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One Year On: Continuing abuses in Toungoo DistrictInternal displacement
Many villagers refuse to obey SPDC forced relocation orders when issued and instead flee deeper into the forest where they hope to evade detection by SPDC Army patrols. The oppressive conditions that villagers are subjected to in SPDC-controlled relocation sites are such that an increasing number of villagers are choosing to adopt a life of uncertainty, hunger, and flight hiding in the forests over being interned in a relocation site, despite the threats from the soldiers. Contrary to the expectations of the SPDC, their forced relocation program is failing. Villagers living in SPDC-controlled areas in addition to those living beyond them are resisting military control. Villagers are not moving to relocation sites when ordered and many more continue to flee away from SPDC control into the forests or to refugee camps in Thailand. Previously published KHRG reports have estimated that there may be as many as 10-15,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) resisting military control in this manner in the forests of Toungoo District alone. [14] Similarly, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) estimates there to be 14,500 IDPs in hiding in SPDC-defined Thandaung township, including 5,200 newly-displaced persons in the past year. [15] Non-violent non-compliant resistance of this sort is far more problematic for the SPDC than is the armed resistance of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). By not moving into the relocation sites as ordered, the villagers cannot be exploited by the military for forced labour or extortion, thus thwarting the SPDC's designs of a Burma in which their rule is absolute and uncontested. The annual monsoon rains have been falling over Toungoo District for the past several months, during which time thousands of internally displaced villagers have been hiding in the forests. SPDC Army soldiers have been militarily active in the district, sending out regular patrols, making it difficult for the villagers to build new homes in the forest. The villagers have been living under plastic tarpaulins and makeshift shelters and must move from place to place on a daily basis in order to avoid the SPDC Army patrols, establishing temporary camps everywhere they go. Many of these displaced villagers have run out of food after SPDC Army patrols found and destroyed their hidden rice storage barns. Those whose barns have not yet been discovered still have some food left and share what little they have with those who have none. Soon, though, even this rice will run out.
The ongoing SPDC Army patrols and attacks on IDP sites, the destruction of villagers' food supplies and livelihoods, and the blockades that the SPDC has placed on the roads have in combination brought about the present situation in which very few villagers have enough food. Under these conditions many displaced villagers state that they are only able to grow enough rice to feed their families for three months of the year. Throughout the year SPDC Army columns have systematically been moving through the hills of Toungoo District hunting the internally displaced and destroying all hidden food caches that they find. Not only have they laid waste to the IDPs' existing food supplies but also their ability to grow or purchase any more food. Plantations have been set ablaze and rice fields have been ripped up or trampled by the soldiers. A KHRG field researcher has reported that as of mid-October, approximately 750 fields have been destroyed in Toungoo District by SPDC Army soldiers so far this year. Parts of the district where fewer fields have thus far been destroyed are now experiencing increased SPDC Army activity, indicating that many more fields in these areas can also be expected to be destroyed in the coming months. The internally displaced avoid all contact with SPDC Army soldiers for fear of being captured, beaten or killed. However, travelling to a market exposes them to the risk of encountering the soldiers. To minimise this risk, many consult with the local KNLA soldiers for intelligence regarding any known SPDC Army troop movements or patrols. Only upon hearing that the path is clear will they make the journey to the market.
To supplement what they can provide for themselves, some aid can periodically be provided to the internally displaced by various independent Karen relief organisations such as the Karen Office for Relief and Development (KORD) and the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen Persons (CIDKP). While this aid is of great assistance to the villagers, it still falls far short of what is needed. Operating on limited funds, organisations such as KORD and CIDKP are only able to provide the villagers with enough money to buy approximately two months' worth of rice. For the other ten months of the year, the villagers must rely upon one another and their own resourcefulness in order to survive. In April 2006, a tin (12.5 kg / 27.6 lb) of rice cost 7,000 kyat in the markets of Kaw Thay Der village. A sack (50 kg/ 110 lb) of rice would therefore fetch approximately 28,000 kyat in those same markets. The price of rice in the hills of Toungoo District has doubled in the past three years. By way of comparison, in August 2003 a sack of rice in Kler Lah cost 14,000 - 15,000 kyat. [16] Internally displaced villagers, who are commonly captured or shot on sight and thus fear any encounters with SPDC Army soldiers, must hire other villagers to go and buy their rice for them. Doing so, however, according to a KHRG field researcher, has driven the cost of a sack of rice to as high as 40,000 kyat (including the costs of hiring other villagers to carry the rice up to their hiding site in the forest).
Displaced villagers face a very real threat of being killed if seen by an SPDC Army patrol. IDPs are often fired upon without warning or provocation. Most displaced villagers thus flee ahead of advancing SPDC Army units for fear of being shot. A villager from Than Daung township who had been captured and tortured by the SPDC in the past told KHRG about an incident in early 2006 when an SPDC Army patrol unexpectedly entered his village. Fearing that he would be tortured or killed, he fled at the sight of the soldiers. The soldiers shouldered their rifles to fire, but fortunately for the villager, their weapons misfired and he was able to escape unharmed. Similarly, on September 30th 2006, soldiers from LIB #11 opened fire on a group of Ler Kloh Per Koh and Htee Hsa Per villagers as they were harvesting their paddy, all of whom managed to flee unhurt. On October 10th 2006, a combined column of soldiers from LIB #567 and IB #240 launched an assault on Saw Tay Der village in Tantabin township. Once again, the villagers had fled ahead of the advancing column and no one was injured. Others have not been so lucky. An internally displaced villager from Than Daung township told KHRG of five bodies that were found bound together in the Day Loh River in April earlier this year. The five men were civilian villagers from Par Der Kah village. Their hands and feet were tied with rope, and each of the five was bound to the next with another rope: each villager had been stabbed in the abdomen, creating a wound through which the soldiers threaded a rope, binding the victims together like beads on a necklace. The villagers were then pushed into the river where all five of them drowned.
The Free Burma Rangers also reported that on September 5th 2006, soldiers from Light Infantry Division (LID) #66 shot and killed 75 year old Poo Thu Kee Dee of Ler Kla Der village who remained behind after all of the other villagers had fled ahead of the advancing army column. Three days later, on September 8th, two villagers from "See Pwe Go" [Sic: Zee Pyu Gone village] were killed by SPDC Army soldiers from Infantry Battalion (IB) #73 as they celebrated the completion of the rice harvest (thanksgiving). [17] KNU sources have told KHRG that as of October 14th 2006, a total of 45 villagers have been killed in Toungoo District so far this year. This number includes those who have been killed by SPDC Army soldiers as well as those who have died after stepping on landmines. [18] Internally displaced villagers receive little in the way of medical assistance. When they are hiding in the forest they must rely on KNLA medics and mobile relief teams such as the Free Burma Rangers (FBR) and the Back Pack Health Worker Teams (BPHWT) who occasionally travel into the region to provide medical care to the internally displaced. The trek to Toungoo District from the Thai-Burma border can take weeks and the teams must cross heavily militarized regions and free fire zones. These groups also suffer from a lack of funds, the result of which is that not enough medical care reaches those who are in need. In the absence of the correct medicines or the money with which to buy them, villagers treat themselves with traditional herbal remedies, concocted from ingredients that they gather from the forest.
Education also suffers heavily under the strains of internal displacement. Classes are disrupted and schools must frequently close each time the SPDC Army soldiers approach and the villagers are forced to flee again. Many displaced villagers have told KHRG that their schools are only able to study for one week out of every four. Education is held in very high regard among the Karen and most villagers, despite their circumstances, have received at least a primary level education. Upon arriving at a new temporary settlement in the forest, one of the first things that the villagers build is a school so that the children can continue to study. In most cases the school consists of an improvised blackboard under a simple shelter, though many villages lack the stability to construct even this yet they continue to provide their children with an education on the open ground. A number of schools in displaced communities receive assistance from the KNU education department. While they are not able to provide them with much, they do supply them with notebooks, pens and pencils, and in some cases textbooks.
Footnotes[14] Karen Human Rights Group. Without Respite: Renewed Attacks on Villages and Internal Displacement in Toungoo District (KHRG #2006-02, 13/7/06) [15] Thailand Burma Border Consortium, Internal Displacement in Eastern Burma 2006 Survey. Bangkok: TBBC, November 2006. Available on the TBBC website at http://www.tbbc.org. All KHRG reports use the districts and townships as they are defined by the Karen. These do not directly correspond to the 'official' SPDC-demarcated townships that are used in the TBBC report. The area referred to as Thandaung township in the TBBC report corresponds roughly to Toungoo District. This should not be confused with the Than Daung township regularly referred to in this and other KHRG reports (which only constitutes the northern part of Toungoo District). [16] Karen Human Rights Group. "Food Security" in: Enduring Hunger and Repression : Food Scarcity, Internal Displacement, and the Continued Use of Forced Labour in Toungoo District (KHRG #2004-01, 27/9/04) [17] Free Burma Rangers. Karen State Update. October 6th 2006. Received by email. Accessible on the FBR website at http://www.freeburmarangers.org. [18] This estimate does not include the 40 convict porters alleged to have been killed by SPDC Army soldiers mentioned above. |
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