2006 Reports

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Year 2006 KHRG Reports

The reports listed below fall into several categories: full comprehensive reports on specific regions or themes, Reports from the Field (previously called 'Information Updates') which provide situation summaries and field reports written by KHRG field researchers, KHRG Commentaries which tie the reports to the broader Burma context and editorialise on current events, Photo Sets which present recent KHRG photos with captions, and News Bulletins which present up to date information on recent incidents. The lists below are in chronological order.

Comprehensive Reports and Photo Sets

Surviving in Shadow: Widespread Militarization and the Systematic Use of Forced Labour in the Campaign for Control of Thaton District
Released on January 17, 2006 (KHRG #06-01)
With much of Thaton District now under SPDC control, the villagers living there are regularly called upon to fulfil the unrelenting array of demands for forced labour, building materials, food, and money. The SPDC and the DKBA alike are using the unpaid and forced labour of villagers in the numerous road construction projects that span the district. Dozens of military camps have been built along these roads, further militarizing the region and bringing with it even greater oppression and an increase in the demands and burdens upon the lives of the civilians. Such frequent demands, combined with widespread movement restrictions has limited the amount of food that the villagers are able to produce, resulting in problems with food security to the point where many villagers are unable to sufficiently feed their families. This report can also be viewed or downloaded in PDF format (2.0 Mb, 123 pages [size A4 paper], Adobe Acrobat Reader freeware required).

KHRG Photo Gallery: 2005
Released on April 6, 2006
Continuing from Photo Set 2005-A released in May 2005, this gallery presents over 300 photos taken by KHRG researchers in the field throughout 2005 and the first days of 2006, divided into 12 thematic sections including two special sections documenting SPDC attacks on villages in Toungoo and Nyaunglebin districts.

Reports from the Field

Report from the Field #2006-F1
Pa'an District: Land confiscation, forced labour and extortion undermining villagers' livelihoods
Released on February 11, 2006 (KHRG #2006-F1)
Villagers in northern Pa'an District of central Karen State say their livelihoods are under serious threat due to exploitation by SPDC military authorities and by their Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) allies who rule as an SPDC proxy army in much of the region. Villages in the vicinity of the DKBA headquarters are forced to give much of their time and resources to support the headquarters complex, while villages directly under SPDC control face rape, arbitrary detention and threats to keep them compliant with SPDC demands. The SPDC plans to expand Dta Greh (a.k.a. Pain Kyone) village into a town in order to strengthen its administrative control over the area, and is confiscating about half of the village's productive land without compensation to build infrastructure which includes offices, army camps and a hydroelectric power dam - destroying the livelihoods of close to 100 farming families. Local villagers, who are already struggling to survive under the weight of existing demands, fear further forced labour and extortion as the project continues.

Report from the Field #2006-F2
Interview with an SPDC child soldier
Released on April 26, 2006 (KHRG #2006-F2)
The SPDC claims that there are no child soldiers in its army and has appointed a Committee to spread this story, while independent outside reports reveal the Burma Army as having more child soldiers than any other army or country in the world. Boys as young as 11 are deliberately targeted by recruiters who trick or beat them into joining, record their ages as 18, and buy and sell them like cattle. They are treated brutally in training, and in the field they are forced to loot villages to survive. This report lets a 15 year old deserter tell his own story, which reveals that the past five years have not brought any improvement in the SPDC's record on recruitment or treatment of child soldiers.

Report from the Field #2006-F3
Abuses in SPDC-controlled areas of Papun district
Released on April 29, 2006 (KHRG #2006-F3)
It is easy to believe that life would be easier for villagers living in 'peaceful' SPDC-controlled areas than for those staying beyond the regime's control in the hills, but in this report villagers living under SPDC control speak about the abuses and uncertainties they face which cause some of them to flee into the hills. They tell of SPDC soldiers poisoning their livestock, confiscating their land for Army camps, burning their homes and relocating their villages for their own convenience. Forced labour is constant, and arbitrary detention with torture is a routine occurrence. Stories from the hundreds of convict porters being brought into the district also tell of the brutality and corruption they have suffered at the hands of the Burmese justice system and the military.

Report from the Field #2006-F4
SPDC operations in Kler Lweh Htoo (Nyaunglebin) district
Released on April 30, 2006 (KHRG #2006-F4)
Since November 2005 the SPDC military has been sending more troops into Nyaunglebin District of northeastern Karen State in an attempt to force villagers out of the hills and gain total control of the area. Heavily armed patrol columns have been burning villages, destroying crops and shooting villagers, both adults and children, on sight. The SPDC columns are avoiding resistance forces, focusing their attacks instead on undefended villages because it is the villagers they are after. Even in plains areas already strongly controlled by SPDC forces, villages are being burned and their occupants herded into relocation sites, while Army units steal their food supplies and torture their village elders as a means of intimidation. These activities have increased even more since February 2006, with researchers in the area reporting that these are the worst SPDC attacks against villagers since 1997.

News Bulletins

News Bulletin #2006-B1
SPDC road construction plans creating problems for civilians
Released on January 27, 2006 (KHRG #2006-B1)
In November 2005 a large number of the SPDC's garrison troops in eastern Papun District were replaced by offensive troops, a possible indication of more aggressive military action to bring the region under control. In December, SPDC forces in the area began work on three new roads to the Salween River, possibly to secure the region for construction of the planned Salween River dams. The SPDC officer in charge told local village heads that he doesn't care how many of their fields are taken or destroyed to make way for the roads. Local villagers also fear they will be used as human shields in front of road construction equipment, and as forced labour to maintain the roads and support the troops coming in to secure them. Meanwhile, displaced villagers who have been evading SPDC control in the region hurried to finish and hide their harvest, for fear that the road construction and increased militarisation will make it difficult for them to remain near their fields.

News Bulletin #2006-B2
Attempted rapes and other abuses in northern Karen districts
Released on March 15, 2006 (KHRG #2006-B2)
This bulletin documents the resumption of full-scale forced labour in the villages of central Toungoo District and increases in extortion and forced labour imposed on villagers in Dweh Loh township of Papun District. The continued impunity of SPDC soldiers to commit violent abuses is reflected in the stories of attempted rapes which have occurred in both districts.

News Bulletin #2006-B3
Recent Attacks on Villages in Southeastern Toungoo District Send Thousands Fleeing into the Forests and to Thailand
Released on March 16, 2006 (KHRG #2006-B3)
Since November 2005, the SPDC has been mounting military-style assaults on civilian villages in Toungoo District, causing thousands of villagers to flee into the surrounding forests or to head for refugee camps in Thailand. To illustrate this, this bulletin pays special attention to the attack on Hee Daw Khaw village on November 26th 2005, and its subsequent destruction on November 28th 2005.

News Bulletin #2006-B4
Villagers displaced as SPDC offensive expands into Papun district
Released on May 16, 2006 (KHRG #2006-B4)
In recent months thousands of SPDC troops have been sweeping through the hills of Toungoo and Nyaunglebin districts of northern Karen State, burning villages and food supplies and shooting villagers with the aim of forcing all hill villagers to move to areas where they can be controlled by the military. In the past few weeks this campaign has been expanded into Papun district, where it has already displaced over 1,000 villagers. On May 11th seven new SPDC battalions arrived in the district, so there are now 27 battalions with 4,000-5,000 troops poised to launch a major offensive against villagers in Papun district which could lead to the destruction of hundreds of villages and the displacement of thousands more people. Unlike previous years, all of these offensives appear set to continue right through the coming rainy season.

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