LIBERTY
- The National Liberation Movement of the Palaung People
- The Ceasefire and Palaung People
- The Last Ceasefire in Burma
- Situations after the Cease-Fire
- Palaung Struggle Movement Palaung Statement
The National Liberation Movement of the Palaung People
The Palaung people had their own governor in the past. A hereditary Saobwa or Prince who had his capital at Nam San Township before the British colonized Burma has ruled the Palaung people. For periods of their history, the Palaung were dominated by more numerous Burmese and were forced to pay tribute. At other periods they grew strong and achieved independence.
The Palaung were enjoying a period of independence, following a period of Burmese rule, when the British occupied the Shan State in 1886. During the colonial period and period of Burma’s democratic rule up to 1962, the Palaung had limited autonomy, and it was not until the military coup by General Ne Win that a serious political and armed movement began in Palaung State.
Sao Hso Lane established the Palaung National Front (PNF) on the 12th of January 1963, at the time when national leaders from different parts of Shan State were being executed or imprisoned. The Palaung National Front PNF, fielding 600-700 men merged with the Shan State Army (SSA). Sao Hao Lane later came to be the commander of the SSA, then president of the Shan State Progressive Party.
In 1976, Mai Kwan Tong, one of the military commanders of the PNF who had allied himself with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), set up a new political and military structure. The Palaung State Liberation Organization (PSLO) and its armed wing, the Palaung State Liberation Army (PSLA) was established on 12 February 1976.
The 1000 strong army based itself in the Palaung heartland in the mountains between Namkham, Lashio and Maymyo. The PSLA fought many battles with the Burmese army under the leadership of first Mai Kwan Tong, then Mai Than Lwin, Mai Aung Khaing, and finally Mai Kyaw Hla. In October 1986, closely allied under the National Democracies Front (NDF) banner with the KIA, and SSA, it was renamed the Palaung State Liberation Party (PSLP) under the chairmanship of Mai Aik Mong.
On the 27th of April 1991, a sad day for the Palaung people, without no choice and the PSLP/PSLA made a military cease-fire agreement with the SLORC regime. However, some members of the party, dissatisfied with the SLORC’s refusal to make an acceptable political settlement, then formed the Palaung State Liberation Front (PSLF).
The PSLF was established in Manerplaw in 1992 under the leadership of Chairman Mai Tin Maung. After the assassination of Mai Tin Maung in 1994 the PSLF elected Mai Aik Phone as the new chairman.
The Ceasefire and Palaung People
BEFORE Palaung State Liberation Army cease-fire with the State and Law Order Restoration Council SLORC (known as now SPDC), they put pressure on the Palaung people to force the PSLA to negotiate with them in 1990.
First, they cut of communications between the PSLA and the Palaung villagers. They forcibly relocated villages around Nam San and Man Tong into relocation sites. In the Nam San area, they moved about 25 villages to the village of Aram, Nam Lang, Hu Mang and Pang Saree which had a SLORC military base, and which is about 4-5 miles from Nam San Township.
In the Man Tong area, they moved about 20 villages to the village of Ho Ko, Kjay Kour and in side Man Tong city which is only 2 miles from Man Tong Township, which had a SLORC military base. Villages in Man Kham, Man Wee, Kut Kai and Nam Partka townships forced to move in to the cities.
They were relocated at the time when tealeaves were being harvested, the main cash crop of the Palaung, so the villagers could not harvest tea, and they had nothings for illness and malnutrition. It was mostly old people, mothers and pregnant women who died.
Several months after the relocation, villagers were allowed back to their tea plantations, but only if they had written permission. They were forbidden to take any rice with them to eat when they went to work, in case they gave it any to the Palaung soldiers.
Most of the tea could no longer be picked by the time the villagers were able to return to their plantations. The villagers could only collect a small amount of tea, but they were forced to give half of it to the SLORC soldiers, who sold it to Chinese traders. Because the local people could no longer get any income from their tea, they suffered great difficulties.
They therefore pleaded the PSLA to negotiate with the SLORC.
The PSLA felt that they had to regard the wishes of the people, and they feared that the situation of the villagers would get worse, so they agreed to negotiate with the SLORC. They reached a cease-fire agreement in 1991. After the cease-fire agreement; the relocated villagers were allowed to return home.
The Last Ceasefire in Burma
STATE and Law Order Restoration Council (SLORC), we are supposed to meet one of the groups, the Palaung State Liberation Army (PSLA). Although not one of the larger forces, the Palaung managed to secure a liberated area for their people. In a garden restaurant a little outside of town the local PSLA command awaits us: four young men in bomber jackets and combat boots. During our brief talk one of them seems always on the lookout, even though the restaurant is empty.
Captain U Cho Gyi is in charge of the negotiations concerning our request to visit the liberated area. He hides his oval, bony face behind Chinese aviator glasses. At age 29 he is already a nine-year veteran of the M-group’s struggle. “We have made peace with the government,” he tells us. “But peace just means that they don’t attack our villages anymore. We still stay combat-ready.” The Palaung had fought the government for thirty years when they signed the peace treaty in 1991.
Now they control a small mountainous area northwest of Lashio. None of the four officers originally wanted to fight. They had been students, planning to build bridges, teach the children of their tribe or at least find a well-paying job. That’s why they went to Rangoon to study in the ’80s. But when the upheavals of 1988 took place, they had to flee back to the mountains.
Captain U Cho Gyi, for instance, studied physics. He was a brilliant student, so when he managed to find his way back to the rebel forces of his people, the elders wanted to send him to another country to finish his education. But the SLORC pressured the Thai government not to issue visas to any fleeing students. “The plan to send me abroad had to be abandoned,” the captain says bitterly. “That’s when I joined our army and trained as a guerrilla fighter.” U Cho Gyi still hopes to be able to finish his degree sometime in the future.
After a brief discussion the officers agree to take us into the liberated area. A few preparations will be necessary. We have to exchange our tourist vehicle license plates for fake regular ones. They advise us to bring blankets and empty rice sacks for sleeping, some dried food for us and candy for the children.
The captain will make sure that we pass all military checkpoints without being caught. He won’t say how, but he seems sure that there will be no problem. It’s a full day’s drive to Homsong, the first liberated town. The captain and two men accompany us. The car barely makes walking speed on the dirt track leading through the woods. Up here it’s mostly conifers. Brisk mountain air comes through the windows.
The Palaung have built the road themselves, since the government still refuses them any form of infrastructural support. “All with our own hands,” the captain proudly proclaims. But the storms of the last rainy season have turned grooves into ditches. After four hours our four-wheeler gives in. The axle has bent under the chassis. “No problem,” our guides say. One of them disappears into the brush.
We sit around smoking cheroots, Burmese cigars, and wait. Half an hour later the man reappears with a couple of farmers from a nearby village. They use hammers, jump on the axle, push, and pound and shove until the wheels are able to turn again. Late that afternoon we arrive in Homsong. There are about thirty two-story wooden houses covered with corrugated iron, the only visible sign of modern materials. The villagers come together to greet us. We shake hands; give out candy, thankfully decline immediate dinner offers. The captain wants us to come to the base right away.
After ten minutes by foot through the forest, we come to a clearing. A line of straw huts stands there, an open field behind them. Young men in tattered uniforms come running.
They stand guard and salute their commander. “Welcome at Camp 121!” he says. Since we are the first white men to ever come here, we get a parade: fifty soldiers in one row. They don’t seem that combat ready. A few carry Chinese assault rifles, but most are hauling carbines; a few even have homemade muzzleloaders such as the hill tribes use to hunt birds “Before we made peace there was daily fighting up here,” the captain says. He points to his troops. “Even then we had hardly any weapons.
The government forces came with helicopters, grenade launchers, and automatic rifles. We had to resort to guerrilla tactics, which cost us far too many men.” Why did they still go to battle with the overpowering forces? Captain U Cho Gyi frowns. “Our existence was at stake. Our language, our traditions, our history. The army stormed our schools, killing the teachers who taught our language to our children. They killed the farmers so they couldn’t produce rice for the rebels and took the women to rape them and force them to work. We had no choice.”
The Palaung were one of the last M-groups to come to an agreement with the SLORC. “We negotiated a status quo. We promised not to build up our army and not to wear any arms outside of our area. They promised us financial aid for development.”
But what of the soldiers who are parading in front of us? Some seem no older then eleven or twelve. The captain shrugs his shoulders. “We are still waiting for any money to come, any help or assistance. Everything you see here we built ourselves. The roads, the wells, the school. So far all they have done is stop killing us.
That’s why we have to stay ready. Why should we honor a contract if the government doesn’t?” Still the Palaung see their sacrifices as worth- while. Even if there are no paved roads, no market, no newspaper, even if the villagers are still living in medieval times without running water or electricity, they do not have to send their children to forced labor, they don’t have to fear informers everywhere, they’re not afraid of going to jail or being tortured for a wrong word.
There is no bombing attacks and no massacres like those in the South, where the army still fights the Karen tribes with merciless scorched earth tactics. But Captain U Cho Gyi views the peace agreement and the liberated areas as just a first step. The struggle for survival has to be followed by the struggle for freedom. Neither civil opposition nor internal fighting nor international sanctions have softened the stance of the SLORC.
Thousands of people are still dying in fighting, in massacres, in forced labor columns and in jails. “We all wait for a legitimate government,” Captain U Cho Gyi says. “Nobody will ever trust the military. Only a government elected by all of us in Burma will be able to change anything.” But the rebels can’t win this struggle. Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon must win this struggle.
Source: http://users.rcn.com
Note: From the Democrats in Rangoon to the rebels in the mountains A travel report from Burma © Adrian Kreye
Situations after the Cease-Fire
After the Palaung villagers were allowed to return home in 1991, they could return to tend their tea-plantations.
The situation for the villagers was more stable, since the State and Law Order Restoration Council (SLORC) stopped collecting porters, and no longer raided the villages searching for the Palaung soldiers.
They were able to set up more permanent tea-factories. However, they had to pay a lot of taxes to the SLORC. For example, they had to pay a tax to set up the factory; also tax on the amount of tea they purchased; tax on the tea they transported; tax on the amount of firewood used; tax on the amount of dried tea produced.
The total cost of the taxes amounted to about 70% of the total income earned from the tea. Therefore the SLORC have managed to make a lot of money from the Palling villagers follow the cease-fire. There have been no major benefits for the Palaung people following the cease-fire. The SLORC has not initiated any development projects in the area. Only the PSLA has carried out any development for the Palaung villagers.
Development
After the cease-fire agreement, the SLORC called the PSLA-controlled area “Special Region 7.” the SLORC agreed to develop this area, but they did not in fact doing anything.
The PSLA and the Palaung people themselves have done all of the development in the Palaung area. The villagers, who brought their own food to eat from working, have built the summer car roads.
Now, there are roads to most of the villages in the Palaung area. They have also created their own hydroelectric plants. The SLORC agreed to pay 3 million Kyat for the development of the Palaung area, but they have not spent anything up till now.
But, one of the PSLP leaders said that if the SLORC can’t develop our area, we have to develop it ourselves, as it is our area. In the future, every village must have a road and electricity for their survival. This is what we can do to develop our area.
The SLORC does not develop the border areas in the same way as central Burma. Even though we have agreed the ceasefire with the SLORC, they are not clearly contributing to our development. They have only given the opportunity to people to carry out their personal business, to distract them from politics.
Education
After the 1991 cease-fire, the SLORC have allowed the PSLA to set up a Health Committee and an Education Committee to improve the health and education Conditions in the Palaung area.
The Education Committee has organized the setting up of primary schools in every village in the PSLA controlled area. The teachers are chosen from each village. The villagers provide the salary and food of the teachers. The children who have completed 4th standard in the villages to go beyond 4th standard, and have sent teachers to some villages for this purpose.
Some of the teachers are from government but they earn less salary, so the villagers have to help support them with housing and food. To cope with the problem of poor students who need to further their schooling in the towns, the Education Committee has built boarding hostels in Hsipaw, Nam San and Man Tong.
Health
The health situation is very bad in the Palaung area. Most of the villages have no healthcare centre. Only the big villages with populations of over 200 houses have healthcare centre.
Where there are no health centers, the villagers have to rely on traditional medics, or people with some health knowledge.
If anyone is very sick, they must be sent to the hospital in the closest town, but since owing to difficulties in transport, patients commonly die on the way. Following the ceasefire, the PSLA Health Committee has been trying to address the health problems by training basic medics and midwives from each village.
They are hoping to try and arrange for clinics, or at least centers in each village in the future.
Economic
PSLA and cease-fire with the SLORC, the PSLA were allowed to conduct some logging business, and were allowed to buy Chinese goods to trade in Burma.
General San Pwint gave them a permit to do this. However, in 1996, this permit was revoked. This caused many financial problems for the PSLA.
One of PSLA leader continued to try and trade Chinese goods after the permit but it was revoked.
He brought 10 Chinese mechanized tractors filled with Chinese goods to Mandalay, but he was arrested there, together with his vehicles and goods. He was later freed, but all the goods were confiscated.
The PSLA is still allowed to operate some tea-factories and some whiskey-distilleries in their area, but they have to pay high taxes to the SPDC.
Palaung Struggle Movement Palaung Statement
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
Manerplaw, July 3, 1992
The following statements were made by ethnic Palaung men, from Palaung land in what is officially northwestern Shan State. They arrived in Manerplaw after being among the 2,000 convicts in Mandalay jail who were taken to be frontline porters at the Naw Hta front of the SLORC’s dry season offensive against Manerplaw.
They escaped into the care of the Karen National Union. In the interest of their safety and that of their families, no details can be given which could be used to directly identify them. Their descriptions of the situation in Palaung land and of their time as porters are taken from personal experience. Their descriptions of prison life are a combination of personal experience, things they witnessed firsthand, and the personal experiences which other prisoners related to them.
Statements: The SLORC has a Four Cuts program against people in Palaung land. They try to cut off food supplies, communication with the people, and finances to the Palaung State Liberation Party (PSLP), and to cut off the heads of revolutionaries. As part of their Four Cuts policy, in January and February 1991 they forced all the Palaung villagers in the entire Palaung revolutionary area to move to the towns.
The troops went into every village, collected the villagers and marched them to the towns with whatever they could carry. About 100,000 villagers altogether were forced to move to big relocation camps near the towns. These were like refugee camps, but they were guarded and there was no supply of medicine and never enough food. No one was ever allowed to leave the camps, and there was no way to build a house. Families just lived outside on the ground. Fortunately it was dry season so there was no rain.
Meanwhile, there were almost no more Palaung villagers in the countryside. Anytime SLORC troops saw firelight at night or any other sign of life in a village they went and burned the village down. They burned down 22 villages, 2 monasteries, a church and several schools in Palaung land last year alone.
At the relocation camps the troops interrogated anyone they suspected of knowing anything about the PSLP, raped a lot of women, and killed people every day. They kept telling the villagers “You should suggest to the PSLP that they make a ceasefire with us. Otherwise, all of you may die.” The PSLP leaders heard that this was happening; and because they are Palaung themselves and love their own Palaung people who had always supported them, they had no choice but to make a compromise with the SLORC in late April 1991.
They agreed to a ceasefire but would not lay down arms, and only on the condition that all villagers be released from the relocation camps. Now the villagers have gone back home and their PSLP still lives in the revolutionary area, while the SLORC troops mostly stay near the towns. Sometimes you even see a SLORC soldier and a PSLP soldier in the same town market, both carrying their arms. The people are still unhappy and support the PSLP, because they have no freedom and they know that the SLORC could still attack or imprison them again anytime they like.
As part of the compromise, the SLORC promised to do a lot of development in Palaung land. They’ve build one bridge between Pan Lo and Nam Shan, across the Myinge River, and a few pagodas the Palaung people are very religious – but that’s all. We see them taking a lot of logs on trucks out to China.
The SLORC’s compromise with the PSLP did not stop them from taking political prisoners. There are Palaung among the 500 or so political prisoners and the 7,000 ordinary prisoners in Mandalay Prison. In Mandalay, when political prisoners are first brought in they’re put alone into a “dark” cell. A “dark” cell is about 4 feet by 4 feet with no light and no window, not even in the door.
When they shut you in it’s pitch dark, all the time. There’s just a bare concrete floor and no toilet. You have to urinate and defecated on the floor, and they never clean the cell except maybe between prisoners. Occasionally, a guard opens a little hatch in the ceiling to look in, but just for a moment. Twice a day they slide some food through a hatch in the bottom of the door.
Prisoners are kept in these dark cells as long as their interrogation period lasts; there’s no time limit. They’re only allowed out to be interrogated. One of them joked that “When I’m in the dark cell I’m a free man – free to sit down or lie down, whenever I like”.
Dark cell prisoners are regularly taken for interrogation. They take them directly from the dark cell to a “bright” cell, which is a little bigger, about 6 feet by 6 feet, with very bright Lights in the ceiling. During interrogation prisoners are badly beaten, and most suffer broken ribs or teeth. Many also have to “ride the motorcycle”: the guard makes you squat down and pretend to ride a motorcycle, making all the sounds with your mouth.
He sits on your back and holds your ears and says “Make it like a real motorcycle! Go forward! Now turn left!”, like that. When he pulls on your ears you have to make the sound of the horn. Then after doing this for a while, the questions and beatings start again.
When the interrogation period finally finishes, most prisoners are taken out of the special cells to go before the judge. By this time most of them can’t walk, and they’re very weak. Most of them have lost a lot of their memories, have no self-confidence, and are confused and a little bit crazy. The judges dress as civilians, but they’re under the control of the military. When they take you in front of the judge you have no lawyer. You can talk, to answer the judge’s questions, and then he sentences you.
After sentencing, most political prisoners are sent to ordinary cells, which they share with as many as 4 others. Any important political prisoners are either sent to ordinary cells where they’re alone, or kept indefinitely in a “dark” cell. In the ordinary cells light comes through the metal bars and it’s not as bad. You sleep on a thin sleeping mat on the concrete floor, and there’s a bedpan for a toilet which is cleaned out sometimes. Some prisoners have blankets their families brought them when they were sentenced.
They’re lucky, because once you’re in the prison you can’t get any. Twice a day they bring rice, yellow beans and fish paste to the cell. Between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and from 2 to 4 in the afternoon, they open the cell doors and the prisoners can walk up and down the 15-metre hallway outside the cells and talk with each other.
There are about 500 political prisoners and 7,000 criminal prisoners in Mandalay Prison. The criminal prisoners are generally treated better by the guards, and they don’t face so much torture or isolation.
In March about 2,000 of us were taken from the prison. Only a few were political prisoners. The guards told us they were going to renovate the prison so they had to move us out, but they didn’t say where we were going. They jammed us all onto big and small trucks – each big truck held about 60 men standing crammed together – and we set off with a convoy that must have been nearly 100 trucks. We had to stay on those trucks for 4 or 5 days. We had to stand jammed together on the truck all day, and some days we got no food at all. Some nights, if there was a big empty building available, we got to rest on the ground under guard. But other nights we had to stay on the trucks.
Eventually we got to an army camp near Pa’an town, and then we were driven another 2 days to a camp near the Naw Hta front where the SLORC was attacking Manerplaw. We got off the trucks and they loaded us down with ammunition. Each man had to carry two 120 mm mortar shells, or sometimes rice, altogether 18 or 20 viss [30-32 kilograms]. It took a whole day to march up and down over the hills to the frontline.
We went back and forth day after day, carrying ammunition and supplies up to the frontline and wounded soldiers back. They fed us twice a day, but it was only one small plate of plain rice, and we were always starving. At night they put each group of us inside a bamboo fence, and we rested on the ground under guard.
There were no mats or blankets or anything; we were just in our prison clothes. We were allowed a bath about 3 times in 10 days. Fortunately, it was the hot and dry time of year so not many got sick. But one man in our group got diarrhea, and he still had to keep working.
We were usually divided into groups of 30, 40, or 50, and when we marched there were about 5 porters to every soldier. We often saw porters beaten with fists and sticks. One time the tailpiece of a 120 mm shell somehow fell off and disappeared while one porter in our group was carrying it. When we arrived at the front and the soldiers found out, they were very angry and all 30 of us were beaten with sticks.
We didn’t see them kill any porters, but one time there were 4 porters who were too weak to go on any further. A couple of them could still stand, but the others couldn’t. The soldiers took away their loads and left them behind, telling them “When you can walk, follow us”. We marched on, but as we left some soldiers lingered behind with the weak porters. We never saw those porters after that.
After just over a week, we were sick of being porters. Three of us planned to escape, and once when we were sent to get water for cooking without a guard at the frontline, we ran away. It didn’t take us long to find the Karen soldiers, and then all the torture was finally over – for us at least.
| Hu Mung (5,000 people) | Hu Mung, Ma Lone, Sa Naam, Ho Pan, Hu Wai, Ling Dtul, Maung Oo, Pang Long | |
| Hu Maing (3,000 people) | Hu Maing Pang Swe, Nam Tam, Tha Ngam, Hu Bang, Hu Lao, Nam Yan, Bang Kem, Nam Sai Kow, Pa Ma Chong, Pang Rang Ray, Hu Nam | |
| Aram (15,000 people) | Aram, Man Mai, Hu Khin, Tam Sai, Ma Sat, Tong Kyaw, Nam Keu South and North, Hu Chaung, Daw – Keu- Daw Mile, Hu La, Nam Sai Kow, Pa Ma Chong, Pang Rang Ray, Hu Nam | |
| Bang Sri (4,000 people) | Bang Sri, Hu Nam, Gaya Gyi, Jong Hay, Ka Nguang Do, Man Pak, Ngaw Swit, Gaung Kelaw, Alok | |
| Kon Ka (7,000 people) | Kon Ka, Kying Kying, La King, Loi Jeree, Ban Kwe, Na Kaw, Kyau Lon Gyi, Ho Maung, Bang Hai, Bang Keng, Man Kau, Loi Weh, Bang Top, Hing Kut, Nyen Thap, Hai Kyat | |
| Mo May Town (4,000 people) | Ye Bon, Man Teng, Taung Gyi, Ma Young, Ka Ket, Mi Gyeree, Ho Pan, Pan La | |
| Man Don (7,000 people) | Man Don, Loi Kang, Bang Pai, Rao Kying, Hu Noi, Rao Myo, Daw Maw, Ho Pan, Pan La | |
| Nam Tu Town (3,000 people) | Man Pat, Tha Ban, Bang Sai, Hin Pot, Man Top, Bang Wat, Bang Dong, Ka Lwee, Sun Oi, Kong Kat, Man Kya, Nam Keung | |
| Nam Lin (8,000 people) | Nam Lin, Keu K un, Bang, Bang Lom, Om Lot, Ma New, Ho Hop, Ho Pat, Hai Tong, Man Lam, Man Yai, Long Top, Man Wai | |
| Zyan Gyi (12,200 people) | Zyan Gyi South & North, Ding Kaya, Bang Sumei, Hu Chong | |
| Main Kong (9,000 people) | Main Kong, Ba Lan, Bang Chong, Pa Bung, Bang Pao, Bang Cherok, Loi Kam, Na Ka Dong, Taw Mun, Pa Dang, Man Mun, Loi Pet, Ho K |
Total: 11 camps, 118 villagers, 77,200 people
This list is not complete.
VILLAGES BURNED DOWN IN 1991: (Total 22)
Ka Kyet, Ye Bon, Hu Bang, Bang Se, Hu Mang, Mah Lone, Hu Kim, Mang Mai, Hu Mein, Man Pang, Ga Ya, Bang Seree, Hu Wai, Bang Dong, Na Aw, Wang Plong, Oi Law, Nam Sai Kau, Bang Su Mein, Man Mai, Nam Lin, Rau Bran.
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