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The orders below were issued by DKBA units in Papun District with the exception of #286, which was issued further south in Dooplaya District. In these
areas the DKBA is primarily occupied in helping the local SPDC military as guides and in
fighting the KNLA, but many DKBA units focus their activities on collecting money in
various ways, by conducting or taxing commercial logging, demanding payments from
villages, setting up road checkpoints to collect money from all vehicles and passengers,
or by various other means. They are also involved in supervising forced labour of
villagers on roads or building pagodas in some areas, whether under SPDC orders or for
their own purposes. As a result of these activities, their orders to villages look very
much like SPDC orders, except that they are often written in bad Burmese or almost equally
bad Karen. The DKBA also tend to be more direct in their language if and when they want to
issue threats. However, it is important to note that some DKBA units are worse than
others, and many of their orders are written in a much more genial tone than SPDC orders.
Some of the orders below were written in Burmese, while the others were written in Sgaw
Karen. Instead of writing the DKBA's name in Karen or Burmese, the officers usually write
a series of Burmese characters which are pronounced "Dee Kay Bee Ay", but which
have no meaning in Karen or Burmese. Where this occurs, we have used "Dee Kay Bee
Ay" in the translations. Where they have written out the name of their Army in Karen
or Burmese we have translated directly; it does not usually translate directly as
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, but as 'Progressive Karen Buddhist National Army' or
simply 'Karen Buddhist Army'. Where we have written DKBA, it is because the order wrote it
that way in English characters.
Order #284 To: Date:
17.7.99 ______________________________________________________________________________ To: [blank]
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ xxxx village head, letting you know. ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Head Date:
19-5-99 ______________________________________________________________________________ Progressive Buddhist Karen National
Army Date:
26-9-98 ______________________________________________________________________________ To:
Date:
14-9-98 ______________________________________________________________________________ Date:
16/6/98 ______________________________________________________________________________ |
'Karen Peace Army' Propaganda Letter
[Note: The information in the following paragraphs has been updated and corrected; see the 'Update' paragraph immediately following.]
The order below was sent to villages in Than Daung township of Toungoo
District, in the far north of Karen State, by the Nyein Chan Yay A'Pweh ('Peace Group'),
which was formed in 1997 much further south in Dooplaya District by Thu Mu Heh, a
notoriously corrupt KNLA officer who defected to the SPDC. He failed to take many of his
troops with him, but the SPDC Army helped him to recruit villagers to what they called the
'Peace Group' or 'Karen Peace Army' (KPA), partly by conscription and partly by promising
that families of recruits would not have to do forced labour for the SPDC. The SPDC made a
public show of giving Thu Mu Heh proxy authority over much of Dooplaya District of
southern Karen State, but most of his new soldiers fled and he failed to control the area,
so the SPDC brought DKBA troops back into the area and Thu Mu Heh's group faded from the
picture [for more information see "Dooplaya
Under the SPDC: Further Developments in the SPDC Occupation of South-central Karen
State" (KHRG #98-09, 23/11/98), and other preceding reports].
Villagers in Dooplaya district still report seeing a few KPA soldiers occasionally acting
as adjuncts to SPDC military columns, but the letter below was issued far to the north in
Toungoo District of far northern Karen State. It may indicate that the SPDC has reassigned
Thu Mu Heh and/or part of his group to the north, and this letter may be an attempt to woo
recruits in his new area of operations. Though there are a few truthful claims in this
propaganda regarding some aspects of KNU corruption, most of the statements are gross
exaggerations; for example, the claim that the KNU set up the refugee camps in Thailand is
false, as is the claim that all of the ceasefire groups whole-heartedly support the SPDC.
In reality, most of the ceasefire groups still openly oppose the SPDC but have been backed
into a corner where it is no longer possible for them to fight. Furthermore, the list of
ceasefire groups is exaggerated; the bulk of the Shan State Army (item c) is still
fighting the SPDC, as is the KNPP (item l) and the KNU 6th Brigade (item o).
Thu Mu Heh was part of the KNU's 6th Brigade but defected on his own and failed
to take many troops with him. Padoh Aung San (item q) was the KNU's forestry minister and
defected in 1998 after some bad business deals, taking no troops with him whatsoever.
Regardless of its inaccuracies, the purpose of the letter is to try to turn villagers
against the KNU and attract recruits to Thu Mu Heh's group. SPDC commanders occasionally
send out similar letters, and it is noteworthy that this letter was typed in Burmese, not
Karen. For the villagers of Than Daung township, its main meaning is that yet another
group will soon begin demanding their labour, food, and money, when they are already being
stripped clean by all of the demands made on them.
UPDATE TO ABOVE INFORMATION
(Added on March 23, 2000)
In the explanation of this letter, it was speculated that this group is
somehow related to Thu Mu Heh’s group in Dooplaya District, which goes by the same
name in Burmese (‘Nyein Chan Yay A’Pweh’, or ‘Peace Group’) but
calls itself ‘Karen Peace Army’ in English. However, after making further
inquiries it appears that there is probably no direct connection between the group which
issued this letter and Thu Mu Heh’s group. According to KNU sources, a group of
approximately 30 KNLA soldiers and their families surrendered to the SPDC in late 1997 in
Than Daung township of Toungoo District, where this letter was issued. Since that time,
the SPDC has named them ‘Nyein Chan Yay A’Pweh’, the same as Thu Mu
Heh’s group, and has mainly used them for propaganda purposes such as this letter.
The name ‘Peace Group’ comes from the SPDC’s rhetoric over the past 3
years, which calls the act of surrender ‘exchanging arms for peace’. There may
be several small groups of surrendered Karen soldiers in various regions who have been
given the name ‘Peace Group’ since 1997, but there appears to be no actual
connection between such groups.
Order #292
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ |