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Print:This Incident Report describes the destruction of farmland belonging to an A--- villager as a result of stone mining in June 2013. The mining work in question was carried out without the consent of villagers living in the area. Villagers living in A--- village expressed concerns that should the mining project expand, their village and plantations would be destroyed, and stated their intention to seek further information about the project.
Incident Report | Thandaunggyi Township, Toungoo District (June 2013)
The following Incident Report was written by a community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights abuses. It is presented below translated exactly as originally written, save for minor edits for clarity and security.[1] This report was received in November 2013 along with other information from Toungoo District, including one interview and 161 photographs.[2]
Part 1 – Incident(s) detail
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Type of Incident |
Destruction of villagers’ property |
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Date of Incident(s) |
June 2013 |
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Incident Location (Village, Township and District) |
A--- village, Kyay Min village tract, Daw Hpa Hkoh [Thandaunggyi] Township, Toungoo District |
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Victim Information |
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Name |
Saw B--- |
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Age |
56 |
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Sex |
Male |
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Nationality |
Bwe Karen |
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Family |
Married |
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Occupation |
Villager |
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Religion |
Roman Catholic |
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Position |
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Village |
A--- |
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Perpetrator Information |
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Name(s) |
Rank |
Unit |
Base |
Commander’s Name |
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Gyi Zin Oo |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Unknown |
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Part 2 - Information Quality
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1. Explain the specific manner how you collected this information. |
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We got this information during a VA [KHRG village agency] workshop. We met with a villager who reported this issue when we interviewed him. |
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2. Explain how the source verified information accuracy. |
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The villager who gave us this information knows about this case because it happened close to his village. |
Part 3 – Incident Details
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Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail. For each incident, be sure to include 1) when the incident happened, 2) where it happened, 3) what happened, 4) how it happened, 5) who was involved, and 6) why it happened. Also describe any villager response(s) to the incident, the aftermath and the current living situation of the victims. Please, use the space prepared below and create attach if needed. |
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The incident happened in June 2013 close to A--- village and this is how the case happened. Because wealthy [business] people came and mined for stone, 0.5 acres of an A--- villager’s farm was destroyed. Before these people came and [started] work, they did not let the villagers know [in advance]; they just let the village head know. Thus, the villagers did not know the result of the consultation [between the stone miners and the village head]. One villager mentioned that, if this project [expands in order to be] fully completed, their village would be destroyed and their plantations would also be destroyed. The people who came to work on the project are led by Gyi Zin Oo. Gyi Zin Oo is the manager leading the work. |
Part 4 - Permission for Using the Details
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Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided. |
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The villagers would like us to use this information and they gave us permission. |
The above photo was taken on October 15th 2013 in Thit Hkaw village, Thandaunggyi Township. The photo shows a 56 year old man from A--- village, Saw B---, who said, “A stone mining project is planned in our region and if the implementation [continues], there will be many problems.” [Photo: KHRG]
Footnotes:
[1] KHRG trains community member in eastern Burma to document individual incidents of abuse using a standardised reporting format; conduct interviews with other villagers; and write general updates on the situation in areas with which they are familiar. When writing incident reports, community members are encouraged to document incidents of abuse that they consider to be important, by verifying information from multiple sources, assessing for potential biases and comparing to local trends.
[2] In order to increase the transparency of KHRG methodology and more directly communicate the experiences and perspectives of villagers in eastern Burma, KHRG aims to make all field information received available on the KHRG website once it has been processed and translated, subject only to security considerations. For additional reports categorised by Type, Issue, Location and Year, please see the Related Readings component following each report on KHRG’s redesigned Website.
