically destroyed by the Burmese army and those who do not flee are massacred or forced into slave labour, working on government projects such as building roads.

The working conditions are extremely harsh, with long hours and very little food. No mercy is shown to those who are too exhausted to continue and it is common for Burmese soldiers to kill those whose "usefulness" has run out. Burma's military regime has succeeded in transforming the country into a vast concentration camp.

The harsh nature of forced labour and the Burmese military's (otherwise referred to as Tatmadaw) cruel and callous attitude to forced labourers is indicated by the following excerpt from "Terror in the South, Militarisation, Economics and Human Rights in Southern Burma," produced by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front: Ma Win Win Than, mother of three children from Tavoy escaped from the Ye-Tavoy railway project where she worked as a forced labourer. She explained the nature of forced labour:

"I worked two times at the Zin Bar labour camp, in October and December 1994. Every household in Tavoy had to pay a 500 kyat porter tax a month. If not, one person had to go and work at the labour camp. My husband was not in good health and we could not pay the 500 kyat. So I decided to do the work. At that time I was also six months pregnant. I pleaded with the local authorities but they said they would arrest me if I did not go. So I left my husband and children at home. When I arrived at the camp I saw many other pregnant women were there already and that there were as many women as there were men in the camp. The age of the women ranged from 15 to 65 years old. I also found out that many pregnant women had miscarriages during their time in the labour camp. I worked there for fifteen days without pay. In December 1994, the SLORC (abbreviation for State Law and Order Restoration Council, former name of the Burmese regime) again collected 500 kyat for porter tax. I had no way of paying the money so I had to work again when I was eight months pregnant."

Since 1949 the Karen have been engaged in conflict with the Burmese army, in their struggle for autonomy for Karen state in eastern Burma. There are approximately 7 million Karen people in Burma, making them the second largest ethnic group in that country after the Burmans. One estimate is that about 40 percent of the Karen are Christians, while the rest are mainly Buddhists and animists.

During World War Two, a large number of the Karen assisted the British in their struggle against the Japanese occupation of Burma. For their loyalty to the British, many of the Karen suffered torture and death at the hands of the Japanese. So loyal were the Karen that General Bill Slim wrote: "The Karen are no fair-weather friends." Despite the loyalty of the Karen, the British government never fulfilled its promises to them of an independent state. If this British promise had been fulfilled, it is very unlikely that the Karen would be engaged in their current long and damaging conflict with the Burmese regime.

The policy of the Burmese regime, presently known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), formerly known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)-they were renamed in November 1997; is to counter the armed resistance by Karen guerrillas by attacking the Karen civilian population until they can no longer support any opposition. This is the fundamental idea behind the Four Cuts policy (cutting supplies of food, funds, recruits and intelligence to the' resistance) which General Ne Win initiated in the 1970s.

The systematic and direct attacks by the Burmese army upon Karen civilians are characterised by mass forced relocations, forced labour, destruction of villages and have become even more prevalent and destructive in the last 2 to 3 years. The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) reports that the current SPDC plan for consolidating control over areas where there is resistance appears to consist of the following steps:

Mount a military offensive against the area;
Forcibly relocate all villages to sites under direct Army control;
Use relocated villagers and others as forced labour, portering and building military access roads into their home areas;
Move more Army units in and use the villagers as forced labour to build bases along the access roads;
Allow the villagers back to their villages, where they are now under complete military control and can be used as a rotating source of extortion money and forced labour, further consolidating control. If resistance attacks by the Karen National Liberation Army persist at this last stage, retaliation is carried out against villages by executing village elders, burning houses and other means.

The first two steps of this strategy can be combined or reversed in order in some cases. KHRG reports that throughout Burma we can see examples where the Four Cuts Policy is at various stages: in central Shan State and eastern Tenasserim Division, SPDC is working on stages 1 and 2; in Duplaya District of central Karen State, which they just occupied in early 1997, they are implementing stages 2 and 3; in the free-fire zones of southern Tenasserim Division they are between stages 3 and 4 while in the western plains of Nyaunglebin District, Thaton District and many other areas they have already reached stage 5.

When the Burmese military destroy a village, the policy is to burn every house and building, including livestock sheds. In many cases, elderly or handicapped people found left behind inside their houses have been deliberately burned to death inside their house. Village schools and churches are particularly targeted for burning. By the time the burning is over, most villages are nothing but a plain of black ash.

Martin Smith, in his report, "Ethnic Groups in Burma, Development, Democracy and Human Rights - A report by Anti-Slavery International" states that Burmese military units have distributed written commands to hundreds of villages in Papun and Paan districts of Karen state, ordering them to relocate, to inform on Karen National Union supporters, to supply unpaid labourers and to provide troops with materials. Many were stamped 'Comply Without Fail'. A 'Notification Order' dated 21 November 1992, sent to the headman of Kyauk Done village, explicitly warned of the army's readiness to shoot unarmed civilians:

When the villagers in this village meet the military column, they run away and escape. Therefore starting from this date you must notify the villagers not to run away and escape any longer.
Next time they meet the military column, if they run to escape, they will be shot, arrested and questioned. After this, if they have been wounded or killed, our military column will not be responsible for that. You have hereby been informed.

Martin Smith reports that a typical threat of extra-judicial action by the military was made under an order dated 7 December 1992 issued by the "Committee for the Relocation of Villages" in Paan, the Karen state capital. The inhabitants of over 40 Karen villages west of the Salween River were commanded to move with their belongings to designated army-controlled settlements within three weeks. Those refusing to comply were warned: Any rice and cattle left behind will be confiscated if found by the military columns. If any villagers hide in the forest, they will be shot and arrested.

2. SOME EXAMPLES OF ATROCITIES BY BURMESE SOLDIERS AGAINST THE KAREN

One form of forced labour that is common is the use of Karen civilians as porters for the Burmese Army, carrying heavy loads of ammunition and supplies through the jungle. In June 1996, Naw Ku Ser's (her name has been changed to protect her) husband was taken away by Burmese soldiers when they forced him to become a porter. At that time he was suffering from malaria. A couple of weeks later, when he was too ill and exhausted to carry on portering, the Burmese soldiers killed him.

About six months afterwards, her son-in-law was also forced to become a porter and was executed when he was too ill to continue. Burmese soldiers have also been known to use porters as human minesweepers, pushing them forward into minefields in front of the main body of troops.

Naw Paw Wah's (not her real name) husband was forced by Burmese soldiers to become a porter in December 1996. Ten days later he was shot dead because he could not go on any further. Three other porters in his group were also murdered by the Burmese soldiers.

Naw Muh Eh, a Karen villager, told the KHRG, "They were going to burn our houses so they wanted us out of our houses, and they didn't give us any chance to take our possessions. We all ran away. We had to run all the time, every month...A lot of people were ill: diarrhoea, malaria, beriberi, abscesses, stomach pains and so on. We had no medicine there, we just had to use the roots of trees. People died of illness, especially the children - they died of illness and weakness. Where we were staying I saw over 50 people die of illness..."

Saw Wah Lay, 34, said in June 1997, "Two weeks ago some people went to get some rice, and the Burmese met with them and shot at them. They shot at a child, both of his legs were broken and then they killed the child. They smashed his head. His mother was shot in the chest and died too. Now the villagers don't dare stay in our village anymore, they've gone to stay all over the place." (KHRG Interview)

Saw Kaw Muh, 40, said, "if they see someone in the forest they kill him. They killed 2 children in Koh Reh Hta, close to my village. I don't know their names, but one of them was 5 years old and the other was 8 years old. They were children. The Burmese saw the children in (R)the forest so they killed them. They hacked them and killed them with a knife. My friend saw their bodies and told me about it." (KHRG Interview)

Saw Maw Ko, a 12-year-old boy from Tee Blah village, was shot in the leg by a Burmese soldier while trying to harvest rice in his field in November 1997. While he lay on the ground the troops approached and finished him off with a knife. (KHRG)

Pi Paw Wah, a 60-year-old woman, describes what it was like being on the run from the Burmese."The Burmese tried to run after us like a hunter tries to catch animals in the forest. Even after we had left (the area to flee to Thailand) they were still looking for us. We couldn't even think of building a house - if we heard a gunshot we had to flee." (KHRG Interview)

Saw Mu Lah sums it up when he says, "Every one of us has come close to being killed by the Burmese. If they see us we must die." (KHRG Interview)

Normally no warning is given and Karen villagers are simply shot on sight. The Burmese army's approach to the Karen is ruthless in its simplicity - enslave or eliminate them.

For some, the stress is too much to bear. In one Karen family, 9 children lost their mother when she hanged herself because she could not cope with the hardship any longer. Then their village was destroyed by Burmese soldiers and they fled into hiding in the jungle, where their father fell ill and died.

One Christian leader reported how he had to move from one village to another in Burma, because of attacks by the Burmese army. Three times the soldiers burnt his house down, in 1974, 1983 and 1995. In 1975 his mother died from exposure to the harsh conditions in the jungle, where they had to seek refuge because Burmese soldiers had destroyed their home and it was not safe to return to their village. His mother was 36 when she died.

On 13th January 1998, Burmese Light Infantry Battalion No. 42-, led by Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Win burned down the Karen village of Mae The Mu Kee. The soldiers also destroyed 1080 baskets of rice and extorted 6500 Kyats (Burmese currency) from the villagers.

3. THE PREVALENCE OF RAPE AGAINST ETHNIC WOMEN

In 1996 Burmese soldiers raped four Karen women in Pa Pun District. They then killed two of the women, who were pregnant, by stamping on their bellies and murdered the other two by driving sharpened bamboo stakes into them.

Many human rights groups have documented numerous incidents of rape by Burmese troops against women from the different ethnic minority groups. For instance, reports by KHRG from 1994 to 1997 detail numerous incidents of rape against Karen women during forced labour and during military occupation of villages. Amnesty International has also documented incidents of rape against minority women.

"Burma and the Role of Women" produced by the All Burma Student's Democratic Front states: "Women are reportedly raped while they are working as porters in the military column." (Human Rights Violations by SLORC Troops: Karen Area, Karen National Union, 1992)

In addition to beatings and poor conditions, women are at risk of rape by troops during their detention as porters. Women undergo the worst treatment. They reported being raped by one or more soldiers nearly every night, and still having to carry supplies or ammunition every day. Those who resisted were killed. In many cases, women are used for more purposes than men. Women are more versatile in their usefulness: forced labour to work as porters; human shield for the fighting army; property that can be redeemed for a good sum of money; and entertainment for soldiers which ends in repeated rape."

The following excerpt is from "School For Rape, The Burmese Military and Sexual Violence," an Earthrights International Report:

All rapes are horrible, and a woman who survives one incident of rape by a single soldier is no less violated than a woman who lives through a gang rape. A few accounts of military rapes of ethnic women make clear this point:

"I was kept as a porter in October. They said it would only be for four days, but they kept me for one month and four days...At night I couldn't sleep because I often saw guards come and take the youngest girls away...Two times I had to carry separately from the group and ended up alone in the forest with the soldiers at night. Both times the soldiers came to me and beat me, showed me their guns to keep me quiet, and then raped me. The first time I was raped by six soldiers, and the second night this happened I was raped by four soldiers." (KHRG Report, February 16, 1996)

"One night last November more than sixty SLORC soldiers from 99 Division came through our village. I heard many soldiers pass my house... then one soldier came straight into my house, and he put out the light right away so I couldn't see his face...He said, "Lay down, mother." I refused, so he pushed me and I fell on my children. They started crying and the soldier jumped on me and started to wrestle with me. Then he put his rifle barrel against my face; it felt so cold and made me so afraid I can't tell you. He put the barrel against my chest and pushed me down again. He grabbed my throat and said, "If you scream, I'll choke you!" and tried to slap me but I turned my face away. So he took his gun and held it against one side of my face and pulled out his knife and held it against the other side, and said, "If you fight or cry or shout, I'll kill you!" My sarong had already come apart while we were fighting. He raped me and I couldn't even scream." (KHRG report, February 1 1993)

and

"They point their guns at women and rape them. The next day, they let me go. I saw many women that the soldiers took away. When they see a beautiful girl, they call her and rape her. They raped many women but one of the girls died. She was fifteen years old. She was raped so many times she died...." (KHRG report, May 22, 1996)

The following statements were made during interviews by Earthrights International and are contained in their report, "School For Rape":

"Many women members of our revolutionary organization have been harmed by SLORC. Some of them were killed. Some were arrested and some were killed after being raped. The soldiers do so many bad things to the women, I cannot say them all."

"In my village, there were two spinsters.....The soldiers came to the house and asked the spinsters to show them the way to a military camp. The woman staying in the house heard them talking to the soldiers and saw the spinsters go with the soldiers. The next time the villagers saw them, they were dead and lying face down on the ground. The soldiers raped and killed them. When we found them, they were lying on the ground without any clothes on below their waists. One of the women's throats had been cut; the other had been shot."

A refugee woman, a leader of the Karen Women's Organisation (KWO), believes Burmese soldiers target KWO members for harm because of their possible relationship to insurgent men:

"The Burmese soldiers thought I was with the KNU (Karen National Union, the political organisation of the ethnic Karen people). There were seven women leaders who worked for the KWO who were shot at night; two were killed. So it doesn't matter what I say; if they think KWO is like the KNU, they will treat us like the KNU... it is dangerous to be with KWO because soldiers don't like us."

"The Burmese army says that the KNU nation is their enemy, rebels against them, and we are the KNU people. The Karen girls are the KNU people, so they rape them." :

4. PROBLEMS FOR KAREN REFUGEES SEEKING SANCTUARY IN THAILAND

Karen refugees who manage to get to Thailand may be refused entry at the border or face forcible repatriation. On February 24th 1997, 500 men out of a group of Karen people seeking refuge were refused permission to cross the border to Ban Pu Nam Rawn in Thailand. The next day, about 230 male Karen refugees at Ban Bong Tee in Thailand were forcibly repatriated back to Burma.

Even in Thailand the Karen are at risk, as Burmese troops and their allies, the so-called Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) regularly carry out cross-border raids, attacking and killing Karen refugees. At about 1 am on March 11th 1998, a combined force of about 50 Burmese troops and DKBA soldiers attacked Wanghka refugee camp in Thailand, burning it to the ground. About 40 refugees were injured in the raid and 5 were killed, including a pregnant woman, a four year old boy and a fifteen year old girl who suffered 70% burns. The camp had a population of 8,769 refugees and was previously burnt down in an attack by Burmese soldiers on 28th January 1997.

Naw Bway Tee, an 85 year old Karen grandmother was killed instantly on January 29th 1997, when Burmese soldiers and the DKBA fired rocket propelled grenades at Bekhlo (otherwise known as Mae La) refugee camp in Thailand. Another elderly woman in her seventies was seriously injured and later died. A ten-year-old girl, Hsa Gler Mu, sustained serious shrapnel wounds to her stomach.

Bekhlo refugee camp was attacked again on February 15th 1998 when Burmese troops fired rocket-propelled grenades at the camp. Fortunately there was no damage to the camp and no one was injured as the grenades fell short of the camp. On March 15th, the Burmese shelled Bekhlo camp with mortars, injuring one refugee.

At around 1 am on 23rd March 1998, Burmese troops and the DKBA attacked Maw Ker refugee camp. First, they shelled the camp with mortars, after that, Burmese and DKBA soldiers entered the camp opened fire on the refugees with small arms. Refugees state that the commands given by the military leaders were in Burmese, confirming the participation of Burmese troops in the attack. The attacking force burned down about 50 houses, making an estimated 300 refugees homeless. There were 14 casualties, including children, and four were seriously wounded.

On November 15th 1997, Thai troops opened fire on Karen refugees in the Thay Pu Law Sue refugee area. In the ensuing panic caused by the shooting, a baby was dropped and another baby fell to the ground by accident and both died as a result. The Thai soldiers were apparently punishing the refugees for their failure to move to another location.

5. SUGGESTED ACTION

Jubilee Campaign is gravely concerned by the systematic enslavement and extermination of the Karen people by the Burmese military regime and believes that the following action should be taken as a matter of urgency, before more lives are lost:

International economic sanctions against Burma, to isolate the Burmese regime and deprive them of the resources to buy arms and other weapons of destruction with. Only purely humanitarian resources like food and medicine should be exempted from such sanctions. Years of attempts at so-called constructive engagement with the Burmese regime has only emboldened them in their human rights violations and the number of atrocities committed by the regime have increased. The Burmese army has also had no hesitation in conducting repeated raids on refugee camps in Thailand, in flagrant violation of Thailand's sovereignty and international law. There should be increased pressure by the British government with the European Union for tough EU economic sanctions against Burma. Furthermore, Britain should use its seat on the UN Security Council to call for an international embargo against Burma. Britain should also encourage the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), who admitted Burma to its membership, to place pressure on the Burmese regime over their human rights record.
International recognition that what is taking place in Burma amounts to genocide and a War Crimes Tribunal should be set up to try those responsible for the atrocities, as happened in the case of Bosnia.
Permanent presence by U.N Human Rights Monitors in eastern Burma to investigate reports of human rights violations and to monitor the situation. Such a presence would also help deter the Burmese army from continuing with their attacks against the Karen people.
Increased role by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. At the moment, the UNHCR has no official role in these camps as the Thai government does not officially recognise the people in the camps as refugees. The UNHCR cannot even send their staff to visit the camps without prior permission from the Thai authorities.The UNHCR should have an official role in the camps but this should NOT include repatriation as it would be highly dangerous and irresponsible to repatriate refugees back to Burma with the situation as it currently is. The coalition of non-governmental organisations, known as the Burmese Border Consortium (BBC) is already doing an admirable job in ensuring that the refugee's material needs are met. The UNHCR's role should therefore be limited to the protection and welfare of the refugees and acting as an advocate for them, raising concerns on their behalf about these issues, while at the same time closely consulting with the refugees about their needs. To this end, officials from the UNHCR should have unrestricted access to the camps on the Thai-Burma border and be able to have a permanent office on the border.
While recognising that the Thai government has done a lot to give shelter to refugees from Burma, there is still much room for improvement and the Thai authorities should be encouraged to improve their protection of the refugee camps, to ensure that those seeking refuge in Thailand are not turned away at the border and that no forced repatriations take place.
The Thai authorities have also generally been more restrictive on the refugees' movements, who were in the past permitted more freedom to leave the camps to forage for food in the forests or to trade outside to earn some extra income for themselves. This limitation of their freedom to leave the camps has deprived the refugees of what little self-sufficiency they had and made them much more dependent on the BBC to meet all their material needs. The Thai authorities should be encouraged to allow the refugees freedom to leave the camps as they did in the past. Any plans to move the refugees to another site should also be done in consultation with them. The refugees should be closely consulted on issues of protection and relocation. Any incidents of violence by Thai soldiers against the refugees should be investigated thoroughly, publicly and impartially and the guilty parties must be strictly dealt with.

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