Dooplaya District

[Note: Clicking on a photo will provide an enlargement of the photo]

Dooplaya district is a large region extending from the southern tip of Karen State to the Kawkareik-Myawaddy road in the north, with extensive fertile plains in the west and mountains in the east. Much of this region was controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU) until the SLORC mounted a major military offensive and overran most of it in early 1997. The KNLA continues to conduct guerrilla activities there, and the SPDC is systematically working to consolidate total control over the region. To do this they conduct sporadic forced relocations in areas of central and far southern Dooplaya whenever KNLA activity becomes frequent. Villages not within easy access of SPDC military camps have been forced to relocate and burned. The SPDC also imposes heavy restrictions on the Karen rice farmers who populate the region; those who live in farmfield huts or houses far from their villages have been forced to move into the centre of their villages, and no one is allowed to be outside of villages without an SPDC pass. In most places these passes only allow villagers to leave the village in the morning and return by sunset, making it extremely difficult for people whose fields are one or two hours’ walk from the village. Even with a pass to be in the fields, farmers spotted by passing SPDC patrols are frequently taken as porters.

Villages in Dooplaya also face a steady stream of demands for forced labourers at Army camps, porters on a permanently rotating basis, bullock carts and teams, rice, other foods, dry goods, and building materials. Extortion money in the form of "servants’ fees" is also levied on all villages under SPDC control in the region, and more formal rice quotas have begun to be levied against rice farmers. These quotas must be paid in addition to the ad hoc demands for rice constantly coming from local Army units.

Many people have fled into hiding after their homes have been destroyed rather than move as ordered and live under direct SPDC control. However, Dooplaya is less hilly and forested than other Karen districts, particularly in its northern half, and this makes it much harder for villagers to live in hiding. Those who do have to grow rice in small patches in several different places, and must flee regularly from one hiding place to the next.

For more information on the situation in Dooplaya District, see "Dooplaya Under the SPDC: Further Developments in the SPDC Occupation of South-Central Karen State" (KHRG #98-09, 23/11/98), and "SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-A" (KHRG #99-01, 10/2/99).

Photos #D1, D2:  After being attacked by KNLA forces in the area on 22 July 1998, Column 2 of IB #2, commanded by Maj. Tin Kyi, went to Kler Law Kyeh village, Kawkareik township. All the villagers fled, and the troops looted the houses of valuables and rice, then burned 5 houses and rice storage barns. The woman in Photo #D1 lost her house, about 1,260 kilograms of unhusked rice, some jewellery, and 30,000 Kyat. The couple in Photo #D2 lost their house, 10 baskets of unhusked rice and 15,000 Kyat. [Photos: Medical Workers’ Union, Dooplaya District]

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Photos #D3, D4, D5, D6:  Kwin Galay Noh Po village, Kawkareik township, burned and destroyed by SPDC troops on 11 and 12 August 1998. [Photos: KORD]

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Photo #D7:  Myo Haun village, Kawkareik township. In September 1998 SPDC troops burned some of the houses and took all the wood from others in order to force the villagers to move. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D8:  Meh K’Naw village, Kawkareik township. On 6 January 1998 SPDC troops from IB 230, commanded by Pyi Naing, burned 31 houses in the village and all their rice supplies and ordered Meh K’Naw and 10 other villages to move to Three Pagodas Pass. The villagers scattered and moved to Army-controlled sites at Taung Zone and other places. Unable to survive, Meh K’Naw elders asked permission later in the year to return to their village. They have now been allowed to return, but they must all go for forced labour every 3 days on rotation and pay regular extortion fees. [Photo: KNU source]

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Photos D9, D10:  K’Doh Hta village, Kawkareik township. This village was partly burned and forced to relocate in late 1997. Photo #D9 shows a destroyed house, Photo #D10 a destroyed rice storage barn. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #D11, D12:  Abandoned houses and paddy fields of K’Doh Hta village (see above). [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D13:  Destroyed rice barn in Set Ka Set village, Kawkareik township. SPDC troops ordered the villagers to move to an Army-controlled site in late 1997, then later burned their rice storage barns and all the rice the villagers were unable to carry to the relocation site by the specified deadline. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D14:  Abandoned house, Set Ka Set village. This is typical of the large teak houses in Dooplaya district which villagers are being forced to abandon in order to go and build tiny bamboo huts in relocation villages. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D15:  Farmfield hut near Aung Hline village, Kawkareik township, burned by SPDC troops. Villagers in Dooplaya are no longer allowed to stay in their farmfield huts. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D16:  Buddhist monks in Kawkareik township show all that is left of the valuables of their monastery after it was looted by Column 2 of SPDC Infantry Battalion #2, Maj. Tint Kyi commanding. The troops destroyed whatever they did not want to loot. Note the latches and locks on the wooden boxes, pried open with crowbars. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #D17, D18:  Abandoned houses of Kya In Lay Wah Ploh village, which was forced to relocate by SPDC LIB 357 in 1998. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D19:  Villagers in Kawkareik township who have been ordered to move leave their village to go to an Army-controlled relocation site. The woman in front is unable to walk and therefore must be carried. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D20:  A family in Kya In township takes a meal in their hiding place in the forest in November 1998, after hearing that an SPDC column was on its way to their village. Scattered groups of villagers throughout Dooplaya are trying to survive by avoiding SPDC columns, returning to their villages only when there are no SPDC troops around. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D21:  Villagers in hiding in a temporary shelter in the forest, Kawkareik township. Their village was forced to move, and since then these villagers have been living in the forest and trying to tend their fields. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #D22:  Villagers in Kawkareik township living in hiding in temporary shelters after their village was forced to relocate. [Photo: KHRG monitor]