FOCUS: Karenni continue to seek shelter in Thailand

0 Comments | Asian Political News, May 21, 2001

MAE HONG SON, Thailand, May 14 Kyodo

Continued fighting between Myanmar troops and members of the Karenni ethnic group is forcing many noncombatant Karenni to flee into Thailand for safety.

Amid skirmishes in the Karenni home state Kayah, Myanmar's junta has been relocating many Karenni from their homes and villages to designated areas in other parts of the state, saying life in the special areas will be safer and better for farming.

But many Karenni charge the policy is a simply junta defense strategy to spread people thinly over a wide area to cut possible contact or cooperation among ordinary Karenni and the guerrillas.

And in the so-called ''safer and better places'' provided by the junta, many Karenni only find forced labor and new fear.

U Mah, 65, who arrived at a refugee camp in Ban Nai Soi near the Thai-Myanmar border in Thailand's Mae Hong Song Province in March, said she walked for 15 nights from Kayah's capital Loi-kaw to the camp.

Originally from a small village, she was forced to move to a junta-designated area in 1996.

''The Myanmar soldiers killed our village chief, then they forced us to relocate to Demoso within two hours. I didn't have time to pack...could only bring a few clothes, a pot and some rice. My son went back to get some other belongings, but he stepped on a land mine,'' U Mah told Kyodo News in an interview at the Thai refugee camp.

She said that after the villagers were sent to their new area, Myanmar's military planted land mines around the village to prevent people from returning to their homes.

At her new home in Demoso township, she worked in paddy fields for food, while her husband and many other villagers were forced to become porters for the military.

''My husband was forced to be a porter...kicked when he was exhausted and could not carry on,'' U Mah said.

''It was dangerous living there. The military tortured people, disemboweled them, for information on Karenni militants,'' she said.

After living in the ''safe area'' for three years, U Mah moved to Loi-kaw where she worked as a maid. But living conditions were little better and she decided to flee for the refugee camp in Thailand earlier this year.

''I met a group of people who were going to the camp...more people joined along the way. We had to walk at night only to hide from the military,'' she said. ''Now, I feel more relaxed because I don't have to worry about the military and my youngest son is going back to school.''

At the camp, about 20,000 refugees share small bamboo huts that have no electricity and depend for food mostly on the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Burmese Border Consortium, which supplies rice, yellow beans, oil and chili.

Most want to return to Myanmar but not before the living conditions there improve drastically.

A 42-year-old construction worker, who asked for anonymity, said he was forced into labor as a porter in Myanmar, carrying rice from military camp to military camp for four months.

But when the soldiers beat one of his friends to death because of frailty, the construction worker decided to escape to Thailand.

''One day, when I was carrying rice on the way to a military base without any guard, three friends and I escaped. We went into the jungle without thinking, followed the streams and luckily met some villagers who told us how to get to the camp,'' he said.

Because of the forced labor and other reported human rights violations, a leading Karenni NGO has warned Japan not to give grants to Myanmar's junta for the repair of a power station in Kayah State.

Karenni Evergreen fears the money will be misused and the military use forced labor for any reconstruction that does proceed.

The Japanese government is considering a grant of 3.5 billion yen (about $24 million) for repair of the Bluchaung hydroelectric power station in Kayah, calling the assistance humanitarian aid for the poor.

But Karenni Evergreen says the assistance will benefit only the junta, not ordinary people.

''Who will ensure that the State Peace and Development Council (Myanmar's junta) could spend all $24 million on repair? Will forced labor take place? How much can (the junta) gain for those who lost their homes, land and belongings?'' the NGO questioned in its statement warning Japan to drop the aid plan.