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| Chidren in southern Chin state. The children in this village have no school. |
An FBR team operating in north west Burma has evidence of the demands made upon villagers in Paletwa Township by the Burma Army. (Paletwa Township is considered as part of Chin State but is an area populated by Arakan, Chin and other ethnic groups. Some Arakan consider it as part of Arakan or Rakhine State).
Five letters collected and photographed by the team show the nature of the Burma Army’s control over the people living in that district.
One letter from a Burma Army sergeant to a village chairman reads: “when you get this letter, immediately three porters must to come to Upper Armchawn village, the column is located there.” Another order from the Burma Army states: “5 members of the village militia and the village Chairman must come to meet the Battalion commander at 7:00 clock on 3 April, 2009.” Another states that two monks are to be ordained in Laymorkethi village, so “your village must give a donation of five hundred kyat and one kg of rice from each house.”
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| Letter from Burma Army to village chairman |
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| Letter from Burma Army to village chairman |
The FBR teams are operating in Chin State and Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships in Maungdaw District, Arakan State on the border with India and Bangladesh. It is an ethnically diverse area with peoples from the Mro, Khumi, Thar, Daingnet, Bru, Rakhine and Rohingya groups living there.
All have been badly affected by the flowering of the bamboo which attracts rats which then devour rice crops and other food supplies.
The State Peace and Development Council military regime, far from helping these people who are suffering a food security crisis, demands forced labor without pay and extorts food and money from them.
The Burma Army is supervising construction of a 240km long fence along Burma’s border with Bangladesh and India. The FBR team reports no compensation is anticipated for those who are displaced by this project.
Villagers are made to carry army rations and equipment, relay information and letters from soldiers, prepare army camps and other works.
FBR teams have observed four Burma Army Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) in this part of Chin State, each with some 130 men.
LIBs 232 and 344 are based at the Arakan capital and coastal town Sittwe/Akyab. LIB 550 is based in Ponnyagyun Township and LIB 289 is based in Paletwa Township, Chin State.
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| FBR team provides medical relief |
As well as documenting human rights abuses by the Burma Army, the FBR team has been giving medical relief to IDPs who have fled from the Burma Army into the jungle. They have treated people with conditions including malaria, pneumonia, anemia and dysentery. The villagers in this area are continuing to run some schools in IDP sites despite the difficulties of being on the run and facing an ongoing food security crisis.
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| FBR team provides medical relief |
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| FBR team provides medical relief |
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| FBR team provides medical relief |
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| FBR team provides medical relief |