September 9: Two Lahu “spokespersons” who recently crossed the border into Thailand told S.H.A.N. the majority of their people who had been resettled in southern Shan State 5 years earlier “have had enough of” the Burmese
military authorities’ broken promises, reports Hawkeye from Chiangrai:

“Before we moved down from the north,” said Joseph (not his real name), 25, a high school graduate from Lashio, “we were given three promises by the colonel from Kunhing, who said he represented Maj-Gen Maung Bo, Commander of the (Taunggyi-based) Eastern Region Command.”

They were the right to establish their own local government, freedom from forced labor and exemption from the draft. “These were given to us at the meeting in October 1999 in Tangyan,” said Joseph.

Altogether, 700 families with a total population of 4,000 people from Tangyan, Mawfah (across the Salween), Monghsu, Lashio, Mongyai and Hsenwi had agreed to resettle in the Wanzing area in Kehsi township, Loilem district. Since then, the population in the area (now designated as Wanzing sub-township) has more than doubled, 90% of them Lahu and the remainder comprising Shan and Palaung respectively.

It is still less than half of the original population, according to Shan Human Rights Foundation that had produced the off-quoted to report on the forced relocations (300,000 people) and extra judicial killings (664 documented total) during the Burmese Army’s three year campaign against
the Shan State Army 1996-99. Before the campaign, the area had more than 18,000 people.

“Now they have broken every promise they had given to us five years ago,” lamented Joseph. “Our leaders cannot do anything without authorization from Infantry Battalion 287, a unit that was created on our arrival. We have to take turns and work in their paddy fields confiscated from the locals. And now they are forcibly recruiting us to serve in their army
units.”

In 2002, a month-long battle broke out between the Burma Army and the Shan State Army, and all Lahus who had received a 6-month training in Panglawng, 80-miles southwest of Taunggyi, were required to participate in
the fight. “Most of us fled on the first night on our way to the border,” he said, “because we knew they wanted us to be in the vanguard.”

The Lahu, of Tibeto-Burman stock, are distributed widely in northern and eastern Shan State, with a total population of 360,000, according to some Lahu sources. During the 1990 elections, one Lahu, Daniel Aung, was elected as Member of Parliament for Mongpiang township. Related report: Lahu relocations escape rights advocates’ notice, S.H.A.N., 14 April 2004