Nyaunglebin District

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

Nyaunglebin (known in Karen as Kler Lwe Htoo) District is a northern Karen region straddling the border of northern Karen State and Pegu Division. It contains the northern reaches of the Bilin (Bu Loh Kloh) River northwest of Papun, and stretches westward as far as the Sittaung (Sittang) River in the area 60 to 150 kilometres north of Pegu (named Bago by the SPDC). The District has 3 townships: Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi in Burmese), Hsaw Tee (Shwegyin), and Mone. The eastern two-thirds of the district is covered by forested hills dotted with small Karen villages, and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) operates extensively in this region. The western part of the district is in the plains of the Sittaung river basin; here there are larger villages of mixed Karen and Burman population, and this area is under strong SPDC control. For several years now SLORC/SPDC forces have tried to destroy Karen resistance in the eastern hills, largely by forcing villagers to move and wiping out their ability to produce food.

Finding itself unable to suppress Karen resistance activity in the eastern hills of Nyaunglebin District, in early 1997 the SPDC (then named SLORC) began a campaign to wipe out all Karen civilian villages in the hills. Where villagers could be found they were ordered to relocate westward into the plains; where they could not be caught, their villages were shelled without warning, looted and then burned to the ground, while villagers found afterwards were shot on sight. In 1997 KHRG compiled a list of 35 villages in Shwegyin (Hsaw Tee) township alone which had been completely destroyed. Most villagers fled into the hills to live in hiding in small groups of families while trying to grow small patches of rice, and many others moved westward as ordered into the plains, either to stay with relatives or to garrison villages along the main roads as the SPDC troops had demanded. Many of those who moved into the plains found they could not survive with no land to plant, and have now returned to live in hiding in the hills near their home villages.

In the hills the villagers are hiding in small groups of a few families in high valleys and other remote places. They try to grow small patches of rice but have little or nothing to eat; most meals consist of a small amount of rice or thin rice gruel, combined with salt or chillies if they are lucky enough to have these, and some forest leaves or sour cucumber soup (which just consists of cucumber boiled in water with a bit of salt). As in many other areas, much of the already small rice crop was destroyed by the lack of rains early in the season, the plants drying out before they could mature or being hit by insects or diseases brought on by the drought. SPDC patrols come through the hills as often as 2 or 3 times per month, burn any rice storage barns they find, shoot at villagers they see in the fields or the forests, and burn any shelters they find. When they find belongings they loot them and destroy whatever they don’t want or can’t carry, even smashing the bottoms out of cookpots. From September to November 1998, before the rice was ready to harvest, SPDC patrols went through many of the hillside ricefields they found pulling up the paddy plants by the roots, stomping them down with their boots or cutting them with machetes and threshing the grains off onto the ground. Then in November 1998, SPDC patrols opened fire on groups of villagers harvesting rice on at least 3 separate occasions, in Tee Nya B’Day Kee, Thaw Ngeh Der, and Tee Mu Hta villages. Several villagers were killed, and more were wounded. The situation is growing increasingly desperate for people hiding in the hills; most of them flee from place to place avoiding SPDC patrols, while some small groups have taken the risk of a difficult and dangerous journey through Papun district to the border with Thailand, dodging SPDC patrols and landmines all the way through areas of Papun district where most of the villages have already been burned.

In both eastern and western parts of the district, villagers are also being killed by the SPDC’s "Dam Byan Byaut Kya" ("Guerrilla Retaliation") units, which were formed in September-October 1998 by choosing the most brutal troops from several different Infantry Battalions in the district. Human rights monitors and villagers claim that they were formed by SPDC’s Directorate of Defence Services Intelligence under orders of SPDC Secretary-1 Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt. Their mission is to execute without question anyone suspected of present or past connections, however remote, to the KNU or KNLA. Estimates on the number of people they have executed vary between 30 and 100. Their methods are often brutal: they stab or shoot their victims, then often throw the bodies in the rivers or behead them and display the heads along pathways. Their victims have included both Karens and Burmans, and fear of these units has caused many people of both nationalities to flee the area.

For more information on the situation in the region, see "Death Squads and Displacement: Systematic Executions, Village Destruction and the Flight of Villagers in Nyaunglebin District" (KHRG #99-04, 24/5/99) and KHRG Information Update #99-U1, "Nyaunglebin District: Internally Displaced People and SPDC Death Squads" (15/2/99).

Photos #N1, N2, N3:  Kler Kee village, which was burned down by SPDC troops on 16-17 November 1998. Some houses were completely burned, while others (like the house in Photo #N3) were destroyed by the troops or had their roofs burned off. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N4:  Luh village, burned by SPDC LIB 364 on 9 October 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N5:  Khoh Lu village, Ler Doh township, which was completely burned down by SPDC troops on 20 August 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N6:  A farmfield hut near Tee Muh Hta village. On 16 November 1998 troops from LIB 361 under the command of Myin Gyi shelled Tee Muh Hta village, burned and destroyed the village’s rice supplies, burned this field hut and others, shot dead 2 villagers in the fields and then went to burn down Kler Kee village. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N7,N8:  Ricefields near Kler Kee village. On 17 November 1998, SPDC troops went through these fields cutting the rice off at the stalks, bundling them together and threshing off any developing grains onto the ground to destroy the crop. Photo #N7 shows the field, now dead and overgrown, and Photo #N8 shows the place where they left the bundles of cut rice. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N9:  Pa L---, a farmer from Khoh Lu village, showing where the SPDC troops left some of his paddy after they had cut and pulled up all the rice in his field to destroy it on 19 August 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N10:  Pa L---’s field, as described in Photo #N9. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N11:  Khoh Lu village, where SPDC troops destroyed much of the rice crop on 19 August and burned the village on 20 August 1998. As a result, even the pigs have nothing to eat, as can be seen by their emaciated condition. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N12:  Part of a Tee Muh Hta villager’s supply of paddy, dumped on the ground by SPDC troops on 17 November 1998 to destroy it. By the time villagers dare return to their village, paddy which has been dumped has already been ruined by dirt and insects. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N13:  This paddy barn was left standing, but the SPDC troops dumped all the paddy on the ground underneath, and much of it has now gone to seed. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N14:  Tee Muh Hta village. A farmfield hut and all the paddy which had already been harvested, both burned by SPDC troops on 17 November 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N15:  A paddy barn near Tee Muh Hta village, burned by SPDC troops on 17 November 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N16:  Thaw Ngeh Der villagers harvesting rice at the end of 1998, Ler Doh township. Villagers usually work together in groups harvesting each other’s fields, making them an easy target for passing SPDC patrols. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N17:  Thaw Ngeh Der villager Saw S---, age 40; on 17 November 1998 he was harvesting rice with a group of other villagers at 7:30 a.m. when an SPDC patrol saw them and opened fire on them. Saw S--- was hit in the leg and the shoulder. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N18:  Saw M---, age 35, from Tee Nya B’Day Kee village. On 21 November 1998 an SPDC patrol saw a group of Tee Nya B’Day Kee villagers harvesting rice and opened fire on them. All the villagers ran, and Saw M--- was carrying his 9-month-old daughter. He was hit by mortar shrapnel in both legs and couldn’t run, so he passed the baby to his wife, only to see that shrapnel had hit the baby as well; one of her legs was blown off and the other was broken, and she died. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N19:  Saw M---, from Way Daw Ko village in Shwegyin township. He lives in a group of displaced villagers hiding in the forest. On 3 December 1998, SPDC LIB 361 shelled his village and shelled places in the forest where they thought villagers might be hiding, and Saw M--- was hit by shrapnel in the back of his foot. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N20:  Saw S---, Dta Kaw Der village, Ler Doh township. On 12 December 1998 he was transplanting paddy with 2 friends in the fields, and troops from LIB 368 Column 2, under the command of Maj. Ye Myint Oo, saw them and waited for them. When they left the field to eat at 11 a.m., the troops shot at them. Saw S---’s friends escaped, but he was hit in the thigh. He managed to keep going for 2 more hours until villagers rescued him. LIB 368 then entered Dta Kaw Der village and burned down the entire village, so the villagers fled into hiding in the forest. Here Saw S--- is being treated by a mobile medical team from the Burma/Thai border. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N21:  Saw P---, age 32, Kheh Der village, Ler Doh township, being treated by a Karen medical team after stepping on an SPDC landmine laid by Column 2 of LIB 368. The front half of his foot was blown off. Saw P--- lives in hiding in the forest with the other villagers, and LIB 368 lays mines on the paths to kill villagers in hiding. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Caution: These photos are quite graphic.

Photos #N22, N23:  Saw Ko Pah, male, age 20, a Tee Muh Hta villager who was studying to become a medic at Tee Muh Hta village, Ler Doh township. He was unmarried. He heard that SPDC troops had shot up Tee Muh Hta village on 16 November and was returning there to help his parents. He was with a group of 7 villagers who were walking from Ler Wah to Kler Kee on 17 November 1998, when SPDC troops suddenly opened fire on them in the fields near Kler Kee. Saw Ko Pah, Saw Maw Dah, and Naw Tha Paw (see below) were killed and their bodies left to rot. Two other villagers were wounded but escaped. The troops were from Column 1 of LIB 361, commanded by Lt. Col. Min Kyu. After killing the villagers they destroyed the rice crop in the field where it happened. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N24, N25:  The remains of Saw Maw Dah, male, age 14, an unmarried Karen rice farmer from Tee Muh Hta village, Ler Doh township. He was one of the three villagers shot dead on sight on 17 November 1998 (see notes above) by troops from Column 1 of LIB 361, commanded by Lt. Col. Min Kyu. In Photo #N24, part of his skull lies on the right, with the remains of some of his clothing in the left-centre of the picture. The remains of one of his legs can be seen in Photo #N25. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N26:  The remains of Naw Tha Paw, female, age 17, an unmarried Karen rice farmer from Maw Kee village, Ler Doh township. She was one of the three villagers shot dead on sight (see above) on 17 November 1998 by troops from Column 1 of LIB 361, commanded by Lt. Col. Min Kyu. The monitor who took this photo wrote "only her clothes and some bones remain". [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N26.1:  The remains of Saw Nat Noh, a young Karen villager from Tee Muh Hta village, Ler Doh township, shot dead on sight near the village by SPDC LIB 361 on 16/11/98. His brother Saw Ko Pah was shot dead the following day (see Photos #N22-N23). [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N26.2:  The parents of Saw Nat Noh and Saw Ko Pah, two brothers from Tee Muh Hta village who were shot dead on 16 and 17 November by SPDC LIB 361 (see Photos #N22-23 and N26.1). Their father is on the left, and their mother in the centre. When this photo was taken less than a month after their deaths, their mother had taken seriously ill. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N26.3:  Saw S---, the owner of the rice field where Saw Ko Pah and his friends were shot dead (see Photos #N22-N26.1). After killing the three villagers there, LIB 361 destroyed the entire crop in Saw S---’s field, and Saw S--- subsequently fell sick. This photo was taken several weeks after his crop was destroyed. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N27:  The remains of Saw Pa Toh, male, age 40, a Karen farmer from Paya Hser Der village, Ler Doh township. On 13 October 1998 he and his friend Saw Bo Kee, age 33, were weaving a mat in Saw Pa Toh’s field hut when troops from SPDC LIB 368 surrounded the hut and shot both of them dead. The troops then burned his field hut (see Photo #N28). Saw Pa Toh leaves a wife and 3 children (see Photo #N29). The remains of his skull are visible in the centre of the photo, with his pink Karen bag above and part of his clothing to the left. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N28:  Saw Pa Toh’s farmfield hut, which was burned by the SPDC troops who killed him on 13 October 1998 (see Photo #N27). [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N29:  Saw Pa Toh’s three children, now orphans (see Photo #N27). [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N30:  The remains of Saw Lay Lay Paw, male, age 10, from Kheh Der village, Ler Doh township. Like many villagers in the region, he was living in hiding in the forest. At 10 a.m. on 14 December 1998, troops of LIB 368 fired mortar shells into parts of the forest near Kheh Der village where they believed villagers were hiding. A shell hit Saw Lay Lay Paw, blowing him to pieces. His skull and some of his clothing are visible in the centre of the picture. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N31:  Saw Maw Lay Lay, baby son of Maung Ba Aye, age 36, and Naw Dah from Leh Gkaw Wah village. An SPDC Dam Byan Byaut Kya death squad accused his parents of "having supported the NLD in 1988" (though the NLD did not even exist until 1989), and executed both of them on 11 November 1998 at 6 p.m. Saw Maw Lay Lay is now in the care of relatives. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N32:  Saw Maung Aye, village headman of Leh Gkaw Wah village; taken on 20 November 1998 while he was describing the killing of Saw Maw Lay Lay’s parents by the SPDC’s Dam Byan Byaut Kya death squads (see Photo #N31). Later that same evening when heading home, Saw Maung Aye encountered SPDC Dam Byan Byaut Kya troops on the path. They executed him without asking any questions and threw his body in the Ler Doh river. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N33:  Naw S--- from K--- village, Ler Doh township. She has been married twice, and both husbands have been killed by SLORC/SPDC. Her second husband, Maw Lay, age 63, was shot dead and then beheaded by an SPDC Dam Byan Byaut Kya death squad on 21 September 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N34:  Naw Mi Mu Wah’s father looks on at the graves of his daughter, Naw Mi Mu Wah, female, age 2 (right), and her cousin Saw Ta Plah Plah, male, age 3 (left). On 12 March 1997 SPDC Division 77 troops shelled Doh Daw Kee village without warning. Naw Mi Mu Wah’s parents were away in the fields, and her grandmother could only flee carrying Naw Mi Mu Wah’s smallest sibling. The two small children were left behind alone as the troops came into the village and began burning all the houses. According to witnesses in the bush just outside the village, the children were running around wailing until they were thrown back into the fires by the SPDC troops and burned to death. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N35:  The remains of Doh Daw Kee village church, burned with all the houses in the village on 12 March 1997 (see Photo #N34). [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N36:  Ler Doh township. As darkness falls, Thaw Ngeh Der villagers prepare to flee into hiding in the forest after hearing that an SPDC column is coming into the area of their village. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N37:  Ler Doh township. Thaw Ngeh Der villagers eating out in the fields by night because an SPDC Column has entered their area and they do not dare stay in their village. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N38:  People from Mu Kee village fleeing into the forest on 15 December 1998, because an SPDC Column was patrolling near their village. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N39:  People from Mu Kee village hiding in a hastily-erected shelter in the ricefields because an SPDC Column was patrolling near their village, mid-December 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N40:  Villagers from Tee Toh Gkaw Day village, Ler Doh township, hiding in the forest in mid-December 1998 because Column 2 of LIB 368, commanded by Maj. Ye Myint Oo, had come to their village. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N41, N42:  Villagers in Ler Doh township fleeing into the forest and living in hiding to avoid SPDC patrols which have burned some of their villages. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N43:  "Pa Noh" (name changed), age 16, and his mother, both from Tee Muh Hta village, Ler Doh township. "Pa Noh" has been blind since he was very young. When SPDC troops shelled Tee Muh Hta village without warning on 16 November 1998, he fled into the forest alone. He later tried to return to the village but was shot at by SPDC troops, and then spent 15 days in the forest alone with nothing to eat until he found some other villagers. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N44:  Ay Pree Paw, age 4, and Si Mu Paw, age 3. When SPDC troops shelled Tee Muh Hta village on 20 November 1998, they fled into the forest with their 80-year-old grandmother and their 17-month-old sister, and the group was alone in the forest for 10 days with no rice to eat before they found the other villagers. In the photo they are still living in hiding in a temporary shelter in the fields. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N45:  Saw C---, 35, and his wife and 4 children, from Ler Doh township. On 10 December 1998 at midnight a squad of SPDC Dam Byan Byaut Kya troops led by Bo Na Gah surrounded their house, but they were out in the fields. The troops told a neighbour "This household has contact with the KNU, so we will kill them". The next morning the family returned, and after hearing the news from their neighbour they fled the area and are now internally displaced. On 15 December the same SPDC group returned and killed 2 other villagers, causing many others to flee the village as well. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N46:  A couple from a village in the hills of eastern Nyaunglebin district. They moved westward into the plains as ordered in 1997, but found they could not survive there so they have now returned to the hills, where they have to live in hiding but at least they can try to plant a crop. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N47:  Teachers and some students from Tee Muh Hta village school, which has been closed since SPDC troops shelled and shot up the village in October 1998. Very few children in the region have any chance to attend school any more. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N48:  Village children in eastern Nyaunglebin District, who have never been to school because they need to help their parents to survive and because schools are targets for SPDC troops. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N49, N50:  Families from Ler Doh township flee toward the border with Thailand. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N51:  A group of Ler Doh township villagers rest during the dangerous journey of 2 or more weeks, dodging SPDC patrols and landmines along the way, to reach a refugee camp in Thailand. This group had 28 families totalling 107 people, and arrived in Thailand on 11 January 1999. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N52:  The group of refugees from Ler Doh township arriving on the Thai bank of the Salween River, which forms the border. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N53:  The group of Ler Doh township refugees on arrival at Ban Sala refugee camp in Thailand. [Photo: KHRG monitor]