Human Rights

The late Khun Kya Oo, in picture 1 and 2 was the founder of the Shan Human Rights Foundation.
 In picture 2, the second on the right is Khun Kya Oo talking to one of the early groups of
Shan refugees fleeing to Thailand .

 When alive he worked tirelessly as a human right activist until his death in 2000. 
His successors, the present SHRF members are continuing where he left off, and are doing
the same excellent job.

 The below information on cases of human right  abuses by the SPDC against the people
 of the Shan State is a collective reports from the monthly news letters of SHRF and "SHAN" .
Most pictures came from the same sources; a few were either given to me when I visited Thailand
or sent to me by post from friends and acquaintances.

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS ADOPTED BY THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS ON 19-12-1948
 

“Members state have pledged themselves to achieve in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion
 of universal respect for the observance of human rights and fundamental freedom”

 “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and  conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood”

 “All human beings have the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of life.”

 “No one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman degrading treatment or punishment”
 “Everyone has the right to nationality”.

 “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion- peoples have the right of
self –determination. By virtue of that right they shall freely determine their political status and freely
pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

 “No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour”

 “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention” 

“In those states in which several ethnic, religious or linguistic nationals exist, persons belonging to such
nationals shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their
culture, to profess and practise their own religion or to use their own language. 

The above are a few of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 and the International
Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights, in1966 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
signed by 36 member states in 1996.

The successive military regimes of Burma without the consent of the people of any of the ethnic states:
Shan, Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Chin, Mon, Arakan and Burma Proper appointed themselves the governing body
of Burma. Although illegitimate the United Nation has given the successive military regimes a chance to
 represent Burma as a whole. But as a government or representative of the peoples of Burma they have
not honoured the pledge of the declarations of human rights and have in fact committed acts totally
contradictory to those laid down in the UN Charter.

The Shan State which was one of the Federal States of the Ex-Union of Burma was once a quiet and
peaceful country is now a land of fear and terror under the Burmese military regimes.
 Throughout its entire existence the SPDC Dictatorial Regime is determined to use brutal force to rule the
citizens of Burma especially those belonging to the non-Burman ethnic nationals and those who do not
submit to its tyrannical demand. The brutal force used are all gross violations of human rights as seen in
the cases below:
 

Relocation Site

BURMA: EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION, TORTURE AND POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT OF MEMBERS OF THE SHAN AND OTHER ETHNIC MINORITIES

Date of publication: August 1988 Description/subject:

"This document presents new evidence of a consistent pattern of unlawful killing and ill-treatment of members of Burma's ethnic minorities by security forces, including the army and police. It is a follow-up to a document published in  May 1988, Burma: Extrajudicial Execution and Torture of Members of Ethnic Minorities. That document presented evidence of unlawful killings and torture of members of the Karen, Kachin and Mon ethnic minorities. This document provides information about allegations of similarly severe violations of the human rights of members of the Shan ethnic minority. It also describes the cases of two or three Shan who may be prisoners of conscience. There is information suggesting they may be imprisoned because of their ethnic background and their non-violent political opinions or peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression..." Language: English Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/10/88)

The above was released by Amnesty International in 1988, but the longer the Dictators hold on to power the lower they sink deeper into their violent acts when treating Shans and other ethnic citizens.

Land Confiscation

Since early 2001, SPDC military authorities in Larng-Khur have confiscated thousands of acres of cultivated land of the people of Larng-Khur township to be used for building military bases and other military facilities. The SPDC troops have bulldozed and cleared all the sugarcane in the plain and used the place as a military training ground. They forced the local people to cut the trees and clear the surrounding higher ground to build a military camp with several barracks for the soldiers. At about the same time, several acres of tobacco plantations in Kho Ta village tract were confiscated from the local people to set up a base for a Light Infantry Battalion. Several
acres of tobacco plantations in Pung Thun village were also confiscated to make a base for an artillery unit. In this way, many sugarcane and tobacco farmers in Larng-Khur township have lost their lands, and thus their livelihood.
 

From ICFTU Burma Report, November 2001

Their homes and farmlands being confiscated by the SPDC , their lives and society disintegrated, the Shans are fleeing to Thailand.

 An exodus of Refugees fleeing to Thailand

Internally Displaced People hiding temporarily in the Monastery

Internally Displaced People trying to dig the land to see whether they could grow food crops

Internally Displaced family Foraging for food

 Internally Displaced Children left on their own while their parents go in search of food or having a rest

What can they do when all their homes and farmlands have been confiscated, but flee to Thailand and neighbouring Countries.

In July 2004 the whole village of Murng Na had to move due to land confiscation by the Burmese junta, including 150 acres of rice fields and vegetable and fruit gardens. Nothing seemed to satisfy their greed; they would just take whatever they want by force. Well cared for evergreen woodlands, fish ponds and forests belonging to the Shan people have been confiscated and damaged.

Forced Labour

In mid-June 2001, SPDC troops from LIB514 forcibly conscripted 250 civilian porters including 108 women and children, some as young as eight, from among the displaced persons who had been forcibly relocated to the outskirts of Murng-Kerng town four - five years ago by the then SLORC troops.

On 13 June 2001, after an armed clash between SPDC troops and Shan resistance soldiers in Murng-Kerng township, a patrol of SPDC troops from LIB514 led by Capt. Thein Maung, under the orders of the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Hla Myint, conscripted 250 civilian porters from the relocation site on the outskirts of Murng-Kerng town.

The SPDC troops took all the adult men, and from houses where men were not available they took women and children..... [The 250] were conscripted and forced to carry ammunition, rice and other food stuff and military things. These villagers were forced to serve the military without pay for 16 days, during which all the women porters above 15 years of age were said to have been raped by the SPDC soldiers, and were released on 28 June 2001. About 5-6 days later, the same SPDC troops ordered the village headmen in the area to  provide 10-15 civilians

Forced to repair fence for the Army

Forced to take part in the ceremony of planting Physic plants

On July 2001, seven villagers who had lodged a complaint with SPDC military authorities about increasing use of forced labour by SPDC troops were killed by SPDC troops from Kun-Hing based !B246 and their bodies dumped into Nam Taeng.

 In addition to expanding the area of forced relocation the regime's troops also began systematically  killing villagers caught outside the relocation sites in order to deter people in the location site from  returning to their villages.

 On March 30, 1997 SLORC troops raped and shot dead a girl of 12 while she was taking hay to feed the  cattle in her old village of Ho Pung, Lai Kha township. When her relatives requested permission to bury  the body , the SLORC troops said, "She must be kept like this as an example for you people of Shan State to see. If you bury her you must die with her".(SHRF June 1997 monthly report).

On July 11 1997, SLORC troops laid out the beheaded bodies of 26 villages beside the main Keng Lom Kun Hing road to warn villagers not to stray from the relocation sites. On July 12 another 12 headless corpses were laid on the same road.(SHRF)
 

Ai Pi, aged 4 killed the same time as above

A Shan man killed and beheaded by the Burmese military junta

In 1997 alone the SHRF recorded the total of 664 villagers being murdered in the relocation site alone. This number is the confirmed total but it is believed that many more had been killed.(For detailed account please refer to a booklet, "Dispossessed ", published  by SHRF in 1998)

Example Case, 16 June 1997

Two groups of villagers who relocated to the town of Kun Hing were given permission to return to their villages to collect rice. They left in two convoys of bullock carts. Both groups were stopped on the way by SLORC troops; one near Sai Khaos, one near Tard PA HO Waterfall. In one group, 29 of the villages were massacred, in the other 27.

One of the survivors , a woman with a small child, who was spared related the horror of the massacre: "We were made to stay in a house . They (the SLORC troops( came to the door and called out the people. They called away 16 people first, 12 men and 2 women. Then Then they came to call another group of 10 --- Then to the west I heard burst of machine gun fire..... They were killing the 16 people. Then after just a bit I heard a gun fire. In the group of 10 my husband died. In the group of 16 my younger sister and her died.... I was sure | would be killed too.. I was shaking,! I was sitting and shaking all the time.

 My blood was hot all over my body. I could not think properly. I would have ran away but they were standing there guarding me..I think I would be dead if I didn't have my son with me. One of the women who was killed left her son at home. She squeezed out milk from her breast to show she had a baby, but the SLORC Commander said that her baby must have died (and killed her anyway)" (KHRG interview with villager from Keng Kham. August 30, 1997)

 Bodies and Skeletons of of the 27 villagers killed by SLORC IB246 at Tard Pa Ho, south of Kun Hing June 16 1997 (still video frontage, Image Asia)

Shan Villagers looking for corpses of their murdered Relatives

Shan Villagers looking for corpses of their murdered detectives

Shan Villagers taking their relatives' skeletons to the staff of NGO so that they could be identified and recorded

A display of skulls and skeletons of Shan victims murdered by the military junta (1)

 A display of skulls and skeletons of Shan victims murdered by the military junta (2)

License to Rape 

“License to Rape” is a report on the Burmese Military regime’s use of sexual violence in the ongoing war in the Shan State compiled by Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women Active Net Work. (2002) This report details 173 incidences of rape and other forms of sexual abuses , involving 625 girls and women, committed by the Burmese army troops in the Shan State between 1996 – 2001. (For detailed please contact SWAN)

Even after the publication of "Licence to Rape" the SHRF is still reporting cases of rape in the Shan State At the beginning of 2003 a 13 year old girl was raped for 10 days ; her father and husband were killed.In June 2003, 5 daughters of a displaced farmer, whose ages were between 13-16 were detained and raped in Nam Zarng
 2 women shot dead and 17 women were detained and raped in Mong Sart for three nights.

On the 24th April 2005 a girl aged 7 was raped by the Burmese soldiers – Ae Kya aged 7 and her sister Ae Pi, aged 12 were picking wild vegetables along a brook outside a village, Na Tong Mou where they lived when they saw two Burmese soldiers coming towards them.  Ae Pi instructed her younger sister to run while she herself ran as fast as she could.  Ae Kya couldn’t run very fast so the soldiers caught up with her.  In the meantime Ae Pi had reached home and related the story to her parents.  The parents and villagers went in search of the little girl and they found her unconscious and badly hurt.  They carried her to the hospital in Kun Hing but the doctors could not revive her..

Alex Spillers of the Telegraph reports from the border region where Burma’s army is using rape as a weapon of war:

“Nang Lek has a recurring dream in which she runs and runs from pursuing soldiers.

It ends before they catch her. “I wish in real life I had got away, but I didn’t”, she said in a fragile voice, bowing her head. One morning in January she and two other women, desperate for food, left the jungle where they had been hiding from the Burmese army, which earlier had attacked a nearby village. They came across a patrol . The others escaped but she was captured and ordered at gun point to go with them. 

That evening her 15 day rape ordeal began,” I can’t remember how many there were. Who ever wanted came and slept with me. They used me like a dog”, Weak, emaciated and traumatized, she was freed near the point where she had been seized. Members of her family had to carry her for much of the day and a half journey to the doctor, where she recuperated before fleeing Shan State for Northern Thailand. Her account provides damning evidence in support of a new human rights report, “Licence to Rape”, which accuses Burmese troops of using sexual violence as a weapon of war to discourage support for rebel groups.

Refugees Without status and Without Camps

Unlike the Karen and Karenni populations, people fleeing persecution from Shan state have not been permitted to establish refugee camps in Thailand. As such, they are unable to receive humanitarian relief from the consortium of NGOs that provide material assistance to refugee camps along the border. Historically, Shan people entering Thailand have been viewed as a seasonal labour for orchard farming and construction sites. However, in July 1996, a group of Shan volunteers in Thailand made an urgent appeal to UNHCR. They drew attention to the persecution by the Burmese army and asked to be able to set up refugee camps. In particular, they wanted to alleviate the suffering of the children, the sick, and elderly grandparents who had been forced across the border.
The Thai government continues to deny that refugees from Shan state exist. It is estimated that Shan refugees have been arriving in Thailand at an average rate of at least 1,000 per month for thelast few years.

A report detailing rapes of Shan women inside Burma has once again highlighted the need for some sort of recognition of Shan refugees in Thailand. Survivors of rape who managed to reach Thailand have no protection, no access to humanitarian aid or to counseling services. Thousands of people from the Shan State have fled Burma, many for exactly the same reasons as refugees in camps, and have not entered refugee camps. They have instead joined the exploited and often underpaid factory workers, construction workers, domestic servants, and sex workers currently residing in Thailand.
 

A small group of refugees, nearing Thailand

Shan Refugees on arrival in Thailand is receiving bags of Rice from Burma Relief Centre

Shan Refugees arriving at the Shan State/Thailand Border and resting under a Banana Grove

Shan Refugees having a meal in a lychee Farm in Thailand

A Shelter of Shan Refugees/migrant workers in Thailand

Shan Orphans

Destruction of anything that is Shan: architectural buildings, pagodas, road signs etc.

To the military junta, anything that does not fit into the Burman ethnic culture has no place and cannot exist in the Myanmar which they hope to create. People with religious beliefs other than that of Buddhism, along with their places of worship have to be rid of. The majority of Shans are mostly Buddhists but the architectural designs of Shan Pagodas and monasteries are different from those of the Burman's, so they have to be to destroyed and replaced with those of Burman architectural designs.

Nobody is allowed to speak any language other than Burmese. Shan monks are forbidden to teach in Shan language to their pupils. Road as well as house signs have been changed from Shan script to that of Burman's.
 

Kengtung Hotel, built to replace the Kengtung Palace.

Other than for self benefit the military Junta does not consider the welfare of the citizens, nor for the environment of the country. Teak and other hard wood have been so excessively logged in Shan State that it is having a drastic effects on the environment.
 

The Shan hills and mountains are now almost devoid of trees

Logging and mining in the forests and lands around the Salween River causes erosion and pollution. Dams also pose significant problems for the migratory species and the ecology of the river.

"THREATENED PEOPLES, THREATENED RIVER (By Salween Watch)

The Salween River, one of the great rivers of Southeast Asia, is under threat. The governments of the Salween countries; Burma, Thailand and China have been pushing forward with plans to dam this still free-flowing river. It is planned to both exploit the hydropower potential of the entire river basin, as well as to divert water to Thailand. A series of large dams along the course of the river, in southern China and the eastern states of Burma are being considered.

The dams will have major impact on the local ethnic people, who will suffer displacement and dispossession. In Burma, these people have already been suffering from many decades of brutal conflict that has decimated their populations. Preparations for the dam construction, including securing the dam sites and clearing the flood areas, have already caused gross human rights violations and massive population displacement (maps), although this has been concealed by the context of the ongoing civil war.

The development plans were made without consideration of the recommendations made by the World Commission on Dams. This reality together with the many negative impacts of large dams, make the projects unacceptable. In Burma the dams will be used by the military dictatorship for further oppression of its people. In order to bring an immediate halt to the Salween dam plans, urgent action is needed".

The Mighty and the Beautiful Salween

No Dams on the Salween, please

In the midst of of the present crisis, while the Shan and the Karen people count the dead and nurse the injured without medications, they ask themselves: "Have we not got the right to live like other human beings?"

It is the the Generals that give orders to the soldier, crouching over his rifle, who knows nothing better than the hunger for the desire to kill as he lives every day of his life by the gun, by the command and by the indoctrination of his master.