The ugly face behind ‘open’ Myanmar’s charm offensive
Moon Nay Li is adamant that despite all the talk
of reforms there’s still no rule of law to protect civilians in
Myanmar. To prove her point she spreads a layer of detailed humanitarian
reports, grisly photographs of dead children and single page
testimonies that document the injuries, rapes, sexual abuse and tortures
inflicted by the Myanmar army on civilians in Kachin State in recent
months.
BY ANY OTHER NAME: Myanmar’s remaining political prisoners have been branded ‘criminals’ by the government.
Moon Nay Li is the coordinator of the Kachin Women’s Association
Thailand and explains that as a mother of a three year old she is
shocked by what is happening in Kachin State.
“These families have been badly damaged, their futures destroyed.
These people are farmers, they’re civilians not soldiers, they don’t
deserve to have their lives shattered like this.”
Moon Nay Li shuffles the papers, shakes her head and in a whispered
voice says: “The army can rape women, kill children and the country’s
courts do nothing. It’s crystal clear the military is all powerful, the
courts are weak and the judges afraid of the military.”
Moon Nay Li is referring to the abduction and disappearance of a
Kachin woman, Sumlut Roi Ja, in October of last year. A court hearing
was held in the country’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, in February, but after
hearing the testimony of two Myanmar army officers the court dismissed
the case.
Moon Nay Li outlines the details of the case. While working on their
farm last October, three Myanmar army soldiers arrested Sumlut Roi Ja,
her husband, Dau Lum and her father-in-law at gunpoint. Dau Lum and his
father managed to escape, but Sumlut Roi Ja was taken to the Mu Bum army
outpost.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also documented the case
in its report, Untold Miseries, published in March. The report noted
that villagers witnessed over a number of days “what they believed to be
Sumlut Roi Ja at a mountain top clearing controlled by soldiers”.
The HRW report contains testimony from Kachin civilians that
describe, “how Burmese [Myanmar] army soldiers have attacked Kachin
villages, razed homes, pillaged properties and forced the displacement
of tens of thousands of people”.
Moon Nay Li says Sumlut Roi Ja’s husband and baby daughter still pine for the missing woman.
“Sumlut Roi Ja is missing, there’s no confirmation what has happened
to her. It’s hard to imagine the suffering her family goes through
everyday and every night.”
Moon Nay Li says the message that can be taken from the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case against the army is clear.
“It means the military can rape and kill ethnic women with impunity.
Since June, 2011, at least 60 women have been raped and sexually abused,
30 of those women were raped and then killed by Myanmar army soldiers.”
STILL FIGHTING: Kachin Women’s Association Thailand coordinator Moon Nay Li.
Last month, the Myanmar army attacked the village of Luk Pi. Most
villagers fled, but Moon Nay Li says one woman, Gwa Ma Le, 48, decided
to take refuge in the local church.
“The soldiers found her when they took another villager, Yu Ta Gwi,
to the church to interrogate and torture him. While being held captive
he witnessed the repeated rape of Gwa Ma Le. She was raped, beaten,
kicked and starved for three days. When the soldiers left, villagers
took the semi-conscious woman and man to hospital.
“Gwa Ma Le has 12 children, the youngest is four. Her family say she
is suffering massive mental trauma and is in critical need of ongoing
medical help.”
Moon Nay Li details the killing of two young children in early May.
“Three kids were bathing in the Ta Li River when there was a loud
explosion. The children ran for safety, but soldiers from Infantry
Battalion 76 fired artillery and small arms at them. Two of the three
children were shot in the back _ they were only five and seven years
old. What kind of army shoots kids?”
Moon Nay Li says the stories of human rights abuses, rapes, killings
and displacement are not the narratives the international community and
media want to hear about Myanmar at the moment.
“They’d rather look at the surface changes taking place _ ‘an
interesting place to travel and you can buy newspapers now’ _ the
international community is talking up the reforms and conveniently
ignoring the abuses while pushing to take advantage of investment
opportunities. Burma has two faces, one for the international community
and one for the ethnic people.”
Outside the small house in northern Thailand that serves as the
Kachin Women’s Association Thailand office, heavy rain clatters on
roofs, signalling the arrival of the region’s monsoon season. Moon Nay
Li is worried the heavy rains will bring disease and hardship to the
displaced people in Kachin State.
“It’s a war zone, we have more than 70,000 displaced people living in
basic shelters. A year ago they were productive farmers and now their
living in temporary shelters with barely enough to keep them alive. They
badly need support and help.”
In March, in his report to the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s Office,
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special rapporteur for Myanmar, demanded that
as a priority the abuses in Kachin State must stop and unrestricted
international aid allowed in.
“Of particular concern is the ongoing conflict in Kachin State, where
there are continuing reports of violations committed and where the
needs of those displaced and affected by the conflict must be addressed
as a matter of priority. I reiterate that the United Nations and its
humanitarian partners should have regular, independent and predictable
access to all in need of humanitarian assistance, independent of ongoing
negotiations, without conditions attached, and regardless of whether
they are in government-controlled areas.”
Moon Nay Li acknowledges, even with Mr Quintana’s support, it is hard
to get international attention focused on the atrocities and the
humanitarian crisis in Kachin State while the world is besotted with
analysing Aung San Suu Kyi’s every move and holding it up as proof that
Myanmar’s authoritarian government is finally embracing democracy.
CRIMINALS, NOT POLITICAL PRISONERS
One man with first-hand experience of the fickleness of the international community is former political prisoner, Bo Kyi.
Less than a year ago Bo Kyi, as secretary of the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners, was the go-to man for international
diplomats, NGOs and journalists seeking background information on the
situation inside Myanmar.
“These days the international media and others are mainly interested
in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and in rewarding the government. The crimes
against humanity in Kachin State, land confiscation, developing laws
that protect citizens, stopping human rights abuses and releasing all
political prisoners is what’s needed now, but these issues are mostly
ignored. If the significance of these issues is not grasped it makes
future reconciliation and peace an impossible task.”
Bo Kyi believes the government has used political prisoners as pawns in a charm offensive to lift international sanctions.
”It has worked. Releasing prominent political prisoners gave the
government legitimacy in the eyes of foreigners. You can now see foreign
politicians falling over themselves to meet and introduce their
business communities to Myanmar’s President U Thein Sein.”
ONGOING ABUSES: The KWAT claims this student was killed when a school
dormitory in Nam Lin Pa village, Kachin State, was bombed by the
Myanmar army in August, 2011.
Bo Kyi points out that the Myanmar government needs to do more to
convince its citizens it is serious about protecting human rights and
putting the rule of law in place.
”They need to show that human rights abuses will not be tolerated.
They should take action against those committing the crimes, if not they
are legitimising the abusers. I’m not talking about the past. I’m
talking about what’s happening today and tomorrow.”
Bo Kyi insists that government institutions are the worst offenders.
”The military, police and prison authorities are the main abusers of
human rights. Judges need to take responsibility and be accountable
instead of being used as tools by the government to silence its
opposition. Illegal arrests are still be used to silence those who might
be thinking about protesting.”
Bo Kyi is adamant the international community has given enough
concessions to the government to show it is sincere about its support
for Myanmar.
”The government has to give more, the pressure on them to do so has
to be maintained but engagement must also be continued. If the
government is allowed to weaken the opposition through a lack of rule of
law, Burma’s democracy will be the poorer.”
Bo Kyi says recently released political prisoners still face government discrimination.
”They are denied passports, not allowed to continue their university
studies and those who were doctors and lawyers are being denied
registration. These are basic human rights, this government has imposed
sanctions on its own citizens.”
The government has always insisted that there are no political
prisoners in Myanmar. When US Senator John McCain visited in June last
year The New Light of Myanmar reported that the senator was bluntly told
by both the vice-president and the foreign minister that the country
had no political prisoners.
”Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin said that Myanmar has firmly
announced that there are no political prisoners in the country. Those
serving their prison terms in Myanmar’s jails are just law breakers.”
Bo Kyi says the government’s position that it only jails those who
break the law ”translates as locking up their political opposition”.
Another former political prisoner, Ko Ko Gyi, has experienced first
hand the differences between being jailed as a common criminal and being
put behind bars because of politics.
”Criminal prisoners get around a third remission. Political prisoners
have to serve their full sentence. We don’t get fair treatment. We
can’t hire lawyers, we are tried in closed courts, and our families are
not allowed to attend our trials or are even told we are been held in
captivity.”
Ko Ko Gyi claims it is a deliberate government policy to house
political prisoners in remote jails as a way to mentally torture them.
”My family were unable to visit me. I saw them three times in
three-and-half years. We had no adequate medical care, no tests, no
outside care. If you are seriously ill you have little chance of
recovery.”
Ko Ko Gyi is no stranger to dissent or fighting for his rights. He
was recently released by the government after serving four and half
years of a draconian 65-year jail sentence he received in 2008. In 1991
he was jailed for 20 years and released in 2004. In 2007 he was again
arrested for protesting on behalf of political prisoners. His crime?
Wearing white clothing similar to that worn by political prisoners and
visiting the families of jailed activists.
Ko Ko Gyi acknowledges that his country is undergoing change, and for
the better. This interview would have been unthinkable a year ago and
would have resulted in harsh reprisals from the authoritarian
government.
”This government knows how to work the international community well.
There are changes at the top, but not at some of the local authority
level. For example, the local authorities in the Dawei area committing
human rights abuses and engaging in land confiscation.”
Ko Ko Gyi explains that he recently visited the Dawei area and ran
into trouble with the local officials who ordered local residents not to
welcome him and the 88 Student Generation.
”I believe the orders were not issued by the high government, but by
the local authorities _ people were not allowed to assemble, speak
freely or even welcome us publically. Villagers asked us to talk at
their villages. We encourage local people to exercise their rights
within the law, but the villagers were threatened.”
Ko Ko Gyi says it is important that the remaining 471 political
prisoners in jail and the 465 under verification are not sacrificed in
the stampede by the international community’s rush to do business in
Myanmar.
”We strongly ask the international community not to forget the
political prisoners still in jail. If our government wants to show the
world there is real change they have to acknowledge there are political
prisoners _ there should be no more political prisoners in Burma. In a
real democracy political opposition should be able to express strong
opinions.”
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners’s (AAPP) report
for April documents the case of three air force officers who were jailed
for writing an article critical of the Myanmar army. The three officers
were convicted under section 33(a) of the Electronic Act and sentenced
to 20 years. Their whereabouts remain unknown and they have been denied
any family contact.
The AAPP report contains a list of farmers arrested for refusing to
accept their land being confiscated and their forced eviction. A farmer
in Mandalay Division who argued against his land being confiscated was
arrested on April 8, ”police confirmed that he had been arrested because
he led some villagers to complain against land confiscations”.
WHERE THERE’S NO PEACE
In April, the Karen National Union signed a ceasefire agreement with
the government of Myanmar. Since the signing villagers have reported
that travelling in the state has been easier, but the Myanmar army
continues to resupply its troops with weapons and ammunition.
The humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers, which delivers aid and
medical care to displaced people, report that in April, ”Light Infantry
Battalion 593 shot at villagers returning from hunting in Ta Naw Th’ree
Township, Mergui/Tavoy District.”
The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) reported that in April, the
Myanmar army’s Light Infantry Division 44 demanded villagers from the
Bilin Township area supply for free ”building materials, including 5,000
bamboo poles and more than 20,000 thatch shingles”.
A KHRG staff member ”witnessed thousands of thatch shingles and
bamboo poles stacked along the main road and more than 10 military
trucks carrying thatch shingles and bamboo poles in both directions
towards Yangon and Mawlamyine. Thatch shingles and bamboo poles are
common commercial goods that provide basic building materials for many
homes in Burma.”
Last week the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) noted
in a press release that Myanmar is experiencing ”rapid political and
economic development and change”.
The AIPMC issued the media statement to draw attention to the Asean
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights drafting of a declaration
of human rights for the bloc.
Son Chhay, the vice-president of AIPMC, echoed Moon Nay Li’s concerns
when he said: ”Something does not sit right when Asean’s leading human
rights proponents are sitting in Yangon writing their human rights
declaration, while a few hundred kilometres away in Kachin State, a
vicious war is being fought, where people are being raped and killed,
and allegations of forced military porters, targeting of civilians and
other human rights abuses are rife.”
HRW’s's senior researcher on Myanmar, David Mathieson, explains it is
vital the process for implementing a genuine reconciliation process is
not lost in the rush for ”change at any price”.
”Justice and accountability is what the people of Burma want, but any
peace process must have justice as one of its core elements, otherwise
there will be no longstanding peace. All parties to the conflict must
respect international humanitarian law and realise abusive behaviour
prolongs suffering and war.”
Moon Nay Li says the solution for the people of Kachin State is for the Myanmar army to withdraw.
”If they leave there is no fight. We need a third party to broker a
ceasefire agreement. We want peace but the government is after the total
control the ethnic areas. It will be a long struggle.”
SOME THINGS DON’T CHANGE: Kachin people are forced to live in
overcrowded huts with no privacy in makeshift camps after being
displaced by the Myanmar army.
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About the author
Writer: Phil Thornton
Position: Writer
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