Written evidence submitted by Benedict
Rogers, human rights advocate and journalist
HUMAN RIGHTS
IN BURMA:
A CATALOGUE
OF BRUTALITY
Introduction:
1. Burma is currently ruled by an illegal
junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), which calls
the country "Myanmar". The SPDC is the latest in a succession
of military regimes that have ruled the country since General
Ne Win seized power in a coup in 1962. The junta has brutally
suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations, notably in 1988 when
hundreds of protestors were massacred.
2. Elections were held in 1990, and overwhelmingly
won by the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Laureate
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The NLD won over 80% of the parliamentary
seats, but the regime refused to hand over power, and instead
imprisoned the victors and intensified its grip on power.
3. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained
under house arrest three times, for a total of over nine years
since 1990, with brief periods of release. On 30 May 2003 a mob
attacked her convoy in Depayin, and she was placed under house
arrest once again. It is generally believed that the attack was
orchestrated by the current Prime Minister, Lt General Soe Win.
It has recently been reported that the SPDC has extended her period
of house arrest for at least another year. While the SPDC has
promised to release her, they have set no date for her release.
4. Since the 30 May attack in Depayin, the
SPDC has reconvened a National Convention to draw up a constitution,
as part of a seven-stage "roadmap to democracy". However,
over 900 of the 1,000 delegates are handpicked by the junta, and
pro-democracy groups and the main representatives of the ethnic
nationalities have been excluded from the process. The SPDC refused
to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders, thus denying
them the opportunity to participate in the National Convention.
5. Towards the end of 2003, the SPDC initiated
ceasefire talks with the Karen National Union (KNU), the largest
armed ethnic resistance group who have been fighting a civil war
for 55 years. A verbal ceasefire was agreed, and talks have continued
throughout 2004. However, while some areas of Karen State have
seen a decrease in military hostilities, thousands have been displaced
in Karen and Karenni areas as a result of continued military activities
against civilians. The SPDC has so far rejected the KNU's demands,
and has instead demanded that the KNU cease recruitment and training
of its troops, and desist from contacts with pro-democracy and
non-ceasefire groups.
6. On 19 October 2004 previous Prime Minister
General Khin Nyunt, who initiated the National Convention and
the ceasefire talks with the KNU, was deposed in an internal coup,
and placed under house arrest. He was replaced by Lt General Soe
Win. Other senior personnel changes have taken place in recent
months. However, as one Burmese exile put it, "the Burmese
regime has changed the words and the people it uses, but it has
not changed its policy."
7. The SPDC has recently released 9,000
prisoners. However, according to the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (AAPP), only 40 of these are political prisoners,
out of 1,400 estimated political prisoners. While the release
of democracy leader Min Ko Naing is welcome, there is scepticism
among the democracy groups and ethnic nationalities about the
motivations for the release.
8. Over 140,000 refugees, mainly Karen and
Karenni, are in camps in Thailand. Approximately 20,000 refugees,
mainly Rohingya, are in Bangladesh, and an estimated 52,000 Chin
and Kachin are refugees in India.
9. There is widespread and continuing evidence
of the systematic forced relocation of ethnic villages, and the
use of forced labour, human minesweepers, child soldiers, torture,
religious persecution, killings and the destruction of village,
rice barns, livestock and crops.
10. Burma has the highest number of forcibly
conscripted child soldiers in the world. Human Rights Watch, in
its report My Gun Was As Tall As Me, estimates there are 70,000
forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the Burma Army, making
up 20% of the entire military. Interviews with former child soldiers
indicate a common pattern of children, some as young as 11, being
taken from bus stops and street corners, or on their way home
from school, and forced to join the army.
11. The widespread, systematic use of rape
as a weapon of war by the Burma Army has been documented in many
reports by organisations such as Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW), and in reports such as License to Rape (Shan Human Rights
Foundation, 2002); No Safe Place (Refugees International, 2003);
Shattering Silences (Karen Women's Organisation, 2004); System
of Impunity (Women's League of Burma, 2004). The US State Department
Bureau of Democracy, Labour and Human Rights investigated and
confirmed the findings of License to Rape in 2002.
Research Methods:
12. Since 2000, I have visited Karen, Karenni
and Shan ethnic nationality groups and Burman pro-democracy exiles
on the Thai-Burmese border, and internally displaced people inside
Burma, eight times. In March 2004 I travelled with Baroness Cox
to New Delhi and Mizoram State on the India-Burma border, to visit
Chin and Kachin refugees from Burma, and in April 2004, I travelled
with Baroness Cox and John Bercow MP to the Thai-Burmese border.
I conducted a further two-week visit to the Thai-Burmese border
in November 2004. During each visit, I have obtained first-hand
evidence of continuing gross violations of human rights in the
ethnic nationality areas. I have interviewed former child soldiers
who have escaped from the Burma Army, women who have been raped,
and people who have been used for forced labour or as human minesweepers.
I have also taken testimonies of religious persecution, torture
and the destruction of villages, crops and livestock.
13. This submission will focus primarily
on the gross violations of human rights in ethnic areas, specifically
Karen, Karenni, Shan and Chin States. Evidence comes from individual
testimonies from Karen, Karenni, Shan and Chin who have experienced
or witnessed human rights atrocities. Evidence is also drawn from
reports by organisations such as the Thailand Burma Border Consortium,
the Free Burma Rangers, the Karen Human Rights Organisation, the
Shan Human Rights Foundation, the Shan Women's Action Network,
the Women's League for Burma, the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners and Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Burma Army attacks on Karen and Karenni civilians:
14. There are an estimated one million internally
displaced people (IDPs) in Burma and, according to the Thailand
Burma Border Consortium, at least 526,000 in Shan, Karen, Karenni
and Mon areas of eastern Burma,[4]
living in dire conditions either in relocation camps under the
control of SPDC forces or in temporary shelters in the jungle,
or on the run, without access to adequate food supplies, health
care, shelter or education.
15. Over 2,500 villages in eastern Burma
have been completely destroyed, relocated or abandoned since 1996.
Since 2002, a further 240 villages have been completely destroyed,
relocated or abandoned, and at least another 157,000 civilians
displaced.[5]
16. Reports continue of attacks by the Burma
Army on civilian villages, resulting in the displacement of thousands
more people. In December 2004 at least 4,781 Karen people were
displaced in the Shwygn/Hsaw Htee area of Naunglybin District,
Karen State. According to the Free Burma Rangers, they are hiding
in the jungle and cannot move during the day. An estimated 19,425
baskets of paddy rice have been burned, and the Burma Army is
continuing its attacks in this area. There are now six Burma Army
battalions in this operation, including Light Infantry Battalion
(LIB) 20, commanded by Kyaw Kyaw, LIB 264 commanded by Tin Maung
Shwey, LIB 350, LIB 28 and Infantry Battalion (IB) 57. The immediate
needs of the IDPs are security, rice, blankets, cooking pots and
medicine.
17. On 20 October 2004 it was reported that
2,000 Karenni IDPs were fleeing attacks. On 15 October, four Burma
Army battalions were reportedly patrolling to the south of Mawchi,
Karenni State, in order to clear all IDPs out of the area between
southern Mawchi and the Karen border. According to one report,
"the Burma Army has ordered all villagers and those IDPs
still hiding in southern Karenni State to move to Mawchi forced
relocation sites." There are now at least 500 IDPs hiding
in the jungle south of Mawchi; 600 IDPs in Papun District, Karen
State; over 1,000 Karenni IDPs in Toungoo District, North-West
Karen State. "There is a high prevalence of dysentery, malaria,
ARI and skin infections among these people in hiding," the
relief team reports.
18. These attacks follow a military offensive
in January 2004, which resulted in the displacement of over 2,000
Karenni and 3,000 Karen.
19. Landmines have been laid in and outside
villages and routes to villages, and the Burma Army is warning
all villages on the Karen-Karenni border that they will attack
them if they provide any assistance to the Karenni.
20. In Hsaw K'daw Hta, southern Mergui-Tavoy
area, Karen State on 27 September, Burma Army troops destroyed
62 homes, five rice barns, a clinic, a school and caused the displacement
of 242 villagers. The Burma Army also killed three Karen villagers.
The IDPs are in urgent need of rice, shelter and security.
Forced relocation/Forced labour:
21. Hundreds of villages have been forcibly
relocated. On 1 October this year, for example, the SPDC ordered
11 villages (of approximately 170 households) in Shar Daw Township,
Karenni State, to relocate between 15 November and 10 December
to areas specified by officials of the junta's United Solidarity
and Development Association (USDA), Soe Shwe and Hla Shwe. The
villages to be relocated are: Tareeda, Daw Weh Raw, Daw Mue Say,
Daw Mue Lay, Daw Tan Naw, Daw Nor Klu, Daw Tan Nu, Lea Du Kor,
Lea Du, Nah Wan and Su Leh.
22. According to the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), forced labour remains widespread in Burma.
Numerous testimonies of forced labour are available in human rights
reports, which can be supplied upon request. Villagers are forced
to work as porters for the Burma Army, or provide labour for road
construction projects. One 15 year-old Shan boy, a Buddhist, told
me that he had witnessed the Burma Army shoot his parents dead,
destroy his village, kill most of the villagers, and then he was
taken as a porter and forced to walk very long distances with
very heavy loads for three days, without food and water. When
he collapsed from exhaustion, the soldiers beat him unconscious.
Religious persecution:
23. The SPDC uses religion as a weapon of
war to sow division, and Burma has been ranked as one of the world's
worst violators of religious freedom by the US State Department.
The regime cloaks itself in the language and imagery of Buddhism,
in order to stir up religious and nationalist sentiment. Religious
persecution is tied up with ethnicity and politics. Christians
and Muslims among the ethnic nationality groups, and Buddhists
who oppose the regime, face persecution and discrimination.
24. Christians among the Chin, Kachin, Karen
and Karenni ethnic nationalities report serious religious discrimination
and persecution, including the destruction of churches and Christian
symbols. In Chin State, all crosses on mountain-tops have been
destroyed and Christians have been forced to build Buddhist pagodas
in their place. Church services have been disrupted, and Chin
children from Christian families have been taken and placed in
Buddhist monasteries, where they have been forced to become novice
monks. The printing of the Bible is banned, and Christians in
government service are denied promotion. On 25 March, 2004, for
example, in a Karen village, the SPDC-aligned militia, the Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), ordered villagers to clear an area
for the construction of a Buddhist pagoda, directly in front of
a church. Christians were then ordered to construct the pagoda,
and forbidden to construct a cross they had planned to build.
Church services were drowned out by the DKBA using loudspeakers,
who urged villagers to convert to Buddhism. Threats were made
that, once the pagoda was built, Christians would be forced to
leave the village. The DKBA threatened to kill the pastor, who
fled for his life.
25. The Muslim Rohingya are severely persecuted,
denied recognition as Burmese citizens, and often subjected to
humiliation and discrimination. The persecution of Muslims is
detailed in Amnesty International's report, Myanmar—The
Rohingya Minority: Fundamental Rights Denied.
26. Buddhists who do not support the regime
are also targeted. The AAPP, in its report Burma: A Land Where
Buddhist Monks are Disrobed and Detained in Dungeons, estimates
that 300 monks and novices are in prison in Burma.
Torture:
27. The use of torture is widespread, both
in Burma's jails and in the ethnic areas. Common forms of torture
include rolling an iron bar or a wooden pole up and down a person's
shins repeatedly, until the skin is worn down to the bone, and
water torture.
28. In April 2004, a 31 year-old Karenni
Buddhist described his experience to me, and this is indicative
of the pattern of torture. In June 2003, he had been severely
beaten by Burma Army soldiers, and was then tied up and beaten
with sticks and guns, and stabbed with a bayonet. He was held
captive and tortured for 10 days. One day, soldiers rolled a log
up and down his legs, sometimes stamping on the log with their
boots, from 11 am until 6 pm. As a result, he was unable to walk
for five months. That night, he was forced to lie down and soldiers
poured large quantities of water into his mouth until his stomach
swelled. Then they stamped on his stomach, causing him to vomit.
They smothered his mouth with a cloth and continued to roll a
log up and down his legs. "I thought I was going to die,"
he said. He did not know why the Burma Army soldiers did this.
When they had arrived at his house and took him away, they questioned
him in Burmese. "But I do not understand Burmese very well,
so the soldiers got angry," he said.
Conclusions: Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity:
29. The term "genocide" often
brings to mind dramatic scenes of the massacre of hundreds of
thousands in a short period of time, such as Rwanda, Kosovo, Darfur
or the Nazi Holocaust. However, the definition of the term is
not based on numerical scale, nor does it refer to the elimination
of an entire race. Instead, it refers to the "destruction,
in whole or in part" of an ethnic group, and the number involved
can be "considerable", "substantial" or simply
"one or more". It entails "serious bodily or mental
harm". Article 2 (c) of the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide refers to "deliberately
inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part". The
catalogue of violations against the Karen, Karenni and Shan surely
amount to genocide on the basis of this definition. The SPDC may
attempt to justify its military offensives as a "counter-insurgency
campaign", but the burning of 2,500 villages in eastern Burma,
the killing of civilians, including medical workers, the destruction
of rice barns, livestock and cooking pots, the prohibition of
the use of ethnic languages in schools, the incentives provided
to Burma Army soldiers to marry ethnic women, and the rape of
ethnic women cannot be simply a "counter-insurgency campaign".
These acts appear to be a deliberate effort to eliminate, at least
in part, ethnic groups through starvation, cultural and biological
dilution, and physical destruction.[6]
30. The SPDC is undoubtedly guilty of violations
of Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions, which protect
civilians in situations of internal armed conflict, and of crimes
against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court, notably murder, deportation or forcible transfer
of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical
liberty, torture, rape, sexual violations, persecution, enforced
disappearance of persons and "other inhumane acts".
31. A detailed analysis of the legal basis
for pursuing a case of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations
of the Geneva Conventions can be found in Dying Alive, a report
by Guy Horton to be published early in 2005.
32. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Annual Report highlights the continuing grave human rights situation
in Burma, and includes a section on the ethnic groups, which is
welcome. However, the FCO should be urged to call upon the United
Nations and the international community to investigate reports
of genocide and crimes against humanity and then take the appropriate
action; to increase pressure on the Association of South-East
Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the governments of China and India,
to cease investments in Burma until meaningful progress is made
towards tripartite dialogue and a transition to a democratic,
federal system; to call for the suspension of Burma from ASEAN
before it assumes the presidency of ASEAN in 2006; to urge the
European Union to introduce a comprehensive trade and investment
ban; and to place the issue of Burma on the UN Security Council
agenda. The Department for International Development (DFID) should
be encouraged to review its decision not to provide aid to the
millions of IDPs trapped inside the jungles of Burma, without
adequate food, medicine or shelter.
Benedict Rogers is a journalist and human rights
advocate based in London. He is author of A Land Without Evil:
Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People, and has visited
the borders of Burma nine times since 2000.
Benedict Rogers
12 December 2004
4 Internal Displacement and Vulnerability in Eastern
Burma, Thailand Burma Border Consortium, October 2004. Back
5
Ibid. Back
6
As detailed in Dying Alive, by Guy Horton. Back
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