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KHRG Photo Gallery 2008: Forced relocation and forced displacement
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| Forced relocation and forced displacement Part 1 | Part 2 |
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Displaced villagers from Saw Wa Der village, Toungoo District, in photos B-2 and B-3 rest under makeshift shelters on August 10th 2007 during the rainy season after having fled from Burma Army operations around their home village. In photo B-4, the displaced villagers from Saw Wa Der travel along a forest path as they continue their evasion of Burma Army forces on August 18th 2007. In photo B-1, a young mother carries her baby in a longyi slung over her shoulder while older children walk. Photo B-5 shows some of the displaced Saw Wa Der villagers using plastic sheets to protect themselves from the rain during flight. [Photo: KHRG] |
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In photo B-10 displaced villagers from T'Aye Kee village, Toungoo District, take a short rest on August 11th 2007 beneath a plastic tarpaulin set up to protect them from the rain. Photos B-11 and B-12 show T'Aye Kee villages joined by displaced villagers from Mwee Loh village on August 15th 2007 as they walk together through a narrow stream with their possessions loaded on their backs while they all continued to flee from SPDC military operations. |
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In these pictures, villagers from Mwee Loh village, Toungoo District, cross an SPDC vehicle road near Tha Dah Der while evading Burma Army forces on August 17th 2007. [Photos: KHRG] |
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These photos, taken on August 28th 2007, show the burned remains of Leh Kee village, northern Papun District following an attack by Burma Army forces operating in the area. August lies in the middle of the rainy season during which Burma Army units in Karen State have traditionally taken rest or regrouped at military camps and bases. However, during the past two years, Burma Army troops have been pushed to carry out the offensive against civilians right through the rainy season, despite the natural barriers of water, mud and disease which hinder military operations. [Photo: KHRG] |
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After burning down Leh Kee village, the departing soldiers scrawled a message [A-10] on the wall of the burned school, which reads "We didn't want to burn down your village, but we were ordered to. The soldiers [presumably meaning KNLA] and us and brothers." Photo [A-11] shows displaced Leh Kee villagers hiding in the surrounding forest after having fled their homes during the Burma Army attack. [Photos: KHRG] |
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The burned remains of Htee Baw Kee village in Papun District of northern Karen State, as photographed on September 1st 2007, following an attack by Burma Army soldiers operating in the area. Civilian communities living in areas outside of SPDC control in Papun District, as well as Toungoo District further north and Nyaunglebin District to the west have faced persistent military attacks since the end of 2005 - start of 2006 as the Burma Army has sought to flush them out of the hills and into military-controlled relocation sites. [Photos: KHRG] |
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The Burma Army soldiers who were engaged in the attacks on civilian communities in northern Papun District dropped this red scarf while on patrol. The scarf bears the numbers "114" indicating SPDC Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #114. KHRG researchers collected and photographed the scarf on September 3rd 2007. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Displaced children and their families live in the forest as they hide from SPDC forces in Papun District. These children, shown here [A-20 and A-22] in September 2007, have been able to find the means and opportunity to play and smile despite the pervasive insecurity of their situation. For more information on the human rights situation of children, see Growing up under militarisation: Abuse and agency of children in Karen State, (KHRG, April 2008). [Photos: KHRG] |
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This boat, photographed on October 4th 2007, came to collect displaced villagers fleeing northern Karen State. Among those getting on board were Saw K--- and his family who fled from Shan See Bo village in Toungoo District - an area controlled by the Burma Army - because of the difficulties faced under the regular demands and restrictions which Burma Army personnel enforce on the local civilian community. The boat departed and headed downstream to bring the villagers to Ee Thoo Hta, a relatively more secure site on the border of Thailand for displaced villagers unwilling or unable to seek refuge within Thailand. [Photos: KHRG] |
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The burned remains of Hsaw Wah Der hiding site in Toungoo District are shown here on October 8th 2007 following an attack by SPDC forces operating in the areas. Notice the tipped over and burned rice supplies in photo A-35. The SPDC forces which attacked this hiding site did not immediately continue on with their patrol and so local villagers were not able to quickly return and attend to their farm fields and retrieve personal belongings that may have survived the attack. [Photos: KHRG] |
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On October 9th 2007, SPDC soldiers from LIB #217, operating under LID #11 attacked Htee Bla Kee village in Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District. At this time the local community fled into the forest in order to avoid the SPDC attack. |
Carrying whatever personal belongings they were able to take along when they fled their homes, the villagers travelled through the forest [A-39, A-40, A-41, A-42] on October 10th 2007 in search of a secure spot to rest. Photo A-39 shows villagers carrying an injured individual in a makeshift palanquin. Everyone, including children [A-41], had to help out by carrying supplies. |
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Upon arriving at a relatively secure location in the forest the displaced villagers of Htee Bla Kee were able to set up a temporary hiding site [A-43, A-44 and A-45] at which they prepared and ate a meal following their flight from home. |
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Warning: graphic image
Pictured below [A-46 and A-47], 55-year-old Naw T---, one of the displaced villagers from Htee Bla Kee village, receives medical treatment on October 12th 2007. Naw T--- had been in her field hut when SPDC soldiers from LIB #217 attacked Htee Bla Kee village on October 8th 2007. Naw T--- managed to escape with her life but severe injuries to her knee and buttocks which she received during the attack mean that at the time these photos were taken, she was unable to walk or even stand. |
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During the following days, the villagers from Htee Bla Kee continued to flee through the forest. The women shown here [A-48, A-49 and A-50] on October 15th 2007, travel with their children and personal belongs through the forest on foot. One young woman [A-48] carries her baby slung over her shoulder as she travels. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Pictured to the left is 16-year-old Naw Th---, another casualty of the Burma Army's October 9th 2007 attack on Htee Bla Kee village. When the Burma Army fired rifles and shelled Htee Bla Kee village from a distance with mortars, Naw Th--- was struck down. Although suffering injuries to her right arm and left leg Naw Th--- managed to escape with her life. In photo A-51, Naw Th--- recovers on October 19th after having fled through the forest from the SPDC soldiers who shot her. Naw TH--- told KHRG "The SPDC shot me when I was in my hillside farm house... When I was injured I couldn't walk, I just crawled on the ground." [Photos: KHRG] |
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In 2006, SPDC authorities forcibly relocated some of the residents of Shah See Bo, Wah Loh and Kheh Der villages in Toungoo District to Toungoo town in eastern Pegu Division. Following the forced relocation, local authorities enforced heavy restrictions. They barred the villagers from returning to their former homes to tend agricultural fields and also from accessing other arable land closer to the relocation site. As these restrictions were inhibiting their ability to maintain a livelihood, many of them fled in late 2007 (as shown here) with the intention of making their way to a refugee camp in neighbouring Thailand. [Photos: KHRG] |
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The displaced villagers shown here [A-70, A-71, A-72] on November 14th 2007, fled from Ta Dah Der village, Papun District when they learned that local Burma Army troops were about to order their community to do yet more forced labour tasks. These included clearing brush and forest overgrowth along a 3,000 yard section of a nearby vehicle road. Photo A-73 shows Ta Dah Der village school after the local community had fled. Photo A-74 shows other abandoned buildings in Ta Dah Der village. Evasion is a common strategy which villagers in Karen State employ in order to avoid compliance with exploitative demands in areas under SPDC control. The SPDC has implemented rigid restrictions on movement in areas firmly under military control in order to hamper such attempts at evading demands. [Photos: KHRG] |
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These villagers originally resided in T--- village of Papun District, but fled their homes due to increased Burma Army activity in the area. The area in which they were in hiding in northern Papun District when this photo was taken on November 16th 2007 had become very insecure due to frequent Burma Army patrols. [Photos: KHRG] |
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These villager from Bpo Gkweh fled their homes following Burma Army operations in the area. When KHRG field researchers took these photos on November 16th 2007 the villagers were engaged in building news structures at their hiding site. Villagers in Karen State are often repeatedly displaced but are skilled in rapidly constructing new homes and other structures out of locally available materials, especially bamboo, as is shown here. [Photos: KHRG] |
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During the first week of December 2007, SPDC forces operating under Military Operations Command (MOC) #4 conducted a series of attacks against the hiding sites of displaced villagers in the area of Th'Ay Kee, in southeastern Toungoo District. In photos A-93 and A-94 and video A-97 a displaced hiding site in the Th'Ay Kee area burns on December 4th 2007 following an attack from soldiers of SPDC MOC #4. As well as buildings, the soldiers also destroyed paddy crops, rice, salt, cardamom, betel nut and other supplies belonging to the displaced villagers. |
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In photos A-95 and A-96 Th'Ay Kee villagers who fled their hiding site when attacked, take a short rest as they continue to evade SPDC forces in the area during December 2007. To view footage of the flight and displacement of Th'Ay Kee villagers, including children and their parents, see the KHRG video Displaced children in northern Karen State. |
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A-97 |
A-98 |
The mortar shell shown here in photo A-99 in December 2007, was taken by a convict porter forced to serve under the Burma Army. The convict porter took the mortar when he fled from the military unit under which he was labouring in the Th'Aye Kee area where the Army was conducting attacks against civilian communities. The Burma Army shelled hiding sites in the Th'Ay Kee area, as it regularly does to civilian communities in northern Karen State using both 80 mm and 120 mm mortars as part of their campaign to depopulate rural areas where the Army lacks a firm hold on the population. |
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After the displaced Th'Ay Kee villagers learned that the Burma Army troops had moved on, they returned to their abandoned homes, shown in video A-98 and photos A-100, A-101 and A-102 on December 16th 2007, in order to collect items left behind when they fled the initial attack. However, there was little was left to salvage. To watch a short film about the Burma Army attack on Th'Ay Kee and the subsequent situation of the displaced Th'Ay Kee villagers, see Displaced children in hiding, KHRG, April 2008. [Photos and Video: KHRG] |
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Displaced villagers are shown here while hiding in southern Toungoo District on January 19th 2008. Villagers in the areas who are unwilling to live under restrictive SPDC rule face the constant threat of attack by the Burma Army as well as a host of humanitarian difficulties steming from the Burma Army's obstruction of access to food and medicine. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Displaced villagers, hiding from the Burma Army, cross a river in Lu Thaw township of northern Papun District on April 3rd 2008. They are carrying their possessions with them as they travel. [Photo: KHRG] |
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Shown here [A-133, A-134, A-135 and A-136] are the burned remains of Ghaw Yuh Der village in Kay Bpoo village tract of Papun District, as seen on April 10th 2008. SPDC forces attacked and completely burned Ghaw Yuh Der village and farm fields on March 4th 2008. At this time the villagers were drying out their fields prior to burning off overgrowth in preparation for the rice planting season. Burma Army aggression against the civilian population of Saw Muh Plaw and other areas of Lu Thaw township, northern Papun District has persisted over the past two years. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Displaced villagers in Tantabin Township of southern Toungoo District travel with an escort of KNLA soldiers for protection. The villagers and soldiers are shown here fording a river in March 2008. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Photo B-30 shows the abandoned homes of Buh Kee village, Toungoo District, on March 14th 2008. Local residents fled Buh Kee when Burma Army forces attacked the village on December 5th 2007. For more information regarding the SPDC attack on Buh Kee village, see SPDC troops burn villages and step up operations against civilians in southern Toungoo District, KHRG (December 2007). [Photo: KHRG] |
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Villagers in Tantabin Township of southern Toungoo District carry supplies alongside KNLA soldiers on March 29th 2008 as they try to avoid Burma Army soldiers while crossing an SPDC-controlled vehicle road which leads to the SPDC Army camp at Buh Hsa Kee. [Photos: KHRG] |
Displaced villagers from Saw Muh Plaw village tract are shown below [A-137 and A-138] on April 4th 2008 setting up new structures at a hiding site in northern Papun District. These villagers fled their homes in Saw Muh Plaw village tract to escape military attacks by Burma Army soldiers. For displaced villagers in hiding, evading Burma Army forces in northern Papun District has become increasingly difficult since the SPDC completed the Papun Section of a north-south roadway which connects Pwah Ghaw military camp and the neighbouring relocation site to Bu Hsa Kee in southern Toungoo District. [Photos: KHRG] |
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This broken down structure is what remained on 5th April 2008, when this photo was taken, of a farm hut at Noh T'lay Plaw village, Saw Muh Plaw village tract, Lu Thaw township, northern Papun District which Burma Army forces had burned down in August 2007. [Photo: KHRG] |
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Abandoned homes and other building from a cluster of villagers including Htee Me Taw Hta, Htee Moo Hta, Haw Hla Hta, Thaw Bpleh Hta, Dteh Neh of Lu Thaw township, northern Papun District from which villagers fled as they expected further encroachement by the SPDC forces that have been expanding military operations in Lu Thaw township. The villagers dismantled some of the structures in order to take building supplies with them to the displacement site to where they intended to relocate. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Displaced villagers from Nya Muh Kee construct a school for their children at a hiding site in Nyaunglebin District in April 2008. Photo B-37 shows the school partially constructed - shortly after villagers fled from their homes. In photo B-40, displaced children from Nay Muh Kee village who will be attending the new school are shown winnowing (separating the husk from rice) while their parents are out tending their hillside paddy crops. These villagers fled after Burma Army forces set up a new camp near their homes at Nya Muh Kee village. [Photos: KHRG] |
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| Forced relocation and forced displacement Part 1 | Part 2 |
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| All images and reports © Karen Human Rights Group | Top |  |