The Halockhani resettlement site is an area
in southern Mon State close to the Thai-
Burma border that contains over 10,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) forced from their homes by the Burmese military junta. Beginning in 1992, the French medical agency Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) provided medical care and supplies to the area. In December 2005 they withdrew their support after their permission to cross the border was revoked by the Thai authorities. The six-month supply of medication they left behind is gone and many local health workers fear a health crisis is imminent.
History of Halockhani
The first Mon refugees fled Burma to Thailand in December 1984 and by the time the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) overran the Three Pagoda Pass area in 1989-90, there were 12,000 Mon refugees living in camps in Thailand. When the Thai authorities began their ‘constructive engagement’ with SLORC in 1992 they began the forced repatriation of refugees back to Burma. They succeeded in this by first relocating all refugees to a single camp known as Loh Loe on the Thai side of the border. They stayed there for one year before being forced back over the border at the beginning of 1994. By April 1994 all the refugees from Loh Loe were back inside Burma; in the main Halockhani site and in a smaller site named Plat Don Pai, which is further inside Burmese territory (1).
This relocation did not last long though. Following an incident in which a SLORC soldier was shot by a Mon farmer, around 300 SLORC troops attacked Plat Don Pai on July 21 1994. The SLORC troops were returning to Ye township, Mon State, after serving at the Three Pagoda Pass border area. After beating and torturing some of the men in Plat Don Pai, they took 50 men for use as a human shield and headed for Halockhani. On the way, a battle broke out between the troops and a group of Mon soldiers, causing the SLORC troops to retreat. During the retreat, they forced people from their homes, which they then looted and burned. They also took men to use as porters for the march back to Ye(1). Realising they were not safe, the Mon IDPs fled once again into Thailand, setting up camp in the area around the Thai Border Patrol Police checkpoint just inside Thailand, on the road to Sangkhlaburi.
The Thai authorities immediately began demanding repatriation to Halockhani and set a deadline of August 10th. When the deadline passed, they blocked the road to the new site, preventing aid workers and UN officials from entering(2). It was noted in a report by Human Rights Watch that the fleeing of the refugees back to Thailand coincided with the agreement signed by Thailand, Burma and Total and Unocal Gas Companies to build the Yadana gas pipeline through Mon State to Kanchanaburi Province in Thailand(2). Under the terms of the agreement, Thailand receives compensation from the suppliers (Total, Unocal and Myanmar Oil and Gas enterprise) if for any reason the gas is not supplied. Returning all the refugees to Halockhani meant that they could be controlled by the SLORC troops at the nearby Three Pagoda Pass base, thus negating the possibility of attacks on the pipeline by Mon rebels.
Keen to exploit the investment potential from the gas pipeline, the Thai government began pressuring the New Mon State Party (NMSP) into signing a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese junta, telling Mon leaders that repatriated refugees would be offered jobs on the gas pipeline project(3). This, combined with worsening conditions in Mon state (including increased forced labour and IDP harassment) and the offer of business concessions from the SLORC (these were withdrawn in 1998), led to a verbal ceasefire between the NMSP and the SLORC in June 1995. The agreement mandated that all Mon refugees be once again repatriated to Burma. This happened in 1996. However, understandably scared of returning home, and with the threat of forced labour and relocation from the soon to be constructed Yadana gas pipeline, most refugees opted to remain in the Halockhani border area. According to Thai-Burma Border Consortium figures at the end of June 2006, the site now holds around 12,000 people spread over five camps collectively known as Halockhani.
International aid
This is not the first time MSF has faced this problem
International aid agencies arrived in Sangkhlaburi shortly after the SLORC took control of the Three Pagoda Pass area in 1990. These agencies included Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), who began working in Mon State in 1992. MSF provided training, medical care and supplies for diseases and illnesses such as Malaria, Tuberculosis and Diarrhoea. By 2004, they were providing assistance to 10 different clinics in the Halockhani area.
For the Mon however this vital assistance ended late last year following a decision by the Ministry of Interior of Thailand to refuse permission for MSF staff to cross the border from Thailand. The decision is thought to be a result of pressure from the Burmese junta on the Thai authorities not to allow foreigners to cross the border into Mon State. Always keen to appease their neighbours as investment potential in the country grows, the Thai authorities responded positively to the SPDC’s request. This was not the first time MSF had faced this problem, in 2003 they almost withdrew for the same reason but were persuaded to continue their work by the NMSP(3). In fact, in the 1995 ceasefire agreement, the NMSP agreed not to seek help from any NGOs, something which may give the SPDC an excuse to heap further misery on the Mon people as they seek a replacement organisation for MSF. The Ministry of Interior’s decision was the final straw for MSF as they were now in a situation where they could no longer carry out their work sufficiently. In December 2005, they ended their work in Halockhani leaving behind six months worth of medical supplies for administration by Mon health workers.
In the same month that MSF departed there was an outbreak of Chicken Pox in the camps. Although the Mon health workers were able use MSF supplies to prevent the virus from spreading, they are worried about further outbreaks. “We gave villagers medicine for prevention and every child ate Vitamin A. We also organised health education training so refugees can protect themselves. But we don’t know what will happen in the future,” said Dalai Htaw, a Mon health worker(4).
Health crisis
In June the supplies ran out and, with no alternative source of free medication, the NMSP took the decision to charge all patients half the cost of any medicines issued in hospitals and clinics in the camps. For the majority of IDPs this is not possible, as they have no source of income to pay the fees. Even for those who can afford to pay, treatment is still difficult because the Mon health workers in the camps are afraid to treat patients without support of MSF doctors. “We are technically weak and we also have inadequate medical supplies. So when we have to do an operation, it is difficult for us,” said Sadaw Nom, a Mon health worker(4).
One further duty MSF carried out was transporting emergency cases across the border to hospitals in Thailand. This is no longer possible due to the Thai authorities, and even if it were there would be no money to pay for treatment when they arrived. “If we are going to send patients to Thai hospitals, nobody would be able to pay the medical treatment fees for them. So, we just keep them here and give them some medicines. If the medicine is gone, we don’t know what we will do,” added Sadaw Nom(4).
The preventative treatment provided by MSF was vital in halting outbreaks of Malaria, Chicken Pox, TB and other diseases. With so many people living in such close quarters outbreaks of these diseases are going to be common and with no medicine to treat patients a health crisis is imminent. Already, in the first monsoon season after MSF’s withdrawal, it has been reported that 65 per cent of 700 patients in Arrowjan Hospital, Wine and Jaytanar Clinics were suffering from Malaria(5). A social worker from this area in Mon State was quoted as saying, “when Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was functioning in this area, treatment for malaria was much better.”
Currently the Mon National Health Committee is searching for an NGO to replace MSF by writing proposals and circulating pleas for assistance. While this goes on the economic links between Thailand and Burma grow stronger and increasingly more men, women and children contract preventable illnesses due to lack of basic medical care. If cross border assistance is not an option for health NGOs, then at the very least an organisation needs to step-up and offer medication and training for the struggling Mon health workers. If this does not happen soon then disease will continue to spread and the men, women and children of the camps will continue to die from diseases that could have been prevented.
Endnotes:
“SLORC’s attack on Halockhani refugee camp” Karen Human Rights Group, August 1994.
“The Mon: Persecuted in Burma, Forced Back from Thailand,” A Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol. 6, no. 14, December 1994.
This is not the first time MSF has faced this problem
