Monks and BGF force villagers to build Papun bridge
Villagers taken from 30 villages were ordered to work on the construction of the HteeLah Eh Hta Bridge that crosses the Yunzanlin River, near Papun Township.
The Karen Human Right Group’s report released on June 13, described how villagers from Meh Mwe, Day Wah, Kyaw Pah, Htee Th’Daw Hta and Meh Pree village were forced to construct the bridge. KHRG said the construction project was led by U Thuzana, the head monk at Myaing Gyi Ngu Monastery.
The government’s militia, the Border Guard Force 1014th was responsible for the security of the construction. The KHRG report claimed that the “villagers reported that they were ordered to provide both labor and money for two local projects. Villagers reported that they were ordered to provide both labor and money for two local
Deadmen Walking
Humanitarian groups accuse Burmese government soldiers of committing war crimes against ‘convict porters’ used in frontline conditions
A joint report by the New York based Human Rights Watch and the Thai Burma border based Karen Human Rights Group – “Dead Men Walking: Convict Porters on the Front Lines in Eastern Burma” was released today in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.
The joint report documents the “abuses including, summary executions, torture, and the use of convicts as ‘human shields’.”
The joint reports say the testimonies taken in 2010 and 2011 from 58 escaped convict porters raise, “serious incidents of human rights abuses occurring as standard practice, including use of porters used to sweep for landmines, deprivation of adequate food and medical assistance to porters and the systematic extortion of civilians at every level of Burma’s police, judicial and prison infrastructure.”