SLORC / DKBA ACTIVITIES IN KAWKAREIK TOWNSHIP

An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
July 10, 1995 / KHRG #95-23

TOPIC SUMMARY

SLORC: Killings (Stories #4,5), torture (#2,5,6,12), abuse of women (#2,5, 12), detention (#5), forced labour (#1,2,6,7,12), looting (#1,6), extortion (#1,4,5,9,12), retaliation against villagers after soldiers desert (#4,5,9), executions of DKBA (#1,11), threats against Karen refugees (#1);

NAME: "Naw Thalay Paw"          SEX: F          AGE: 37
FAMILY: Married with 3 children
ADDRESS: Bee T'Ka village, Kawkareik Township         INTERVIEWED: 7/7/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Christian farmer

My family and I arrived here five nights ago. We came with one other family and spent 6 nights along the way. If we had come straight the journey would only take one day, but we had to go the long way around so we wouldn't be caught by SLORC soldiers. We are from Bee T'Ka. It is a big village of about 400 or 500 houses. The Christians live on one side of the stream, and the Buddhists live on the other. The relations between them are good. Whenever the Christians have a feast they invite the Buddhists, and whenever the Buddhists have a feast they invite the Christians. They are all friends and relatives.

Now there are 40 to 50 SLORC and DKBA troops staying in the village. Most are staying at the monastery, but some are staying on the Christian side too. The SLORC troops are from the 22nd and 44th Divisions, and from #28 [Infantry] Battalion. Bo Aung Win is the SLORC commander in the area [actually she is mistaken - he is the Intelligence officer of #230 Battalion, which is commanded by Kyaw Myint Taun]. The SLORC troops seem to be there only temporarily, because they haven't built any bunkers or permanent buildings and they only demand rations for 2 or 3 days at a time. Their main base is about an hour to an hour and a half walk away.

When the SLORC soldiers came to my house, my family and I fled. They went in and took all my stored paddy rice for the whole year. They took all my pots and pans, and our furniture and clothing. When I went back to the village I asked the SLORC troops to give back my food and furniture, but they refused. I said "If you don't give me my things back, I will go to the refugee camp." They said "If you go there, then in 3 days we will come after you and make all the refugees come back with us." They robbed many other houses too - especially those whose owners had fled, but some who were at home were also robbed [for example, the other family who fled to Thailand with her family was robbed while at home]. They took their clothing, rice, pots and pans, even their bullock carts. I didn't have any money, but those who had money were robbed of that too. At night, they surrounded people's houses and went in and took everything, even people's necklaces. They did the same to Christians and Buddhists alike.

People must take turns going to work for SLORC. If one person doesn't go, he has to pay 500 Kyats per day. Those who go don't get any pay or food. The village is divided into 7 sections, and 5 men from each section have to go each month to work for SLORC for the whole month. At the end of the month, 5 new men must go. Also, 5 more men from the section must work for them for 5 days at a time, and each 5 days a new group of 5 men must go. In addition, the SLORC troops often order 100 men and women per day to go and work for them. One day, 100 men and women were ordered to go to a place where SLORC troops had stockpiled their rice. Then they were supposed to carry it back to the village. They were told it would only take 1½ or 2 hours to get there, but it took the whole day. Then when they got there they found out there was not much to carry, and many people came back carrying only 2 or 3 kilos or nothing at all. Then when they arrived back at the village, the SLORC troops said that some of their rice was lost. In reality, no villagers had taken any. They wouldn't dare, because there were armed SLORC soldiers with them the whole way. But the SLORC soldiers forced 2 people to say they had taken the rice, and then sentenced them like this: they must each pay 150 Kyats, and they must stay at home for 2 months so they can work for the SLORC troops any time the troops need them.

SLORC troops also demand money for their rations or for pigs and chickens. They demand money at least 2 times a month, but sometimes 3 or 4 times. Each time families must pay 10 Kyat or even 100 Kyat. SLORC troops also steal chickens at night. The SLORC officer in charge said to report any thefts but the villagers don't dare, because one time when someone did, even more things were then stolen from his house. The SLORC and DKBA troops take the rice they have stolen from the villagers and sell it at a nearby rice mill. They get 300 Kyat per basket, but they don't give any of that money to the villagers.

Every day, 2 women have to go to the SLORC commander to report all information about KNLA troop movements in the area. If a KNLA soldier enters the village they must report it right away. If they don't, they will be punished. There are some families of KNLA soldiers in the village. In the past these families were not in danger if they stayed in the village, but now it's too dangerous for them to be there.

The village has a Burmese government school, but before there were also two Christian Karens who were supported by the village to teach in a small school at the other end of the village. These teachers taught Karen to the small children. SLORC forced this Karen school to close and ordered all children to attend the Burmese school. They also collected money from the villagers to make a new roof for their school. There is no clinic in the village. The SLORC troops have medics with them but they only take care of their own men, not the villagers.

Now there are 20 DKBA in the village with SLORC. They have a leader who is Karen, Pa Tha Da, but all his orders are given to him by SLORC. When SLORC troops go out, they have one or two DKBA go with them as guides. They also use the DKBA to call the villagers and demand things from them. There are 3 DKBA soldiers who are from Bee T'Ka village. Pa Tha Da and Nuh Po are brothers, and they are the sons of a former KNLA soldier. There's also Buh Duh, who was just a villager. Only Pa Tha Da has a rank - he has been given 3 stars [Captain]. SLORC changed Pa Tha Da's name to Ko Daw Gyi and Nuh Po's name to Ko Daw Lay. SLORC commander Bo Aung Win is MI [SLORC Military Intelligence], and he gives them their orders. I don't know why they joined the DKBA. The DKBA told the villagers that if we joined them, it would be easy to ask SLORC for our own state. At first the villagers believed them, but later we saw it wasn't true. They said they wouldn't ask for anything from the villagers anymore. In the past, the KNU also asked for porters, food, and young men to join the army. The villagers were tired of it, but now SLORC and the DKBA ask for much more. The KNU people tried to live together with the villagers, and if one of them did something wrong he would be sent to court. But if SLORC soldiers do something wrong, they are not sent to court.

The monks in the village do not like the DKBA. They say the DKBA is a religious group, and religious groups should not pick up arms. This group does, so it is bad. The abbot, who is over 70 years old, was very disappointed with the DKBA so he called a meeting of the villagers, both Christian and Buddhist, before the DKBA came. He told the villagers to beware of the DKBA. He said "They will ask your children to join them." When the DKBA came, they did ask the villagers to join, and some did. The abbot was disappointed. The DKBA told us they will damage all the Karen refugee camps on the Thai side of the border so that people would be afraid to go there. They said there is no more KNU, that only the DKBA exists now. They said that if all the people come back from the refugee camps, the Burmese would give the Karen our own country. The SLORC troops said that if all the KNLA troops join with them, that they will leave the KNLA troops in Kaw Thoo Lei and they will go back to town.

The DKBA has to follow SLORC's orders. I don't see any sign that the DKBA troops want to help our people. No one in the village wants to support the DKBA, but they have to because they are all afraid. Even the monks don't like the DKBA. The first group of DKBA soldiers who came ordered all the villagers to throw away all their old animist customs. They forbade people to do healing ceremonies, when we tie strings around people's wrists. The people were afraid and ran away. So SLORC transferred that group out and brought in a new group. The new group doesn't say anything about the animist traditions. In my own village, the SLORC killed one DKBA soldier while he was taking a bath in the river. They said they had accidentally mistaken him for a KNLA soldier. On our way out to the border, we heard that the SLORC had also killed one DKBA soldier at Bu Dah Klo village and 2 DKBA soldiers at Naw Dah Kee village. On the way out, our family and the other family slept 5 nights in villages and 1 night in the forest. We met one porter on the way. He said he and some other Karens had been forced to carry loads that were extremely heavy. When they couldn't go on, 3 or 4 were killed. He managed to run away.

Even though the SLORC troops forbid people to go to the refugee camps, I had to go, because they had taken my whole year's rice supply, and I couldn't work to support us because I had to work for SLORC so often already. Five other families left one or two weeks before us. Many people want to leave, but they are afraid of what will happen if they leave. If I went back now and they knew I had been in a refugee camp, they would punish me. I have been here 5 days already and they haven't come after me, so they were lying when they said they would.

NAME: "Saw Htoo Pa"                   SEX: M           AGE: 50
NAME: "Naw Lwee Paw"               SEX: F            AGE: 43
ADDRESS: Kawkareik Township               INTERVIEWED: 20/5/95
DISCRIPTION: Both are Karen Buddhists.

We have come from a village of about 100 houses in Kawkareik Township. Last month the DKBA and SLORC soldiers from #230 Battalion came to our village. We can't recall the exact date. The SLORC soldiers stayed outside the village while the DKBA entered and ordered everyone together, because they said they would give a speech. They told us that if anybody tried to run then the SLORC soldiers would shoot them. Therefore, all the villagers gathered together.

Four people gave speeches. One was Pa Nwee [a former KNLA NCO, now prominent among the DKBA in the region and ranked as a Lt. Col. or Colonel]. Another said he had spent 2 months as a monk and is now a Major in the DKBA. The third was Thra Pa Doh [a well-known civilian in the area]. The last was a monk who was wearing prayer beads around his neck, had a pistol, a walkie-talkie and a wristwatch, and had no knowledge of any Karen language [there have been many reports of SLORC dressing military officers as monks to control the DKBA, particularly in Myaing Gyi Ngu]. In general, the speeches were to encourage us to join the DKBO. They said if we join we needn't be afraid of SLORC or KNLA soldiers, as the DKBA would guard the village. They said families who joined would not have to pay any porter fees or serve as porters. They said that now Karen and Burmese are brothers, and therefore we Karen and Burmese brothers should all join together to fight against the KNU. They said that many villages had already joined them, and that it was now our turn to decide.

In our village everybody is Buddhist, but anyway nobody agreed to join with them. This is because we were afraid of them, because they seemed unreliable and they came with SLORC soldiers. Also, the abbot [of the monastery] in our village does not like the DKBA. SLORC Battalion #230 controls the region around our village and they have deceived us for a long time. Because of the things they do, no men will be village head for fear of their beatings, so all the village heads in the area are women. Some villages rotate women as village heads as often as every 15 days.

Not long before the DKBA reached our area, soldiers from Battalion #230 came to our village at 1 a.m. in the morning. The commander ordered us all outside together. He said nothing, but then he began to beat all of the male villagers. After that he carefully examined all of the women. He said they had come to arrest a woman who was the wife of a KNLA soldier, but they must have had false information because there was no such person in our village. So they couldn't find her. Then they grabbed one woman who was in her 30's. The village head vouched for her, and pleaded with them that she has a small baby to take care of. Then the soldiers opened her shirt, squeezed her breasts and sucked on her nipples [presumably this was their warped way of verifying what the village head had said]. Then they released her.

Generally, the duties of our village are that every house must regularly provide one person to work at the Battalion 230 compound, cleaning the compound, digging bunkers and trenches for the whole day. We are only allowed to return home at nightfall. We are also ordered to repair the roads around their camp. And if a landmine explodes on a road, then the nearest village will get in big trouble. Once a landmine exploded far from our village, but even so the SLORC soldiers still demanded 50 viss [80 kg.] of pork as compensation. The villages closer to it had to pay money. There has not been any fighting around our village, but now it is too difficult to stay at our village any more, so we came here.

NAME: "Naw Wah Wah"           SEX: F           AGE: 45
NAME: "Naw Htoo Htoo"          SEX: F           AGE: 42
NAME: "Naw Lah"                   SEX: F          AGE: 30
ADDRESS: Kawkareik Township               INTERVIEWED: 2/6/95
DISCRIPTION: All three are Karen Christians.

In the first week of May the Ko Per Baw ["Yellow Headbands", Karen name for DKBA] came to the area of Bee T'Ka and Ta K'Rah villages. The SLORC soldiers guarded around the villages for them. Pa Nwee spoke at a public meeting. He said that everything about Ko Per Baw is good and nothing is bad, therefore we should join or else they would burn down our houses, our school and our church! After the meeting, three Ko Per Baw monks went to visit the abbot of Bee T'Ka monastery. They all had guns. Later, 2 of them left and only one stayed on in the village. They disputed with the abbot, because he said "This is politics, it doesn't belong to us. Revolutions and religions follow different paths." Then they went away.

Later, very few people joined with Ko Per Baw - only about 40 villagers. So they were angry, and they planned to burn down the church. They went to the monastery [which has a generator] and asked for petroleum so they could burn the church. The abbot said "I will give it to you, and you can burn the church down, and then you can also burn my monastery down. Because we [Buddhists and Christians] in this village have lived together since long ago and we live together peacefully, understand each other and drink the same water from the river. To burn down the church and not the monastery would be unfair." But the Ko Per Baw still wanted to do it, so the abbot said "If you do that, then I will leave here and go to the town to tell everyone about everything you did in our village." Then the Ko Per Baw went away again.

Then Pa Nwee offered a new salary for anyone who would join Ko Per Baw from the village. For one month it was 1 basket of rice, plus 3,000 Kyat, plus no porter duties or fees required of the family, but still the villagers were afraid and untrusting.

Not only is there Ko Per Baw, but also Ko Per Kit ["Striped headbands", referring to traditional Karen men's shirts and headbands, which are striped and usually red-and-white] in our area. The Ko Per Kit usually wear Karen shirts and other traditional clothes and carry swords [from descriptions, these appear to be like Japanese samurai swords in scabbards - these are not a traditional Karen weapon, but there have been alot of Japanese samurai swords floating around Burma since the Japanese occupation. Whether they really are samurai swords has yet to be confirmed. The Ko Per Kit ideology seems to take some ideas from the Telekoo, a small religious / cultural movement of long standing in some Karen areas. The Telekoo are fiercely devoted to Karen culture and practice a fervent form of Buddhism with some radical twists, such as sword-bearing monk-priests who worship the "Future Buddha". Many Karen believe the Telekoo can read minds and have great spiritual power. The Ko Per Kit may have copied their basic idea from the Telekoo and thrown politics in as well.]. Many of them have drums slung across their backs which they beat while walking. They have their own leader whose name is Maung Shwe Kyo, but he is under the command of Pa Nwee, and the Ko Per Kit usually stay and work together with the Ko Per Baw. The Ko Per Kit say they are from Tha M'Nya monastery, but we saw no actual orders or paperwork from there nor any other direct connections. [Tha M'Nya, near Pa'an, is the largest monastery in Karen State, and the abbot, the Tha M'Nya Sayadaw, is one of the most beloved monks throughout all of Burma. He is Pa'oh but also has a great love for the Karen, and thousands of people have settled in a refuge around his monastery where he feeds them through donations and neither SLORC nor KNU can touch them. 2-3 years ago it appeared that the SLORC was trying to corrupt him, initially by inviting him to Rangoon to accept great honours, but he refused. He is completely unpolitical. In light of later events, it is possible that SLORC envisaged him as the leader of their planned 'DKBA' as early as 1993, but when he could not be influenced they found U Thuzana, the current DKBA leader, instead. The 'refuge' initially set up at Myaing Gyi Ngu looked suspiciously like a copy of Tha M'Nya (until the forced labour, military conscription and other abuses began there). By claiming to come from Tha M'Nya, the Ko Per Kit / DKBA / SLORC may be trying to create an impression that they are supported by the Sayadaw there, despite the fact that he would certainly not lend his support to an armed political group. The full truth remains to be seen.]

Both groups are generally vegetarians, but we heard that their monks have now granted them the eating of two-legged animals and fish four times per month. They say "2 legs good, 4 legs bad" [this has now become a sick joke among some Karen, meaning that the DKBA likes to kill people but not animals]. In our village, they arranged for 4 people to work finding vegetables in the forest for them. We heard that Ko Per Baw soldiers went to a woman's house in Bee T'Ka and asked for her ox and cart so they could carry rice. The woman told them, "My ox is now in the fields, it would be difficult to find", so the Ko Per Baw said "Now you are not willing to help us." The woman said, "Everything you have asked I have given, but now my ox would be hard to find." The soldiers were not pleased, and they went and told their officer Pa Tha Da. Pa Tha Da was just a civilian in our village, but after the Ko Per Baw came he became a Ko Per Kit with one star [2nd Lieutenant]. A few days later some SLORC officers visited him, and after they left he suddenly had 3 stars [Captain] and became Ko Per Baw. So Pa Tha Da came to the woman's house, searched it and arrested both her and her two sisters, aged 30 and 29. Altogether there were about six Ko Per Baw. They tied up the eldest sister in front of the house and Pa Tha Da slapped her in the face. The second sister was tied up and poked in the legs with a fishing spear, making her legs bleed. The third sister was tied up on top of an ant's nest, and the ants bit her all over. Then their brother came, begged for their release and promised to provide an ox and cart, so they were released.

There was also an old man there who has some relatives in the KNU and some relatives in Ko Per Baw. Despite that, the Ko Per Baw soldiers came and abused him and said "You'd better call back your son who went to the KNU." Then he was afraid, but he is too old to go far. So he left and now he stays somewhere outside the village. The Ko Per Baw especially hate families with relatives in the KNU, and they usually tell them to call their relatives back and threaten to arrest other family members and hold them as hostages if they don't come. The KNU village leader fled but left his family behind. They arrested his 35-year-old wife and told her she'd be released if he returned, but he didn't and so she was sent along with her four children to Myaing Gyi Ngu. There used to be two schools in Bee T'Ka, a primary school run by SLORC and a middle school by the KNU. The Ko Per Baw closed the KNU school, the headmaster had to flee to Thailand and the teachers also fled to other places.

About 100 SLORC soldiers from #230 Battalion are usually stationed around our village, and because of this and all the other problems and events that have occurred we were too afraid to live there any longer, so we planned to flee together. We started out on May 20, along with a young novice monk in his robes [for protection] and his father. We passed through many Ko Per Baw checkpoints along the way and said we were going to buy food supplies at Meh Bleh. We kept going all the way to KNU 6th Brigade area [KNU-held territory far to the south] before we crossed into Thailand, so to reach here it took us 13 days altogether, and we don't intend to go back.

NAME: "Naw Paw Thu"             SEX: F             AGE: 45
ADDRESS: Bee T'Ka village, Kawkareik Township          INTERVIEWED: 3/6/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Christian

On May 2, two soldiers from SLORC Battalion #230 at Naw Bo camp [called Naung Bo Dike Kyi by the Burmese], came to a village near our village in order to defect. They were taken through our village to another, where they met with a KNU officer and defected. On May 3 in the afternoon, the Battalion 230 commander Kyaw Myint Taun came from Naw Bo to Bee T'Ka village and asked questions about the missing soldiers. After that Aung Win, the Military Intelligence officer at Naw Bo, gave an order that Bee T'Ka village must pay a penalty of 150,000 Kyat as compensation for the lost soldiers.

That same day soldiers from Battalion 230 who were patrolling east of the village stopped Saw Ket Doh and interrogated him. Saw Ket Doh was a little drunk, as he was returning from a wedding. The soldiers asked if he had seen any KNLA soldiers and he told them he had not. But not long after, KNLA soldiers ambushed another SLORC unit [actually it was a DKBA unit which was ambushed]. So the SLORC soldiers returned to Bee T'Ka and arrested Saw Ket Doh. They accused him of helping the KNLA. They took him to Naw Bo camp, and there they beat him and cut his throat. They also arrested one villager from Naw Bo village and one from Baw T'Raw Kaw village, accused them of helping the two defectors and executed them.

At about 6 in the morning on May 7, there was fighting between Ko Per Baw and KNLA soldiers. Later that day a group of Ko Per Baw went to Tee Wah May Kee and executed a KNU administrative officer there. Then they went to Naw Ter Kee, but the villagers were afraid and fled. On May 8 the Ko Per Baw arrived at Bee T'Ka village. Then Pa Tha Da met with Pa Nwee and they signed a paper and drank 'promissory liquid' together [to seal a vow; this is often water with a bullet or piece of a bayonet in it, the idea being that if the promise is broken, the weapon will come to kill you]. Then Pa Tha Da went to the monastery and asked the abbot, N---, for permission to burn down the church. The abbot said, "After you burn the church, come and burn the monastery - and if you don't then I will burn it down myself, because we have lived together here for a long time and we drink the same water from the river. When the Christians have a festival we help them, and when we have a festival they help us." After this Pa Tha Da lowered his head and went away. Later in the day he went back and asked again, but the abbot told him the same as before so he went away again. On the 10th of May, Pa Tha Da went to Naw Mu Mu's house. She is more than 70 years old. He accused her of helping the KNU in such ways as letting them stay and store materials in her house. He took all her rice supply and ordered her to come to the Ko Per Baw in Bee T'Ka once per month in order to receive one large tin of rice [a little less than enough for 1 person]. Around the same time, the Ko Per Baw were confiscating things like bullock carts, goats, pigs, and chickens from KNU families, but some of the people who lost things were not KNU families. [By 'KNU families' she means the families and relatives of KNU members. Other witnesses claim that when the 'vegetarian' DKBA members are asked why they are stealing livestock, they reply that they will give it to SLORC soldiers.]

The Ko Per Baw waited until Sunday, the 14th of May, to hold their public meeting in the village. When Pa Nwee spoke, he said that there is a need for all Karen to stay united and that there will be freedom of religion. Pa Tha Da spoke and said KNU families are the same as KNU members, and therefore they must all be arrested and killed. After hearing this, most KNU families were in fear for their lives and fled the village.

NAME: "Naw Muh Ghay"                SEX: F         AGE: 33
ADDRESS: Bee T'Ka village, Kawkareik Township            INTERVIEWED: 6/6/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Christian.

Now the Burmese are demanding porters. One person per house must go, and when we go we aren't allowed to come back. I was staying at my parents' place. When the demand came for people to go, I had to go from our house. It was after the water festival [which is in April; these events happened in early May, after two SLORC soldiers deserted]. Everybody in Bee T'Ka was called together because the Burmese said that the villagers had erred. Some people in Naw Bo and Saw Kat Kyo told them that Bee T'Ka villagers had guided two of their soldiers [deserters] through the village, but I didn't know anything about this. Then the Burmese demanded that one person from every house must go to their camp. So one person from every house went, because otherwise their house would be burnt down. [From subsequent details of her story, it appears that only one part of the village was involved; Bee T'Ka is a very large, spread-out village, so this is expectable.] When we went there we saw one headwoman who was being punished severely by the Burmese - they were pushing a bayonet against her temple. But they didn't put us together with her.

It was #230 Battalion. There was an NCO who beat me. Other people told me he had 3 stripes [Sergeant; others also claim he is with Intelligence]. When he beat me I cried and became afraid, so I started to shake. He could speak Pwo and Sgaw Karen languages. He told us, "You must tell the truth! You are families of Karen soldiers!" When they question us like this we answer with only one word, "Yes", because if we answer otherwise or give different answers, they'll ask many more questions and we'll have much more trouble. He asked, "Who guided the two men?", and we replied "We don't know, we didn't see", and he said "You are liars! What you tell me isn't true! You are Karen soldiers' families!" Some of the women replied "I have a family but my husband is not a Karen soldier". Neither is my husband, but I couldn't say this because my husband doesn't stay near here, so if I said that and they told me to call him and I couldn't, then they would say he is a soldier and I might be killed.

I don't remember how many times they beat me, but until I was blue in many places. They used a heavy length of bamboo [she named "wa klu", the thickest variety there is], and both ends of it were sharpened. For me they used just one section [probably about 2 feet long], but longer pieces for some people. I said "Please, we are not Karen soldiers' families, if we were we would never have come here, we are all just regular villagers". Then a new soldier came who could also speak Karen and he said to us "People have told us things already, you don't need to lie to us. We already know who guided the two soldiers and where they went and we know their village." [a basic SLORC interrogation tactic, get people to talk by telling them you already know anyway.] Before they asked more questions they beat us first and I cried, and then because they beat us we went along with whatever he said, agreeing with everything and saying "We know the people who guided them, they went to Noh Law Bler, and the Karen soldiers are staying there and if you go there they'll attack you". They believed that, but even so we didn't get any food and then they made us sit out in the sun. Then they told us that we were going to be taken back to our village because they had no food to give us there. Before we left, one person was taken aside and again beaten severely by the soldiers, and they tied the men together in pairs. Then they marched us to Taw Tharee Bu, only a few minutes away, and in that place we saw a pit which had written above it 'Anybody who makes a mistake will be put in here', and then we were very afraid. Then we saw some soldiers boiling water in a very big pot, and they showed it to us and threatened us that any person who made a mistake would be put in the pot with the water! Oh - boiling water!! Then we were very afraid and we prayed for ourselves, all depending on our different religions, and we cried. The soldiers said "Anybody would die" and we agreed and said together that surely nobody could hope to live through that. We didn't see any other villagers in that place, only soldiers.

In the afternoon we set out for Bee T'Ka. We had to carry the soldiers' rucksacks but we hadn't eaten any food, so we were very tired because they were very heavy. All the way from this place near Naw Bo the soldiers ordered us to run, always run, not walk, until we reached Bee T'Ka, and running it took about 2 hours. I saw one woman who had a mouth ulcer, and after we started our journey it broke and fluid was running out of her mouth and she was crying. They called to us and we had to hurry as much as possible, even if there were many bushes and obstacles, even if we didn't have slippers on our feet. Really, this wasn't a pleasant scene for us, because all we could see was people getting beaten, and we felt terrible inside. The headwoman [who had been badly tortured] couldn't walk, and two people at a time took turns carrying her. We'd had no food, and we'd all been beaten. We took one rest at Tee Wah Ker, and we thought we would die! We reached Kaw K'Ner Ko, and when a soldier asked me "What village is this?" I replied "Bee T'Ka", because I was so tired. But they ordered us to continue past it. I was so tired, and I decided "No, I don't want to go. If I die now, that's alright." The pack was so heavy, and we couldn't put the packs down or take a rest even for a few minutes. Then when we reached the outskirts of Bee T'Ka they wouldn't let us drink any water even though we were very thirsty, and even then we had to keep running because there are Karen soldiers around Bee T'Ka, and we told the Burmese "Don't go! If you go they will shoot at you, and if you make us walk before you then we will die!" Then nobody went into the centre of the village - instead they called us together again. We saw only women and children from the village there, but the soldiers called for everyone to join together with us, whether women or children [possibly as a human shield], and the people begged them "Don't shoot, we are only villagers", and they didn't shoot. Then we came to where there was a wedding in the village that day, where there was alot of pork and other foods, and suddenly it was all full of Burmese soldiers! Some food was given to us too [by the hosts, not the soldiers], but because of the beatings my sides were sore and I could hardly eat any.

After that we arrived at the monastery, and I found I couldn't move easily because it was so painful. They ordered us to stay together at the monastery. We all thought we would be allowed to eat there, but they still did not let us eat. Only at 10 p.m. they let us eat, and then only because the abbot demanded that the soldiers let us eat. Even though we'd had a rest by then, we could not eat rice easily. We only took a very small amount at a time. We hadn't eaten for one day and one night. And then after eating the feeling was unpleasant, and they still did not allow us to go anywhere - they said to us "You cannot go back - if you try to go free you must die". For no reason! No trial or anything! Then Thra T--- and Thra S--- came and we begged them, "Please help us, or we will die now". They told us "We know the soldiers have beaten you and we have been trying to find out news of your situation, so we have come to you and we know that the soldiers can't kill you now." They brought with them mothers and fathers of people in our group, to encourage and strengthen them. We heard we were all still in trouble because the Burmese had demanded 150,000 Kyat, and they begged the soldiers that this was too much because we had already suffered very hard punishment for this. So because they had forced us to go where we didn't want to go and beaten us, they then reduced the amount by 10,000, to 140,000 Kyat. Then all of the village leaders had to sign to agree to pay this. They demanded the money because their [two] soldiers joined the Karen with two guns and ammunition. After the leaders signed we were all released and we could return to our homes. When we started to go the soldiers yelled at us "Go! Quickly!" So we went quickly, and then after we got to our homes we couldn't do anything, because of the pain. I was still very afraid, I couldn't think clearly and I couldn't sleep.

A man from Baw T'Raw Kaw was also called to go with us, together with his wife and children. He was beaten very much by the Burmese soldiers. They accused him of guiding the two soldiers, and they were sure about him. They wouldn't let his children take their mother's milk so they cried alot, and the other women there tried to get the children to take milk from them but they didn't want to and they cried. Their mother was there, but when she tried to give them milk the Burmese soldiers beat her very badly and her body became swollen. Then they left her together with us. Her husband was also beaten very badly, and after we got back to the village they burnt him with fire and did so many things to him. When I saw it I couldn't even think anymore. I stayed by myself and didn't talk to anybody. In the end, he was dead. Dead for no reason. His name was Boh Nee [named as either Pati Po Mah or Manein Kyi Bah in the testimony of "Naw Thay Wah" - Karen and Burmese often have more than one name].

Then [a few days later] the Ko Per Baw came, and people said "We'll go and see them together", but I said "No, I don't want to go" because I was afraid and I didn't dare. Whenever people said the Burmese were coming we all ran together, even without our pillows. Now we stay here [Thailand] we never want to go back to our place and face all these problems and dangers. My parents are still there, because the Ko Per Baw are not as strict for us [as SLORC], because their leader is Pa Nwee and he knew us before. The Ko Per Baw said "Don't be afraid, if you live in unity with us you don't have to worry about giving things to the Burmese", and they said "When the Burmese came and beat you we were not here", but some people said "When they beat us you didn't want to be here". Anyway, after they stayed in the village the situation got a little better, but there is still fighting between Burmese and Karen soldiers. [Her friend then described how during the fighting some Karen soldiers had shot at the DKBA's Pa Tha Da and his brother in the village, and how afterwards Pa Tha Da blamed the villagers for this.] Then Pa Tha Da and his brother said "If nobody had been in the village houses, they could not have shot at us" [meaning to imply that the villagers are supporting the KNLA], and we said "We can't tell them not to shoot at you, because they're your enemies. So they came and shot at you, and they'll do that wherever and whenever they see you." This made them angry again, and they said "We will kill you until none are left!"

On our way here [to Thailand] we saw Nuh Po. He was wearing a Striped Headband [he is Pa Tha Da's brother, and is with either Ko Per Baw or Ko Per Kit], and he asked us "Did you come from Bee T'Ka? Have any Christians come with you?" We said we'd come from Bee T'Ka but there were no Christians among us, and he said "If any Christians come we will kill them all!" At the time he asked us we were sitting together with a monk under a tree, so he assumed we were Buddhist! [They laughed] He said "If I go to Bee T'Ka I will do something terrible there!" His brother stays in Bee T'Ka already, and they know the Christian leaders' houses and families because they have stayed there and because before they used to help the Karen soldiers. So they know all the secret weapons caches and can find everybody and everything. They know the Karen soldiers' families, so those families are living in fear and without safety. Many troubles! At night they move around outside the Karen soldiers' houses and threaten their families, so the soldiers' families have trouble, and they can't stay or sleep in their homes so they have to flee. Also, the Ko Per Baw has told the Burmese soldiers to take things from houses, like rice, pigs or chickens, but they say "Only if it is the house of your enemy [KNLA]". Every day the Ko Per Baw take rice for themselves from houses. They found some bullock carts, ordered the owners to give them and then went to take rice from Karen soldiers' families. One woman they did this to is Htun Kyi's wife, whom I know. I didn't even know Htun Kyi was a soldier, but they already knew all about it. So we were all afraid, we couldn't stay and we came here.

The Burmese soldiers always leave villages before the Ko Per Baw come and then come back again afterwards so that it will look like they are not together, but I think they are doing things together. The Burmese soldiers go first, they are not polite and they are the first to be shot at by the Karen soldiers. The Ko Per Baw always say "We will do good things and live in unity and peace." Yes, they say like that, but we don't know what might happen. I never went to their place because I was especially afraid of their beatings. As for the Burmese, whenever people said they were coming I always ran away, because they beat us very much before they even asked us anything. Then when they asked, we couldn't say anything because we were afraid and shaking and we don't understand Burmese language very well. One of the men from the village was walking on the road with a bottle of pig fat because he was coming back from his cousin's wedding, and when he met Burmese soldiers they asked him "Did you see any Karen soldiers?" He said "No", but after they had passed him the Karen soldiers attacked them. He hadn't seen the Karen soldiers waiting for the Burmese. But then the Burmese accused him of working for the Karen soldiers, and they killed him. They beat him to death. Another one, dead for no reason. His name was Nyo Sein [mentioned as Saw Ket Doh in other testimonies - Karen often have more than one name. He was killed on May 3].

We came here bit by bit. We saw people from Kyaw Ko going to buy rice-milling machines, so we asked them to please tell any other people along the way that we were also from Kyaw Ko. Then if we met soldiers we told them "We are from Kyaw Ko, going to buy machines to mill rice at our farms. Please let us go to get things for our farms. Please don't give us trouble." We lied like that to the Burmese soldiers all the way along our journey! We could not tell them we were coming here, or they would never have let us come. I came with my family, including my 4-month-old child, and four other people. [Her friend who came with her added: "We came here and we can't go back, because if we try to go back we have no documents, and if we get back people will tell the Burmese. So we cannot go back, even though we really don't know any Karen leaders."]

NAME: "Saw Tee Ku"            SEX: M            AGE: 21
ADDRESS: Kawkareik Township           INTERVIEWED: 2/6/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Christian.

I was travelling to Pah Klu along with my friend. Starting on May 6 I was staying in K---. Five people, 3 middle-aged women and two men, arrived from Bee T'Ka village and I went to talk with them to get news. They said that Ko Per Baw were in their village, and although Ko Per Baw had encouraged them to stay they had all got passes from Ko Per Baw to go and visit their family at K---. The passes cost 10 Kyats each and bore a Ko Per Baw stamp. In spite of this, when they met with SLORC soldiers from #22 Division on the road leading out of their village, the soldiers beat them with sticks on the legs, back and shoulders. They had bruises. This SLORC unit is usually called "M'may thon kyeh" because they always beat people they meet, even if they don't have any questions to ask ["M'may thon kyeh, may thon kyeh" is a Burmese proverb, meaning "Ask nothing, three blows; ask, three blows", usually used to describe general conditions of life in Burma].

They described to me the current situation at Bee T'Ka. The Ko Per Baw have ordered the people there not to drink alcohol and to become vegetarians. They told the villagers to surrender their hunting rifles and fishing nets, and warned that if they searched houses and found these things then people would be in trouble. They said KNU members must surrender their walkie-talkies, but only four walkie-talkies were surrendered. They also said the villagers should always wear traditional Karen clothes, and although this was not an order some Ko Per Baw told villagers that they planned to punish people later who did not obey this. Most of these rules were made at the start, when the Ko Per Baw arrived in Bee T'Ka and made speeches to all the villagers. They also gave out pieces of paper detailing the rules. The villagers especially remembered what Bo Kyaw said in his speech. He said that the villagers must not try to run away, especially to Thailand, because the DKBA is in control everywhere and to attempt to escape is useless. He said that their plan is very good, that they will close up all the border areas and open big resettlement camps for the refugees to return to. He said they will arrest all KNLA officers and demanded that the villagers point out their houses and property. Later some people had their possessions confiscated, including ricefields, cattle and other livestock. 8 pairs of cattle which were being kept under the church were taken, and the DKBA sold them for 5,000 Kyats per head.

The villagers said that about 14 Ko Per Baw came to Bee T'Ka, and although there is a SLORC base nearby the SLORC soldiers just hung around the edge of the village and kept a low profile. Pa Nwee is the Ko Per Baw commander, Bee T'Ka is to be their headquarters, and their unit is called No. 333. Bo Kyaw's unit is to be based at Kyaw Ko and is called No. 999. At the time, the Ko Per Baw hadn't made a separate camp yet, they were staying in the villagers' houses.

On May 19th I stayed at Ker Ghaw, and the next day the SLORC soldiers came to the village. I was in my uncle's house. I didn't see them because they entered the village from the other end, but I saw people running so I jumped up and ran too. As I ran out of the village I saw the SLORC soldiers entering from the other end. I crossed the Meh Bleh River and climbed up to the top of a hill on the other side. At the top there were about 50 or 60 other young men like me. We could see back to Ker Ghaw. We watched while the SLORC soldiers waited for about an hour and then moved off to Taw Oh. We stayed on the hill for about an hour until a woman came with a message from the villagers that it was alright to return. When I got back the villagers said there were about 1,000 SLORC soldiers who came from Battalions 356 and 357 of Division #44, and they took 45 people from the village as porters. The headman said to them, "If you want porters, tell me and I will arrange it, but don't just grab people", but they didn't listen to him. All of the people taken were male, but some were old and others very young. I know of some 14 year old boys who were carrying rice along the roadside when they were taken. After this, the headman had to spend all day arranging for food, alcohol and other things to be taken to the soldiers at Taw Oh, and he spent all day going backwards and forwards between Taw Oh and Ker Ghaw.

Because of these events I was afraid of the Burmese soldiers and wanted to come back to Thailand, but the villagers advised me to wait because there were many SLORC soldiers on the move so it was not a good time for travel. On the morning of May 29 the headman received a written order from the SLORC at Taw Oh to send 4 carts and oxen. Taw Oh has many small sawmills, and the SLORC soldiers had demanded 2,000 Kyats per engine [small engines used to drive the saws] from the owners. Four machines had not been paid, so the Burmese had confiscated them and now wanted the carts to transport them for resale.

NAME: "Saw Thaw Thi Wah"             SEX: M             AGE: 42
ADDRESS: Kawkareik Township           INTERVIEWED: 31/5/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Buddhist

In April, about 140 soldiers of the DKBA, along with SLORC soldiers, came to my village in Kawkareik Township. We didn't see the SLORC soldiers because they stayed outside the village, so I don't know what unit they were from. The DKBA ordered villagers to go and gather people from the small clusters of houses throughout the village and bring them together. When we were all together they made speeches. I recall that there were 5 people on the platform: Pa Nwee, Bwa Thay, a civilian and two monks, both of whom were armed. Pa Nwee talked about why the DKBA was started, because the KNU oppressed Buddhists. He said the KNU didn't allow Buddhists to paint pagodas with lime or allow monasteries to use galvanized metal roofing, and so on [note: the KNU never actually did these things]. One of the monks also gave a speech in Karen language, but the other said nothing. The speeches encouraged us to join the DKBA. They said a married person in DKBA could get 1,000 Kyat per month, and single male or female soldiers could get 500 Kyat. In order to join we would have to eat only vegetables and we should move to Myaing Gyi Ngu, where they said they had plenty of rice and we would be treated well. They said that the village would no longer have to send porters, do other labour or pay fees. But in reality this is not true, because not long after that the SLORC soldiers demanded 200 porters. Most of the single young men in our village have gone to find work in Thailand and nobody else wanted to go as porters, so the village head collected money and paid to hire some 'professional' porters from Kyone Doh to go in our place. First each household gave 40 Kyat, but then this was not enough so there had to be two more collections of money. Our village has about 300 households in it.

There have also been two other calls for labour we have had to obey. The first was twice in April and twice in May, when #230 Battalion called for 50 people to go and work at their camp, repairing buildings and roads and gardening. The duty lasts 5 to 7 days, and in that time the people must stay in a place near the camp. For each person who cannot go, the village must pay 100 Kyats per day to #230 Battalion. The other thing is that every village in Kawkareik Township must send 50 people to work on the reconstruction of the Mya Pa Dine - Na Bu road. I had to do my round of duty there last month. Many people from throughout the township were staying there along the roadside, and we had to bring our own food and supplies.

In their speeches, the DKBA never demanded that we help them, but they did ask that we assist voluntarily to carry their things to the next village, where we would be free to go. But they did have some permanent porters with them, people they had arrested while trying to cross the border out of Burma without their authorization. The DKBA seemed to be well armed. Out of 140 soldiers, 40 had RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades - this was determined by drawing and description of the weapon by the interviewee] with spare rounds on their backs, and maybe 50 had M79's [also deduced from his description and drawing]. Most of the soldiers were young, the youngest being 13-14, but some were aged about 40. Despite this, they seemed disciplined. They brought their food with them, including beans and Burmese-brand condensed milk, chillies and vegetables [Burmese Army rations other than the vegetables]. They cooked their curries by themselves, and before going to sleep they meditated in the villagers' houses [they billeted themselves in the houses of the village - the meditation is probably ordered by their leaders, as the DKBA rank and file are very uneducated]. I have heard that around Pa'an the SLORC has now withdrawn the regional militias, such as the People's Army militia [SLORC forms most militias by conscripting villagers, arming them and then taking them along to force them to fight the KNLA when extra bodies are needed], and replaced them with the DKBA.

NAME: "Naw K'Paw Muh"            SEX: F            AGE: 35
ADDRESS: Bee T'Ka village, Kawkareik Township         INTERVIEWED: 3/6/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Christian.

On the evening of May 7 the Ko Per Baw entered the village, and when I heard this I left during the night. Later that night, a villager came and told me that the Ko Per Baw were asking for me and looking around the village for me and that I shouldn't stay, so I changed places again. Later they said the Ko Per Baw had called a meeting and said that they wanted to find all Kaw Thoo Lei [KNU] members and their families, and if they found them they would kill them all. So I was afraid to stay.

The Ko Per Baw went to the house of Saw Ku Taw Mo [a form of address meaning "Saw Tu Kaw's mother" - her actual name is Naw Mu Mu, as noted in other testimony in this report], who is not a Kaw Thoo Lei wife. Pa Tha Da was their leader. He accused her of sharing her rice with Kaw Thoo Lei and letting them store things in her house. When they searched they didn't find anything, but anyway they said to her "Your son works for Kaw Thoo Lei", they told her she must go and bring him back and then they abused her and said that for this reason they would take her possessions. Then they took all her rice supply and ripped the gold necklace off her daughter. They tied up her oldest daughter, Naw Kuh Po, who has a baby, and they took her to the monastery but left her baby at her house. They kept her at the monastery for one night, and then her mother and another woman went to talk to them. They said "She is just a villager, why do you keep her?", and the Ko Per Baw said "You must find your son, otherwise we must kill another member of your family instead." After that I heard that the abbot of the monastery spoke with them and she was released, but I'm not sure because I moved at about that time.

The same night that they came looking for me, the Ko Per Baw together with SLORC caught Saw Kaw Muh [the son of a local KNU civilian administrative official]. They tied him up and beat him and didn't release him [Saw Kaw Muh was held until late June, when he escaped and fled to Thailand]. Many villagers were captured like this. Other villagers who were afraid ran away, and the Ko Per Baw also confiscated the village rice supplies. Pa Tha Da was in charge. They searched through many houses. They took S---'s video player and generator [his means of income was operating the village video cinema] and they told him "Whenever we want to watch a video, you must bring the video cassettes and petrol and play the video for us" [they probably don't know how to work the machine]. At that time his wife had just had a child and it was only a few days old, but still he had to go and serve them like this. They also threatened to burn down his house because they said he was using Kaw Thoo Lei money, but he denied this and told them all he had got was his traditional wedding present from his father-in-law.

Along our way to Thailand, every time we heard that SLORC were coming we ran into the bushes. At night we slept in the bushes covered with plastic sheets. There were lots of rainstorms and mosquitos and leeches, and my son cried to me "Mother, I don't want to sleep here, let's go back. Go back now", and he asked to drink my breast milk, but I was dry for a long time and I couldn't do anything for him because we were in the jungle at night.

NAME: "Naw Thay Wah"                    SEX: F           AGE: 27
ADDRESS: Bee T'Ka village, Kawkareik Township         INTERVIEWED: 2/6/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Christian

The Ko Per Baw wanted to burn down the church in Bee T'Ka because they want all people to become Buddhists. Pa Tha Da went, but the monk said "Before you burn down the church I offer you the opportunity to also burn down the monastery". He is N---, the abbot at Bee T'Ka monastery. He said "You should burn down the monastery first and then the church, because in the past we never argued with each other, we have lived together peacefully. When they have a festival we help them and when we have a festival they help us, so if you burn down the church you will break my heart. You must treat all churches and monasteries equally." Then Pa Tha Da lowered his head and went away.

He went to Naw Kuh Po's house, tied her up and said he would burn down her house. He tied her up around the neck and the waist. They killed three people in Bee T'Ka: Saw Ket Doh, Pati Po Mah, and Manein Kyi Bah. They were all just workers. They did it because the Karen [KNLA] soldiers shot at Ko Per Baw. One of the men [Saw Ket Doh] was stopped coming back from a wedding, on the road near Bee T'Ka. They asked him if he knew anything about Karen soldiers, but he said he didn't see anything. Then after they left him the Karen soldiers shot at them east of the village. The Burmese came for Saw Ket Doh, not the Ko Per Baw. Then when the Ko Per Baw met with the Burmese, they told the Burmese to execute all 3 people. Later I talked to two Karen soldiers, and they said they had ambushed the Ko Per Baw because the Burmese had attacked them while they were eating. Another person they arrested was Naw Muh Pee, and she was beaten. After she was released she was bleating like a goat! They also beat Naw Htoo, and she was beaten so badly that she had to be carried by Kalah Ma Nyein, who had also been beaten.

I know about the two defectors [the two SLORC deserters from 230 Battalion who came through their village, also mentioned in the testimony of "Naw Paw Thu"]. Their officer had cut off the tips of their pinky fingers [the officer had reportedly done this earlier that day as a means of "permanent identification" of his troops]. I know because the officer came and called a village meeting and told us this. He was very angry and said that the Bee T'Ka villagers had helped the deserters. He demanded that the village pay 150,000 Kyat as compensation for them.

I came here because my Aunty told me not to stay there. She said the Ko Per Baw were looking for me, and she said "Don't be discovered - if they see you they will order you to find your husband within 3 days, and if you can't then they will beat you instead of him, and maybe you will die instead of your husband."

NAME: "Saw Thay Po"           SEX: M            AGE: 24
ADDRESS: Kawkareik Township         INTERVIEWED: 5/6/95
DISCRIPTION: Karen Buddhist

The Ko Per Baw call the people who don't join with them "Ta Bee Met" [literally, "closed eyes"]. Their idea is to be against the "Ta Bee Met". They always call Christians this - not 'rebels' or 'Kaw Thoo Lei', just 'Ta Bee Met'. They say that if they see Christians they will "break them apart". At first [when DKBA was formed] we heard that Christians had killed Buddhists, but that was not true. None of those things had happened in the places they said. Really, this is just action by the Burmese in order to cause conflict between Karens, so that we will fight each other. Even though we are not leaders, we all have feelings and sympathies about this.

At their meeting in Noh Baw Heh, the Ko Per Baw said "We must have unity", but after that they demanded some porters for two or three days at a time. I heard that at Bee T'Ka some people were tortured. The Ko Per Baw salaries are 1,000 Kyat for married people and 500 Kyat for single people, but I heard that at Ta M'ha they demanded the money for wages from the villagers. My brother was there at the time. Now, if people in Noh Baw Heh want to go outside the village to plant rice and such, they must ask Benyah Tha Nee [a Karen who was a monk several years ago and is now with either Ko Per Baw, Ko Per Kit or Ko Per Wah] for permission. He gives them a written pass, and they cannot stay out after dark. Before, many people slept in their field huts and they could do alot of work that way [this is also essential close to harvest time to protect the crops from animals], but now they cannot do that. Everybody is especially afraid of SLORC Battalion #81, which they call "M'may thon kyeh" ["M'may thon kyeh, may thon kyeh" is a Burmese proverb, meaning "Ask nothing, three blows; ask, three blows", usually used to describe general conditions of life in Burma], even though there is no fighting right now. Before, when Battalion #81 soldiers stayed in the village for a few days they said that if they saw anyone breaking the rules or fleeing from them then they could treat them as the enemy, and execute them or do as they like to them.

I travelled to Pah Klu starting on May 2. I went through the trading gate at W---, just north of Myawaddy and paid 250 Kyat to the SLORC soldiers there from #44 Division. Then I walked to Htee Sa Rah and on to Pah Klu, where I stayed for about 2 weeks. There the news was that the DKBA were in Bee T'Ka village, where they were making a district headquarters and are constructing a camp. This is because SLORC has given DKBA legal and administrative authority over this region, although SLORC still seems to be collecting all the money like before. The news was that after they are finished in Bee T'Ka, the DKBA will come further across the hills and make another new district named Meh Bleh Toh on this side [eastern side of the hills], possibly with a camp at Ker Ghaw. Because of this, the people in Pah Klu were very worried. They are very afraid of the DKBA, even though of the 50 or so houses in the village about 45 are Buddhist. We heard that the DKBA hates district or township officers who were appointed by KNU most of all, and will kill them if they catch them.

On three occasions in the time I was there we got news that DKBA soldiers were coming, and we all ran into the forest except for the older women. Especially on May 13, everybody thought they were coming for sure and we hid in the forest until nightfall. I became afraid that the first thing the DKBA would do would be to block the route to Thailand, so on May 18 I started to come to Thailand. On the 19th I stayed at Ker Ghaw, and the people there said the DKBA were only 5 hours [walk] from their village. They had heard that there had been a fight between DKBA and SLORC in which one DKBA medic had been killed, but they didn't know any other details. They had also heard that about 200 porters had just been taken in Myawaddy, but they weren't sure where they had been sent.

Village heads are not directly appointed by SLORC but rather are elected by the villagers themselves. They are usually women, because men cannot survive the repeated beatings and punishments by the soldiers [whereas women are beaten and tortured somewhat less often]. Therefore, nobody wants to be a village head throughout the whole region. Some villages operate a rotation system for the position, and change the village head as often as every two weeks or every month. As a result, even 17 or 18 year old girls sometimes act as village heads, but they can control the villagers and will be obeyed because everyone knows that they are being instructed and guided by the village elders, usually monastic leaders, and so they never misuse their powers.

The main duty of village heads to SLORC is to give them information on the situation in the village, especially the security situation [meaning intelligence on KNLA movements], at a specified SLORC post in the area before 7 a.m. every morning. Usually these bases are on hilltops overlooking the villages. Attendance is compulsory when called for and all orders from them must be followed, especially when they order "community service" by the villagers, or money. The level of soldier dealing with the village head is usually a captain, who is also usually the battalion intelligence officer. Typically he will call the village headwoman "Mother" and himself "Son", even if he is older than her. If he doesn't like the village head he will treat her badly, but if he likes her he will speak politely and be pleasant - "No need, one action; need, another action" [this means that how he treats her depends on what he wants, and how harsh he feels he has to be to get it].

Punishments of village heads vary. Beatings are usually inflicted with 1½" diameter bamboo sticks, especially on the waist, hips and legs, for a minimum of 5 strokes. If a village head gives "false" information she will be locked in the stocks [crude mediaeval-style leg stocks of wood or bamboo]. In one specific situation the soldiers of Battalion #230 dug a hole in the graveyard of a village, about the size of a child's body and 7 feet deep, and they placed a set of stocks at the bottom. The Captain in charge then warned the village head that if exact information on KNLA activities was not given, she would then spend a minimum of 3 days at the bottom of the hole, with no protection from sun or rain. He said that on the first day she would receive only water, on the second day a little rice and water, and on the third day, nothing. He said the more serious the digression, the longer the time in the hole, up to 6 months. I'm not sure whether or not anybody had actually been forced to suffer this. A more common threatened punishment is to force the village head to lie face up in the midday sun for 1-2 hours. I know of at least one case where this was done. In that case, a regular officer came and let the woman go, then the intelligence officer came back and argued with him for doing so.

As a result of such treatment, if there is a landmine blast, battle or gunshot in the vicinity of the village the village head is usually too afraid to report it for fear of the consequences. If the SLORC units find out about such an occurrence, they usually send an order demanding that the village head come to their camp immediately. When she gets there, their usual procedure is 1) beat, then 2) abuse and ask questions, then 3) demand money. Scolding and abuse is usually something like, "You are all Karens, therefore you must know about these things but you are liars". There was one amusing case of an elderly village head who, after SLORC demanded information from him, went directly to the KNLA officer in the area, Lt. Col. Johnny, and asked "Hey, what numbers of men and weapons do you have and what are you up to, because the Burmese are asking me so I need to know." And Johnny gave him enough information to keep them happy!

Porter fees demanded are like this: for "rich" class, such as people who own a television, 300 Kyat per house per month; for "middle" class, such as people who own paddy fields or cattle, 150 Kyat per house per month; and for "poor" class, people who are living day to day, 80 Kyat per house per month. Villages must also provide "rice for porters". Owners of televisions must also pay an extra tax of about 200 Kyat per year to the SLORC office in Kawkareik, plus the local soldiers also demand 150 Kyat per month per television, even if it is the oldest, smallest, battery-operated black-and-white kind.

Another duty required of the village head is to arrange for villagers to go make and repair roads, fences, man-traps and barracks for the battalions. Previously, Kawkareik Township was run by Battalion #230 plus one other battalion, and Myawaddy Township by Battalion #97 plus one other battalion, but this is now being changed to accommodate the DKBA. The SLORC soldiers now are worse than the ones who were under the Ma Sa La [Burma Socialist Programme Party, Ne Win's pre-1988 dictatorship]. If an officer is angry his letter will be typed or written in red ink, and it may have a bullet or charcoal enclosed [a bullet enclosed with an order means the village head and others will be shot for failure to obey; a piece of charcoal means the village will be burned]. If a village head fails to obey after an order like this then her village may be shelled. Five years ago this happened at Ta K'Rah village, but nobody was hurt.

As for Ko Per Kit, it was established in the rainy season of 1994, maybe June or July, by a Karen Buddhist holy man [of the group who do not cut their hair and wear a flat-topped conical hat]. Their base was at Ta K'Rah. They said their aims were to preserve Karen culture, to build many pagodas, and to oppose the SLORC troops by spiritual activities and supernatural powers. The first two aims were stated from the beginning, but the last aim was not clear until the end of 1994. At the time it was still a completely civilian organization, mostly made up of elderly people but also with some children. Pa Tha Da was active in it from the start. Regarding his character, he was otherwise a generally lazy person who really doesn't like to do physical labour, or so it is said, anyway. Then as the "supernatural powers" part of the organization became more obvious, members began to wear swords and carry strange bows with very short arrows, only about 1 foot long. These arrows could only travel 50-100 feet at most, but the leader of the organization claimed that if one of these arrows was fired at a village or town at the same time that appropriate prayers and ceremonies were observed, then the place would be destroyed. This led most villagers to begin considering him as something of a crackpot.

I was not in the area when the Ko Per Kit joined with Ko Per Baw, so I don't know exactly how it happened. Before, when Ko Per Kit members heard that Ko Per Baw were coming they were afraid and tried to hide like everyone else. Maybe Ko Per Baw forced Ko Per Kit to join them, or maybe Pa Tha Da changed the organization. I only know that most of the Ko Per Kit members have left and have been replaced by fighters. [As noted by other witnesses, Ko Per Kit members now carry long samurai-style swords in scabbards, with Buddhist prayer beads wrapped around the hilt. They regularly tell villagers that once they draw their sword they are obliged to kill someone with it.]