UPDATE ON A MON STATE OF MIND

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
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