For Immediate
Release: June 30th, 2004
Contact: (202) 223-0300

ON
EVE OF ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM AND TRAVEL BY POWELL
AND ANNAN, DAMAGING PHOTOS REVEAL JUNTA’S ABUSES

(Washington, DC) Today, the US
Campaign for Burma released a set of
extremely rare photos (embedded on this page)
taken inside Burma on June 28th that document
an estimated 230 Burmese men, women, and children–including
infants–fleeing from troops of the military
regime that controls the Southeast Asian country
of Burma. The photos are an extraordinary window
into a systematic and brutal campaign against
Burma’s ethnic nationalities that has
left between 600,000 and 1 million people internally
displaced and has forced between 1 and 2 million
people to flee to neighboring countries.

The images were recorded as Burma’s military
has launched an international charm offensive
aimed at justifying detention of 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, and
just days before Indonesia hosts the ASEAN Regional
Forum, a meeting of foreign ministers from Southeast
Asian nations that will be attended by US Secretary
of State Colin Powell. It also comes two weeks
before UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visits
neighboring Bangkok.

“This
regime’s abuses are forcing innocent, defenseless
children into the
jungle,” said Stephen Dun, a board member
of US Campaign for Burma. “Asian, American,
and UN leaders, including Indonesia’s President
Megawati Sukarnoputri, US Secretary of State
Colin Powell, and UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan must quickly condemn these abuses, and
demand that these families be allowed to return
to their homes in peace.”
The photos show civilians fleeing regime troops
in the Karenni State. They fled from the town
of Paho on Nat Thaung Mountain, which is located
approximately 50 miles from the Thailand-Burma
border and due west of Thailand’s second-largest
city, Chiang Mai.

Forced to collect their belongings as quickly
as possible as regime troops approached, the
villagers grabbed what they could and fled.
At this time, they are scattered, hiding in
the jungle and living under trees. Since it
is presently the rainy season in Burma, it is
not known how long they can survive without
assistance.

The approach by regime troops follows major
attacks in the same vicinity in January 2004,
during which the regime attacked several villages,
forcing an estimated 5,000 people from their
homes.

When the regime’s soldiers approach villagers,
local residents generally
flee their homes out of a well-founded fear
of rape, forced labor, or
murder committed by the regime’s troops. Reports
from credible
non-governmental organizations and the US State
Department have documented the regime’s use
of rape as a weapon of war, similar to what
took place in Bosnia in the mid-1990s. The International
Labor Organization, a United Nations agency,
has effectively sanctioned Burma’s military
regime for its use of forced labor, the first
time the organization has taken such measures
in its 83-year history.

The onslaught by the regime’s troops is presumably
aimed at relocating
villages to central locations, away from border
areas and closer to the
Burmese regime’s military bases. From these
locations, villagers are forced to provide labor
for the regime’s infrastructure projects.

The regime’s move in Paho follows a pattern
of consistent, low intensity
warfare carried out in areas of ethnic nationalities.
In spite of countless
reports published by credible NGOs, international
human rights
organizations, and US and UN agencies, the low
intensity nature of the
attacks, coupled with a lack of access to the
region (no journalists have
traveled there), make the abuses “invisible”.

Nongovernmental organizations based in Thailand
estimate that between
600,000 and 1 million peoples have been forced
from their homes and live in the jungle as internally
displaced people. An additional 1-2 million
people have fled to neighboring countries, mainly
Thailand, where only a fraction are permitted
to stay in refugee camps. Even though international
donors provide funding for refugee camps based
along the Thailand-Burma border, almost no aid
is provided for defenseless civilians trapped
inside Burma.

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