One Year On: Continuing abuses in Toungoo District
Movement restrictions and food security
According to one KHRG field researcher, and confirmed by others, 12 villages in the vicinity of Kler Lah have had movement restrictions imposed upon them for the past several months. The villagers have been ordered by SPDC Army soldiers to confine themselves to their villages and warned that they would be shot on sight if seen outside their village without explicit written permission. The villages affected by this order include Kler Lah, Kaw Soh Koh, Wa Thoh Koh, Ler Koh, Maw Pa Der, Koo Pler Der, Klay Soh Kee, Kaw Thay Der, Der Doh, Gha Moo Der, Maw Koh Der and Peh Kaw Der villages (see map for village locations).
"In July 2006, the SPDC Army soldiers based in Daw Pa Koh (Than Daung) township did not allow the villagers to leave their villages. If they see the villagers outside [their villages] they will shoot them."
- a KHRG field researcher (Aug 2006)
"LID#66 blocked all of the paths so that the villagers couldn't even go to their farms or fields. They declared that people from outside the village [KNU] couldn't meet with people from inside the village [villagers]. The villagers didn't have any freedom to do their trading or farming."
- Saw B--- (M). Refugee, P--- village, Tantabin township (April 2006)
"I think that they [SPDC] are trying to apply more pressure so the villagers don't want to stay in the area any more. We are tortured and oppressed by the SPDC. The villagers can't work and grow their food because of them [SPDC]. Most of the villagers can't get enough rice because of the increased activity of the SPDC."
- Saw T--- (M, 43). IDP, H--- village, Than Daung township (May 2006)
In addition to confining villagers to their villages, the SPDC has also placed blockades on the Toungoo - Kler Lah motor road. This is the only serviceable road linking the plains in the west with the hills in the east, along which rice is carted from the plains to be sold at markets in the hills. Many villagers in SPDC-controlled villages in the hills, unable to leave their villages to tend their fields, have come to rely on the rice deliveries from the plains to feed their families. Now, however, the only vehicles permitted to travel along this road into the hills are those that are carrying rice and supplies for the SPDC Army soldiers. A villager from Than Daung township told KHRG that the SPDC allows only one truck along the road to deliver its load of 30 sacks of rice (totalling 1,500 kg / 3,300 lb) for the villagers in the area each week. This paltry volume of rice is far from the amount which is needed. This meagre ration is only enough to sufficiently feed approximately 300 adult villagers for a week; or considered another way: less than a quarter of the population of the Kler Lah relocation site alone.
"From 2002 to 2004 the villagers in the Kler Lah area could buy their food from Kler Lah. Afterwards, the SPDC did not allow any villagers to take any food away from Kler Lah [into the hills]. The SPDC blocked the Kler Lah villagers from taking any food such as salt, fishpaste, or rice out of Kler Lah village. [They said that] if they saw someone carrying food [in the hills] they would cut off their arms and legs and then kill them."
- a KHRG field researcher (Aug 2006)
"The SPDC blocked the car road and only transported food for themselves. The SPDC used about ten trucks to send food to their Army camp. The trucks that they used to carry their food belonged to villagers from Kler Lah and Kaw Thay Der. They demanded the trucks from the villagers, but they didn't pay the owners."
- Naw T--- (F, 58). IDP, W--- village, Tantabin township (April 2006)
"The SPDC said that they have fought against the KNU for a long time, but they can't defeat them and they [KNU] can't defeat the SPDC either. They said that the last way they have [to defeat the KNU] was through the villagers. They said that they would block the food deliveries so that the villagers couldn't get any food. They said that this was the only way that they could win and that maybe they could defeat the KNU this way. The SPDC soldiers are armed so they have power over the villagers. When they see any of the villagers' food they destroy it and burn it all; when they see the owners [villagers] they shoot them dead. They are trying to lessen the number of the Karen people. The main food of the Karen people is rice, fishpaste and salt so they try to fight against the Karen with food. They said that if they could block the main food of Karen people, they could defeat the KNU."
- Saw P--- (M, 40). IDP, P--- village, Than Daung township (April 2006)
"The SPDC only allowed one truck to travel each week. They would allow this truck to carry only 30 sacks of rice. These 30 sacks of rice were for all the villages around this area. So each household would only get a little rice."
- Saw E--- (M, 17). K--- village, Than Daung township (April 2006)
According to one KHRG field researcher, numerous villages in the region have received orders to construct fences around their villages, leaving only three gates through which villagers can enter or exit the village. Villagers must be posted on these gates at all times to record the names of those who have left the village and villagers are not permitted to be away from the village for any longer than three days. Should any villager be away from the village for any longer than this, the soldiers will punish that person's family and the village head for their absence. This represents a large problem for those who remain in the village after their friends and family have fled into the forest as displaced persons or to Thailand as refugees. It is not yet apparent if these people will continue to be punished and fined until their relatives return to the village, but it is possible that the SPDC will use this pretext to extort additional money from the villagers.
"The SPDC has increased the number of soldiers in its army camps on the east and west of the Klay Loh [River]. They have also sent more soldiers to Kler Lah and all nearby villages. The SPDC doesn't allow the villagers living near Kler Lah to go outside [their villages]. If anyone goes outside and is seen by the soldiers, they will be shot and killed. They have fenced many villages and only left three gates open. When the villagers go out they must record the villagers' names. If the villagers are away from the village for more than three days they are punished. In June, the villagers from Der Doh village could go out and do their work, but starting in July 2006, the soldiers came and told them that they couldn't go outside anymore. The villagers were not allowed to leave the village for more than three days and had to record their names [every time that they left the village]. If a villager leaves the village for more than three days, the SPDC will harass the village head or their relatives. Many villagers have left the village and have not returned because the SPDC Army soldiers come to oppress the villagers and kill them if they disobey."
- a KHRG field researcher (Aug 2006)
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| Soldiers from LIB #10 burned Thay Yah Yuh village of Than Daung township to the ground on April 21st 2006 as they swept through the hills seeking out IDPs. This villager later returned to his paddy barn only to find that the soldiers had discovered it dumped his paddy out on the ground in a bid to render it inedible. [Photo: KHRG] |
As a result of the movement restrictions and blockades on all of the roads and trails, villagers living in SPDC-controlled areas are unable to sell their vegetables and cash crops in local markets, which they need to do to get money to buy rice. The high demand for food and the lack of supply has driven costs up to the point where basic goods are beyond the means of most villagers. Some villagers have run out of food and have no money with which to buy more. Villagers in this predicament must borrow whatever can be spared from close friends. Karen villagers have a system of helping one another by sharing their food and pooling resources so that everyone will survive until the next harvest or conditions improve and more food becomes available. Many villagers must now eat a form of nutritionally-poor watery rice porridge to stretch their scant food supplies as far as possible. The supplies of those who do have a little food left are also rapidly disappearing. KHRG researchers now state that few villagers have more than one or two months worth of rice left.
For years, villagers from the plains and areas that are less tightly controlled by the SPDC have set up secret markets in the forests where villagers could come to buy and sell food. [9] For many villagers these clandestine 'jungle markets' were the only way that they could get more food. Present movement restrictions, however, make these markets dangerous undertakings. If ever one of these markets is discovered by an SPDC Army patrol, everyone attending the market would be accused of belonging to the resistance and shot on sight. Furthermore, no outside aid reaches villagers in heavily SPDC-controlled areas unless the villagers can surreptitiously travel into the forest where they can receive it; however, under the current climate of movement restrictions and frequent SPDC Army patrols, this too is becoming more and more dangerous for villagers to do.
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| Two families from Thay Yah Yuh village sharing a meal. Those whose food supplies are destroyed must rely on their fellow villagers who share theirs with them. [Photo: KHRG] |
Many villagers assert that when what little food they have left runs out they may attempt the arduous journey to Thailand where they hope to be taken into one of the refugee camps. Their route across Lu Thaw township of Papun District, however, is littered with landmines and presently traversed by dozens of SPDC Army battalions who would shoot them on sight. Over 2,000 villagers have already crossed into Thailand since the beginning of the offensive late last year and according to the Karen Office for Relief and Development (KORD), a further 1,700 have made it as far as Ee Thu Htah, an IDP camp located on the western bank of the Salween River marking the Thai-Burma border. [10] KORD asserts that approximately 95 percent of this number had originated from Toungoo District. These IDPs, still on the Burma side of the border, remain vulnerable to attack by the SPDC. While KNLA patrols and landmines defend the approaches to the site, they will not be able to hold back the thousands of SPDC Army soldiers deployed in the area should they launch a concentrated attack on the camp.
"We don't want to run to a refugee camp because I think we can bear to stay here in our village, but if the SPDC soldiers become more active we may have to go to the refugee camp. The SPDC forces the villagers to work for them as slaves. They have been oppressing the villagers and the children can't go to school and villagers can't travel. We just want to have freedom and to be free from their control."
- Saw H--- (M). IDP, B--- village, Than Daung township (April 2006)
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| Villagers from eastern Tantabin township banding together to sow their rice fields in April 2006. Despite living very close to several SPDC Army camps, they try to carry on their way of life while constantly having to monitor and evade the SPDC Army soldiers. [Photo: KHRG] |
Contrary to a statement made by UNHCR representative Hannah Massafin, who claimed that "there was no indication that there would be a resurgence of large numbers of Karen fleeing across the border, as occurred early this year", [11] many more villagers may hazard the trip to Thailand in the coming months when their food runs out. Representatives of KORD have been quoted to state that they expect a further 3,000 people to soon arrive at the border, [12] even though increased military activity in northern Papun District, through which the prospective refugees must pass on their way to the border, has made safe passage through this region exceedingly difficult. [13] It is quite possible that many of those who attempt the crossing will be captured by SPDC patrols or shot en route. Should they succeed in safely reaching the border, there is no guarantee that Thai Army soldiers and border patrol police will not prohibit them from entering Thailand at gunpoint, as has happened on numerous separate occasions in the past.
Furthermore, it is highly likely that SPDC Army attacks on undefended villages will soon be stepped up again now that the rains have all but ceased. Any such resurgence in attacks on villages and associated human rights abuses will drive thousands more villagers from their homes into the surrounding forests or onward to the border with Thailand.
Footnotes
[9] See Photos #4-2 through #4-4 in KHRG Photo Gallery: 2006 (14/11/06)
[10] Shah Paung, "Junta Attacks on Karen Continue during Gambari Visit", in: The Irrawaddy, November 10th 2006. Accessed at http://www.irrawaddy.org on November 13 th 2006.
[11] Ismail Wolff, " Karen exodus eases, but abuses rife", in: Thai Day (a supplement of the International Herald Tribune in Thailand), August 17th 2006. Received by email. Accessible on the Thai Day website at http://www.manager.co.th/IHT/default.aspx.
[12] Shah Paung, "Junta Attacks on Karen Continue during Gambari Visit", in: The Irrawaddy, November 10th 2006. Accessed at http://www.irrawaddy.org on November 13 th 2006.
[13] See Karen Human Rights Group. New SPDC military moves force more villagers to flee (KHRG #2006-B9, 4/7/06); Offensive columns shell and burn villages, round up villagers in northern Papun and Toungoo districts (KHRG #2006-B7, 7/7/06); and SPDC troops commence full offensive in Papun district (KHRG #2006-B6, 1/6/06)
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