Address by H.R.H. Prince Hso-Khan-Pha of Yawnghwe, President and Head of State for the Federated Shan States:
“Mr. Chairman, Delegates – Ladies and Gentlemen,
Where are the Federated Shan States? The country lies in the hub between India, China and Southeast Asia and was a State of the former Union of Burma that gained its sovereign independence from Great Britain in 1948.
In size, it is more than 1/3 of the State of California and is larger than the State of New York. If it were in continental Europe, it would be almost 1/3 the size of France and in Asia over 1/3 of the Kingdom of Thailand. The Shan population exceeds some 8 million.
The name Shan comes from the Burmese mispronunciation of “Siam” or Siam” derived from a Pali word “Syam” meaning “Sky” – the name by which the ancient Khmer or Cambodians called the Tai or Thai Speaking clans. We Shan call ourselves “Tai”, which is a dialectical variation of Thai or Dai in China – indeed in 1957 the Premier Chou-en-lai said to my parents (my father was the 1st President of the Union of Burma 1948-52), that there were then some 100 million Dai or Tai Speaking Peoples in the Peoples Republic of China. That number will have grown dramatically since then.
Historically, Shan or Tai Kingdoms and Principalities have stretched from Assam in northeast India, through Southeast Asia into south and southwestern China and today the Shan are linguistically and culturally related to modern Thailand and Laos.
In the late 19th century the Shan Principalities on the Shan Plateau were annexed by the British to become a Protectorate following the British conquest of the Burmese Kingdom of Mandalay in the Irrawaddy River Basin or Plains. And as a Protectorate, the Shan self ruled with a full autonomy in their internal affairs under the Governor of British Burma, whereas “Burma” or Burma Proper was ruled directly by the British Governor. Indeed the Banknotes of the day were inscribed in English, Shan and Burmese, a tacit recognition of the Shan polity separate from the Burmese.
In 1946, soon after the Second World War ended in 1945, the Shan Princes and Representatives convened the first Panglong Conference in the Shan States that was also attended by Leaders & Representatives of the British Burma Frontier Areas.
A second Conference was called in 1947, to which the Burmese came as Observers and it was at this second Conference that the Burmese Leader General Aung San tabled a proposal to include Burma in forming a Union of equal partners to share only a common foreign affairs and currency.
The Shan, after a prolonged and heated debate, voted by a very narrow parliamentary majority of 51:49% deciding for the Union. Subsequently the Chin, Kachin & Karenni
followed the Shan lead, and thus in January 1948, the 5 Constituent States of Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karenni and Burma gained independence from Britain as “The Union of Burma”.
The Panglong Agreement of 1947 specified the Right of Secession for all signatories, and Chapter X of the Union of Burma Constitution specifically spelt out the Sovereign Right of Secession for the Shan and Karenni States, applicable 10 years after signature from 1948 onwards, should they choose to go their own way as independent sovereign nations.
It was also at Panglong in 1947 that the Shan Flag was raised and the British Union Jack lowered in the presence of British Government Representatives, led by Lord Bottomley, signifying and tacitly recognizing the sovereign status of the Shan Nation a year before Burma gained its independence in 1948. The Union of Burma lasted until 1962, when a military coup violently destroyed all democracy - a situation which continues to this day. My father, amongst many state leaders, and my brother, were amongst the first victims, with my brother dying defending our family home from Burmese soldiers, and my father being arrested and dying under brutal Burmese military imprisonment.
Following the Burmese military coup in 1962, the Union of Burma ceased to exist in all but name, and the Shan State, as all other States of the Union, came under Burmese military occupation of General Ne Win’s BSPP regime, becoming and more and more Nazi-like under “SLORC” that changed to its present name of “SPDC” in 1989/90.
In 2000, 2004 & 2006 Shan Leaders secretly and clandestinely held meetings and canvassed the people of the Se-Viengs or Counties of the Shan lands, resulting in a majority of 87% voting for independence. This best effort democratic process was undertaken under the noses of the SPDC spies and brutal occupying forces in a situation that can be likened to that of the Free French resistance holding clandestine meetings in Nazi Occupied France – free and open elections would have resulted in immediate arrests, torture, and executions. For the Shan to have done it all not once but thrice underscores our determination for democracy and independence.
Early in 2005, 10 Shan Leaders including President Hkun Toon Oo of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) were arrested and subsequently sentenced to multilife-sentences and hard labour in remote concentration camps.
I was elected President of the Federated Shan States in March 2005 and was mandated to lead and affirm our People’s vote for independence and I was then instructed to make a Declaration of Independence on April 17th. 2005 from our leaders inside occupied Federated Shan States – we being a federation of Shan., Wa, Palaung, Pa-O, Kokang and other ethnic communities. The mandate of the elected Shan Government is not only to win our freedom but also to deliver humanitarian relief to all Shan refugees, victims of displacements, and of other Burmese SPDC major atrocities and war crimes, such as rape, and arbitrary extra-judicial killings of civilians, following “shoot to kill” orders being issued.
Sadly and inexplicably, these fleeing and displaced Shans are by and large not UN recognized as refugees and they do not receive any aid and assistance and they go unregistered and unrecognized as refugees by UNHCR, unlike many of the other peoples like the Karen, Mon, Karenni, Kachin, Chin, and Arakan for example. This has to do with a quirk in Thai policy in regarding the Shan or “Tai-yai” as an “internal problem” – (whatever that means) and the situation is often further exacerbated by the pride of the Shans in not wanting to be called refugees.
This means that officially, according to UNHCR records, the Shan or Tai victims of Burmese SPDC atrocities do not exist, (although we, the Shan Government have extensive war crimes dossiers) and as they flee they are treated as illegal migrants fending for themselves as best they can and becoming open to human trafficking, extortion, and being abused for cheap labor and prostitution. The lucky few who survive meld and blend in time into the Thai population, not necessarily by choice, but more by circumstance.
Those who are deported back are usually killed by the SPDC military regime, illegally
occupying the Shan States. In truth, the displaced Shans all want to return home to their farms and homesteads from which they have been forcefully evicted at gunpoint. I know that very few Shan would willingly stay on in Thailand if and when they could return home to a peaceful Shan States.
I should know – because upon my Declaration of Independence in April 2005, many parents of sons and daughters who had fled, sent messages to their children – “ You can come back home now, we are free!”. Unfortunately, this objective requires actions, not just words.
However more countless others with their children hide and wander in the jungles, forests and mountains without food and shelter, totally destitute, in fear for their lives and without hope, hunted, pursued and harassed by the landmine-sowing Burmese SPDC military. In comparison, the homeless in the USA and Canada are in a safe haven.
I here quote from Mr. John Bercow, a British Member of Parliament’s account in “The Independent” July 26, 2007, after a Parliamentary Committee fact-finding visit to eastern Burma* (*Shan State, Karenni, Mon & Karen States) by a group of British parliamentarians. He writes-
“Burma suffers a political, human rights and humanitarian situation as grim as any in the world today……
Rapes as a weapon of war, extra-judicial killings, water torture, mass displacements, compulsory relocation, forced labour, incarceration of political prisoners, religious and ethnic persecution, and daily destruction of rural villages are all part of the story that has disfigured Burma…….
People lack access to food, water, sanitation and the most basic health & education
provision…...
Harrowing accounts of children dying from malnutrition, women perishing in childbirth and people succumbing to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis…..
Most shocking of all was the experience of meeting children who told me they had seen their parents shot dead and parents who are forced to watch their children’s summary execution……..
Infectious diseases are approaching epidemic levels and 71% of the population is at risk of malaria. A 2006 of the child mortality rate in eastern Burma (& occupied Shan State) was 221 per 1000…..”
The Shan Government is not only pledged to fulfill its mandate from the Shan people of achieving Independence, but also to establish Shan Refugee Reception Centres and to coordinate and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid in co-operation with NGO’s in the border regions to reach thousands of Shan refugees and displaced children, men and women fleeing the brutality, rape, genocide, torture and murder of Shan civilians by soldiers of the Burmese currently occupying the Shan States. We will also be tireless in assisting the refugees in preparation for their return to a safer homeland, in counseling, training, vocational assistance; and in making the Shan States a sanctuary to all regional refugees.
The concept of offering sanctuary is not a stranger to us. In the 10th century for example, one of my early ancestors of Yawnghwe, gave sanctuary to the Pa-O refugees after their Kingdom of Thaton in Lower Burma war destroyed and their King Manuha and Family were taken in chains to Pagan by Anawratha to serve as pagoda slaves there. And again in the 20th century, my father the Saopha Prince Shwe Thaike of Yawnghwe, in 1937 offered sanctuary to the German refugee Jews suffering Nazi persecution, through Mr. Edmund de Rothschild of the English House of Rothschild.
In 1949, many Shan noble families and their retinues fled from the communist Chinese forces advancing across Yunnan province in China, and poured across the border into Hsenwi State, the northernmost state in the Federated Shan States and offered sanctuary by my uncle Saopha Prince Hom Hpa of Hsenwi. The families included the Saophas of Mongkwan, Kungma, and Mongti. All were given sanctuary by the Shan, a remaining with us until their safe return to Yunnan after Mao Tse Tung’s death in 1974.
With this history in mind, the Shan Government is proud to maintain our forefathers’ tradition by making the following announcement at this Conference:
The Shan Government today publicly declares that all regional refugees are hereby offered sanctuary, peace, and a home for their families to resettle in the Federated Shan States. This gift of safe passage, resettlement, peace and freedom will be negotiated directly government to government, between Thailand, and the Federated Shan States, and with the community leaders and aid organizations, and will take effect once the Shan Government has restored freedom fully to its sovereign territories.
The Shan Government is also unconditionally pledged to achieve the eradication of opium poppy-fields in the Shan States and to programs restoring land-use to regular agriculture and commercial forestry. Unfortunately under the Burmese Army’s occupation the Shan States have become a major supplier of opium to the illicit drug
trade and this 30-40% of the world’s supply is not only a scourge for us and our region but it is also a much greater scourge in the urban areas of the United States, in LA, New York City and other urban centres; Canada and Western Europe of crime, gang wars, child prostitution, of law and order and public safety. Does it not make sense to nip this problem at its source? This is something that the Shan Government is determined to do, once our lands are free of occupying troops, and democracy and human rights are restored. Some financial assistance from the G8 “War on Drugs” budget will help secure this huge gift to the world.
We also support USIM’s global measures to end the human trafficking of Shan and other exploited children, men and women who are the products of the traumas and conflicts in the region and being in agreement with the philosophy of the United States International Mission (USIM) and having signed a Memorandum of Understanding, we will work closely with the authorities of the Royal Thai Government and other NGO’s.
The Shan National Reconstruction Program (SNRP) is being set-up under ministerial guidance, and it will be the flagship project of the Shan Relief Foundation which is duly and properly registered as a non-profit organization in the State of Indiana and is currently in process of filing its Form 501 (c) 3 for recognized charity status with the IRS.
In addition Shan Relief Canada will be the Shan Government’s frontline humanitarian aid authority. It will be directing aid to meet the immediate needs of Shan Refugees as the Shan Government’s sovereignty and world public awareness campaigns unfolds – exposing all facets of the Shan’s plight, their tragedy and misery for the past half a century or 5 decades, and will work closely with their subsidiary Tai Relief Center in Thailand.
Freedom, the reconstruction of a nation, the bringing of that nation into the 21st century with all of the massive wealth of unexploited natural resources, undeveloped economy, and the restoration of peace, human rights, and democracy are the goals my government seeks to end the causes of the current plights of our people.
On behalf of the Shan People, I appeal now to the democratic nations of the world to help us. – I firstly urgently appeal for the world governments recognize our sovereignty as an occupied independent nation struggling to find its footing to halt the SPDC genocide of the Shan. I appeal to the UNHCR and the Royal Thai Government to open their eyes and recognize the Shan Internally Displaced Persons in Thailand for what they are – refugees, not illegal immigrants.
I finally appeal to all of you to help, with your diplomatic recognition, support resources, humanitarian aid, or to financially aid and assist our relief efforts.
In closing, on behalf of the Shan people, the Shan Government of the Federated Shan States, and on behalf of our aid organizations of Shan Relief Canada, Shan Relief
Foundation, and the Tai relief Center, I would like to convey my enormous gratitude to the United States International Mission for the efforts they are making in assisting us at this time - thank you, Mr. Chairman.
To those who would like to know more or would like to help us, please feel free to visit our websites at shangov.org or shanrelieffoundation.org where direct contact information is available, or contact us through Atlas Group International at 001 (403) 697 0196.
I point out that this entire address is contained in a handout, which is available on request from our USIM host.
We welcome all those who would help our people, and we will be proud to work beside you in this immense humanitarian aid project.
I thank you”.
