Undercurrents Monitoring Development on Burmas Mekong Issue 2
En people threatened by manganese mining
Logging out eastern Shan State
What Opium Ban?
Changes on the Mekong prove deadly
A publication of the Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO) Greetings from the Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO), Who are the Lahu?
We are pleased to welcome you to this second issue of The Lahu are highland people that Undercurrents, in which we continue to monitor development subsist primarily on hunting, fishing, along Burmas Mekong and report on related social, and upland swidden agriculture. economic, and political realities in eastern Shan State. Their fondness for and skill at hunting are well known. In our first issue we focused on the Mekong Navigation Improvement Project and its impacts on local travel, There are nearly one million Lahu livelihoods, and illicit cross-border trade. As part of this issue people in the world. There are we update you on recent changes to the rivers flow and now approximately 500,000 in describe resulting incidents that have left local people afraid of China, 300,000 in Burma, the revered Mekong. 100,000 in Thailand, 50,000 in Laos, 6,000 in Vietnam, 5,000 The long time lapse since our last issue is a reflection of the residing in the USA as refugees, difficulty and danger of gathering information inside military- and an estimated 1,000 scattered ruled Burma. Most of Shan State remains sealed off from the in countries such as Australia, outside world, and border crossings closely watched. Even so, Malaysia, and Singapore. The Lahu we collect information from local people in remote areas so are divided into five groups: the that their true situation can be understood. The picture of Lahu na or black Lahu, the Lahu development presented in state-controlled media is not what ni, or red Lahu, the Lahu shi, or we see in our communities in eastern Shan State. yellow Lahu, the Lahu hpu, or white Lahu, and the Lahu kaw The real results of unchecked and oppressive military Lahu hpeu, or matt blue Lahu. development on local people include degraded environments, These names come from the deteriorating health, and fractured cultures. In this issue, we different color clothing that groups focus on the rapacious extraction of minerals and timber and its wear. Each group is further drastic impacts not only on the current generation but on future subdivided into 27 subgroups, ones as well. Entrepreneurs from China, Thailand, and inside reflecting the diversity of language Burma have been cutting down trees at a furious pace and and customs among the Lahu. creating alternative transportation routes to avoid road checkpoints. The Mekong is also used to transport timber. Today, most Lahu in China and Meanwhile, the discovery of coal and manganese are Thailand cannot practice their transforming remote areas and causing displacement. traditional lifestyle anymore. The Lahu cultures remain relatively We hope that readers, particularly from neighboring countries more intact in Burma but are which consume most of these resources, will seriously consider threatened by military activities in these impacts and join us in searching for ways to halt the their homelands. destructive and unsustainable pattern of development unfolding in Burmas Mekong region. The Mekong connects many peoples and countries. Its problems concern us all. v Awv bon ui _ ja meh_ Thank you from LNDO
A Lahu Bala couple, a subgroup of the yellow Lahu Photo Myanmar Times Unrestricted logging: piles of cut logs like these are now common in eastern Shan State as companies run by well-connected entrepeneurs such as Tay Za (inset) go about their busi- ness. Story on page 12.
Undercurrents Monitoring Development on Burmas Mekong July 2006, Issue 2
Unhindered Prospects...... 2 Even the Last Tree...... 11 Remote areas of Shan State a Unrestricted logging leaves the convenient place to mine for hills of eastern Shan State bare neighboring countries What Opium Ban?...... 14 Bigger, not Better...... 8 Despite UN claims of reduc- Despite its expansion, the tions, poppy cultivation and trade Burma Army rests on shaky continue in territories under the foundations control of ceasefire groups and the SPDC The En people...... 5 Deadly Changes...... 9 Unpredictable water surges and Anything for Gold...... 15 Still no signs of outlawing unprecedented low water levels Desperate gold mining contin- license to rape...... 16 on the Mekong have human ues even after deadly accident Burma Army expansion impacts costs women Chameleon Moves his An Order is an Order...... 10 Capital...... 17 Gun-toting monks...... 16 The juntas zeal for castor oil Leader of NDAA survives politi- Militarization leaves nothing causes hardship for villagers cal shake-up and continues to sacred in Burma develop his new center of action
Undercurrents is a publication of the Lahu Development Organisation (LNDO). LNDO was set up to promote the welfare and well-being of Lahu people, including the promotion of alternatives to growing opium. LNDO also fosters unity and cooperation among the Lahu and other highlanders from Shan State. Previous publications by LNDO are all available at www.shanland.org To contact LNDO, please email [email protected]
Undercurrents Issue 2 1 Unhindered Prospects Remote areas of Shan State a convenient place to mine for neighboring countries
A new trend is taking hold in regime in 1989. The remote manganese near the villages fifteen eastern Shan State as mining location of the villages has years ago. becomes more popular among preserved a way life for the En and Chinese and other entrepreneurs. Samtao (Loi La) people living there In time, seventeen Chinese Coal and minerals are being over several generations. All of this businessmen split up the area into extracted from remote areas and changed, however, when a sections and brought in their own transported through ceasefire Chinese geologist discovered teams of workers. An estimated territories to reach booming - and hungry - Chinese industries. Thai interests are also benefiting from the unregulated isolation that the region offers.
Like the lucrative logging business (see article on pg. 12), mining is leaving environmental destruction in its wake and providing revenues for local authorities. While the small-scale gold mining happening in Kachin State has received some recent attention, mining activities in Burmas Mekong region are virtually unheard of by outsiders. LNDO researchers have been able to get a glimpse of this new trend and what it means for local people in several locations.
Manganese mine near the Chinese border Wan Saw and Wan Pha villages - made up of 200 and 260 households respectively - are located on the border with China in an area controlled by the National Democratic Alliance Army or NDAA, an armed group that signed a ceasefire with Burmas
2 Undercurrents Issue 2 1,000 mine workers, all from Manganese: what is it used for? China, are now living near the mine About 90% of all manganese con- field. They drill and dig throughout sumed annually plays a key role in the the day and explode dynamite until development of various steel-making midnight. The explosions make it processes as an alloying element. No difficult for villagers to sleep. satisfactory substitute for manganese in steel has been identified which com- As there is no facility to refine the bines its relatively low price with out- manganese at the site, trucks standing technical benefits. After steel, weighed down with rock are the second most important market for constantly on the move. A survey manganese is that of portable dry bat- in 2005 found that an estimated teries. Manganese is an essential trace element in the me- tabolism of all living organisms. Nevertheless, excessive doses 34,000 tons of rock per year were are toxic, and resultant diseases may arise in the pulmonary transported from the mine field to or central nervous system. (information and photo from The Interna- the Standing Company Limited of tional Manganese Institute website: www.manganese.org) China in both 2004 and 2005.
The digging is unceasing and its surroundings. The mine field is spirits. without concern for the village or gradually closing in on the house roofs of the village. The In the past, villagers used water businessmen told some villagers from original springs and streams BIG JOB: 34,000 If your village transfers to for drinking, cooking, and washing, tons of rock were another place we will give you transporting water to village areas transported to compensation for all you have through bamboo gutters. After the China in both 2004 lost. But villagers responded mining started, however, water and 2005 This is our fatherland from from the springs became unpleasant thousands of years ago so well to drink. Now the Chinese have never move to another place. made a pipe system that connects It seems that regardless of whether to the source of the spring and the residents leave or stay, the people must take water only from villages and their surroundings will this pipe system. Before man and be damaged. The nearby forests animals could drink anywhere in all which have been conserved over the streams, rivers, and springs generations are being impacted. but not anymore. Water and air pollution are degrading wild and garden plants. Unhappy spirits In addition, villagers health has In March 2005, a 15 year old girl begun to deteriorate and they from Wan Saw mysteriously died report that the spirits are of an unknown illness within five unsettled. days of falling sick. One month later, another young boy and girl Once the mining started, villagers died similarly one by one. soon began to experience headaches, nose bleeds, coughing After hearing about the unusual and dysentery unlike before. case, two platoons of NDAAs Sometimes the very young and very 911th Brigade came to the village. old suffered quite seriously. For the Within the week, two sections of most part, villagers are still able to the platoons misfired with each treat these ailments by using herbal other while on patrol, killing two medicine and calling on animist and wounding three. After that,
Undercurrents Issue 2 3 corpse of the first young girl, cut it into four parts, and then bury one part in each of the four corners of the village. They then had to offer four buffalos as a sacrificial spirit. It is hard to know if the situation has become better or not because the authorities in this area commanded the villagers to strictly keep this case a secret.
Unfettered Expansion expansion: From Plans to develop the mining the dam, a channel operation further are forging ahead pipe 80 cm in width without concern for the local drops 20 kilometers people. The operators plan to build down a hill to a refinery at the mine field in order generate electricity to reduce the amount of material they have to transport. In preparation, a dam was most nights the patrolling troops got the same unappeased spirits. One constructed on Nanalawba stream frightened and opened fire in all of the Chinese businessmen north of the villages. The electricity directions. After one month the suggested to the spiritual leader of generated will be used to operate headman complained to them to the village to order villagers to the refinery. stop opening fire and all the troops conduct sacrificial rites, a were subsequently transferred out ceremony that would conveniently Even though villagers feel bitter, of the area. deflect any blame that might be they cannot complain. They are placed on the mining operations. stuck between the communist rule Many believed that these seemingly unrelated incidents were caused by The villagers had to dig out the ---continued on page 6
4 Undercurrents Issue 2 The En people
The En are an ethnic group in Burma related to the Wa tribe. They believe that they are the descendants of Mao San, the man recognized in Buddhist scripture as the one who looked after Gautamas horse when he was a prince. Even now, every En village has a small horse stable in the center of the village and it is venerated as a sacred space.
The En maintain a simple lifestyle. Everybody wears self-made natural dress and strictly keeps old traditions. Most of them are skillful rebel groups and they never make estimated that they are not more in magic spells but also strong a problem to neighboring villages. than 30,000 in number. Buddhists. The En are known for They work hard in their rice and never marrying outsiders. tea farms. Poppy farming is also In addition to the En, the Samtao their ancestors heritage. are also impacted by the mining According to the En, they have to operations. The Samtao are well- follow Gautamas teachings that En En people can only be found in known as ironsmiths and for people must be good followers and Hopong and Mong Ngen tracts of making guns. Buddhists all over never leaders. Therefore, they Mongkha Township, Kataung and Shan State respect Samtao monks arent interested in external Mongphyak tracts of Kengtung because they can strictly follow the education and refuse to become a Township, Mongluu tract of teachings and are able to memorize chief or leader of other villages, Tachilek Township, and Wan Saw the entire Buddhist scriptures by such as a chairperson of a village and Wan Hpa tracts of Mong heart. tract. They dont belong to any Yawng Township. In all, it is
A culture and people under threat: A typical En village with native architecture, left, and girls in homespun dress, below
Undercurrents Issue 2 5 long as the money. As re- ported in Issue 1 of Undercur- rents, the Green Light Company (owned by drug lord Wei) con- structed about 30 miles of a paved road from Mong Hpyak to Mong Yawng in late 2003. Within one sea- son, however, the road became ruined and use- less. Now that the timber in the area is gone, there is no moti- vation to main- tain the road.
The state of roads in Burmas of China, the military rule of boost from an unusual source, Mekong region is a testament to Burma, and the lawlessness of the however, as Chinese businessmen what factors are steering develop- region. All three sides are continue to exploit the benefits of ment there: not the needs of local benefiting from the project the border area by another means: communities but the appetites of ceasefire groups charge road taxes mining coal. powerful players seeking wealth. on the transport trucks, the regime Indeed, the rights of local popula- collects an annual tax on the mining Two coal mines west and one east tions are continuously trampled on. teams, and China feeds its steel of Mong La are in operation; the After a coal mine was discovered industry all the while squeezing estimated production of one is 80 in Seng Pin in 2004, Lahu, Akha, out the local En and Samtao tons per day. At Chin Kham mine and Samtao people native to the peoples. east of Mong La, 100 trucks leave area (an estimated 150 houses in for China every day. As the mines 5 villages surrounding the mine From casinos to coal develop, so too does infrastructure field) were forced by NDAA Mong La is a city famous for its that promises profit. A new road authorities to relocate. Some were vices casinos, drug dealers, and has been constructed that passes moved 15-20 miles northeast of sex workers serve customers from exclusively through NDAA-con- their old villages while others around the world. A crackdown on trolled territory, allowing the group moved to Kengtung. An estimated the town in 2005 (see Undercur- to collect transport taxes on the 200 households of Chinese mine rents Issue 1) slowed business a coal. Roads constructed under workers then moved in, followed bit. It may be getting an economic these conditions usually last only as by their families.
6 Undercurrents Issue 2 Kengtung coal mine Since 2000, Chinese and Thai The cost of coal mining interests have competed for the in Kengtung operation of a coal mine just nine miles outside the town of Ordered to move out by Kengtung authorities: Kengtung. The SPDC has started Village name Villagers Houses History and stopped deals between several 1 Pang Sang Lahu 116 Established about 33 years ago. Villagers companies. A Thai company Kya fled here from Pang sang kya tract, Mong currently operates at the mine. Yang Township at the time of the CPB war
However, researchers in the area 2 Pamakha Akha 93 report that operations have 3 Na Theun Akha 130 recently and unexplainably stopped 4 Naw Ka A leper 220 Established here since World War II again at the mine. Still, the village Kengtung authorities have ordered nine villages in the area to relocate, 5 Ban Kaw Akha 23 including some that have been 6 Mae Yang Shan 230 Established here more than 100 years ago established there for over a 7 Wan Mocu Wa and 17 hundred years. The first wave of Samtao relocations began in April of this 8 Wan Kang Shan 250 Established here more than 100 years ago year. 9 Wan Yang Shan 170 Established here more than 100 years ago
Villagers have lost their houses and Villages 1 to 5 have to move out 582 houses before April 2006; 664 farms without compensation and houses from villages 6 to 9 have to move out before 2009. An are being torn away from nearby additional 20 villages might be moved out after 2010. relatives. Some havent been able to move yet because they cannot unknown places without adequate regulations are nonexistent. even arrange any transportation. land. For example, villagers from Pang Eastern Shan State provides a Sang Kya had to trudge five miles When the mine does begin convenient place to do business for down a dirt road to their new operations again, no one knows Chinese and Thai mining interests. location. Others are scattered here the effects it will have on the town The location offers deposits of rich and there and have to settle in of Kengtung as environmental minerals and fuel sources without the nuisance of envi- ronmental regulations or protests by local populations. Those populations, however, remain uninformed and confused about what is happening around them. Relocation with- out compensation, ill- ness, and a degraded environment are just some of the conse- quences they must en- dure - with no benefits Open for the taking: in sight. coal mining near Kengtung
Undercurrents Issue 2 7 Bigger, not better Despite massive expansion, the Burma Army has shaky foundations
Since 1988, the number of Burma skewed eyesight were rejected accounts, standards of military Army battalions in four townships immediately. personnel have continued to of eastern Shan State has plummet. increased from 6 to 34. In 2006 By the time the Arakan sergeant alone, a further 8 battalions, two retired, after serving with Infantry Officers, as well as regular soldiers, per township, were added. Battalion 49 in eastern Shan State, are being recruited en masse. However, inside sources reveal that standards had dropped drastically. Before 2000, it was very difficult this rapid expansion of the military When I left the army in 1986, to enroll in the Defense Services has had high costs in terms of many new soldiers were just boys. Academy in Maymyo, which trains quality of personnel and morale. They were short, underweight and officer cadets. Only about 200 some were even cross-eyed. students out of thousands of Maung Thet Khaing served 21 Some had only had a months applicants were accepted to attend years in the Burma Army before training before being sent to serve the four-year DSA training course. retiring at the age of 38. He with us. Since 2000, however, about 1,000 recounted that when he first joined students have been accepted each the army, new military recruits were Such was the experience of an ex- year. Not only does no one fail the strictly screened: Soldiers had to Burma Army officer twenty years course, but sometimes one or two be over 18 years old, at least 5 feet ago. Since then, the Burma Army extra soldiers are brought in at the 6 inches tall, and weigh at least 120 has more than doubled in size to closing ceremony to bring the total pounds. Those with poor or over 400,000 troops, and, by all number of graduates to an auspicious number such as 1002 Armed Groups in Four Townships of Easternmost Shan State 2006 or 1003. This is for the benefit of the notoriously superstitious General Than Shwe, who always gives a speech to the new graduates.
The result has been unusually high numbers of officers in field units. Formerly, there were only two or three sergeants in each battalion, and the commander was a captain. Nowadays, the battalion commander is a colonel or major, and there are 10-12 sergeants among the 200 or so soldiers in a battalion (formerly, battalions would contain 400-450 troops). Most of the soldiers are lance corporals or corporals.
Rewarding soldiers with rank has not, however, led to improved ---continued on page 17
8 Undercurrents Issue 2 the proportions. Some were cooking. Some were sitting on the rock and looking at the beauty of the river.
Suddenly they heard a strange noise far from them. It was a terrible noise getting louder and louder. Everybody stood up and shouted warnings to alert each other. Some ran very quickly far away from the bank without taking along anything. Some Deadly Changes climbed up on a hill and looked. A huge surge of water was rolling Unpredictable water surges and unprec- down. Frothy water with short and long logs and branches was flow- edented low water levels on the Mekong ing rapidly. They watched for have human costs about half an hour and the water kept increasing.
Every Saturday Lahu villagers On one Saturday, April 16, 2005, They couldnt get their meal or the young and old go to catch fish. For seventeen people from Sen Kha dishes left on the sand. Some of the most part, they stay only in Vai village went up to a local stream them lost their slippers, clothes, streams, not in big rivers, because called Pha La Law. Pha La Law fishes and fishing tools in the they dont have proper fishing gear meets the Mekong at the lower water. for rivers. Usually Lahu catch fish Nam Yawn river mouth. In the with their bare hands. Sometimes morning they caught fish in the Only once before had they seen a they use a small mesh casting net stream two miles from the Mekong flood like this but that was in the or a small fish trap made of bam- and then went downstream. At rainy season, and it wasnt this boo. Lahu fishermens knowledge noon they reached terrible said one. and methods are different from the bank of the Theyd definitely their neighbors, the Shan and Mekong River. The We will never never seen such a Akha. day was very beau- again come dangerous situation tiful, without a cloud in the dry season. Saturday fishing is an old Lahu in the sky. beside the They realized that tradition; its a fun family outing. Mekong river this was not caused When the fishing is done for the They set up a fire on bank by rain but a flood. day, everyone gathers together the bank and pre- Some of them said and divides the same proportion of pared cooking for we will never again fish for each one among them. lunch. They gathered the fish which come beside the Mekong river Some also earn their living by they had all caught on a banana leaf bank. fishing in the river all day and night. and the old men of them divided
Undercurrents Issue 2 9 When an LNDO researcher asked, they didnt know about any Dried up and dams upstream. They thought the dangerous: unusu- flood may have been caused by ally low water levels heavy rains far upstream. expose the rocky banks of the Mekong From too much water to too little According to an LNDO field sur- vey, since February 2005 the Mekong River has dried out more than in past dry seasons. This may be caused by the closing of sluice gates upstream in China.
After receiving news from a boat owner that a Chinese cargo boat unusually low. The boat was loaded Kenglarb. Those living on the had sunk in the Mekong upstream with garlic being sent from China riverbank in that area said that af- of Xieng Dao, an LNDO field re- to Thailand. One villager from ter 2004, the Mekongs current searcher went to investigate in late Xieng Kok who had gone to help often changes unexpectedly. The February 2005. After talking with said that 8 crewmembers and 2 sand bed is sometimes close to the villagers and taking photos, he was white men died of drowning. bank and sometimes appears in the able to find out that on February middle of the river. 25, 2005 a Chinese cargo boat hit In addition, on March 12, 2005 a the reef at the Nam Pha river mouth cargo boat loaded with 36 cattle and sank because the river was sank in the Mekong upstream of
An Order is an Order Th e regimes obsession with castor oil as a biofuel has villagers reeling
Since early 2006, the whole Ai Seu is a villager from Pang must only know that it is an order country of Burma has been active Peng, a Shan village in Tachilek across the whole country to grow planting kyet suu, or physic nut. Township. He went together with it, you dont need to know the use In January of this year, the Ministry all his fellow villagers to the of the plant an order is an of Industry met to discuss the headmans house for a required order. advantage of using oil from the meeting. There, he said, two seeds of two species of physic nut, soldiers with arms and five militia A young widow complained and castor and jatropha, to produce boys stood in front of the said I dont have enough money biodiesel fuel. headmans house. They had kyet to buy this many seeds and I dont suu seeds the seeds were have any land to grow them on. Every village and every house must variegated and as big as my thumb. grow these plants, not only in the Each house had to buy 100 seeds. The headman told her this is not plains and also on the hills, in hot Each seed was 15 kyat. an order from some regional places and cool places. Villagers commander, but from a top in eastern Shan State dont know Ai Seu continued: I wanted to general, so you have to do it. why they have to plant kyet suu know more about the castor oil Borrow money from your and are being forced to purchase plant and asked whats the use of neighbor and grow them any space the seeds. this plant? A soldier told me you you can find.
10 Undercurrents Issue 2 Even the last tree Unrestricted logging leaves the hills of eastern Shan State bare
Increased international focus on the critical rate of deforestation in Burmas border areas during the past few years has led to apparent crackdowns by Burmas military authorities on illegal logging activities. LNDO reports on the current logging situation in eastern Shan State and finds little evidence that the SPDC is prioritizing environmental protection over profits.
After almost two decades of in broad daylight passing through Tung company run by a Kengtung unregulated logging, only one area Tachilek to Tay Zas large sawmill businessman, Sai Tip Aung, who of teak forest remains in eastern on the Mekong River, where the has close ties to the SPDC military. Shan State, in the hills of northern logs are cut into planks and If these companies do not conduct Mong Ton Township close to the exported to China and Thailand. the logging themselves, they sub- Salween River. Since early 2006, Armed Burmese troops provide contract to other entrepreneurs, these last stands of mainly red teak security for the trucks along the mostly Chinese, to carry out logging have been fast disappearing, thanks roads. in their concession areas. to none other than well-known Burmese tycoon Tay Za, owner of Tay Zas Htoo Trading Company Whether or not the companies are Htoo Trading Company and de is one of several companies that run by those with close links to facto son-in-law of SPDC monopolize logging concessions in SPDC military leaders, benefits Chairman, Senior-General Than eastern Shan State. These accrue to the Burmese military or Shwe. companies include those run by the its proxies at each stage of the Wa and NDAA ceasefire groups, logging process. The companies Long convoys of trucks bearing Asia World Company run by drug must pay the SPDC for an initial huge teak logs have been witnessed kingpin Lo Hsing Han, and Nong permit and then loggers must pay
Undercurrents Issue 2 11 the authorities for chain-saw seen passing from Mong Hsat to forests around animist villages have licences. Loggers must also pay Mong La and into China. The traditionally been uniquely random security fees to local convoy skirted north of Tachilek, abundant. SPDC military units. Once the west of Mong Phyak, and 7 miles wood is cut, payments must be east of Kengtung to avoid the However, neither the loggers nor made to transport the logs through towns along the way. the military authorities pay any SPDC checkpoints. respect to local customs. As the Creative transportation routes have SPDC military has expanded its As loggers commonly cut more other advantages. Following a presence in eastern Shan State, logs than is officially permitted, they temporary crackdown in October increasing its amount of troops pay bribes to various SPDC 2005 by the SPDC on illegal there fivefold since 1988 (see authorities, including military cross-border timber trade on the Bigger, not Better on page 9), it intelligence, forestry, police, and northern Shan-China border, has placed greater strains on land authorities to ensure that the loggers conveniently moved their diminishing environmental extra logs will reach the final preferred routes eastward (see resources. Troops constantly destination safely. In addition, it is map), making the crackdown demand wood for fuel and for the common to see convoys of logging moot. construction of their camps and trucks skirting around main towns barracks. Some troops even rip on the way to the China border in Official complicity in both legal out tree stumps in areas already order to keep contraband loads out and illegal logging has meant an deforested in order to make of the public eye. unrelenting assault on tracts of charcoal for supplemental income. forest which local villagers have Taking a roundabout route seems relied on for generations. The One local group to suffer has been well worth it. For example, on July indigenous peoples of Shan State, the Senjin. Ethnically related to the 27, 2005, 80 trucks each carrying such as Shan, Akha, Wa, Palaung, Wa, this unique tribe now number over 10 tons of both teak and En, Senjin, Samtao, Lisu, and Lahu only about 500 households in the other precious hardwood logs were have long maintained strict customs whole world. They are settled in to ensure the two villages near Kengtung. Ten sustainability of their years ago, the Senjin hilltop village forests. seven miles east of town was surrounded by thick forest which Villagers allocate had been protected for generations. certain areas of Today, the entire forest is gone, cut forests solely for down for firewood by the nine obtaining firewood or SPDC battalions based in building materials and Kengtung. Eighty-two acres of the protect them villagers farmlands were also accordingly with confiscated for use by the military. punishments for any offenders. Those Shans living in lowland valleys also believing in animist have to endure encroachment and spirits are particularly abuse. In 1996, SPDC careful to protect commanders of IB 245 based in their forests, fearing Kengtung ordered a Chinese logger that even to break a named Ar Chan to provide them branch from a with planks and firewood. Ar Chan protected tree could came to the Shan village of Mong cause nosebleeds or Zem, where the residents had serious illness leading maintained a protected community to death. Thus, forest. He ordered that all the trees
12 Undercurrents Issue 2 be cut down, including those with shrines for the local spirits.
The villagers were incensed, and the headman, Sai Kham Yi, went to appeal to the SPDC Regional Commander Thein Sein in Kengtung. The commander merely said: Surely you dont worship all those trees? He then offered a concession to placate the headman: Dont worry; well leave you the most sacred ones. In the end, however, all the trees were cut down.
Even single trees in gardens have not been spared. In 2000, a Lahu villager from Ar Kha Day village,
Mong Khon tract of Kengtung lost white numbers denote a massive hardwood tree growing elevation in feet in his garden. He explained: One day an SPDC sergeant from a new battalion IB 244 near our village came and cut down the tree with a chain saw. I could not say a thing. The sergeants soldiers not only resumed, but villagers under licence in 2002 by Daw ordered me to carry the planks to were forced to carry some of the Maw Rin, a Chinese business the camp, and gave me 2 kg of logs to the local army camp to be woman. sugar. They said I should be used for camp buildings. thankful for the sugar, as the tree Such bans, imposed after forests had been growing wild. Only in early 2006, once the forests have been lost, do little to convince around Talerh had been almost local populations that the Even in cases where excessive completely destroyed, did the authorities are sincere about forest logging has directly impacted the Talerh army commander finally conservation. Neither do livelihoods of local farmers, local issue an order that anyone cutting transportation routes intended to military authorities have not been a tree wider than 2 inches would mask excessive loads and willing to end logging operations. be fined 6,000 kyats and jailed for crackdowns on cross-border When farmlands in Pang Peng, 6 years. trade. As long as ever increasing Talerh tract north of Tachilek numbers of local army battalions suffered erosion and flood damage In 2003, the SPDC forestry continue to be complicit in ongoing for two successive years 2003 department in Kengtung issued a logging operations, and SPDC and 2004 the local headman similar order: that anyone who cut supremo Than Shwes own son- went to complain to Col. Aye Ko, down a pine tree, even those no in-law personally helps himself to the SPDC field commander in wider than a thumb, would be fined the last stands of teak in eastern Talerh, about the Chinese logging 20,000 kyats and jailed for 3 Shan State, the experience of the operations along the nearby Nam years. Yet the main pine forest near Senjin, Lahu, Shan, and other Moi River. The colonel ordered the Kengtung, covering 72 square villagers will continue to tell the real logging to stop, but this lasted for miles in Nong Taung tract, had story of logging in Shan State. only two months. After that, logging already been entirely cut down
Undercurrents Issue 2 13 What opium ban? Despite UN claims of reductions, poppy cultivation and trade continue in territories under the control of ceasefire groups and the SPDC
According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium cultivation in Burma has decreased year by year since 1990. The UNODCs 2005 Myanmar Opium Survey stated that opium cultivation levels had dropped 80 percent since 1996, with only 32,800 hectares of the crop still being farmed in Shan State.
Research by LNDO in eastern Shan State during the 2005-2006 Drug-free: Authorities encourage villagers to grow poppy poppy growing season paints a freely in NDAA territories very different picture, however. Poppy is still growing in abundance had vowed to eradicate opium roads, villagers are able to continue in rural mountainous areas, production in all of his territories growing opium in remote fields including those in supposedly drug- by June 2005, offering to chop off without restriction by the free ceasefire territories. his head if the pledge was not authorities. We had to pull up fulfilled. In December 2005, young poppy plants growing near In 1997, well-known drug kingpin LNDO researchers visited the the roads, but elsewhere we could Lin Ming Xians Special Region #4 UWSA area of Mongpawk close grow poppy freely, reported a Wa in eastern Shan State was declared to the China border, where, villager from Vieng Ngeun, north drug-free by the regime. Yet in July incidentally, the UNODC has been of the UWSA headquarters of 2005, villagers in Lins NDAA implementing an opium eradication Pang Sang. territories in Mong Yawng reported project since 1998. Poppy fields that the authorities were were in full bloom all along the Loi The UWSA also continues to encouraging them to grow opium. Pen range south of Mong Pawk, monopolize the opium trade in its Our headman told us that if we from Hopong up to Mong Ngen. territories. A Lahu villager from wanted to make a lot of money this Only 3 miles from Mong Pawk, Mong Ton Township, which year, we should plant a lot of poppies carpeted the hillsides and borders northern Thailand, poppy, reported an Akha villager in the towns market, raw opium reported: We must sell all our from the hills north-west of Mong was being sold openly at a price opium to dealers authorized by the Yawng. Opium is also growing of 1,300 yuan (US$162) per viss UWSA at a price of 120 rupees freely in areas under the control of (1.65 kg). (about US$230) per viss. If we the United Wa State Army sold on the open market, we could (UWSA), which, like the NDAA, According to local villagers, opium get 150 rupees (about US$280). has had a ceasefire agreement with is under cultivation in other UWSA the regime since 1989. areas both in northern and southern The fact that the UWSA continue Shan State. Although prohibited to grow opium may be due to a UWSA Chairman Bao Yu Xiang from growing in open view of lack of consensus among leaders,
14 Undercurrents Issue 2 especially now that Chairman Bao including in village tracts east of well. Previously the police did not is seriously ill. The continued Kengtung (a popular tourist venture out into the countryside. cultivation in both UWSA and destination and the seat of the NDAA areas may also signal their SPDCs Triangle Military With the rapid expansion of its increasing mistrust of the regime, Command), and the military is military presence in eastern Shan which during 2005 pressured benefiting from the production. State (see page 9), it is clear that several other ceasefire armies in the SPDC are in no hurry to remove Shan State to surrender their Villagers in SPDC areas are forced this guaranteed source of income. weapons without political to pay a poppy tax to SPDC concessions. Neither UWSA nor troops and police. In northern What is not so clear is why NDAA are likely to want to areas of Mong Ton, Lahu villagers UNODC persistently proclaims relinquish major revenues from reported SPDC troops ordering success in its drug eradication drugs at a time when they may be them to pay 2 rupees (US$8) per programs, when opium is being forced to make a choice between household and in the Mong Yawng growing as widely as ever and surrender and resumption of armed and Taler areas west of the when major barriers to drug resistance. Mekong, SPDC troops were eradication namely the failure demanding 200-300 Thai baht to address the root causes of the Yet it is definitely not only the (approx US$5-8) per acre of ethnic conflict, and the expanding ceasefire armies which are relying poppy grown. Villagers in Mong SPDC military presence in Shan on income from drug production. Ton also reported that since early State remain untackled. Poppies are also growing in areas 2006, SPDC police have been directly under SPDC control, coming to demand opium taxes as
Anything for gold Desperate gold mining continues even after deadly accident
Every dry season villagers young ounce.) If they can find gold, arrived they only found the dead and old from Talerh and Mong workers can earn 50 - 500 THB, body on the sand and a crowd of Phyak townships come to pan for or US$1.30 - $13 per day. onlookers. gold on the bank of the Nam Lone (Nam Lin in Shan) or Mekong riv- If someone has good luck they may As the conditions worsen for or- ers between Ta Or port and Keng find a block of gold. In this case, dinary villagers, more are turning Larb. Here and there Chinese busi- they will continue to dig until there to gold panning in the hopes of nessmen sit and watch under the is a big hole. This can sometimes getting lucky. This year there are shadow of trees or umbrellas. They be dangerous, especially as the more gold workers than usual, and are ready with a scale to weigh and digger is excited and may not no- the recent accident does not seem buy the raw gold as soon as it is tice the danger. to be a deterrent. found. Such a case occurred on April 16, The going price at the panning site 2006. Ai Kham from Wan Lon vil- is 800 Thai baht (THB) for 1 mu lage, Keng Larb Township, died (1mu = 0.0576 ounce). This beneath a massive sand collapse. amount equals approximately That day he had collected 1,000 US$365 per ounce. (The interna- THB and was very happy. He On the Mekong: a tional market price for gold is now called his wife and young daughter Lahu family waits for opportunity hovering about US$700 per on that day. But by the time they
Undercurrents Issue 2 15 ---continued from page 11 Still no signs of outlawing license to rape Burma Army expansion impacts women morale. Maung Thet Khaing remembered that when he first More than three years after the regime was condemned by the joined up in the 1960s, there were international community for condoning sexual violence, following few desertions. We were well the publication of License to Rape by the Shan Womens Action supplied. We got monthly rations Network, the Burma Army has yet to stop using sexual violence of dried and pickled fish, chick as a weapon of war. peas, and milk and sugar. Our families were also supplied with Light Infantry Battalion 329 based in Monghpyak is a case in point. rations. · On 26 June 2005, a column headed by the battalion commander (who was identified by Thai-based Network During the past ten years, as for Democracy and Development as Lt-Col Toe Myat) Rangoon cut off basic support to surrounded the twin villages of Jani (Akha) and Ah Pawday military units nationwide and (Lahu), 4 miles south of Mongphyak. Some of the villagers, ordered them to generate their were accused of supporting the Shan State Army South own income locally, desertion has of Col Yawdserk, bound and beaten. In the afternoon, a become common. A soldier who 14- year-old girl was raped by the commander right in front deserted from Kengtung-based of her parents. The villagers were later warned, If there is LIB 226 in early 2006 said that in any failure in future to inform (the Army) about the rebels the Kengtung area alone, there movements, you are going to witness more excesses from were as many as 30-40 desertions us. each month. · On 1 July, the Akha village of Hajakhai, north of Talerh, was surrounded. Finding no signs of SSA members, a 15- Soldiers and their families have to year old girl was picked out and raped while the village work hard in fields confiscated headman and her parents, under armed custody, stood from local villagers in order to have helpless outside the bedroom. The act was committed by enough to eat. They are rarely the battalion commander himself, claimed the sources. supplied with new uniforms, and it This article, researched by LNDO, first appeared in the Shan Herald Agency is common to see soldiers with for News on August 17, 2005. ragged, patched trousers.
This stark contrast between the impoverished foot soldiers and the Gun-toting monks wealthy generals is obvious for all in Burma to see. All except Militarization leaves nothing sacred in Burma perhaps for the generals Since 2000, Buddhist temples in hill areas west of Kengtung have themselves, who dont seem to all been appointed with new abbots from Central Burma. The realize that the massive military abbots have been appointed to temples in Hopong, Mongngen infrastructure they are building is and Nga Ok Su (five hill tracts), where mainly Lahu, En, Palaung resting on very shaky foundations and Akha people live. These monks are being treated with great indeed. respect even by local Burma Army officers, and now play a significant role in not just religious but other community affairs.
This respect may have something to do with the fact that the abbots openly wear .99mm pistols in their belts, and by all accounts, are not actually monks, but military officers in disguise.
16 Undercurrents Issue 2 Chameleon moves his capital Leader of NDAA survives politi- cal shake-up and continues to develop his new center of action
Mong La is the capital seat of the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) and its leader Lin Ming Xian. Located between Kengtung in Shan State and Jinghong in Yunnan, China, the town is famous for its casinos, drugs, and women. Haven of vice: The In the last issue of Undercurrents, town of Mong La on LNDO reported that some Chinese the Chinese border officials had lost significant amounts of money in Mong La, prompting the Yunnan authorities to order No room for locals: casinos shut. the new hotel in Sop Lwe displaced 100 By July 2005, things had gotten families more serious. The Chinese police staged surprise raids on casinos, rounding up Chinese clients. and it is continuing to develop into to his repertoire of revenue Frequent power shutdowns and a new center of illicit activities. Lin, sources. restrictions on visitors by the also a wanted drug lord, survived Yunnanese authorities have further the arrest of General Khin Nyunt Meanwhile in Sop Lwe, a new hotel cramped Mong Las activity. in late 2004 by maintaining his long- has displaced about 100 families. time close ties with Generals Than Most of those have moved 1-2 Lin Ming Xian began developing the Shwe and Maung Aye. Always a kilometers from the hotel and are small port town of Sop Lwe as an chameleon, Lin has continued his staying on both sides of the main alternative to Mong La in late 2004, activities unabated, adding mining road to Mong Yu.
Hidden in Sop Lwe In order to avoid confiscation, many expensive cars were In March 2005 Burmas military transported by boat and hidden regime began a crackdown in the Sop Lwe area. The operation on unlicensed cars Burmese intelligence knew from Tachilek and Mong about this clandestine activity Yawng. Major San Nyo, an but could do nothing about it. Army officer of the UWSA, Most of the cars were said that about 4,000 cars from eventually sent to UWSA now remain in Sop Lwe. Tachilek and 68 cars from territory and from there some Mong Yawng were confiscated. were sold to China. Only a few
Undercurrents Issue 2 17 Aftershocks Along Burmas Unsettling Moves: The Wa This first issue of Undercur- Mekong: Reefblasting and Forced Resettlement Program in rents: Monitoring Development military-style development in Eastern Shan State 1999-2001 on Burmas Mekong (2005) pro- eastern Shan State (2003) lays (2002) details the forced vides ten stories on topics such out the background and resettlement of over 125,000 as blasting the Mekong, roads implementation of the villagers from Wa areas of construction, and the disap- Mekong Navigation Improve- northern Shan State. pearance of the spirits of the ment Project in Burma. yellow leaves, a unique tribe in eastern Shan State. Previous LNDO publications are all available at www.shanland.org