Presented by Lway Cherry: Women's League of Burma

My name is Lway Cherry from Burma, a country ruled by a series of Burman-dominated military regimes since 1962. The military regime exercises absolute power, and has been committing systematic human rights violations against indigenous people.

I am one of the Palaung people, an indigenous ethnic group from Burma which lives in northern part of Shan State. There are over 1 million Palaung people living there, and most of them live in mountainous areas.

Like other indigenous people from Burma, the most common forms of human rights violations that Palaung people are suffering include forced labor, land confiscation and sexual violence against Palaung women by the Burmese Army.

Just recently, in February and March this year, over 80 Palaung people have fled from their native villages in the eastern part of Shan State because of forced relocation, confiscation of their property and livestock, extortion and high agriculture tax, forced labour and being forced to attend military training by the SPDC army.

These refugees testified that the people still inside are forced to work for the military without payment and forced to work as porters. They have to cut wood and bamboos to build the military camps. Their property such as pigs, chickens and cows were also taken away by the SPDC soldiers.

In this context, I would also like to tell you my own experience as a forced child laborer. It was in 2001. I was only about 16 years old at that time and still studying in high school. The Burma Army troops ordered our village to provide labor to build a road. I had to go and work for the Burma Army on road construction. I had to go with people from my village. Together with my friends from the village, I had to carry large stones with my bare hands. We were still too young to carry such big stones. For one stone, five of us had to lift and carry it away as they were huge and very heavy, and we were so exhausted. When we got thirsty and hungry, there was no water and no food for us.

Whenever the military troops entered and set up camp in our village, we always had to worry when the soldiers would rape our women and/or when they would kill and torture our people and use us as porter and forced laborers. Some soldiers rape the Palaung women, and after rape when the women become pregnant, they don’t take responsibility or they are not punished for the crimes they have committed.

We, members of the Women's League of Burma, have been documenting multiple cases of sexual violence in Burma. Last month, our indigenous sister organization, the Karen Women’s Organization released a report , "Shattering Silences" documenting 125 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls in Karen State in eastern Burma. This report has come out two years after Licence to Rape, which details 173 incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence against 625 women and girls in Shan State between 1996 and 2001. Other reports compiled by international NGOs indicate that such sexual violence has been happening in all of Burma's indigenous lands, and is continuing until today.

It is clear that rape has been used by Burma's military regime as a weapon of war against indigenous women and girls, and that the Burmese military is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

We believe that to solve the problems faced by indigenous people from Burma, there must be an end to the Burmese Army’s increased militarization and anti-insurgency campaigns. There must be a political solution to the issue of Burma’s indigenous peoples.

Therefore, in conclusion, I would like to request our indigenous brothers and sisters around the world to urge the Forum:

1. to call on States to publicly raise their concerns with the Burmese military regime about their systematic violation of human rights, particularly rape and other forms of sexual violence against indigenous women and girls, and to pressure the regime to immediately implement a nationwide cease-fire and withdraw their troops from the indigenous ethnic lands.

2. to urge States not to give aid to Burma through the regime, and to stop all investment in Burma until there is irreversible democratic reform.

In particular, we would like you to request the Forum to urge ASEAN (the Association of South East Asia Nations) and all Burma's neighbouring countries particularly, China, India, and Japan to review their policy towards Burma and to take a leading role for the development of a national reconciliation process and meaningful political change in Burma.

Thank you.

May 18, 2004: Press Conference at the UNCA Club

Presented by K'Nyaw Paw: Women's League of Burma

My name is K'nyaw Paw from Burma, a country ruled by a series of Burman-dominated military regimes since 1962. Civil war since 1948, and systematic human right violations such as extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, forced relocation, destruction of livelihoods, confiscation of land, and forced labour have resulted in many indigenous people fleeing and becoming internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees in neighboring countries, particularly in Thailand.

I 'm one of the Karen indigenous people, now living in one of the Karen refugee camps near the Thai-Burma border. I grew up along the Thai-Burma border in armed conflict areas. So I have experienced a great deal of violence. Because of the fighting, our family had to move from one place to another and sometimes we had to move two to three times a year. I had move to more than 10 places before I came to stay in the refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border. Every time my family moved, we lost our house and all our belongings. As a child, I was so scared whenever we heard the Burmese troops heading toward us or coming into our villages. I was always afraid that the troops would attack us, arrest us and abuse us.

In 1995, we fled with our neighbors to Thailand. On our way, there was an attack. It was dark when it happened. We had to run for our life, and hid in the bushes. We dared not speak. In the morning when we went back, I saw my neighbour dead. She was shot in her head with her baby in her arms. There was a big hole in her head and we could even see her brain. Her child stayed in her arms the whole night. It was a really shocking scene which I will never forget. I was always scared that I would get killed like her during the fighting.

As a young girl, I also heard about sexual violence against our Karen women committed by Burmese soldiers. Then I became a member of the Karen Women's Organization (KWO), and I heard more and more cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence. We frequently have face-to-face experience with rape survivors, their family and relatives.

Last month, we released a report, "Shattering Silences" documenting 125 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls in Karen State in eastern Burma. Half of the rapes were committed by high-ranking military officers. Furthermore, 40% of those documented were gang-rape and in 28% of the cases, the women were killed after being raped.

Shattering Silences gives further evidence of the atrocities being committed against indigenous women by troops of the Burmese military regime. It also corroborates the findings of the SWAN report, Licence to Rape released in June 2002 which details 173 incidents of rape and other forms of sexual violence against 625 women and girls in Shan State between 1996 and 2001.

Both reports illustrate a strong case that war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the form of sexual violence, have occurred and continue to occur in an effort to terrorize and subjugate the indigenous peoples in Shan and Karen States.

But, until today, the military regime in Burma has taken no serious measures to improve the situation, despite resolutions by the UN Commission on Human Rights and UNGA.

Without taking serious measures to eliminate violence against women in Burma, the National Convention which started yesterday, May 17, is absolutely meaningless.

We believe only the restoration of genuine democracy and the protection of human rights can provide true safety for Burma’s indigenous women.

We have come to the Permanent Forum to ask that they urge States,

1. To publicly raise their concerns with the Burmese military regime about their systematic violation of human rights, particularly rape and other forms of sexual violence against indigenous women and girls,

2. To pressure the regime to immediately implement a nationwide cease-fire and withdraw their troops from the indigenous ethnic lands.
   
3. Not to give aid to Burma through the regime, and to stop all investment in Burma until there is irreversible democratic reform.

In particular, we would like you to request the Forum to urge ASEAN (the Association of South East Asia Nations) and all Burma's neighbouring countries, particularly China, India, and Japan, to review their policy towards Burma and to take a leading role for the development of a national reconciliation process and meaningful political change in Burma.

Thank you.