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KHRG Photo Gallery 2006: Forced Relocation and Forced Displacement
2. Forced Relocation and Forced Displacement
 Villagers are not only being displaced by the SPDC's offensive against northern Karen villages. They are also being forcibly displaced in other regions and for other reasons. In southern Karenni (Kayah State), just east of Toungoo district, SPDC forces are attacking Karenni villages and causing thousands of villagers to flee, some of them to Karen State. In other regions, many people leave their villages when they can no longer tolerate forced labour and other abuses. It has also become standard operating procedure for SPDC authorities to order the forced relocation of any village which is not within the radius of control of an Army camp. Villagers facing these relocation orders have two choices: either try to survive in the surrounding forests while evading SPDC columns sent to hunt them down, or move as ordered to a military-controlled relocation site. Plaw Law Bler is one such site in Nyaunglebin district, and it is shown in the photos below. The conditions of life at this and other relocation sites make it clear why many villagers choose instead to take their chances hiding from the SPDC in the forests.
This section is divided into two parts: general forced displacement, and a special section on Plaw Law Bler forced relocation site in Nyaunglebin district (Section 2a)
All photos are by KHRG except where specifically noted otherwise.
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A group of Karenni villagers from Karenni (Kayah) State cross the river Tha Aye Loh Kloh in southern Toungoo district together with a KNLA unit and a Free Burma Rangers medical team. The villagers said their homes and belongings in southern Kayah State had been destroyed by SPDC and allied Karenni Solidarity Organisation (KnSO) forces and that some of them had been tortured, leading them to flee southward into northern Karen State. When these photos were taken in late January 2006, the KNLA was escorting them toward the Thai border. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Nine year old Saw T--- was born in 1997 when his family was fleeing the SPDC troops who destroyed their village in Bu Tho township, Papun district. He was born on the ground in the jungle, and his mother died as a result. Since then he has been raised by his grandfather. This photo was taken in February 2006. [Photo: KHRG] |
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While many villagers in Bu Tho township of Papun district struggle to survive despite local SPDC demands for forced labour, food and money and restrictions on their agricultural activities (see Section 3), these people from T--- and M--- villages in Meh Ku village tract say they would rather hide in the forest than comply with SPDC demands, so they leave their villages whenever SPDC forces come near. When these photos were taken on February 27-28th 2006, an SPDC Infantry Battalion #34 column had come into their village tract so they were heading to their hidden shelters in the forest. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Shelters built by villagers from Mone township of northern Nyaunglebin district who fled when the SPDC ordered their villages to relocate to SPDC-controlled relocation sites.
They came here to Kay Pu village tract in northern Papun district, where they were staying when these photos were taken in December 2006. Some had already continued on toward the border with Thailand. [Photos: KHRG] |
2a) Plaw Law Bler forced relocation site
In Kyauk Kyi township of Nyaunglebin District on April 4th 2006, SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #439 Deputy Battalion Commander Zaw Htun issued an order for the villagers of Pa T'Lah, Noh Ghaw and Weh Ka Daw village tracts - including Pa T'Lah, Hee Po Der, Taw Ko Doh, Taw Ko Poh, P'Taw Aw, Htay Paw, Dah K'Lah, Weh Lah Dtaw, Thoo K'Bee, Tay Paw, and other villages - to move to Plaw Law Bler (also known as Law Maw or Noh Law Bler), a barren area of flat rice fields between Dteh Dtoo and Thoo K'Bee villages. These rice fields had been confiscated from local farmers without any compensation paid. The SPDC renamed the relocation site Ywa Tha Ya - 'lovely village'.
 The villages were told they had seven days to relocate, after which their houses and belongings would all be burned by the troops. Nothing was provided at the relocation site, so they were expected to strip their houses of building materials and transport these to the site with no assistance. Some people had bullock carts to transport some food and materials, but others had to carry everything on their backs. Many of their building materials and belongings were left behind and were looted or destroyed by SPDC troops. All of these conditions are typical of SPDC-ordered forced relocations.
At the relocation site each family was allocated a plot ten armspans (about 15 metres) square, marked off by the troops. This left them no space at all to keep even small livestock or a small garden, and some villagers with large families say it was not even enough space for their family. The villagers therefore had to leave behind their livestock. At the relocation site, no food or health care is provided. Villagers were expected to bring food with them, but once at the site the soldiers began routinely extorting food and money out of them and even stealing their chickens and building materials, leaving many people little option but to build a shelter out of grass and rice straw. Villagers have no access to land and were told by SPDC officers that if they attempt to return to their home area and are found there they will be killed with no questions asked.
The villagers complain that the site is extremely dry with no available water, but because it is flat rice fields whenever it rains it immediately turns into a muddy quagmire. As the land is all low-lying rice fields interspersed with dikes, in rainy season it turns into a disease-ridden swamp because the rice field drainage will no longer function properly (rainy season is June to October). Immediately after their arrival in April they tried to dig a well but it came up dry; they estimate they will have to dig at least 80 feet deep and 30 feet wide, because it is a very dry site. Right now everyone has to carry water from a village half an hour's walk away. The dryness of the site and the close proximity of all the straw houses also makes the villagers very afraid to cook, knowing that if a fire caught the straw hundreds of houses could be ablaze within minutes.
 SPDC soldiers regularly come to the relocation site. In many cases they have said they did not like the look of the shelters some families had built, and forced those families to tear them down and rebuild. Some families failed to do so, and on seeing this the soldiers beat and threatened their village head until the work was done. Since the relocation the villagers in the site have also been used as forced labour to clear a site for an adjacent SPDC Army camp: each villager must clear 30 square yards of ground. They have also been forced to work digging latrines and other holes, possibly bunkers, for the SPDC soldiers. After rainy season, when the roads must be rebuilt each year, it is probable that they will be ordered to spend most of their time doing unpaid road labour.
The villagers in the relocation site were forced to build a strong fence around the entire perimeter, with bamboo spikes sticking out of it to make it impossible to climb over. They were also forced to cut punji stakes of sharpened bamboo and plant these in covered pits around the perimeter, a common form of military booby-trap. They were told that if it was learned that any Karen National Union person had been in the site, all villagers living there would be killed.
The following quote from a 39 year old woman now in the relocation site was recorded by a KHRG researcher on April 23rd 2006:
"The Burmese soldiers forced us to relocate our village to Law Maw. They said that April 28th 2006 was the last day for us, and after that they do not want to see any of us in our village. They are forcing us to relocate to a place between Dteh Dtoo and Thoo K'Bee villages in the plains, and to enclose our homes with a fence. We didn't want to relocate to there. They ordered us starting in March, that we must smash our houses. They said if we did not obey as they order, they will burn our houses. Some of us smashed our own houses, but if they wanted to burn them we let them burn. The SPDC LIB #439 ordered us to relocate our village. I do not know their commander's name. At first our villagers paid money to the soldiers so that we would not have to relocate our village, and we could still stay in our village for many days. But eventually the Operations Commander came and he said we villagers must relocate. He gave us three days to move, and said if we did not move within three days they would 'clear all'. If they saw people they would shoot us, and if they found any houses they would burn them. If we want to come to our old village we must get a pass document from them and we can come only during the daytime. They said that if they saw us in the night time they would shoot us.
The place where we have relocated now is two hours walking time from our old village. The space for each house is ten armspans square. We have to face problems in the relocation place now, it is very hot in the daytime because there is not a single tree or any shade. A few days ago the rain fell and everywhere it turned wet and muddy. We heard the SPDC soldiers will collect tax from every household of 1,000 Kyat per month. In our section we have five villages: Pa T'Lah, Taw Koh, Khaw, Thaw Hee Poh Der, and Htee Baw Naw. Many children are feeling ill, and last night [April 22nd 2006] a person died. His name was U Mya Thaw, 60 years old."
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These photos taken in late April 2006 show part of Plaw Law Bler forced relocation site and surrounding fences. On the perimeter fences, note the construction with sharp bamboo spikes sticking out of the sides of the fence to make them impossible to climb over. The relocated villagers were forced to build these fences. [All photos: KHRG] |
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Note the marker pegs within the site (photo 2-13) to ensure villagers do not get any more than their allocated ten square armspans of space. The former dikes dividing up the paddy field are still visible between the houses (photo 2-12), and will help ensure the whole area becomes a swampy quagmire throughout rainy season. |
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The thousands of villagers now confined to the site say they were provided with no building materials or food, and that there is so little water available they have to sneak back to their villages to fetch some at risk of being shot on sight. Within the first few weeks following the forced relocation some villagers already died at the site.
There is no sanitation, no health clinic, no schools and no places of worship. Villagers are expected to support themselves entirely despite being given no access to land. Their new role in life is to be used as forced labour in support of the military. |
Like many such relocation sites, this one might be abandoned within a year due to its sheer unsustainability, with villagers escaping back to their home villages. However, some foreign agencies in Rangoon led by the United Nations Development Programme are now advocating international aid to make such sites more sustainable - thereby facilitating SPDC efforts to bring villagers under direct military control.
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Photos 2-21 and 2-22 below show people in Thoo K'Bee village complying with an SPDC order to prepare and deliver bamboo stakes for construction of additional relocation site fences. The villagers were also forced to plant punji-pit booby traps outside the fence perimeter. Each household in the relocation site must send one person per day for this work. They were also ordered to build fences around each and every house within the site, though when these photos were taken they had not done this yet. |
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SPDC order documents were posted in villages (see photo 2-23 above) stating that all houses must be dismantled within three days, after which SPDC soldiers would come to burn whatever was left. The remaining photos show some of the solid wood, bamboo and thatch houses in their home villages which people were ordered to 'smash' before moving to Plaw Law Bler. In these photos some of the houses have already been partly dismantled by their owners so the building materials could be taken to the site. [All photos: KHRG] |
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Most people had built these homes themselves, at great expense and effort. No compensation or support for moving expenses was provided, nor were any materials supplied at the relocation site. |
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Photo 2-32 (below) shows the church in Pa T'Lah village and photo 2-33 (below right) the primary school in one of the relocated villages, both now abandoned. There are no schools or churches in the relocation site. |
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These flat irrigated rice fields (left) belonging to Hee Po Der villagers were confiscated by the SPDC as part of the forced relocation and the villagers were told they will no longer be allowed to work them. Anyone seen attempting to work these fields is to be shot on sight. |
Photo 2-35 (right) shows the rice-husking machine in Hee Po Der village, which villagers were forced to abandon because SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #439 refused to allow them to bring it to the relocation site; they are to be given no access to farmland, so the SPDC sees no reason they need a rice-husking machine. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Villagers moving food and building materials to the relocation site. The lucky ones had access to bullock carts, but most had to carry whatever they could on their backs for a several hours' journey each way. After mid-April, villagers were ordered not to return to their home villages on pain of death, but many continued to do so secretly to salvage what materials and implements they could. [All photos: KHRG; disregard the incorrect dates burned on some of the photos]
In photo 2-38 (right), a villager loads his bullock cart with wood he has cut to build a fence around his house at the relocation site, which every relocated villager has been ordered to do. |
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Photo 2-39 (above) shows a daughter preparing a meal for her blind father before both had to set out for the forced relocation site, while in photo 2-40 (above right) a grandmother loads what building materials she can onto a bullock cart to take with her.
The villagers say good water is so scarce at the relocation site that many of them took jerry-cans of water with them from their villages (photo 2-41, right). |
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Children interviewed by KHRG said the relocation site is too hot and there is no shelter from the sun, so they constantly press their parents to return to live in the village. Whenever the parents sneak out of the relocation site and return to retrieve some belongings, as on this occasion, the children insist on accompanying them. This is risky, because when these photos were taken the villagers were no longer allowed to return to their villages and could be shot on sight. [Photos: KHRG; ignore the incorrect dates burned on the photos] |
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Stacks of split bamboo prepared by some of the relocated villagers, who were ordered in May 2006 to deliver it to the SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #439 camp beside the relocation site to strengthen the camp defences. The villagers in the relocation site are provided with nothing, but are expected to do daily forced labour for LIB #439. [Photo: KHRG] |
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