Burma: Army committing abuses in Kachin State - SHOCKING !!!

October 18, Human Rights Watch
Burma: Army committing abuses in Kachin State

New York - Burma's armed forces have committed serious abuses against ethnic
Kachin civilians in renewed fighting in Kachin State, Human Rights Watch
said today. Since hostilities began over five months ago against the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA), Burmese armed forces have been responsible for
killings and attacks on civilians, using forced labor, and pillaging
villages, which has resulted in the displacement of an estimated 30,000
Kachin civilians.

On September 30, 2011, Burma's President Thein Sein suspended a
controversial US$3.6 billion hydropower dam project on the Irrawaddy River
in Kachin State, which appears to have been one of several factors in the
renewed hostilities between the Burmese government and the Kachin
Independence Organization (KIO). The Chinese-financed project was suspended
after growing dissent in Burma over its current and potential environmental
and social impacts.

"Renewed fighting in Kachin State has meant renewed abuses by the Burmese
army against Kachin villagers," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at
Human Rights Watch. "Tens of thousands of people have fled through the
mountains and jungle at the height of the rainy season, driven away by fear
of army attacks."

Fighting between the Burmese army and the KIA, Burma's second largest ethnic
armed group, began on June 9, ending 17 years of ceasefire. The Burmese army
first attacked a strategic KIA post at the location of another Chinese-led
hydropower dam on the Taping River in Momauk township, Human Rights Watch
said. The army subsequently launched a major offensive and moved in hundreds
of troops to areas formerly controlled by the KIA. There have since been
failed ceasefire talks and an unconfirmed number of skirmishes, ambushes,
and battles involving heavy mortar shelling. The KIA subsequently destroyed
several road and railway bridges to frustrate the Burmese army's advance and
supply lines. The KIA reportedly began conscripting able-bodied men and
women aged 18 to 55 for a two-month military training, in anticipation of
protracted fighting.

Human Rights Watch conducted a fact-finding mission to the conflict areas in
Kachin State in July and August, visiting abandoned villages and eight
remote camps of internally displaced persons. Witnesses described serious
abuses committed by Burmese soldiers, including killings and attacks on
civilians, pillaging of villages, and the unlawful use of forced labor.

Fearing abuses from the Burmese army, tens of thousands of Kachin fled their
villages, Human Rights Watch said. Before arriving at displaced persons
camps in KIA controlled areas, several thousand villagers hid from the
Burmese army in the jungle, in some cases for a month after the fighting
began. Those who were able to visit their homes to get provisions told Human
Rights Watch that Burmese army soldiers had occupied their villages and
confiscated their property and belongings. Some described being held by
Burmese soldiers, who interrogated them harshly for information about the
KIA, including by threatening to kill them. Interrogations were particularly
menacing for villagers who spoke Kachin dialects and very little Burmese.

Human Rights Watch documented the killings of three Kachin civilians by
Burmese soldiers in June and is investigating credible allegations of other
killings. Villagers told Human Rights Watch that on June 15, Burmese army
forces entered Hang Htak village in Man Je township searching for suspected
associates of the KIA. A Burmese soldier shot and killed a 52-year-old woman
and her 4-year-old grandson in their home at close range as they tried to
flee. On June 17, credible local sources told Human Rights Watch that a
group of soldiers allegedly shot and killed Nhkum Zau Bawk, a farmer and day
laborer, in Kawng Gat Ban Ma village as he stood unarmed with a group of
friends at a cemetery. Local authorities reportedly provided financial
compensation to the man's family, but no legal action was taken against the
perpetrator.

According to the September 2011 report to the United Nations General
Assembly by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Thomas Ojea
Quintana, "Allegations of abuses against civilian populations throughout
Kachin State include reports of 18 women and girls having been gang-raped by
army soldiers, and of four of those victims being subsequently killed."
While Human Rights Watch did not speak to any victims or witnesses of rape,
community members confirmed such abuses had occurred.

Several people told Human Rights Watch that Burmese army soldiers fired on
them as they were fleeing their village. For instance, in early June,
Burmese soldiers twice fired on a 62-year-old Kachin woman and her three
young grandchildren in Sang Gang village. She told Human Rights Watch, "In
the morning when we were cooking rice, we heard gunfire and we left our food
and went to the field, looking into the village the whole day before we
fled. When we ran the soldiers shot at us. We were really afraid. We just
ran and hid." She said that after two days in the jungle without basic
provisions, they decided to return home to get food, at which point they
were fired upon a second time. "We had already left the house and were on
our way out of the village . and the soldiers opened fire on us ," she said.
"No one was hit. When the soldier opened fire it made me shake and I didn't
know what to do. We just ran."

Under the laws of war applicable in conflict areas in Burma, all sides are
prohibited from mistreating persons in their custody, targeting civilians,
or pillaging homes and other civilian property.

The Burmese army has unlawfully used Kachin civilians for forced labor,
which has long been a serious problem in Burma's ethnic areas, Human Rights
Watch said. Five civilians told Human Rights Watch that in recent months
they had been forced to work for the military without compensation; several
others knew of family or friends who had had to do so. A 36-year-old mother
of six children who fled Lusupa village, a government-controlled area, told
Human Rights Watch how she and other Kachin villagers, including children as
young as 14, had been commonly forced to porter for the Burmese army. She
said that her husband, who remained in their village to tend their crops and
check on their home and belongings, was forced to carry out labor for the
army twice, in late June and mid-July.

The laws of war prohibit the use of uncompensated or abusive forced labor,
including work in combat areas.

Many Kachin recounted previous abuses at the hands of the Burmese army. A
58-year-old Kachin farmer, who said all his possessions had been taken by
the Burmese army, told Human Rights Watch: "We lost our homes and properties
to the Burmese soldiers several times. That is why I don't have hope in this
situation."

Recent abuses in Kachin State highlight the importance of establishing a
United Nations commission of inquiry into alleged violations of
international humanitarian law and human rights law in Burma, Human Rights
Watch said. The UN special rapporteur for the situation of human rights in
Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, first called for a commission of inquiry in
March 2010, and to date 16 countries have publically confirmed their support
for the initiative, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
and others, as well as Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Pronouncements of political reform in Burma do not seem to have reached the
army in Kachin State," Pearson said. "Ongoing abuses starkly demonstrate
that until real steps are taken towards accountability, including an
international commission of inquiry, minorities such as the Kachin will be a
grave risk."


Burmese Army Abuses in Kachin State: June 2011
Attacks on Civilians, Forced Labor, and Mistreatment in Custody

A 51-year-old Kachin farmer from Sang Gang told Human Rights Watch that
a government soldier opened fire on him on June 12, despite it being clear
he was unarmed: "The soldier and I were around 50 meters apart, and between
us was a small stream. The soldier said nicely, 'Brother, come, come,' and I
pretended to come and then suddenly ran, and the soldier shot at me two
times. I hid for one hour near where I escaped. After one hour it was
getting dark and I ran. I was afraid of the Burmese."

A 48-year-old Kachin woman explained to Human Rights Watch how on June
13 the Burmese army opened fire into Kawng Ra Zup village, which sits in a
valley below a mountaintop Burmese army post. "The Burmese soldiers shot
their guns, so we were really afraid," she said. "We don't know what they
were aiming at. The village head said we should run, so we just ran."

A 33-year-old woman told Human Rights Watch that before the current
fighting she was forced to carry provisions up a two-mile road to a Burmese
army outpost while she was six-months pregnant. She said, "I had to do
forced labor for the Burmese soldiers many times. [Before the fighting
began] we carried rice and other things to [the Burmese army] post and
walked back. It took three hours. The path is very steep, we had to climb
the mountain and it was difficult to reach. From morning to evening we had
to do it twice. The food we brought ourselves and we ate. They didn't feed
us."

A 48-year-old woman from Kawng Ra Zup said the Burmese army's previous
use of forced labor and other ill-treatment was an important reason those in
her village fled: "Every villager in our village had to work for the
soldiers in the last year. And they hit our village head with their guns and
they punched and kicked him. They knocked him out. From the road to the post
we had to carry rice. We could not refuse to do the work. We weren't paid
anything."

A local Kachin carpenter who fled his village fearing attack from the
Burmese army explained to Human Rights Watch how he had commonly been forced
to work for the army. "I am a carpenter and I know how to make cement and
how to build houses," he said. "When the army needs a weapons store and
flagpole and boundaries, they ask me to work on these things. Everything
they need, they ask me, but they never pay me the full amount.I cannot
refuse to do this work. Sometimes they ask when I am very busy, but I have
to do it."

A villager from Sin Lum described fleeing to the jungle: "We were afraid
to live in the village so we went to hide in the jungle one mile from the
village. It was 11 households, 58 people. We lived there for a month ... and
when we needed food and rice we secretly went back to the village and then
came back. We lived [in the jungle] with plastic bags as shelter. When we
were going back and forth secretly, the Burmese soldiers saw us and told us
next time they saw us they were going to shoot us. After that, no one went
back."

A 60-year-old farmer from Sin Lum told Human Rights Watch said that
before he fled he was interrogated and threatened on a daily basis by the
Burmese army, suspicious of his family's ties to the KIA. Fearful for his
security, he finally fled to a displaced persons camp on July 23. "The
soldiers shot their guns four times to the ground and threatened me and
asked, 'Where is your son? What is he doing?' I can't speak Burmese well. I
just told them I didn't know.... The soldiers would come in the daytime.
Everyday [in July] they came and asked me questions and interrogated me,
sometimes once, sometimes twice." This farmer described how in the past the
army had forced him to porter several times, repeatedly beating and
mistreating him. He told Human Rights Watch that in the early 1990s a
Burmese soldier cut his throat, leaving a large scar that left him
permanently fearful of the army's return.

A 30-year-old woman from Sin Lum told Human Rights Watch that she
endured the same interrogation by the military every day for several weeks
before she finally fled on July 15: "Every day the soldiers came and asked,
'Do you have a guest? Do you have a KIA soldier?' Every day they came and
talked like that..We couldn't sleep at night, whether the soldiers came or
not.. At our house, at least three soldiers per day came and checked and
asked questions since the fighting started. They would ask many questions.
This made us afraid."

Another villager told Human Rights Watch, "I was very afraid when they
[soldiers] came and asked questions. I was afraid they would kill us."

Property Confiscation and Destruction

A 65-year-old Christian pastor who fled his village on June 10 told
Human Rights Watch: "The soldiers took all of our belongings. They took 18
motorbikes, one rice mill, and all the buffalo, pigs, chickens, everything.
Some people were going to build a house and the soldiers took all their
materials. I don't know how many soldiers are there now, but when the
fighting started there were 500 soldiers who came, and now they are living
in the village. They are living in our houses."

A 58-year-old woman who fled her home in Sang Gang was sobbing with
despair when she told Human Rights Watch that her family had lost everything
after the Burmese army entered her village on June 9: "My friends and I
[secretly] returned to the house to give the pigs and chickens some food,
and when we arrived all the houses [in the village] were messy and
destroyed. We were very afraid and we wanted to take our food but we could
not. Some villagers were in the jungle. We joined them . and then came here
[a displaced persons' camp]. If we went to live in our village, we think we'd
be beaten or tortured by the [Burmese army] soldiers. There are many
civilians in our village sympathetic to the KIO [Kachin Independence
Organization], so if we went back and stayed we would be killed."

In mostly Buddhist Burma, the majority of Kachin are Christian. A
65-year-old Kachin villager from Sang Gang told Human Rights Watch that when
the fighting started in June 2011 the Burmese army uprooted a large
Christian cross from a hilltop regarded by the villagers as sacred, and used
it as a stand for their weapons. The villagers had planned to eventually
construct a church on the site. "We villagers made a large cross for the
[proposed] church [on the hilltop]," he said, "and the Burmese soldiers took
it out of the ground and used it to prop up their big machine guns."


Background

The renewed conflict in Kachin State is rooted in a long-standing political
dispute and large-scale economic interests. In 1994, after decades of brutal
fighting and widespread human rights abuses, the KIO and the Burmese
military government signed a ceasefire agreement granting the KIO political
autonomy over a Special Region in Kachin State, ending the fighting, and
granting some latitude for the expansion of humanitarian assistance and
development in the area.

Nearly every Kachin villager interviewed by Human Rights Watch described
painful histories of forced labor, torture, killings, and other abuses by
the Burmese army before and after the 1994 ceasefire. The Kachin, who are
predominantly Christian in largely Buddhist Burma, also spoke of past
instances of religious repression, which contributes to the collective fears
of persecution and widespread feelings of ethnic and religious
discrimination among displaced Kachin communities.

A 36-year-old woman from Hka Ya village told Human Rights Watch she was
first subject to forced labor in 1983, at age 8. When she fled to escape
forced portering for the Burmese army, soldiers shot at her and her aunt:
"When I was 8 years old I had to carry things many times, and with the old
people I secretly went and ran away into the forest, and when we ran the
soldiers fired their guns at us....We didn't get hit."

A 54-year-old farmer from Sin Lum said that since the 1970s he had been
forced to porter for the Burmese army "around 70 to 80 times, at least," and
that he had "witnessed more than a hundred killings by Burmese soldiers. I
can't even say how many. It's been so many."

A 58-year-old Baptist Christian farmer from Maisakba told Human Rights
Watch how on three occasions from 2000 to 2009 the Burmese authorities
forbade his community from constructing a new Christian church, in part
because the proposed structure was in the shape of a cross. "The Burmese
authorities banned this construction project," he said. "They wanted to
avoid the religious symbol, the cross.. All three times we were rejected." A
48-year-old Roman Catholic villager from Loimawkyang likewise explained how
in 2000 his community was forbidden from constructing a new church.


In 2008, Burma's military government announced that all armed groups under
ceasefire agreements would have to transform into Border Guard Forces under
the direct control of the Burmese army, as stipulated in the 2008
Constitution. The KIO rejected the proposal.

In October 2010, the Burmese state-run media for the first time since 1994
referred to the KIA as "insurgents" as opposed to a "ceasefire group". The
Kachin were barred from registering political parties or independent
candidates in Burma's November 2010 elections, pro-KIO candidates were
removed from the ballots, and tens of thousands of Kachin in KIO-controlled
areas were effectively barred from voting.

On June 9, 2011, the army entered and attacked KIA-controlled territory in
Sang Gang and Bum Seng villages near the Taping #1 hydropower dam on the
Taping River. The fully constructed Taping #1 dam is one of two proposed
dams on the Taping River in Burma. It is a project led by China Datang
Corporation in partnership with the Burmese Ministry of Electric Power.
According to state-controlled media, the Burmese army's offensive was an
effort to consolidate power in the area and provide security for the
hydropower dam. The KIA denied that the dam was ever under threat.

The recently suspended Myitsone hydropower dam at the confluence of the Mali
and N'Mai rivers on the Irrawaddy in Kachin State also appears to have been
a factor in the conflict. On March 16, 2011, the KIO sent a letter, a copy
of which was obtained by Human Rights Watch, to Chinese President Hu Jintao
requesting that the Chinese authorities stop construction of the Myitsone
dam because of several social and environmental concerns. The letter
specifically named China Power Investment and the Burmese company Asia World
Co. Ltd. as investing parties. The KIO wrote that it had informed the
Burmese government it would not be held responsible if civil war broke out
because of the dam project. Less than three months later, war broke out.

The fighting in Kachin State coincides with an increase in fighting in
neighboring Shan State, where the Burmese government also has several
economic interests, including dual transnational oil and gas pipelines to
China, which will pass through territory claimed by the KIA and the Shan
State Army- areas populated by a mix of Kachin, Shan, Burmese, and ethnic
Chinese.



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