Repression and Displacement in the Villages
of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts
Karen Human Rights Group
October 2001
Report Cover Photo: A Karen villager and his young son flee through the forests of Nyaunglebin District in May 2001 They fled their village after SPDC soldiers came up and occupied it. A week or two after this photo was taken they fled into Papun District and decided to try to make it to Thailand. [KHRG]
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Since 1997 the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta ruling Burma has been involved in an intensive campaign to consolidate control over the rugged hills and river valleys of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts in northern Karen State and eastern Pegu Division. The entire campaign has targeted the civilian population rather than the armed resistance. In order to undermine any possibility of resistance and gain complete control over the subsistence Karen farmers who inhabit the region, the SPDC has destroyed over 200 villages, driven thousands of villagers out of the hills to garrison villages, and continues to hunt and kill the villagers who have fled into the hills to hide from the forced relocations. Over 40 Battalions have been sent in, new roads have been established, and all of the villagers now living under SPDC control must do forced labour supporting these battalions. Since 1999 more and more troops have been sent into the hills to hunt out the villagers trying to hide near their villages, and since 2000 these troops have focused most of their efforts on destroying the crops and food supplies which the displaced villagers need to survive. Villagers are shot in the fields at harvest time, crops are trampled or burned, and fields and abandoned villages have been landmined. The situation for the internally displaced is desperate. In the SPDC-garrisoned villages things are little better, as the Army's constant demands for forced labour, money, food and materials and its arbitrary torture of village elders and others drives people to flee into the hills and become displaced themselves. The situation for all of the villagers in the region is becoming increasingly desperate, but there is no sign of any decrease in armed resistance activity and therefore no probability that the campaign will end anytime soon.
Instead things appear ready to get even worse. KHRG's latest interviews with villagers from Dweh Loh township of Papun District indicate that SPDC Battalions have issued orders to at least 25-30 villages that no one is allowed to leave their villages for the three months from September to November 2001, not even to go to their fields. The rice harvest is about to arrive, but this order means that none of the thousands of people in these SPDC-controlled villages will be able to harvest. People who have just fled these villages say that the people there are preparing for starvation.
Soon after this campaign began it was documented by the Karen Human Rights Group in the report Wholesale Destruction (April 1998). This was followed in May 1999 by the report Death Squads and Displacement, which focused on the situation in Nyaunglebin District and documented the emergence of the SPDC's 'Short Pants' execution squads which were deployed against villagers. This report updates both of those reports, providing a detailed analysis of developments in the human rights situation in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts from 1999 to the present. It is based on over 300 interviews conducted by KHRG researchers during that time with people in the SPDC controlled villages and relocation sites, in the hill villages, in hiding in the forests and those who have fled to Thailand to become refugees - villagers who have witnessed the destruction of their villages and shootings of their relatives, people who are still doing forced labour and those who have escaped from it. These interviews have been augmented by interviews with former SPDC soldiers, SPDC order documents selected from among the hundreds we have obtained from the region, along with field reports, casualty lists, maps and photographs from KHRG's field researchers and Karen relief workers in the region. The 2,500 pages of direct testimony recorded by KHRG field researchers has been condensed into the 235 interviews quoted directly in this report. All of these interviews were conducted between March 1999 and June 2001.
The area covered by this report covers part of northern Karen State and part of eastern Pegu Division, bordered by the Salween River and the Thai border to the east and the Sittaung River to the west (see Map 2). The boundary between the two districts runs north-south through the hills, but all of these rugged hills can be considered a single area due to their shared geography and the similar situations existing in both districts. Most of the area is mountainous except for the lower Yunzalin and Bilin River valleys and the plains along the Sittaung River. The villagers in the area are almost entirely Karen, living in small villages of 10 to 20 families dotted throughout the hills and surviving by subsistence rice farming, mainly hillside rice. The majority are Animist and Buddhist, with a minority of Christians. In the more central plains on the eastern banks of the Sittaung River, there are also Burman and Shan villages. All of these people are very strongly tied to their land and are trying to cling to it even as the situation becomes more desperate. However, with the SPDC becoming more successful this year at wiping out their food supplies and their ability to produce food, they are rapidly running out of options as their families go hungry and fall victim to disease.
The report below begins with an Introduction and Executive Summary. Following that, we
have broken
down the detailed analysis into topics under the main sections of The Military
Situation, Displaced Villages, Villages Under the SPDC, Flight to Thailand, and Future of
the Area. In these sections we let the villagers tell most of the story using direct
quotes from their testimonies. At the end of the report are several Appendices: a list of
313 villagers killed directly by SPDC and DKBA soldiers since 1998, a list of 190
villagers injured by SPDC and DKBA soldiers since 1998, a list of 226 villages destroyed
or abandoned due to the SPDC's operations, a list of 42 relocated villages, a list of SPDC
military units involved in the campaign and finally an index listing summarising the
interviews used in this report. The full text of the interviews and field reports upon
which the report is based is available as a separately published Annex which is available
from KHRG upon approved request.
Additional background on the situation in this region can be found in "Wholesale Destruction: the SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate all Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts" (KHRG, April 1998), "Death Squads and Displacement: Systematic Executions, Village Destruction and the Flight of Villagers in Nyaunglebin District" (KHRG #99-04, 24/5/99), and KHRG Information Update #2001-U3 (9/4/2001). Additional photographs related to the situation described in the report can be seen in KHRG Photo Set 2001-A (September 14, 2001), KHRG Photo Set 2000-B (October 18, 2000), and KHRG Photo Set 2000-A (June 1, 2000).
In the report all names of those interviewed have been changed and some details may be omitted where necessary to protect people from retaliation. False names are shown in double quotes; all other names are real. The captions under the quotes in the report include the interviewee's (changed) name, gender, age and village, and a reference to the interview or field report number. These numbers can be used to find the full text of the interview or field report in the interview annex.
The text often refers to villages, village tracts and townships. The SPDC has local administration, called Peace and Development Councils, at the village, village tract, township and state/division levels. A village tract is a group of 5-25 villages centered on a large village. A township is a much larger area, administered from a central town. The Karen National Union divides Nyaunglebin (Kler Lweh Htoo in Karen) District into three townships: Mone (Mu) in the north, Kyauk Kyi (Ler Doh) in the middle and Shwegyin (Hsaw Tee) in the south. Papun (Mutraw) District is also divided into three townships: Lu Thaw in the north, Dweh Loh in the southwest and Bu Tho in the east. The official townships and village tracts used by the SPDC do not correspond to the Karen townships and village tracts; for example the three Karen townships of Papun District are all known as Papun township by the SPDC. In this report we have used the townships and village tracts as defined by the Karen because these are used by the villagers.
In the interviews villagers often refer to 'loh ah pay'; literally this is the traditional Burmese form of voluntary labour for the community, but the SPDC uses this name in most cases of forced labour, and to the villagers it has come to mean most forms of forced labour with the exception of long-term portering. Testimony from villagers suggests that even this form of portering is now to be called 'loh ah pay' by the SPDC. 'Set tha' means forced labour as messengers at SPDC Army camps. Other Burmese, Karen and Pali terms are explained where they occur in the report, and some of the more common ones can also be found in the list of 'Terms and Abbreviations' below. Villagers often refer to the KNU/KNLA as Kaw Thoo Lei (the name of the Karen homeland), the DKBA as Ko Per Baw ('Yellow Headbands'), and SPDC troops and officials as 'the Burmese' or 'the enemy' (the latter being a habit that they have picked up from the local KNLA). SPDC officers often accuse villagers of being 'Nga Pway' ('ringworm'); this is derogatory SPDC slang for KNLA soldiers. Villagers, particularly those in the hills, do not keep track of dates or ages, and as a result sometimes different people give different dates for an event or different ages for the people involved. Wherever possible KHRG has attempted to establish and indicate the most accurate dates and ages possible. Villagers sometimes mention 'last year'; this often means the time before the latest (June-October) rainy season, rather than the previous calendar year. All numeric dates in this report are in dd/mm/yy format.
Military/Political
SPDC State Peace and Development Council, military junta ruling Burma
PDC Peace & Development Council, SPDC local-level administration
VPDC Village Peace & Development Council (abbreviated 'Ya Ya Ka' in Burmese)
TPDC Township Peace & Development Council (abbreviated 'Ma Ya Ka' in Burmese)
SLORC State Law and Order Restoration Council, former name of the SPDC until Nov. 1997
IB Infantry Battalion (SPDC), usually about 250-500 soldiers fighting strength
LIB Light Infantry Battalion (SPDC), usually about 250-500 soldiers fighting strength
LID Light Infantry Division (SPDC); ten battalions, usually for offensive operations
Sa Ka Ka Abbreviation for SPDC's Military Control Commands; ten battalions, usually for offensive
operations
Company Military unit of about 100 soldiers, though often understrength in SPDC Army
Column Combination of Companies, assembled for operations; usually 100-300 soldiers
Camp Army base or outpost; from remote hill posts of 10 soldiers to Battalion HQ camps of
several hundred soldiers
Bo Muh Literally 'major', but also used to refer to all officers
Saya/Saya Gyi Literally 'Teacher/Big Teacher'; terms of respect used to refer to Corporals and
Sergeants respectively
NCO Non-commissioned officers; lance corporals, corporals and sergeants
Sa Thon Lon "Three S's"; abbreviation for SPDC's Bureau of Special Investigations, but used locally to
refer to the Dam Byan Byaut Kya ("Guerrilla Retaliation") execution squads in Nyaunglebin
District
Baw Bi Doh "Short Pants", name used by villagers for the execution squads in Nyaunglebin District
DKBA Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Karen group allied with SLORC/SPDC
Ko Per Baw 'Yellow Headbands', common name for the DKBA
KNU Karen National Union, main Karen opposition group
KNLA Karen National Liberation Army, army of the KNU
Nga Pway 'Ringworm'; derogatory SPDC slang for KNU/KNLA
Ko Per Lah 'Green Headbands', name used by some villagers for the KNLA
Ko Per Thu 'Black Headbands', KNLA commandos
Kaw Thoo Lei Karen name for their homeland, also often used to refer to KNU/KNLA
Village Terms
IDP Internally Displaced Person; villagers who have become internal refugees
loh ah pay Voluntary labour to make merit, but used by SPDC for most forms of forced labour
set tha 'Messengers'; forced labour as errand-runners, messengers, and for some odd jobs
wontan 'Servant(s)', used by SPDC officers to mean forced labourers, usually porters
paddy Rice grain still in the husk
rice Rice grain after pounding or milling, with the husk removed and ready to cook
Measurements and Currency
Viss Unit of weight measure; one viss is 1.6 kilograms or 3.5 pounds
Kyat Tha 16 grams; 100 kyat tha equals 1 viss
Pyi Volume of uncooked rice equal to 8 small condensed milk tins; about 2 kg / 4.4 lb
Bowl Volume of uncooked rice same as a pyi
Tin Also 'big tin', volume of rice or paddy of 8 pyi; about 17 kg / 37 lb of husked rice
Basket Volume of rice equal to 2 big tins; 25 kilograms or 55 pounds if rice, less if paddy
Taun Burmese unit of measurement equalling 1.5 feet or ½ metre (elbow to fingertip)
Twa Burmese unit of measurement equalling 8-9 inches or 20-22 cm (one handspan)
Kyat Burmese currency; US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 700+ Kyat at current market rate
Baht Thai currency; at time of printing US$1 = approximately 44 Baht
Honorifics
Saw Karen personal prefix used for men
Naw Karen personal prefix used for women
Pa 'Father'; Karen suffix attached to names to indicate someone's father, also used as male
personal prefix
Mo 'Mother'; Karen suffix attached to names to indicate someone's mother
Pati 'Uncle'; Karen term of respect for male elders of middle age
Mugha 'Aunt'; Karen term of respect for female elders of middle age
Pu 'Grandfather'; Karen personal prefix used for elderly men
Pi 'Grandmother'; Karen personal prefix used for elderly women
Thra 'Teacher'; Karen term used for any teacher, pastor, senior or respected person
Ma Burmese personal prefix used for young women
Ko/Maung Burmese personal prefix used for young men
U Burmese personal prefix used for older men
Daw Burmese personal prefix used for married or older women
You may scroll down sequentially through the report, or click on a heading to go directly to that section (to see the maps you must click on 'Map 1', 'Map 2', 'Map 3' or 'Map 4' below).
I. Introduction and Executive Summary
The SPDC's Campaign of Destruction
Crop Destruction and Food Shortages
Villages in the Plains of Nyaunglebin District
Set Tha and Labour at Army Camps
Labour on Army Business Projects
Effects of Forced Labour on Villagers
Extortion, Looting and Destruction of Property
Health, Education and Development
Appendix A: List of Destroyed and Abandoned Villages
Appendix B: List of Relocated Villages
Appendix C: Villagers Killed by SPDC and DKBA Soldiers and Landmines
Appendix D: Villagers Wounded by SPDC and DKBA Soldiers and Landmines
Appendix E: SPDC Military Units Stationed in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts
Appendix F: Index of Interviews and Field Reports
Sidebars
Highlighted Quotes
We had our hopes on farming...
I will still use forced labour...
We Have to Go Because We are Afraid of Them
For the past four years Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts [known as Mutraw and Kler Lweh Htoo in Karen] have been under intense pressure by the SPDC. Administratively the area is divided into Nyaunglebin District to the west and Papun District to the east bordering Thailand. These two districts are also known as the Karen National Liberation Army 3rd Brigade and 5th Brigade areas respectively. Nyaunglebin District is divided into three townships: Mone township [Mu in Karen] in the north, Kyauk Kyi township [Ler Doh in Karen] in the middle and Shwegyin [Hsaw Tee in Karen] in the south. The Sittaung River plains form the western half of Nyaunglebin District. The villages in the plains are larger than those in the hills to the east and the terrain lends itself to the more efficient flatland irrigated rice farming. To the east rise the rugged Papun Hills which make up the eastern portion of Nyaunglebin District and most of Papun District. The hills of the two districts are dotted with small Karen villages of 10 to 20 houses which practice hill rice farming on the sides of the mountains. Among these hills, some small areas near the Bilin and Yunzalin Rivers (such as Ler Mu Plaw and Yeh Mu Plaw) are flat enough that flat rice farming can be practiced and the villages here tend to be larger. Papun District is also divided into three townships: Lu Thaw in the north, Dweh Loh in the west and Bu Tho to the east.
While the plains along the Sittaung River have been under some degree of Rangoon's control for a long time, the hills are more remote and SLORC/SPDC control has been for the most part confined to Papun town and isolated posts in the hills. Offensives in 1992 and 1995 saw the SLORC take control of the lower Bilin and lower Yunzalin River valleys. The weakening of the KNU after the creation of the DKBA and the fall of the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw in 1995 allowed the SLORC to solidify its control over Bu Tho township and eastern Dweh Loh township of Papun District. The lower four village tracts of Bu Tho township are under complete SPDC control.
The SPDC's present policy is to bring all rural villages under direct military control. This policy has meant establishing more Army camps throughout most of the Karen areas, and forcible relocation of villages too remote to be controlled by an Army camp to Army-controlled villages. The relocated villages are then destroyed by the soldiers. This has happened in the plains along the Sittaung River, in parts of Papun District along the lower Bilin and Yunzalin rivers, and near Papun town where the Army already has some control. Most people in the small villages in the rugged Papun hills have never been under SPDC control and usually disappear into the hills before the soldiers can get to them, so the SPDC began to systematically destroy hundreds of these villages in 1997 without even formally ordering them to relocate. The villagers are still in hiding in the hills, so the soldiers search out and destroy their food supplies and shelters and shoot them on sight to force them to come down to the SPDC-controlled relocation sites. They also leave 'Peace Passes' in the destroyed villages to encourage the villagers to come down, saying "Do not think, take this pass and come to the nearest Army camp" [see the 'Peace Pass' later in this report]. While this continues, the SPDC is pushing in new roads and upgrading the existing ones to further solidify its control and to supply the new Army camps in the area. These roads are heavily patrolled, fenced and landmined to give them the added effect of blocking and 'cornering' villagers and resistance forces who find it difficult to cross.
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A house continues to burn in Tee Ler Kee village, Papun District after SPDC soldiers torched the village. [KHRG] |
Once the SPDC's new camps are established, the officers want to have villagers around for forced labour, so they want some of the villages to be re-established. At the same time, villagers who were forced to SPDC-controlled villages find that they cannot survive there because the SPDC provides nothing, they have no land and no jobs and are constantly taken for forced labour, so after a few months they escape back into the hills or to the sites of their home villages. Without stronger control the Army is unable to prevent this, so after a year or two the villages become partly re-established. The Army eventually recognises them as de facto villages but because they are not under direct control of an Army camp they will eventually be relocated again. These cycles can happen again and again until enough new Army camps are established to bring the villages under direct control.
The SPDC then designates these villages as 'white' or Nyein Chan Yay ('Peace'), villages and allows them to remain, although under threat of further relocation. The Army increases its presence making it very difficult for the villagers to contact the resistance groups. The new 'stability' of these villages allows the SPDC to demand more forced labour from them, while also allowing it to demand more formalised taxes, fees and crop quotas from the villages through both the Army and the local township administration, the Township Peace and Development Councils. Throughout all these phases the Army hunts down, and shoots on sight, those villagers who choose to live outside its system in the forest and hills. The end goal of this is the regime's 30-year-old policy known as the 'Four Cuts': for the KNU to be completely pushed out of the area by denying it access to the food, funds, intelligence and recruits provided by the villagers.
The key element in this SPDC campaign for control is that it consists almost solely of targeting the civilian population. There are almost no attempts made to seek out the armed resistance groups or engage them in battle except for skirmishes deep in the jungle which usually occur when resistance forces ambush SPDC patrols. There are also no attempts made to develop the villages or conduct any sort of 'Hearts and Minds' campaign. In the hills of northern Papun District and eastern Nyaunglebin District, at least 200 villages have been destroyed or abandoned in the past four years and tens of thousands of villagers are still in hiding in the forest. Where the SPDC has partial control in western Dweh Loh township of Papun District, the military has recently intensified relocations of hill villages to Army-controlled villages. Nearby Bu Tho township and the eastern portion of Dweh Loh township are well into the cycle of relocation, return, and repeated relocation which was described earlier, as the SPDC progressively increases its control. They are presently in their villages but face heavy demands for forced labour, materials and money, and could be relocated again at any time.
Furthest to the west, the plains of the Sittaung River are under the strongest SPDC control; villagers there faced a wave of forced relocations and forced road-building in 1998-99 and most of them are either still in the SPDC-controlled relocation sites or have fled eastward into the hills to join the internally displaced. In 1998, the SPDC created the Sa Thon Lon execution squads to hunt out and execute anyone suspected of present or past contact with the resistance, a final step in subjugating and 'cleansing' the area.
For the villagers the SPDC's campaign for control of the region means continued displacement, forced labour, food shortages, abuse and killings. Tens of thousands have been displaced into the forests by the forced relocations and the systematic destruction of villages, and they have been joined in flight by thousands of villagers who can no longer face the forced labour and extortion imposed upon them in the SPDC-controlled villages. The result is a displacement of a large part of the population into the forest, to relocation sites, or to refugee camps in Thailand. Villagers hiding in the forest stay in small groups of a few families, sleeping on the open ground or in small shelters and trying to eke out a living working small hill fields. They watch all the time and run whenever Army columns come near, which can be several times a month. Even so they are often surprised, their shelters are burned and they are shot on sight or killed by landmines on a regular basis. Since early 2000 the SPDC has tried to force them out of the hills by targeting their food supplies: trampling, burning and landmining any crops found in the fields, seeking out and burning or dumping the rice grain held in the villagers' hidden rice storage barns, and sending out dozens of battalions at harvest time to shoot at groups of villagers harvesting the hillside fields or to force people to flee and abandon the harvest. Food is very scarce, with many villagers wondering how they will make it to the next harvest. Medicine is almost completely unavailable, and more villagers die from easily treatable diseases than are killed by the SPDC columns. Yet even under these conditions very few head down out of the hills to the SPDC-controlled sites, partly because they would then be treated as 'suspected rebel supporters' and partly because the people living in those sites are fleeing them to head into the hills.
Villagers living under SPDC control in Papun District, while not hunted down and shot on sight, are still subject to displacement whenever the Army decides a relocation of villages is necessary. Forced labour is demanded from all the villages under SPDC control, despite the SPDC's claims internationally that they have banned the practice. SPDC Army units frequently enter the villages and demand food and money or simply steal it. This is in addition to the bribes villagers must pay to avoid the excessive forced labour, crop quotas, and other 'taxes' which the local Army units demand. Most Karen villagers are subsistence farmers, growing enough rice for their family with little surplus, keeping small livestock and vegetable gardens, and hunting and foraging in the forest, so they do not have access to enough money to pay the SPDC's demands. The food situation is not much better than in the forest. The constant labour for the SPDC leaves very little time for villagers to plant and take care of their crops. Cash crops and livestock are stolen or demanded by the Army, leaving very little to eat or sell to buy rice. After paying all the fees there is very little money left to buy food to eat either. Villagers are also not free of physical abuse and are arrested for supposed contact with the resistance or for not meeting the Army's demands. This is especially true of the village heads who, because of their positions, must regularly meet with the soldiers and are thus the first people to be abused when the Army does not get what it wants. Arrest usually means at least a beating if not more brutal torture, and sometimes execution. Many families reach a point where they find they can no longer meet all the demands and still survive, so they flee into the hills to join the internally displaced despite the risks. This is especially true for those who have been forcibly relocated and are living in SPDC-controlled villages with no access to their own land.
Making the situation even worse, SPDC Battalions have issued orders to everyone in Ka Dtaing Dtee, Tee Tha Blu Hta, and Ku Thu Hta village tracts of Dweh Loh township, a total of at least 25-30 villages, that they are not allowed to leave their villages for the 3 months from September to November 2001, not even to go to their fields. The reason given is to mount a major operation against the KNLA, but this time period covers the last part of the growing season and the rice harvest. This order will result in the complete eradication of the rice harvest for thousands of people and will lead to starvation within the next few months. People who have recently escaped these villages have already told KHRG that those still there are desperately afraid of imminent starvation. Though we have thus far only obtained reports of this from the 3 village tracts mentioned, it may be more widespread than that. [For additional details see the 'Restrictions' section].
The SPDC has deployed more than 50 battalions, totaling around 15,000 soldiers, to the area to carry out its campaign. The battalions from the Southern and Southeastern Commands provide garrison troops while battalions from the offensive Light Infantry Divisions and Military Control Commands (Sa Ka Ka) are rotated in and out of the area, ostensibly to seek out the KNLA, but it is more often the villagers who are the real target of their operations. The SPDC's campaign to consolidate its control over the region has been ongoing since 1997 but has picked up in intensity in the past year. According to KNU officials, radio intercepts indicate that the soldiers are under orders to clear out all the villages to the west of the Bilin River. The Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) is still strong in the area with a combined strength of about 1,000 soldiers in two brigades. Its units operate in small groups throughout the hills and are still able to penetrate into the plains near the Sittaung River. KNLA soldiers conduct guerrilla operations against SPDC columns and outposts as well as providing a small measure of security for some of the displaced villagers. The SPDC's Sa Thon Lon, especially created in 1998 in the Sittaung River plains to hunt down and execute villagers for the slightest suspected contact with resistance groups, has not recently been as active as in previous years. They have been very successful in instilling fear among the villagers, and their decreased level of activity probably results from their having killed most of the people they were after, while others who feared execution fled the area. The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) has meanwhile been expanding its presence in the area. However, their activities in the area seem to be focused more on business projects than expanding their political or military power.
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A group of villagers from Nyaunglebin District who fled SPDC columns which had come up from the west to burn their villages and destroy their crops cross the Bilin River to Papun District in January 2001. [FBR researcher] |
The SPDC's campaign to solidify its control over the region will take years to complete, if it ever succeeds. More camps will have to be established and more roads built to support them. More soldiers will have to be brought in to the region to man those camps and keep up the patrols of the hills. Increased SPDC control of the area means increased militarisation of the area and more forced labour, crop quotas and fees to support the occupying troops. Even if the SPDC succeeds in eliminating the KNU from the area and controlling the villages, they have already shown throughout Karen regions that their subjugation of villages is unsustainable. The demands have already reached the point where villagers no longer have the money to pay the fees and don't have the time to grow their own food much less 'donate' it to the SPDC. Even people living in villages surrounded by fertile rice fields are being faced with starvation and are taking the desperate step of fleeing to the hills to live in hiding. In the hills and forests, desperate to stay close to their ancestral villages and fields, the displaced villagers will continue to struggle to survive on the run, growing whatever food they can while many are killed by SPDC troops, landmines, and illness. Unable to survive under SPDC control and increasingly prevented from entering Thailand, they are cornered in a situation which leaves them very few options for the future.
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A child peeks out from her parents' tiny hut hidden in the forest of Papun District. [KHRG] |
Introduction and Executive Summary / The Military Situation / Displaced Villages
Villages Under the SPDC / Flight to Thailand / Future of the Area / Appendices
