Karen Human Rights Group

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Saw M---, 63, lives in P--- village in Papun district but like most others he works a rice field some distance from the village. This photo was taken in July 2006, when he was staying in his farm field hut to tend his crop. Every few days he has to return to the village and pay to get an SPDC pass, like the one he is holding, stating that he is allowed to be outside the village. Villagers are regularly warned that anyone found outside the village without such a pass will be shot as an 'insurgent', including women, children, and the elderly. The pass provides little protection, however, because even villagers holding passes are routinely taken away as porters or killed when found in their field huts. [Photo: KHRG]

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In August 2006, Battalion Deputy Commander Yan Aung and Company Commander Min Thant Lwin of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #599 ordered all villages in their control area of Mone township, Nyaunglebin district, to fence themselves in by building perimeter fencing all the way around their villages with only one or two entrances/exits. The SPDC claims these fences are to keep 'rebels' out of the villages, but in practice they are used to restrict and monitor the movements of the villagers and prevent them from taking enough food out of the village to live in their farm fields. It also makes it easier for the battalion to round up forced labour by arriving at the village and closing off the gates. These photos taken on August 27th and 28th show the people of four of these villages working on the fences. To get them done on time, everyone including children had to help. Photos B-83 to B-85 were taken at Way Sweh village.

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The rains had been heavy and many of the villages were flooded, forcing villagers to work in and under the water; no delay to allow the water to recede was permitted. Photo B-86 was taken at Dta Kaw Pwa; note that here the villagers were forced to construct two parallel fences. Photo B-87 was taken at Si Pah Leh village. Photos B-88 to B-90 were taken at Noh Nya Lah village. [Photos: KHRG]

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Castor bush seedlings and mature bushes in rural Pa'an district, October 2006. The SPDC leadership has decreed that growing castor bean is now a national duty, hoping that biofuel produced from these beans can replace much of the military's reliance on imported fossil fuels. Since early 2006 almost every village and army unit in the country has been ordered to plant thousands of castor bushes. Villagers report that they have been forced to buy castor seeds, produce seedlings and then plant thousands of these on productive land and along roadsides. It is unclear what is to happen to the harvest, but it will most likely be confiscated by the Army. Meanwhile, many adults and children have become seriously ill by ingesting the edible-looking but highly toxic beans. This nationwide project may be partly financed by a multi-million dollar grant to the SPDC from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) to implement oil crop programmes; in response to KHRG inquiries, the FAO regional office would state only that "to the best of their knowledge" their Burma office was not financing the SPDC's castor and jatropha bean programmes though they are financing other similar projects. See also the report Setting up the Systems of Repression (KHRG, September 2006). [Photos: KHRG]

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An SPDC Army-run rubber plantation in rural Pa'an district. The land for this plantation was confiscated without compensation from local villagers, who have since been forced to do labour tending the trees and harvesting the rubber. Photo B-134 below shows some of the processed rubber sheets hanging to dry before being shipped. None of the profit from this enterprise is returned to the villagers; it is probably divided between local and higher-level SPDC military officers. Similar large-scale rubber plantations in other districts are joint ventures between military officers and Burmese corporations, such as the joint venture in Thaton district between the Army and the company 'Max Myanmar' (see photos 7-50 through 7-52 in KHRG Photo Gallery 2005). [Photos: KHRG]

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SPDC Tactical Operations Command #2 commander Aung Kyaw Nyein inspects villagers doing forced labour building a brick wall around the village football ground. This photo was taken in April 2005 in Kya In Gyi village of Kya In Seik Gyi township, Dooplaya district. Throughout 2006, Aung Kyaw Nyein was responsible for ordering many kinds of forced labour like this, and was also behind orders for villagers throughout the district to plant dry season paddy crops and castor bean for the Army (see Setting Up the Systems of Repression, KHRG, September 2006). [Photo: KHRG]

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In June 2005, village leaders L--- and K--- (photos 3-1 and 3-2 above) were arrested by SPDC Infantry Battalion #63 in Waw Raw township for no official reason, simply for failing to adequately satisfy the officers' demands for forced labour and extortion. L--- was beaten in detention, while K--- was detained at the Army camp for five days without charge.

A---, an elder from a neighbouring village (left) described the nature of some of the SPDC Army's demands: "Infantry Battalion #98 came and set up their camp beside our village but this was no benefit to the villagers. Instead they only force the villagers to go as porters and for 'loh ah pay' [ad hoc forced labour] and steal the villagers' chickens and ducks. The villagers also have to worry for their sons and daughters, and each sawmill owner has to give their camp 25 cubits of sawn timber." [Photos: KHRG]

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Village midwife Daw T--- (left) described how her 22 year old son Saw Lah Win was shot in the head as the two of them huddled under their house in K--- village, Waw Raw township while SPDC soldiers sprayed the village with bullets on July 11 th 2005. The soldiers were from Light Infantry Battalion #591 under NCO Than Zin Htun:

"We were cowering together under our house, and the bullet hit him in the forehead and exploded out the back of his head. I started crying and shouting, and they finally stopped shooting and came to look at my son. The Burmese Army medic reached out to touch my son but I shouted that I would not allow them to touch my son, that I would do it myself.

My son Saw Lah Win, or Po Kwa Gyi - he was 22 years old and a farmer. Then the SPDC soldiers claimed it was the KNLA who was shooting and that they hadn't shot him. But the KNLA had run away long ago already, and it was the Burmese soldiers who just kept shooting in our village. Then SPDC Than Zin Htun offered me 20,000 Kyat and two sacks of rice, but I did not want their money and rice. I hate the Burmese soldiers for shooting and killing my son. Before my son was dead he worked and provided food for us, and after his death no one helped us and we must work very hard. I want to shout to all the people in the world how the Burmese soldiers shot and killed my son. I want to inform the leaders of the world so they will know how cruel the Burmese soldiers are to us, and so that in the future this cannot happen to other villagers like it has happened to us." [Photo: KHRG]

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Zin Ma Oo, the two year old daughter of Maung S--- (left), was shot dead while sleeping in her house in July 2005, when an SPDC child soldier doing sentry duty in the village took fright and suddenly started randomly firing off his assault rifle. Bullets came through the bamboo walls of the house where she was sleeping with her family, and Zin Ma Oo was shot in the head. Her father told the story like this:

"In 2005, Infantry Battalion #83 shot my little daughter Zin Ma Oo. She was two years old. It happened at 2 o'clock in the morning. The SPDC soldiers were sentrying at night in the bunker [a pit beside their house where villagers shelter if the SPDC attacks the village]. We woke up to hear their guns fire 6 or 7 times. After the firing stopped the soldiers went back to their Army camp immediately. My little child was killed by that gunfire. We reported it to a villager who takes responsibility for the children in the village and he reported it to the [SPDC Army] commander, and then they came to look at my daughter. When they looked at her they said they couldn't help her because she didn't have a hope, and then they went back. The next day they came and gave me 70,000 Kyat." [Photo: KHRG]

The couple in photo 3-6 (right) lost their son in September 2005 when he was murdered by an SPDC patrol while fishing in the river. His name was Hsa Th'Lay Mu, and his body prepared for funeral is shown below.

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His father described it as follows:

"He was 29 years old. He stayed in our farm field alone that night. At 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning he was catching fish on the bank of the [river] Tee Day Kloh when they shot him. I heard the gunfire, so in the morning I went to check on him and I met Than Soe Oo and his soldiers there. He told me that when my son saw them he had tried to run away so they shot him. My son has never run away, whether he saw SPDC or DKBA or KNU. He asked me if my son was a KNLA soldier. I told him he wasn't a KNLA soldier, he was just helping me on the farm since he finished 7 th Standard [Grade 7]. I could see my son lying on the shore of the river. It had been raining that night. They had shot him in the back, but he hadn't died immediately so they had stomped on his neck and stabbed him in the left side of his chest with a knife. After I spoke to them, Commander Than Soe Oo gave me 50,000 Kyat [about US$40]. But I gave all that money to the village head." [Photos: KHRG]

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Village head U Y--- (left) from Waw Raw township says SPDC and DKBA officials came together, confiscated much of the villagers' land, then sold it on the market at 30,000 Kyat for 5 acres and kept the profit themselves, leaving several village farmers landless. They also ordered everyone in his village to plant a dry season rice crop, but without providing any of the needed support to establish dry season irrigation.

In U M---'s village (right), people are constantly forced to go as porters and to provide bullock carts to transport SPDC supplies and rations.

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Naw E--- from Kya In township (left) says people from her village have to take two of their bullock carts at least once a month to haul SPDC Army rations for Infantry Battalion #32.

Sawmill owner Saw S--- (right) says every sawmill has to pay a bribe of 550,000 Kyat each year to the SPDC operations commander to continue operating; moreover, every time an Army column passes they demand 10,000 Kyat in extortion, and local officers also regularly demand wooden furniture without payment. [All photos: KHRG]

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Photo 3-12 (above left) shows a house in Ya Theh Hta village near the Kya In Seik Gyi - Kyone Doh vehicle road. People were forced out of this village in 1997 and only allowed to return in 2005; they have started to rebuild, but their new houses still have no walls. Many other pre-1997 villages still lie abandoned; the owners of the house in photo 3-13 (above right) built it in 1996 but were only able to live in it for a year before the SPDC occupation. They were displaced and have still not returned. [Photos: KHRG]

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Village head P--- (left) from Waw Raw township says that one time when Infantry Battalion #63 forced him to escort their soldiers, fighting occurred and three SPDC soldiers were wounded. They then forced him to find villagers to carry the wounded soldiers back to camp for them. [Photo: KHRG]

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U P--- from Waw Raw township was one of over 700 village officials in the district forced to attend 'Management and Security Training' in Moulmein in October 2005 as part of the SPDC's efforts to establish command structures. He and the others were forced to raise 50,000 Kyat each and pay all their expenses for the training, and he tells what happened when an official from a neighbouring village didn't have the money to attend:

"I had to collect 50,000 Kyat from the villagers for training expenses. The K--- [village] chairman said to me, 'The only use of this training is to make our money disappear.' ... In the evenings after the training sessions we discussed the training and agreed that it was no use to us and our money was lost for nothing. The third session was for the village 2 nd secretaries but the 2nd secretary of Beh Lah Mu village didn't attend, so on October 19th the Light Infantry Battalion #588 Battalion Commander Myint Zaw sent his Warrant Officer Than Win with a group of soldiers. They came at night to look for village 2 nd secretary Maung O--- at his rubber plantation hut, but he wasn't there. The soldiers only found his son-in-law S--- so they beat him with their rifle butts two or three times."

When they found Maung O---, they marched him to the Army camp and detained him overnight until his village head pleaded for his release by telling them he had not attended the training because he lacked sufficient funds. [Photo: KHRG]

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One of the village 'libraries' which the Kya In Seik Gyi Township Peace & Development Council chairman ordered local villages to build in Dooplaya district in early 2005. Villagers had to build the libraries at their own expense using their own materials:

"They forced the villagers to build a library but they didn't give us the wood, bamboo or other things that we needed to construct the building. They gave us some books to keep in the library, and so far they haven't told us what those are to cost. If we have to pay them money for the books that they gave us we'll just have to pay it, because we are afraid of them."

Most of the 'books' provided by the TPDC are actually movie magazines. [Photo: KHRG]

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Teak logs are taken out of the forests east of Kya In Seik Gyi, Dooplaya district by outside companies having logging agreements with SPDC officials. Local villagers say there is almost no teak left due to this kind of logging, and this claim is supported by looking at the small-diameter logs now being taken. Local people receive no payment or compensation whatsoever from this business. [Photos: KHRG]

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The dry season vehicle road between Kya In Seik Gyi and Kyone Doh in western Dooplaya, seen here in June 2006. Villagers using this road must pay 'fees' at a number of SPDC and DKBA checkpoints in order to pass. The fees are particularly heavy for vehicles or carts carrying goods, which local villagers say stifles all trade in the region.

The fields in photo 3-20 (right) are adjacent to the road. They were confiscated without compensation by camp commander Htun Sein of the nearby DKBA #906 Battalion camp. Since confiscating the land, he has forced local villagers to work on it establishing a rubber plantation for his own profit. [Photos: KHRG]

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Because of all the added burdens complying with forced labour and extortion demands, children have to contribute a lot of work so their families can survive. The boy in photo 3-21 (left) was ploughing a two acre rice field at 6:40 a.m. on July 1st 2006; he said he would like to go to school but his parents need his work too much.

The same day, the boy in photo 3-22 (right) was already exhausted from leading this group of buffaloes in circles for hours as they trod the soil in preparation for planting. He has to start fieldwork at 6 a.m. every day so that he can go to school at 9 a.m. [Photos: KHRG]

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Part of the 'Asian Highway', a UN-sponsored project to build road links all over Asia, where it passes through Thaton district in Burma. This particular piece of land (above and left) was confiscated for the highway from Uncle M---, a 62 year old farmer of K--- village. He was not consulted or paid any compensation for his destroyed rice field. The people of his and the surrounding villages were then forced to do unpaid labour levelling the roadbed, laying gravel on it, and digging the ditches the entire length of the road as it passes through their area. They were ordered to make these drainage ditches 4 cubits (6 feet) deep by 3 cubits (4.5 feet) wide on both sides of the road (see photo B-3). Local villagers were also forced to build the wooden bridge visible in photo B-4; this included cutting and milling the logs and providing all required materials and labour without any payment.

Villagers throughout the area say the road has destroyed many of their fields without any consultation or compensation. Among them, 37 year old Saw S--- (photo B-5) stands in the middle of his nipa palm plantation, now significantly reduced by the swathe cut through it for the Asian Highway. In photo B-6, he sits on one of the palm trunks of his plantation that were torn up and cast aside to make way for the road.

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These photos were taken in March 2006. Similar destruction can be expected along the Asian Highway's entire route through Burma. According to the UN Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), the main sponsor of the project, "the Asian Highway promotes social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom as laid down in the preamble to the Charter of the United Nations." The villagers along the road route might have something to say about that, but no UN body, including ESCAP, has ever done any impact study or any consultation with local people regarding this project. The real beneficiaries of the highway will be the SPDC military and foreign businesses, not local people. [Photos: KHRG; ignore the incorrect dates burned on the photos]

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Sixty year old Naw M--- is the headwoman of H--- village in Thaton district. After an armed skirmish between SPDC and KNLA troops near her village, SPDC troops from Infantry Battalion #320 Company #3 (Thura Aung Nay Win commanding) came to her village on April 5th 2006. She told KHRG,

"They showed me bullets, landmines and mortar shells shaped like banana-tree flowers, and they threatened that they would force me to cook them and eat them. They went around the village calling one person out of every house, and the Sergeant who had threatened me announced that if the KNLA shot at his unit again we would all be seriously punished. I thought he would beat me, but he didn't because there was a DKBA officer following him around. While he was threatening us, his soldiers were forcing villagers to find alcohol for them, they were getting drunk and threatening us at the same time. They didn't eat anything, they only drank alcohol, and then they left that night. Now that group is gone [rotated out] so things are a bit better."

This photo was taken in April 2006. [Photo: KHRG; ignore the incorrect date burned on the photo]

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Ler Poh villagers Naw N---, Uncle Y--- (age 57), and Naw E--- (age 49) in their rice fields in Thaton district after these were prematurely burned off on April 3rd 2006 by Column #2 deputy commander Zaw Zaw Lin of SPDC Infantry Battalion #235. Zaw Zaw Lin burned off many villagers' fields in the area, claiming that the rice might be used to feed opposition forces or that opposition forces had camped in the fields. The premature burn prevents the full burn which is needed later in order to plant a full crop when the rains come in June. To recover from this disaster, the villagers said they would have to cut and haul large amounts of wood into their fields and dry it there in the hope of getting a more complete burn later. [Photos: KHRG; ignore the incorrect dates burned on the photos]

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Rice fields belonging to villagers of Ler K'Dter and surrounding villages in Thaton district which were prematurely burned off by the DKBA in early 2006 to prevent the villagers being able to get the full burn required to plant a full crop when the rains come. These photos were taken in late April 2006. [Photos: KHRG]

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Naw M---, 41 (photo B-35), lives in K--- village of Bilin township, Thaton district. One night in mid-2006 she was ordered out of her house by DKBA officer Moe Kyo. He interrogated her under her own house. While pointing his gun at her, he accused her of giving information to the KNU and threatened to kill her.

Moe Kyo and other DKBA officers frequently use such accusations to extort money and goods out of villagers. Naw K--- (age 50; photo B-36) of Bilin township says he accused her of giving information to the KNLA and then stole belongings of hers worth a total of 50,000 Kyat.

Saw K--- (age 42; photo B-37) was tied up, beaten, punched and kicked at gunpoint by Moe Kyo before being ordered to point out KNLA hiding places; when he could not, he was released on payment of two viss (3.2 kg) of pork.

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After being accused of harbouring KNLA soldiers, 50-year-old Saw K---'s village (photo B-38) was ordered as punishment by DKBA officer Htoo Lu to hand over 1,000,000 Kyat and pay 3,500 shingles of thatch every year.

Maung H--- (age 37; photo B-39) was detained in a cell under harsh conditions for 8 days at the DKBA camp by K'Saw Wah battalion officer Htoo Lu on a spurious accusation that he had been giving the KNLA information about the DKBA camp.

Saw A--- (age 53; photo B-40) said he and others in his village regularly have to go as porters for 8 to 12 days for Moe Kyo's troops, including at crucial times in the cropping season. As a result he and several others were not able to plant any rice crop this year. [Photos: KHRG]

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The photos above and above right show the vehicle road from Papun to Kaw Pu (Kaw Boke) in Papun district. Though rudimentary, this road is used by the SPDC to support its military in the area and is one of the access routes to the planned dam site at Weh Gyi on the Salween River. Villagers cannot use this road; if sighted on it by the Army they are shot.

In November 2005, troops from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #8 camped along the road to clear and rebuild it after the rainy season. Photo 3-25 (right) shows some of the temporary shelters where they camped near Hee Poh Der village.

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In this camp KHRG researchers found remnants of the coconuts (left) and yams (photo 3-27 below left) they had stolen from the nearby village to eat; the yam remnants are on a winnowing tray they also stole from the villagers.

Seventy year old Saw N--- (below, photo 3-28) told KHRG how the troops shot, killed and ate the buffalo he uses to plough his rice fields without permission or compensation. They pushed the road straight through villagers' rice fields, flattening the paddy irrigation dikes and rendering the fields unusable. [Photos: KHRG]

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A group of SPDC soldiers looting harvested paddy from villagers' fields in December 2005 near Kaw Pu (Kaw Boke), in Papun district just north of Papun town. [Photos: KHRG]

These photos were taken in Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho township, Papun district in January 2006. Shown to the right is a field in which local villagers have been ordered to plant a dry season paddy crop by the Township Peace & Development Council. No assistance with the necessary irrigation is provided but the village is expected to hand over a crop quota upon harvest. These crops usually fail due to inadequate support, while also helping the pest population increase to prey on the villagers' wet season paddy crop.

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In addition, fallow irrigated rice fields are normally used as grazing in dry season, but now the villagers have to fence them to prevent stray livestock from eating the rice seedlings while finding grazing elsewhere.

Twenty-two year old Maung T--- (left) is grazing his buffalos in a fallow field. He says he has to watch them all the time, because there is an SPDC army camp nearby and the soldiers there had threatened that if any livestock stray near their camp they would kill and eat it unless a ransom of 5,000-10,000 Kyat is paid. Before the presence of SPDC camps and SPDC township authorities, villagers were free to crop rice in rainy season and let their livestock wander freely to graze in dry season, but not any more. [Photos: KHRG]

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These villagers live in southeastern Papun district, near the junction of the Moei (Meh Mweh) and Salween rivers along the Thai border. In this area the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) acts as a proxy to enforce SPDC control.

In photo 3-33 (left), the people of M--- village meet in their village head's house in May 2006 to discuss the DKBA's latest demand for the village to send two 'permanent porters', i.e. two people to remain at the DKBA camp on call 24 hours a day in case porters or messengers are needed, to be replaced with fresh people every couple of days. The order comes from the DKBA's Ka Hsaw Wah battalion, and if the villagers cannot comply they have been ordered to pay 300,000 Kyat to the battalion as compensation. [All photos below: KHRG]

In photo 3-34 (right), a local village head prepares a stack of money he has gathered from his villagers to comply with another DKBA extortion demand in May 2006. After this photo was taken he took the money to the camp; when he returned his face was swollen, and he told the villagers he had been beaten five times in the face by the DKBA non-commissioned officer because he delivered the cash two days later than ordered.

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Failure to comply with such demands is always punished, as in the case of 45 year old village head K--- (left), who was arrested by the DKBA and then handed over to SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #232 Deputy Battalion Commander Nyi Nyi Min, who accused him of having contact with the KNLA and tortured him by tying plastic over his head and leaving him tied on the riverbank sand in the midday sun.

Forty-nine year old K--- (right) was also tortured by Nyi Nyi Min; in late March he was arrested by LIB #232 and taken to their camp, where he spent the whole night and the next morning tied to another villager named P---while both men's legs were locked in bamboo leg stocks.

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As a result of such treatment, many people in villages further from the rivers choose to evade the SPDC and DKBA and live in hiding. In photo 3-37 (left), a group of these villagers carries wild honey and other forest products to the Salween riverbank, where they hope to sell them to get money to buy rice and fishpaste. The group is accompanied by KNLA soldiers for security.

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The KNLA is active in the area, and in February 2006 attacked the DKBA camp at Meh Mweh Hta, where the Moei river flows into the Salween. During the attack they captured some DKBA weapons and sixteen year old DKBA soldier N--- (left). N---'s father had already died, and he was living with his mother, grandmother and two siblings when the DKBA ordered him to join them or pay 50,000 Kyat. He had no money, so he joined. They told him he would receive 50,000 Kyat per month as salary, but he never saw any money at all.

After the KNLA attack on Meh Mweh Hta, the DKBA punished all the villages in the area by fining them 300,000 Kyat for the cost of the lost weapons. When interviewed in March, local villager P--- (right) said people were still trying to figure out how to raise this money. [All photos: KHRG]

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Naw S---, 30 (left), is from K--- village in Bu Tho township. She described how on April 27th 2006 the SPDC Army based at Dta Gone Dtaing forced the people of her village to go and build a fence for a castor bean plantation at their camp, and the next day 12 villagers (6 women and 6 men) had to go and plant castor bushes for them. People in other villages in the area were also forced to clear ground and plant castor bushes near local SPDC Army camps.

In January 2006 the SPDC launched a nationwide programme to force villagers and the Army to plant castor bushes, with the idea that the motor fuel produced from castor will reduce the SPDC's reliance on imported fuel (for more information see the KHRG report Setting Up the Systems of Repression, September 2006).

Naw S--- also says that her village is regularly forced to provide roofing thatch and other materials to the same SPDC troops. [Photo: KHRG]

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Photo 3-41 (above left) shows bags of castor bush seeds sent by SPDC authorities to villages in Bu Tho township. The villagers were forced to buy these seeds and then were ordered to sow them on May 14th 2006. Each man, woman and child (including infants) in every village was ordered to account for planting 100 castor bushes.

On May 14th the villagers were in the middle of sowing the year's rice crop, a cooperative activity where they work as a group on a different family's field each day. As a result of the order, they had to hurry to finish their rice sowing to allow time to go and plant the castor bushes; photo 3-42 (above right) shows them gathering after rice planting to go for forced labour planting castor. Once the castor crop is harvested they are supposed to give it to the SPDC to reduce the regime's reliance on foreign motor fuel supplies. [Photo: KHRG]

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Trucks and equipment used by a company the villagers name as the 'Htay company' which is logging in Law Kaw Htee village tract of Dweh Loh township, Papun district under a logging concession with the SPDC. The company is from outside the region, and local villagers say they were not consulted about the logging and have received no benefits whatever in terms of jobs or compensation; the logs are simply cut, hauled out of the area and sold elsewhere.

Moreover, villagers say bulldozers like the one in photo 3-47 have been used to extend logging roads through the area, and that these have helped the SPDC increase its military presence at Army camps including Meh Bpreh Kee, Ku Thu Hta and Meh Seik. According to the villagers, this increased military presence has increased the amount of forced labour, extortion and other demands they must contend with. These photos were taken in May 2006. [Photos: KHRG]

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While the SPDC sells logging concessions to outside companies to haul out the logs in Dweh Loh township (left), villagers in the area get nothing. Instead, they say they are constantly ordered to make and deliver roofing thatch to the local SPDC military units for free.

Forty-five year old Ma N--- (right) lives in the area, and says that she and her husband have to spend so much time doing forced labour for the local SPDC and DKBA that they don't have any money to buy food or medicines for her twin babies.

At two months old, both children were clearly malnourished when this photo was taken in May 2006, but Ma N--- said her breasts were not producing enough milk for them because of her own malnutrition. [Photo: KHRG]

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This primary school (right) in Wa Tho Law village of Dweh Loh township, Papun district only teaches up to 4th Standard (Grade 4). Local villagers wanted to upgrade it to teach up to 7th Standard (Grade 7) so that their children could continue their studies while living in their home village. They were planning to do this at their own expense, including improving the building, hiring and paying teachers, but they were forbidden to do so by SPDC Infantry Battalion #30 officer Htun Aung based at Wa Mu army camp.

As a result, children wishing to continue their studies must travel to other villages (photos 3-51 and 3-52 below), which takes them away from their families and creates added expense for their parents; many families cannot afford this so their children's education is cut short. [Photos: KHRG]

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Villagers evacuate the homes and riverside shops they used to make their living along the banks of the Salween River in southeastern Papun district in July 2006 after hearing that SPDC #931 battalion had set up a new camp just downriver at the junction of the Salween and Moei rivers. [Photos: KHRG]

These two men are village heads in Papun district. S---, 43 (right), says that one day in September 2005 an SPDC column from Infantry Battalion #3 came to his village and stole three big tins of rice and 23 chickens, then ordered him to arrange 20 forced labour porters. They forced the 20 villagers to carry five sacks of rice and two big tins of oil to another village, far enough away that they did not return until late that evening, but they were given no food or payment.

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On November 16th 2005 SPDC Infantry Battalion #118 entered the village of M---, 45 (left) and demanded that he arrange four porters for forced labour. While he looked for four people able to do the work, the soldiers also rounded up 12 additional villagers. The sixteen villagers, including M--- himself, were then forced to carry loads each weighing over 10 viss (16 kg / 35 lb) to another village before being released. The trip took all day, but for the whole time they were given no food or payment. The journey was so long and tiring that M--- spent the night in the other village before returning home the next day. [Photos: KHRG]

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On December 13th 2005, the villagers of Khaw Po Pleh village in Bilin township of Thaton district (see map) were forced to carry Army rations from Bilin town to Kaw Heh village by order of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #3 commander Thu Aung Zaw. Photo 3-55 above shows the villagers dividing up the loads of rice to be carried on their backs, and the other photos show them carrying it to Kaw Heh. [Photos: KHRG; ignore the incorrect date burned on the photos]

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Villagers of Kwih T'Ma and Ma Lee Ler villages in Dweh Loh township, Papun district prepare thatch and bamboo to be rafted down the Bilin River to Wa Mu SPDC Army camp on December 12 th 2005 (see map). Camp commander Pee Ta of Light Infantry Battalion #349 had ordered them to deliver 300 shingles of thatch and 300 bamboo to him without payment to 'repair his camp'.

The women and children doing much of this work told KHRG the men of their families were out in the forest cutting cane to sell for their family's survival. Local villagers say that all six villages near Wa Mu camp regularly receive orders for bamboo and thatch. [Photos: KHRG]

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A mother and daughter (above left) from Kwih T'Ma village in Dweh Loh township, Papun district doing forced labour carrying SPDC Army rations in December 2005 from the Light Infantry Battalion #349 base at Wa Mu to another SPDC Army camp further up the Bilin River at Gkay Gkaw. The young boy in photo 3-64 (above right) was left alone alone with his even younger sibling because both of his parents had to go for forced labour for LIB #349. [Photo: KHRG]

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Thirty-eight year old Saw K--- of M--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun district on his way home from unpaid forced labour building a rice storehouse at the SPDC's Wa Mu army camp in January 2006. [Photo: KHRG]

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Two villagers travel along a path in January 2006 to deliver an order document for an SPDC officer at Meh Breh Kee Army camp in southwestern Papun district. They are doing this as part of a rotating shift of 'set tha' (messenger) forced labour. Villages are forced to provide 2 or 3 people every day to nearby Army camps for unpaid 'set tha', which involves delivering messages, carrying wood and water and acting as general camp servants. [Photo: KHRG]

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A woman (left) in M--- village near Papun weaves roofing thatch shingles. In January 2006, SPDC units and DKBA #777 Brigade Ka Hsaw Wah battalion based in Papun issued a joint order to all villages in the Papun area demanding roofing thatch to repair their Army camps. Each household in every village was ordered to provide 50 shingles of thatch, totalling tens of thousands of shingles, all of which was to be delivered to Papun town by the deadline of January 30th . In cases like this, the troops usually use some of the thatch to repair their camps and sell the rest on the market for personal profit.

None of the villagers were paid anything, despite all the time-consuming labour required: leaves and bamboo must be gathered in the forest, the bamboo must be split into sticks which are then tied with shaved bamboo ties to make frames, and the leaves are then tied onto the frames one by one. Making 50 thatch shingles would be two full days' work for a family.

In photo 3-68 (right), a man returns from the forest with leaves which his wife will weave into thatch shingles.

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In photo 3-69 (left), a villager prepares to load some of the 1,250 shingles demanded from his village onto one of the village's two bullock carts for delivery to Papun. [Photos: KHRG]

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Villagers from Wah Tho Klah village in Dweh Loh township of southwestern Papun district deliver 3,000 shingles of roofing thatch and 100,000 Kyat of extortion money to DKBA K'Saw Wah battalion commander Htoo Lu on January 20th 2006.

Htoo Lu told them the money was to buy chairs for the DKBA camp, and the shingles are for roofing their camp buildings - but the number of shingles is much higher than would be needed for the camp, so it is likely he will sell many of them for personal profit.

Gathering the materials and weaving the thatch into shingles required days of forced labour by everyone in the village. Seven bullock carts were needed to deliver the thatch the seven mile (11 km) journey to the camp. In early March, Htoo Lu demanded another 4,000 shingles of thatch from the same villages; photo 3-72 (right) shows some of the villagers loading the thatch on their carts on March 9th to deliver it to the DKBA camp. [Photos: KHRG]

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Villagers of Lay Kay and Khaw Po Pleh villages in Bilin township of Thaton district doing forced labour in January 2006 improving the road from Kyaik Khaw to Ka Dtaing Dtee in Papun district by order of Lay Kay camp commander Zaw Min Htun of SPDC Light Infantry Division #44. This part of the road crosses the Donthami River between Lay Kay and Khaw Po Pleh (see map). [Photos: KHRG]

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Teenage girls (left) from Khaw Po Pleh village in Bilin township of Thaton district working in the fields in January 2006. These girls told KHRG they would prefer to be in school, but they have to work in the fields instead because their parents have to spend much of their time doing forced labour for the SPDC and DKBA. In photo 3-76 above, the people of Khaw Po Pleh work together to winnow their new paddy harvest. [Photos: KHRG]

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A section of the Kyaik Khaw - Ka Ma Maung road which villagers are being forced to build from Thaton district to southern Papun district, shown here in late February 2006. This segment lies between T'Kaw Bo and Meh Bpu villages. Photos 3-78 and 3-79 show villagers doing forced labour digging a drainage ditch which will run alongside the road; women, men and children have all been forced to do this work to meet deadlines set by the SPDC.

Local villagers say that not only have they had to spend much of their time building this road, but it has destroyed many rice fields and many of their coconut and toddy palm trees have been cut down to make way for the road without compensation.

For more information see The Ongoing Oppression of Thaton District: Forced labour, extortion and food insecurity (KHRG #2006-F5, July 2006). [Photos: KHRG]

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Two convict porters from Magwe division in northern Burma who were brought to Dooplaya district to serve SPDC Light Infantry Division #88 but escaped in February 2006. Despite the lack of any ongoing military offensive in the district, these men say they were part of a group of 500 convicts brought to do forced labour for troops in Dooplaya. [Photos: KHRG]

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This 44 year old village headwoman (left) in Pa'an township of Thaton district was detained by local DKBA Brigade #333 forces in February 2006. They slapped her in the face, extorted 100,000 Kyat in cash from her, and ordered her to show them the houses of people connected to the KNU.

The 39 year old woman on the right is also a village head, and says her village has to send people every day for forced labour as servants at the nearby camps of SPDC Light Infantry Battalions #101 and 253. Many villages in the area have chosen women as village heads, because they are often better at negotiating with SPDC and DKBA forces. [Photo: KHRG]

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This body of an unidentified convict porter was exhumed by local villagers in Thaton district three days after he had been murdered by SPDC troops on March 31st 2006. Taken from prison, he was brought to the district by SPDC troops for use as a human pack-mule. He escaped in March 2006 and fled to a nearby Buddhist monastery. SPDC soldiers found him there and tortured him. Aung Lwin Oo, commander of Column 2 of SPDC Infantry Battalion #255, ordered his soldiers to execute the porter, and they dragged him outside the village of Dt'Maw Daw on March 31st at 8 p.m., smashed his head in and buried him where they had killed him. [Photos: KHRG]

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The Kyauk Kyi - Saw Htah military access road runs alongside and across this stream in Nyaunglebin district. On April 8th 2006, the people of nearby villages were forced to gather stones and gravel from the riverbanks and use it to smooth the road in this area. This photo was taken in May. [Photo: KHRG]

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Private vehicles belonging to people from Kler Lah, Kaw Thay Der, Kaw Soh Ko and Wa Tho Ko villages in Toungoo district transport rice and other supplies from Kler Lah to Naw Soe SPDC Army camp (see map) in late April 2006 by order of the SPDC Light Infantry Division #66 commander in Kler Lah.

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The truck owners are regularly forced to do this work throughout the dry season, and are paid nothing for it. Their vehicles are their livelihood, so whenever they have to do this work they are kept away from working for their families' survival. [Photos: KHRG]

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In April 2006 villagers in the Lay Kay area of Thaton district were ordered to provide large quantities of wood and bamboo to SPDC troops based at Lay Kay army camp. This photo shows one of the sites where each family piled their quota of wood and bamboo for later transport to the Army camp. Some of these materials were used for camp repairs, others were sold for the profit of the officers. [Photo: KHRG]

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This load of firewood, tied so that it can be carried on a villager's back with a sarong used as a tumpline around the forehead, was cut and gathered in the forest by villagers after it was demanded by DKBA Buddhist monk Than Htun. Though monks live by collecting alms, they are not supposed to make demands like this on the community. Monks within the DKBA, however, act like local authorities. [Photo: KHRG]

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People in Kwih T'Ma village (Dweh Loh township, southwestern Papun district) assemble a bamboo raft on May 12th 2006 to transport 250 lengths of giant bamboo (right) down the Bilin River to the SPDC Infantry Battalion #30 camp at Wa Mu (see map). The camp officers demanded the bamboo allegedly to repair the camp buildings, but possibly to sell for personal profit. The villagers were paid nothing. Wa Mu camp regularly issues such demands for bamboo and thatch (see related photos above). [Photos: KHRG]

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SPDC commander Yan Naing Soe at Wah Mu army camp in southwestern Papun district regularly demands bamboo and thatch from villagers throughout the area. These photos taken in late July 2006 show bamboo and thatch being piled at several villages near Wah Mu for transport to the camp. In this instance, each village was ordered to provide between 300 and 500 bamboo poles, each with circumference of two handspans, and between 100 and 1,000 shingles of thatch. Firewood was also demanded for the army camp (photo B-50). These demands are divided between the households of the village, so each family must provide its quota. The bamboo is tied together and rafted down the Bilin River to the SPDC camp at Wah Mu. Yan Naing Soe claims that it is needed to 'repair the camp', but the massive quantities he demands on a regular basis indicate that he is selling most of it for his own profit. [Photos: KHRG]

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Saw P---, 35 (right), and Naw H---, 28 (below), were among a group of people in Toungoo town who were tricked into joining an SPDC 'development' scheme in mid-2006. They were told that a new village was being established in the hills to the east on the outskirts of the large village of Kler Lah (Bawgali Gyi), that families settling there would receive 20,000 Kyat per month and rations from the Army to help build this new village, plus they would have the opportunity to earn added income in the nearby durian and mangosteen plantations.

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But they were not taken to Kler Lah or to any 'new village'. Instead, on July 18th they were transported to Kler Lah and the next day to Maung Daing Gyi SPDC Army camp, near Naw Soh village on the Kler Lah - Bu Sah Kee road, where they were put to work cutting bamboo and building perimeter fences around the army camp. SPDC troops at this camp have been destroying villages in the surrounding hills since late 2005. They were given no money nor any place to build a house, and only received two milk-tins of rice per person per day (only enough for one meal), plus cooking oil and yellow beans. When they asked to be taken back to Toungoo town they were told to shut up and stop talking about it.

Several people tried to escape twice but were captured and brought back both times to the Army camp. After over a month doing forced labour at the Army camp these two families (totalling nine people, all visible in the photo to the right) escaped on their third attempt into the surrounding hills, where they joined villagers in hiding from SPDC forces. These photos were taken shortly after their escape in late August 2006, when they were hiding together with the villagers of Hsaw Wah Der village. They told KHRG there were still 15 people from Toungoo being held at the army camp. [Photos: KHRG]

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Two men of S--- village in southern Papun district set out on September 8th 2006 to go for a shift of set tha ('messenger') forced labour at the SPDC Army camp at Gkay Gkaw. Villages throughout Burma are forced to send one or two people every 24 hours to each Army camp in their area for rotational labour as set tha, which includes delivering order letters to villages, performing services for the soldiers including gathering firewood, fetching water, cooking and cleaning, and tidying and maintaining the camp grounds. They are not paid for this labour and must take their own food; note the small bag of food being carried by the man on the right. [Photo: KHRG]

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DKBA-backed Buddhist monks in Kwih Dt'Ma village of southwestern Papun district announced that they would build a pond, so they began ordering the teachers and students of the local school to gather sand and gravel from the nearby riverbanks during school hours and transport it to build the required embankments. When this photo was taken on September 6th 2006, the teachers and students said that school had to close because of this forced labour. [Photo: KHRG]

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Two men from W--- village in southwestern Papun district arrive home on September 22nd 2006 after forced labour as porters for the DKBA's #333 Brigade, Moe Kyo commanding. [Photo: KHRG]

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Villagers in southeastern Papun district deal with SPDC and DKBA demands in late October 2006. This area is well south of the region where villagers are being relocated and shot on sight, but villagers here say they face constant demands for materials and forced labour by both SPDC and DKBA officers and their village heads are regularly beaten for failure to comply or for suspected contact with the KNU.

In photos B-174 and B-175, 55 year old Saw M--- and 65 year old Saw P--- of H--- village prepare some of the 50 shingles of thatch which they then had to send to the SPDC camp at Htwee Thee Aw, 90 minutes' walk away, without payment.

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Photo B-176 (left) shows a pile of bamboo poles stacked by villagers in preparation for delivery to Company 5 commander Saw Pah Dtuh of the DKBA's Ka Hsaw Wah battalion at Meh Mweh Hta on October 22nd. Saw Pah Dtuh demanded a total of 1,000 bamboo poles from Meh Kuh Kee, Meh Kuh Htah, Htee Doh Htah and Dtoh Muh Ler villages and threatened that villagers would be arrested and detained if they were not delivered.

In photos B-177 and B-178 below, two men shave bamboo to tie hundreds of bamboo poles together into rafts which they then had to float downriver and deliver to Saw Pah Dtuh of the DKBA at Meh Mweh Htah by October 25th. He claimed that these bamboo are needed to improve his army camp, but these demands occur almost every month and the materials are often sold for personal profit by the officers who demand them. [Photos: KHRG]

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Sixty-seven year old Saw P--- lives in Bu Tho township of Papun district. In August 2005 a column from SPDC Infantry Battalion #207 stayed three nights in his village, during which they stole 15 chickens and a cat. As soon as they left, a column from Light Infantry Division #44 Tactical Operations Command #2 arrived, stayed five nights and looted 100 coconuts, 30 durian fruit and seven milk-tins of rice from him.

In January 2006, 36 people from his village had to cut and clear scrub along the vehicle road as forced labour, supplying their own food and tools. [Photo: KHRG]

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Saw B--- and his wife with their rice mill in Dweh Loh township, Papun district. On January 18th 2006 SPDC Camp Commander Pee Ta of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #349 in Wa Mu camp issued an order that every rice mill owner in the area must give him two baskets of milled rice without payment.

This photo shows the couple milling the rice which they will then have to deliver to Wa Mu camp. Villagers in the area say they are subjected to constant demands like this from officer Pee Ta. See also Attempted rapes and other abuses in northern Karen districts (KHRG #2006-B2, March 2006). [Photo: KHRG]

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These rice fields in Mu Taw village tract of Dweh Loh township, Papun district are adjacent to the Ka Ma Maung - Papun vehicle road. In January 2006 an SPDC unit from Military Operations Command #15 came and measured each of these fields, then demanded 'taxes' from the owners: 3,000 Kyat for each big field and 2,500 Kyat for each small field. [Photo: KHRG]

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Three villagers husk coconuts in February 2006 in Bu Tho township, Papun district after being ordered by SPDC Infantry Battalion #55 at Htwee Thi Er Army camp to deliver 12 husked coconuts. Such demands are an almost daily occurrence in villages within the control radius of SPDC Army camps.

Village heads in the area often meet to discuss ways to evade SPDC demands or negotiate reductions; villages often comply with the smaller demands so that they can evade the heavier ones. [Photo: KHRG]

In photo 3-97 (right), a teenage girl uses a leg-operated mortar to pound paddy along with her younger brother and sister in February 2006, Bu Tho township, Papun district. She said that her family doesn't dare keep much threshed paddy in the village because SPDC troops often came and demanded it. As she is often alone at the house with her younger siblings, she doesn't dare object to their demands for chickens and paddy when they come. They also demand forced labour when they come to her village. As a result, she said she has no idea what the coming year will bring.

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Similarly, the young woman feeding pigs in photo 3-98 (left) says that though it is part of her job around the house to raise the pigs and chickens, she has little motivation in this work these days because she constantly worries that SPDC troops will steal the livestock when they come to the village. [Photo: KHRG]

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Villagers in L--- village of Pa'an district slaughter a pig in October 2006 after being ordered to provide pork to Battalion #3 of the DKBA, Mya Khine commanding. The DKBA often claims to be vegetarian and sometimes imposes vegetarianism on villagers, but very few DKBA officers and soldiers are actually vegetarian. When villages receive demands like this, they must pool their money and reimburse the pig owner.

Meanwhile, another village has stocked a fish pond (right) to mitigate the effects of demands like this; when SPDC and DKBA units demand money or food there is usually a shortfall because the poorer households cannot give their share, and the fish are sold off or handed over to cover this shortfall. [Photos: KHRG]

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Naw M---, 22, mother of three children. In mid-December 2005 a group of nine SPDC soldiers led by officer Thet Khaing from Light Infantry Battalion #349 Column 2 arrived at M--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District. They stayed in the village for five nights. On the last night, December 16th 2005, Corporal San Aung went to the house of Naw M--- at midnight. Naw M--- was sleeping with her three children, and her husband was not there. The Corporal entered the house and tried to pull the blanket off her. She woke up, and when she saw the soldier she shouted at him, "What are you doing here? Get out of my house right now!" He drew a knife and pointed it at her to frighten her, but she repeated, "If you don't leave right now I will scream!" Afraid of what would happen if her screams awoke others, the Corporal left.

After he left, she was afraid he might come back to kill her so she took her three children and went to stay at her Aunt's house. The next morning, Naw M--- told some other villagers what had happened, and said, "If that soldier comes again I will chop him and kill him with my machete!" The Corporal heard news of this, got very angry and responded that "I will go to blow up her house with my mines!" Later, Naw M--- said, "I heard that SPDC soldier San Aung said he will come and blow up my house with a mine, so now this is always in my mind. Until he goes back to his place [when his unit rotates out of the area], I will always be afraid of him." [Photo: KHRG]

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Naw B---, 31, lives in a village of Dweh Loh township, Papun district adjacent to an SPDC Army camp. On February 3rd 2006 at 10 p.m., her husband was away attending a wedding. SPDC non-commissioned officer S--- from the adjacent army camp came to her house, wrestled her to the floor and raped her. No action was taken to punish the soldier. [Photo: KHRG]

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On April 18th 2006 at 5 p.m., three soldiers from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #61 based at K'Lay Kee army camp in Kya In township, Dooplaya district came to N--- village looking for young women. They did not find any women so they went to the village headwoman and told her to bring them a young woman within 15 minutes or they would kill her. She brought 25 year old Naw N---, shown in the photo, to them. The soldiers then held a gun to the village headwoman's head and ordered her to go back to her house or they would kill her.

The three soldiers then took Naw N--- outside the village. The two older soldiers ordered the younger soldier with them to stand guard, then they pinned her to the ground and took turns raping her. Afterward they told Naw N--- to return to her house while they returned to their camp.

When she arrived home she told her family what had happened and they cried for her. For three or four days Naw N--- could not eat anything and cried constantly. For weeks afterward she was too ashamed to leave her house or meet with anyone. Her family are farmers, and she has seven siblings. When this photo was taken over a month after the assault, Naw N--- was weak and unhealthy and appeared to be suffering from mental problems. The villagers were unable to discover the soldiers' names, but their battalion commander is Theh Neh Soe and their camp commander is Soe Naing Aung. [Photo: KHRG]

All of these villagers have stepped on landmines in northern Nyaunglebin district, some of them while doing forced labour for the SPDC. Photo 3-102 shows Saw E--- (right), who stepped on a landmine in late 2004 while doing forced labour extending Ma La Daw army camp for SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #599 in northern Mone township. He was maimed and blinded but was given no medical support or prosthesis. Here he is seen a year later with some of his children.

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Photo 3-103 (left) shows 40 year old Saw P--- with his wife and three children in his home village of M--- in December 2005. He was doing forced labour as a guide (and human minesweeper) for an SPDC column on October 19th 2004 when he stepped on a landmine. The soldiers he was with gave him no medical care or money to pay hospital bills, so he had to be treated in his village and told KHRG a year later that his wounds had still not healed.

Saw T---, 23 (right) is from the same village, and was wounded by a landmine on February 24th 2005; he was fortunate not to lose a leg, but as he was given no medical attention the severe wounds on his right foot were still open ten months later in December.

Photos 3-105 and 3-106 below show 40 year old Naw B---. In 1998 many people in her village fled the SPDC but Naw B--- was captured. They ordered her to go into the forest to tell her fellow villagers to come and submit to SPDC control, and when she went she stepped on a landmine. She was given no proper medical care so her foot remained mangled, and eight years later she still cannot walk properly. [Photos: KHRG]

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Medics amputate the leg of KNLA soldier M---, age 30, in mid-May 2006 after he stepped on a landmine while escorting a group of displaced villagers to safety. The villagers were from Ler Ko Der Htah village in Than Daung township of Toungoo district. As the photo shows, such operations must be carried out in unsanitary conditions, and medics have no access to anaesthetics or proper bone-cutting tools. [Photo: KHRG]

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Throughout 2006, DKBA officer Moe Kyo continued to lay landmines throughout Bilin township of Thaton district, including in villagers' rice fields and along pathways used by villagers. On June 26th 2006, forty year old Saw Pah Dt'Pya of K--- village, Bilin township, Thaton district, was working in his rice field when he stepped on a DKBA mine and was killed; photo B-41 shows his wife, 35 year old Naw M---, and their six surviving children.

Five days earlier on June 21st, another of Moe Kyo's mines had killed the husband of 42 year old Naw M--- (photo B-42), shown here in her home village of D--- in Thaton township, Thaton district.

As a result, the owner of the rice field shown in photo B-43 said in July that he no longer dared work this field despite having already sown a crop there in June. [Photos: KHRG]

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54 year old Saw Pah Bu of Htee Theh Lay village, K'Dtaing Dtee village tract, Dweh Loh township in southwestern Papun district stepped on a landmine planted by troops under DKBA #777 Brigade officer Hla Maung in July 2006, wounding both of his legs seriously. The mine had been planted in Saw Pah Bu's thatch plantation and he stepped on it when he went to harvest leaves for thatch. This photo was taken several days later when his wounds were being treated by a mobile medical team. [Photo: KHRG]

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A mobile medical team begins the amputation of a Karen soldier's left leg (left) after he stepped on a landmine in late July 2006, with only basic tools and without any general anaesthetic. Having finished the amputation, they managed to save his right leg despite another gaping wound (photo 3-109, below left).

In photo 3-110 (below), the same medical team treats an elderly villager whose leg they had also amputated after a landmine injury. [Photos: KHRG]

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Saw K--- and his family live in Meh Klaw village tract, Bu Tho township, Papun district, a village within the control radius of an SPDC battalion camp. In 2003 he found an unexploded shell and tried to salvage it, but it exploded and blew off his hand. After 11 days and 100,000 Kyat in expenses at Papun hospital the wound was only getting worse, so he went to a resistance-controlled hospital and managed to get sent to a hospital in Thailand for proper treatment.

Despite his disability, he says when the local SPDC calls for forced labour on the roads, at army camps or as porters he still has to go. [Photo: KHRG]

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Saw H--- (age 59, left) is from Si Kheh Der village in Toungoo district. He was living in the forest to evade SPDC control, but in October 2006 (shortly before harvest) an SPDC Light Infantry Division #66 patrol went through his rice field and pulled up most of his paddy plants by the roots, leaving him with nothing to harvest, so he left and headed for the Thai border. This photo was taken along his way, in Papun district. He was with several others from his village whose crops had also been uprooted or destroyed.

Naw S--- (right) is a 20 year old woman from Saw Mu Der village in Toungoo district. In early September 2006, troops from SPDC Infantry Battalion #2, Military Operations Command #16, came through her area and laid landmines along paths used by the displaced villagers and in front of any rice storage barns they found. Naw S--- returned to fetch rice from her paddy storage barn and stepped on the mine they had laid in front of it.

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Her right lower leg was blown off (it was one of the SPDC's new small mines, modelled on the American M14, because the SPDC's larger mines would have done more damage). Her leg was amputated without anaesthetic by a mobile medic, and a group of villagers leaving for the Thai border carried her all the way across the mountains in a nylon hammock slung from a bamboo pole, a march of two weeks. Photo B-142 was taken when the group was taking a brief rest at a hut in Papun district in mid-October. In photo B-143 (right), the group continues its journey. [Photos: KHRG]

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These SPDC-made landmines were among over ten mines unearthed and defused by KNLA troops (left) along pathways and in rice fields surrounding Sho Per Koh village in northern Papun district, clearly targeted at the displaced villagers in the area. The mine on the left in both photos is an SPDC-made MM2, while that on the right is a mine the regime seems to have only begun manufacturing recently, copied from the American M14 mine. It is one of these tiny mines that blew off the lower leg of 20 year old Naw S--- (photo B-142). [Photos: KHRG]