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III. Displaced Villages

"They say that the KNU relies on the villagers. The soldiers will fight them until the KNU loses. They will fight until the KNU has lost so we have to flee. All of us fled with the cats and insects. If we didn't flee like this, then they would have killed everything when they saw it. Only the cockroaches don't flee. If the soldiers see things, they burn them. They burned the huts and houses and even burned the little beds. They didn't leave anything. We couldn't do anything. We know the situation of the enemy when they come. If they arrest us they beat us. So we fled and hoped that they won't try to destroy us until two or three years from now." - "Myo Nyunt" (M, 20), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #141, 9/00)

The SPDC's Campaign of Destruction / Living Conditions / Shootings

Detention & Torture / Landmines / Crop Destruction & Food Shortages

Health & Education / Reason for Living as IDP's

The SPDC's Campaign of Destruction

"There is no plan to get peace. The enemy has a plan, though. It is that when they come we have to flee and escape. If we do not escape, we must die. That is the only plan. Because we are staying inside the country and we can't flee to another country, we can't do anything. We feel that we were born here, so if we live, we work and eat, and we die, it is finished. We can't do it any other way." - "Pu Law Tee" (M, 70), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #78, 3/00)

Prior to 1997 the SLORC had made sporadic relocations in various parts of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts but they didn't last for very long. Columns also went into the hills burning villages but the soldiers usually went back down at the onset of the rainy season, allowing the villagers to move back into their villages. In 1997 the SPDC made the decision to consolidate its control over the region once and for all. The new campaign began by destroying about 200 villages in northern Papun and eastern Nyaunglebin districts. Army columns approached villages and then began firing mortars and small arms into the villages. Once the villagers had fled the attack, the villages were looted and the houses and paddy storage barns burned, after which the soldiers moved on. Everyone fled into the hills where most of them have been surviving, on the run, ever since. (For more information on the 1997 campaign see the KHRG report "Wholesale Destruction", April 1998.) Each year since 1997 the SPDC sends increasing numbers of battalions into the hills to hunt down the villagers.

"In the training, they said to not steal people's things and to not abuse the civilians. They taught many things, but when we arrived here [at the frontline] they were doing it and it hurt the villagers. That is why I don't like it. I came here when I arrived at the frontline. When they saw a paddy barn, they burned it. They burned whatever they saw. They are doing it under duress. So, I don't like this." - "Soe Tint" (M, 18), Lance Corporal from Light Infantry Battalion #xx, Papun District (Interview #226, 11/00)

"We heard that they are going to clear the west of the Bu Loh Kloh [remove all the villagers living to the west of the Bilin River]. It means they are going to clear out the people who stay there. If the soldiers see them they will shoot to kill and drive them out. The leader [KNU] told me. They received that information from a radio intercept [the KNU often monitors and intercepts SPDC radio communications]." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

Saw Aw Hta village, Nyaunglebin District not long after it was burned by LIB #5 in March 2000. [KHRG]

"They threw everything out of the houses and kicked the walls out. The houses were broken and there were just the pieces of the houses left. They destroyed too much in the village. We couldn't stay in the houses anymore even if we had to. The houses are already broken." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

When SPDC columns come to destroy villages, the villagers often have to flee quickly, carrying nothing but their children and a small quantity of food. Most of their belongings are left to the mercy of the soldiers, who generally loot and destroy them before burning the houses. Nothing is left which may be of use to the villagers. Livestock is shot and what can't be eaten is just left to rot. Matches, axes, saws, machetes, farm tools, clothing, and jewellery are all stolen by the soldiers, presumably to give to their families or to sell. Cooking utensils are taken away and pots are pierced with bayonets to make them unusable. Clothing is also destroyed. The crops are destroyed in the fields and if the paddy storage barns are found, the soldiers take what they or their porters can carry and burn the rest [see the section below on "Crop Destruction and Food Shortages" for more information]. The corpses of villagers who have been shot dead are often robbed of money, jewellery, tobacco and even cloth bags and clothes. Without any income, the villagers have almost no way to replace their belongings or food supplies, and even those who manage to retain some jewellery or money often cannot dare go to buy things in SPDC-controlled villages, where they risk being arrested as outsiders and therefore 'suspected rebels'. Even those who somehow manage to replace some of their possessions and grow some new food often lose it the next time they have to flee.

"Everybody has had to suffer because we live in the same village. When they come they immediately destroy things and eat people's paddy and rice. … They destroyed the flat fields. They already came and destroyed some and the dew also destroyed some of the paddy, so we are in big trouble. We have to find food to eat, ask for food to eat or buy food to eat. When the soldiers come and see the paddy they destroy it in the field. We get a harder and harder life. They already came and destroyed things so people bought new things and came back and kept them. We have no money, we just borrow and owe people, but we can't pay them back anymore. They themselves have to buy salt and chillies to eat, but they can't buy them anymore. We can't give them anything anymore. We have no clothes and we live naked." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

"They [the SPDC] said they were going to come and make their house [build their camp] so we told them that we dared not stay in our houses anymore. Then we took up our belongings and all of us came up to stay in the upper place [in the mountains]. But the soldiers come to block us always. The foolish Burmese. We are living without knowing anything and they want to shoot us. They took our machetes and baskets and threw down all our things and took all the good things. There was one of them who threw the things down and took a pot and spoon that he liked. They had already come and burned our houses so we don't have pots and spoons anymore. So we bought them and they took them and we bought them and they took them again and again." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01)

"This time when they came everything was destroyed. It has been three years since they entered the last time. At that time we had everything. We had cattle, buffaloes, matches, axes, Mateo saws [a brand name] and many supplies and animals. They came and destroyed it all. Now it has been just three years and we get a little paddy each year by year. For me I'm not free to go and clear my hill field. This year if it is good I will clear my hill field. I have no money to buy cattle or buffaloes right now. I think I will try a little by little. But I didn't do it yet because the SPDC came and destroyed it again. We couldn't work anymore. If the responsible leaders can help us we are going to stay and listen to the situation. If other people can live their lives, we can also live our lives." - "Saw Htoo Lay" (M, 53), internally displaced village head from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #89, 12/00)

"At that time they took chains, earrings and boxes of clothing. At that time they were #77 [Division]. This time they took 2 pots that they saw when we fled and hid under a bamboo tree. They take it all. Nephew, when they see our things it is not enough for them. They grabbed our old clothes and threw them away. They took all the good things, even the good clothes and sarongs. I guess it is for their wives and children. They took all the chickens. That was #44 [Division]." - "Pu Law Tee" (M, 70), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #78, 3/00)

"It is good if they don't see things. If they saw things and wanted to take or destroy them, they took or destroyed them. They left nothing. They destroyed it all. If they see a tin, they take it. If they see a knife, axe, tools, or clothing, they take them all. If they don't want to take it, they destroy it. They came and took boxes, tins and other things. They took three tins, ten viss [16 kg / 36 lb] of salt, two or three viss [3.2-4.8 kg / 7.2-10.8 lb] of chillies, a big pot and a big jar. There were many other things taken like a machete, an axe, a knife and other stuff." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

A burned house in Pah Ko village, Naw Yo Hta area, northern Papun District. Two SPDC columns combined to burn 10 villages in the area. [KHRG ]

"In December [1999] they came down and did things again. At that time they burned down peoples' gardens, farmfield huts, and the places where people thresh the paddy, including every house and hut. … They came to destroy all of the buildings where people stay when they come back to work the fields, and they also burned all the mats that people use when they thresh the paddy [people thresh the grain onto huge mats of woven dried grass]. They burned everything they could. They didn't burn down the paddy barns because they didn't see them, but they would have if they'd seen them. They burned down all of the huts that they saw." - "Pa Say" (M, 41), internally displaced villager from W— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #40, 1/00)

"They did not burn it but they ate it all and took all the things that I kept in my paddy barns, including wooden boxes and other belongings. Our new clothing, because we didn't keep old clothing in those boxes. There was one Kyat [16 g.] of gold and 5,000 Baht. They took all the pots. People saw our old pots that they had thrown away along the path, along with our machetes and hammers. Before, there were 150 baskets of paddy. When we went back, all of the paddy that they had scattered on the ground had already sprouted. We dared not go back to look [for a long time afterwards]; they went to stay very far from the paddy barn, but we dared not go back. They did this to everyone the same way, to all of the people in the Saw Mu Plaw village tract. They destroy humans, buffaloes, paddy, and shelters. They do it to all of them until they disappear, and they do it very harshly." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

While the campaign has continued, the SPDC has now added a new tactic; rather than move on, the soldiers now establish a camp in a central village from which they can control the surrounding area. Many villagers reported in 2000 and 2001 that they had left their villages before the SPDC soldiers arrived and then stayed in the forest nearby, but after watching the soldiers build a camp, they had decided to move farther away. Many of the villages are left intact by the soldiers as their mere presence is enough to depopulate the area, and thus bring it under their control. The SPDC has also shifted its focus from burning the village, since most of them are destroyed or abandoned anyway, to destroying the villagers' food supplies and crops. Paddy storage barns are looted and burned and the villagers' livestock is shot and killed. Crops still in the fields are burned, trampled on and uprooted. Increasingly the soldiers are making it difficult for the villagers to even plant crops by burning the brush in the fields before it has been properly dried. Hill fields rely on the ash from the cut and burned brush to provide nutrients as well as to protect the seeds. Burning the fields early results in an uneven burnoff and only parts of the fields are usable. Hill fields have also been landmined by the soldiers to deny their use to the villagers. At harvest time from October to December more battalions are sent in and go on patrol, because groups of villagers harvesting rice in the hillside fields are easily visible from one or two hilltops away. The patrols sneak as close as they can and then open fire on the harvesting villagers with small arms, shoulder-launched grenades and 60-millimetre mortars. Many villagers have been wounded or killed this way, and it has the added effect of making villagers through the whole area too afraid to harvest, so the crop is abandoned. After driving the villagers off of their crops, the troops often trample or landmine the fields. The targeting of the food supply is done in the knowledge that the villagers cannot survive in hiding or support the KNU without those crops. This is not lost on the villagers, who have commented to KHRG that the loss of the villagers will mean the defeat of the KNU.

"They think that they will do this until the Karen nationality has disappeared. We don't know whether they will take the KNU's place or not. Right now they can't stop yet because they are still staying close to us. They have their place and have built their camp well. They stay there now so we can't stay there anymore and we have to leave our region." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"It is not only my village but every village in xxxx village tract. It happened also in K—, M—, P—, L—, T— and S— [villages]. They have fled to stay in the jungle and are cornered. None of them dare to stay in their villages. They also don't dare to go back because the soldiers stay there. They just go back to visit sometimes and after that they go back to stay in the jungle. They never go back to visit anymore." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"The Burmese unit which has come up to Per Kee Der is LIB #365. In the beginning three of their battalions came up. LIB #369 came up from Thay Koh Hser Der in 3^rd Brigade. LIB #365 came up from the Koh Sghaw camp. Then they came up to Po Wah Der, Yoh Po Loh and Per Kee Der. When they arrived at Per Kee Der they made their camp there. They are operating and patrol in that area and they have nearly arrived to the village. They came up at the same time, on November 14^th 2000." - "Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #3, 2/01)

"When they saw us, they wouldn't let us live, they killed at once. When they saw our things, they burned them. When they saw small pigs or small chickens, they ate them all. The enemy came in the paddy growing time, so people dared not grow paddy. When they see paddy growing, they always come around. When they see the people, they arrest and kill them including the children.  When they come to one place, we have to flee to another." - "Saw Meh Wah" (M, 35), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #28, 11/99)

"I would like to report some information about what we have to bear from the SPDC. We fled from our village, L—, to the place where we stay now and we will have to flee again. We have to face difficult troubles. They destroyed our paddy in L— and will still destroy it in the place where we stay now. If Battalions #388 and #386 come they will do the same things to us again. They torment us by eating our animals, taking our belongings and burning our houses. We hope to find peace. We want to stay peacefully. If that doesn't happen we will have to face a lot of troubles. If they see us, they shoot to kill. They never help us. If they helped us, we would be happy and think that they are good to us. But their way is not like this. If they see people they shoot them dead. If they see men, women or children they shoot them all dead. They don't go into battle, they just come and fight the villagers. Some of the villagers get hurt and some of the villagers die. It happens very often. This is the last of the information I would like to report." - "Saw Nu Nu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #51, 4/00)

"They flee to stay in the areas that are a half hour or one hour away. They make hill fields. They take a few things with them so they can live. We take what security we can. We take security so they have time to flee. The soldiers come and shoot us dead in the fields when we are cutting the grass or harvesting the paddy. That is why we have to suffer. Some people are still suffering." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01); villagers often send out a few people to act as security watching for approaching Army columns

"They are staying around the village in the jungle. It is difficult for them to find food. They are making little hill fields, but that is not enough. They are foraging for food between visits from the enemy. When they get enough for one or two bowls, they come back. When they eat it all, then they go to get more. They don't know where they will move next, because the enemy follows them every time." - "Saw Meh Wah" (M, 35), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #28, 11/99)

For much of the last four years the IDPs (internally displaced people) have been moving back and forth across the Nyaunglebin and Papun District borders depending on the movements of the SPDC columns. For example, 1999 saw the movement of people out of northern Lu Thaw township into Mone township, while early 2001 saw large scale movements of villagers from northeastern Shwegyin township into southern Lu Thaw township. Villagers and KHRG field researchers have said that KNU radio intercepts in 2001 indicate that the SPDC soldiers in the area are under orders to clear out all the villages to the west of the Bilin River. Increasingly the villagers are being hemmed in by the SPDC strategy of building new camps in newly occupied territory and constructing roads across the two districts. The camps allow the patrolling of the surrounding countryside, even in the rainy season, to hunt down the villagers and destroy their crops. The roads have camps placed along them and are fenced, landmined and heavily patrolled, making them an effective barrier to the movements of both villagers and KNU. The new road running eastward from Kyauk Kyi (near the Sittaung River in Nyaunglebin District) to Saw Hta on the Salween River has effectively cut off northern Lu Thaw and Mone townships from the rest of the two districts, which has made it almost impossible for villagers from northern Lu Thaw township or from Toungoo District to get to the Thai border.

"We flee and stay in the jungle. We look and listen for any news. We look at the heads of the enemy [the direction in which their columns are moving/looking]. When their head is directed toward us, we turn to the other side. When their head is directed toward another place, we turn to this side. When they come from the east, we flee to the west. When they come from the west, we turn to the east. We avoid them up and down, and we have escaped each time. We go between the rocks and the valleys, and to the sources of the streams." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"We have fled from place to place until now. I have come and stayed at P— village for the past 3 years. I can't count all the places I have fled from. I have fled and stayed everywhere on the rocks and among the rocks. We flee to one place and the Burmese come. We flee to another place and the Burmese come. We have to find food in the jungle and sometimes we buy it from the rich people. We don't have medicine to treat the sick. There is no one coming to sell it here. We just stay in the jungle and treat them with bitter gourd leaves. Sometimes we eat boiled rice soup. When our children cry, we have to close their mouths because the Burmese are staying close to us. We are living like wild birds and chickens. We don't have huts and fences. We make roofs from leaves to keep the ground dry." - "Saw Thay Doh" (M, 28), internally displaced villager from P— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #81, 3/00)

"I want to tell how the Burmese have arrived again and again in our village of T— and they have taken everything belonging to the villagers, so we have problems. No pots to cook with, nothing to eat, no blankets to warm ourselves in the cold and no money to buy anything, so I think that T— village needs help. Our village has already been destroyed many times, and other villages in Lu Thaw township have had to face the same problems as us, so all of Lu Thaw township needs help to free us to do our work, to have clothes to wear and food to eat. Some people can't even afford shirts for their sons and daughters, and many small children have to go around naked with their penises  and their bottoms showing. We only have some pieces of old blankets, and they have to wear those to keep warm. The  parents worry for them.  Mostly we have to use fire to keep us warm. Parents can't buy pots to cook for their children, and if they buy one the Burmese come and destroy it, so everyone has problems. Our people also face many diseases from many different things. These problems have spread throughout Lu Thaw township and everyone now has to face them, these very big problems." - "Saw Lu Doh" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #32, 1/00)

A villager stands in the ruins of his house in Tee Tho Kee village, Nyaunglebin District, burned by SPDC troops from LIB #6, Column 2, in late March 2000. [KHRG]

"The troops who entered our village have only come to do bad things and oppress the civilians. They can't win victory over the [KNLA] soldiers, so they're driving the civilians into hunger. If there are no civilians then the [KNLA] soldiers can't survive either, that's why they're trying to starve us." - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

"The areas in Ku Thu Hta, Ma Lay Ler and Meh Way village tracts suffer worse than us. The villages in the mountainous areas are fleeing in different directions. In Ma Lay Ler village tract villagers from L— have fled to M— and K—. … In the beginning [of 2000] they were staying in the mountains [as IDP's], but the Burmese were coming up two or three times a month and they couldn't endure it anymore. They couldn't search for food. Some were hungry for rice and salt last year." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"We fled up to S— village tract. We then went to L— village. We then crossed into the area of 5^th Brigade [Papun District], the people call it B—. We slept five nights on the way. We met with problems for a few days on the way. Our people who have responsibility [KNLA] took security for us and we came." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"It is dangerous to cross the car road [the Saw Hta-Kyauk Kyi car road]. … It is about one hour by walking [it takes one hour to pass through the danger area]. The area starts from K— to the car road. The car road is on a hill in the forest. To cross the road we have to cross the valley and then go up to the car road. After we cross we will be on the north side. There is another valley on the north side of the car road. It is another half hour walk to be safe from danger [on the north side after crossing]. It is safe, no danger anymore. It is safe after H—." - "Bo Tha Ku" (M, 45), KNLA military officer from Papun District (Interview #57, 3/01)

The SPDC has begun to leave 'Peace [Nyein Chan Yay] passes' behind when they go through the villages. They have also given these to people they have captured and then released in the jungle. These cards come in various colours and styles, most having some sort of picture of an SPDC public work like a bridge, or a picture of happy Karen people enjoying talking to SPDC soldiers. Whatever the style, they all have messages written on them in Karen and Burmese asking the villagers to come down to the relocation sites. They promise that the holders of these cards will not be harmed if they show them to the soldiers. One villager was told by the soldiers that if he was carrying the pass the other Burmese units wouldn't harm him when they saw him. Most villagers find this unconvincing, because the cards are often left behind after the soldiers have opened fire on the villagers and looted their rice and belongings, or given to people who have just been detained and beaten. Many villagers wonder at the SPDC's promises of safety and help when they are confronted daily with the realities of the SPDC's shooting of villagers, looting and burning of their villages, destruction of their food, and landmines. Some of the language in the 'Peace passes' is aimed at KNU leaders and soldiers, encouraging them to 'exchange arms for peace', but the several which KHRG has obtained have all been given to villagers.

"They wrote it in a letter. For the 'Peace Pass' the Burmese make it look like a book. My uncle, he is the brother of my father, is old and didn't flee. When the people fled he stayed in the village. It wasn't in T— village but in a place above the village with only two houses and a building. When the people ran away, he stayed there. When the SPDC soldiers came they passed by and saw him. They poked him with a gun barrel but he wasn't afraid because he was old. They searched him and then called him to sleep with them. Then they cooked chicken curry and pork curry from animals they had taken from the village and beaten [to death] and fed him. Then they searched his bag and took his Nationality Card. He asked them to give it back, but they said they would give it back to him the next day. The next day they gave him a Nyein Chan Yay ['Peace'] pass, so he didn't ask for his Nationality Card anymore. Then they asked him his name and other things. He told them everything. They said, "Don't be afraid. If you are holding this pass and the other Burmese see you, they won't do anything to you." It was in November 2000." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

The following is a translation of a 'Peace Pass' distributed in Papun District. It is a small card which folds out into 8 panels. Panels 1-3 are written in Sgaw Karen. Panels 5-8 are a rough translation of Panels 1-3 into Burmese. [This 'Peace Pass' was also published as Order #413 in "SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 2001-A" (KHRG 2001-02, 18/5/02)]

"About the enemy, they also wrote one letter. My daughter, Naw K—, went to P— [village] and the Burmese gave her one paper. They wrote on it in Karen. They wrote to come back and make peace with them. 'Even though you stay there, [former KNU President] Bo Mya can't take care of you enough. Come back to us.' They said it doesn't matter, even soldiers can come and put down their weapons. 'Come back and work together. We don't need to fight anymore,' they said. 'You do your language and I will do my language. You hold my hand and I will hold your hand. If we hold hands it will be finished.' I myself don't like things like that." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"It was Major Htun Myint's group who came. At that time we were gathering the paddy while some people acted as sentries. We worked in groups of two, and in the afternoon we stopped. When they came, people [the villager sentries or KNLA] saw them first, so we didn't get injured. After they finished shooting, they went down to sleep in our new farmfield huts. We hadn't put the roofs on them yet. They wrote a letter on a piece of split bamboo and left it there. It said to exchange weapons for peace. It said that the villagers must go back to them, and when the villagers go to carry our paddy they will guard us. They also said that when they saw us they wouldn't kill us. They signed it 'Major Htun Myint, Meh Way patrol unit'. They say they don't search for us, but whenever we go to watch their camp we see all the ways that they use to go up on the mountains to where we are staying. They are searching everywhere." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

The SPDC's Army has succeeded in the destruction or forced abandonment of most of the villages in eastern Nyaunglebin District, Lu Thaw township and western Dweh Loh township of Papun District since March 1997. KHRG's first report on the situation ["Wholesale Destruction: the SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate All Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts" (April 1998)] contains a list of 192 villages which were partially or completely burned by the SPDC based on interviews, independent monitors and KNU reports. For this report KHRG has compiled a new listing, now including 226 villages which have been destroyed or abandoned and another list of 42 which were given specific orders to relocate [these lists can be seen in Appendix A and Appendix B]. These lists are not complete and many more villages are unreported. Most of the villages from Lu Thaw township and central Nyaunglebin District on KHRG's 1998 list, as many as 150, were destroyed in 1997 or 1998 and have been on the run, living in hiding in the forest ever since. In 2000 and 2001 the SPDC began moving up from the west into the far eastern portion of Nyaunglebin District along the border with Papun District, and these villages have now become displaced as well. Most of these villages were not burned but were abandoned when the soldiers approached. The new SPDC strategy of building camps among these deserted villages and landmining the villages and fields means that many of these will never be reoccupied. A wave of forced relocations in western Dweh Loh township in 1999 and 2000 resulted in many of these villages also being destroyed as the villagers fled and the SPDC burned the villages. Much of the best rice-producing land has now been occupied and/or landmined. The number of villagers affected is hard to confirm but a least 30-35,000 are now living in the forests, while at least 10,000-20,000 have fled to the refugee camps or the illegal labour market in Thailand.

"Naw Yo Hta village tract. There are 22 villages in the village tract. Every village can live near their village, but all the villagers have to flee around [the villagers have fled but are still staying near their villages ]. The SPDC who operate around here do a lot of activity in this tract. They have made their camp in Ler Mu Plaw village tract [to the west]. They always stay there. The greatest production of paddy is in Ler Mu Plaw, Saw Mu Plaw and Toh Thu Plaw. The SPDC has taken all those places so our civilians have to stay poor and cannot eat anymore." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

Internally displaced villagers on the run in Dweh Loh township, Papun District, in late June 2001.  When this photo was taken the SPDC soldiers were only 10 minutes' walk away. [KHRG]

"When they came to Ler Mu Plaw the villagers had to flee. They went to Saw Mu Plaw but those villagers had to flee also. The other villagers from around Saw Mu Plaw had to flee too, but I don't know the village names. They are the villages around the Ler Mu Plaw area. They are Ler Mu Plaw, Bler Ghaw, Tee Mu Kee, Loh Koh, Hser Tee, K'Neh Mu Der, Khaw Kho Hta and K'Baw Kee villages. … Now we live in B—. The villagers from Loh Koh and Hser Tee fled to stay in H—. The villagers from Khaw Kho Hta and Yu Loh Der fled to K—. The villagers from Bler Ghaw fled to stay in H—. All of them had to flee to stay in a new village. … In B— village there are over 1,000 people including the children. In K— there are nearly 1,000 people. In H— there are about 400 to 500 people. In H— there are over 1,000 people." - "Saw Nu Nu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #51, 4/00)

"Q: How many villages did they burn in Meh Thu village tract?

A: They burned all the villages near where we stayed. They also burned Nya Hsa Kee, Ler Toh Po, Ker Kaw Law, Meh Gha Law and Paw Wah Der. They burned them. I didn't go there but the people told me that. The soldiers destroyed all that they saw. All the villagers had to run and stay in the jungle." - "Pa Kah Lay" (M, 39), villager from W— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #132, 5/00)

"They went to P---, Y---, T--- and K---. These are the most serious villages. They are the same as T---. People say that the soldiers still live there, they haven't gone back yet. At our village the soldiers came one time and went to stay close to our village and came again to carry the food from our hill fields. They came twice like that. At P---, Y---, T--- and K--- the people live nearby and spy on the SPDC and saw that they live there all the time. We can't tell what they destroyed. They destroyed everything. Everything was destroyed in those four villages." - "Saw Htoo Lay" (M, 53), internally displaced village head from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #89, 12/00)

"They are Tee Lee Kha Kee, Li Pway Kee, K'Bu Kee, Blaw Ko, Tee Baw Kee, Hsi Mu Heh Der, Shway Mu Der, Toh Pwih Der, Baw Gho Der, Paw Khay Ko, Bee Ko Der and Ko Say Der. There are 12 villages in the village tract. Presently in Saw Mu Plaw village tract none of the families from those villages can stay in their villages anymore. They are all destroyed." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01)

"They've burned many villages, like Lay Hta, Maw Pu, Tee Thareh Kee, Meh Gha Law, Paw Wah Der, Dta Kaw Hta, Da Baw Kee, Ka Pu Soh, and Maw Thay Hta villages. They've burned them down place by place. They go to one place and burn it down, then stay there for a month. Then they go to another place and stay there for a month, eating and destroying everything, then they burn it down and move to another place. The first two villages they burned were Dta Kaw Hta and Meh Gha Law. Paw Wah Der, Lay Hta and Maw Pu were burned at about the same time, and Tee Thareh Kee was the latest place they burned." - "Saw Bway Htoo" (M, 42), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #130, 4/00)

"The villagers from Khay Kee, Tee Ler Kee, Kler Ka Plaw, and Klu Thay Der villages all fled. Whenever they came, the villagers from Thaw Pi Der, Plaw Ghaw Kee, Deh Bo Hta and Dta Law Ploh fled. Sometimes everyone fled together and sometimes all separately, to places nearby like P—, T— and T—. Some fled over the hills together. If you added it all up, there would be 500 or 600 villagers who fled [just around his village]." - "Saw Toh Wah" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #39, 1/00)

Living Conditions

"Too many years. It has been four or five years. We are poor in everything. We live naked and our testicles and penises are hanging down. We have no clothes anymore, we are in trouble about everything." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

Life on the run for the displaced villagers is very difficult, although many do prefer it to living in the relocation sites and performing forced labour at the whim of the local SPDC commander. Others were not given the choice and were forced to live on the run when their villages were burned down. The hiding places of the internally displaced villagers usually consist of no more than two to four families in small shelters in the forest, as this makes them more difficult to find by the SPDC soldiers. A few sites are much bigger with twenty or more families and have become almost like villages. Some of these larger sites have been arranged by, and to a degree supplied by, the KNU and are better protected by the KNLA. This security is by no means permanent and the villagers have to be ready to move at all times. For most displaced villagers there is little or no protection. The only warning is from villagers who have been posted on the trails around the site to give warning of the approaching columns. These 'sentries' are usually unarmed and they themselves have often been shot dead. The KNLA does warn the villagers if they have information about SPDC movements, but they are not always around and do not have the numbers to directly confront the SPDC columns. The villagers usually don't wait to see the soldiers but flee as soon as they hear a gunshot or a landmine explode, whether it is nearby or not. Most of the time the villagers play a cat and mouse game with the soldiers.

"We stayed near the village and listened. We hid in fear of our safety. The soldiers climbed the trees and bamboo and walked around the field looking for us. We saw that they were very close to us. They searched for us around the fields for a while. When I came back I saw the place where they had searched. Maybe they were searching for a gun. If they had seen a gun it would not have been easy for us. Maybe they would have killed us if they had seen us. The commander ordered them to shoot so they shot. When the soldiers went back we still stayed there [in the jungle near the village]. Only the men came back and secretly watched the village. We saw that they had written a letter and left it." - "Saw Nuh Po" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #143, 9/00)

"We have to stay and listen [to whether the soldiers are coming or not], stay and listen like that. We don't stay very far from them so we can hear the sounds of mines exploding or the sounds of shouting. We have to be careful and afraid of them. When are they going to come to us? Are they going to come secretly in the nighttime? We don't know so we are living in fear." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"The Burmese came along the river, and when they saw my house they started to fire a lot of guns - people yelled out 'P'Yaw!!' ['Burmese!!'] Even though my son is bigger and taller than me, I started carrying him. The Burmese were firing their guns, and my back was becoming very hot but I had to keep going. My son called to me, 'Father, drop me and leave me!' but I thought, I will never drop you, because if I can save you we all need you. When I reached the top of the hill I didn't even know how exhausted I was, and the sound of gunfire went quiet." - "Saw Kleh Wah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #42, 2/00); his son had injured his knee previous to the attack.

"They have laid landmines in those areas, and whenever we heard the explosion of landmines, we had to run. If we tried to burn off our hill fields and the smoke went up, then their bullets started flying. If they weren't firing too many bullets or shells, we stayed and hid in a valley [otherwise they had to keep running]. We were working under horrible conditions and having to flee all the time. If we could work there, we'd have enough food to eat each year. But now we can't work there." - "Saw Thay Muh" (M, 45), refugee from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #67, 1/00)

"The villagers from Koh Lu Der village tract are mostly suffering because they have to live in fear of the SPDC. The villagers have to make their hill fields quickly so sometimes they don't have enough food. Because they have to work hurriedly, they can't take enough time. At the time when people harvest paddy, the SPDC soldiers are sometimes beginning to be active. The villagers have to fear [the soldiers] like that so we don't have the right to work. It is causing us a problem. That is not only in May Per Hta village, it also happens in Baw Peh, Hsaw Moh Hu Der, and down to Tee T'Kay Hta and T'Bo Hta and all the places close to the enemy." - "Bo Tha Ku" (M, 45), KNLA military officer from Papun District (Interview #57, 3/01)

Flight from the soldiers is the most difficult time for the IDPs. They are usually forced to leave most of their possessions behind, taking with them only some food, a machete, a cookpot and whatever small items they can carry. Families with small children must also carry their children when they flee. The fleeing villagers sleep on the ground until they can build huts again. Sometimes they don't even have a tarpaulin to shield themselves from the rain. One villager described to KHRG how after placing a tarpaulin over his wife and children, he then crawled halfway into a tree to seek shelter from the rain and to sleep. The huts are usually small and temporary as the villagers know they will probably have to flee again soon anyway. Sometimes the escape routes are between two Burmese units or camps and the villagers have to move in complete silence. The adults have to cover the children's mouths to keep them from crying and alerting the soldiers. Some of the villagers have been fleeing like this off and on since the early 1970's, and some have been living in the forest continually for five years or more.

"We have a lot of problems. We can't do it. We have to sleep on the ground under the huts. We didn't have time to build huts so we have to sleep in the rain. The insects and mosquitoes bite a lot. We slept on the ground last night. We have no huts or tarpaulins. We slept in the damp and the mosquitoes and insects bit us. … We have to build huts in one place then move to another place. Build one day and stay for one day. Way! We can't go. The malaria and the headaches are caused by the places where we build our huts. We build in one place then have to stay in another place. The SPDC is doing this to us. Recently two Army units came up and are staying close to us. Right now, after we are finished talking, we have to flee again. The troops are coming and burning the villages, burning the huts and pulling the paddy out of the ground. We can't eat. The rice is uncooked and the water not boiled [for drinking]. The SPDC comes and oppresses us and the animals. I can't think about the SPDC. This SPDC unit is saying they represent the government but why do they have to do this? They call themselves the government but they come to oppress us and beat us. They treat us like animals and it is not right. They don't think that we are human. They call themselves the government but they know nothing. … We are still on the move. We will continue to move forward. We sleep one or two nights and then we must move again. If they search for us we have to flee again. We don't dare to suffer so we have to flee. We dare not go down and stay inside [the relocation area] because the villagers there are tied up and forced to porter. … We can't suffer this but we also dare not go and stay among them. We fled but they came up and saw us and beat us. They chased us and shot at us with guns. Way! They shot and it hit people and they bled. ... They have done it for a long time, since the Ko Per Baw [DKBA] began [in late 1994]. They always do this. If we go down or up from here, the SPDC are all the same. We just hide nearly in front of them. Sometimes we stay between two of them [two units]. When we live between two units, we travel at night. We go together with our children and we can't see the way. If the babies cry, we close their mouths. We can't do anything. They don't like it if the babies cry because if the SPDC hear the babies they will kill us." - "Myo Nyunt" (M, 20), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #141, 9/00)

"We just think that the Burmese come and oppress us and eat our things so we always flee when we can. We flee and we are sick and lie down and we have to bear the cold, we have no medicine to eat. We have no hats, no tarpaulins. We have to flee and sleep in the night in the dew and the leeches bite us also. So we are poor. We have no clothes and no blankets to cover ourselves. Our babies and children are sick and we have no medicine to give them to eat." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

"I have faced and borne these troubles for a whole year. We don't have our hut anymore. We sleep in the jungle and have to worry that ants, termites or snakes will bite us. We are afraid but we can't do anything. Even if the ants bite us, we can't do anything. We sleep in the damp. It was raining the whole year. We couldn't burn off our hill field and we just stayed like that the whole year. We couldn't do anything because of the Burmese. If it were not for them, we could live our lives. Before, we never stayed like this. But now we have to stay like this always. We can't do anything. … It was calm for just one or two days. Most days we have to flee. Now we have to run away again. If it calms down longer than this and we can stay longer, it will be better. I hope the Burmese will go quickly and then we can go back and stay at our place. Now we have to stay on the ground because we can't go to our huts. If they see any huts they burn them. There are no good huts left. We have to live on the ground in the summer. We can't build a good hut because they will burn it. They even burn little huts. If we roof it with tarpaulin, it doesn't stay dry and the water comes in. It is very unpleasant. If we make a more pleasant house, when they see it, they will burn it." - "Naw Mu Lay" (F, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #142, 9/00)

Villagers fleeing their homes in northern Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District in March 2001. [KHRG]

"There has been a lot of the enemy coming and torturing. They come to our village and we can't just stay and live. Sometimes we had to flee in the nighttime. We couldn't drink or eat and the women fell down in the rain. We had to deal with the mist, the mosquitoes and insects. The children were crying so the people had to scold them, beat them or put clothes or blankets over their mouths. We dare not face the soldiers because they are making life difficult for us. If they see us, they torture, beat and do many things to us. I have seen it and I have suffered it myself." - "Aung Aung" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #150, 11/00)

"Then on February 15^th [2000] they went through the hill fields. When they come, we see the smoke from the fire and we all watch together. If the situation is bad, we move and flee into the jungle. We come back later and look around. If their column did not come to our place, we go back to work again. After we finish working, we go back to the jungle. We stay there until finally they come to shoot us there." - "Saw Kler Htoo" (M, 51), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #77, 3/00)

Some villagers interviewed by KHRG indicated that it was only the young who can stay in the jungle and that many of the elderly or families with small children are forced by the difficulty of the situation to go down to the relocation sites or flee to Thailand. Villagers have been forced to leave the elderly behind on the trails when they flee because they are too slow. Sometimes they catch up later and sometimes they die there on the trail. Elderly villagers have also been left behind in the villages when the villagers have to flee, especially if the person is too frail to walk. The fate of these people is uncertain; some have been left unharmed after being forced from their houses before they were burned, others have been killed by the soldiers when they arrive, and still other elderly villagers have been burned along with their houses when the soldiers set the village alight. The handicapped have also, on occasion, been left behind if they cannot keep up and are too heavy to carry. A mentally handicapped man in Bu Tho township who didn't listen when his siblings told him to flee the village was shot five or six times and killed when the SPDC soldiers came to his village.

"In the rainy season, all of the children, young people and old people are the same. But the young people like us are a little better because we are young and a little stronger. The old people are cold and the young children cry because they have fever when they are sick and malarial. We can't do anything because we have no medicine so some of them died. We don't know how to get the medicine to heal them. We just go through this kind of thing day by day." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

"If there are old women and men who can't flee, we carry them. When we can't carry them anymore we leave them. We don't know if they can eat or not. They just die like that. We do not dare to go back and look for them. We saw some of them when they had already begun to smell. Like Auntie Nya Da and Grandfather — [inaudible], they already smelled bad when we saw them. Maybe they died because they were hungry or sick, we don't know. We didn't dare to go back and look after them. The other children know nothing. Nobody went back to see them." - "Naw Mu Lay" (F, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #142, 9/00)

"On May 4^th 2001, Battalion #19 killed a villager in his house at Paw Dee Der village, Bwah Der village tract, Bu Tho township. His name was Saw Pa Dway, 38 years old, and he was mentally handicapped. His mother and father are dead and he was staying with his siblings. His siblings told him to flee and stay outside the village when the Burmese came, but he didn't listen. He stayed in the house. The people fled for two days and he didn't get any rice to eat. He didn't die from hunger though. The Burmese shot him dead. They shot him five or six times. The next morning the people buried him." field report from KHRG field researcher (Field Report #21, 5/01)

Villagers fleeing from Nyaunglebin District into western Papun District in January 2001. [FBR researcher]

"They came and when they arrived at B--- they burned down about 10 of the villagers' houses. They burned the houses of T—, K—, N—, L—, and L—, and also the school and an eating place, and they burned one old woman to death. The villagers couldn't find her later. The Burmese had burned her in the fire. Her name was Pi Toh Loh, and she was 70 or 80 years old. She already had grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Burmese came very quickly and her children and grandchildren couldn't carry her. When they came back to find her, she had disappeared along with their house and all their things." - "Po Tha Dah" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from B— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #46, 2/00)

Families living as IDP's in the hills include many small children. Women often give birth in the jungle without the benefit of even a midwife to assist. Many babies do not live through their first year. The mothers are also at risk, both during their pregnancies due to malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies, and afterwards when they are forced to flee without adequate recovery time from childbirth. The children are more susceptible than the adults to diseases in the forest, and without medicine many have died. It is not as easy for the families with small children to run as the children have to be carried, and it also means the family can't carry as much rice or belongings. Children are not spared by the SPDC soldiers and many have been shot or wounded by shrapnel when the soldiers open fire on the villages. There have been many instances when the soldiers were close enough to see it was children they were shooting at, but they continued shooting anyway.

"Aye! We faced problems. It was terrible for the old people. It was nighttime and we had to sleep in the jungle, so people got diseases. The children were coughing and it was raining. We couldn't make fires in the night." - "Saw Ghaw" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #98, 3/01)

"The enemy was already coming close to us. They had arrived at D—, which is only half an hour from our place. I had gone back to harvest. When they moved up to L---, I came up to send my wife to the bank of the Mwih Loh Kloh river.  When we arrived there, my wife gave birth. The same day, the enemy entered Maw Pu. All of the villagers were fleeing, but some were left behind. I told the leader of KNDO [Karen National Defence Organisation; village militia] that we must flee. He asked me, 'Can the mother of your daughter walk?' I answered that either way it wouldn't be easy for us. We were afraid but we stayed there. We couldn't flee. If we fled, it would have been very terrible for her. We waited, and if they had come to shoot us, it would all be over. If they couldn't shoot us, we would run. … My child was born in the jungle. My child was born smoothly, but we were afraid. After the birth, the mother was in the delicate state of health of a woman after childbirth. She went to take a bath and got sick. When she got sick, we couldn't do anything. We were afraid, but we still stayed there.  At night, the [KNLA] people were talking and then a person went and fired a gun. I thought that the enemy must have arrived near us. We fled and carried [our belongings] in the dark. We could walk but it was slow going. I thought, 'As long as we are alive, we will keep going. If we die, it is finished.'" - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

A villager and his young child fleeing in Nyaunglebin District after SPDC soldiers occupied his village in May 2001. [KHRG]

"If we must tell about the enemy, they are very terrible. We can't even tell about how they are torturing us. When we were fleeing, we fled at night and then sat in the jungle. The children didn't dare to cry. When they cried their mothers put their breasts to their mouths. The children were shouting, 'Euuu. Euuu. Ahhhh. Ahhhh.' We were hungry for rice and salt. The next morning, we ran and ate rice in another place. We met with our friends there and we got rice to eat." - "Saw Maw Ray Heh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #151, 11/00)

Christian churches are among the first buildings burned by the troops, and Buddhist monks and monasteries are not exempt. Monasteries have been looted and the monks shot at on sight along with the villagers. The monks don't dare to confront the SPDC soldiers and flee along with their villagers. This is despite the fact that most of the soldiers are also Buddhist. Among the displaced villagers who have little or no food, some of the monks have had to begin working their own fields because their followers can no longer provide for them. This is unusual and illustrates the seriousness of the situation because monks normally are forbidden to work fields for fear of killing an animal or insect while digging.

"Back when I could stay in my village, my villagers built me a monastery. But since 1997 the SPDC battalions have driven us up and down and burned the village. They drove some of the villagers to Meh Way and others to Pway Day, and some villagers fled into the hills. Right now we who live in the jungle don't have hill fields anymore, because every time we try to work them two or three battalions come and burn it. We can just get a little for each of us after they burn it. The troops searched for all of our things, they saw all of the things which belonged to the monastery that my villagers had provided and they took it all. All of the things they took would cost 200,000 Kyat. The SPDC battalions don't fight other armies anymore, they just attack the villagers. It's not easy for me to be a monk anymore. They shoot all the people that they see. Right now even though I'm a monk I have to work a hill field, because the villagers can't feed me anymore. We have to work for ourselves. We don't have our monastery anymore. We have to live in the jungle, and if they see us they will shoot us. If they capture us they will torture us and kill us." - "U Myint Oo" (M, 37), internally displaced monk from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #144, 9/00)

"Yes, they are Buddhists, but when they are struggling for their country they don't treat the monks the same, they will oppress them. It wouldn't be easy for me if they came and saw me again. They would think I am the Nga Pway's monk ['Nga Pway' is the derogatory SPDC name for the KNU/KNLA]. The only way is to run. They have not seen me yet so I will continue to hide." "U Than Dah Sara" (M, 41), internally displaced monk from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #114, 3/99)

The bell is all that is left of this Christian church in Tha Baw Der village, burned down by SPDC troops in 1999. [KHRG]

Shootings

"We stay in the jungle like this so it is better if they do not see us. If they see us everything will be cut off [they will all be killed]. They treat the civilians just like their enemies. They will kill all the Karen, every man or woman, every time they come up into the mountains. For the children, they will kill them all, even the little babies who are still drinking from their mother's breast." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"My children's father was injured in his arm and came to me and told me he had been injured. When I looked at him his arm was bleeding. I thought he was only wounded in the arm so he couldn't die. Then he showed me his stomach and there was a big wound. I told him that this time you are going to die. At first he dared not tell me about his wound. He thought that if he told me he didn't know how I would feel, so he dared not tell me. Then he told me. When he told me he was resolved and told me to call his children and grandchildren to come back." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01); he died soon afterward.

A common reply villagers give to the question, "What would the soldiers do if you faced them?" is "They would kill us." This is borne out by the numerous testimonies of villagers who have said that the soldiers opened fire on them on sight. The shootings are intended to make the villagers so afraid that they will come down out of the hills, but actually have the opposite effect of driving them further into the mountains. Villagers flee whenever the soldiers come close, even if they do not actually come to the village, because they know that if they are seen they will be shot at.

"No, I don't dare to meet them. If they see me, they will shoot me and I will die immediately. They won't capture me or call to me anymore. They have shot many people everywhere. If they see people making a hut or reaping paddy or cutting grass, they shoot them every time. They don't care if they are men, women or children. They shoot them all." - "Saw Nu Nu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #51, 4/00)

"I don't know why they shoot villagers when they see them, but when they shot at people on February 21^st 1999, we weren't carrying anything, we were just working in the hill fields with working machetes. There were girls and boys together in the fields, but as soon as they saw us they shot at us. We had no guns in our hands, but they don't only shoot at soldiers - they also shoot at villagers. … Right now the enemy [SPDC] does not only shoot at soldiers, they also shoot at villagers like us, so what do you think about their behaviour toward us? I want to know. Do they think villagers like us are their enemy? Maybe they think we are their enemy. If their porters [i.e. Burmans, like the soldiers] run to escape to us villagers, we try to save them as far as we can, we give them food and show them the way. But if they see us they shoot to kill us. Why? If we see their [Burman] villagers should we do like they do?" - "Pa Maw Htoo" (M, 27), internally displaced villager from P— village, Mone township (Interview #41, 2/00)

"They try to shoot us. They say we are the enemy and they really shoot at us. I don't know what to think. They shouldn't do that. If they are really searching for their enemy, they only have to shoot their enemy. Now they are shooting the villagers. The villagers are not their enemy. When the Burmese shoot like this we can't shoot back because we don't have anything to shoot with." - "Saw Muh Dah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #87, 4/00)

"Q: But doesn't the SPDC say they won't hurt or shoot the other nationalities anymore?

A: Yes, they said that, but they still shoot us." - "Thein Shwe" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #55, 4/00)

The soldiers usually don't call out to the villagers before they open fire. If the soldiers call out to the villagers it is usually only a split second before pulling their triggers, and the villagers are given no time to respond. Attacks on villages and IDP hiding places are carried out as military operations, sometimes including supporting mortar fire. The soldiers sometimes arrive quietly and silently observe the villagers before attacking them, giving them ample time to see that it is unarmed villagers they are about to attack. Other times outright ambushes are laid to trap and kill the villagers. In most cases the soldiers come so close to the villagers that there can be no doubt that the people being shot at are unarmed civilians, including women, children and the elderly. Villagers automatically run whenever they see the soldiers or hear gunfire because they know that to remain would probably mean being shot, or at best being detained and tortured or taken as a porter.

"They just come, and if you hear about them you have to run, and you can never have legs long enough to run. … In those areas, even if you heard them firing weapons very far away, you had to run further away. We had nowhere to run to in the jungle. If there was some place to run to, it would be easier. But through the whole Saw Mu Plaw and Ler Mu Plaw area, through the whole area of Lu Thaw township, we didn't dare face them. Sometimes you saw them at a distance when you were staying in the bushes. But if they saw you they came towards you and they got angry right away. They started shooting right away. They shot to hit us, but if we weren't hit we could run to escape. But if they hit us, it's finished, and they even treat your corpse very cruelly. … They shot to kill people even if they knew they were villagers who had gone to hide in the jungle, whether they saw them or even if they just heard voices among the bushes, they always shot at them. I want to tell you about all of the people they shot, but I can't tell about all of them. According to the order that they issued us from the battalion in Pwa Ghaw, in the area of Saw Mu Plaw village tract in Lu Thaw township, no women or men would be safe if they saw  them. They designated that area as the main place of their enemy [a KNLA stronghold], so no woman, child, or man dares to face them because if they see them, they shoot them all." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K--- village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

"They shot us when we were carrying our paddy. It was the time when people carry their paddy [from the threshing ground to the paddy storage barns]. We didn't see them, they just came and immediately started shooting." - "Naw Paw Si" (F, 11), internally displaced villager from D— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #38, 1/00)

Maung Thay Paw from Tee Thu Der village, Papun District, who was shot on sight and killed on March 23rd 2000 while working in his hill field. The soldiers then looted his body. [KHRG]

"In 2000 they've shot two people dead; their names were K'Paw Htoo [a woman a.k.a. Nay K'Paw Mo] and Eh Roh [a man]. Naw K--- [a woman] was injured. The Burmese shot dead K'Paw Htoo after they had burned down her paddy barn. She had gone away to try to find food last year, and she arrived back in time to plant but the rains came early so she couldn't plant much. She had just finished her harvest, and the Burmese burned it all. She set out to find some paddy, but she encountered them and they shot her dead. Life was very difficult for her, because she has very young children and she had to work very hard. She knew that the situation wasn't good, so she'd hidden her paddy. She hoped that she could earn money cutting grass in people's fields until her paddy was dry [newly harvested paddy takes time to dry and cure properly before it is considered good for eating]. She had to do things like that because they had nothing to eat, but then they met her and shot her, and now it's finished. Now her husband and two baby children do not know what to do." - "Saw Kleh Wah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #42, 2/00)

"There were U Traw and Pa Ghaw Khay. They are related to us. U Traw was 50 years old. The other one was 35 years old. They were from Ler Wah village, Ler Wah village tract. The SPDC soldiers shot them dead. They shot at them many times because we heard the sound of shooting many times. Pa Ghaw Khay was alone. He was going to listen to the news for us [see whether the SPDC soldiers were coming or not]. He was staying at T---. He didn't know that the Burmese were waiting on the path. Then the Burmese shot him. The people didn't see it. The sound of shooting lasted for a while and they thought he had disappeared. The people then went to find him. The Burmese didn't bury him so his elder brother went to bury him. It was last year after we had finished preparing the hill field [about May or June 2000]." - "Naw Mi Mu Wah" (F, 35), internally displaced villager from K— villager, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #94, 3/01)

"It was on March 28^th [2000], at the same time that they came to M—. He had received information that the enemy was coming but he didn't know exactly when, so he stayed there and listened for them. He thought the Burmese would pass far from him. The villagers said that when the Burmese arrived at his house his son was keeping watch, but his son suddenly heard gunfire explode behind him, in the hut. His son hid, then left at 6 in the evening to K— and followed the villagers from there. I don't know why they shot his father. They couldn't have seen anything unusual, because he was just a villager and a farmer." - "Pa Hla" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #85, 4/00)

Woman from northern Papun District who was shot while burning off their fields. She was hit by a bullet in the back which exited just below her left shoulder. She also had multiple wounds from grenade shrapnel. Her husband was also wounded in the attack. [KHRG]

"They also shot dead one of my elder sisters just 4 or 5 days ago, on the evening of the 14^th [of March 2000]. Her name was Naw Eh Muh. Three of them were coming back and carrying their paddy. They didn't know that the path wasn't safe. When the enemy saw them, they shot them. The other two fled and escaped, but she was shot in the head and fell right there. Later we didn't see her rice and paddy there. They had taken everything, and they also tore her clothes and sarong to shreds." - "Saw Lay Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #76, 3/00)

"We don't know why the SPDC troops came and shot at us. We don't know their plans for us. We just work on our hill fields. We just know there was the sound of shooting, and some people were injured. Maybe they have bad plans for us because we are Karen people. They would like to destroy and torture us. … We are just farmers. We just work on our hill fields and flat fields. We have no weapons to fight them with. We just have our machetes, knives and axes for doing our hill fields. We never shoot them or shoot at their town. It is not fair for them to come and hurt us. If we hurt them we could bear the consequences, but we never hurt them. They just came and shot us. We don't know what their plans are for us." - "Pa Mer Ler" (M, 25), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #49, 4/00)

"When he was wounded we were almost on top of the guns [he was very close to the soldiers when they began shooting]. We threw down our machetes and baskets. We looked at them and knew that we couldn't flee anymore. We fled into the bushes and the bullets were flying in front of us, 'fee-fee-fee' [the sound of the bullets]. Hay aye, hay aye! The brush was being cut down [by the bullets] 'preh-preh-preh'. It sounded like an elephant eating, it was so noisy. 'Hay-hay-hay'. There was light in front of our noses, red-red-red, red-red-red [tracer bullets]. Hey, hey! We couldn't flee anymore. I was carrying my grandchild and she was crying too much. Below us there was the sound of groaning. There was the sound of someone calling in the river, Hey! It was too noisy above and below us. There were a lot of people. I thought they had already fled away but they had come back. Then we stayed together. Then I asked who was making the groaning sound there. Someone said it was his child. He said there were two people [wounded]. Then he said that if we take that other person's child it would be hopeless. So we were going to leave the child there. We didn't know whether we would live or die. If the Burmese had come and seen us at the higher place they would have killed us." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01); describing an attack in which her husband and another man were shot dead and herself, her daughter and her grandchild were wounded.

"[W]e never saw their faces - anyone who saw their faces died." - "Saw Thay Muh" (M, 45), refugee from P--- village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #67, 1/00)

The soldiers shoot at men, women and children even when it is obvious that it is women and children that they are shooting at. It is difficult to see very far in the forest so most shooting incidents occur at close range where it should be obvious that the targets are women and children. In the open fields it should also be obvious to the soldiers who their targets are. Children make up a large percentage of the people shot dead or wounded by the SPDC's soldiers. A villager from Lu Thaw township related to KHRG how the soldiers came upon her hut in the forest and immediately opened fire on her three children. There were no adults as they were away in the fields. As her two sons were running, one of them 7 years old and obviously not an adult, a rifle grenade landed behind them and wounded the 7 year old boy in the leg. He was carried away by his brother and survived, but many others have not. Some villagers have lost whole portions of their families. During an attack on an IDP site in Shwegyin township in January 2000, "Saw K'Baw's" [not his real name] 6 month old son was shot in the head and killed while suckling milk from his mother's breast as she was fleeing. After another shooting in late 1999 in Lu Thaw township a villager interviewed by KHRG learned that he had lost his 13 year old daughter, his 11 year old son, his brother and his uncle. Villagers often express their bewilderment as to why the soldiers are shooting at them when they are unarmed civilians and have done nothing to the soldiers or to Burman villagers. Most villagers believe it is a part of a plan to exterminate the Karen people.

"We had gone to work our hill fields. When they shot at us, all of our children were at home. There were three of my children there. The three children were home playing. When they shot my babies, the eldest was cooking and the two boys were playing far from their sister [who was cooking]. They left the pot on the stove and fled without anything. When they started shooting, my daughter, the eldest child, fled away. She couldn't wait for her two brothers. When the two brothers got to the hut a kway boe [a rifle grenade] dropped behind them. It was not far from them and the younger one was wounded in his leg. Then they helped each other run away. We found all of our children but the youngest one was injured in the thigh. He is a seven year old boy. When I got back people asked me if I had seen my child. I told them that I hadn't seen my child yet. They told me they had carried each other and gone to another place. I went to take my children and send them to another house. His name is Christ Nay Thay. He is 7 years old. He was injured about one month ago already. … We have no guns. We have nothing. We don't work against them. We just work in our hill fields. We don't understand the SPDC. We are just farming our hill fields and living among the hills. If we think about it, it is not fair that they come and shoot our babies." - "Meh Bya" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #54, 4/00)

"One of my sons was killed while his mother was carrying him. They shot him on January 20^th [2000], at 9:10 a.m. They shot him in the head and it was broken. He was not so big. He would have been 6 months old in two days. They came very close when they shot at us. We didn't know they had come. The enemy are finding civilians to shoot at like this. If they chase their enemy [KNLA soldiers], they have to chase them their way [they have to use military tactics and fight]. But they know we are civilians without weapons, so they chase us like pigs and dogs. They chase and shoot us like this. They are not chasing their enemy, they are chasing the civilians." - "Saw K'Baw" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from H— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #72, 2/00)

"They had fled and stayed at the source of a river named the Saw Theh Loh Kloh. It was time to cook for the afternoon and they thought they would cook. They chopped some firewood. The enemy came to watch and listen, then came out of the jungle and shot at the place where they were living. When the soldiers opened fire, they fled. "Saw K'Baw"'s wife was carrying their small son, who was in her arms and sucking milk. When the enemy shot  him, it hit him directly in his neck and a part of his head chipped off. She threw down her child and fled to  escape herself. He was 2 years old [according to his father he was only 6 months old]. LIB #5 did it." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"I know that in W---, they came and shot up P—'s house once. They [SPDC] surrounded it and shot it. They didn't see anything unusual [there were no KNLA]. There were only villagers there. They shot and killed one of P—'s children. He was a ten year old boy." - "Pa Kah Lay" (M, 39), villager from W— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #132, 5/00)

This 5 year old girl was shot in the head and left behind in the confusion when SPDC soldiers opened fire on her family's hiding place. This photo was taken one year later, but her wound had still not healed properly. [KHRG]

"[T]hey shot my children dead. Two of my children and my brother and uncle. My uncle's name was Bee Wah Htoo. He was 43 years old. He has six brothers. I don't know where he was injured. The second one was my daughter, Meh Hsa Htoo. She was 13. She was shot by a small gun [a rifle] in her thigh, in the head and again in her buttocks. The other one was La Kaw Mu, my 11 year old son. He was wounded in the head and in his buttocks. The last one was April Htoo. He was 20 years old. He had 8 brothers and sisters. He was wounded in his thigh by a bullet from a small gun [a rifle]. They were going to work in the hill field. The soldiers shot them when they were in the field. It was in the afternoon during the time when the paddy was ripe [harvest season; November or December]. ... They see us and shoot us. I have never gone and shot or burned their village. They just came and shot us. We don't know the reasons why they came to shoot us. They just came and did it." - "Thein Shwe" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #55, 4/00)

"They shot Bee Wah Htoo and his three nephews at Tee Th'Waw Kee [actually two nephews and a niece]. They hadn't done anything; they just went to thresh their paddy. Their names are Meh Hsa Htoo, Lah Kaw Muh, and Pa Thu Ko. After they'd finished threshing the paddy, Bee Wah Htoo filled one big tin of paddy for each of his nephews and three for himself, and said, 'Come on, let's go'. They were just villagers and weren't carrying any guns, just small knives, small bags and a tobacco box. But the Burmese came secretly. Pa Thu Ko was carrying the paddy and when he was coming back he met the Burmese on the path. He was just carrying one or two bunches of bananas and a big tin of paddy. They shot him and he fell down and died. When Bee Wah Htoo lifted some paddy up onto his head and started carrying it, they shot him and he fell right there with his paddy. Meh Hsa Htoo started running but he was hit, and he fell down under the trees and died. The other nephew Lah Kaw Muh ran, but when he arrived near the path he was hit and fell. All of them died. When they were dead, there were only a few armspans between them. Then the Burmese came up and took Meh Hsa Htoo's necklace and bracelet and everything from Bee Wah Htoo, like his bag and his tobacco pipe. He didn't have money because he was just going to thresh his paddy. One of his other nephews [Lah Kaw Muh] was only young, so he just had a little bag with a slingshot, and they didn't take that." - "Naw Ghay Muh" (F, 42), internally displaced villager from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #48, 2/00)

"There are many things. For myself I had 11 brothers and sisters. There were four men and seven women. The four men are all dead because of the SPDC's oppression. The one man left is my old father. I would like to see my brothers but I can't see them. Why not? Because of the SPDC's oppression. They killed all my brothers." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

Hillside rice fields are open patches in the forest and are clearly visible from one or two hills away. At weeding time (August) and harvest time (October-December), more SPDC patrols are sent out to look for groups of villagers working in these fields and open fire on them. Working in family groups, they make an easy target even from a distance. Troops also watch for smoke from the burning off of hillfields in March-April, and smoke from cookfires at the villagers' hiding places. Some displaced villagers have resorted to harvesting only by night with KNLA troops posted for security. When the SPDC soldiers are too far away to use their small arms they have used mortars to shell the villagers. If they see cooking smoke in the distance they fire a mortar shell at it. Even when they cannot find any villagers, they sometimes 'walk' their mortar shells up the valley of a stream (meaning to shell the whole streambed, aiming progressively further away) on the assumption that villagers may be hiding there. This method of attacking the villagers is more to harass them, but it does kill and it certainly can't be claimed that the soldiers were trying to capture anyone.

"They tried to find people in the hot season along the river valley. Civilians had run to stay along the river, so they tried to follow the river and they searched through the forest. If they saw smoke rising up [from cookfires], they shelled with big weapons. They do this to our civilians, so people couldn't stay there. I heard people say that they also planted landmines. I am not sure, but I think that they plant them to get both the KNU and the villagers who stay outside the villages." - "Saw Wah Pa" (M, 33), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #30, 1/00)

"They never caught us, but they saw us and fired guns at us one or two times. Whenever they saw the smoke from villagers' cookfires, they fired big weapons [mortars] many times to hurt the villagers. If they see you they shoot, they don't capture you. If they are close they shoot with small arms, and if it is farther they shoot at you with big weapons." - "Saw Toh Wah" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #39, 1/00)

"Sa Ka Ka [Military Operations Command] #10, [LIB] #366 led by Commander Maung Set Oo from Meh Way comes to search for us regularly. When they come and see us, they usually shoot at us. When they came and saw us, they shot at us with their small arms [rifles]. No one was injured and the ten families fled together. Sometimes they shoot at us with small mortars and the children flee everywhere among the trees. Right now, we are going to start fleeing again. We took a rest for one or two days and now we are going to start fleeing again." - "Saw Nyunt Htin" (M, 20), internally displaced villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #135, 9/00)

Villagers shot by the soldiers are sometimes able to escape after being shot, only to die later from loss of blood. The soldiers often don't bother to take the time to see what happened to the person they shot at. Other wounded villagers have fallen where they were hit, but rather than capturing them the soldiers have finished them off by shooting them at close range or stabbing them with their bayonets. The dead are often searched and robbed of whatever valuables they have on them. Sometimes the soldiers have mutilated the corpses. A villager from Kyauk Kyi township who was shot dead in January 2000 was later found with his liver and intestines cut out and his penis and testicles cut off. Even if the villagers are able to escape with their wounds there is little or no medicine to treat them and recovery is slow. Many die later from complications due to inadequate treatment, lack of proper medicines, infection or the need to continue fleeing, even if their original wound was relatively minor. [See also the section 'Health and Education'].

From the hundreds of interviews and field reports used in this report, KHRG has compiled lists of 312 civilians in the region who have been killed by SPDC troops in the region since 1998, and another 190 who have been wounded. Even these terrible numbers only reflect a portion of the cases, most of which go unreported. These lists can be seen in Appendix C and Appendix D.

"He was going to find food. We fled and were staying in the jungle, and we didn't have food to eat. He was going to find some paddy. His name was Pa Maung Dah. He was 28 years old and he had a wife and a child. They shot him at Tee Der Aw in Maw Pu village on December 14^th [1999], at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He was with his 2 friends. One is Pa K— and the other one is K—. They escaped. After they shot him, he didn't die at once. It hit his calf. He couldn't flee to escape, and he died. We didn't see his body there. We don't know if they buried him or not. He disappeared and we couldn't find his body. We only saw the place where he had bled. We haven't seen him again, but we always think about it. I can't tell you what it has done to my heart." - "Saw Po Thu" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #128, 12/99)

When they came they saw us and shot at us. They didn't call to us first but I saw them. They killed two people. One was hit in his leg and the other in the stomach. The one who was injured in the stomach died immediately but the other one didn't die until later. He fled, dragging his leg along the ground. They didn't see him anymore. When they found him he was already dead in the jungle. He had fled into the forest and nobody saw him. He was bleeding and then died from lack of medicine. The older one's name was Maung Nay Tu and the younger one was Saw Pah Htoo. They were brothers. They were 30 and 25 years old. They both had wives and their old father is still alive. They were shot in the month of Wa Kaun Lah [July-August 2000]." - "Saw Nuh Po" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #143, 9/00)

"The Burmese shot at them and two of them were killed. After they were killed, the Burmese put sand in their mouths and then wrote a letter in their language and hung it on their bodies saying, "Kayin nga yeh, t'may theh" ["In the Karen spirit world, sand is rice"; normally people put money in the mouth of a dead person for their use in the spirit world, but the soldiers stuffed their mouths with sand to send them with nothing, and also to insult the spirit world of the Karens]. They must have hated them a lot. One of them was named Saw Paw Htoo - he was single, he was my nephew. He was from Ko Say village." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

"After they released the children they shot dead a person right there. His name was Maung Dta. He had a wife and two children. His wife has a lot of relatives so she is able to rely on them and stay with them. After they killed him, they mutilated his body. They took out his liver and intestines, and cut off his penis and testicles. This happened on January 4^th 2000. They usually shoot at villagers whenever they arrive someplace. They shoot and it hits people randomly, even people who have gone to watch the paths." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #75, 3/00)

"Then they entered the place where the villagers were hiding and they starting shooting their guns. The villagers fled and one woman died. Her name was K'Paw Htoo. Two bullets hit her, and she couldn't even scream before she was dead. She had 2 children. They are girls; one is 6 and the other is 4 years old. They took everything in her  bag: some money, earrings, and everything else. Then they dragged her body.  After shooting her, they shot another woman and it hit her armpit, then came out through her back. Her name is Naw Kyu Eh. She didn't die, but she has still not healed yet because the wound is very deep. It's a terrible wound - it's already been 3 weeks but it still hasn't healed, because there is no medicine." - "Naw Si Si Po" (F, 49), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #47, 2/00)

Saw Dee Mu, a 17 year old villager from Lu Thaw township, Papun District, who was shot dead by SPDC soldiers. The soldiers had positioned themselves in bushes nearby, then opened fire without warning. His mother was also killed in the same attack. [KHRG]

"Just two of us were staying there. We were staying in the hill field. They shot at us in the afternoon at around 3:30 on April 17^th 2000. Both of us were wounded. We were shot in the hill field. After we were wounded we came home. The other person who was wounded was Naw L—. She is my wife. She is 31 years old. She was shot by a little gun [a rifle bullet]. She was injured in the shoulder and it went through to the other side. She was wounded by a G3 [assault rifle]. She came back home herself, but we went and carried her when she had almost arrived home. … At first we had no medicine. I couldn't find medicine for a whole month. My friend and I each tried to look for a little. They [other villagers] gave a little medicine to her when she was at home, but none of them had any training. We just looked after her ourselves. She is a little better now, but she has not recovered yet. She was severely wounded but she will recover in maybe about a month. … It has been two months between the last time they shot at us and this time. They come and shoot at us regularly. The first time my wife was injured by a big gun and a kway boe [shrapnel from a mortar shell and a rifle grenade] in the hill field. She was injured behind her ear, on her nose, inside her ear, twice in her thigh and twice in her leg. After she fled to another place, she was shot in the shoulder by a small gun [this is the time he described above]."- "Thein Shwe" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #55, 4/00)

"We didn't know that the SPDC was coming to shoot us. Suddenly there was gunfire and the children were running back and forth. When they shot their small arms [their rifles], nobody was injured. But when they used the big gun [rifle grenades] some people were wounded. The people were very close to the enemy when they were wounded. They fled and hid, suffering with their injuries and the bleeding. When we looked at the Dta Kho Thee Loh Kloh [the Dta Kho Thee River], it looked like a battlefield, but it wasn't. The small river was full of the blood of villagers. The wounded people went over to the south side of the river and stayed there. They stayed very close to the unit of the SPDC which had just shot them. There was a little child named Po Naw Htoo who was wounded in the head. She fainted and was left during the gunfire. Nobody dared to go and take her. At that time her father, Maung K— quickly came up with his wife. His wife was very pregnant and brought one injured baby. They came up during the gunfire. They left their injured child the whole afternoon. At 7 p.m. in the night they went and took their child back. They felt hopeless because they were in the jungle and we had no medicine to heal their child with. The child's whole body was covered in blood. It looked like she was soaked in blood. After they took their child back they just left her like that. Nobody treated the child. They couldn't do anything because there was no medicine. … The SPDC said that they wanted to hurt the villagers. The soldiers saw that the children were going to die. They kept pulling the triggers of their guns and shot the children until they died. Then they went directly back to their camp. After that, the villagers collected the injured. Some of them were saved. The two people who died were just shot to pieces. The first one was shot to pieces but the second one was just seriously injured and died at 8 p.m." - "Pa Mer Ler" (M, 25), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #49, 4/00)

"He went on his own, and he heard someone calling him so he looked. A Burmese was calling him and said, 'Uncle, don't run. Uncle, don't run.' Then he shot him, and Uncle ran. His thigh had been hit, and he fell down. … His younger brother came back, got some people from his house and then went back to his elder brother. When they got there, it was already 8 p.m. When they got him back here, there was no one to treat him. His thigh was broken, and we couldn't do much. We treated it with salt, and the elders bound the wound with yellow [turmeric] powder and spit. Until now, he still can't walk. I don't understand what could have been wrong with the heart of that Burmese? He just saw someone going to find a buffalo, and shot him. … My child came and told me, 'Mother, the Burmese shot Father. His thigh is broken.' At that time I was fetching some water. I asked, 'Is he dead?' and my child said, 'I don't know if he has died or not'. Then his brother arrived and I asked, 'Is he dead? If he is, tell me truly.' Then I started crying, and I asked again, 'Is he dead?' He said, 'He isn't dead, but his thigh is broken.' … I followed him when people went to carry him back, but I had nothing with me [no medi