‘Land Confiscation Continues under the Name of Development’: Mon Human Rights Defender Nai Aue Mon

[HURFOM] in 1999 June. First I worked as a journalist in Human Rights Foundation of Monland. At the time they had The Guiding Star, a Mon newspaper, and in that newspaper they covered Mon and Burmese language news from the Mon State about democracy, human rights and justice. In 2001, I became a human rights worker in the human rights section of the HURFOM. At the time we did a lot [of research] about the forced labour and forced relocation, and there were a lot of extrajudicial killings and torture committed by the government battalions that guarded the gas pipeline from Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay. I started working with that project and in 2003 I became the coordinator of that project until 2011. So, we got a lot [of information] about the violations and we could also do to a lot of advocacy for the policy makers in Burma and the international community.

The way we worked was totally underground. A lot of risk conditions. Some of us, some of our friends, were sentenced to six or seven years [in prison], because of a link with an informal group and link with the international media according to the Electronic [Transactions] Law. So it was quite risky. But even [then], how we thought was that we have a lot of information to share with the international community. That’s why we thought this is our job to do and if we ignore that, the problem will get bigger and bigger, and people will not know the problem exists like that. Our role is just providing some information to the right people.  And then the right people and the organization can do advocacy and taking action to policy making. So with that purpose, I was interested to start joining as a reporter and also a human rights worker. We wanted to see some improvement.

If the government knew and if the military intelligence knew that we were reporters and human rights workers, for sure, we would have been arrested anytime. I was really concerned about my own security. That’s why I worked carefully underground. And luckily we have a good network, good supporters from the community who know the situation everywhere. Without their assistance, we couldn’t have even brought this information to the office and to the international community. And also we had some kind of training from international human rights organizations and also journalism, so we started to know the ethics of human rights and the ethics of journalism and also how to protect from those dangerous things.

We still haven’t registered yet and even though we were thinking to register right now, a lot of friends who are working with human rights documentation or education, they don’t have any registration yet, because the government seems to have not produced any permission for that. So human rights work is still a concern for them. I have noticed that the most [important] thing that the government worries about is talking about the past, they don’t really like talking about the past. That’s why they put in their 2008 Constitution article number 445 [guaranteeing immunity from prosecution for past violations by the security forces and other government officials]. If we talk about the past, like the human rights violations committed by the previous government, they don’t like that. Especially when we talk about the military committing the violation. So it’s still under risky conditions to talk about human rights.

 

From past to present: “If they know their rights, then they can protect their rights”

Within 16 years, we have received many, many, voices from the Mon and Tavoy communities as well as the Karen communities. When we look back on the database that we have collected, the most [frequently] happening violation is land confiscation and the second is forced labor and then physical violations like torture, killings and rape and sexual harassment. The fourth is child labour and then also extortion, many extortions, property extortion… and portering is included in the forced labour. From 1995 to 2000, there were a lot of issues happening, especially at that time I noticed about forced labour. We visited the areas of Ye and Yebyu a lot, and we found a lot of people who were forced to work in the pipeline area and the battalion area.

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In Karen state, unlike the Mon and the Tavoy, they lost a lot of lives. People were killed and murdered during the conflict between the KNU [Karen National Union] and the Burmese government troops and also between the DKBA [Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, now known as the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army] and KNU. So it’s like all people are violated the same but the type of violation is a little bit different. Mon people suffer from violations of housing and property rights a lot; they were violated a lot about their livelihood. But the Karen people have been more likely facing a lot of violations about their life and they lost their lives a lot during this civil war.

And from 2011 until now, the human situation is getting a bit better in terms of the type of the violations. It is because of the situation right now, the change, and also about the media independence in the ground. It doesn’t mean 100% independence but some media have some rights to express about the current situation, so for the committer, the perpetrator, they are aware of that issue. And social media is also improving a lot, so when the information happens on the ground, people know very well that people can share that information in the social media. And also some activists inside are getting stronger, so for instance when a rape case happens, women’s groups come and visit the victims’ community and come and visit the area where it happened, and they take some actions immediately. So it makes the degree of violations decrease. This is a good sign for us as a human rights protector, human rights defender, it’s good.

There are some changes. It seems the government has opened a little space for CBOs and CSOs. The role of the CBOs and CSOs is getting active among the community and society, so a lot of skills building training and a lot of capacity building for the young and women is happening. This seems positive to me. I think that this is good for the community to empower [them], because it is needed. When we look at the ASEAN community in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, people are already improving with education. In our country, living under the dictatorship, we did not have any chance like that to learn about human rights and to learn about development. Simply we did not have the chance. But now the young children have this kind of opportunity. So this is good for them and also we have CSOs and CBOs who are openly working in the community. This is some kind of change and some kind of improvement, and women know their rights and children know their rights. This is kind of fundamental human right. If they know their rights, then they can protect their rights. This is good for us.

Within my 16 years of experience, we have a lot of networking especially in the border based community and the Thailand based community. Now we can expand our network inside Burma.

 

Land issue: “The government troops had to take the security for this gas pipeline, so these battalions became a perpetrator of human rights violations”

The environment of the violations has changed a lot [in the Mon State]. In the past, when we talked about the violations they happened anytime. It was linked with the government, linked with the battalions and the armed groups. It is now not like that. Of course the type of the violations has decreased a lot in terms of we don’t see any forced labor right now, we don’t see any child soldiers right now, forced recruitment in military we don’t see any that kind of violations right now. There are very few rape cases happening once or twice a year. But before, when we talked about that, there were five to six, seven cases, even ten [documented] cases in one year. So it’s decreased a lot and it is because of the situation, the change in the country.

But in terms of the violation of the land, the land grabbing, it is still happening under the name of development, and the need of individual investors. Land has been widely seized by the local authority and the battalions, still ongoing. [Local authority means] Burmese, different kind of departments from the government. And also some are linked with the cronies and some are linked with the business companies under the name of development, local development. And some are even linked with the individuals from the armed groups. So we can see, that’s why a lot of land violations happening in that area.

Now the land confiscation and the property confiscation are the highest [numbers of] violations that we have ever collected during 15 or 16 years.

So we have to do a lot about the land reform. We need to advocate for the better law to protect the human rights; the right to own the land and the right to work on land.

Before 2010, before President Thein Sein’s government came to power, there were a lot of land confiscations happening because of militarization. In Mon State only, 22 [Burma Army] battalions were there to confront the New Mon State Party, to confront the Karen groups in the east, and also they say to defend the country from enemies from the sea. But the main idea was to take security for the gas pipeline because the gas pipeline earned [them] a lot of money.

This is a 180-kilometer-long gas pipeline built by the Total and Unocal, from Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay and Kanbauk to Kanchanaburi. The government troops had to take the security for this gas pipeline, so these battalions became a perpetrator of human rights violations in that area. A lot of forced labour [reports] we received from the field, and a lot of sexual harassment along with the forced labour, and portering and extortion, and looting and torturing, and also killing was happening a lot. We received a lot of information and we produced a kind of Mon Forum, monthly based newsletter, to let the world and the international audience know about these areas’ violations.

Every year millions of dollars have been earned by this project. So this is very, very important for their income. And in order to make security for that, they based 22 battalions [in the Mon State], and those battalions needed a lot of land for military barracks and not only that, but also to earn money; They had to confiscate, grab extra land to supply for their battalions’ income because the state couldn’t provide them enough income. This kind of like self-reliance policy is why they confiscated a lot of land, a lot of rubber trees, a lot of “ready-made money.” They call them like “ready-made money machines,” they just grab it and produce money, like selling the rubber trees to the private [investors] or to other companies. And even [sometimes] they would let people produce the rubber, and then just take the income. This kind of thing happened a lot from 1995 to 2010 and a lot of accounts we received from the people who lost their land. Some of them became internally displaced persons because they didn’t have any land to survive on for their lives and to support their family. Some have a lot of depression and they don’t want to see soldiers working in their land, so they left and fled and they became IDPs in the New Mon State Party controlled area. Some of them became migrant workers.

 

Land issue after 2010 elections: “Most of the laws are not protecting the owners or the farmers, but they support the investors”

So until 2010, we received a lot of complaints already, but after 2011 when the civilian government took power, even still the land confiscation has not stopped, it continues under the name of development. Local development. Some are seized with the assistance of the local authority like state administration, township administration, or the battalions, they easily get the permission to work like 30-year or 10-year grant and they just seize a lot of land that has no land title, no owner. Actually they have an official owner permission issued already, but the government does not recognize that land title, so the new cronies and the businessmen got that new permission from the government. It means like it belongs to them. So there are a lot of conflicts between that original owners and the new owners; a lot of land has been lost and has been confiscated from the original owners.

From 2010 to 2015 it’s happened a lot. It has been more [than before 2010]; land confiscation committed by the state, committed by the business companies or private sector and also those who are linked with the government, individuals. So we still see a lot of land loss happening in the Mon area, especially in the eastern Mon area like Kyaikmayaw Township, and Ye Township and in some areas in the border of the Ye and Yebyu townships. So, a lot of struggling happening with the farmers. Until now in Irrawaddy Court from 2003 to 2015 we have more than 20,000 [acres of] confiscated land that we can confirm. There would be more than that amount but we can’t confirm it. We can only say what we can confirm. It’s still a lot of land.

For instance, if the government wants to make a road link from one city to another city, they take the citizens’ land without any compensation. In reality, the government gives some compensation but in between there is a lot of corruption. So the original owner does not receive any compensation. This kind of mixed management happened a lot during 2015 and 2014. So land is a big challenge right now, and it’s hard to solve. There was a land law and the investment law announced, but most of the laws are not protecting the owners or the farmers, but they support the investors. I think we also have to struggle to change that law and we have to work with the voice of the people.

When we look at those cases specifically, it’s mostly linked by the cronies and the business companies. And when we look through that company, and who are behind that company, most of them are former generals or from the government. So, we cannot touch that. Someday we hope to change, to fight back the problem but until now we are storing that information and will somehow use the information when we get the chance. So we still hope that we can use that information to help the original farmers and the original owners to receive back their land.

 

Situation of the IDPs in the Mon State: “The international community and international aid groups shouldn’t ignore these people”

As we know many IDPs are right now on the eastern border. When we talked about the eastern border we talk about the Karen and Mon and some Tavoy. It’s about 40,000 people right now only in Ye area that we can see. In the whole Karen and Mon and Tavoy there are about 184,000 [IDPs] right now. Most of them are war affected, the civil war conflict people. They were affected by that conflict between 1990 and 2005. And a lot of people have a painful experience of forced labour and other violations like sexual harassment, sexual violations, and also killing, kidnapping and torture, extortion and confiscation of the property and land. There were about, in the past, eight residential sites. Now there are five major residential sites remaining under the control of the New Mon State Party.

And also some IDPs are increasing because of the land issue and it’s even hard for these people to survive in that area and some of them need technical assistance like how to grow plantations and how to survive their lives. Some say their children have not been joining the schools, so they need some schools. So their requests depend on what they need a lot.

I think it’s very hard without the international support; especially the children suffer a lot.

The health issue is right now a big problem, what I see is like, last year when I went to the Chedeik and Baleh Done Pain, I saw that a lot of children are very skinny. They are in starvation I think; I feel like that. I am not a medical doctor but I can feel that this is something needed for their bodies. So they asked food from us but at that time we could not provide food because we just came and meet them and ask their needs. They said ‘we need food and how to find food and how to find income and we need like reliable, sustainable incomes.’ We asked them what are their resources here.  ‘Can you grow something like rice and vegetables?’ ‘We can, but we don’t have any space and we also have to ask for the permission from the New Mon State Party. And also we need some water and fertilizers as we cannot afford to provide that kind of material.’ So it’s very difficult for them.

And also the New Mon State Party, they banned people from producing charcoal. It’s also linked with the forest policy. On one hand the New Mon State Party protects their forest, but on the other hand for the IDP community, this kind of banning is stopping the main income for them. Producing charcoal is kind of their main income. So, it’s a kind of policy conflict in between the New Mon State Party and the IDP community. Most of them are hopeless. Some of them who have adult children, the parents try to send their children to Thailand as illegal workers. Some can send money back home but some cannot because of the situation in Thailand.  So there are lots of problems that I see.

So I think, before they can be successfully transferred, to return to the original home, I think the international community and international aid groups shouldn’t ignore these people. I think these people really need help in terms of health, education and basic livelihood, in this temporary zone. They need some assistance for sure. We need to focus to continue to support them as much as we can. And sadly this group is out of focus in the internal media. This is quite a bad situation. This is like they feel pointless you know, they feel nothing, no way to change their lives. So they feel very bad, is what I see.

 

Cross border aid and funding cuts: “we strongly ask the international aid groups to continue to support cross border”

In the past, we could see a lot of cross border assistance from the international groups like the MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières], ARC [American Refugee Committee] and TBBC [Thailand-Burma Border Consortium] at the time now became TBC [The Border Consortium], and also other humanitarian aid from the international agencies came and helped with the health issue, living issue and also education for the children as well. But now, it has become very few, because of the policy of the international aid and the cross border assistance has changed a lot in this area. It’s not only in this area, but in Shan and Kachin areas as well, a lot has decreased. But here it impacts a lot because for 20 years, 25 years, they were relying on international assistance. And then they stopped. As soon as these organisations stopped assisting them, they had to fight very hard to renew their lives. They have to struggle a lot, from what I see.

I think it’s also linked with the political situation. The international assistance groups like aid groups, they want a legal way of supporting. The cross border is not legal support. They want the legal way of supporting, so they do it through the government. Some of the aid groups based in Rangoon can still support [this area], through the government. Through the government means we don’t get 100% of the donations from that group to the needed, targeted community. Somehow there’s waste in between the donors and the targeted group. The CBOs know that, so we don’t need that kind of support through the government, we just need the right support from the donors to the needed community.

It much more depends on the NCA, the ‘nationwide’ ceasefire agreement. Now the New Mon State Party denied to be involved in the NCA because it is not all inclusive, so this does not meet their policy.

The people, especially the IDP community, are stuck in between the government, the armed group and the donor group. That’s why I think we shouldn’t wait for the official support.

We can do cross border aid, why not?

The Kachin people have a lot of new IDPs because of the recent conflict. The aid groups are still going there. Without that, people will not survive. I think we should know the priorities, and how they depend on the situation. That’s why we strongly ask the international aid groups to continue to support cross border because it is not created by them [IDPs] but created by the policy.

 

Rehabilitation of IDPs: “If the conflict is still happening, then people will not dare to come back”

The positive way [with recent changes] is that some people can go back and see their land. Before, people couldn’t, they’d dare not go and visit their homes. But now some internally displaced persons or families, they have been back to their original home to visit their land and visit their relatives. In terms of restrictions, there are less restrictions. This is the positive way. But we can see the problems still remain. The people came to live here because of their own problems, because of their own violated experiences. So without solving those problems, I don’t think this issue will be solved smoothly. That’s why in regards to the return, safe or smooth return, we ask the authority or the government or the people who are working on the rehabilitation programs; please solve the problems.

Please make the land reform first. Please guarantee that their land will be compensated for, that they will get a new land.

Please create that kind of opportunity first. Then they will have some guarantee to go back and stay and work in their original place. Because it’s been more than two decades already, so please create that kind of condition first. And also please guarantee that there will be peaceful environment in their original place.

If the conflict is still happening, then people will not dare to come back. Please restore peace first.

NCA is important, but the government should be honest. Without any 100% peace in the original place, I am sure that I am also not going to live there. This is my life right? The same thing, people consider a lot about that.

The last thing is adequate job creation, it is important. If people haven’t got adequate jobs for them to live and survive for their life and for their family, people are not going to live there. I think the government and the non-state armies have to do a lot for the smooth and peaceful return for the IDPs. Our job is to only provide information, we cannot help physically, because we are not authority. We will try as much as we can if that situation happens, we will provide some accurate information for the government or for the non-state actors.

Whenever I meet with them [IDPs], I ask them, ‘do you still have some hope to go back to your home?’ Because some of the new generation was born here. Some of them have already reached 23, 24 [years of age] even far away from their teenage. ‘Do you still want to go back?’ They say ‘yes, because this is not our place! This is totally the remote area. Our place was full of livelihood, a lot of lovely people.’ But when I ask the children, they have no idea, because they were born here. And then this is a little bit difficult for them to know their father’s or mother’s place. So it’s quite hard, sometimes. For the livelihood, it’s not totally the same as in their original home place. For sure, I can say that people have hope and dreams that one day they will go back.

It depends on the situation. In 2010, when we went there. At that time, the New Mon State Party had to extend their ceasefire agreement with the government and they couldn’t extend, for some reason. So there were a lot of rumors or threats and that’s why we produced “Destination Unknown,” the report. At that time, [there were] a lot of concerns about the negative: ‘The government troops will come and attack this IDP camp as before. We have no place to avoid this area.’ So they felt very dark, they felt very bad about that. And after the New Mon State Party got new agreement with the government in 2010, so they were happy again, ‘Soon we will have a better life.’ So it depends on the New Mon State Party authority and the government.

Elections and NLD government: “We have to fight”

Recently, after the NLD won the nationwide election, we tried to cover some IDP voices from the Halockhani area. They did not have any chance to vote because Halockhani and Baleh Done Pain was in the government administration map, it is under control of the Kyar Inn Seik Gyi district which is the Karen area. So the Naypyidaw union election commission denied that area because they could not provide the security. So systematically they were not involved in the list of the voters and their Ballot Denied. This is not a good reason I think, because the KNU claimed that they can provide security. So I think the main reason was that the USDP [Union Solidarity and Development Party], which was backed by the government, did not have a situation to win in that area and that’s why they denied some ballot from the area. More than one hundred thousand [were denied the ballot].

We met some families at the Three Pagodas market. And we asked them, ‘Hey Aung San Suu Kyi won and there will be return program will be active very soon, do you still hope that?’ They said they feel very positive of the lady and the party. I think they are happy about that and they still feel from the new government there will be some changes for them and for their life.

We don’t want to see any corruption or mixed management anymore in one territory. If we see [after the NLD government takes office], we will fight for that. So this is the time to change. Let’s say, this is the opposition government. So we have to fight. We don’t want to see any action of corruption or action of misuse of the power or the action of no transparency. We don’t want to see that. We will fight as much as we can if we see that. We will also advocate for them not to do that and to respect the rights of the people, and the community and the state.

 

NCA and Political Dialogue: “We need honest manner and honest mindset in order to improve our country”

According to the lady’s speech, she will focus on that issue [the peace process]. The nationwide agreement, she wants it to happen in her government term. But the only thing is to build the trust between the Burmese majority and the ethnic minorities. Historically there are a lot of gaps between the majority Burman and the minority Mon, Karen, or Shan. So we need to make very good connection. This is very important. Hopefully she can lead the government with that.

What the ordinary Mon people think is like if the New Mon State Party will sign the [NCA] agreement, then there will be peace, they can see peace in their region. But what they think about the government policy is that it’s not fair that Arakan and Wa and Palaung are not included [in the NCA and political dialogue]. It’s not fair so they should deny, because it’s not all-inclusive. So some people they are aware and they listen to the radio and they listen to the news and they know some information updates about the NCA, and the UPC, the Union Peace Conference that happened in Naypidaw [in January 2016].

They need to change their attitude of that kind of discrimination. They shouldn’t discriminate anymore. Arakan is [one of] the main ethnic of Burma, Wa is also the ethnic of Burma. Why we left them? It is nonsense. How they feel is they were being separated and being not included in the decision making. So this is not good. I think we need honest manner and honest mindset in order to improve our country. We need that and our government needs that. And the military chief needs to practice that. Otherwise we will see the conflict for the rest of our lives.

That’s why we ask the government to make all-inclusive [NCA and political dialogue] again during this new government period and also change the 2008 Constitution. So then the problem will be solved automatically.

If we let the 2008 constitution be like now, we will still see armed conflict in our country, because the ministry of defense and the ministry of the home affairs and the ministry of the border affairs are under the control of the military. So they are not under the control of the NLD government. The main power is not with the NLD government, but with the army chief, Min Aung Hlaing; still, violations will happen. We do not want to see that kind of environment anymore. So in order to change that we need to change the constitution. We have to do a lot during this NLD government’s term. This means to end the violations and the armed conflict in our country.

We have to make another referendum. I mean a reliable and trustful referendum, not like the Than Shwe or the Thein Sein government referendum. We have to make a truly reliable referendum from the heart of the people. And then we have to listen to the people’s desire, and then based on the people’s desire the government needs to take action in the parliament. We have to go the right way.

 

Transitional justice: “The purpose is to pass the transition peacefully and democratically”

This [transitional justice] is why we are doing human rights documentation. This is our long term goal. Our short term goal is to provide information to the advocacy groups and the international campaign groups but for the long term goal, we will find the persons who are involved in these cases as much as we can.

First when we talk about transitional justice issue, people think it is to take legal actions against the perpetrator and the group that was involved. We don’t care about that. That’s not our job. Our job is to bring that information to the victim community and let the victim decide whether they will forgive or sue or whatever they will do. It’s not about us. People think like generally when we talk about the transitional justice, ‘aaw this is kind of bringing the perpetrator to the ICC [International Criminal Court] or whatever.’ I don’t think so. What the victim needs is at least some acknowledgement.

When we talk with the people, when they talk about the violations, they say that at least they want to hear some confession first, from the perpetrator. An apology, ‘yes we did that.’ They need that one. 5 or 6 out of 10 they say like that. They need that apology, some acknowledgement from their past painful experience. That’s all. If they hear that, then they will forgive, they said. So, I think people should get some kind of acknowledgement from the past human rights violations that they have experienced from the past. People should have some memorialization, for instance, creating a space for those who passed away because of the conflict or because of the system. Make some memorial thing like in Argentina or Guatemala or Rwanda, Africa. Even in Southeast Asia, in Pnomh Penh, they have a memorial for those who were violated by Khmer Rouge during the civil war for 30 years. That kind of thing also we should create. We can do kind of public hearing or public storytelling events for the communities. This is important for them. We can start doing right now, for the transitional justice. It’s not expensive. We can organize people to do like that.

We hope we can do more like that under the NLD government, because most of the NLD government members, MPs, are [former] political prisoners, 114. So they will support us if we do that. The purpose is to pass the transition peacefully and democratically. We don’t want violence anymore and we don’t want to see people suing each other. We just want to hear some apologies or confessions and forgiveness. I think that will happen.

My job is to bring information that we have safeguarded for 16 years to the right persons and to the right groups. And overall, in this community, human rights activists or defenders or workers are needed, because we are seeking the truth and justice for the humanity. I think this will continue for the rest of our lives. Whenever we talk about the IDPs and whenever we talk about the human rights victims, everything is about justice and about the truth seeking and about peace. It is important to fix this error for the next generation. So I think that our job is important and we will continue to work as human rights activists and defenders, and we need support from the community and the international community.

 

The role of NGOs and the international community: “we need a lot of support … not through the government, just to the right people”

We cannot say the country is changing. But the country is for sure moving from one to another [place], slowly. In this situation, I think that the assistance of the NGOs and INGOs is very important, but I think the NGOs should know their target and also their strategy.

For instance, now in Mon State, drug issue is a big problem. In order to fight that drug issue, we need anti-drug campaigns. I think they [NGOs] need to provide technical assistance, financial assistance to fight that kind of problem. Drugs are very, very scary right now among the Mon youth. This is a big challenge to us, so we need help to fight that problem, we need the international assistance and NGO assistance. The NGOs need to do that because the government does nothing for that. After they receive some complaints from three or four places, they just show off their activities and then arrest one or two persons and then finish. Sometimes it’s linked with the police, the corrupted police.

We ordinary people even know who are selling and who are buying [drugs], so the police should know that but they take no action.

In this case we need non-government assistance. We need that kind of organisations to fight the drug issue. That’s only the drug issue, there are other issues like creating jobs and non-formal education. In that way the NGOs should take some role in the change in Burma.

[One problem is that] NGOs based in Burma have had some kind of agreement with the government and some of them are formally based in Rangoon. For sure they need to cooperate more with the existing CBOs in the area first, they need to cooperate with the local people. Burma is moving, it’s not changed yet. So I think we need a lot of support from the international community, effective support, not through the government, just to the right people.

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Please help to pass the transition, and I think after that we can see our dream in reality.

Please don’t forget IDPs, some war affected refugees in the north, in the Shan State, they are right now struggling a lot. They still need a lot of support from the international community because the war is still continuing.

Just don’t forget them.