HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Few sought to retaliate and expose the government for its abuses, except Ka Hsaw Wa and his journalists who
were working to secure the rights of the people. He personally interviewed villagers who suffered similar,
often more violent, abuses and torture for in-depth research but also out of empathy.
were working to secure the rights of the people. He personally interviewed villagers who suffered similar,
often more violent, abuses and torture for in-depth research but also out of empathy.
ABUSE & FORCED LABOR
"While construction crews built the pipeline across the Burmese wilderness, the SLORC [military] troops--many of whom were young, underpaid, and untrained--continued to mistreat the local people. Their only official responsibility was to provide security for the pipeline against rebel groups that might try to sabotage it. But they took advantage of their power to terrorize many of the ethnic minorities who lived in the region. As Ka Hsaw Wa continued his secret travels through the region, he collected a new wave of narratives that detailed all types of abuse carried out by SLORC soldiers: torture, murder, forced labor, systematic rape and assault, and other abuses."
"Ka Hsaw Wa." Ka Hsaw Wa (Biography Today) (2010): 1. Biogra...
"Ka Hsaw Wa." Ka Hsaw Wa (Biography Today) (2010): 1. Biogra...
"[He]was arrested on Monday, August 15, 2005, at noon. On Tuesday they took him to [a factory] and the soldiers tied him and beat him and questioned him there...I saw that they had tied his legs and feet and were using a log to torture him. I asked him, "What did they do to you?" But he did not tell me; I think he was worried that I would be afraid. But I could see his knees and legs were covered in injuries. When I asked him, "Why did they arrest you?", he was about to answer but the soldier came back and ordered me to leave." |
Scars of a military junta abuse victim in a village near the construction of the pipeline.
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"We also have to do nighttime security- one night for three hours, once every two weeks. There are two groups- one in the beginning of the village, the other at the end of the village. If you fall asleep you have to provide approximately three kilograms of chicken to the Burma army. Sometimes they beat you up, and you have to do one day of forced labor."
Htoo, Naing, et al. Total Impact. EarthRights International...
RAPE
"The two of them had been raped continually for six nights by two or three men each night, including the soldiers' commander," the village headman told Amnesty International in 1996. "After their release, the two girls didn't sleep, didn't eat and eventually just died."
"The violent sexual abuse of ethnic Burmese women at the hands of the military occurs in epidemic proportions" |
Magam, Hkranghku. The Horrific Abuse and Use of Rape as a We...
Personal rape story of Burmese villager
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"The women were raped within hearing distances of their families and villages" |
"While the men are away, Sergeant Hia Phyu and his men repeatedly rape the women, going from house to house...when they rape the women, there is no action taken against them...It's understood that they have permission from their officers. Sometimes they kill the women afterwards." -Sao Ood Kesi
Bernstein, Dennis, and Leslie Kean. "Burma's Military Rapist...
PROPERTY & ENVIRONMENTAL ABUSES
“We can no longer do farming around our village because we don’t have existing land [anymore],” -Villager whose land was confiscated by Total and Chevron’s security forces
Rowell, Andy. "Burma's $5 Billion Blood Money." Price of Oil...
Road Development: Before And After Effects of Pipeline Construction
"Unocal classified the forest along the pipeline as having 'no canopy', claiming that the pipeline affects mostly 'scrub vegetation and degraded forest'. Not pulling any punches, Wildlife Fund Thailand described this claim simply as 'a lie'. The many troops who
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"Total constructed the Kanbauk-Eindayaza road...it was just destroyed by the [non-Total] company cars and buses carrying heavy equipment. Villagers do not even own cars. The road was constructed five years ago. It’s just a soil road. Cars, motorcycles and bullock carts can pass on it. The villagers have to fix it when it gets damaged."
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Thousands of people, like the Karen minorities of whom Ka Hsaw Wa belongs to, are being displaced during the construction of the pipeline, by either the usurpation of land, burning of villages, or from fear of the Burmese military.
"Then the military can then turn round and say: ‘It’s ok, no people live here.’ [therefore, they can construct anything that's lucrative] We need to show what is really happening. In Burma, human rights abuse and the destruction of the environment are inseparable." |