US embassy cable - 04RANGOON237

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000237 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE ALSO FOR EAP/BCLTV; 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
COMMERCE FOR ITA JEAN KELLY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/22/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PINS, ELAB, PHUM, BM, Ethnics 
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON A MON STATE OF MIND 
 
REF: RANGOON 206 
 
Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez for Reasons 1.5 (B,D) 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY: Emboff and FSN met Feb 14 with a high-level 
New Mon State Party (NMSP) delegation visiting Rangoon to 
meet with the PM and to attend the 57th Union Day activities 
-- including the State Banquet hosted by Than Shwe.  The 
NMSP, one of the major cease-fire groups, discussed a wide 
array of issues in Mon State, including religious tolerance, 
how GOB officials are involved in trafficking in persons, a 
festering SPDC land confiscation issue, the KNU cease-fire 
effect on the road map, Mon refugee concerns, Burmese Army 
child soldiers, and DKBA drug running.  END SUMMARY. 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE, TO A POINT 
 
2.  (C) Our Mon interlocutors told us there are numerous 
Muslim communities in Mon State, especially in the 
NMSP-controlled areas between Moulmein and Kyaikmayaw 
Townships.  The October and November Buddhist-Muslim riots in 
central Burma didn't affect Mon State even though the 
majority of the Mon State population is Mon Buddhist.  The 
NMSP leaders said this tolerance is due to the NMSP policy of 
"harmonious settlement" of communities and because the NMSP 
"allows the Muslims to practice freely as long as they don't 
create any problems." 
 
OFFICIAL INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING 
 
3.  (C) Human trafficking is rampant in Mon State, a main 
route for migrants and traffickers heading to Thailand, 
Singapore, and Malaysia through southeast Burma.  Because of 
the depressed local economy, the NMSP allows males to travel 
from their communities across the borders.  For Mon women, 
the NMSP and Mon community leaders, while trying to educate 
their women on the dangers of migration, approach the problem 
by simply banning Mon women from traveling.  But brokers and 
traffickers have organized a systematic process with the help 
of field-level officials from GOB immigration, police, the 
Burmese Army (BA), and the Office of the Chief of Military 
Intelligence (OCMI), and they are still taking an untold 
number across.  According to the NMSP, these lower-level 
officials "coordinate trafficking activities with the Thai 
and Malay police."  The total number of trafficking victims 
is unknown, but the NMSP believes it is a "large number." 
(Embassy Comment: The NMSP leaders didn't specify if these 
were cases of trafficking or migrant smuggling.) 
 
FESTERING SORE OF LAND CONFISCATION 
 
4.  (C) According to the NMSP leaders, in July 2003, the BA 
confiscated land to expand its Yay Township brigade by ten 
battalions, dispossessing families from about 3,000 acres of 
land.  The NMSP leadership raised the matter with then 
Secretary-1 (now PM) Khin Nyunt in August 2003 and requested 
 
SIPDIS 
compensation for the land.  The General promised the GOB 
would compensate land owners, but after several days the SPDC 
said it would only compensate for plants left behind at a 
rate of 300 kyat (.31 cents) for fruit bearing trees, and 150 
kyat (.15 cents) for trees without fruit.  Owners would get 
no compensatino for land without plants as the land was 
declared "State Owned Property."  NMSP has not accepted this 
answer, and has sought ICRC assistance to settle the matter. 
 
 
KNU CEASE-FIRE: FOR THE ROAD MAP 
 
5.  (C) NMSP expects the SPDC and KNU will eventually reach a 
political settlement since the SPDC is eager to settle all 
its ethnic problems as soon as possible to execute the road 
map.  NMSP also commented that two 70-truck convoys of three 
BA battalions seen by Emboffs in Mon State in early February 
could be BA preparations for new offensive operations. 
(Comment: However, Karen contacts told us during a a Feb 12 
Union Day Dinner with the UNA that these large BA convoys 
could be reinforcements for the demarcation process and to 
provide security for an imminent Mae Sot-to-Myawaddy road 
project.) 
MON IDP/REFUGEES: DEFORESTATION WHILE SITTING TIGHT 
 
6  (C) According to the NMSP leadership, there are three Mon 
"refugee" camps just on the Burma side of the Thai-Burma 
border, Kolokhani, Yay-Chaung Phya, and Kin-Chung Phay, with 
1,500 families totaling 7,000 internally displaced persons. 
Before the 1996 SPDC-NMSP cease-fire, these IDPs were forced 
to evacuate their native villages and resettle in the camps 
on the border.  The Burma Border Coalition (BBC) provides 
rice and MSF-Holland provides health care to the IDPs. 
However, the NMSP is increasingly concerned that three months 
ago, BBC reduced assistance to the Mon IDPs and that they are 
facing food and medicine problems.  The Mon IDPs have begun 
clearing the forests in the surrounding area to prepare for 
planting the rice crops they will now need. 
 
7.  (C) According to the NMSP leaders, currently these IDPs 
have little intention of returning to their original villages 
because of better job opportunities in Thailand.  The IDPs 
are also concerned about the fragility of the SPDC-NMSP 
cease-fire, which they feel could be violated by the SPDC at 
anytime.  Several concerns have to be answered before IDPs 
return to their home villages: 1) because of their long stay 
along the border they will feel alien if resettled back 
inside the region; 2) educational concerns for the children; 
3) health care concerns; 4) work concerns.  Asked if the 
SPDC-NMSP cease-fire is fragile, the NMSP replied "it is only 
a gentlemen's agreement." 
 
JUST SAY "NO!" TO THE DRUG-RUNNING DKBA 
 
8.  (C) The NMSP Vice Chairman told Poloff that in early 
January the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a pro-SPDC 
KNU splinter group, tried to smuggle heroin and 
methamphetemines to Thailand though NMSP territory near Three 
Pagoda Pass.  An NMSP patrol stopped and challenged the DKBA 
convoy, resulting in a short fire-fight.  The DKBA retreated, 
leaving behind one DKBA killed, a small bag of heroin, and a 
handful of methamphetemines.  The NMSP, negotiating through 
OCMI intermediaries, had to compensate the family of the dead 
DKBA soldier with 1 million kayt (about $860) to resolve the 
issue with the DKBA.  The NMSP informed the DKBA they won't 
allow any drug trafficking through their area. 
 
ANY CHILD SOLDERS? 
 
9.  (C) According to the NMSP, there are "a lot of 15 and 16 
year old child soldiers in the DKBA." As for the BA, the NMSP 
leaders estimated there are about 30 soldiers per BA 
battalion under 18 years of age, some 15 and 16.  When 
pressed on the number actually observed, our NMSP 
interlocutors said they hadn't seen many recently, adding 
their number "was just a guess."  However, they offered that 
in the BA, underage soldiers are kept in support jobs back in 
headquarters compounds, or are posted to frontier areas where 
foreigners won't see them.  Young people don't want to join 
the BA, but USDA and the Fire Brigades force them to join the 
army.  (Comment: Their "30 child-soldiers per battalion" 
figure could be an figure based on NMSP experience fighting 
the BA in the mid 1990s when BA recruiting efforts would have 
been more frantic and child recruiting more common.  However, 
if still current, the number would equate roughly to 6,450 
child soldiers in the BA's estimated 215 battalions) 
 
10.  (C) COMMENT: The Mon leaders were very engaging and 
talkative, which makes for a very refreshing meeting in this 
police state.  The land confiscation issue has remained a 
major bone of contention between the NMSP and the SPDC, and 
if the SPDC continues to ignore Mon requests for 
compensation, the eight-year-old "gentlemen's agreement" 
cease-fire may possibly be undermined.  END COMMENT. 
Martinez