BEYOND ALL ENDURANCE
The Breakup of Karen Villages in
Southeastern Pa'an District
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
December 20, 1999 / KHRG #99-08
[Some details have been omitted or replaced by xxxx for Internet distribution.]
Paan district forms a large area in the central heartland of Karen State (click here to view regional map or district map). Much of the eastern part of the district used to be under at least partial control of the Karen National Union (KNU), but after troops of the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military junta captured the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw in 1995, they progressively exerted increasing control over the entire eastern part of the district. Paan district is covered by a large central plain in the west, bounded by the Salween River and the town of Paan (capital of Karen State) in the west and north and by the Myawaddy-Kawkareik-Kyone Doh road in the south. In the east of the district lies the Dawna Range, a line of mountains running north-south parallel to the Thai border, which form a steep natural boundary. Currently the activities of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) are concentrated in these mountains. No longer trying to hold territory, they operate as a guerrilla force and regularly penetrate into the plain to the west. In its determination to gain complete control over all of Paan district, the army of the current State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) military junta is now trying to undermine the KNLA throughout eastern Paan district and the Dawna Range by intimidating the Karen villagers who live in the region, increasing their burden of forced labour and extorting money and food from them until they can no longer survive. The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a Karen group allied with the SPDC, is helping them in these operations. At the same time, the KNLA, SPDC and DKBA forces have all been unceasingly planting landmines throughout the region, and the SPDC and DKBA troops have been using villagers as human minesweepers, resulting in the deaths and maiming of many. As a final straw, in August 1999 the SPDC made it known that it planned to force everyone in the hill villages of southeastern Paan District into Army controlled sites, and it has begun actively pursuing this operation. Villages have been emptying out as people flee into the fields and forests to escape the combination of intense abuses, landmines and the certainty of forced relocation. Unable to survive in hiding in the hills, many have begun trying to reach the Thai border, only to find the Thai Army determined to prevent them from entering Thailand.
KHRG first documented this new exodus and its causes in Information Updates #99-U3 (27/8/99) and 99-U4 (29/9/99). This report follows up and expands on those updates, analysing the human rights situation for these villagers in eastern Paan district and how they are affected by the current activities of the SPDC, DKBA and KNLA. It looks in detail at specific issues of concern to the villagers, such as forced relocations, forced labour and the landmines which are now being laid all over the region by all parties to the conflict. For additional background, see "Uncertainty, Fear and Flight: The Current Human Rights Situation in Eastern Paan District" (KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98), "Abuses and Relocations in Paan District" (KHRG #97-08, 1/8/97), "Interviews from Northern Paan District" (KHRG #96-33, 4/8/96), and "The Situation in Paan District" (KHRG #96-17, 15/5/96). To view a map of the region, see KHRG's map of Karen Districts, or the more detailed Pa'an Map.
In order to produce this report, Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) researchers and field reporters have conducted detailed interviews with villagers who have fled to Thailand to become refugees, villagers stranded in camps of internally displaced people in Burma because Thai authorities will not allow them to cross the border, and people in hiding around their home villages. The interviews used directly in the report were conducted between April and November 1999, with additional background provided by KHRG interviews conducted in the months preceding that period. Most of the interviews are with people in and from TNay Hsah, Myawaddy and Kawkareik townships of southeastern Paan District, though there are some interviews with people living slightly further north in Dta Greh, Hlaing Bwe and Lu Pleh townships, and one interview with a woman from far to the east in Mon State whose husband died as a porter in eastern Paan District. Their testimonies have been augmented by incident reports gathered by KHRG researchers in the region. Photographs which relate to the situation described in this report can be seen in KHRG Photo Set 99-B (18/8/99). Order documents sent to villages by SPDC and DKBA units in the area can be seen in "SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-B" (KHRG #99-03, 19/4/99) and "SPDC and DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 99-C" (KHRG #99-06, 4/8/99).
This report consists of several parts: this preface, an
introduction/summary, a detailed description of the situation including quotes from
interviews and order documents, an index of the interviews used, and finally the full text
of some selected interviews used in the report. Click here to see the full text of
interviews in the Interview Annex to this
report.
Notes on the Text
In the text all names of those interviewed have been changed and some details have been omitted or replaced by xxxx where necessary to protect people from retaliation. The captions under quotes used in the report include the interviewees (changed) name, gender, age and village, and a reference to the interview number and date. These numbers can be used to find the full text of the interview if it is among the Selected Interviews at the end, or in the Annex if it is not.
The text often refers to villages, village tracts and townships. The SPDC has local administration, called Peace & Development Councils, at the village, village tract, township, and state/division levels. A village tract is a group of 5-25 villages centred on a large village. A township is a much larger area, administered from a central town. The Karen National Union (KNU) divides Paan District into five townships: Lu Pleh in the northeast, Dta Greh in the central east, TNay Hsah in the southeast, Tee Lone in the northwest, and Du Yaw in the southwest. The official townships used by the SPDC do not correspond to the Karen townships; for example, the SPDC uses Myawaddy, Kawkareik and Hlaing Bwe townships. This report primarily uses the KNU townships, except where a village is closer to the SPDC township centre. The SPDC does not recognise the existence of Paan District, but only uses Townships, States and Divisions.
All numeric dates in this report are in dd/mm/yy format. In the interviews we have translated as paddy the term for rice which has been threshed and winnowed but still has a husk, and rice to mean husked rice ready for cooking. It takes about 2 baskets of paddy to make 1 basket of rice; villagers usually store it as paddy and only pound or mill small quantities into rice at a time. Villagers often refer to loh ah pay; literally this is the traditional Burmese form of voluntary labour for the community, but the SPDC uses this name in most cases of forced labour, and to the villagers it has come to mean most forms of forced labour with the exception of long-term portering. Set tha is forced labour as messengers and "errand-boys" for the soldiers. Villagers often refer to the KNU/KNLA as Kaw Thoo Lei, the DKBA as Ko Per Baw (Yellow Headbands), and SPDC troops and officials as the Burmese. SPDC officers often accuse villagers of being Nga Pway (ringworm); this is derogatory SPDC slang for KNLA soldiers. Villagers exclamations such as Pwah! and Der! are transliterated in the text as they are pronounced.
SPDC
State Peace &
Development Council, military junta ruling Burma
PDC
Peace & Development Council, SPDC local-level administration
(e.g. Village PDC [VPDC],
Village Tract PDC, Township PDC [TPDC])
SLORC
State Law &
Order Restoration Council, former name of the SPDC until Nov. 1997
KNU
Karen National
Union, main Karen opposition group
KNLA
Karen National
Liberation Army, army of the KNU
Kaw Thoo Lei The Karen homeland, also used as slang for
KNU/KNLA
DKBA
Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army, Karen group allied with SLORC/SPDC
IB
Infantry
Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers fighting strength
LIB
Light Infantry
Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers fighting strength
Viss
Unit of weight measure;
one viss is 1.6 kilograms or 3.5 pounds
Bowl/Pyi
Volume of rice equal to 8 small condensed milk tins; about 2 kilograms / 4.4 pounds
Kyat
Burmese currency;
US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 300+ Kyat at current market rate
loh ah pay Forced
labour; literally it means traditional voluntary labour, but not under SPDC
nga pway
Ringworm; derogatory SPDC slang for KNU/KNLA people
TBee Met
Closed-eyes; DKBA slang for KNU/KNLA people
set tha
Forced labour as messengers and errand-boys
[Click on any topic to go there, or view the report sequentially]
Preface .................................................................................... 1
Terms and Abbreviations .............................................................. 3
Table of Contents ....................................................................... 5
Map 1: Karen Districts .................................................................. 6
Map 2: Pa'an District .................................................................... 7
Introduction
............................................................................. 8
Forced Labour .......................................................................... 11
Portering ................................................................................. 17
Landmines ............................................................................... 22
Arrests, Torture and Threats ....................................................... 27
Rape and Sexual Abuse ................................................................ 31
Killings .................................................................................... 33
Looting, Extortion, and Demands ................................................... 35
Challenges for Farmers ................................................................ 40
DKBA ...................................................................................... 44
Education and Health ................................................................... 48
Forced Relocation ...................................................................... 50
Flight and Internally Displaced Persons ............................................. 52
Future of the Area ...................................................................... 56
Interview Annex ........................................................................ 61
"Being a villager is the very worst because we have to feed both
sides. You cant give to only one side, because if you give to just one, the other
side hates you. If the Burmese force you, you have to go. If the Kaw Thoo Lei [KNLA] force
you, you have to go. If DKBA forces you, you have to go. So it is the worst being a
villager." - "Naw Ther Paw" (F, xx), xxxx village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #32, 8/99)
Located in central Karen State, Paan District is bounded in the west and north by the Salween River and the town of Paan (capital of Karen State), in the east by the Moei River which draws the border with Thailand, and in the south by the motor road from Myawaddy (on the Thai border, west of Mae Sot) westward to Kawkareik and Kyone Doh. The region referred to as the southeastern part of the District extends from the Moei River westward to the town of TNay Hsah (Nabu), and is bounded in the north by Dta Greh (Pain Kyone). While the western part of Paan District has been controlled by the SPDC for over 10 years, the KNLA has maintained a steady influence over the eastern strip near the Thai border including the Dawna Mountains and the narrow strip of land between them and the Moei River, which forms the border with Thailand. The KNLA also regularly penetrates partway into the plains west of the Dawna. Paan District is also known as the KNLAs 7th Brigade area. All of the villagers in this region are Karen rice farmers, predominantly Buddhist with Animist and Christian minorities.
Since the capture of the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw in northeastern Paan District in January 1995, the SPDC has intensified its presence in the area in order to undermine the KNLAs loose but steady grip on the region. Under-manned and lacking both arms and ammunition, the KNLA has compensated by using landmine warfare in order to prevent the advance of SPDC columns in the area. The SPDC has responded by continuing to increase its troop presence in the region despite heavy landmine casualties, and the Army is ever increasing its own use of landmines and rounding up of porters to walk in front of the columns to detonate any mines. The DKBA has also begun extensive use of its own landmines. As a result, eastern Paan District is probably now the most heavily landmined area in Burma. All armies involved in the conflict plant landmines, but innocent villagers are often the ones to detonate them, either accidentally as they come and go from their fields and villages, or intentionally when they are used as human minesweepers by the SPDC and DKBA. Though the KNLA warns villagers about the location of its landmines, the DKBA and the SPDC do not, and in some cases deliberately place them in areas where they know villagers will detonate them. Fear of stepping on landmines while portering, being used as human minesweepers, or simply farming their fields has caused many people to flee their villages.
Villagers interviewed by KHRG for this report cite many reasons for
flight from their villages, beginning with forced labour imposed by both the SPDC and
DKBA. Often patrolling together, these armies enter villages and occupy homes for
indefinite periods of time; villagers rarely know when troops will come, and live in fear
of a military presence in their village. Villagers no longer have money to pay bribes to
avoid forced labour, so they must personally fulfil the villages quota for forced
labourers at worksites near their villages or at Army camps. Poorly rationed troops
relentlessly loot from villagers, who can also no longer afford to replenish lost food and
belongings. With the demands for forced labour always increasing, overtaxed villagers also
cannot find time to work their own fields. The Army constantly loots their rice supply,
demands burdensome rice quotas from farmers, and in at least one area is now burning the
villagers paddy and placing landmines in their fields so farmers cannot continue
harvesting their crops. All of these factors are making hunger the villagers chief
preoccupation. Ultimately they know that if they fail to meet the Armys impossible
demands, they face severe punishment in the form of arrest, physical abuse, and
potentially death.
"We left because we couldnt tolerate the persecution
anymore. We felt it from all sides. Even if we stayed in the village and used a flashlight
at night, they would shoot us and not be punished for it [SPDC units regularly issue
orders that villagers are only allowed to carry firebrands to light their way around the
village at night, and that they will shoot at anyone carrying a flashlight]. This year
before the rainy season they shot a villager named Pa B--- and his two friends who were
looking after their elephants, but even then we dared not say anything. Whenever we had to
go to porter for them and had no money to pay the fee, we worried that we would die. We
dared not complain when they stole our chickens and pigs, or they would glare at us. When
the owners werent in the houses, they took our belongings too. Then they demanded
rice and told us they would give it back, but they didnt. If they needed it they
took it as they liked. If the owner wasnt home when they came, they looted the paddy
and carried it off to eat. If your paddy was gone you would starve. So we didnt have
enough, and we had to leave." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh
Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
The SPDCs strategy in southeastern Paan District, as in
other parts of Burma, is to squash the remaining presence of the opposition army by
intimidating villagers into renouncing all connections to the KNLA, systematically
impoverishing villages so they cannot provide material support for the opposition, and
bringing villagers under direct Army control. Since 1996 the Armys main tactic in
this strategy has been to forcibly relocate remote villages in the Dawna Mountains region
to SPDC and DKBA Army bases and forced labour sites. This accomplishes two goals
simultaneously: villagers are more easily guarded which prevents KNLA contact, and the
Army has a ready supply of villagers to draw upon for forced labour projects such as the
building of military access roads. The Army increased its presence throughout the Dawna,
and in 1998 it attacked and destroyed several villages on the eastern slopes of the Dawna
without warning, causing all the villagers to flee (see "Uncertainty,
Fear and Flight", KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98). This year the militarisation
and resulting abuses have continued to increase, and to deliver the final blow to the
villagers the SPDC has issued an order to clear out all remote villages in southeastern
Paan District, primarily in the Meh Pleh Toh area, before the end of 1999. They have
told villagers that anyone left after the deadline to move has passed will be shot.
Villagers have been ordered to move to two main sites, one at a DKBA Army base in Ker
Ghaw, and one at Tee Wah Blaw. Villagers fear relocating to the designated sites because
they know that in most cases they will not be able to return to their fields because they
are quite far away, the villagers are guarded at all times, and outside movement is
severely restricted. The Army does not supply families with a rice ration, nor are they
allowed to plant gardens or forage for food elsewhere. Due to the grim conditions of the
relocation sites and the mounting presence of abusive troops in their villages, many
choose to flee into the jungle rather than wait to be forcibly moved.
"There are about 100 Burmese soldiers who stay in Taw Oak. Before
that, their troops were only staying in Ker Ghaw. The commanders name is Kyaw Zay Ya
[commander of the troops from LIB #118]. It might be his soldiers who come to our village,
but people said he does not come himself. The Burmese are working with the DKBA. After I
came here, the people said there are many Burmese soldiers in Pah Klu village." -
"Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview
#30, 8/99)
Paan District is the headquarters of the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army (DKBA), and it maintains a strong presence in the southeast. Since its
founding in 1994 with the backing of the SLORC, the DKBA and the SLORC/SPDC have
collaborated on the common goal of ridding the area of the KNLA. Trust between the two
armies is minimal to nonexistent, however, and the DKBA reluctantly works with the SPDC
mainly because Rangoon supplies its food, arms, and ammunition. In return, the DKBA helps
the SPDC by acting as guides, fingering villagers with KNLA connections, doing much of the
actual fighting with the KNLA and providing convenient cover for cross-border incursions
into Thailand. The SPDC stopped paying cash salaries to DKBA soldiers 3 years ago and
threatened to cut off the DKBAs provisions by the end of 1998, but it appears that
this has not in fact occurred. It is clear that the DKBA and the SPDC continue to work
together in the region, to the extent that villagers often confuse which soldiers belong
to which army. They inflict the same abuses on the villagers, from forced labour to heavy
fees, and they share the strategy of purging the KNU from the region by starving their
support basethe villagers who supply them with food and necessary materials.
"In the month of October their commanders name was Captain
H---, and the troops were from #207 [SPDC Battalion]. They came and said that they will
behave peacefully. They came and said that they will gather all the villagers together and
do good things. They said that we must not stay in the forest, that we must all come back
and stay together in the village and then they wouldnt beat or torture us. Then
after the villagers came back to stay together in the village, they gathered 30 villagers
and forced them onto a truck, and forced them to go with them back to the Moei River [as
porters to the Thai border]. All of them were from our village. One of them died by
stepping on a landmine, not on the way but on the way back. He died when he ran to escape
at Thay KYah." - "Saw Tha Wah" (M, 32), xxxx village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #3, 11/99)
Aside from the dominating presence of the SPDC and DKBA, there are other smaller groups of troops in southeastern Paan District. Of particular note is a group of troops staying in Pah Klu village who bear a strong resemblance to the Sa Thon Lon Guerrilla Retaliation Units that began operating in Nyaunglebin District in September 1998 [see "Death Squads and Displacement: Systematic Executions, Village Destruction and the Flight of Villagers in Nyaunglebin District", KHRG #99-04, 24/5/99]. Commissioned as the SPDCs special execution squads, the Sa Thon Lon move from village to village executing anyone suspected of connections with the KNU/KNLA. The villagers name for the Sa Thon Lon is Baw Bi Doh [Short Pants], which describes the soldiers civilian dress, but residents of Pah Klu call the troops staying in their village SKer Po [Short Skirts], a sarcastic reference to their attempts to rape women villagers. These troops have yet to execute any villagers in the brutal way associated with the Sa Thon Lonusually by cutting the civilians throatbut the dress and manner of these soldiers have made some villagers suspect they could be one of these feared units. A villager from northeastern Paan District also reported that in that area the SPDC is forcibly recruiting people in their villages to serve in village-based militias. By letter to the village head, the SPDC conscripts a certain number of male villagers whom the other villagers are then instructed to support with a salary and rations. The Army outfits the militia members with weapons and charges them with guarding the village from enemy contact, but the SPDC often finds their greatest use for such villagers as cannon fodder in battles with the KNLA.
The villagers remaining in this area are struggling against all odds to
survive. Villagers in the Pah Klu, Taw Oak, and BNaw Kleh Kee area claim that most
of their villages are already cleared out as people have fled before being forcibly moved.
Villagers have been enduring the extensive abuses just to make it to the harvest of
October/November 1999, only to have the harvest fail because they were busy doing forced
labour or hiding from patrols. One villager from the hills of TNay Hsah township
told KHRG that while harvesting in November, SPDC troops came while people were
harvesting, burned the rice already harvested and landmined the crop still remaining in
the fields. Many villagers are either joining the thousands still displaced in the jungle
without adequate food, medicine or shelter, or they are braving the journey to the Thai
border where they find their hopes for safety thwarted by full refugee camps and
aggressive Thai soldiers. For these villagers, their past is destroyed, their present is
unstable, and their future is ominous
"If I go back I wont even have a pot. I sold all my pots and plates. If I stay here, I have no pots, plates, or a house. I have no one to help me. I dont know where to go." - "Naw Bway" (F, 29), Pa Noh village, Kyaik Mayaw township, Mon State (Interview #27, 8/99)
"When they entered the village the Burmese collected porters and
other people for forced labour. Each month they demanded 5 porters to work for them, and
if you could not go you had to give them money. We had to pay 2,500 Kyat per person for 3
days. They also demanded that for every 10 houses we send 4 people for set tha
[forced labour as messengers and doing other errands]. We could never stop to take a rest.
Someone had to go every day and if we could not go we had to give money, 800 Kyat per day.
A group of villagers had to be there every day to porter, and we would take turns going in
groups for 5 days at a time." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh
Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
Widespread, relentless forced labour is the most common complaint among
villagers from southeastern Paan District, who commonly cite it as the primary
reason for fleeing their villages. The most common type of forced labour has traditionally
been road construction, and from 1995-96 villagers were used to build and upgrade a
network of roads linking the main towns of Kyone Doh, Kawkareik, Nabu, Pain Kyone,
Paan and Myaing Gyi Ngu. As the Burmese Army presence in the region intensifies,
building and maintaining new roads remains a priority to facilitate transportation between
SPDC Army camps. In this area there are only dirt roads, so villagers are forced to repair
them every year after the rainy season washes away the work accomplished the previous
year.
"Last year before I went to porter, I also had to dig a road at BNaw Kleh Kee. It was horrible. I had to go for 5 days and take my own food. Five villagers at a time had to go from each of Toh Thu Kee, Kwih Lay, Kyaw Ko, Ker Ghaw, and Thay KDtee [villages]. We dug a road from Lay Kaw Tee to Meh Pleh and Kway Sha. We had to work the whole day except for time to cook rice and eat it. We dug out logs and bamboo stumps and carried rocks." - "Pa Ghaw" (M, 35), Toh Thu Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #38, 7/99)
"The villagers have to go to fetch water, find firewood, and carry rice for them. On each turn we had to carry 10 times. Two villagers would go every day, and one person has to carry 2 big tins each time [about 32 kg / 70 lb]. It is very far, about 1 furlong [220 yards] distance. Once they had enough water, they forced us to carry firewood. If they didnt need firewood, they forced us to send letters. If we didnt send the letters, they punished us. I also had to cut and clear alongside the car road [the Myawaddy/Thingan Nyi Naung road]. We even had to fence the bridges where the cars pass." - "Saw Ler" (M, 36), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #29, 8/99)
"We didnt have any more money for set tha [to avoid forced labour as messengers] and so we had to go in person. If we went for set tha and also portering, we would come back from set tha one day and the next day have to go as porters. Then we would porter for 3 days and there would be no replacement because they had come to our homes to collect people for set tha or loh ah pay already. So we had no time to do it all in person because if we went then we had to pay money too, and so we couldnt tolerate it." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
"
they are still clearing the place to plant rubber. I think
they are planning to plant rubber between Toh Kaw Ko and Dta Weh Dah. They are building a
road between those places this year. Last year it still didnt reach Toh Kaw Ko, only
Dta Weh Dah, but this year they will continue it. Last year we had to dig the road, but
this year the Toh Kaw Ko villagers will have to do it." - the mother of
"Nan Paw Oa" (F, 18), xxxx village, Kawkareik township (Interview #42,
7/99)
All the types of forced labour are too numerous to mention, but they
can be grouped into 3 general categories: loh ah pay, set
tha, and portering. When villagers refer to loh ah pay, the
work required usually entails a 1-3 day commitment and relates to general jobs like
construction of Army bunkers or fences at the camp, road-building, and cutting firewood or
bamboo. Set tha is the term used to describe chores like serving as a
messenger between Army camps, or simply being on call to meet the random demands of
officers. Portering is often classified in a category of its own, and is discussed at
length in the following section. Villages located nearest the Army camps bear the greatest
burden of forced labour, since their proximity makes it convenient for troops to round
them up quickly. In addition to roads and facilities, the greater concentration of troops
in the area also necessitates a greater food supply; since troops receive only meagre
rations at best from Rangoon, the Army confiscates fields near the camp and orders the
villagers to work them. An officer will usually issue orders to a village head demanding a
quota of villagers for forced labour who must report to the camp or worksite at a
specified date and time. The village head then decides which villagers must go, usually
implementing a rotation system calling for one person per family. Villagers are never
safe, however, from the threat of capture by Burmese and DKBA soldiers looking for people
to perform everything from trivial chores to intense physical labour. The next page shows
the direct translation of a typical order issued to a village by an SPDC officer and
illustrates the type of demands placed upon villagers on a regular basis [see Order #9,
"SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-C"
(KHRG #99-06, 4/8/99); a copy of the original order is included on page 59 of this report].
Stamp: #97 Infantry Battalion #97 Infantry Battalion Kawkareik Military Control Command Reference: 1000 / 97 / xxxx Date: 1999 June 12th To: Chairpersons xxxx / yyyy village groups Village Peace & Development Council Subject: To send volunteer servants For cultivation at #97 Infantry Battalion [camp], send 5 cattle (with plough) and 15 people (with mattocks) to xxxx on 13-6-99, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.] |
The informal rotation system implemented by many village heads theoretically disperses the
burden so that each family will have time to tend their own fields, but with the demand
for labourers ever increasing, villagers are finding it more and more difficult to make
time for their own work. As the above order reveals, the villagers are often instructed to
bring along their own oxen, bullock carts, and tools to use while working, eliminating the
possibility of family members tending the fields while they are gone. As one villager
bluntly describes it, "We had to pay four different ways: our own labour, fees,
our bullock carts, and our cattle." ["Kyaw Soe" (M, xx), xxxx village,
Myawaddy township (Interview #31, 8/99)] Due to the increasing and constant demands
for forced labour from both the DKBA and the SPDCwhich can amount to several times
per month, or even half the work weekthe villagers must neglect their fields,
leaving little possibility of harvesting enough rice to sustain them throughout the year.
Hunger is thus an ever-present worry among villagers. Following last years drought,
villagers were hoping for a good harvest this year, but the call for forced labour, often
at great distances from their villages, obligates them to remain away from their fields
for days on end at crucial times in the crop cycle. When they return they are often too
exhausted to satisfy the demands their own fields require.
"They did that near their battalion camp. They have 2 paddy fields that the villagers have to go and work on for them. They dont do it themselves. The villagers have to do it every year." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #28, 8/99)
"At the Burmese camp now there is a farm, so we must go to plough, sow, and transplant paddy in their field. If you have buffaloes and a plough, you must go to plough, and if you have nothing you must go to dig the earth, sow, and transplant. At harvest time, they force people to reap for them until it is finished. As for us, we dont even have enough food for our family, and no time to work for ourselves [Also] the road that leads from Kawkareik to Mya Pa Deh [Myapadine] and TNay Hsah. The width of the road is approximately 10 cubits [15 feet]. We had to dig earth and put it on the road to build its height to 4 or 5 cubits [8-foot high embankment]. People from the whole village had to go. If you had money you could hire others, but if you didnt have money you had to go. People who had bullock carts had to go with bullock carts. We had to take our own rice, fishpaste, and chillies from our house. We even had to take our own machetes, axes, mattocks and spades." - "Maung Hla" (M, 30), Kru Bper village, Kawkareik township (Interview #44, 4/99)
"I went twice and had to plough the field. The other villagers went during the time of transplanting the seedlings and harvesting. They even forced us to do it in the rainy season. I was not free to do my own work." - "Saw Ler" (M, 36), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #29, 8/99)
"I always had to go for loh ah pay every day. They forced people who live in the fields to go, and if they didnt the soldiers chased them and captured them. The fields are destroyed because no one is working on them." - "Pa Po Doh" (M, 24), Tee Hsah Ra village, Myawaddy township (Interview #39, 7/99)
The rainy season, usually a time of respite from forced labour for the villagers, was
particularly stressful this year, as the Burmese augmented their demands and forced the
villagers to work in the very worst conditions. Villagers who chose to hire people rather
than work in dangerous conditions on slippery roads and elsewhere paid so much money in
fees that they depleted all their savings, sold their possessions or went into debt. Both
the SPDC and DKBA collect forced labour fees from villagers who cannot or choose not to
go. Seldom are the villagers excused from forced labour shifts if they are sick or have
other legitimate reasons, so instead they must pay a feetypically 500 Kyat per
dayto hire someone else to replace them. Villagers may hire replacements in three
ways: by personally seeking out a fellow villager or an itinerant day labourer to hire, by
paying the village head the fee and leaving it up to him/her to hire a replacement, or the
most common way, which occurs when villagers hand over the fee to the village head, who
then pays the SPDC Army. This last option especially creates a distressing cyclical
pattern for the villagers, who hand over a sum of money intended for hiring substitutes.
The soldiers pocket these fees, then go to other villagers demanding
volunteer workers. These villages in turn pay their obligatory fees instead of
going in person, until eventually the soldiers have accrued a substantial amount of money
from the villagers but are left with no workers. This prompts them to capture villagers
while they are working in their fields; villagers have the option of running and being
shot at, or being captured to serve as porters or forced labourers. This is why many
villagers complain of paying twice, once in fees and once by their work.
"If the men dont stay in the village they force the women to go and carry rice whenever they run out. They force one villager per house to go. If the villagers are not free to go, they have to hire someone for 500 Kyat per day. We have to pay the village head and then the village head repays the one who goes in the villagers place." - "Naw Lay Wah" (F, 25), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #36, 7/99)
"Der! All of the villagers have to give, and the people who cant give have to sell their rice and paddy to give money to them. Each family has to hire someone for 1,000 Kyat or more per time; some families have to give 2,000 Kyat. They dont care about young or old people; young and old all have to go. They force children as young as 10, and some people who go are 50 or 60 and have grey hair already. Some people who went came back and told us that they hadnt eaten for 4 or 5 days. As for me, I was afraid and I didnt go, also because I am a woman and mostly men go. In our village other women have gone, but I never went." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 27), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #9, 9/99)
One of the most alarming consequences of the increased demand for forced labour is the
rise of child labour. With a diminishing supply of able-bodied adults to satisfy the
Armys demands since men and later women flee to avoid portering shifts, or are
already working for the Army, families must resort to sending their children, especially
when other adults must stay to work the fields. Children as young as 10 have been sent by
their families, or even captured by troops, to work as forced labourers, and many drop out
of school because they have to go on a regular basis. Similarly, elderly family members
must fulfill the quota if no one else in the family can work. It is now quite common for
women to go for loh ah pay more often than men, who either remain to
work the fields or flee to avoid capture as porters. One villager succinctly explained, "Mostly
they need men but the men hide, therefore the girls have to go." ["Saw
Daniel" (M, 70), Dta Greh village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #41, 7/99)]
Particularly in the Ker Ghaw area, the site of a large DKBA camp and relocation site,
villagers of all ages and physical ability are forced to do labour of some kind.
"The youngest are children, as soon as they can work. Children who are over 10 years
old. The oldest who have to go and make fences are old enough to be grandparents. Women
too. Recently P--- worked for them and she is over 50. My wife and children had to carry
water for them, they couldnt avoid it." - "Pa Noh" (M, 45),
BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #12, 9/99)
"If the village head couldnt collect us, they arrested people themselves. Even women and children have to go, some as young as 12 and 13 years old. If their parents are sick, the children have to go. People 40 and 50 years old have to go if they are strong and can work. They forced us to dig the road and build bunkers beside it in Hsah Htoo Gone, between Myawaddy and [Thingan] Nyi Naung. They also forced us to weed the road, cut the grass, haul bamboo, build fences, and cut small trees and bamboo to build their bunkers." - "Pi Ghaw Paw" (F, 51), Meh KNeh village, Myawaddy township (Interview #40, 7/99)
"For loh ah pay we had to do many kinds of work like plough the fields, clean the roads, cut down trees and bamboo, make fences, and build bridges. Also we had to build their bunkers, since they set up their camp only 30 yards from our village. Villagers had no time to rest; both men and women had to work for them. They demanded one person from each house each day, but because we couldnt finish our own work that way the village head arranged for 10 villagers to go per day. The old people asked their children to go for loh ah pay, and the youngest one was just over 10 years old. We had children around 12 and 13 working also. Children under 10 had to carry water for them." - "Saw Po Doh" (M, 36), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #23, 8/99)
"Ah, ah! Do not talk of loh ah pay! I had to buy food from the Burmese soldiers wives who sold it for 200 Kyat, but I only brought 100 Kyat with me. I worked very hard. I carried earth on my head like this. They came and took a video of us and I thought to myself, Go ahead, if you want to take a video of a tall woman carrying a load on her head!" - the mother of "Nan Paw Oa" (F, 18), xxxx village, Kawkareik township (Interview #42, 7/99)
The conditions for forced labour vary by the type and frequency of work required, the
length of the duty, and especially by the treatment of the labourers by the troops. Often
the village head is called upon to supervise the villagers at forced labour, which in some
villages obligates him/her to serve every day, leaving no time for personal work. Because
of this demand and the severe punishment that the village head faces if the forced labour
requirements are not met, villagers dread the appointment as village head. Many villagers
report that verbal and physical abuse are prevalent at the work sites, particularly if
soldiers think that villagers are not working fast enough. Villagers usually work a full
day with only one break to eat, though sometimes they are required to stay overnight at
the worksite or Army camp. They must bring all their own food and are often denied water
and permission to rest, even when working in the midday sun. These conditions vary,
however, and some troops are kinder on villagers than others; the DKBA, for example,
usually requires villagers to do loh ah pay for shorter periods of time
under better conditions than the SPDC. The villagers attribute the heavy demands for
forced labour in southeastern Paan District as a major cause of flight from the
area. They remain in their villages as long as they are physically able to do so, but the
threat of physical abuse combined with the lingering fear of starvation leaves them with
flight as their only viable option [see "Flight and Internally Displaced
People" below].
"They did not guard us, but they came to look at us sometimes as they forced us to work. The children who couldnt speak Burmese were beaten, but people who could speak Burmese werent beaten. I saw them beat Pa N--- with my own eyes. They slapped his face. He slapped him twice with his right hand. He told him he was stupid because he couldnt speak Burmese. Pa N--- is married, he is from BNaw Kleh Kee." - "Pa Noh" (M, 45), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #12, 9/99)
"The DKBA dont collect money, but they force us to do loh ah pay. The villagers have to go and stay with them and cook rice and fetch water. They force us to do it once a month. As for the Burmese, they dont even care if they force us to go twice or three times a month. The Burmese are always forcing the villagers to go." - "Saw Lah Ku" (M, 21), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #18, 8/99)
"I had to plant rubber. They have already planted many rubber trees in lines. Many people had to go, so we had to do it for 2-3 days, then we went home. They didnt give us anything to eat. We had to take our own food there too, but they gave medicine to the workers who were ill, and if they couldnt work anymore they sent them home." - "Maung Hla" (M, 30), Kru Bper village, Kawkareik township (Interview #44, 4/99)
"They didnt give us anything [money] and they didnt feed us rice. They didnt give us water to drink, either. They were always very angry. If I look back on my life, this was the very worst time. My heart was gone." - "Naw Ther Paw" (F, xx), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #32, 8/99)
"My husband died 15 days ago. The Burmese forced him to do
loh ah pay [she means portering]. They said that he would only have to go for
a few days, but they forced him to go for 10 days. We couldnt hire someone to go for
him because we had no money. They said that the villagers who didnt go had to pay
them money, thats why we had to go. He had not even been gone for 10 days when
people sent me a message that he had died. I didnt know anything. I went to ask the
Burmese soldiers and they said he died on the borderline. One of his friends said, I
saw him when they arrested him, but I dont know where he carried because I
didnt see him again. I went to find him at Ka Daung and Mudon, but I
couldnt find anything. After that I didnt know where to go. I thought that I
would go to his younger brother, but I couldnt. In the past I stayed in the village,
but I have no parents or siblings there. We left the village 10 days after we heard that
he died. I have a younger brother who stays in Thailand, but I dont know where.
Thats why I came up to my Uncles house, but my Uncle hasnt seen him and
cant find him. When I arrived at my Uncles place, I didnt know where to
go next." - "Naw Bway" (F, 29), Pa Noh village, Kyaik Mayaw
township, Mon State (Interview #27, 8/99)
Portering is technically classified as forced labour, but to villagers
it falls in a category of its own. The KNLA regularly demands young and middle-aged men
for shifts of portering usually lasting one to several days. In the past, the SPDC and
DKBA troops primarily targeted male villagers as well, but the influx of troops in
southeastern Paan District leaves all villagers living in constant fear of being
arrested for portering. While serving as porters for SPDC or DKBA troops villagers must
remain with the troops for days on end and endure extremely demanding work while they are
routinely denied food and often beaten. Young men flee the village immediately upon
hearing that troops are in the vicinity, running as fast as they can into the jungle to
avoid capture. Villagers try to warn each other when troops are roaming the area looking
for porters, but this informal communication network proves only partially effective.
Soldiers capture porters if their demands from a particular village for forced labour have
not been met, or if they happen to pass men working in their fields while on patrol. If
seen running to escape, villagers are shot on sight. Those captured must drop everything
to serve as porters often for unspecified periods of time. Men who manage to avoid capture
hide out in the jungle, sometimes with no food or shelter, until the troops have moved on
- which may take weeks.
"Then they came out of the forest, they entered the village in the night and the dogs didnt even bark at them. They arrived and fired their guns for a while. He captured me and touched me with his gun. He wouldnt even let me urinate, he ordered me to go so I had to go. Some people who could run to escape didnt need to go, but the people who they captured in the group all had to go. If you had 2 or 3 people in your family, they all had to go. They beat and kicked the people they captured before us. Then they went to Tee Hsah Ra, and they forced us to send them there. They forced me to go and carry bullets and shells for them." - "Saw Ghay" (M, 36), Tee Hsah Ra village, Myawaddy township (Interview #7, 9/99)
"The Burmese came to stay at Ker Ghaw when they went to the Lay Ta Play and Ko Ko areas to look for porters. The village head went around the village and told every family to come to a meeting. He said, Now the Burmese have arrived, so my dear children, if you do not want to be a porter, wrap up your sarong around your legs and run as fast as you can. The village head dared not hand us over [to the Burmese], so we ran. Because our village is on the frontline, the Burmese often needed porters when they came before." - "Saw Kee" (M, 21), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #11, 9/99)
"In our village, the men always have to flee from the village. If they dont flee, the soldiers chase them to capture porters. One troop of Burmese stays in the village, and the other is ordered to capture the men. If they couldnt collect porter fees, they would capture the men." - "Saw Nya" (M, 60), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #37, 7/99)
"The people who dare to stay in the village are captured by the
Burmese. Many who try to flee have no food outside the village, so they must come back.
When the Burmese are leaving the village, they capture the villagers as they like [to go
with them]." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
When troops camp in or near a village for a significant period of time,
the male villagers are forced to set up shelters in the jungle where they remain in an
exiled state indefinitely, tending hill fields to survive. Occasionally the men will sneak
back to the village secretly to visit their families and to get food and supplies, risking
arrest if troops are still in the vicinity. If the SPDC or DKBA comes through looking for
porters and finds few men in the village, they will often capture women, older people, and
even children big enough to carry a sizeable load. Whereas villagers used to believe that
women would be treated less brutally if they served as porters instead of men, now women
are particularly terrified of portering because they constantly fear the possibility of
rape. One villager from Dta Greh reported that SPDC Bpay Pwet, or
payroll troops, head up into the hills each month to deliver salaries to
soldiers, and that they usually collect women porters to follow them. As the Bpay
Pwet troops are not carrying heavy supplies, their specific demand for women is
probably to use them as human minesweepers or for purposes of rape.
"Bpay Pwet [payroll troops] bring a salary once a month for the Burmese who stay in the mountains. they come and call the women to go with them." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 70), Dta Greh village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #41, 7/99)
"This year we had a lot of people who carried food for them. Even women had to carry for them, and this year mostly women did it because the men were afraid and ran away, but the women dared to stay for a bit, and they forced the women to porter. They were forcing us and touching us with guns, so people had to go." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"Ah! I saw a lot of older people with white hair whom they forced
to go portering. The village head collects us but nobody dares to go. Therefore, the
Burmese take the money and have to hire the porters. But if they can arrest us instead of
hiring us, they can use all the money for themselves. If you give money to the Burmese
they say that they have hired the porters, but we never saw them hire anyone. You
cant do anything about that." - "Saw Nya" (M, 60), Ker Ghaw
village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #37, 7/99)
The only recourse for captured villagers is to pay a "portering
fee"typically 500 Kyat a dayrather than going in person, which few
villagers can afford anymore after repeated heavy taxation, crop quotas, and forced labour
fees. This year the porter fees are steadily increasing as fewer people are available for
hire, mainly because the risks of portering are so high that many villagers refuse to hire
themselves out anymore. As with the forced labour fees, the portering fees are only
squandered by the military, who then turn around and capture more porters. Villagers are
now testifying that troops force villagers to porter even though they have already paid
the "portering fees", in effect penalising them twice. Soldiers often break
agreements with villages over the terms of portering by refusing to release them at the
designated time, or in some cases holding porters hostage until the village head will pay
for their release.
"Now people have to hire porters [to go in their place] for 3,000 Kyat because people dare not go for less than that." - "Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #20, 8/99)
"They come and capture porters when their new friends [replacement troops] come. Every month they collect 7 porters from BNaw Kleh Kee and Paw Baw Ko. We had to go for 3 days, then after 3 days those 7 people go home and another group has to go. They demanded that the village head collect people for portering. If people could not go they had to give money - 2,500 Kyat for 3 days. They didnt hire other people with the money, they just took it for themselves." - "Saw Po Doh" (M, 36), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #23, 8/99)
"When I arrived there, I thought that they would release me, but
they didnt. They released me when the village head came to pay them 1,500 Kyat. I
had to carry for over one month but they still demanded 1,500 Kyat [to release him]."
- "Pa Ghaw" (M, 35), Toh Thu Kee village, TNay Hsah township
(Interview #38, 7/99)
After the fear surrounding arrest, they face the threat of abuse if
caught and forced to serve as porters. If villagers cannot pay the fee to hire a
replacement, they must typically porter on 5-7 day shifts to accompany SPDC or DKBA troops
on patrol through the Dawna Mountains. Sometimes they are also called for shorter shifts
to carry rations between Army camps. They carry immense loads of food, ammunition, and the
soldiers personal gear, and are often denied adequate food and drinking water. One
porter described the food deprivation as so desperate that "We had to steal
from each other to eat enough." ["Saw Maw Hla" (M, 30), Maw Goh
village, Lu Pleh township (Interview #43, 7/99)]. In addition to malnourishment, they
receive hardly any rest and no medical attention for injuries. A portering shift will
often so debilitate a villager that s/he will spend one month or longer rehabilitating.
"They fed us twice a day, but it was not enough for us because they started early in the morning and we werent fed until 10 a.m. Then we ate again at 4 p.m. For 5 people they spooned out just enough rice to cover the lid of the pot, then divided it into five and fed you. It was about the same as 2 eggshells full of rice and a spoon of beans, so it was not enough for us. I asked for more but we couldnt get anything more. If we asked for more again and again they glared at us, so we dared not stay close to them. They had enough rice to fill them, but the porters did not. I told him, Der! You do not feed us enough, so we cannot carry for you, and he told me, Dont argue with me. I feed you well enough already. Then I said, Yes, it is delicious to eat rice with beans, but it is too little. When you carry loads like that you become more hungry and tired, but if we ate like them we would not have been hungry." - "Saw Mo Aung" (M, 39), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #13, 9/99)
"They gave me only a little rice and a little bit to drink twice a day. They fed us the same amount as the head of a cat [a small ball of rice]; it was not enough for us. They fed us only salt with rice and we didnt get water to drink, while they ate good food which they had brought for themselves. They didnt care if we ate enough or not. When I came back from portering, I was in so much pain that I had to drink many gallons of spirit water [traditional medicine]. I rested for one month." - "Pa Ghaw" (M, 35), Toh Thu Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #38, 7/99)
"
the last time was during the rainy season when I had to
climb the mountains to Meh Pleh. It was the time to plant paddy and it was raining a lot,
so there was flooding. I climbed up the mountain for 3-4 days from Sghaw Ko and BNaw
Kleh Klee to Dta Thu Kee. We had to carry many kinds of loads, and even if you were
already carrying bullets and shells they gave you food to carry as well. It must have been
more than 20 viss [32 kg / 70 lb] because we could barely walk. They kicked you if you
couldnt carry it, so you wouldnt dare tell them if you couldnt carry it.
We couldnt take a rest except when they let us. Even if we were so tired that our
sweat filled our nostrils, we could not rest or they would kick our behinds." -
"Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township
(Interview #22, 8/99)
DKBA and SPDC troops both treat their porters horribly, beating them at the slightest provocation. Because the porters are fed less than the troops while carrying heavier loads, they often have trouble keeping up and are severely punished if they lag behind. Porters who have returned to their villages tell stories of others who simply could not continue, and were savagely beaten before being left for dead by the soldiers in the middle of the jungle. Some are killed outright and left on the path without burial, while some die from wounds inflicted from landmines or physical abuse by the soldiers. Another disturbing trend of which villagers recently informed KHRG after their portering shifts is the distribution of Methamphetamines to porters in order to curb their appetites and numb their pain. The porters have no idea what drugs they are forced to consume, just that they leave them in mind-altered states with strange physical side-effects, often lasting well beyond their portering term.
"They gave me medicine, the kind that does not make you sweat but makes you happy to walk. In Kywe and Ta months [around April 1999] there was no shade in Lay Gaw, but because of our medicine we were not sweating. I dont know what kind of medicine it was, but when I arrived in Maw Pleh the people told me that you need a certain kind of medicine to counteract the medicine I had taken. But they didnt give us that one, so I became very sick." - "Saw Mo Aung" (M, 39), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #13, 9/99)
"One day one of us died and the Burmese told us he was their friend, but we didnt know if he was Burmese or not. He got sick from the rain and not enough food or sleep. He didnt have a shirt on, and they left him uncovered; we didnt know if he was dead yet, but we knew he would soon die if they left him. We thought he was a villager like us, because we came from different villages and didnt know everyone. I think if he was their servant they would have treated him and taken him with them; people said he was their friend but I cant believe it." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
"They beat me on the temples once. I tied up my load to the baskets and the soldier asked me, Is that tied tightly? and I answered him, It is tight. But when we were marching the shells fell down, so he beat me on the temple. Another time he kicked me with his jungle boots when I was picking up the fallen rice grains on the ground to eat. When we arrived at a place where people had lived and recently left, I picked up some rice to eat to curb my hunger since I hadnt eaten enough rice. He asked me, Why do you pick up that rice to eat? If they have poisoned it, you will die. And he kicked me with his boots on the head." - "Maung Hla" (M, 30), Kru Bper village, Kawkareik township (Interview #44, 4/99)
"They were Htay Htay Po, Pa Lone Tin, Pa Kyaw Wah, Sah KLin,
and Pa Oo Ngeh. The Burmese killed all of them because they couldnt carry their
loads when portering. They couldnt walk, so they fell down and the soldiers kicked
them. They stabbed them and beat them to death; they didnt shoot them dead. "
- "Saw Lay Htoo" (M, 42), xxxx village, Hlaing Bwe township
(Interview #10, 9/99)
One of the most frightening aspects of portering is the danger of
stepping on landmines. The KNLA lays landmines to compensate for being under-manned and
poorly equipped, and the SPDC/DKBA responds by planting landmines of their own. As a
consequence, Paan District is the most densely mined area in Karen State. The fact
that many porters would rather risk escape through a heavily mined jungle than continuing
to serve as porters testifies to the desperation of their condition. Some porters do
escape successfully, but the dangers they face once in the jungle prove very daunting.
Weariness and disorientation are nothing compared to the possibility of stepping on a
landmine and losing life or limb. Soldiers cultivate this fear in order to prevent escape,
often telling porters that they will die if they run, either from their bullets or from
landmines.
"They told us not to run because there were a lot of landmines, and also we didnt know where to run to because we didnt know where we were. They said that if I stepped on a landmine they wouldnt bury me but would shoot me dead and throw me in a valley. If you listened to them you were afraid, so we dared not run. During the time we were there 3 porters ran to escape, but they were killed by landmines. People said that they were from Maw Toh Ta Lay and had been porters for over a month." - "Saw Mo Aung" (M, 39), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #13, 9/99)
"The places where we ran were full of landmines. We didnt know the direction to run, but we ran ahead and reached Pah Klu even though wed never been there before. When we arrived at Pah Klu, the Sgaw [Sgaw Karen] women asked us, How could you dare to come back this way? Landmines are everywhere. We are surprised to see you arrive here safely. Some people ran into Burmese soldiers, though, so the soldiers tortured them." - "Maung Hla" (M, 30), Kru Bper village, Kawkareik township (Interview #44, 4/99)
"One porter stepped on a landmine when he was carrying and they shot him. They didnt bring him back to the village. A villager from Pah Klu witnessed it." - "Naw Lay Wah" (F, 25), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #36, 7/99)
"Last year one porter died. His name was Hsah Po Dee, about 25 years old. He stepped on a landmine He was going to hire someone to replace him, but he missed the car at Dta Greh Bridge, and so he had to go. Two groups of people came to replace the group he was in, but he didnt come back. Later the porters who were captured by the Burmese and went together with him returned to the village and said he had been injured by stepping on a mine. He shouted, but the Burmese didnt take care of him. He didnt die right away, but they couldnt go any further with him. No one carried him. His wife is still living in the village The Burmese didnt come to tell her anything. After people knew about it they went and asked for compensation, but the Burmese refused to listen." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 70), Dta Greh village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #41, 7/99)
"Many villagers legs have been blown off from stepping on
landmines. I foraged for food until I dared not forage any more. The last time I went
foraging with other villagers, a girls legs were blown off by a landmine and two of
her sisters were hurt. They are over 20 years old and married. One did not lose her leg,
but the other did. Two of my grandchildren also lost their legs. About 12 villagers from
Ker Ghaw have been injured, and 3 have died. Kyaw Per died, he was about 50 years old.
Also Lin Noh, who was about 30 years old, died this year. The villagers dont know if
it is the Burmese or the KNLA who plants the landmines. We dont follow them so we
dont know. One of the villagers was shooting squirrels near his house and stepped on
a landmine. Now no one dares to go on the upper side of the pagoda. They plant them near
the village, by the pagoda and monastery, where the villagers go to take care of their
cattle. When I went to find bamboo shoots there, one cow stepped on a mine. Boom!! It blew
its front leg off, and it died." - "Saw Nya" (M, 60), Ker Ghaw
village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #37, 7/99)
Landmines are being laid in ever-increasing numbers in southeastern
Paan District by the SPDC, the DKBA and the KNLA. While the KNLA attempts to notify
villagers of where they have laid their mostly hand-made mines, the SPDC and the DKBA
never do so, and the SPDC often deliberately mines pathways to villagers fields in
order to kill or maim internally displaced people who are hiding in the forests. The
number of civilian victims is increasing, and most die before they can be carried to any
medical help. SPDC and DKBA columns are now regularly ordering villagers to march in front
of their columns as human mine detonators, and fear of this form of forced labour has
caused many people to flee their homes.
"I stepped on a landmine near our village one month ago. It was a Burmese landmine, and they put it beside our village. I was going to my hillfields with 5 friends of mine. Right after I got wounded people carried me to my farmfield hut and I slept one night in my hillfield. Then the next day people came and carried me back, and I got treated by a Burmese medic at xxxx. Then people carried me here and I slept 5 days on the way. We worried that the Burmese would come and question me about what happened, so I dared not stay." - "Naw Hser Paw" (F, 28), Tee Law Thay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #26, 8/99)
"My daughter and grandchild stepped on landmines and died, so we
dared not stay. If we had stayed longer, all of them would die because they tortured us a
lot. My daughter stepped on a Ko Per Baw [DKBA] landmine and died 2 rainy seasons ago. She
was 20 years old, and her name was Naw Sher Pa. They set up landmines at Kwih Baw Nee, not
so far away, about one hours walk. They set them along the villagers path to
trap their enemies. She died on the path and we went to see her. She had gone with her
friend and her older sister, but her sister just got a wound on her leg under her knee. My
daughter and my two-month-old grandson and a guest from Tee Hsah Ra village died right
away. The guest was named Naw Shu, and she was around 50. They were coming back to the
village at the time. It was at the time when the Burmese came to attack this side [to
attack the KNLA east of the Dawna Mountains, near the Thai border] that my daughter was
killed by a landmine." - "Pu Tamla" (M, 60+), Taw Oak village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #8, 9/99)
The SPDC used to rely mainly on imported mines, but over the past few
years China has provided them with factories and technology to produce most of their
antipersonnel landmines themselves. The two main mines used by the SPDC are the MM1 and
MM2, both made in Burma in factories supplied by China. The MM1 is a copy of the
Chinese-made PMOZ-2 or corncob mine, and the MM2 is a copy of the Chinese-made
PMN mine; both of these Chinese models have been heavily used in Cambodia. They sometimes
mount the MM1, more powerful than the MM2, on a post at waist level in long grass or scrub
and rig it with a tripwire; in this way it will kill the villager who trips it and
possibly several others rather than just blowing off his or her leg. The MM2 is modelled
on a cheap Chinese-made mine which is flat, round and partly made of plastic; however, the
Burmese version is made of metal. The SPDC Army has extensive stockpiles of Chinese-made
mines and a few old U.S.-made mines, including the M76, but is increasingly reliant on the
mines they manufacture themselves.
"A lot of women have to carry for the Burmese too. Der! Last year
the Ko Per Baw forced women to go in front of them [to step on landmines] but the women
didnt dare to go, so they forced the village head to go. He didnt dare to go
either, but they pointed a gun at him and he had to. He went and he died. His name was
P---. It happened at T---, next to xxxx." - "Naw Ther Paw" (F, xx),
xxxx village, TNay Hsah twp. (Interview #32, 8/99)
The KNLA uses mines to shield certain areas from SPDC troops, and also
lays them along pathways used by SPDC columns. These improvised mines are usually made of
steel pellets and explosives encased in bamboo or other readily available materials,
although the KNLA does have access to some landmines from Cambodia and Vietnam bought on
the black market. Heavy casualties of SPDC soldiers in the past year from KNLA landmines
have prompted the SPDC and DKBA to use villagers as human minesweepers. They often collect
villagers in the area specifically to walk in front of a column of troops, to become human
mine detonators and human shields against ambush. Most often, however, they require
porters to march in front of troops, threatening to shoot anyone who refuses to go ahead.
Soldiers frequently force porters to serve as guides if the territory is unfamiliar to
them, in order to avoid KNLA landmines. The villagers have sometimes been told by the KNLA
which pathways are mined, but they do not know exactly where the mines are and they are
constantly afraid of triggering mines as they forge their way through the jungle. Some
villagers told KHRG that even when they told SPDC troops that the KNLA had mined the path,
the soldiers ordered them to proceed regardless.
"I was carrying a backpack, and he grabbed the backpack and pushed as strongly as he could. Der! He beat me because they forced us to walk and show the way but we dared not go in front of them. People had planted landmines there! I told him that people said there are landmines there, so we dared not go there anymore. If our legs disappeared, we would have nothing. One of my sons legs was blown off by a landmine. It was a Ko Per Baw landmine that had been planted a few years ago. But the soldiers only said that some people had warned us, so why were we so afraid? But they dared not go either, because they worried that their own legs would be blown off. I dared not go, but they went step by step. We thought it would be suicide to go like that. If I stepped on a landmine, maybe I would die or my legs would be blown off, so my life would be useless." - "Pu Than Nyunt" (M, 55), BNweh Pu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #15, 9/99)
"I portered for them [SPDC troops] when they patrolled the area between Pah Klu and Ker Ghaw. They guarded us from behind and forced us to go in front of them and walk among the landmines. Four of us had to go in front of them and all of us were villagers. If the landmines were there, they would have liked us to die by them. We were afraid to go because we could not see where the landmines were buried underground. If I went and stepped on a landmine and my leg was blown off, how could I earn my living? My family would be broken-hearted, but I wouldnt dare to hang myself, even though it would break my heart." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"They arrested us and tied us up, then they accused us of being
Kaw Thoo Lei [KNU/KNLA], but we told them that we are not Kaw Thoo Lei and they
shouldnt kill us. Then they forced us to go and give directions [serve as guides]
for them because they dont know the way in the mountains. I went carefully along the
way. If you didnt know the way, you would lose half your leg. We had to go with them
for 7 days in the hills with landmines. We dared not go, but if we didnt go they
would have shot us with their guns. We were afraid but had to go." -
"Saw Lah Ku" (M, 21), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #18,
8/99)
Landmines are one of the most prevalent and feared causes of death for
villagers. The KNLAs notifications regarding which pathways they have mined are
clearly insufficient, because villagers continue to detonate KNLA landmines. The SPDC and
DKBA lay them covertly, often at night without informing villagers of their number or
location, causing villagers injury or death when coming and going from their hill fields,
or when taking their cattle to graze outside the village. Neither the SPDC nor the DKBA
ever offers any compensation for injuries to people or animals as a result of landmines.
Villagers are often left on paths to bleed to death, and if they manage to make it back to
the village, the chance of medical attention is slim given the lack of trained medics or
supplies in the villages. The villager would have to be carried to the nearest medical
facility, a journey almost guaranteeing death for a seriously injured landmine victim.
"That morning he wanted to go and tend his hill field and he asked me to go with him and check the path. So I went and was checking [with a stick] along the way, but the landmines were buried beside the path. He was following me, he turned and stepped off the path and a landmine exploded. I turned and looked and saw him running without one foot, and I called to him, Dont run!" - "Saw Lay Mu" (M, 33), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township, talking about what happened after SPDC troops mined their fields during this years harvest (Interview #1, 11/99)
"During the night they sometimes encircled the village with landmines. They planted them surrounding the houses, and if they had sentry duty they planted them around themselves. They planted them surrounding Pah Klu village, but when morning came they took them out." - "Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #20, 8/99)
Q: "Are there landmines around Pah Klu village?"
A: "Yes, KNLA landmines. If the Burmese came to sleep in the village, they planted
landmines at night near the village. Mostly the cattle stepped on the landmines, but two
villagers died from stepping on landmines. They were Pa Kyaw Lu, who was about 30 years
old, and I dont remember the name of the other one." - "Naw Lay Wah"
(F, 25), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #36, 7/99)
"The DKBA laid the landmines near the village and along the way that the villagers take to go to their hill fields. Two villagers stepped on landmines and died. One was named Pa Plah Po. He was about 40 years old and has had many wives. Another one was a woman named Peh Peh, who was also about 40 years old and had many children. She stepped on a landmine and then people brought her home. Then they sent her to Ra Ma Tee [Myawaddy] hospital, but as they were carrying her on the bullock cart she died halfway there. So they carried her back home. It happened in July [1999], when the villagers sow the seed paddy. The man also died in the same month." - "Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #30, 8/99)
"In Taw Oak the DKBA set up a lot of landmines at the top of the
village and beside the bank of the river. Just 2 months ago 2 women stepped on landmines
when they were going fishing. One of them named Nga Bla Ree died; she was about 30 years
old. The other one lost her leg; her name is Y--- and she is over 30. She still stays in
the village. Her brother came here and said that they didnt take the pieces of shell
out of her leg, and no one sent her anywhere." - "Taw Lay" (M, 41),
Kwih Lay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #6, 9/99)
The following order by Commander Chit Thu of DKBA Brigade #999
illustrates how the DKBAs response to the KNLAs planting of landmines in the
area hurts innocent civilians more often than the combatants they were intended for. In
this order sent to a village head, Chit Thu warns the village that the DKBA will plant
landmines because the KNLA had already mined the area, but he does not specify the
locations of the landmines, nor accept responsibility for the consequences the villagers
may suffer. Instead, he implicitly threatens to shoot all villagers who run away.
[See Order #P1, "SPDC Orders to Villages:
Set 99-B" (KHRG #99-03, 19/4/99). This order was typed in Karen and
signed with a signature stamp of Chit Thu, a well-known DKBA commander. DKBA
is spelt out phonetically as Dee Kay Bee Ay rather than its Karen or Burmese
equivalent. Similarly, KNU is spelt out as Kay Eh Yu.]
|
Many villagers are terrified of going for forced labour shifts because
of the potential to encounter landmines while working. The SPDC/DKBA uses villagers as
"dispensable" labourers in high-risk areas where they do not wish to send
soldiers, particularly in places that were formerly controlled by the KNLA, such as a
logging site near Kawkareik where villagers cut logs in a heavily mined forest. Villagers
are also being used as minesweepers at Army camps to clear mines laid by the KNLA,
particularly when an SPDC or DKBA column stays for a long time in the village and could be
the target of a KNLA ambush. A villager from BNweh Pu reported that the SPDC ordered
villagers to Tee Wah, where they the Army tried to force them to be human minesweepers,
and when they would not go the soldiers beat them. The SPDC military has involved
villagers in landmine warfare in the area for at least 2 years by using them as
minesweepers and mine detonators, but soldiers are now treating mines as deadly tools in a
terror campaign targeted at villagers. In villages that the SPDC is relocating, soldiers
now deliberately plant mines in areas where they know only villagers will go, such as
private homes of people with suspected KNU/KNLA connections. The SPDCs warfare
tactics against villagers are the same ones used against the resistance army, reflecting
the Armys view that innocent villagers are their enemy.
"We were afraid because the KNLA went and placed landmines around the logging sites. The KNU had protected the woods for hundreds of years, but when the DKBA and the Burmese were planning to log them, the KNLA placed landmines there. We heard about this and were very afraid of doing forced labour there. I had to go to do it, and we helped each other roll the logs or carry them in the cart." - "Nan Paw Oa" (F, 18), xxxx village, Kawkareik township (Interview #42, 7/99)
"I went to cut trees for them because the Burmese wanted to build a bridge and needed wood. When I started to cut down a tree, I stepped on a landmine. Three of us went. One of my friends got a small wound and the other one had dirt sprayed in his face. But I got hit worse than them." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township; both of his legs were blown off but he survived (Interview #28, 8/99)
"One time a woman from Pway Taw Ro was found dead in her hut, but we didnt know who had killed her. She and her husband were both stabbed to death. She was cut around her neck. At the foot of her ladder there was a landmine, and also in her kitchen there was a landmine. It was lucky that a dog went in there first and lay down, so it exploded that landmine. We dont know who put the landmines there. In the house above the ladder [which serves as the front steps] there was a landmine in the water jug [a pot with drinking water for visitors and passersby]. Since she had died, many people had gone to her house and passed under her ladder. Suddenly somebody knocked the water jug, and it fell down and exploded. Then no one dared to move and walk around her house. Her mother told us this when she was visiting a relative in Pah Ka. I dont know if it was the Ko Per Baw or the Burmese. Her mother told us that her daughters 4 necklaces were stolen, also 3 rings and 2 pairs of earrings. They also took 20,000 Kyat." - "Naw Kyaw" (F, xx), Pah Ka village, Dta Greh township (Interview #33, 8/99)
"The village head has responsibility for all people who are sick
and cannot go or pay the fee for portering. This is why no one wants to be the village
head. Our last village head, D---, fled already, and nobody wanted to be the village head
after he left. He was elected by the villagers to cooperate with them to solve their
problems, but he did not want to cooperate with the Burmese. If the Burmese demanded
things from the villagers which we couldnt give, the village head had to take
responsibility. The Burmese punish him if he cant give them what they want.
Sometimes they asked for money, but they would also beat him for punishment. My older
brother was the village head and I saw the Burmese slap his face and head, just like they
do to the villagers who go and work for them every day. His name is xxxx and he is 40
years old. The Burmese hit him when they were angry because they saw the villagers running
from them, and when they asked the village head, he told them that they were running to
escape from being captured as porters. So they punished the village head. This year at the
start of the rainy season the Ko Per Baw ordered a village head to collect porters but he
would not go at first and nobody dared to go. They arrested him and put him in jail for 2
or 3 days but he escaped. He is my nephew, only 20 years old. His name is Saw xxxx." -
"Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township
(Interview #22, 8/99)
The village head serves as a liaison between the village and the
military authorities. While ordinary villagers are routinely detained and tortured by SPDC
troops, village heads are usually the first ones targeted for failing to comply with the
Armys many demands. To the SPDC it is a moot point whether the village can actually
meet the monetary, forced labour, portering, and other demands inflicted upon them. A
dissatisfied officer will order his troops to arrest and often torture the village head,
then hold him/her for ransom while the villagers raise enough money to secure his/her
release. Sometimes the forced labour fees, arbitrary taxes, and other demands must come
out of the village heads pocket if villagers cannot afford to pay the Army
themselves. Traditionally men have been elected to serve as village heads, but now
villagers tend to elect women in hopes they will be treated less brutally. Most villagers
are terrified of becoming the village head, so many villages now elect their leader on a
short-term, rotating basis so s/he will not have to face repetitive punishment. Village
heads, even women, are often beaten and tortured when the village fails to raise enough
money or fulfil the demands for forced labour, and the killing of village elders is not a
rare occurrence.
"If we didnt have the money when the Ko Per Baw came to collect it, they captured the village head. Then if we didnt collect the money for them, they wouldnt allow the village head to come back. They would capture him and keep him in jail. Then the villagers had to collect money until we could give them enough. If you have a goat or a hen you have to sell it. Before some people had money, but with more and more collections they sold all their belongings, even their cattle, pigs and goats." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"There are about 100 houses in the village. They elect the village head for two or three months at a time. Sometimes in the past they elected one village head for 6 months, but now they always change the village head. If the villagers think that someone can do it, they ask the person to do it. If you ask the villagers to do it, nobody wants to. The villagers all have their land and fields to work." - "Saw Nya" (M, 60), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #37, 7/99)
"He is an old village head, and he argued with the Burmese [soldier] so he slapped him. He ordered the village head to buy alcohol for him, but the village head wouldnt do it so he slapped him twice on the back of his neck." - "Pa Noh" (M, 45), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #12, 9/99)
"They beat the villagers, which is why nobody wants to be the
village head. This May they beat one of the village heads, who was a temporary headman.
One time when they tortured him, he didnt want to be the village head any
more. He told me that the DKBA beat him. They wanted villagers to go immediately, but he
told them that they could not find anyone right away. They said, The villagers are
bad, and we already told you to get them. Then they beat him. He told me,
Brother-in-law, I cannot suffer anymore. He could not bear it anymore and so
he fled from the village.
Now the villagers are working together with Dta Lah
Lu Gyi [monthly village head], who is always a woman. The villagers
elect her every month. The villagers work for Dta Lah Lu Gyi throughout the year, and each
house gives 1 basket of paddy to them for taking care of us. They would elect men but they
dare not. When the DKBA or the Burmese come to the village, it is a different matter with
a male village head. Once in the past they came to collect emergency porters and the
headman couldnt find any for them. Then they beat the headman and the people dared
not complain." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 70), Dta Greh village, Hlaing Bwe
township (Interview #41, 7/99)
The SPDC and DKBA soldiers often beat, threaten, and intimidate
ordinary villagers if they resist handing over their food or belongings on demand.
Villagers are routinely arrested for random reasons, for which no explanation is offered
before, during, or after their detention. Often villagers will complain to DKBA troops
about looting or other injustices on the mistaken assumption that the DKBA will act as
allies and confront the SPDC on the villagers behalf. The DKBA immediately informs
the SPDC, and the plaintive villagers are punished for their disobedience. The motivations
for torture are too numerous to mention here, but the incidents are becoming more
commonplace as the military presence in the region intensifies, resulting in more demands
and more interactions with reluctant, weary villagers.
"[talking about the village headwoman] She complained to the Ko Per Baw leaders at Ko Ko and the Burmese beat her very badly. It was after we fled here, because the other group that came after us told us. She was telling the truth, but they didnt like that. She said that the Burmese are raping women and stealing belongings. The Burmese beat her with a stick because they accused her of complaining to the Ko Per Baw about what the Burmese have done. She only reported it to the Ko Per Baw, but they cooperate with the Burmese so the Burmese found out, and they beat her. They accused her of being an informer and they tried to kill her." - "Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #20, 8/99)
"Yes, they beat one married woman named P---. She is around 70 years old. When they were looting her childrens paddy she told them, It will all be gone, then we will have no paddy to eat. Then they took a stick and beat her once and kicked her once. She dared not complain [to the commander] because the commander and the soldiers are the same." - "Saw Nyo" (M, 50), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #25, 8/99)
"Yes, they frightened us when they demanded food. If people didnt give it to them, they threatened us and touched us with their guns saying, Will you give it to me or not? If you dont give, I will shoot you. We were afraid so we gave to them. We didnt know if they would fire at us or not, and if they did we would die." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"I was carrying paddy to my house, and when I arrived he came up into the house and demanded alcohol. I told him that we didnt have any alcohol. He called me down to the ground with two of my friends, and then he told me that whether I found it or not he would tie our hands behind our backs and also tie our legs. Der! He accused me of being a Karen soldier. They saw that I had only one foot, so they couldnt tie it. They tied the hands and legs of the other two with me and demanded that we lie down, but because I couldnt do it quickly they kicked me once on the back with their big boots. They hit my chin with the butt of a gun, then they punched my friend and split his forehead open." - "Saw Tha Suh" (M, 45), Tee Wah Klay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #14, 9/99)
"One time they shot at the village children who were looking after
the cattle in the hills, and they captured many children. It was around 20 people. There
were children and women, some of whom were carrying their babies. They called them back to
their Battalion and forced them to spend the night. Then they released them." -
"Saw Baw" (M, 29), Tee Law Thay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview
#24, 8/99)
Aside from failing to meet demands, the other most frequent cause for
detention and torture is the suspicion that a villager has KNU contacts. The SPDC
intimidates villagers by physical torture who they suspect have rebel
affiliations, though their suspicions are hardly ever based on concrete evidence. Often if
villagers fail to comply with their demands, soldiers will automatically accuse them of
being KNU members. Although the KNLA does depend on villagers contributions of food
and supplies, any villagers with real allegiance to the KNU stay silent for fear of
drawing the SPDCs attention, while most simply wish to distance themselves from all
sides of the conflict. Those who happen to know about KNLA activity dare not reveal their
information when interrogated unless soldiers literally beat it out of them. DKBA and SPDC
soldiers usually make completely arbitrary accusations against villagers, sometimes
spurred from personal grudges or a selfish hope for a promotion. Soldiers often detain
villagers whose innocence they have never doubted simply as an excuse to demand a
significant bribe from the village for his/her release, often totaling 20,000-30,000 Kyat.
Whatever the provocation, villagers understand that any known or suspected connection to
the KNU will cost them, their families, or their fellow villagers great personal harm. If
a villager is arrested, he or she will not receive a fair trial, and will be held
indefinitely, possibly serving as a frontline porter or as a forced labourer at an army
camp, until village elders can vouch for their innocence. No one is spared
from this witch hunt process, and many villagers report savage beatings of
women, elders, and children. Through arrest and torture, the SPDC has managed to instill
both tremendous fear and the unwilling compliance of villagers.
"Yes, they beat and tortured a villager named P---, who is around 30 years old. The commander ordered it and the privates beat him. They accused him of being Kaw Thoo Lei [KNLA] and working with them. He was never Kaw Thoo Lei, and he told them that but they did not accept it, so they sliced his ears. They beat him horribly with a stick in the village, and we dared not go to look because we were staying outside the village. Now he is not strong enough to carry anything." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 27), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #9, 9/99)
"He asked me, Maung xxxx, where are you from? and I told him I stay at T---. [Where his farmfield hut is.] He said, What do you do there, and where do you keep your gun? He told me that I wasnt telling the truth, so he kept me tied up with rope. After they had kept us tied up at that place for 4 or 5 hours, he said, Tie them separately. The rope was 40 handspans long, but it wasnt long enough for him so he untied a rope from someones pig and tied me on the back with that rope, too. They tied my friend to me so we were like a ball. You dont need to ask how tight it was. I couldnt sit down so I didnt know what to do. As for my friend, when the Burmese tied him he shouted out and they threatened him with a gun and told him, Be quiet. You are real Nga Pway [SPDC slang for KNU/KNLA]. We told them, We are not Nga Pway, we are workers and if you dont believe us, go look at our huts. Pwah! Then we couldnt do anything, so we told the other villagers to go and tell the village head that the Burmese had us tied up. We had done nothing wrong." - "Saw Kee" (M, 21), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #11, 9/99)
"Der! They beat my husbands cousin. They chased and captured him and stabbed him with a bayonet. Then they twisted it inside him and he yelled loudly because it was so painful. They accused him of having a gun and radio and making contact with TBee Met [closed-eyes, DKBA slang for KNU/KNLA], but he never had. All of the people they capture they beat a lot. The time they captured my husband they captured 7 people and they slapped their faces until they were bruised. They accused them all of having guns and radios, so they interrogated and beat each of them in the fields. They tied them all and beat and kicked them. Later they released them all because people gave guarantees for them. I was very afraid and my feet were trembling, and I was so afraid that I couldnt go to guarantee him [her husband]. But I had to go to give the guarantee because they kept telling me that they were going to kill him. They said that he and his cousin, B---, were most at fault." - "Naw Ther Paw" (F, xx), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township; her husband S--- was later shot dead by the DKBA, though he was innocent of any contact with the KNLA (Interview #32, 8/99)
"Yes, the Ko Per Baw [DKBA] arrived one time and touched us with guns. The Burmese were also involved. When they arrived at the hut, they pointed their guns and ordered us, Dont run away. We dared not run because they were close to us. Then they said, Have you seen TBee Met? [Closed-eyes, DKBA term for Karen soldiers] I said I hadnt seen them. They started to frighten me and said that the day before they had passed through our area. I told them that they hadnt come, but they continued, Uncle, tell the truth. If you do not tell the truth you will face many problems. So I told them the truth that they had not come, and then they pulled me down toward the path, and when we arrived on the path they asked me again, Do they [KNLA] come often? I told them, We havent seen them, but we were lying to them because some people from here were our friends and sometimes they did come. They told me again, Tell the truth, and they kicked me one time on my back and slapped my face twice. I fell down into a gully. We said, They do not come often. Sometimes once a month or once a week. Then they didnt beat me anymore, and they released me and told me to go up to the house." - "Pu Tamla" (M, 60+), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #8, 9/99)
"They tried to steal women to sleep with, so the women had to
gather and sleep together in the same house at night. They had to close the door tightly
and each of the women had their own big knives. They dared not sleep at their own houses
because the Burmese were staying in their houses, so 4 or 5 families would sleep together
in one house. The men dared not guard them. Der! In the morning they would go back home.
They asked my wife to have sex because she stayed with just one or two others, and she
scolded and shouted at them. We dared not stay without many people. I cannot explain how
great the fear was. I have a daughter who is a teenager, so I dared not let them meet her.
Two or three years ago they didnt do things like this, and my wife and I didnt
want to run too hastily. My wife is an especially strong woman and she faced the Burmese
treatment until she couldnt face them anymore. One time my wife visited me in the
farmfield hut and whispered, We have to move. We dare not stay anymore because now
in the night we have to sleep in one big group with big knives. So people fled
because they couldnt tolerate the Burmese treatment. Now they have all fled." -
"Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview
#20, 8/99)
On the rise in southeastern Paan District are incidents of rape
and sexual abuse of women by SPDC troops. While men flee their villages as soon as the
military approaches, women usually remain to take care of the house and surrounding
fields. Without a male presence to prevent their advances, troops more easily take
advantage of the womens vulnerable position. Knowing they will encounter less
resistance if the male owner of the house is absent, soldiers boldly enter houses at will,
looting belongings and making sexual advances towards women. Some women have been able to
ward off intruding, often drunken soldiers, but many have not. Soldiers will often try to
convince women to return to their camp when they enter a village at night. In one case,
the village headwoman of Pah Klu was forced to become the sexual servant of Captain Toe
Aung, a Company Commander with Light Infantry Battalion #120, for the duration of his stay
in the village. The other village women, afraid of a similar fate, gathered to sleep in
groups and carried knives to protect themselves against soldiers who stormed their houses
at night. In the end the women of Pah Klu were largely successful in warding off their
attackers because they threatened to tell the soldiers commanding officer if they
were raped. Privates know that rape is one offense they can actually be punished for,
though the punishment is almost always minor. In the Burmese military, rape is considered
an officers privilege, and most privates are afraid of overstepping their bounds. In
some regions the local commanding officers who commit rape will also be afraid of their
superior officers finding out about their own transgressions. The threat of punishment,
however, is often not daunting enough to deter soldiers from trying to rape women,
especially if they observe the example of their commanding officers. In general, and
certainly in southeastern Paan District, the Burmese military creates an atmosphere
of impunity around rape, just as it does with the torture and killing of villagers.
"He said, AMo pay! AMo leh saun! [literally: Mother, give! Mother, a present!] I asked him, What kind of present?, and he came near to me so I was afraid. He said AMo pay! Pay! and I said, Give what?, and I moved away from him little by little because I was afraid. I told him, Go back. It is dark, go back. And I moved away from him. I spoke to him in Karen, but he spoke to me in Burmese. After I asked him to go back he went back. As for me they couldnt rape me, but they did it a lot to my friends and my nieces, so I couldnt stay anymore. I was afraid and sometimes our hearts become cold and sometimes hot [angry], and we couldnt sleep until morning. In the night my heart and hands became cold with fear of them. My husband was not sleeping beside me." - "Naw Paw Mo" (F, 42), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #21, 8/99)
"There were 3 or 4 women and the people told me they were married. They are older than me. The Burmese soldiers went to the womens houses; they didnt call them [to the Army camp]. They couldnt sleep with the women, but they could hold their hands and legs. At that time I was together with them because the Burmese had arrested and tied me up at the time when they slept with the women. They are the same troops who tied me. I didnt see it because they kept me in another place and in the morning we heard the village head complain to their commander that his soldiers had slept with the women. They punished the soldiers, but they are still doing it." - "Saw Lah Ku" (M, 21), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #18, 8/99)
" her husband ran at night because they came to kill him so they could have sex with his wife. They couldnt, because she can speak Burmese, so she spoke to them and avoided it while her husband fled in the night. Her name is Ma T--- and she is 30 years old. This was not a long time ago, only 10 days or so." - "Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #20, 8/99)
"[about the village head, who is a widow:] He took the village
headwoman to sleep with him, and he kept her beside him and slept with her.
The
children go with her and stay with them. She has two children and one is 7 years old. I
cant tell what he does with her because he never lets her out, and she has to stay
there both days and nights. If he went somewhere, she had to go with him day or
night." - "Naw Paw Mo" (F, 42), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah
township (Interview #21, 8/99)
The whole village will feel the consequences of a womans rape.
Fear of being violated, and shame experienced after the fact, will drive women out of the
village to join their husbands in hiding until soldiers have left, or until the family can
flee to a safer location. Rape and the threat of it is often the trigger for a mass exodus
from the village, since fear quickly spreads to all women left unprotected, and because no
family members are able to remain in safety any longer. The villagers are reluctant to
leave their homes unattended because they know that soldiers will raid them, but many
women would rather lose everything than face aggressive soldiers.
"Once a Burmese soldier entered a married womans house. When she tried to go into her room [to escape], he caught her by the leg and pulled her back out of the room. The Burmese was drunk so the woman became afraid and came back out Now not many women are staying in the village. Mostly they go and sleep in the jungle or in their field huts. They [Burmese] dont try to find them, because whenever house owners flee they are happy because they can steal freely." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"They walked around the whole night and went into peoples houses. They stole peoples belongings and questioned women. They asked the women to sleep with them, and so some women dared not stay and ran away because they couldnt face it. I did not hear that they raped women in the village, but I heard that they harassed women. They asked to have sex and the women got angry and moved away. They harassed 2 or 3 women like that. After people knew about that, only a few people remained in their houses. Most people ran away." - "Saw Nyo" (M, 50), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #25, 8/99)
"
they killed one of my nephews. They didnt allow the
people to go out at night. He was foolish and went outside the village at night to find
frogs in the rainy season. It was in Lah Ghoh [August] before people transplanted their
paddy seedlings. We had already sown the seed paddy and the seedlings were growing long.
Then DKBA soldiers who were staying in the village killed him. His name was Saw Eh Kweh,
and he was about 20 years old, younger than my daughter. At that time the KNLA came to
fight the DKBA in Taw Oak, and when the KNLA entered the village they met him. Some
soldiers arrived and started shooting in the village. When he heard the shooting he was
afraid and dared not return to the village, so he ran and followed the KNLA. After they
[KNLA] finished shooting, they went back to Pah Klu village and took him there, too. But
he was not a soldier, so the KNLA soldiers left him there and went away from Pah Klu. The
next day when DKBA went to Pah Klu, they killed him and threw his body in the river. The
villagers from Pah Klu saw them do it. They stabbed him through his clothes. Maybe they
tied him, too, but we didnt go to see him. It was raining then and the river was in
flood. Later when the river went down his body appeared, and the villagers from Pah Klu
took him out and buried him." - "Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak
village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #30, 8/99)
Villagers in the Pah Klu area have recently reported encounters with
troops who bear a strong resemblance to Sa Thon Lon Guerrilla Retaliation Units.
These units are special execution squads which the SPDC has employed in Nyaunglebin
District, where the villagers call them the "Short Pants" ("Baw Bi
Doh") in reference to their civilian clothes. The units there are known for their
brutal execution techniques and sexual harassment of women. In Pah Klu they are called
"SKer Po", or "Short Skirts", apparently a sarcastic reference
to their attempts to sleep with all the village women. In Nyaunglebin District, the Sa
Thon Lon have a clearly stated mission to execute on sight anyone they believe has had
past or present contact with the KNU, but they are also notorious for their unceasing
harassment of village women. (For a history and description of Sa Thon Lon
units, see "Death Squads and Displacement: Systematic Executions, Village
Destruction and the Flight of Villagers in Nyaunglebin District", KHRG
#99-04, 24/5/99). Until now there have been no confirmed reports of Sa Thon Lon activity
in Central Karen State, but there have been several reports that the SPDC planned to bring
some Sa Thon Lon execution squads into Paan District. KHRG has not found any
evidence to confirm these rumours. Rape and looting are rampant in the village, but
villagers have not yet reported executions of the type associated with Sa Thon Lon
units. It is possible, however, that several units have moved south in order to terrify
villagers and facilitate the SPDCs relocation of villages to Army camps with the
goal of eliminating the KNLAs support base.
"We heard about them [Sa Thon Lon] but we could not figure out if these belong to the same group, because they are doing the same things as those groups." - "Naw Paw Mo" (F, 42), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #21, 8/99)
"They [the soldiers] already went back to their camp at Ker
Ghaw but we heard that they will come back again. I dont know their unit number but
there are 80 soldiers. They wear the same clothes as villagers. They wear short pants and
shirts
People told me that it is Baw Bi Doh, but we called them SKer Po
["short skirts"]
they do not carry guns. They bring knives. They walk
around day and night. They are going after women, not men." - "Saw
Nyo" (M, 50), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #25, 8/99)
As with torture and detention of villagers, the DKBA and SPDC continue
to kill indiscriminately in all areas of southeastern Paan District. They are known
to blame each other for acts of killing in order to avoid confronting village elders or
compensating relatives. Both armies will seek out villagers to accuse of KNU affiliations,
but legitimate proof of guilt is never necessary before killing a villager. When summoned
by troops, many villagers run in hopes of avoiding interrogation about the KNLA, which may
or may not involve torture, and/or an inevitable porter shift if captured. Soldiers shoot
anyone running to escape, justifying their actions by claiming that running implies that
the villager does indeed have KNLA connections. They seldom offer explanations to
relatives of victims either, and never report them as civilian casualties. If recorded at
all, the dead are considered KNLA soldiers killed in battle, numbers which are used to
boost the SPDCs claims of crushing opposition groups.
"The #120 [Battalion] troops killed a villager named Du Lay Loh. They didnt tell anyone when they captured him, and then they killed him the same day. Later people found his body in a hole and buried him. They didnt tell any of the village elders why they killed him." - "Saw Than" (M, 43), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #5, 11/99)
"They are always shooting their guns in the village, both big weapons and small guns. If they see the people run, they shoot them all. They starting shooting last year, and they didnt think beforehand whether theyre aiming at villagers or the KNLA. The Burmese accuse the DKBA of doing the shooting and the DKBA accused the Burmese of doing it." - "Naw Lay Wah" (F, 25), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #36, 7/99)
" one of my brothers was shot to death by the Burmese. The Burmese didnt say anything afterwards, because they couldnt do anything since he was shot already. Maybe they could have done something, but the Burmese are like that - they shoot first and think later, and you cant bring people back to life. After the people ran away, they took the belongings that they had left. My brothers friend was with his wife, and she was shot. They took all the womans belongings, like shirts, clothing, pots, and other things. " - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 27), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #9, 9/99)
" they come to my village often and whenever they come they shoot villagers. The other time they came they shot a man named Htay Lah. He is Karen and a villager. He was eating rice at his wifes parents house when they shot him. He wasnt wearing clothes while he was eating, only short pants. They started shooting into the house, so he stopped eating and ran down to the ground. He ran and they shot him to death. They accused him of being Nga Pway [KNLA soldier]. People told them, He is not Nga Pway; he is a villager. Look in his housethere are no weapons! When their commander asked them they said that a small battle had occurred with the KNLA and they had accidentally hit a villager. For sure there was no battle, because there was no KNLA there. They just shot at a villager who was running." - "Pu Dta Ler" (M, 50-60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah twp. (Interview #45, 4/99)
"He went into the forest to find some vegetables to eat, but he
didnt know that the Burmese [LIB 331] were staying along the path waiting for them,
so he went down to enter the village and when the Burmese saw him and his friend, they
shot the two of them dead. My uncles name was Per Ta Lu and he was 32 years old. His
friend was Pa Mu Dah, who was only 15 years old.
We knew it because they came
carrying their bodies in blankets and bags. They said that they made a mistake by shooting
them, but they were dead already, and these dead people were villagers. They were carrying
vegetables when the soldiers shot them dead." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F,
27), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #9, 9/99)
As the SPDC concentrates its offensive against the KNLA in Paan
District more villagers are forced to suffer the consequences, usually not by being caught
in the crossfire but by facing SPDC reprisals after the shooting stops. Villagers often
become scapegoats when a battle occurs near the village, forced to placate troops by
clearing away the dead soldiers, treating the wounded, and providing them with food and
supplies. This is often is not enough, however, and soldiers vent their rage by killing
civilians whose only fault was being too close to a battle site. Villagers have no idea
how to approach unpredictable and dangerous soldiers, so without a better alternative many
opt to flee deep into the jungle, becoming internally displaced.
"In the plain area [west of the Dawna Mountains] they beat all of the villagers who live near to places where battles have occurred. One battle occurred at Kaw Suh, near Ler Dah, only 20 minutes walk from Ta Plaw Pu. It happened between the villages. There were only a few soldiers from the Karen side, so they shot for a while and then ran away. I was involved there too, and when the Karen soldiers ran and shot at them, one or two of them were wounded and they were upset about this. So they accused the Kaw Suh villagers of feeding Kaw Thoo Lei [KNLA]. They killed two women because the Kaw Thoo Lei had shot at them. They werent village heads. They were married women, and they ran from fright when the Burmese arrived. They shot 5 or 6 cows at the same time; it was not a mistake, they aimed at them and shot them. The Karen soldiers had already run far away from the village, but the Burmese came to shoot the two women anyway. They were around 45 years old; one of them has 4 children and the other one has 2 children." - "Saw Lay Htoo" (M, 42), xxxx village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #10, 9/99)
Looting,
Extortion, and Demands
"If they tax us, we have to give to them. We cant stay
without giving to them. Both the DKBA and the Burmese tax us. Last year they taxed us
until we could not pay them. This year they taxed us too, and we couldnt pay them
anymore. Thats why we fled from them. They collected once a month from every house
to buy their food. Each time we had to give 1,000 or more Kyat [per house], and sometimes
they collected 2,000 or 3,000 Kyat. We had to pay the Burmese less than the DKBA; we
usually had to give the Burmese 500 Kyat [each time]. They collected irregularly, twice or
three times a month. They made problems for the villagers who could not pay. If there were
villagers who couldnt pay, each house would have to give until they collected 10,000
or 30,000 Kyat. The next time the villagers would have to find enough to pay them
again." - "Maung Shwe" (M, 36), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah
township (Interview #19, 8/99)
Villagers in Southeastern Paan District have been the victims of
relentless looting of food, livestock, belongings, and money by SPDC and DKBA forces. The
SPDC has been gradually reducing rations to its soldiers nationwide and directly ordering
them to live off the land or the local villagers. Similarly, DKBA forces cannot depend on
Rangoon for any supplies at all anymore. SPDC officers have been known to take the rations
and sell them, then inform their privates to loot from nearby villages. Additionally, the
quality of the rice rationed to rank-and-file SPDC soldiers is now so poor that most
soldiers refuse to eat it, so many simply take the villagers good quality rice. The
SPDC, DKBA and KNLA armies are all therefore dependent on resource-strapped villagers for
food and supplies, which they take at will. Villagers are forced to hand over their food
to troops who demand them and are threatened in various ways if they do not comply. Most
villagers cite looting as a primary reason for flight from their villages, as hunger
becomes less of a fear and more of a reality.
"During this last rainy season the rice [ration shipments] didnt come for them, so they didnt have enough rice. Then they demanded rice from the villagers. They demanded it from the village head, and he had to give it to them because he was afraid of their guns. So the villagers had to give and then they had to buy rice for themselves in order to eat." - "Saw Baw" (M, 29), Tee Law Thay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #24, 8/99)
"If the house where they are staying doesnt have rice, they look at other houses to see if they have rice, and they steal it in the night. Villagers sometimes didnt have enough rice and so they couldnt eat. They take our livestock, mostly pigs and goats. If you add up the livestock that they eat during one night, it is at least 3 pigs. They steal it during the night and dont give any money." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"At my mothers house, where 2 of my sisters were also staying, they [soldiers] came and touched them with guns and looted some rice. Then they threatened my sisters with a firebrand and cut up my mothers bed." - "Naw Paw Mo" (F, 42), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #21, 8/99)
"Dont ask if they eat or not! They ate a lot. We dared not complain to them. If we complained, they said, I eat your poultry. If I ask from you, give. Dont talk too much. The villagers are afraid of them and feed them. But the villagers dont want to feed them in their hearts." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #28, 8/99)
"When they enter the village they eat pigs and hens, and they come and steal all the villagers belongings. They dont ask for it, and if they ask the owner and the owner doesnt give it to them they kill it for themselves and nobody dares to complain. If you talk back to them they point their guns at you. They ate one of my hens but I dared not say anything to them. I stayed quiet, and their commanders also scolded us the way they do. Der! The privates and their commanders eat together. They eat the villagers pigs and chickens and they dont pay for it." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 27), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #9, 9/99)
"Even though I didnt raise livestock, they took my pumpkins.
If I complained, they told me You have no legs. You shouldnt say
anything." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village,
TNay Hsah township, who lost both legs to a landmine doing forced labour for the
SPDC (Interview #28, 8/99)
The looting is actively encouraged by commanding officers, who demand
large quantities of food and money for themselves and have no objection to their troops
obtaining all their food from the villagers. Many villagers report that extortion takes
many forms; for example, troops demand that the villagers feed them pork, leaving them the
burden of buying livestock outside the village, or the burden of monetarily reimbursing a
villager whose pig they must sacrifice. Soldiers also loot in order to provide for their
wives and children if their families stay with them in or near the village. It is widely
known among villagers that SPDC soldiers, eager to supplement their humble earnings from
the military, steal from the villagers and send the money and clothing they steal back
home to their families in other parts of Burma. Officers can make millions of Kyat
extorting money from the villages in their area in the course of a years posting,
money which their families can use to start businesses back in Rangoon or other towns.
"They took 4 or 5 baskets of paddy from L---s house. From other women they looted rice and touched the women with their hands. Then there was only a bit of rice left, and they shat in it and then left." - "Saw Mo Aung" (M, 39), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #13, 9/99)
"They demand to eat in the village as well. We have to find money to pay for 2 meals of pork per month, which is 20 viss [32 kg / 70 lb] of pork each time, or 40 viss in total. One viss of pork costs 500 Kyat, so that makes 20,000 Kyat monthly just for pork. If we do not have pigs in the village we have to go outside the village to find them." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
"They collected money, for example we have to pay for their batteries and pork. We had to collect money recently so that they can eat pork twice a month. For each month that costs each family 1,000 Kyat or more. Including everything, like porter fees, batteries for their torchlights and radios, and monthly set tha fees, each family has to give 3,000 Kyat or more. We have to give that every month because they demand it every month. If we dont give it to them they just glare at us. You cant stay there without giving, so you have to give all you can." - "Pa Noh" (M, 45), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #12, 9/99)
"Der! They will do what they want and send it to their families. It is the way of earning respect from the family by sending them money." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"They did not ask to buy it [rice], they looted it from the
owners. The owners saw it but dared not say anything, and if they [the soldiers] were
carrying their guns the women were afraid and said, "take as you will". They
took it and put it in sacks that hold 3 big tins each [50-kilo rice sacks], then they
pounded it themselves with the villagers mortars. Then they walked into the village
and sold it for 1,000 Kyat per sack. Some people bought it, because if people didnt
buy it they couldnt live. Some people cant [afford to] buy it but others can.
People bought it to eat because in the village there is rarely enough rice, so we have to
go down to buy rice from the plains. The Burmese came to stay in the village, and then the
Ko Per Baw took the Burmese rice while it was on its way, and didnt send any of it
on to them. [The DKBA stole a Burmese Army rice ration shipment.]" -
"Saw Mo Aung" (M, 39), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #13,
9/99)
Now that the demands for portering and forced labour are increasing,
many villagers are forced to leave their homes for periods of time, either to escape
forced labour shifts or to fulfil them. The soldiers take advantage of the owners
absence by freely entering homes and eating rice, stealing belongings, trashing whatever
possessions they cannot use or carry, and in some cases occupying the houses for the
duration of their stay in a village, effectively forcing the villagers out of their own
homes. Soldiers never offer compensation for stolen pots or clothing, items which are
difficult for villagers to replace, nor do soldiers care if they loot the villagers
main food supply. Villagers are frequently left with nothing after soldiers come through
their village, without any means of replacing stolen or damaged goods. Despite this, they
are still forced to pay extortion fees to the military.
"They took everything that they saw, like gallon jugs and containers and as much as they could carry. Someone from Gkah Deh said, They are like gorillas, even if they see pumpkins or pumpkin leaf they take it, and if they see just one aubergine they take it and put it in their basket and you cant keep it. Even if they saw half a knife [a broken machete] they would take it. Just recently they went and took O---s saw, and when he went and asked for it back the Burmese pushed his chest with the butt of a pistol and slapped him once on the face." - "Pu Than Nyunt" (M, 55), BNweh Pu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #15, 9/99)
"Those troops shit into peoples mortars [for pounding paddy]
and cookpots. There were a lot of people who had to face this in Pah Klu; the married
women there said that you dared not open your cookpots because they were full of shit, and
so were their [rice container] tins.
they didnt stay in our village, they
just came and stayed one night and I said to him, Son, dont shit in our
mortars. He asked me, Where did you hear that? and I told him, I
heard from Meh Pleh that you shat in their mortars.
Both their leaders and
their private soldiers do it, because their leaders are no good and it is like rain
dripping down from the roof of the house [the example of the officers trickles down to the
men]. People say When the head goes, the tail is pulled along [a Karen
proverb]. I told them we would go to their battalion base at Moh Ta Ma to do our own shit,
and I told them, You have very rude habits! You should know a toilet, cant you
tell a toilet from a mortar or a cookpot? He said, Mother, who told you
this? I told him I heard it when I was in Meh Pleh, and all the married women in Pah
Klu were also talking about it. They did it in Pah Klu just for spite." -
"Naw Hsah Paw" (F, 47), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township; the
mortars are large wooden mortars people keep under their houses for pounding and husking
rice (Interview #2, 11/99)
In addition to theft, the SPDC and DKBA constantly demand fees from the
villagers for everything from replacement of forced labourers to arbitrary taxes on
personal possessions. Sometimes the villagers are fined for circumstances completely
unrelated to them, such as an incident in BNaw Kleh Kee when the DKBA commander
charged the villagers 70,000 Kyat to compensate for a soldiers desertion. A villager
from TNay Hsah township told KHRG how an SPDC officer demanded 316,000 Kyat per
month in porter fees alone from the 5 villages around hers, then kept all the
money for himself and demanded porters as well. Often the villagers have no idea what they
are paying for, but they have no choice but to meet the demand. Typically the village head
collects the various fees from the villagers on a monthly basis, but often the troops
demand random fees without prior warning. Sometimes the village head establishes a sliding
scale system, taxing the richest villagers more than the poorest. Villagers try to
cooperate and help each other meet the demands, but all have problems meeting the heavy
fees imposed on them. Most villages in southeastern Paan District have been so
heavily taxed that villagers simply have no money left, and are forced to take their turns
for forced labour or portering instead of hiring replacements. This only reinforces their
debt, however, as villagers have no time to work on their fields to produce rice. Instead
of remaining caught in this relentless cycle of fees, more and more villagers are opting
to flee their villages and take their chances on surviving in the jungle.
"For each month our village had to give 14,000 Kyat for each of 2 people [to not send 2 porters], so we gave them 70,000 Kyat in 3 months. He took the money from every village. Our village is only small, he demanded more from the bigger villages. From Ker Ghaw he collected for 6 people [porters] at 12,000 Kyat each, 6 people from Tee Wah Blaw, six from Tee Law Thay and six from Sghaw Ko tract, all at 12,000 each. He just took money, not people [he didnt want the porters, it was just an excuse to demand money; in total, the 5 villages listed had to pay a total of 316,000 Kyat per month for porter fees alone, not counting other fees]. There are other village tracts too, like Pah Klu tract, Loh Baw, Meh Pleh Wah and so on as far as Tee Wah Klay and Day Law Pya. He also beat people, and a lot of villagers from our village ran away. Sometimes he demanded 10 people or 30 people from each village, took the money for that all for himself and then still called for loh ah pay. He demanded people as well as money. Sometimes when they were going to patrol to Meh Pleh and come back he took more than 10 villagers from our village." - "Naw Hsah Paw" (F, 47), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township, talking about a commander from SPDC #116 Battalion (Interview #2, 11/99)
"They collect 2,000 Kyat once a month from each house. They told us that it is for porters fees, and since villagers dare not go to porter, they give money. If [the Burmese] cant get it, they trouble the village head. They beat him, so the village head has to come back and ask the villagers again until they can raise the money. Then we take it to the village head, and he takes it to them. The village head has no time to rest." - "Saw Mo Aung" (M, 39), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #13, 9/99)
"They often demanded between 70,000 and 80,000 Kyat from each village. If the Burmese demand it, the DKBA will demand the same. There are only 83 houses in our village so each house must give more than 1,000 Kyat at the least. Some families, like ours, have to give 3,000 or 5,000 Kyat, and some even give 10,000. The poorest family in the village must give 1,500 Kyat. But you have no time to go out and work for money, so how can you give that much money so often? You go for loh ah pay every day, so how will you get money?" - "Nan Paw Oa" (F, 18), xxxx village, Kawkareik township (Interview #42, 7/99)
"We paid the big fees 3 or 4 times a month and the small fees 4 or 5 times a month. Some months we had to pay 2,000 Kyat total, but some months we paid 3,000 Kyat [per family]. If we couldnt pay the village head might take away our precious things, such as cooking pots and other things that he could sell to get enough to pay the fee. He is the Burmese village head [the village head appointed by the SPDC]." - "Maung Hla" (M, 30), Kru Bper village, Kawkareik township (Interview #44, 4/99)
"Ah! If they saw a house with a tin roof, they collected at least 5,000 Kyat per month. I dont know what they do with that money. People cant stay [in the village] without giving to them. If you have chickens or cows you have to sell your livestock. They collect 5,000 Kyat from villagers who have belongings, but from people like me they collect 2,000 Kyat per month. They always collect, but for what I dont know. " - "Saw Kee" (M, 21), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #11, 9/99)
"After we sold all our belongings we all had to run away and come here. I dont know what would happen if we still lived in the village, if they would kill us or not. But now a lot of people cannot pay them, and this year there is not enough rice or paddy either, so maybe the villagers will have to steal. " - "Naw Ther Paw" (F, xx), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #32, 8/99)
"They confiscated our fields but forced us to work on those fields
for them. They only sat around and ordered us while we ploughed, sowed, and transplanted.
When we finished the harvest they took all the paddy. They didnt give us anything
even when we reaped, gathered, winnowed and put the paddy in the [milling] machine. We had
to go and sell things like oil, onions, and beans on the other side of the mountain. We
bought rice from them [SPDC soldiers] with the profit, but they sold us old rice that
smelled bad." - the mother of "Nan Paw Oa" (F, 18), xxxx
village, Kawkareik township (Interview #42, 7/99)
To compensate for their depleted rations and those which have been
hoarded or sold by the commanders, SPDC officers often encourage their soldiers to simply
confiscate farmers crops when they enter villages. The villagers have little if any
rice to spare since last years poor harvest gave them barely enough to store for
their own consumption. After taking more than enough for themselves, the Army sometimes
sells the villagers own rice back to them at half of market price, or tries to sell
them their own extremely poor quality ration rice. After paying forced labour fees, rice
quota service charges, and other extortion money to the SPDC soldiers, the villagers have
no money left to buy back their confiscated rice. In the end, many have been left with
large debts and nothing to eat but boiled rice soupa thin gruel which families eat
to try to make what little rice they have last longer. Many are facing starvation.
"They have their own rice but they said it was not white. They wanted to eat the villagers rice, but they dont give their rice to the villagers. They just took ours." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #28, 8/99)
"Paddy and rice. They demanded it often and we always had to give.
Last year we had only a small amount of paddy and rice [the crop was very bad]. For every
basket or big tin of rice we ate, they looted one basket or big tin. We had to collect
rice for them too, and Pa N--- from the Ko Per Baw told me to complain to them so I did,
but they didnt respond. He said that they would give it back to us because he is the
one who takes care of their rations, but they gave us nothing. I know that the name of the
chief commander of the Burmese is Pu PNa Wah, and he has to send rations to all the
soldiers, including the Ko Per Baw." - "Pu Than Nyunt" (M, 55),
BNweh Pu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #15, 9/99)
As in the rest of Burma, villagers in hills of the Dawna Mountains have
to hand over a portion of their crops to the SPDC authorities as Ta Won Gyay
(Obligation) paddy, the official state-sanctioned rice quota. This applies
both to people still living and farming in their home villages and to those living in
relocation sites but commuting to farm their own land. In a good year, one acre of flat
paddy field can produce only 40-50 baskets, yet the quota is often 10 baskets of paddy or
more per acre. No exceptions are given during bad crop years, and the quota is calculated
on the acres registered to the farmer, not however many they have planted. The 1997 and
1998 crops were both dismal, leaving many farmers without enough seed paddy to plant more
than a fraction of their fields; yet during this time period the quotas have actually
increased. SPDC officials justify crop quotas by citing the written law in Burma which
decrees that all land belongs to the state. It is not only the Army but also the local
quota collection officials who are corrupt, and they find ways to steal additional paddy
and money from villagers. When farmers bring their 12 or 15 baskets per acre, the Township
officials often claim that its not clean, i.e. that it contains bits of
straw and impurities, and either winnow it a second time or calculate a reduction in the
number of baskets to be paid for. They then deduct a portion of the paddy which they say
will be donations to local temples, the Township PDC, etc., and reduce the
payment accordingly, though it is very unlikely that this paddy will ever be given to any
temple. Many also demand an additional cash service charge, and the villagers must put on
a banquet for them when they come. Sometimes even more deductions are made. In the end,
most farmers are paid for no more than two thirds of the paddy which they are forced to
bring, and at half or less than half of market price (about 250 Kyat per basket [market
price is 500-600], though a farmer from Dta Greh told KHRG that he only received 3 Kyat
per basket once the officials had finished their deductions). The payment per
basket is not adjusted to the rapidly increasing market prices, even though much of the
inflation is caused by this very quota system. The money not paid to the farmers is either
pocketed by the officials or kept by the state. The villagers are fully aware that this is
simply corruption, but they do not dare complain for fear of arrest. They have no choice
but to pay the quota as demanded each year, and many years the only way they can do so is
to go into debt by buying rice at full market price just to hand it over to the
authorities.
" they collect one basket of rice from each farmfield hut. We have to give one basket of rice regularly every month. Even if we have no rice to eat, we have to feed them." - "Saw Lah Ku" (M, 21), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #18, 8/99)
"This year they announced that the government will gather all the paddy that we get from the fields, and then we have to go and buy it from the government. According to them, Pah Klu and Kwih Lay are ruled by them so they have the power to do this. For example, if the villagers would sell each other a basket of rice for 500 Kyat, we will have to buy it from them for 250 Kyat." - "Taw Lay" (M, 41), Kwih Lay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #6, 9/99)
"They taxed us three times this year and were very strict.
Every year they collect Ta Won Gyay [obligation quota paddy] from the farmers,
5 baskets for every 100. It has been very hot and dry there, so there is a lot of chaff,
and when we take 5 baskets to them, they blow off the chaff with a fan and it becomes
less. Last year there was no paddy because it was so hot and dry, so they asked for money
instead. The governments price is 3 Kyat per basket [actually it is several hundred
Kyat per basket, but the officials steal most of the rice quota payouts and give almost
nothing to the farmers who are forced to hand over the rice]. They gave three Kyat for one
basket and then you had to give more than that to the owner of the bullock cart who
carried the paddy for you. But we had to pay 1,000 Kyat three times because we had no
paddy, and we couldnt stay without paying them [in lieu of giving paddy]. After
collecting the first time, the village head took all the money and fled the village. Then
they elected a new village head and he collected again. But that time there wasnt
enough money, and so we had to give a third time. We gave 3,000 Kyat in total last year.
The last two years there have been droughts and we didnt get enough paddy for seed,
so we had to sell the cows and buy paddy seed from Maw Goh village. One basket of paddy is
500 Kyat. Before for one basket of rice [after husking] we had to pay 1,400 Kyat, but now
we have to pay 1,600 Kyat. Thats why were bitter. If we suffer any more than
this, well all die." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 70), Dta Greh
village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #41, 7/99)
In Dta Greh Township villagers have described
"double-cropping" projects presented by SPDC officials as ways to promote their
crop yield. These projects are always devised by SPDC officials in Rangoon as part of the
regimes nationwide agricultural plan, often with the help of the UNDP (United
Nations Development Programme) and other international agencies. SPDC officials come to
villages and call a meeting with the farmers, where they inform farmers that they are
expected to grow 2 crops per year with the use of fertiliser and other modern agricultural
equipment. Often they insist that farmers donate the entire second crop to the state, but
other times farmers are allowed to keep the harvest if they pay a significant quota on it
to the local SPDC officials. Guaranteeing that they will donate fertiliser and
sophisticated tools, which are unavailable resources for Karen farmers, the officials
leave without delivering the products or following through on their initial
demonstrations. The second crop inevitably fails because the farmers never receive their
promised fertiliser, which has most likely been sold by the SPDC officials in charge, but
farmers are still forced to pay a quota on the failed second crop. Farmers go into debt
buying rice for a quota on this nonexistent second crop, or simply never plant it and try
to find the money to pay off the officials. "
"They are not always Burmese soldiers. Sometimes officials come to
town and talk about agricultural development and the villagers have to feed them too. They
come to talk about how to plant and fertilise the rice. They came to tell us but they
didnt do as they said. We never saw fertiliser or anything else. We have been doing
the fields in Dta Greh for a long time, and it is not productive to fertilise the fields
in that area. We were tired of doing what they taught us with the fertiliser; there was no
improvement. Sometimes when they came to the village, we wanted them to help us because we
dont have anything and our living condition is poor. They came to tell us that they
understand, but we dont understand them. If they understood, they would come and
show us new methods. But they just come and tell us about them. They already knew that the
earth wasnt fertile, but they came to check. Here the earth is better for planting
mangoes and other fruit. Instead we transplanted 10 baskets of [paddy] seeds and some
years we harvested only 30 or 40 baskets, which was not enough for us. We had nothing to
give to the civil servants [rice quota collectors], but they also have to give to the
government [they must collect their given quota with no excuses]." -
"Saw Daniel" (M, 70), Dta Greh village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #41,
7/99)
Another challenge to farmers is the SPDCs restricted movement
policy for villagers. In order to prevent villagers from being able to contact or supply
the KNLA, the military has instituted a policy that villagers must obtain permission to
leave the village. All villagers who plan to stay in their field huts must carry a
permission letter from a commanding officer or the SPDC village head. Any villager caught
outside the village without such a letter is assumed to be affiliated with the KNLA, and
may be interrogated, tortured, or even killed. This policy affects farmers with fields far
from the village, since they are no longer allowed to stay overnight in their field huts,
which farmers traditionally do during most of the labour-intensive growing season from
July to November and at various other times during the rice cycle. If they must return to
their villages every night they lose a substantial amount of time which they could be
devoting to their fields. Restricted movement is a main complaint among farmers who are
faced with the dire choice of neglecting their fields or being arrested. With or without a
permission letter, if they are working in their fields when an SPDC or DKBA patrol comes
by, they are often grabbed as porters.
"They didnt allow the villagers to stay in the farmfield huts. They told us to dismantle our farmfield huts and not to keep them. They said if you keep the field huts, the Kaw Thoo Lei [KNLA soldiers] will come to stay and rest there. The village head went to talk to them, but we had to take them down. They didnt even allow us to tie our cows there. They told us that if they saw us staying in the farmfield huts they would shoot us dead. They think we are all Kaw Thoo Lei. The Kaw Thoo Lei never come and the Burmese said they didnt see Kaw Thoo Lei, so the villagers said, You dont see them and you still force us to dismantle our farmfield huts. If we go to the field to harvest our paddy, what will we do? Where will we stay? We have no place to stay. The Burmese said to stay under the shade of the trees and bamboo." - "Saw Ler" (M, 36), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #29, 8/99)
"They dislike people going out to find food and vegetables. They force the married women to stay together [in the village]. They make us stay just in the village, and if we cant find any vegetables in the village we have nothing to eat. You cant sleep in your field hut near your crops or gardens. We have to come back and sleep in the village within the same day. They havent written [passes for villagers] yet." - "Saw Kee" (M, 21), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #11, 9/99)
"If they see the villagers in their huts or fields without passes,
they capture them. You can sleep there [in your field hut] for 3 days if you want
to, but after that the village head needs to write a permission letter again." -
"Naw Hser Paw" (F, 28), Tee Law Thay village, TNay Hsah township
(Interview #26, 8/99)
Many people have been holding out in or around their villages just
hoping to bring in a reasonable harvest this year. However, a villager from the hills of
TNay Hsah township told KHRG that SPDC troops came in early November while people
from his village were harvesting their fields. The farmers fled, and the troops gathered
all the paddy they had already harvested into stacks and then burned it, then planted
landmines around the fields to prevent the harvest from being completed. On attempting to
return to finish their harvest, 2 farmers stepped on mines and were killed and the
interviewee was wounded. This type of SPDC activity has also occurred in other Karen
districts further north, and could be a final gesture intended to drive the villagers out
of their fields and homes. The few villagers who have remained near their homes with the
expressed purpose of waiting for the harvest are now forced into hiding, not daring to
complete their harvest and unsure where to go next. Most of those who previously fled to
the border with Thailand hoping to return for the harvest are now too scared to do so, and
remain in a similar state of anxious indecision.
"The Burmese closed the way to the fields, and last year there was no rain. We couldnt plant the paddy so we got no rice. We planted the paddy this year, but we dont know yet if we will dare to harvest the paddy at harvest time. We dare not go back to harvest because we will die. I think that if I dare to go back I will go alone and leave my wife and children here. I am very afraid." - "Maung Shwe" (M, 36), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #19, 8/99)
"The owners were harvesting it, and when they arrived the owners ran. Then they went and gathered it [the paddy they had already cut] in one place and burned it when they were about to leave. They gathered the paddy from P---s hill field as well as some paddy from other villages and some sticky-rice; they gathered it from 6 hill fields and 4 flat fields, 10 fields altogether. Then they laid landmines around there so the villagers wouldnt dare go back. On the day when we went to check on things, one of us was wounded by a landmine. Altogether two people have stepped on landmines. So after that no one has gone back." - "Saw Lay Mu" (M, 33), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township; when he tried to return to the fields in mid-November 1999 he was wounded by a landmine and his friend was killed (Interview #1, 11/99)
"They fired guns continuously and children were running and
crying. They fired guns before they arrived in the village, and when they arrived on the
hill they fired their guns, and when they entered the village they fired their guns again.
They frightened all the women in the village, and they laughed at the women who ran with
trembling feet. That is their manner and way of thinking." - "Naw Ther
Paw" (F, xx), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #32,
8/99)
The DKBA in southeastern Paan District, though under-manned and
poorly equipped, have stepped up their campaign to intimidate villagers in order to
cripple the KNLA. Founded in December 1994 by a monk named U Thuzana with the backing of
the SLORC, the DKBA holds its largest support base in Paan District, headquartered
at Myaing Gyi Ngu (Khaw Taw) on the Salween River in northern Paan District. [For
a more comprehensive background on the DKBA, see "Uncertainty,
Fear and Flight", KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98.] The DKBA is known as the
Ko Per Baw (Yellow Headbands) by villagers because they always
wear yellow coloured scarves. The number of their troops is difficult to estimate, but
there are probably between 1,500 and 2,000 soldiers at present thinly spread throughout
Paan, Dooplaya, and Thaton Districts. The DKBA has not received cash salaries from
the SPDC in 3 years and they receive very little rations or ammunition, but in some
regions their troops are better equipped than in others. It was rumoured that at the end
of 1998 the DKBAs rations would be completely cut off by the SPDC, but this has yet
to occur; a likely explanation is that the SPDC holds the threat of cutting off support
over the DKBA as a means of coercing them to follow SPDC commands. Due to their limited
provisions, the DKBA continues to operate in the area by demanding food and money from the
villagers. Their lack of support from the SPDC and the tenuous relationship between them
has motivated the DKBA to seek out profit-making ventures. In addition to regular
extortion from villagers, the DKBA runs checkpoints on major roads demanding money from
all passing vehicles, and is deeply involved in the logging business. They forbid logging
except for their own purposes, then force villagers to cut logs which they sell primarily
to Thai businessmen.
"The people who went out and found money on the black market [selling goods, sometimes back and forth across the border] came back and then they [the Burmese and the Ko Per Baw] demanded their money. Before we came here my husband won 50,000 Kyat in the lottery at the same time that our child was sick. Then the Ko Per Baw asked for that money to rent video equipment, so he didnt get any Kyat for himself. Before my husband left the village he had traded cattle once or twice and the Ko Per Baw knew about it, so when they captured him along the way they stole his money, and now he is in debt for one million Kyat." - "Naw Kyaw" (F, xx), Pah Ka village, Dta Greh township (Interview #33, 8/99)
"The DKBA soldiers came to stay in my village. They are planting landmines to protect their logging, and they are shooting at each other, so we dared not stay." - "Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #30, 8/99)
"They never collected them [fees] before, but now they have
started to. From our village of 30 houses they collected 400,000 Kyat. I dont know
and didnt ask what they would do with it. Last time they came and asked us through
the village head, and the village head gathered us and told us that the Ko Per Baw were
demanding it so we had to give it to them. He asked us if we could or would pay them, and
if we didnt want to pay them we had to go and leave the village." -
"Saw Kler Eh" (M, 30), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township (Interview
#16, 9/99)
Most of the DKBA soldiers are not former KNLA members, because most of
the KNLA soldiers who originally formed the DKBA have already deserted back to civilian
life or defected back to the KNLA. Most of the DKBA soldiers are former villagers, some of
whom were previously loosely connected to Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO, a
wing of the KNU) village militias, who have joined during the 5 years since the DKBA was
founded. The DKBA forces do not usually get along well with the SPDC Battalions, but in
this area they often work together, patrolling together and often camping side by side in
villages. SPDC Columns in the area almost always have a few DKBA soldiers with them to act
as guides, round up villagers as forced labour, and point out villagers as suspects. Both
armies demand fees and forced labour from villagers in the area, though in both cases the
DKBAs demands are more sporadic and unpredictable; for example, an SPDC Company
demands fixed amounts of money weekly or monthly, while a DKBA group may demand nothing
for 2 or 3 months and then suddenly demand 100,000 Kyat all at once. Villagers have
reported to KHRG that the DKBA requires them to porter, usually carrying rations to troops
in neighbouring villages or outposts, and the soldiers have forced them to walk in front
of the columns as human minesweepers. As a result, most civilians despise the DKBA as much
or more than the SPDC, and often speak of the two groups as one.
"Our village is small, but he demanded porters. He said, My sons mother-in-law, I dont ask much of you but it is emergency loh ah pay, so give me 15 people. And after we gave them to him, some have been gone for months and years [died as porters] so we cant do anything. How can we replace them when they are all we have?" - "Naw Hsah Paw" (F, 47), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township, talking about demands for porters by DKBA commander Moe Kyo (Interview #2, 11/99)
"They [SPDC] used to come but they dont come any more, now
that the DKBA has started controlling the village. Only the militia stays in the village
now, but they are working with the Burmese. The DKBA patrol the village, but they rarely
force us to work. The Burmese forced us all the time. In the past the Burmese burned the
villagers rice barns, but since the DKBA started patrolling I havent seen them
do it. Before the DKBA came we had to flee quite often. The Burmese arrested porters, so
we had to flee or they forced us to work and beat us. Now the DKBA have camps at Lar Ni
and Kaw Say Ko. They forced us to go and build the camp, as well as a pagoda and their
bunkers. We walked for one day and slept there for 2 or 3 nights, then came back. The DKBA
want to kill their enemies, but they havent killed any villagers. Since the DKBA
came the situation has improved, but if they meet us they also treat us badly." -
"Saw Maw Hla" (M, 30), Maw Goh village, Lu Pleh township (Interview #43, 7/99)
Because most of the DKBA soldiers are Karen, can speak the
villagers language, and even come from some of the same villages, some hope that the
DKBA will treat them more mercifully than the SPDC, but the DKBA in this region have been
known to be equally if not more ruthless than the SPDC in their treatment towards
villagers. The DKBA has a tenuous relationship with the SPDC, relying on them for rations
but in most cases openly distrusting and even hating them; their economic dependence on
the SPDC creates an artificial alliance that manifests itself in cruelty towards
villagers. Most villagers respond to them in the same way that they do to the
SPDCwith fear and complianceand many speak of a deep resentment for the DKBA
because they are Karen people abusing fellow Karen. In Paan District villagers have
tried to complain to the DKBA about the injustices suffered under the SPDCs
occupation of their villages, hoping that the DKBA will act as an ally on the
villagers behalf. They usually have little success winning sympathy; for example,
when the village head of Pah Klu pleaded with the DKBA to help stop the raping of village
women and extensive looting, she was turned over to the SPDC and savagely beaten. While
patrolling with the SPDC, DKBA soldiers have been witnessed torturing and killing innocent
villagers accused of having KNU connections, as well as shooting farmers who run from the
troops.
"They cant do anything, and if we ask them they say, Our footprints are not as big as theirs and we dont dare rebuke them strongly for that. So they just deal with them gently and softly." - "Naw Hsah Paw" (F, 47), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township, describing the reaction of DKBA soldiers when the villagers ask them to intervene with the SPDC (Interview #2, 11/99)
"But during the time when they came and beat people the Ko Per Baw were involved with them. Not one of the Ko Per Baw opened their mouths when they saw the Burmese beating people and shooting people dead." - "Pu Than Nyunt" (M, 55), BNweh Pu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #15, 9/99)
"We had to go for both of them [the DKBA and the Burmese] because they are staying in the same place. They didnt hire us, they just came and captured people. Sometimes the Burmese came and ordered it and if the place was near, we went with them. But when the Burmese could not capture people because the villagers ran to escape, the Ko Per Baw came and captured villagers. Since the Ko Per Baw had never captured villagers before, the first time the villagers just stayed in their homes and the Ko Per Baw captured them and handed them to the Burmese." - "Naw Kyaw" (F, xx), Pah Ka village, Dta Greh township (Interview #33, 8/99)
"The Ko Per Baw are staying on the east side of the village and the Burmese are staying on the west side. They stay separately, but they work together. When the Burmese go anywhere, the Ko Per Baw have to go with them. The Ko Per Baw have to spy for them and go in front of the Burmese." - "Saw Nya" (M, 60), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #37, 7/99)
"She [the village head] complained to the Ko
Per Baw leaders at Ko Ko and the Burmese beat her very badly. It was after we fled here,
because the other group that came after us told us. She was telling the truth, but they
didnt like that. She said that the Burmese are raping women and stealing belongings.
The Burmese beat her with a stick because they accused her of complaining to the Ko Per
Baw about what the Burmese have done. She only reported it to the Ko Per Baw, but they
cooperate with the Burmese so the Burmese found out, and they beat her. They accused her
of being an informer and they tried to kill her." - "Pu KNer"
(M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township, describing what happened when the
village head complained to the DKBA about abuses by the SPDC (Interview #20, 8/99)
A widely feared DKBA commander named Moe Kyo [Burmese for
Lightning] has encouraged his troops to generally terrorise villagers and
destroy those villages he suspects of having KNU liaisons. He and his troops move
throughout much of the Dawna region. Between February 10th and 14th
1999, a DKBA group commanded by Moe Kyo burned 56 houses in the 4 villages of Tee Bper,
Dta Wih Ko, Dta Greh Ni and Tee Pa Leh in Dta Greh township after accusing the villagers
there of being relatives of KNU. These troops also burned all the family paddy
supplies they could find and the piles of rice straw which are used as fodder for the
cattle. The villagers have fled into hiding in the forests. Three villagers interviewed by
KHRG said they had heard that Moe Kyo recently died from stepping on a landmine, but this
report is still unconfirmed. Another notorious DKBA commander in the area is named Chit
Thu, also known as Dter Gweh [Sgaw Karen for Rainbow], who commands the
Special Battalion of DKBA Brigade #999 and issues many of the orders. These
commanders earn their ruthless reputations because despite occasional skirmishes with the
KNLA, theylike the SPDCspend much of their time driving people out of their
villages, interrogating and torturing villagers, demanding forced labour and extorting
money, with the dual aims of supporting their own operations and destroying the
KNLAs support base among the villagers.
"Yes, the DKBA shot 6 people on the 10th of July [1999] in Tee Hsah Ra. I was sleeping at night but I heard it, though I didnt go and look. It was near my house, only a 2-minute walk away. They came at night to shoot people in the fields, then they came back [into the village] to shoot people in the houses. They shot them because they accused them of casting spells over people. But they were villagers, just simple people who cannot do magic or cause harm to people, but only work in the fields. They didnt belong to the opposite side [KNU], they only worked in the fields . The DKBA [officer(s)] came to look after this happened, but they didnt say anything about it. They didnt accept the fact that they had killed them, and so theyre trying to say that it was an accident, that no one killed them. They are going to make the case disappear and make peace between each other. Commander Maung Chit Thus soldiers killed them, but he told us it was an accident. But he knew about it because his soldiers had to get permission from him to arrange it, since if he doesnt give permission they cant do anything." - "Pa Po Doh" (M, 24), Tee Hsah Ra village, Myawaddy township (Interview #39, 7/99)
"When Moe Kyo arrived in our village he said that if the people [KNU] attacked them, they would burn down the whole village. He said he would shoot dead all the villagers and burn down all the houses. That is what Moe Kyo said and his soldiers repeated to us. They burned one sugar cane field and also some huts and straw. You cant count all the huts and gardens which theyve partly burned. The people who do things like that have envious and jealous hearts, and resent all the people." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, xx), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #34, 8/99)
"Before I came here, the people told me the name of the commander was Lin Yone, and people called him "Moe Kyo" [Burmese for lightning]. Now he is dead from a landmine. Their chief commanders name is Dter Gweh [also known as Chit Thu]. His troops were shooting between Pah Klu and Loh Baw village. They had a camp in the village. I know because I saw their place and dug the bunkers. At that time the Burmese soldiers also came up and worked with the DKBA. After that, most of the DKBA left the village to go and fight, so few were left." - "Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #30, 8/99)
"They surrounded my daughters house where I was sleeping, and they interrogated us about whether any Kaw Thoo Lei [KNU/KNLA] were there and if they had laid landmines. The Ko Per Baw were angry and threatened us that they would come and shoot into our wives vaginas." - "Pu Than Nyunt" (M, 55), BNweh Pu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #15, 9/99)
"
they close the school when the children go to work [for
forced labour]. If the parents have time to go, we go, but if we have no time, our
children must go instead of us. The teachers get a salary from the governor, so they
cant do anything about it. They are supposed to get 1,500 Kyat each month but
sometimes they only receive 1,500 Kyat for 6 months." - "Saw Maw
Hla" (M, 30), Maw Goh village, Lu Pleh township (Interview #43, 7/99)
Among the villagers many burdens, demands for forced labour and
heavy fees are the main factors preventing children from receiving a proper education.
Children are often required to fulfil a forced labour shift in lieu of their parents, who
must tend the fields to earn enough food. In Paan District villagers have reported
that children as young as 10 years old are called on to carry water and rations for both
SPDC and DKBA troops. Throughout Karen State, the SPDC military places Burmese teachers in
villages as a way of phasing out Karen language instruction and cultural history. In some
areas the government pays the Burmese teachers salaries, though they are notoriously
underpaid and sometimes receive no money at all for months at a time. In some areas of
Paan District villagers must pay the Burmese teachers salaries at a level
disproportionate to their own income, while Karen teachersif they are allowed to
teach at allwork on a volunteer basis. In addition, villagers are expected to supply
the Burmese teachers with a rice ration. The military even forced villagers in Dta Greh
Township to pay for the materials and labour to construct a Burmese school for their
children. The greatest irony is that many school-aged children are forced to work for the
Burmese instead of attending school, yet their families must pay monthly fees and rations
to support the village teachers. If this trend continues much longer, a generation of
children in Karen State will lack an education.
"We have a Burmese school with 4 grades. One teacher they gave us, two are from the west of Burma, and one is from the village. Two are paid by the Burmese government and two are Karen volunteers." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
"I couldnt send them to school. I had no money. It would cost 1,000 Kyat to send the oldest one. When her friends went to school and came back home, she could learn Gka Gyi, Ka Kway [A, B; letters of the Burmese alphabet] from them." - "Naw Bway" (F, 29), Pa Noh village, Kyaik Mayaw township, Mon State (Interview #27, 8/99)
"One is a Karen teacher and one is Burmese. I dont know if the Burmese give them money or not. I dont understand and I cant guess. The villagers have to help them by paying with rice. They collect one bowl [about 2 kg] and 10 Kyat from each house per month. Even if you dont send them to school, you have to give." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #28, 8/99)
"Once I saw them ask the villagers to build a school. The
villagers also had to pay to build it, and if it wasnt finished by a certain time
they said they would fine us. Even if they do something good like that, the villagers have
no time to rest. It may have 7 or 8 Standards [up to Grade 7 or 8]. The schoolteacher is
from Rangoon. For one year they [the villagers] pay the teacher 10-20,000 kyat." -
"Saw Nya" (M, 60), Ker Ghaw village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #37,
7/99)
Health care in the villages is in an equally poor state. Some villages
have a Karen or Burmese medic qualified to administer basic first aid, but the majority
have no medical facilities or supplies at all. If villagers are seriously ill or hurt they
have to be carried many kilometres to the nearest clinic, usually in the closest sizeable
town. When villagers are injured while doing forced labour or portering, they seldom
receive proper medical attention. If the SPDC or DKBA does help them to a nearby clinic or
hospital, they are usually left there to cover their own medical expenses. At Myawaddy
Hospital, several villagers have reported being forced to leave after their money runs
out, even if they are not yet healed. No treatment is given without full payment.
Villagers often accrue substantial debts to remain in hospital until their health returns,
especially landmine victims whose recovery is typically lengthy.
"We have a medic but we dont have any medicines, only Para [paracetamol]. Ah! If wed had enough medicines, I dont think those two would have died." - "Saw Lay Mu" (M, 33), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township, talking about 2 villagers who stepped on landmines in November 1999 after SPDC troops mined their fields (Interview #1, 11/99)
"After I got injured, my friends carried me to the Burmese. They looked at me, then took me to [Battalion] #356, then sent me to Ra Ma Tee [Myawaddy hospital] they didnt take care of me They helped [pay for] only one injection. When I stayed in the hospital they didnt give me any money. I had to spend my own money and eat my own rice because they didnt feed us. I stayed there for over a month before the water festival last season [April 1999]. I spent 45,000 Kyat in the hospital." - "Saw Lah Baw" (M, 31), Paw Baw Ko village, TNay Hsah township; both his legs were blown off when he stepped on a landmine while doing forced labour cutting wood for an SPDC bridge project (Interview #28, 8/99)
"I arrived at the other side of the river, I didnt know that the Burmese had arrived. I was outside the village, but they were inside the village when they shot at me. The young man from my village who had come with me ran from behind me and passed me. The Burmese shot at him but hit my leg instead, so I fell down. They didnt come to look at me, and they went away. I was left alone for a while until I saw a young woman who was coming back from gathering firewood. I told her to go back and tell my son to come and get me. When I arrived at Ker Ghaw, they gave me 3,000 Kyat and told me to go to Myawaddy Hospital. How would 3,000 Kyat be enough? I stayed there for 10 days and they took care of me while I still had money, but when my money ran out they stopped taking care of me. When it was gone, I had to go back to my village again. Then I asked people to treat it with traditional medicine and holy oil. I cant stand up yet because it is painful." - "Pu Dta Ler" (M, 50-60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #45, 4/99)
"I couldnt stay near my place because they are going to
stir up our place. I heard them say that they are going to drive all the villagers out to
the same place. They didnt tell us where or when they will drive us out, but they
said that they would. They will gather and force out all of the villagers that are living
around Meh Pleh Toh. They will block every path that passes or goes through Meh Pleh Toh
until nothing can move, even food and other things. I heard that they will make trouble
for people who stay in the mountains, that especially if they see men they will kill them
at once. Our village head alerted us. If they see them, they will shoot dead all villagers
as far as they can see." - "Saw Baw" (M, 29), Tee Law Thay village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #24, 8/99)
Forced relocation of villages has become the chief means by which the
SPDC military exerts control over villages which are not fully under its influence. In the
past the Army has primarily targeted villages with past or present connections to the
KNLA, villages located within KNU-controlled territory and/or too far away to supervise in
regular patrols from an SPDC Army camp, and villages who have resisted SPDC demands for
forced labour and extortion fees. In late 1998 KHRG reported that the SPDC Army had issued
an order that villages between Taw Oak and Kyaw Ko would be forcibly relocated to Ker
Ghaw, Kwih Lay, or Kyaw Ko at the end of the rice harvest. While some villagers scattered
or moved, most managed to hold off from being relocated. However, SPDC columns have been
acting directly to enforce the forced relocations since August 1999. One of the final
relocation sites is indeed Ker Ghaw, the site of a DKBA Army camp, where the villages Kwih
Lay, Pah Klu, and Taw Oak are now being forced to move. The villages Thay KDtee, Toh
Thu Kee, and Kyaw Ko are being relocated to another site at Tee Wah Blaw, where
SPDC columns temporarily camp while patrolling the area, and where they may be planning to
establish a permanent camp once they have relocated all villagers. SPDC troops also
destroyed all of the villagers farmfield huts in the area of BNaw Kleh Kee
village right in the middle of the rice-growing season when villagers need to live in
their farmfield huts. SPDC Light Infantry Battalions #310 and #120 have occupied the area
of Pah Klu and Taw Oak villages, and Light Infantry Battalions #9 and #2 have occupied the
area of Ker Ghaw and Kyaw Ko villages.
"I heard that the Burmese would drive all the villagers to a relocation place. They said they would force ten villages. The name of the villages are Thi Wah Pu, Toh Thu Kee, Pu Wee, Tee Wah Klay, Meh Pleh Wah Kee, Day Law Pya, and Po Thwee Mu. They will surely force them to Ker Ghaw. As for us, the DKBA already tried to force us to Ker Ghaw one time, but we didnt go because our monk pleaded for us." - "Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #30, 8/99)
" the villages like Thay Wah Pu and Wah Klu Pu and others are all going to be forced down to the lower places, maybe to Ko Ko. Then they will send their Army to that place so there will be one Army unit to guard every village. we heard it from the Ko Per Baw secretly. They said that 2 Divisions of Burmese Army troops will come here. A unit of troops will guard each village. All the villages: Toh Thu Kee, Thay KDtee, Loh Baw, Pah Klu, Tee Wah Klay, and Wah Klu Pu they will move to a place near Ko Ko, but we dont know where exactly because they did not tell us where. Then they will guard us." - "Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #20, 8/99)
"I heard that the villages of Day Law Pya and Meh Pleh Wah Kee
will move along with Pah Klu village if there are still people in these villages. They
will force us to Ker Ghaw, according to a villager from Loh Baw. Der!! We were afraid that
they would drive us to the lowlands [the plains to the west] and make us go among the
landmines. The Loh Baw villager told us They will force us together, but I was
not optimistic about this because I worried about the landmines. I heard people say that
they would start driving us out after this month." - "Saw Nyo" (M,
50), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #25, 8/99)
The DKBA also came through the Meh Pleh Toh area to warn villagers that
two SPDC Light Infantry Divisions are planning to clear all villagers there before the end
of this year. They told the villagers that they will be forced into the centre of the
villages, where they will be guarded by soldiers. According to KNU sources, troops from as
many as 5 different SPDC Light Infantry Divisions have been sent into the area for an
operation to run from August to December 1999, intending to subjugate the area with a
special focus on clearing landmines by using villagers as human minesweepers. The
operation seems to be a final push to obliterate the KNU hold on the Dawna mountains in
the southeastern part of the district. In BNaw Kleh Kee villagers were ordered to
dismantle their houses and field huts which could later be used as KNLA shelters. The Army
made it clear to all villagers in the are that anyone remaining in the relocated villages
after the deadline passed would be shot on sight, no questions asked.
"They already forced them down [out of the hills] one time, then the villagers pleaded with them and they allowed them to go back. They will force them to Meh KNeh village near the main road. We think that they forced the villagers away because recently the Kaw Thoo Lei [KNU/KNLA] came to shoot them and they were angry, so they forced the villagers out in order to starve the Kaw Thoo Lei." - "Pi Ghaw Paw" (F, 51), Meh KNeh village, Myawaddy township (Interview #40, 7/99)
"Htee Klay village and all the villages at the foot of the
mountains were all forced to relocate before I came. The reason was because their villages
are at the foot of the mountains, so the Karen soldiers could stay there, and sometimes
they shot at the Burmese soldiers who went near them. They forced them to move to Noh Ta
Bweh and Klaw Kla, or to other villages near the foot of the mountains. They gave the
village heads an order on paper saying they had to relocate within 15 days. They could
take along their houses and things." - the father of "Nan Paw Oa"
(F, 18), xxxx village, Kawkareik township (Interview #42, 7/99)
The motivating factors behind the forced relocation of villages are
firstly to eliminate the possibility of KNU contact with villagers, thereby weakening
their hold on the district, and secondly to concentrate the population of villagers so
that they can conveniently be drawn upon for forced labour and portering. Once relocated
to sites close to Army garrisons, villagers can no longer escape forced labour shifts, and
the Army relies on them to work rice fields confiscated by the military. Villagers are not
given any rations, and in many relocations they are forced to hand over their own rice to
the Army and then receive a small ration of it back every few days. If they are lucky they
can get passes to go and farm their own fields, but these passes usually require them to
return by sunset and their fields may be too far away. The restricted movement policy also
prevents them from foraging for food away from the site. KHRG has spoken with several
villagers who have also expressed great fear of being used as human minesweepers if they
live in close vicinity to the soldiers. Rumours of the dangers and threat of starvation at
the relocation sites have reached villagers who have yet to leave their villages, and
these stories persuade many to flee rather than relocate or wait for soldiers to forcibly
move them. As of late August, Pah Klu village was entirely empty save for a few families
and monks at the monastery, because all villagers had chosen to flee before the ordered
deadline. For many villagers who have struggled to remain on their land, the relocation
order is the last straw in a series of abuses. Most are choosing to head for the jungle
rather than wait to be forcibly relocated to an Army-controlled site.
"They said they would drive us all out of the villages in the Meh Pleh Toh area. When I stayed with them, the Burmese told me themselves that they were ordered to clear the place and drive the villagers to a relocation site. I asked them, Where will you force us to go? and he told me, I dont know. You have to ask the commander. I had to stay with the soldiers who arrested me, and they joked together. I said to them, If you drive us to a relocation site, we will have no rice to eat. He said to me, I dont know, because we were ordered to do it, so we have to. We wouldnt do it if we werent ordered to do it. They are Karen people." - "Saw Lah Ku" (M, 21), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #18, 8/99)
"When we fled there were only one or two households left, but they already took their belongings to their huts in their fields. We have a lot of villagers staying in the jungle now, but I dont know how many exactly. Just a few villagers arrived here, and the rest ran to K--- and to T---. Some also arrived at D--- [on the Thai border]." - "Saw Nyo" (M, 50), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #25, 8/99)
"I heard that the Burmese would drive us out so we dared not stay and came here. I dont know when or where because they didnt tell us. Also I dont know how many villages they will drive out. They just said that if we are still staying in the jungle [i.e. in remote villages] then we are surely feeding the Kaw Thoo Lei [KNU/KNLA]. They say that if they drive the villagers from the area, they will starve the Kaw Thoo Lei. I think that they will drive out all the villages. We stayed in the jungle at our fields. If they drive us out, they will drive out all." - "Maung Shwe" (M, 36), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #19, 8/99)
Flight and Internally Displaced Persons
"We didnt bring anything with us when we fled, just only
the clothes we were wearing. I couldnt bring other things because I had to carry my
3 year old son. No one knows what the Burmese will do because if they see people in the
mountains they shoot them dead, and if people stay in the village they force them to do
loh ah pay. We couldnt do anything. I think all of the villagers left
the village after I left; there were 17 households left and I think all have fled to the
jungle." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
The SPDCs operation to clear villages and undermine KNLA activity
in southeastern Paan district has resulted in thousands of villagers fleeing to hide
in their farmfield huts or in the hills, where they risk arrest or being shot on sight by
SPDC forces. At first they try to hide outside the village and return whenever SPDC
columns are not around, but more and more SPDC troops are now basing themselves in the
villages so many people are staying outside their villages permanently. Many of them are
finding it too dangerous to do this for long and they have no more food, so a steady
stream of refugees has been heading for the Thai border. A new flow of villagers began in
mid-August; the first groups were allowed into existing refugee camps in Thailand, but by
the end of August the Thai Army began blocking them, leaving them stranded at makeshift
and vulnerable sites on the west bank of the Moei River, just on the Burma side of the
border. The villagers have fled secretly, travelling through heavy rains along washed-out
and treacherous pathways which can best be compared to mudholes, making it almost
impossible to cross the Dawna mountains. Shelter along the way is scarce, as is food and
medicine. Villagers from areas further from the border often have to resort to car travel,
which is expensive and requires paying off every DKBA and SPDC checkpoint along the way.
Because of these factors, flight during the rainy season is avoided at all costs, so their
decision to face these dangers testifies to the desperate situation facing them in their
villages. Flight is the very last option for Karen villagers, who cannot imagine living
far from their fields or outside the village network.
"We have to pay money if we dare not go, and if we cant give money we have to run. If we run we dont need to pay because the village head cant find us when we run into the mountains. People who live in the village have to give it, and the villagers who dont want to give it have to run and stay in the mountains like my family. I had to run because I had no money to give, and we just didnt have enough money to buy food." - "Saw Baw" (M, 29), Tee Law Thay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #24, 8/99)
"In the past there were 40 households, but the villagers all fled. Now there are only 15 households left in the village." - "Naw Mu Mu Wah" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #30, 8/99)
"We arrived here 4 days ago with 4 families, and another 3 families are arriving today. If we came in front of the Burmese, they would not have allowed us to come, so we had to come secretly. They would have arrested us and tied us up. If they cant catch you and you run, they shoot to kill. The Burmese always came to shoot the villagers who stay in the village, so we always had to flee. You must flee. If you didnt flee and they captured you, they wouldnt release you." - "Maung Shwe" (M, 36), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #19, 8/99)
"We had to come during the rainy season so we had many problems on the way. We got sick and had no medicine and not enough food. We slept in the mountains for 5 days and arrived at the Moei River on the 6th day. We stayed at Tee Ner Hta for one day, then came here." - "Pa Kyaw" (M, 40), BNaw Kleh Kee village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #22, 8/99)
"On the way I had to pay for car fare, but I had no money left. I
had only 1,000 Kyat left and I didnt have a citizen card, so I dared not come here.
They asked me to pay 1,000 Kyat in Tha MNya, so I had to give it all to them. I had
only little coins left. I asked my Aunt for a little money for car and boat fare. When I
arrived at Myawaddy, it was all gone. On the way my children didnt get rice to
eat." - "Naw Bway" (F, 29), Pa Noh village, Kyaik Mayaw township,
Mon State (Interview #27, 8/99)
The actual number of those who have fled is impossible to estimate
because most remain inside Burma, hiding in the jungle near their villages and struggling
to survive by planting hill fields and foraging for food. Of those who have braved the
dangerous journey to Thailand, only some have been able to cross safely into refugee
camps. At the end of 1998 over 2,000 refugees arrived at the site called Meh La Po Hta, on
the Burma side of the border, after the SPDC burned 5 villages; now their population has
swollen to over 5,000 as people continue to flee from eastern Paan District. They
remain there in a state of fear, unable to return to their villages after the SPDC Army
destroyed the rice harvest. The current flow of villagers from southeastern Paan
District began in mid-1999. The first 37 families from five villages including Pah Klu,
BNaw Kleh Kee, Htee Wah Klay, Htee Law Thay, and Day Law Pya were admitted to Beh
Klaw refugee camp, while others made it to Huay Kaloke refugee camp. However, at the end
of August the Thai Army and police stopped new arrivals from heading to the camps, telling
them they would have to go back across the border. Since then over 500 people have
gathered at two main sites on the Burma side of the Moei River: Law Thay Hta, across the
river from the Thai Karen village of Dta Lah Oh Klah (35 kilometres north of Myawaddy and
Mae Sot), and Tee Ner Hta, across the border from Beh Klaw refugee camp.
"Most people have already left the village. More than a hundred
people fled to Beh Klaw [refugee camp]. People were leaving day after day. They started
leaving in July and August. First they went to stay in their farmfield huts, then they
went on further." - "Saw Than" (M, 43), xxxx village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #5, 11/99)
Although some are staying on the Burma side of the river by choice,
still hoping to return home for the harvest if the situation improves, many refugees
interviewed by KHRG have said that the Thai authorities have pushed them back across the
border when they tried to enter Thailand. The majority of the 500 villagers at
those sites expressed desire to the Thai Army to enter a refugee camp, but they claim that
the soldiers refused them access to the camp and forced them to return to the Burmese side
of the river. Over 70 families who had arrived at Tee Ner Hta tried to enter Thailand in
August and were not allowed to go to a refugee camp, so they tried to stay around the
villages on the Thai side of the border but were then ordered back across to Tee Ner Hta
by the Thai Army in late August. They had no option but to remain at Tee Ner Hta. The SPDC
forces soon discovered their location and heavily shelled it in early September, at which
point they scattered in different directions in the jungle. Some of them managed to join
those presently at Law Thay Hta, though the whereabouts of the majority are still unknown.
There are additional reports that more than 80 other families have managed to enter
Thailand and are currently seeking admission to Beh Klaw refugee camp, though their future
remains uncertain.
"Their [SPDC] aim is to destroy our Karen nationals until we
disappear. I heard this from the village head, who said it is because the Karen villagers
who stay in the mountains and work the hillfields are all considered as their enemies. If
they see women they rape them, and if they meet men they kill them. It is better to stay
in the village but there is too much forced labour there. The village head told us,
If you cannot stay here anymore and need to go you can go, because there are people
who will look after you." - "Saw Baw" (M, 29), Tee Law Thay
village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #24, 8/99)
In September there were 61 families (244 people) clustered at Law Thay Hta, most of whom arrived between four and eight months ago. The majority of these families are from villages in the area around TNay Hsah and Myawaddy townships. With their food supply rapidly dwindling or already exhausted, the villagers decided to cross in late August/early September to the Thai Karen village of Dta Lah Oh Klah to work as hired farm labour with the intent to buy rice. In early September they set up a temporary camp near Dta Lah Oh Klah, but remained there only 5-6 days before the Thai Army discovered their location and forced them to cross the border again, on the grounds that their "camp" was illegitimate. In the move back to the Karen side, at least six families disappeared into the Thai illegal labour market or attempted the dangerous journey back to their villages. In the days of early September, SPDC forces patrolled the border area near Law Thay Hta, and the villagers once again fled to safety in Thailand. That time they dispersed in the area around Dta Lah Oh Klah, taking day labour jobs and staying in surrounding villages. Again the Thai Army discovered them and forced them back to the Karen side once the danger of attack by SPDC forces had passed. Soon after this, the SPDC Army and KNLA engaged in fighting north of the villagers location. Warned by the KNLA of an imminent SPDC attack, the villagers again crossed to Thailand on September 25th, returning to the Karen side on September 28th when KNLA soldiers warned them they were in danger of re-discovery by Thai authorities, and because the imminent threat of attack by SPDC forces was over.
All of the villagers interviewed by KHRG expressed a desire to enter Beh Klaw refugee camp, but insisted that the Thai Army had denied them access to the camp and forced them to re-cross the border twice. The villagers stranded on the Karen side of the border have little choice but to continue on in their present situation, waiting and hoping that Thai authorities will allow them entry to refugee camps. In statements to Non-Governmental Organisations and the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) the Thai Army has denied blocking access to the refugee camp to any new arrivals, but this contradicts the testimonies of many of the villagers themselves.
The refugee camps in Thailand are already full beyond capacity, but the
Thai authorities are determined to further decrease the number of camps through camp
consolidations, and they flatly refuse to consider the possibility of creating any more
space for refugees - instead, they state that it is time to begin planning the forced
repatriation of the refugees already in the country. Therefore they do not want to allow
any new refugees, regardless of the situation in Burma. The UNHCR is currently holding
closed-door negotiations with the Thai Army and government on the future of the refugees,
but refuses to disclose any of the content of these negotiations to the non-governmental
organisations who work with the refugees. Most agencies, including the UNHCR, say that
they are not allowed to cross the border to see or speak to the internally displaced
stranded on the other side. Meanwhile these families have little or no food and medicine
and are in great danger of attack by SPDC forces who regularly patrol the area. Frightened
of both the Burmese and Thai Armies, and protected by only a handful of KNLA soldiers,
they are holding out for the unlikely scenario that the persecution in their villages will
abate, or that the Thais will admit them to refugee camps.
"The [Thai] police. They came just a few days ago and told us, You cant stay here anymore and you have to go back and stay there. They forced us to move within one day, so people separated into groups and ran. We stayed on the bank of the river until our Karen leaders here told us to come back and build our huts here, and they took care of us. We dont have new arrivals from my village because they have all gone to Beh Klaw [refugee] camp already. They dared not stay and face all of the demands and torture, so they fled here, too. Some villagers still stay there because they are working on their paddy fields and cant leave. But after they finish working more villagers will flee here Right now we dare to stay here, but if people send us to the refugee camp we will go. If the Burmese come and shoot at us, well have to run to the other side of the river, and when the dry season arrives [in November/December] we dare not stay here because we will be afraid of the Burmese again." - "Saw Ghay" (M, 36), Tee Hsah Ra village, Myawaddy township (Interview #7, 9/99)
"The only problem is that sometimes the Thais come and chase us [when they cross the river into Thailand], so we always have to run. I dont know if they are Thai police or Thai Army, but people are frightened and always tell us to run. They are around 10 soldiers and they sleep on the other side of the river. All of them wear a uniform. They told us that we cant go and stay there because we dont have Ta Gaw Koe [a Thai ID card]. So we couldnt stay at xxxx, and we came back and built our huts here. After that the leaders here went and told them something, I dont know what, and since then we can go back and work there. We hire ourselves out for 60 Baht [per day] to pull up beans for them. If we didnt do it we wouldnt have food to eat so we have to do it. We buy rice in M---. They [the Thais] like it a lot if we buy things there." - "Saw Lay Htoo" (M, 42), Ler Dah village, Hlaing Bwe township (Interview #10, 9/99)
" they just told us that because a lot of people had fled there [to Thailand] it was causing trouble, and they ordered the villagers to move back. They came and stayed for 3 or 4 days, and when they left we went back, too. They dont want us to stay there. When we first arrived back there they didnt know about us, but after a while more and more of our friends came. Now they know about it, so they drove us back here again because a lot of people came to stay there. They said it is messy so we had to move. They said, Dont come and stay here for a long time because it is their land." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 27), Taw Oak village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #9, 9/99)
"When I was trying to find my husband, T--- told me to go and
find him for them, and if I couldnt find him he was going to kill me and my children
and my mother. Myself, I thought if he wants to kill me then kill me. Being a villager is
the very worst, so if he wants to kill me, go ahead. I would be happy to die." -
"Naw Ther Paw" (F, xx), xxxx village, TNay Hsah township;
T--- is a local DKBA officer, and his troops later shot her husband dead (Interview #32,
8/99)
There are no indications that conditions will soon improve for the
villagers of southeastern Paan District. The brutality of the current SPDC offensive
indicates their commitment to eradicating the KNLAs presence in the area, but the
KNLA has always been strong in this area and it is very unlikely that the SPDC could
succeed in this objective. The KNLA, furthermore, has vowed never to surrender, and
reports from KNLA soldiers in the field and independent sources suggest that morale is
good despite being under-manned and ill-equipped. The guerrilla tactics of the KNLA,
including landmine warfare, still manage to deter the SPDC and DKBA from completely
controlling the district. There is no indication that any of the parties to the conflict
will cease laying mines, and their proliferation is a serious and growing concern; when
interviewed by KHRG, villagers from the region now speak of landmines as one of their
greatest fears and concerns, which was not the case 2 to 3 years ago. Most local SPDC
units fear KNLA landmines as much as villagers do and therefore try to keep their patrols
to a minimum, but when ordered to clear villages they mobilise in large numbers and seize
villagers to walk in front of them. Villagers depend on the KNLA to alert them about SPDC
columns passing through, and in return villagers continue to provide the KNLA with
necessary supplies and porters, whether voluntarily or by coercion. In the past six months
the SPDC and DKBA have collaborated in the area with the resolve to purge the KNLA by
waging war against innocent villagers. So far they have spared no one.
"They did not come to do the best thing for the villagers. They came to break the villagers. I do not feel good since the Burmese came to the village. I suffer always. I eat in the morning and have to think for the evening, then I eat in the evening and have to think for the morning. We have no food to eat and no money to pay the fees, and we could not suffer anymore. Thats why we came here." - "Saw Lah Ku" (M, 21), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #18, 8/99)
"I could support my family if we didnt need to fear them, and if they didnt disturb us. But in this messy situation, I had no time to work." - "Saw Baw" (M, 29), Tee Law Thay village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #24, 8/99)
"How can I feel when they come and rape our daughters and ask to
have sex with my wife? And they loot all of our belongings and our paddy. Last year we
could not plant paddy, so we have to buy paddy but then they come and take it. They
dont have any rations and their leaders dont send them rice, only alcohol. So
they eat all of ours." - "Pu KNer" (M, 60), Pah Klu village,
TNay Hsah township (Interview #20, 8/99)
In the past Thailand has offered sanctuary to Karen refugees, but the
villagers are the overlooked victims of the recently tense political situation between
Rangoon and Bangkok. Following the armed attack on the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok in early
October by a fringe group of Burmese exiles, Thai-Burmese relations soured, resulting in
the Burmese closure of legal border trading for 2 months. Beginning in early
November, Thai authorities were ordered to round up all illegal migrant Burmese workers in
Thailand, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and deport them to Burma. Thousands of
these workers fit the international criteria for refugees but had joined the Thai illegal
labour force because they could not or did not want to go into refugee camps. Many of them
have been forced to return to their villages, many of which have been destroyed or
relocated during the time they have lived in Thailand. This eliminated any possibility of
earning a living to support their families, as jobs are few in Burma and do not pay enough
to survive. Given the danger of return to their villages through heavily mined areas and
SPDC/DKBA controlled territory, many workers were forced to pay huge extortion fees to
stay in Thailand to Thai authorities, which sent them into debt, or flee into the jungle
to avoid capture. Stranded on the border for weeks, most workers have now dispersed on the
Burmese side or returned to factories in Mae Sot and other border towns, where they run
the risk of re-arrest.
"The Burmese closed the way to the fields, and last year there was
no rain. We couldnt plant the paddy so we got no rice. We planted the paddy this
year, but we dont know yet if we will dare to harvest the paddy at harvest time. We
dare not go back to harvest because we will die. I think that if I dare to go back I will
go alone and leave my wife and children here. I am very afraid." -
"Maung Shwe" (M, 36), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #19,
8/99)
This dry season does not bode well for Karen villagers in the area. It
is very likely that most or all villages will be relocated by the SPDC Army, and those
that choose not to go to the relocation sites will have to flee into the hills. Most,
however, will not be able to survive there due to the landmines, poor nutrition and health
standards, and danger of attack. The few left in their villages hesitate to leave their
fields, which are their only source of income and food, but their families and friends at
the Thai border report that many have been waiting until the end of the harvest before
fleeing. This means that there will be probably be an increase over the next month in the
number of people joining fellow villagers on the banks of the Moei River. Most will be
unable to cross into the refugee camps because of current Thai policy, but the lucky few
who manage to cross will either sneak into refugee camps and swell the already burgeoning
numbers there, or attempt to find an illegal job somewhere in Thailand. The fate of these
people depends to a large degree on the policy of the Thai authorities. The closure of the
refugee camps and the recent move of two long-standing camps to a location far from the
border are both ominous signs for those seeking sanctuary in Thailand. New arrivals will
be forced to become unregistered refugeesand therefore receive no
rationshiding at Beh Klaw (Mae La), or attempt to reach Umpiem Mai, a new camp
combining the old camps of Huay Kaloke (Wangka) and Maw Ker, which is also at capacity.
However, Umpiem Mai is over 50 kilometres from the crossing point of refugees from
Paan District, so it is almost impossible for new refugees to reach it without being
stopped and arrested as illegal migrants by Thai authorities. Villagers inside Burma have
heard rumours of full camps and pushbacks by Thai authorities, and are reluctant to make
the dangerous journey without the assurance of refuge across the border. Meanwhile, the
Thais are trying to appease Rangoon after the embassy crisis by mounting pressure on the
UNHCR to speed up the repatriation of refugees, so even those in camps may soon be at risk
of losing sanctuary.
"We couldnt deal with the forced labour and fee collections, so we fled and came here for a better future. We still have people there who will come here. Some villagers still have their fields and are waiting to finish the harvest before they come. I came here alone but my wife and children arrived yesterday." - "Pa Po Doh" (M, 24), Tee Hsah Ra village, Myawaddy township (Interview #39, 7/99)
"If I go back to my village, Ill have no rice to eat. My children have been working in the fields, but since there was no rain we didnt get enough rice. My daughter has two small children, and my daughter-in-law also has two small children who are still breastfeeding. My daughter-in-law is ill in the hospital. When we are cured, we would like to stay here as refugees with all our children, but we dont have any money to build a house." - "Pu Dta Ler" (M, 50-60), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township (Interview #45, 4/99)
"It is not easy to go back. It will be many long years before the situation gets better. I think it will not change for a while. Some people say that the situation will become peaceful, but that will not be easy. It made my heart unhappy that I had to work for them, which is why I came here. I couldnt suffer anymore. After 2 or 3 years Id had enough of working like that. The other villagers with fields and cattle want to come here too, but they cant. The rich villagers have to stay because they cannot leave their fields and cattle, but we could come because we had nothing. But if all our people go back, I wouldnt dare stay here alone." - "Saw Maw Hla" (M, 30), Maw Goh village, Lu Pleh township (Interview #43, 7/99)
"[when asked if he thinks the SPDC has come to do good things] I am very afraid that they will come to do good things like that. I think that they have not come to do good things. I dont know if the situation will get better. If our country gets freedom, I will go back. But Karen people said to stay here [displaced on the Burma side of the border] for the moment, and that they will plan a place for us [implying that they will arrange admission into a refugee camp in Thailand]. If they do not send for us, we dont know where well go." - "Maung Shwe" (M, 36), Pah Klu village, TNay Hsah township; shortly after he was interviewed, the internally displaced camp where he was staying at Tee Ner Hta was shelled by SPDC troops (Interview #19, 8/99)
Click here to see this report's Interview Annex.