Daniel Pedersen

NDF chairman speaks out on ethnic resurgence: part 1

NDF chairman speaks out on ethnic resurgence: part 2

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TNI-BCN Burma policy briefing No. 5
February 2011

Following the shake-up of Burmese politics last year, the country’s military leaders now face the challenge of introducing a new system while ethnic tensions and exclusions remain.

Burma remains a land in ethnic crisis and political transition. In 2010 the military State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) laid out the landscape for a new era of parliamentary government. In 2011 the authorities face the challenge of introducing the new political system. Ethnic divisions and political exclusions, however, are emerging in national politics, threatening a new cycle of impasse and conflict.
A critical moment is approaching. A new political system is being introduced, and progressive decisions can yet be made. But uncertainty is increasing. Will the new government be the SPDC in new guise or will it be a platform from which ethnic peace and multi-party democracy can truly spread? The stakes could not be higher. The decisions made by Burma’s leaders in the coming year could well decide the country’s future for a generation Ethnic Politics in Burma: The Time for Solutions. Burma Policy Briefing Nr 5

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‘Beyond Section 10′ is a portrait of one Karen refugee in the run up to elections in Burma. Although he lives in a Thai refugee camp he has also served as a soldier in the KNLA since he was thirteen. He has recently become a father and as an increased level of fighting looms in the coming months he is torn for the first time between his love for his people and a desire to see his baby grow up.

The film is designed to highlight the plight of the Karen people and offer an accessible, human face to one of the victims of a brutal regime in a nation under persecution.

Mike Garrod is an English filmmaker who has worked on documentaries and drama since 2000 for broadcasters such as BBC, HBO, Sky and Al Jazeera. He is currently based in Stockholm and London and has been coming to Karen State since 2009. The film is currently being edited in London and is expecting a release in the summer.

Mike is putting out an appeal for footage that anybody can donate to the film and is especially interested in the following: Burmese news stories about the Karen and ethnic groups in general. Burmese news stories about the 2010 elections. Burmese movies depicting the Karen or other ethnic groups. International media news stories about the ethnic groups/elections. Footage of the Karen discussing elections. Karen festivals or holidays (new year?). Karen singing/music. Conflict footage inside Karen state. Burmese military parades.

Please contact through this site or mail@mikegarrod.com.

Mike Garrod

Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander Htoo Htoo lets a 60mm mortar rip towards a Burma Army base camp in an area known as Maw Kee, close to the Thai border. The State Peace and Development Council base camp has been besieged for weeks now, the soldiers forced to live underground.

Snipers have make on Burma Army base camps

Daniel Pedersen

Mae Sot

Combined ethnic Karen armies have besieged three Burma Army base camps near the Thai-Burma border to the south of Mae Sot.

The camps – at Toh Kyo, K’ne Ley and Maw Kee – are the government’s closest footprint to the Thai border in this mountainous region.

More than 160 soldiers of Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, are pinned down, living underground, not daring to raise their heads for fear of attracting fire.

The Burma Army soldiers constitute the main body of government troops that once controlled the border with its former ally, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which was employed as a forward fighting force.

The DKBA mutinied on November 7, the day of Burma’s much-maligned election, taking control of strategic points in the frontier trading town of Myawaddy.

Fighting persisted for two days before the DKBA pulled out.

Since then the DKBA has rejoined forces with the revolutionary Karen National Liberation Army, which has been fighting for an independent Karen state since 1949.

The two Karen factions first split in 1994.

The Burma Army base camps now besieged are on high ground, from where SPDC soldiers once commanded a comfortable bird’s-eye view as they directed their Karen allies during firefights.

But the wet season is now finished in this part of South East Asia and high ground is a liability, because streams fed by steady rains since June have dried up.

Now the Burma Army soldiers must make their own way down from hillside bunkers to access permanent water, making themselves vulnerable in the process.

The combined Karen forces have laid land mines and set Claymore booby traps on pathways leading to the creeks and their snipers maintain a silent, camouflaged vigil waiting for a chance to hit their enemies.

Drinking water for mere survival takes precedence over sanitary conditions and the SPDC troops now have not been able to wash for almost a month.

“Now they are really under attack,” said one KNLA “Black” Special Forces soldier.

“They’ve got a base camp at the top of the hill and the bottom of the hill is surrounded, we have snipers with .308 calibre rifles and telescopic sights at 600 yards, 300 yards and much closer, maybe not even 200 yards,” he said.

“They’re [the SPDC] spending most of their time underground.”

The base camps have formidable bunkers dug deep into what is now dry, rock-hard clay and the tops are armoured with hardwood logs.

Karen soldiers said foliage was very dense around the camps and it was difficult to see anything.

Nevertheless, on Saturday the SPDC soldiers were forced out of their bunkers in search of water.

They used M-79 grenade launchers to clear a path through landmines to gather drinking water.

One of the Karen snipers said, because of the dense foliage, night time had become an ally.

“Any time they turn on a light they get shot at.

“One guy lit a cigarette, he was shot, I don’t know whether I killed him or not, but the lights went out and the cigarette went down – that was from 600 yards,” the sniper said.

He also wounded another soldier in the leg at 1068 yards.

“I’m using a .308 Remington model 700 with a mid-range Bushnell scope, a 24-power variable magnification adjustable scope,” he said.

“So after that, they moved most of their troops to the other side [of the hilltop], mainly to get away from the snipers and a Chinese-made .50 calibre machine gun we’re using, but then on the other side we hit them with RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] and 60mm mortars,” he said.

Their position, on the whole, was “not very good” he said, “really not good.”

“They’ve been on the radio begging for recruits to back them up, but they have been refused because three base camps in the area are all under attack.”

Other soldiers said there had been some return fire.

“There’s been some .50 calibre machine gun fire and some 81mm mortars but they haven’t come in on target,” he said.

“They really just don’t know what they’re shooting at.”

The Maw Kee base camp is the largest of the three under attack, home to between 80 and 100 men.

A little further north at K’ne Ley about 50 to 80 Burma Army soldiers are pinned down and “the only place they walk is back and forth in their holes”.

The most northern, and smallest, of the besieged government camps is Toh Kyo.

There too, the SPDC troops are stuck underground, with snipers at 800m, 400m and 200m

Ba Wa, the KNLA’s chief medic for the region, who has 15 medics at 10 different locations in the area, said the water supply to Toh Kyo had been surrounded with Claymore mines and land mines and snipers were laying in wait.

On Monday afternoon Ba Wa was at war with his mobile phone in Mae Sot.

Reports were constantly being called in about an ambush at Wa Shu Pu, between the Karen villages of K’ne Ley and Wah Lay.

A Burma Army unit of about 25 men was in the thick of a Claymore ambush and excited medics were calling their commanding officer to update him.

Terminating a final call before leaving town he said: “I’ve heard five [SPDC troops] injured by rifle fire and one has suffered a land mine injury, but it’s impossible to really know how many have been wounded because it’s still going on,” he said at about 2pm.

Ba Wa said his medics had been monitoring Burma Army radio transmissions and the men caught in the ambush had been reinforcements trying to sneak into Maw Kee.

The reinforcements didn’t get within a day’s walk of that besieged base camp.

Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander-in-chief Colonel Nerdah Mya surveys the besieged Burma Army camp. By night a mere suggestion of light attracts sniper fire into the bunkers they are trapped in - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK

A young Karen soldier shoulders an M16 as he listens for the radio call to move forwards - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

Soldiers of the Karen National Liberation Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, now fighting together after more than 15 years divided, pile into a truck after being re-supplied with M-79 grenades on Sunday (DEC 19, 2010) - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

A Karen National Liberation Army soldier stands ready to deploy another rocket-propelled grenade at the besieged Burma Army base camp near Maw Kee, close to the Thai-Burma border - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

Karen National Liberation Army 'Black' Special Forces commander-in-chief Colonel Nerdah Mya leads his men to a new position below the besieged Burma Army base camp - Photo: Mike Garrod, Imagine Pictures UK.

Daniel Pedersen
Mae Sot

The great danger the violence that threatens to spiral out of control in Burma’s post-election period is that it will be painted by the ruling military junta as ethnic groups fighting one another.
And public perception is a keystone in how modern wars are dealt with at an international level.
At the moment intense fighting in Karen State, north of the military and administrative capital Naypidaw, is pushing tens of thousands of people across the border into Thailand.
It seems likely to spread across the country.
Burma’s ethnic peoples are little understood by the West.
And the Western propensity to link the nation’s future with that of Aung San Suu Kyi is a failing.
The world’s press, it seems, has a problem explaining myriad ethnicities existing together in a nation state cobbled together by an occupying colonial force long gone.
Its reticence to delve into Burma’s diversity is baffling.
One of the higher-profile news pieces to attract recent headlines is the fact the newly-elected parliamentarians’ right to speak has been stifled before parliament has even convened.
On Saturday December 4, it was reported that Burma was undergoing political change according to United Nations envoy to Burma, Vijay Nambiar.
But in fact, what Nambiar said was gradual political change might begin as newly-elected politicians vacated the seats they have not yet formally occupied.
“Government formation is taking place. I think there will be new spaces, new slots in the parliament which will open up for by-elections,” he said.
Nambiar added that this might provide “small opportunities for increasing the political space for a broader, inclusive involvement”.
It is a fact that the ethnics control and inhabit most of Burma’s countryside.
They live together and work together, mostly in Burma with the common aim to grow enough food to sustain them and collectively survive as peoples.
In different regions they have substantially different cultures, languages, national songs, flags and beliefs.
But they are not at war with each other and they are not at war with the Burman ethnic majority.
Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, is at war with its own population.
Aung San Suu Kyi is undoubtedly important to Burma’s future, but there is a future no matter the role in which she finds herself cast.
The “ethnic minorities”, as they are so often referred to, have democratic processes to elect their leaders.
In some cases their elected leaders represent as many as seven million people.
While Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest, the ethnic leaders have been talking to each other.
In fact significant dialogue has been underway since 2001.
All are keen to speak with Suu Kyi, to let her know their intentions, but their decisions taken in unison representing the people who elected them to positions of such responsibility will not be swayed by a single person.
That is not how a democracy operates.
The Karen National Union vice president David Tharckabaw says the Western media’s preoccupation with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is “interesting”.
“There’s sort of a messianic complex developed about her,” he said.
“It’s as if, if she dies, democracy will come more quickly – and it won’t.
“Too much of a personality cult is not good for anyone,” said Tharckabaw.
“It is not good for her, not good for the movement,” he said.
“But I don’t want what I am saying to be misinterpreted, and I can see that it could,” he added.
“I believe she has sacrificed and suffered long enough and with the junta still having no respect for her, well, it’s not working,” said Tharckabaw.
“I personally believe (and he insisted he was not speaking on behalf of any of the organisations he represents) that she should ‘come out’.
“I think she would be more effective if she came outside,” he said.
The prospect of Aung San Suu Kyi leaving Burma would probably horrify many activists in the West.
But they do not have to weather years devoid of social contact and an inability to take action against what is perceived as a great injustice to a great many people.
“She should put herself above politics,” said Tharckabaw.
He said by doing so she could become far more powerful, making herself a figure of great unity for the peoples of Burma.
“She could travel and she could speak about democracy,” he said.
ENDS

Health and human rights in Eastern Burma

This report summarises the data of a population-based survey which was undertaken to assess the health and human rights situation across parts of four states and two divisions that comprise the eastern states of Burma as a whole. A former survey was performed in 2004, the results of which were published in the report Chronic Emergency, which focused mainly on conflict zones within Karen, Karenni, and Mon States. This report builds upon the methodology of and issues dealt with in Chronic Emergency, and covers a much larger geographic area, including southern Shan State and Tenasserim Division. In addition, this survey covers a wider range of political and conflict contexts throughout eastern Burma, ranging from areas of ongoing low-level conflict, to areas of fluctuating control and others controlled by armed ethnic groups which have a ceasefire agreement with Burma’s military regime

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ABC Gippsland
By Celine Foenander

Why risk your life to tell a story few want to hear? Former Gippsland journalist, Daniel Pedersen went from writing about Sale to exposing the atrocities levelled against the Karen people of Burma.

Pedersen has dedicated the past eight years trying to dissect the complex web of Burmese politics, its military and the ethnic minority groups who are fighting for a share of their homeland.

With virtually no access to the ruling military junta, he has had to win over key figures from the ethnic minority armies to uncover the extent of the war which has raged for more than 60 years.

In the prologue to his soon to be released book, Secret Genocide, Pedersen writes: “This is a book about longing. About people longing for their homes, longing for their friends, longing for a sense of possession. About people being deprived of their very basic right to life.

“And no-one seems to care.”

Interview with Daniel Pedersen

Pedersen admits getting the story out to give the Western world an opportunity to “care” is an exercise in obstacles and potentially fatal consequences.

Add to that the Australian press, which either doesn’t understand or doesn’t see the news value in a long running war, so far away.

Pedersen, who now lives near the Thai-Burmese border, has returned to the family home at Airly, near Sale for a short while.

The reason for his visit, to reacquaint himself with his family. Perhaps too, he is hoping that distance will put the conflict into perspective.

“You’re talking about say, 50 million people and there’s been a great injustice done to so many, by so very few,” he told ABC Gippsland’s Mornings program.

“It’s interesting to explore the human motivation as to why people take up arms against the government.

“In the case of the Karen, it’s not very difficult to see why they take up arms. You have government troops coming in and burning down their schools, burning down their churches and then they go off somewhere a little bit safer and build them again, only to be discovered hiding there and the government comes and burns down the community facilities that they’ve built.”

Pedersen, the man, finds it difficult to comprehend.

Pedersen, the journalist, finds it difficult to put some balance in the story.

It’s not like the junta has a well-oiled public relations department.

“I haven’t travelled with militia aligned with the government troops, probably because you’d be arrested, possibly taken hostage,” he said.

“There is right and there is wrong in Burma and at the moment, what’s happening is wrong and as a contributor to human society, how do you contribute to stopping that injustice?

“How do you create a more equitable world? That’s the first step towards us moving forward as a society.”

Secret Genocide by Daniel Pedersen is published by Maverick House and will be released at the end of the month.

Genocide is not so secret anymore

National Democratic Front

Statement Nr. – 0/06/Head-10

1. The NDF has earnestly welcome and supported recommendation to the UN by its Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in Burma (Myanmar), Mr. Tomás Ojea Quintana, to form a Commission of Inquiry (COI) for crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated by the SPDC military clique. The NDF is ready to cooperate fully with such a UN COI.

2. According to the policy of the SPDC, troops of the SPDC armed forces have been committing gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity daily in all places of Burma. They have been committing such crimes as extra-judicial executions, torture, destruction of the people’s homes, confiscation of their properties, rape of women, forced recruitment of children for the armed forces, forced labor etc. in violation of the domestic and the international laws.

3. The NDF, its fraternal organizations and human rights NGOs have been submitting reports on human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the SPDC and its troops, with supporting evidence, to the UN Human Rights Commission, yearly and the UNGA has yearly urged the SPDC for improvement of human rights conditions in the country. However, the SPDC military clique has totally ignored the UNGA resolutions and continues to commit gross human rights violations, especially in areas of the ethnic nationalities.

4. Accordingly, it is necessary for the UN to form a COI as a step for taking effective action to improve human rights conditions in Burma. The NDF and its fraternal organizations have fully cooperated with the international and human rights org

The Mi-24 was the first helicopter to enter service with the Russian Air Force as an assault transport and gunship. Additional missions include direct air support, antitank, armed escort, and air to air combat.

The Irrawaddy
By Min Lwin

The Burmese Air Force (BAF) has bought 50 Mi-24 helicopters and 12 Mi-2 armored transport helicopters from Russia, according to a source from the BAF.

The purchase of the M-24s marks the first time the BAF, known in Burmese as Tatmadaw-Lay, has procured combat-equipped helicopters.

“50 Mi-24 fighter helicopters and a dozen Mi-2s were procured from Russia, and are now being assembled in Flying Training Base in Meikthila,” the source said. “After assembling the helicopters they will be divided among four squadrons at Magwe Air Base and Ela Air Base.”

Burma currently has 15 air bases. Ela Air Base, not far from Burma’s remote capital Naypyidaw, is the newest and is frequently used by Burma’s senior military generals and government officials for domestic and international flights.

The procurement of the Mi-24s comes a year after a request was made to Russia by BAF chief Lt-Gen Myat Hein in a bid to modernize Burma’s ailing air force and provide a weapon to conduct air strikes against infantry battalions, most likely in Burma’s ethnic areas where dozens of armed groups still exert control.

“The main reason for purchasing the Mi-24s is for counter-insurgency,” the source said.

In 1956, the BAF bought six Kawasaki Bell 47G helicopters from Japan, but did not upgrade its fleet until 1975 when the US provided 18 Bell 205A-1 helicopters as part of an anti-narcotics program.

Since then, Burma has acquired some 70 helicopters, few of which are still in service. The BAF has traditionally separated its helicopter fleet among air bases at Hmawbi in Rangoon Division, Namsang in Southern Shan State, Taungoo in Pegu Division and Ground Training Air Base in Meikthila, which is in Mandalay Division.

One Mi-17 helicopter crashed in 2001, taking the lives of several senior military officials, including Burmese army Chief-of-Staff Lt-Gen Tin Oo.

An Mi-2 helicopter from Taungoo Air Base crashed in June near Pindaya Township, resulting in four deaths.

The BAF was founded in 1947 before Burma gained independence. Its principal raison d’être for many years was a campaign against the the Burmese Communist Party in the jungles of Burma’s north and a decades-long war waged against several the country’s ethnic armies, most notably the Karen National Union.

The Irrawaddy

Karen National Union flag.

Another blow for Burma’s ethnic diversity at the hands of the generals

Peacerunning, August 10, 2010

Adopting a tough stand, the Burmese military junta yesterday ordered the removal of the Karen national flag from the gates and military camps of ceasefire groups in Karen State.

“The order to remove Karen flags was released at 9:30 am yesterday.  All the flags were removed by 3 pm, a DKBA soldier told KIC.

According to DKBA sources, the order came from Col. Khin Maung Htay of MOC 12, who is directly appointed by Nay Pyi Daw to solve border issues.

A Kawkareik local on condition of anonymity said that the removal of Karen flags was done in Myawaddy, Kawkareik, and Pa-an in Karen state. The DKBA and other ceasefire groups were ordered to remove Karen flags, he added.

“When I saw the Karen flag being removed, I felt a pang in my heart that a thing of heritage is being done away with,” a DKBA soldier from 999 gate said in a pained voice.

Among Karen ceasefire groups, are the DKBA, Karen Peace Council (KPC), Hong Thayaw special region, Phayar Gone ceasefire group, and Thantaung special region.

The removal of Karen flags is a temporary act because high ranking junta officials will come to their area, a soldier from KPC told KIC.

“The idea is to keep the flag away from the pole temporarily because senior junta officials will come. Representatives of MAS (Military Affairs Security) checked every gate at midday yesterday. Some gates are yet to remove the flags. Our gate (KPC gate), Kyauk Phyar gate has removed the flag,” the KPC soldier added.

“Our leader Saw Ba Oo Gyi had said Karen can create the future of Karen. We will raise the Karen flag wherever we are based,” a commander from the brigade of Col. Saw Lar Pwe, who rejected transformation to the junta’s Border Guard Force (BGF) said.

Since August 3, the Burmese Army has told ceasefire groups that if they go downtown, they should not wear uniforms and not carry weapons, which can be carried only in army camps.

Myawaddy locals said the Burmese Army will transform DKBA 999 brigade into BGF in Myawaddy town on August 16.

Major Saw Mauk Thon, a commander of DKBA Kalo Htoo Baw strategic command, accepted transformation to BGF on August 2. He has been helping DKBA soldiers sign the agreement in his office in Myawaddy.

“Soldiers came to Maj Mauk Thon’s house, which is also the office of the strategic command for three days. DKBA vehicles carrying solders also came to his house and signed the agreement with Maj Mauk Thon at his gate,” a woman eyewitness said.

According to ceasefire groups and locals, Lt. Gen. Khin Zaw, commander of the costal division, and Brig. Thet Naing, commander of north east military command, are already in Myawaddy.

Even though Col. Than Naing Win, commander of MOC 19, is responsible for the area of Thaung Yin River, which demarcates Thailand and Burma, Col. Khin Maung Htay, commander of MOC 12, took over the duty on July 30.

KIC news

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KNU

KNU President Saw Tamlabaw

  Kwathoolei, Karen state

July 22, 2010

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