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KHRG Photo Gallery 2010: Land and livelihoods
Control over land and freedom to pursue one's livelihood are fundamental rights which local villagers in Karen areas must struggle to claim on a daily basis. As military forces seek to control the civilian population, soldiers have employed varied strategies to undermine villagers' control over their land and livelihoods. These strategies include pre-burning damp fields to prevent a complete burn necessary for cultivation; deploying landmines in agricultural areas; destroying paddy and other crops and paddy storage facilities; excessive and arbitrary taxation on trade and small-scale industry and other similar measures. Such direct aggression against civilian efforts to maintain their livelihoods has had a severe impact on the local population, including large-scale impoverishment, malnutrition, and a worsening of the overall humanitarian crisis. In the face of such direct challenges to their livelihoods, villagers have responded by adopting supplementary occupations, migrating in search of work, hiding food storage bins in the forest, and operating small covert hill fields and 'jungle' markets in order to evade restrictions and the SPDC Army's efforts to control their means of subsistence.
Land and livelihoods
F-1
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F-2
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Photos F-1 and F-2, taken on January 24th 2010, show villagers from T--- village, Lu Thaw Township, Papun District, working together to thresh rice. T--- village is in a shoot-on-sight area, placing villagers in persistent danger of being shot by SPDC soldiers. Rather than work on agricultural projects individually, villagers work on tasks together so that lookouts can monitor the security situation while other villagers complete the tasks quickly. [Photos: KHRG] |
F-3
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F-4
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Photo F-3, taken in November 2009, shows villagers from Te--- village, Lu Thaw Township, Papun District, as they work together to harvest a paddy field. Villagers from Te--- harvested each field together, completing plots of land for each family in turn. Villagers use this strategy so that they can enter and exit areas quickly, reducing vulnerability to attack by the SPDC Army. Photo F-4, shows children from Te--- village as they wait at home while their parents harvested the fields. Elder children must often care for their younger siblings so that their parents can work to support the family. [Photos: KHRG] |
F-5
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F-6
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These pictures, taken on January 5th 2010, show villagers from Bp--- village tract, Ler Doh Township, Nyaunglebin District, as they worked on their farm. Photo F-5, shows a woman carrying firewood for her family. Photo F-6, shows women harvesting straw. [Photos: KHRG] |
F-7
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Photo F-7 taken on April 25th 2010, shows fish caught in the Moei River, which serves as the border between Pa'an District and Thailand. Villagers in the background of F-7 fled to Thailand, where they survive by selling fish caught in the Moei River and vegetables grown on small vegetable garden in a forested area. The villagers told the KHRG researcher that the bag of fish could be sold for 40 baht (US $1.23). [Photo: KHRG] |
F-8
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F-9
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Photo F-8, taken in early 2010, shows Naw M---, 45, and Pa K--, 51, who live in H--- village, Lu Pleh Township, Pa'an District. They are shown at a hiding place they use to store rice so that it cannot be stolen by DKBA and SPDC soldiers. The two villagers told KHRG that they have had to work as forced labourers for the SPDC and DKBA twice a month since the two groups took control of the area around their village in June 2009. [photo: KHRG] |
Photo F-9, taken in early 2010, shows Saw K---, 37, as he carries paddy from a hiding place in Lu Pleh Township, Pa'an District. Saw K--- fled his village after the SPDC and DKBA attacks in June 2009, but has remained in Lu Pleh Township, where he says he has been required to do forced labour by the SPDC and DKBA. "I have gone [as a forced labourer] several times," he told KHRG. "Sometimes it took two or three days." For more information on these photos, see the report "Functionally Refoulement: Camps in Tha Song Yang District abandoned as refugees bow to pressure," KHRG, April 2010. [photo: KHRG] |
F-10
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Photo F-10 taken on April 4th 2010, shows a village elder from Bp--- village, Lu Thaw Township, Papun District. Though he is old, he said he is still strong enough to work. The KHRG researcher that photographed him, however, noted that the man needs a cane to walk and moves slowly. Because he lives in an area where he might need to flee from an SPDC Army attack, the KHRG researcher said the man would likely need to be carried by a younger villager. [Photo: KHRG] |
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