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KHRG Photo Gallery 2006: Village Responses to Abuse
4. Village Responses to Abuse
It is commonly assumed in the outside world that Karen villagers simply submit to abuse or flee in fear, but a closer look at the situation reveals a very different picture. In SPDC-controlled villages, people are constantly ignoring, evading, and renegotiating demands for forced labour, money or materials, and finding subtle ways to challenge or protest against abuses. This includes covertly sending support to those in hiding, concealing visitors, and feeding information to human rights and armed resistance groups. For those beyond the reach of SPDC control, flight into the forest instead of submitting to forced labour in a relocation site is their way of evading SPDC control and retaining control over their lives and land. Through these resistance strategies they not only hold together their families and communities, they also undermine the military's control over the countryside.
 Many of these strategies rely on cooperation between people and between villages. Once displaced, villagers are surprisingly efficient at organising food and shelter for those who need it most, usually in the complete absence of any outside aid. Within days, blackboards leaning against trees indicate the resumption of schooling in the forest. Even simple cultural activities like weaving and celebrating festivals become a means of strengthening communities in the face of abuses, and therefore form part of a stand against oppression and for human rights. Covert trade networks are set up between displaced villagers and those in SPDC-controlled villages to ensure people's continued ability to evade SPDC control, and links with armed resistance groups are exploited to obtain information and physical protection.
The SPDC has recognised that these forms of resistance by the villagers are a far greater threat to its power than the armed resistance of the KNLA, and this is why the villagers have become the SPDC Army's main targets. For anyone wishing to help the villagers in this situation, the essential first step is to recognise the strategies they are already employing to resist military control and claim their rights, and then ensure that any assistance provided will bolster these strategies rather than undermine them. To do otherwise is to work against the villagers by helping the SPDC in its campaign to bring them under military control.
The photos below give some examples of ways in which villagers retain their dignity and sense of community in the face of systematic repression and abuses. Many photos interspersed in other sections of this gallery also tell a similar story. The photos below have been separated into this section to provide clues on how to look at all of the photos throughout this photo set with a greater understanding of the situation of the villagers.
All photos are by KHRG except where specifically noted otherwise.
4-1
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A family in K--- village of southern Toungoo district prepares cardamom for market in September 2005. When this photo was taken they had visitors (right) from the KNLA. Many villagers in the hills of this district grow cardamom as a cash crop, partly because it can be grown in small patches in the forest where they are less vulnerable to being shot on sight by SPDC patrols than they would be in an open rice field.
In the current offensive, however, SPDC forces have also been seeking out and destroying cardamom patches (see for example photo 1-79). [Photo: KHRG] |
4-2
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This 'jungle market' is one of the ways hill villagers evading SPDC control manage to survive. People in SPDC-controlled villages are strictly forbidden to take any food or medicines into the hills, but secret arrangements are made and on the specified date they smuggle goods out of the villages to a prearranged place in the forest, where they trade with the displaced hill villagers. The hill villagers bring cash crops like cardamom and forest products to trade for rice, salt and dry goods which they need to survive.
These photos were taken in December 2005 in northern Nyaunglebin district. Since then the SPDC has tried to prevent these markets by sending in more troops, blockading and landmining the roads and footpaths between SPDC-controlled areas and forest areas. [Photos: KHRG] |
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4-4
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4-5
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Kheh Der village primary school in the hills of southwestern Toungoo district, taken in September 2005. This school, which was built and operated by the villagers themselves, and the entire village have now been destroyed and abandoned as part of the ongoing SPDC offensive against all hill villages in Toungoo district. [Photo: KHRG] |
4-6
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Despite the displacement, the threat of being shot on sight by SPDC troops, and the attacks on their villages, these villagers continue to practice their culture as much as they can.
In photo 4-6 (left), S--- displays some of her weaving from a traditional backstrap loom, while the photos below show the people of four village tracts gathering for a music competition as part of Karen New Year celebrations on December 30th 2005, held beyond the eyes and the control of the SPDC Army.
The KHRG researcher who took these photos noted that, "We can see that despite the SPDC's efforts to impose more control over the Karen villagers, we still keep our rights to celebrate our Karen New Year." [Photos: KHRG] |
4-7
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4-8
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4-9
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Villagers celebrate Karen New Year on December 30th 2005 in Dweh Loh township, Papun district. [Photo: KHRG] |
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A primary school closing ceremony in K--- village of Dweh Loh township, Papun district on February 4th 2006, at a school constructed and run by the villagers themselves. In the words of a KHRG researcher who attended,
"The villagers constructed a primary school. From the start to the end of the year they cooperated and worked very hard for this school, so at the end of the year they invited their friends from other villages and celebrated a closing ceremony and concert. Even though the villagers and the students have to live in a difficult situation and have to face the torture and demands of the SPDC, they tried to do their best for the school closing ceremony. To provide food for the guests that they invited to their ceremony, the parents cut rattan and sold it to earn money for the celebration. Each house cut 20 rattans and one rattan was sold for 150 Kyat. They collected the money that they got from selling the rattan and bought food and things to decorate their school closing ceremony. The students were wearing Karen traditional clothes and dancing in Karen custom. The people in these pictures want these pictures too and asked us to send them back to them." [Photo: KHRG] |
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4-12
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4-13
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In April 2006, SPDC troops attacked villages in the Ler Wah / Kwih Lah area along the Shwegyin River in Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin district for the third time in six months. Many villagers had anticipated the attack and had already prepared shelters in the hills just to the east. When these photos were taken in June 2006 most of them had been in these shelters for two or more months already, and the rains were in full force.
Photo 4-13 (left) shows a bamboo rice-pounding mortar set up in front of a family's simple living hut. |
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4-15
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The children in photos 4-15 and 4-16 have gathered in front of their makeshift school, set up by the villagers to retain continuity and community in their lives.
The teachers are local volunteers (photos 4-17 and 4-18 below). |
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4-17
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4-18
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4-19
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Weaving and other activities also continued. In photo 4-19 (left), an elder shows children how to weave a basket; in the heavy rains, much of the time is spent waiting, hoping that the SPDC troops will withdraw so people can return to their fields. This could be a long wait, however, because the SPDC has now established a new camp at Roh Ka Soh near Ler Wah. |
Photo 4-20 (right) shows the world through the eyes of a displaced villager in Ler Wah area in June: looking out of your shelter at the pouring rain, the rice field you may or may not get the chance to harvest, and the dense forest beyond. [All photos: KHRG] |
4-20
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B-60
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Displaced village teachers carry on school in their hiding site in northern Papun district, July 2006. [Photo: KHRG]
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B-69
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B-70
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Students from Boh Nah Der village, near Kay Pu in northern Papun district, carry a blackboard from their improvised school. After being displaced in July 2006, they set up this school in their displacement site in the forest. [Photos: KHRG; ignore the incorrect dates burned on the photos]
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4-21
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4-22
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4-23
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Teachers who are themselves displaced villagers from Maw Pway Hta, Dt'Ku Der and other villages near the SPDC-patrolled vehicle road in northern Papun district work hard to keep school going for children in hiding in the forest in August 2006.
The school in photos 4-21 and 4-22 above has been set up in a buffalo holding yard, while the schools shown in the other photos are run from the teachers' own shelters hidden from SPDC columns. |
These schools have to remain mobile; they close whenever SPDC columns come near, or when the teachers and pupils have to flee with their families, but they almost always reopen as soon as they can. [All photos: KHRG] |
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4-25
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4-26
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B-95
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B-96
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A 'jungle market' in the forest of Mone township, northern Nyaunglebin district, in September 2006. Since 2005 the SPDC has destroyed many of the villages in eastern Mone township and forced many of those in the west of the township into guarded relocation sites, leading many people in both areas to shift to a mobile life in the forests of the eastern half of the township. To trade their produce for dry goods from the SPDC-controlled areas they periodically arrange these covert 'jungle markets'. People sneak out of the SPDC-controlled villages with goods such as rice, salt, chillies, cooking oil and canned goods, and meet the forest people at a pre-arranged site to trade for produce like cardamom and forest fruits. For those who have chosen to live in the forest to evade repressive SPDC control, these markets are an important lifeline which make it possible to obtain needed supplies without having to venture into SPDC-controlled territory.
In photo B-95 above, a group of villagers with access to the plains arrives at the site with sacks of rice to sell. Photo B-96 shows the trading in full swing, while photos B-97 and B-98 below show villagers living outside SPDC control on their way to the jungle market with heavy loads of durian fruit. A few hours later the market will vanish as quickly as it appeared. [Photo: KHRG] |
B-97
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B-98
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B-119
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B-120
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B-121
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Primary school students in Kwih Dt'Ma village of Papun district carry coconuts on a weekend in September 2006 for a coconut merchant. Their parents have no money to pay their school fees at the SPDC-controlled primary school, so they have to look for jobs like this whenever they can to make some money to pay the fees. [Photos: KHRG]
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B-122
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B-123
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This village school at Gk'Sah Kloh in rural Pa'an district was set up and is managed and financed by the villagers themselves with no help from SPDC authorities, though they do receive some supplies and curriculum from the KNU. These photos were taken in September 2006. [Photos: KHRG]
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B-126
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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.
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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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Villagers gather for human rights workshops organised in the forest by KHRG. In these workshops villagers discuss local perceptions of human rights and how these compare and contrast with international norms. The villagers then discuss the many ways they themselves are already resisting abuses and claiming their rights, and look for possible ways to strengthen these through mutual support and cooperation. In these workshops many villagers have expressed strong interest in becoming local human rights reporters and activists. [Photos: KHRG] |
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B-254
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B-255
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Villagers from Boh Nah Der village in the upper Yunzalin River area in northern Papun district prepare for bed, living on the ground in the forest on November 28th 2006 to evade SPDC forces. |
Nights in the hills can be very cold in November, but as the photos show people's spirits remained high considering the circumstances. |
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B-258
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Much of the cooking is done after dark (photo B-260 below) because SPDC soldiers fire mortar shells at any sign of cooking smoke in daylight hours. See also further related photos below. [Photos: KHRG] |
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B-261
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B-262
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After the night shown in the preceding photos, November 29th dawned cold and clear with children to be fed (photos B-261 and B-262).
Some of the villagers returned to this rice storage barn hidden in the forest (right and below) to fetch some of their paddy and pound it into edible rice. |
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B-264
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B-265
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Some of their fields could not be harvested because the probability of being seen and shot at by SPDC forces was too high, but villagers returned by night to harvest more paddy when possible (photos B-265 and B-266).
On November 30th, the villagers found a pile of spent medium-calibre machine gun cartridges (photo B-267) where an SPDC soldier had taken position and opened fire on a group of them who had been harvesting in an open field. Photo B-268 (below) shows the front edge of a firing position dug by SPDC soldiers among the trees at the top of a villager's hillside rice field for the express purpose of firing down the hill at villagers who came to harvest. |
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B-268
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On December 2nd, a group of students from Boh Nah Der village tried to continue their studies in a makeshift school (right). Their real village school (below) now sits abandoned because it is too close to an SPDC camp. |
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B-270
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On December 3rd villager Saw B--- returned to his hidden rice barn to find that it had been looted and destroyed by an SPDC patrol (photo B-271, below left); the soldiers deliberately destroy the villagers' food supplies in an attempt to force them to move to SPDC-controlled relocation sites.
Villagers later came upon the site in photo B-272 below, where SPDC soldiers had pounded some of the paddy they looted from the rice barn. [Photos: KHRG] |
B-271
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B-272
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B-273
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This teacher and her students were displaced from their villages by SPDC activity in the Kay Pu area of northern Papun district, and when this photo was taken on November 30th 2006 they were conducting classes on the ground under the farm field hut visible to the right. [Photo: KHRG] |
B-274
At the end of November 2006, SPDC soldiers based at K'Ler Ker camp came to Khoh Thweh Kee village in the Kay Pu area of northern Papun district and finding the village already deserted, proceeded to break into the houses and ransack them. |
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B-276
Meanwhile, the villagers were already in the forest, as shown in these photos taken on December 2nd (photos B-276, B-277, and B-278). |
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They were harvesting their paddy by night and gathering chillies, bamboo and other materials to their hiding places in the forest (photo B-279), where they pounded their paddy in improvised levered mortars like the one shown below in photo B-280. All this work is rewarded by sharing a meal with the family, as in photo B-281. [Photos: KHRG] |
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B-281
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B-299
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This is the temporary home of a group of families displaced from Htee See Kee village in the Kay Pu area of northern Papun district, shown here in December 2006. People usually have to shift between sites like this at least once every few months to avoid detection by SPDC units while still farming their land.
Villager Saw L---, 53 (right) is wearing an SPDC Army uniform shirt and hat he got from an SPDC deserter, because he sometimes acts as a lookout watching for SPDC patrols coming their way; if seen dressed like this, the soldiers might hold their fire long enough so that he can escape and get back to the other villagers to warn them. |
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B-301
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Naw W--- (left) nurses her third child; her previous two children both died due to forced displacement, and the day after this third baby was born her family had to flee the village into the forest with Naw W---'s husband carrying the newborn through the rain in a basket. When this photo was taken in December 2006, the baby was five months old. |
Eighty year old Saw Law Plah Muh (right) is blind and can no longer walk, but was carried to this site by his family members. [Photos: KHRG] |
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B-323
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B-324
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Despite the difficult and dangerous circumstances and the displacement of most villagers in the area, the local nursery school in Kay Pu village tract (above and above right) continued to operate in December 2006 and maintained its swing-set for the children (photo B-324).
Local villagers were also maintaining a primary school (right); the sign reads 'B--- [village] education primary school, opened 17-4-05'. |
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B-326
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The school in photo B-326 (left) moved to this location because their old school was too close to a new SPDC post.
At another displacement site, villagers had built the primary school shown in photo B-327 (below left). With Christmas approaching, the Christian students and others went carolling (photo B-328). [Photos: KHRG] |
B-327
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B-328
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B-335
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B-336
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Despite the attacks against villages, the intensive SPDC militarisation of the region, and the widespread displacement, Karen New Year celebrations were held in Papun district on December 19th 2006. [Photos: KHRG] |
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B-356
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B-357
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On December 27th 2006 SPDC Light Infantry Battalions #276 and #387, operating under Military Operations Command #21 (Brigadier General Soe Nwe commanding), arrived at the hilltop of Twee Pa Wih Kyo, just west of the Bilin River in western Papun district, and set up a camp there. The camp overlooks the village and fields of Thay Koh Muh Der village, so all the villagers there immediately headed to hiding sites in the forest, where they are shown here on January 1st and 2nd 2007.
Some of them are from Wah Kay Der village and had already been displaced to Thay Koh Muh Der, then had to follow the Thay Koh Muh Der villagers into hiding. People from nearby Ber Khaw village were also among those displaced in the forest.
The children in photo B-358 (right) told KHRG they were concerned because their studies had been cut off. |
B-358
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B-359
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B-360
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In photo B-360 above, a grandfather from Thay Koh Muh Der cares for his seven month old twin grandchildren after their mother died. This happened after the SPDC attacked and destroyed Thay Koh Muh Der village in June 2006 and the villagers had to flee into the forest (see New SPDC military moves force more villagers to flee, KHRG #2006-B9, July 4th 2006, and photos 1-245 through 1-272 in Section 1 of this gallery).
At that time the twins were newborns. The villagers had to hide in the forest for two weeks before the SPDC withdrew, and the twins' mother fell sick in the jungle. There was no medicine to treat her, and two or three days after the villagers returned to their village she passed away. Now only seven months old, the twins have seen their village destroyed twice and been displaced into the forest a second time. |
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B-362
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These villagers are experienced at survival during displacement. Photos B-361 and B-362 above show two foot-powered mortars of wood and bamboo quickly set up in the forest to pound paddy into edible rice, which people then share in communal extended family meals (photo B-363, below left). Even weaving of clothing continues, as shown in photo B-364.
The SPDC column then continued on to attack Baw Kwaw village (see below). [Photos: KHRG] |
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B-364
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B-365
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B-367
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The column of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #276 and #387 continued down the Bilin River from Thay Koh Muh Der to occupy and destroy Baw Kwaw village on January 8th 2007. These photos show some of the people of Baw Kwaw and Lay Poh Kaw Htee villages two days later.
This attack occurred only seven months after the last SPDC attack on their villages in June 2006 (see New SPDC military moves force more villagers to flee, KHRG #2006-B9, July 4th 2006, and photos 1-245 through 1-272 in Section 1 of this gallery), so displacement was not a new experience for most of them. |
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B-369
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Villages and extended families remained together to assemble shelters and organise food. As shown by photos B-370 and B-371, children were often left to feed themselves while adults were away foraging for building materials or food, or retrieving rice and other supplies from hidden sites near the village. |
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B-371
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Much of the time, children could be seen continuing their studies (photos B-372 and B-373 below), still hoping to complete their exams in March despite having already been displaced twice within this school year. [Photos: KHRG] |
B-372
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B-373
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