Just ou t ▼ o cto b o r 1 9 0 2 ▼ 9
Howie Baggadonutz presents
shows to make the OCA cringe!
HIV-positive Burmese
women in Thailand seek
safe return home
On June 9, 1992, approximately 45 Burmese
women were seized from brothels in Ranong
province in Thailand and transferred to various
detention-centers in Bangkok, where their fate is
being negotiated between Thai authorities and
Burmese embassy staff. Some of the women,
including three who were between the ages of 14
and 21, were found to be HIV positive. Interviews
with the young women revealed that the girls had
been lured from their border villages by Thai
nationals and were then forced to live and work as
prostitutes in prisonlike conditions within Thai
land. Severe human rights violations have been
reported, including rapes, tortures, beatings and
food deprivation.
Many of the women indicated that they wished
to return to their villages and be reunited with
their families but fear for their lives at the hands
of the Burmese military regime. In April, it was
reported that 25 HTV-positive women repatriated
from Thailand were injected with cyanide by
members of the internationally despised State
Law and Order Restoration Council, the military
regime that currently holds state power in Burma.
A variety of reliable sources from within Thai
land and Burma have suggested that this atrocity
was not an isolated incident.
Public attention to the April atrocities led Thai
authorities to declare that they would not repatri
ate any more HIV-positive Burmese citizens.
However, the Bangkok Post reported on July 31,
1992, that the Burmese ambassador to Thailand
met with Thailand’s Prime Minister’s Office of
ficials to discuss the return home of the Burmese
women. According to the article, Minister S aisuree
Chutikul told the press that the Burmese women
will be sent home to Burma and that the Burmese
government will look after their safety.
“Given the recent cyanide injections and the
deplorable rights record of the SLORC in general,
it is simply not enough to trust in the 'assurances'
of this notorious military regime,” responded
Donna Rae Palmer, Asia regional coordinator of
the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission. “The Thai government should not
repatriate any HIV-positive individuals without
reasonable and responsible assurances that moni
toring by international observers is absolutely
ensured.”
An Aug. 10, 1992, statement released to Asia
Watch further attests to the precarious situation of
Burmese women in the brothels of Ranong. Inter
views revealed that some Burmese women “who
were assumed to have AIDS” were removed from
the area and have since “disappeared.” They
quoted as well a Thai government research report
from December 1991 that found that nearly 50
percent of 200 women from Ranong brothels
tested positive for HIV. Almost 75 percent of
these women were Burmese nationals. Finally,
they noted that as economic conditions in Burma
continue to deteriorate at the hands of the SLORC,
increasing numbers of Burmese women and chil
dren are finding themselves in this dire situation.
Julie Dorf, International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission
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