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Monland Update (January 2008)
Monland Update (Feburary 2008)
Monland Update (March 2008)
Monland Update (May 2008)

Politics/ National Movement:
Watch on SPDC’s Referendum

The ruling military regime – SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) has declared to hold the People Referendum on 10th May in order to confirm the militarized draft Constution which was drafted from its National Convention. However, there are a lots of reporting that the ruling regime and its supporting groups involved a lot of manipuation to win in Referendum. The State authorities totally ordered the election commissions in all levels from village to State/ Division levels and ordered them to do by all means to win in the Referendum. 

On the April 18, the Referendum Commission of Mon State appointed government’s retired servants, including teachers and professors to involve in the Commission, to observe and organize the people during the upcoming referendum. The authorities also pressured the members of commissions, to get more Yes vote than No Vote. 

Some members of Mudon Township Election Commission visited many villages in Mudon Township, and called the villagers to the meeting. Meetings were held in either the office of the Township Peace and Development Council or Government Schools. In the meetings they instructed villagers to bring their identity cards, and provide a copy of their signature together with their identity card numbers. Villagers were then shown how to vote ‘Yes’ and place their vote card into the correct box. The demonstrators were members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA). 

Nai Myo (not his real name) said, “It seems the authorities are threatening us with these demonstrations. It is not a normal activity to ask for our ID numbers and our signatures. It is the same as forcing us to vote ‘YES’.” (Source: MUL Information Sheet and HURFOM)

Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 31, based in Khaw–zar village, together with local military forces have issued orders to village headmen from Khaw-zar and surrounding villages to visit all eligible villagers and insist they MUST vote ‘Yes’ in the upcoming May referendum. A local teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “In my view, that is a kind of SPDC threat. We have to photocopy our ID card and sign it. It means they could use the signed copy to prove that we voted ‘Yes’ even if we voted ‘No’ in the real referendum. By doing so, they force us to vote a certain way and I think it is a direct threat to our basic rights.” All school teachers and government staff in Ye and Khaw-zar were instructed by their department seniors to vote ‘Yes’ in support of the draft constitution in the May 10th referendum. (Source: HURFOM)

Both the Burmese military junta and activists in Mon State have stepped up campaign for "Yes" and "No" votes respectively in the run up to the referendum. The Mon State authorities sent trucks with a music band and ballot boxes to campaign in southern Mon State. "The truck carrying letters saying vote "Yes" also carried ballot boxes. The truck travelled around Mudon town and villages and headed for Thanpyuzayart. There were many military intelligence officials following the truck. Along the road they also picked up security men," an eyewitness said. According to Moulmein residents, this is the first time that they have been such a campaign. The truck travelled around Moulmein through Ye town.

The Thanpyuzayart Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) has cleared up thousands of fliers written in Burmese which said: "If you don't want to live under military rule, vote No." The fliers were distributed last night. The TPDC immediately held a meeting with members after finding them on the road. The fliers were one inch in width and about eight inches long. The word "Vote No" was in red colour. According to a Mon activist they have launched the "Vote No" campaign, in Moulmein, Paung, Pa-an, Kawkareik, Mudon, Ye and Chaunzone Township. (Source: IMNA)

The Burmese military junta is desperate to have the draft constitution approved at any cost even though people by and large do not want to accept it, said a leader of the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF). "The military government plans are to have the draft constitution approved at any cost. Except for campaigning among people to cast the 'No' vote we don't have any other way to fight back," the Vice-chairman of the MNDF, Nai Ngwe Thein said. The military government owned MRTV almost everyday reports on how to vote for the ensuing referendum on May 10, 2008. A group of Mon politicians from Mon state said the way the MRTV is going about it, it does not seem like a secret ballot and people dare not vote the way they want to. They are forcing people to cast the "Yes" vote. (Source: IMNA)

Economics

While much of Southeast Asia is facing rice shortages, the rising prices in Burma are being attributed to bad weather in the last growing season. Heavy rains in October destroyed thousands of acres of rice paddy. A rice vendor said that in the first week of March the price with a 60 kilogram bag was 650 Baht. By the middle of March the price was 750 Baht, but in late April the price 850 Baht. The paddy farms that produced rice were hit by late rain and a lot of paddy grains were destroyed.

“My farm used to produce eight hundred baskets of rice. This year is only produced 600 baskets (measurement in Burma: 1 baskets = 46 Kilograms). An acre of land usually produces 50 baskets. This year the land only produced about 40 baskets,” said a farmer from Mudon Township, in north Mon State. The majority of the people hurt by the rising prices lives in cities and has to buy rice for daily consumption. (Source: HURFOM)

Three Pagodas Pass, the border town around the closed Thai-Burma border trading checkpoint, is facing a descending economy. Accordingly to the news source from Kao Wao News Group, despite this drop in general trade, one area of business that is steadily growing is the sex industry, including brothels and massage parlors, which bring in illegal income with the approval of town authorities.

Parlor owners have to pay town authorities THB 12,000 in 'taxes' each month, in addition to a THB 100,000 'opening fee' each year, one owner of a massage parlor told a Mon news Kao Wao News Group. Town authorities and other ethnic ceasefire groups based in the town are heavily involved in the occupation of sex industries such as the Thel Htet Sue massage parlor, famous for young girls, which is owned by a major from Karen Peace Force (KPF) ceasefire group. . (Source: Kao Wao News Group)

Security

Ethnic cease-fire groups have been asked to provide security during the national referendum on a draft constitution, reports a New Mon State Party (NMSP) official. The cease-fire groups, including representatives of the NMSP, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Karen Peace Front (KPF) were invited to a meeting last week with officers of the SPDC Referendum Commission in Three Pagoda Pass town in late April, on the Thai-Burma border. The commission members informed the party officials that they would be providing security during the voting process, and that polling boxes would be sent to “liberated areas,” which SPDC officials cannot access without permission from cease-fire groups. It remains unclear, however, whether SPDC officials expect to accompany the polling boxes into liberated areas. Although the NMSP has announced its opposition to the referendum and the draft constitution, party officials say they will allow polling boxes to be brought into liberated areas. The party and other cease-fire groups seem to have little choice, and one official who attended the meeting reports that the SPDC would tolerate no refusal. (Source: HURFOM)

During the 3rd week of April, the Secretary of the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) together with some of his followers traveled to many Mon monasteries and questioned the abbots about the number of monks who live in the monastery, as well as requesting detailed biographies of each inhabitant. Similarly, authorities recently conducted a survey in some monasteries in Ye township, asking about monk numbers and biographies. They have also issued a warning to monks, requesting they avoid unnecessary travel around the time of the referendum. (Soure: HURFOM)

Human Rights

Forced Displacement: Widespread human rights violations, namely arbitrary arrests, torture and forced labour of adults and minors, are forcing Mon villagers to flee to more secure areas. About 15 households in Toe Thet Ywar Thit Village of Kaw-Zar Sub Township have shifted to Hangan village in Ye Township, said sources in Toe Thet Ywar Thit. The villagers were beaten and tortured almost every day by soldiers of the Burmese Army's Infantry Battalion No. 31, said a villager. Unable to live with the abuses, they moved to Hangan village and other places where they believe they will be more secure, added the villager. The villagers do not have time to run their business ventures as they are forced to work in the military camp. They are made to collect timber and work in construction sites. (Source: IMNA)

Shooting to innocent passengers: On April 15th at approximately 4 p.m., 3 villagers were seriously wounded by a Mon guerilla group that shot a total of five shots and a small grenade from a hand-held missile launcher into a passing vehicle. The vehicle had transported Burmese soldiers, and was returning with civilians from the pagoda in southern Ye township, Mon state. A car driver, who suffered minor head injuries, told the Mon media Kao Wao, "the guerrilla group shot at close-range to the ferry, which carried 21 people at the time. One of the passengers was a village headman. Three people were injured and taken to Moulmein hospital.” The driver was concerned the reason for the guerilla attack may have been his previous passengers; earlier that day he had transported Burmese soldiers. In total five shots had been fired at the car. (Source: IMNA & Kao Wao News)

Migrant Workers

News of 54 job seekers from Burma suffocating in the sweltering heat in the back of a seafood truck has shocked not only the community of Burmese migrant workers around Thailand but also the international community, with photographs of the victims are published and the intentions of the brokers now widely known. According to the Burmese media in exile the victims mostly came from Mon state, southern Burma. Around 20 people came from Mudon, 17 from Chaung-zone (Balu Island), and others from Lamaing Sub-township. Some victims' names have been released through The Democratic Voice of Burma. A total of 121 people had been crammed into the truck, with the doors then locked from the outside. Inside, with a space just 6 meters long and 2.2 meters wide (7 feet high and 20 feet long) all passengers were forced to ride standing up. Of the 121 people who started the journey only 67 survived, with 21 of these requiring hospital treatments to deal with dehydration and a lack of oxygen. At the time of writing two people remained in hospital, both in stable conditions. Aside from those in hospital, survivors were detained at Ranong police station.

One the same day, as the suffocation tragedy, April 10, Thai authorities in the border town of Sangkhlaburi border found 165 Burmese people hiding in a nearby forest. These potential migrant workers had gone without food for three or four days after their brokers abandoned them. They had entered Thailand illegally from the Three Pagoda Pass border town where Burmese authorities have closed the checkpoint border for over 12 months. (Source: Kao Wao News)