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[Clicking on the sample photos shown in the introduction below will take you to the description of that photo. Clicking on a thumbnail above a photo description will provide an enlargement of the photo. It is recommended that you view this set with your web browser window maximised.]
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As the SPDC consolidates everyone into ‘garrison villages’ where their movements are tightly controlled and destroys all other villages, it is more and more the case throughout Karen State that anyone seen outside an SPDC-controlled village is considered as ‘enemy’ until and unless they can prove otherwise. Many are shot on sight before even having the chance to prove otherwise. This includes villagers from SPDC garrison villages who go out to work their fields, even in areas where there is little or no fighting (see for example Photos #E4 and E15 through E17). SPDC soldiers know that they are despised by the entire population in these areas, and the resulting ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality dehumanises the civilian population. Outside their camps they are extremely edgy and nervous, and there is often a tendency to shoot anything that moves and ask questions later. Adding to this, SPDC columns are usually afraid to engage the resistance forces so they avoid them, preferring to attack defenceless villages, farmfield huts and encampments of internally displaced people, then report the incident as an ‘attack on a rebel camp’ and those killed as ‘enemy soldiers’.
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When SPDC patrols see villagers outside of villages, even in areas of little conflict, they usually call them over for interrogation. The villagers know that these interrogations are often accompanied by beatings and followed by being taken for forced labour as a porter, so their normal reaction is to run, and when this happens the troops open fire on them regardless of whether they are women, men, children or the elderly. Anyone who flees is assumed to be the enemy (see Photos #E22 through E24). Whenever SPDC troops are ambushed by resistance forces, encounter anti-personnel landmines or anti-vehicle landmines, or suffer any other military setback, the usual response is to punish the nearest villages, which often means shelling the village or shooting it up without warning (see for example Photos #E1 through E3 and E11 through E14). When SPDC soldiers desert the Army, local villagers are often executed and villages destroyed as punishment even if there is no evidence that they helped the deserters or knew about it. Sometimes villages are also shelled or shot up without warning as a punishment for failing to comply with demands for forced labour; some order documents demanding forced labour even go so far as to specify this as a punishment (see "SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 2001-A" [KHRG #2001-02, May 2001]). When villagers doing forced labour as porters try to escape, the soldiers usually open fire on them (see Photos #E11, E12, A7, and A8).
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In SPDC-controlled villages, people can be summarily executed for any suspected or real contacts with the opposition, or for any other reason at the whim of the Army officers (see Photos #E59 and E64). When troop columns loot villages, people who resist in any way are beaten or sometimes executed by being shot, having their throats cut or by other means (see Photo #E5). Victims of all of these shootings and attacks and the relatives of the deceased have no access to any complaints process; in fact, those who complain are tortured or otherwise punished for doing so (see Photo #E63). Military officers do not have to account for those they have wounded or executed, and such incidents are never investigated.
In areas where villages have been destroyed and most people are internally displaced the situation is much worse. SPDC columns are sent out specifically to clear areas of civilians, so they hunt out their hidden shelters and shoot them on sight (see for example Photos #E18 through E21, E27, and E57). As part of the SPDC campaign to wipe out the food supplies of the internally displaced, additional patrols are sent into the hills at harvest time (November-December). The groups of villagers harvesting in the hillside fields are visible from a distance, and the patrols approach as close as they can without being detected, then open fire with small arms, M79 grenades and sometimes mortars. Many villagers are wounded and killed this way (see Photos #E25, E26, E28, E29, E30 through E39, E40 through E43, E48, and E60 through E62). Even when the troops can see clearly that their targets are children, the elderly and ordinary farmers, they continue to fire (see Photos #E44 through E47, and E51 through E53).
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After wounding or killing people in the villages or the fields, SPDC troops usually leave them to care for themselves. Even in the SPDC-controlled villages it is difficult to go to a clinic or hospital if you have been shot by SPDC troops, because doctors are afraid to treat ‘rebels’. Most do not even have the option of a clinic, and must buy their own medicines on the black market, which can be difficult because the SPDC tightly restricts and in some areas prohibits the supply of medicines to Karen villages.
For the internally displaced conditions are even worse; they receive treatment from their fellow villagers in the forest using roots and other traditional medicines (see Photos #E54 and E55). If they are lucky, they may receive some basic treatment from a KNLA medic or a mobile medical team sent by Karen and other non-Thai relief organisations in Thailand.
Warning: Many of the photos in this section show graphic detail.
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| E1 | E2 |
Photos #E1, E2: Naw H---, age 9, from xxxx village, yyyy township, Papun District. On April 13th 2001, an SPDC column from Light Infantry Battalion #xxx on the move encountered KNLA forces and fought a skirmish over an hour’s walk away from her village. After the fighting, the SPDC column headed on towards Papun but as they passed xxxx village they ‘punished’ the village for the fighting by firing several rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) among the houses without warning. Naw H--- and her mother were wounded by shrapnel from the RPG shell that landed on their house. In the photos she shows scars of some of the wounds she received. See also Photo #E3 below. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E3 |
Photo #E3: One of the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) shells which SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx fired without warning at xxxx village on April 13th 2001 (see Photos #E1 and E2 above). This particular shell failed to explode on impact. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E4 |
Photo #E4: Saw P---, 48, a Karen Buddhist hill field farmer from xxxx village (yyyy township, Papun District). On May 17th 2001 a column from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx (under Light Infantry Division #77) came to the area of their village, saw his son Pa Kyi Noh gathering durian fruit in the family’s durian orchard at yyyy, and commanding officer Bo aaaa fired four M79 grenades at him from quite close range. He fell and died under the durian tree. The troops left his body there, and when they entered the village they told the village head they had killed someone. When the villagers went to look later, they saw that Pa Kyi Noh had been wounded in the forehead, wrist, right arm, thigh, and the muscle of his left calf had been blown away; his skull had been blown open. Pa Kyi Noh was 24 years old and had been married for one year, with no children yet. He was a villager with no political connections. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: This photo is graphic.
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| E5 |
Photo #E5: The body of Pu T---, a 60 year old Karen Buddhist villager from xxxx village in yyyy township, Thaton District. On May 14th 2001 a combined column of SPDC Light Infantry Battalions #xxx and #xxx (under Division 77) entered one end of his village at 5 p.m. and fired off their guns twice. Then they arrived near Pu T---’s house. His wife (Pi T---, 60) heard a shot from outside, then a groan and her husband’s voice saying "I cannot, I cannot". She asked permission from the soldiers to go to him but they refused and said "It doesn’t concern you". Other villagers ran over and told her that the soldiers had shot her husband, so she ran to him and saw his body covered in blood. She asked him what he had done, and he told her "I cannot, I did nothing wrong". The soldiers would not look at her and walked away, then their commander admitted to her that his men had made a mistake and their medic attached an intravenous drip to Pu T---’s arm; they had shot him through the belly, with an exit wound in his buttock. He died shortly thereafter, and the SPDC commander gave her 3 sacks of rice and 10,000 Kyat as compensation. This photo was taken 3 days later when the villagers were burying him. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E6 | E7 | E8 |
Photos #E6, E7, E8: Saw P---, age 21, a Karen farmer from W--- village in eastern Toungoo District. On July 13th 2001 he was hiking to Kler Lah village to try to buy some rice. As he was walking on the path between Klay Soe Kee and Kler Lah, fighting broke out along the same path between KNLA soldiers and an SPDC patrol from Infantry Battalion #30. The SPDC troops began firing mortar shells along the path, and one of the shells landed near Saw P---. He was hit by shrapnel in his hip, his right calf and his back. These photos were taken four days later, when he received treatment from a KNLA medic. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E9 | E10 |
Photos #E9, E10: Ma P--- from xxxx village in yyyy township (Thaton district). One morning at the end of March 2001, Column 2 of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx came into her village and started shooting without warning, wounding her and one of the village children. In Photo #E10 she shows the small wound she received. There were no resistance forces in the village; the troops simply shot up the village and then left to return to zzzz Army camp. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| A7 | A8 |
Photos #A7, A8: Saw T---, age 43, from xxxx village in Papun District. In early February 2001, he went to a wedding and was selling small goods when SPDC officer Bo aaaa of LID #44 summoned him and forced him to go with the column as a guide. The officers constantly scolded him along the way, so when they reached yyyy village he asked to be released. Second Lieutenant bbbb refused, cursed him, punched him in the face, giving him a bloody nose, and then beat him on the head with a bamboo stick. A Corporal then came over and punched him again in the face. Saw T--- then told them that live or die, he’d had enough and was leaving, grabbed his bag and began to run. The troops yelled to him, then opened fire - Saw T--- estimates that they fired at least 10 or 20 shots. He was hit in the right buttock but kept running, and when he got further away they fired two small mortar shells or M79 grenades at him. He became dizzy and his buttock and nose were bleeding, but he managed to reach a village and the villagers treated the wound with traditional oils, and he remained in hiding nearby. When these photos were taken 3 days later, he said that the bullet or shell fragment was still inside the wound and it still bled whenever he walked. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E11 | E12 |
Photo #E11, E12: Saw L---, 45, from xxxx village (yyyy township, Papun District). In February 2001 he was heading home from his ricefield when he met a column of 50 soldiers from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx (under Light Infantry Division #77) commanded by Major aaaa. The Major ordered him to go with the column as a porter, and he tried to refuse but they forced him to shoulder a load of almost 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and go with them. On the morning of February 23rd they encountered KNLA soldiers near zzzz village and there was a battle. During the fighting Saw L--- tried to flee, but the SPDC soldiers saw him and shot him in the thigh, so he fell and was recaptured. After the battle they punished the zzzz villagers by opening fire on the completely undefended village, killing a 28-year-old woman named Naw Bleh and wounding a woman named Ma T--- (see photos below), then entered the village and looted the houses of rice, clothing, gold jewellery and other belongings after the villagers had fled. They left Saw L--- behind with no treatment. Photo #E12 shows one of the wounds on his left thigh. See also Photos #E13 and E14 below, which document the results of the attack on the undefended village. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E13 | E14 |
Photos #E13, E14: Ma T---, 50, from zzzz village in yyyy township, Papun District. She was shot in the arm on February 23rd 2001 when SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx ‘punished’ her village for a battle which had occurred nearby by opening fire on the undefended village, then looting the houses (for details see description of Photos #E11 and E12 above). Another woman from the village, 28-year-old Naw Bleh, was killed. These photos were taken over a month later, but her wound had not completely healed. Whenever SPDC soldiers are attacked they routinely respond by ‘punishing’ the villages in the area in ways like this. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: These photos are graphic.
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| E15 | E16 | E17 |
Photos #E15, E16, E17: The body of Saw aaaa, a Karen villager from xxxx village in Tenasserim Division. In mid-January 2001 he was outside his village looking for a stray calf when he encountered a column of soldiers from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx. The soldiers forced him to walk in front of them, and when he was doing so a Lance Corporal fired two shots into his back and neck, killing him. The column later told the villagers that Saw aaaa was a rebel and had been carrying an AK47 assault rifle, but the villagers assert that he was a simple farmer with no connection to the opposition, and as shown in the photos he was wearing civilian clothing when killed. He leaves a widow and two small children. [Photos: Private independent source]
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Warning: These photos are graphic.
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| E18 | E19 |
Photos #E18, E19: The body of Naw Koh, a woman aged 50 from Hsaw Wah Der village in Toungoo District, single with no children. On December 30th 2000 she was cutting the weeds in her betelnut plantation when she was spotted by an SPDC patrol from Infantry Battalion #73 based at Naw Soe camp, Battalion Commander Min Oo. The troops shot her on sight and left her corpse to rot where it fell. Villagers who found the body saw one bullet wound in her right knee, and another entry wound in the back of her neck with an exit wound on the left side of her face. The troops who shot her also stole her necklace, earrings, bracelet and watch. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: These photos are graphic.
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| E20 | E21 |
Photos #E20, E21: Saw Bo Hla Win, age 21, from Wah Soe village (Photo #E20) and his cousin Saw Taw Lay Htoo, age 16, from Bu Sah Kee village (Photo #E21), Toungoo District. At about 2 p.m. on November 25th 2000, the two of them were returning from their hillside rice fields to their villages carrying some cucumbers (see foreground of Photo #E20) when they encountered troops from SPDC Infantry Battalion #289, Battalion Commander Soe Myint. The troops shot them dead on sight and left their bodies where they fell. Saw Bo Hla Win’s brother heard the shooting so he went that night and found his younger brother and cousin dead. When found, Saw Bo Hla Win had 8 bullet wounds and Saw Taw Lay Htoo had 6 bullet wounds. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: These photos are graphic.
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| E22 | E23 | E24 |
Photos #E22, E23, E24: Naw H---, age 24 from Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District. She lives in the plains near the Sittaung River, and came east into the hills of Toungoo District to help her aunt and uncle work their betelnut plantation. At 6:30 a.m. on November 29th 2000, she and her uncle were walking along a path near the xxxx river in Toungoo District when they were sighted by an SPDC patrol from Infantry Battalion #75. The soldiers called them to come over but they ran, afraid of being robbed and taken as porters, and the troops opened fire, hitting Naw H--- in the thigh. She called out to her uncle and fell. When the soldiers came up to her she pretended to be dead. She heard the soldiers say to each other that she was dead or dying, then heard them taking the money from her bag and talking about splitting it, and then they left her there. For the next 24 hours she went in and out of consciousness, alone on the ground all night, at one point dragging herself to the streambank to put some water in her bottle and drink. At 9 a.m. the next morning, a group of villagers and her uncle came with some KNLA soldiers and a large hoe to bury her, but on discovering her alive they carried her to a hiding place of displaced people and treated her wound. Photos #E22 and E23 were taken just afterwards; Photo #E24 was taken 6 days after she was shot, when a mobile medic was treating the wound. [Photos: KHRG researchers]
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| E25 | E26 |
Photos #E25, E26: Saw T---, a 30 year old displaced villager from xxxx village in Papun District, shows the wound on his foot from when he was shot on sight by SPDC troops in November 2000. He was harvesting with other villagers when a column of 50 troops from Light Infantry Battalion #369 sighted them and opened fire. Though wounded in the foot, he managed to escape and says the wound became extremely painful only later. Other villagers had to carry him to a hiding place, and after 4 days he got some treatment from a KNLA medic. Eventually he could walk again, and since then he has moved from one hiding place to another. He says that the troops who shot him have rotated back to Shwegyin, but have been replaced by a much larger column which has set up a semi-permanent camp near his village so he doesn’t dare go home. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E27 |
Photo #E27: Saw K---, 20, from xxxx village in Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District. He and his fellow villagers are living in hiding in the forest but on January 28th 2001, he and some friends returned to the village to round up their buffaloes. Near the village they stopped to cook, and Saw K--- and one friend went ahead to see if the path was clear. SPDC troops from Light Infantry Battalion #369 saw them and immediately opened fire, grazing Saw K--- behind the right ear and hitting his friend Saw W--- in the thigh. They both managed to run a short distance to escape before they couldn’t go on and the others had to carry them. Saw K--- was taken to a KNLA medic who treated his wound and it healed. His friend Saw W--- was taken to a KNU field hospital further away, and still could not walk 3 months later. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E28 | E29 |
Photos #E28, E29: Saw G---, age 35, and his mother, from xxxx village tract in western Papun District. On November 14th 2000, they were taking a break while harvesting their hillside ricefield along with Saw G---’s uncle and female cousin, when an SPDC patrol from Light Infantry Battalion #365 arrived and opened fire on them. All of them ran, but Saw G--- went back to the hut to fetch his bag and was grazed by bullets on his right hip and his left forearm. The troops then continued firing at him during the whole time he ran through the field to reach the trees. His family then fled further into the hills, where he received treatment from a KNU medic and where they are still staying. These photos were taken 2 months later, when his wounds had healed; in Photo #E28 the scars on his forearm are still visible, while Photo #E29 shows the scar on his hip. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: These photos are graphic.
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| E30 | E31 | E32 | E33 |
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| E34 | E35 | E36 |
Photos #E30, E31, E32, E33, E34, E35, E36: Killings at xxxx village, Lu Thaw township, Papun District. On April 18th 2000 Saw K--- and his family from xxxx were staying at their field hut to gather firewood along with some relatives. Saw K---, 56, and his wife Naw Yweh Tee, 42, were cutting firewood under the hut just after noon, while some of the others were inside. SPDC troops from Light Infantry Battalion #385 saw them and positioned themselves in the bushes nearby, then opened fire on the hut without warning. Those inside the hut jumped down to the ground, and everyone started running in all directions. Saw K--- saw his wife shot in the abdomen and tried to drag her with him, but after pulling her to a nearby farmfield hut he saw she was dead and he left her and ran. His 17-year-old son Saw Dee Mu disappeared and didn’t turn up when the villagers regrouped later, so Saw K--- went back the next day and found his body near the hut. Saw Dee Mu had been shot in the back, with an exit wound in the left side of his chest. Naw D---, a 13 year old girl relative, had been hit by a bullet in the buttocks but had managed to escape, and the villagers carried her to help (see Photos #E37-E39 below). Photos #E30 and E31 show Naw Yweh Tee’s body where she died in the nearby farmfield hut, and Photo #E32 shows Saw Dee Mu’s body where Saw K--- found it in the open field. In Photo #E33, the villagers are preparing the bodies for transport and burial. Photo #E34 shows Saw K--- sifting through the burned ruin of his hut the day after the shooting; after shooting the villagers, the SPDC troops looted the belongings in the hut and burned it to the ground. Saw K--- was left with 6 children aged 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16, and says it is very difficult surviving in the hills while caring for them all by himself; Photos #E35 and E36 show Saw K--- and some of his remaining children much later, in early 2001. See also Photos #E37 through E39 below of Naw D---, who was wounded in the shooting. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E37 | E38 | E39 |
Photos #E37, E38, E39: Naw D---, age 13, also from xxxx village, who was shot in the buttocks and wounded in the wrist and ankle by M79 grenade fragments as she tried to flee the hut (see description with Photos #E30-E36 above). She managed to run far enough to escape, but then had to be carried by other villagers. Photo #E37 shows her receiving basic treatment from other villagers; Photo #E39 shows Naw D--- later, in early 2001. She never returned to her village after the shooting and had to heal her wounds in the forest with almost no access to medicines. She and the people of all 12 villages in the immediate area are in hiding in the forest in various locations. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: These photos are graphic.
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| E40 | E41 | E42 | E43 |
Photos #E40, E41, E42, E43: On April 4th 2000 at 3:30 p.m., Naw L--- (age 31) and her husband Saw S--- (age 35) from xxxx village, northern Papun District, were burning off their hill field in preparation for planting season. An SPDC unit from Saw Mu Plaw camp spotted them and opened fire without warning using assault rifles and M79 grenade launchers. Naw L--- was hit by a bullet in her back which exited just below her left shoulder (see Photo #E40), and she was also hit by grenade shrapnel in the face, behind her right ear (see Photo #E41), her right breast (see Photo #E42), her thigh, ankle, and wrist. Saw S--- was wounded by a bullet or shrapnel on his back (see Photo #E43). They both tried to flee back to their house but both fell unconscious along the way. When they awoke they tried to continue, but were found by villagers who carried them the rest of the way. They are living in hiding and had no treatment except an injection 2 days later, then some bandages from mobile medics. Because of her wounds, Naw L--- cannot breastfeed or care for her smallest child; their 8-year-old has to look after the baby, and they have no milk for it so the baby is suffering and crying all the time. Less than a year earlier (in September 1999) the couple had already lost their 13-year-old daughter Naw Meh Hsah Htoo, 11-year-old son Saw Lah Kaw Mu, a 20-year-old nephew named Saw April Htoo, and Saw S---’s 43-year-old uncle Dee Wah Htoo, all of them gunned down by an SPDC unit when they were harvesting rice. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E44 | E45 | E46 | E47 |
Photos #E44, E45, E46, E47: Internally displaced children who were shot on sight and wounded by SPDC troops. Saw S--- is 9 years old and his sister Naw H--- is 5 years old. Both of them are from xxxx village (Mone township, Nyaunglebin District), but had fled into hiding in the jungle with their family because SPDC troops destroyed their village. Their only other sibling died of disease while in hiding. Then on the afternoon of March 14th 2000, a group of families were building shelters when they were discovered by a unit of Light Infantry Battalion #351 from nearby yyyy camp. Without warning, the troops opened fire with assault rifles while the villagers scattered, then began firing at them with an M79 grenade launcher. Six were wounded and two killed. Five-year-old Naw H--- was wounded in the head (see Photo #E46), and her 9-year-old brother Saw S--- was wounded in the leg (see Photo #E47), but little Naw H--- was left behind in the confusion. As a witness described it: "She [Naw H---] fainted and was left among the bullets. Nobody dared to go and get the child. At that time her father Maung J--- hurried and fled uphill with his wife. His wife was very pregnant and brought their other child [Saw S---], who was also injured. They fled among the bullets. They left their unconscious, wounded child there until that evening. At about 7 p.m. they went and got the child and brought her back. They were without hope because they were in the jungle with no medicine to heal the child. The child’s whole body was bloody. It was like she got drenched with blood." Their mother Naw L---, 30, was shot in the arm, their grandfather Maw Htoo Wah, aged about 60, was shot in the belly and the arm and died, and another elderly male relative aged 60 or 70 named Hsa Baw was also shot dead. When their grandmother went back later to the sight of the shooting, she found that the soldiers had ransacked the basket they had dropped there and stolen everything of value. Photo #E44 was taken a month after the shooting; the other 3 photos were taken a year later in April 2001, but Naw H---’s wound still hadn’t healed properly. All of the villagers are still living in hiding and have little or no access to medicines. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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Warning: This photo is graphic.
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| E48 |
Photo #E48: The body of Maung Thay Paw, a villager from Tee Thu Der village, Yeh Mu Plaw village tract, Lu Thaw township, northern Papun District. On March 23rd 2000 a column of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #388 came into the area when villagers were preparing their fields for the coming crop season. They saw Maung Thay Paw, his brother and his uncle working in their hill field and immediately opened fire, killing Maung Thay Paw on the spot. His brother and uncle managed to escape. When they returned to the body, they saw that the troops had stolen Maung Thay Paw’s watch, gold necklace, and machete. Another of Maung Thay Paw’s brothers, Maung Kyi Wah, had been killed not long before by stepping on an SPDC landmine while searching for food. A surviving brother, Saw P---, says that his family is in shock at the events and no longer dares work their fields, which are only 2 hours’ walk from the SPDC camp. All of them spend most of their time in hiding in the forest. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E49 | E50 |
Photos #E49, E50: Saw K---, 16 years old, with his mother and sister. They are from xxxx village in Papun District but are living displaced in the forest. On March 28th 2000, an SPDC patrol sighted Saw K--- and shot him. The bullet hit the right side of his chest and exited through his back. When this photo was taken in April 2001, the wound appeared well healed but Saw K--- said he still suffers a lot of pain from it. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E51 | E52 | E53 |
Photos #E51, E52, E53: Two women and a boy shot by SPDC troops in xxxx area, Papun District. Naw B---, age 60 (Photo #E51, left), was weeding her rice field when she was shot on sight by an SPDC patrol and wounded in her foot. SPDC troops also shot and wounded her sister Naw P--- at the same time, and they shot and killed her son Saw Paw Htoo, age 22, on a separate occasion. In March 2000, another SPDC patrol shot on sight Naw N---, age 41 (Photo #E51, right) when she was clearing a hill field for planting. She was shot in the thigh (Photo #E52 shows her wound). At the time she was with her relative Saw M---, age 70, and her grandson Saw K---, a 6 year old boy, both of whom were also shot and wounded; Saw K--- shows his wound in Photo #E53. The three of them managed to get away, but Naw N--- says the troops looted the belongings they left behind, and that she suffered terribly while the wound was healing. All of these villagers are now living in hiding in the hills. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E54 | E55 |
Photo #E54, E55: Saw P---, 34, a farmer from xxxx village, Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District. In mid-2000 he was detained by an SPDC patrol of Infantry Battalion #96, and when he ran to escape they fired on him and he was hit in the upper arm, though he still managed to escape. He had no access to medicines so the wound became infected, and when Photo #E54 was taken in March 2001 it still had not healed. Photo #E55 was taken after he had reached a refugee camp in Thailand in June, when he had finally received proper treatment and the wound had closed. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E56 |
Photo #E56: Naw P---, 31, from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township, Papun District. In July 2000, an SPDC column of Light Infantry Battalion #2 came into the area of their village so they fled into the forest with the other villagers. On July 27th Naw P---’s husband Saw Bweh returned to their farmfield hut to fetch their sack of rice, some money and other belongings which were all they had. The villagers heard 4 shots in the distance. Later they found his body on the path, with a bullet wound in his chest - it appeared that the SPDC troops had left him there, and he had tried to crawl towards a stream. Naw P--- is now left with their 3-year-old child shown in the photo; their other child already died, her mother died when she was 9, and her father was killed by Burmese troops when he was portering for them in 1991. She now stays in the forest with her aunt. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E57 |
Photo #E57: Naw P---, age 40, with her 6 year old daughter and 2 year old son. They are from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township, Papun District, but they fled and no longer live in the village. On July 15th 2000, her husband Kyi Oo Pa was in a farmfield hut when SPDC troops suddenly surrounded it and opened fire, killing both him and his friend Saw Pa Htoo. Naw P--- must now care for her family alone while also being on the run from SPDC troops. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E58 |
Photo #E58: Saw H---, a villager from xxxx village, Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District. On June 1st 2000 he was spotted by an SPDC patrol near his village and shot on sight. One of the bullets went through his left shoulder. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E59 |
Photo #E59: Naw R--- from xxxx village, Papun District, and her two children. In January 2000 her husband Pa Y---, 45, was arrested by SPDC troops, accused of having contacts with the resistance, and summarily executed along with 3 other men from the village. None of the 4 men were guilty, and only one of them had a son in the resistance. Three of them had wives and small children. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E60 | E61 | E62 |
Photos #E60, E61, E62: Saw P---, 52, and his wife Naw M---, 40, from xxxx village in Papun District. In May 1997, SPDC Infantry Battalion #57 came to their village and shot dead 6 people including their 17-year-old daughter Naw Paw Ra. Saw P--- and Naw M--- were both wounded in the shooting, he on the back of the neck and she on her scalp (see Photo #E62), and they fled with the others in their village into the forest where they have been in hiding ever since. On August 3rd 2000, they were shot at again by a column of Light Infantry Battalion #412 which had come to gun down villagers while they were planting rice. This time they escaped without injury, but they are still in hiding in the forest with very little to eat. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
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| E63 |
Photo #E63: Naw W---, age 50, a widow from xxxx village near the Sittaung River in yyyy township, Nyaunglebin District. She was widowed long ago, and has raised her 3 children by herself. At harvest time at the end of 1999 her son Saw H---, 22, was heading for his hill field when he saw footprints of Burmese soldiers so he turned back and went to a friend’s house. Commander aaaa’s section of the SPDC’s Sa Thon Lon execution squads heard about it and went to arrest him. His mother heard of his arrest and went to tell the soldiers that her son was just farming, but they kicked her and sent her away. Then they tied her son and took him to yyyy town. Naw W--- followed, but when she got there the soldiers told her he had been shot 3 times while trying to escape. She didn’t believe them, but she went home and sent her nephew to inquire the next day, and he found out that they had executed him. Before his death, Saw H--- had been the main support for his mother. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E64 |
Photo #E64: Naw P--- and her four children aged 2 to 15, from xxxx village near the Sittaung River in yyyy township, Nyaunglebin District. Her husband Saw aaaa was in the logging business but got into a business dispute with the local SPDC, probably refusing to give them a sufficient cut of the business. In March 1999 he was taken away by Sergeant bbbb’s section of the Sa Thon Lon execution squads, who beat him, stabbed him, cut off his tongue with a knife then shot him dead. His wife is now left to support the children by herself. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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| E65 | E66 | E67 | E68 |
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| E69 | E70 | E71 |
Photos #E65, E66, E67, E68, E69, E70, E71: Widows of Papun District. Taken in April 2001, these are just a few of the hundreds of women whose husbands have been killed by SPDC troops since the SPDC began operations to depopulate the Papun hills in 1997. Of those shown in the photographs, 4 were widowed when SPDC patrols shot their husbands on sight, while the other 3 lost their husbands to landmines. Not only do they have to raise their children alone, but all of them are internally displaced and must still run whenever SPDC troops enter their area. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Forced
Labour / Forced Relocation & Restrictions
/ Attacks on Villages
Detention & Torture / Shootings & Killings / Flight & Displacement
Landmines / Soldiers
/ Children