LIFE IN SHAN STATE'S FORMER PRINCIPALITY OF HSIPAW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 000198 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BM SUBJECT: LIFE IN SHAN STATE'S FORMER PRINCIPALITY OF HSIPAW RANGOON 00000198 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: A recent visit to Hsipaw revealed that recent Chinese migrants have changed the demographics and the economy of this former Shan principality. Family members of two Hsipaw political prisoners described their sentences and prison life. The regime maintains a watchful eye on potential dissent while this historic backwater slowly becomes a tourist mecca. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Poloff recently visited Hsipaw, home to a Shan prince whom the Ne Win regime detained and murdered in 1962. Inge Sargeant recounted his story in "Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess." Today, Hsipaw's approximately 10,000 residents live in a district with a population of 80,000. The town is a thriving agriculture center and a major stop for trucks transporting goods from Muse on the China border to Mandalay. CHINESE MIGRANTS BRING CHANGE ¶3. (C) The demographics of this once predominantly Shan town have changed dramatically in recent years due to a large inward migration of Chinese. According to a Hsipaw-born ethnic Burman tour guide, only about five percent of the population was Chinese in the early 1960s. He estimated that 30 percent of the town's population is now Chinese. Most have migrated in the past decade and obtained National Registration Cards by bribing Burmese officials approximately $100 per card. The Chinese dominate trade and, most locals admit, have helped improve the local economy. The Chinese taught Shan farmers modern methods to grow watermelons, which the Chinese buy and ship back to China together with fruit and vegetable crops. Hsipaw farmers also ship rice to China, after paying bribes to local authorities to export it outside of Burma. ¶4. (C) Several Chinese schools have opened in Hsipaw and are popular with the town's youth and children from outlying villages. Some of these children are ethnic Chinese, but others are Shan whose parents want their children to study Chinese to open up more economic opportunities for them in the future. RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY ¶5. (C) A local Muslim merchant said over 200 Muslim families live in Hsipaw town with local roots going back to the 1880s. The more than 2,000 Muslims (20 percent of the town's population) worship in a large, new, attractive mosque, and according to the merchant, face no overt religious discrimination from the authorities. There are six different Christian denominations represented in Hsipaw, as well as a Hindu temple, a Sikh temple, and many Shan and Chinese Buddhist monasteries. According to several sources, Hsipaw's diverse religious and ethnic communities live together in harmony. TOURISM GROWING ¶6. (C) Hsipaw has recently become a popular tourist destination, especially with European and Asian tourists. Mr. Charles' Guesthouse is the largest and best run tourist accommodation in town and offers maps and daily tours to local villages and scenic spots. It also has the only fax machine in town, so the staff are frequently asked to deliver fax messages to the police and other government offices. This helps provide locals with news they might not otherwise hear. For example, when the regime recently carried out a prisoner release on Independence Day (January 4),Mr. Charles was the first in Hsipaw to learn (via fax) that 15 prisoners at Lashio prison were released. PRISONS BULGING RANGOON 00000198 002.2 OF 003 ¶7. (C) Ethnic Burman residents of the town are primarily government officials or military. Last year authorities reopened the old prison in Hsipaw to relieve the crowded regime prison in Lashio, about an hour to the northwest. Locals estimate the prison population in Hsipaw "in the hundreds." Poloff observed more than 20 prisoners working on the riverbank sifting sand for sale to construction companies. Local residents said the prisoners receive 60-80 cents (800 - 1000 kyat) per day for their labor. Only those about to complete their prison sentences are allowed to work outside. Nevertheless, residents said two prisoners recently escaped from their riverside work site. HSIPAW'S POLITICAL PRISONERS ¶8. (C) Poloff spoke to the partners of two political prisoners from Hsipaw who are now serving sentences in Mandalay Prison. Maureen Mahoney, an Australian national, (PROTECT) runs a riverside coffee shop named Black House Cafe. Authorities ordered her Shan partner, Sai Ba, to be a witness at the trial of a robbery suspect, but assured him that he would be allowed to return to Hsipaw after the trial. After the trial, authorities sentenced Sai Ba in January 2006 to three years in Mandalay prison. Mahoney thought the authorities imprisoned her partner because of his past political party affiliations. ¶9. (C) Poloff also visited Sao Sarm Hpong (Fern),who lives at the palace of the former Prince of Hsipaw. She was afraid to allow poloff inside the compound, but spoke to him at a side gate of the estate for 15 minutes. She said police arrested her husband, Sao Oo Kya, nephew of the last Hsipaw prince, in mid-2005. The police searched their home for foreign currency that he allegedly accepted from tourists for tours of the old palace. The police could not find any foreign currency, so they charged Sao Oo Kya for acting as a guide without an official guide license and for telling tourists information that defamed the state. The authorities sentenced Sao Oo Kya to 13 years imprisonment in Mandalay. Fern said the real reason the regime imprisoned him was because he was invited to attend the Shan State Council meeting at Taunggyi in February 2005, after which the regime arrested and imprisoned General Hso Ten and other key Shan leaders. Although Sao Oo Kya declined to attend the event, she said the authorities still considered him a dangerous Shan nationalist. LIFE IN MANDALAY PRISON ¶10. (C) Authorities allow the children of the two political prisoners to visit them biweekly. Fern claimed that it costs her son about $80 (100,000 kyat) each time he travels from Lashio to Mandalay to visit his father. She said the ICRC formerly paid the full cost of the trips, but recently had reduced assistance to only $8 (10,000 kyat),citing budget constraints. The prisoners' families usually take dried meat and other food provisions that do not require refrigeration plus medicines. They are not allowed to give the prisoners money, but they leave money with the wardens to pass on to their relatives. Fern and Maureen both said that their partners have confirmed they received the money. Maureen said her partner used the money to bribe the warden to move him to a smaller, less crowded cell, vice a large room with 200 other prisoners. She claimed the warden also allowed him occasional buckets of hot water for bathing. To fight boredom, Sai Ba has started Shan literacy classes for other Shan prisoners in Mandalay. ¶11. (C) COMMENT: Hsipaw remains an historic, idyllic backwater in northern Shan State with a religiously and ethnically diverse population. Its residents benefit from its proximity to China and fertile land, as food flows north and Chinese migrants flow south into Burma. Hsipaw's past is also a source of behind-the-scenes repression. The regime mistrusts the Shan people, so moves quickly to squash any RANGOON 00000198 003.2 OF 003 hint of resurgent nationalism or expression of Shan culture in the home of its traditional monarchs. At the same time, they profit from the influx of Chinese. END COMMENT. VILLAROSA