Pa’an District

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

Pa’an district forms much of the heartland of central Karen State, but villagers here are finding it very hard to survive because of a steady increase in extortion of cash and materials by all of the SPDC and DKBA troops in the region. In central Pa’an district everyone has to do forced labour maintaining the network of military access roads which have been built and upgraded using forced labour over the past 3 years. In the eastern part of the district, farmers seen in their fields by patrols are frequently grabbed as porters; to avoid this, people who see patrols usually try to run, and then the soldiers shoot them. Many of these SPDC and DKBA troops are fighting the KNLA in the east of the district, and in the process they have started to order the forced relocation of villages. On the eastern side of the Dawna mountains, SPDC troops burned and destroyed Meh Lah Ah, Meh Keh, Tha Pwih Hser, Po Ti Pwa and Noh Aw Pu villages in September 1998, and looted and terrorised several other villages until everyone in the area fled for the hills or for Thailand. In southeastern Pa’an district they told the people of several villages that they were all to be forced to relocate as soon as the harvest was complete in December 1998 or January 1999, and they are now enforcing this by forcing most villagers to move into the centre of their villages. Many Karen farmers have fields far from the central village and live near their fields, or live in small sub-villages 1 or 2 kilometres from the village proper, and these people are the target of such orders. Once forced into the centre of the village, it is hard for many people to properly tend their fields. Much of the 1998-99 rice harvest has already been lost because of orders such as these and because people are fleeing the increased extortion and forced portering. Villages which are seen as uncooperative and those suspected of having any contact with the KNU or KNLA are burned by SPDC or DKBA troops, who are based together in places such as Nabu.

Landmines are increasingly being used in eastern Pa’an District by the SPDC, the DKBA and the KNLA. While the KNLA attempts to notify villagers of where they have laid mines, the SPDC and the DKBA never do so, and the SPDC often deliberately mines pathways to villagers’ fields in order to kill or maim internally displaced people who are hiding in the forests. The number of civilian victims is increasing, and most die before they can be carried to any medical help. SPDC and DKBA columns are now regularly ordering villagers to march in front of their columns as human mine detonators, and fear of this form of forced labour has caused many people to flee their homes.

People are displaced and hiding in the forests throughout the eastern parts of the district for all of the above reasons. A steady stream of new refugees continues to arrive in refugee camps in Thailand, though Thai authorities are refusing to register new arrivals. Several thousand refugees crossed the Thai border in large groups in late 1998, but when told they had to choose between going to a refugee camp or back to Burma, they returned across the border because they hoped to be able to go back to their fields in time for the harvest. However, most of these people had no chance to return for their harvest, and in the meantime more people have fled to join them at their makeshift camp adjacent to the Thai border at Meh La Po Hta, swelling the population to well over 4,000. The new arrivals fled because the SPDC has extended its clampdown over a broader area and has sabotaged the harvest. In many areas patrols came around at harvest time, driving farmers to flee rather than be shot on sight or captured as porters. The troops then took whatever villagers they could catch and forced them to haul the already-harvested rice to the local SPDC camps. Other rice fell to the ground or was destroyed by insects because the farmers were not there to harvest it. As a result very few people could harvest or keep anything to carry them through the next year. At the same time there are fears of an SPDC/DKBA offensive in eastern Pa’an district which could occur this season, and the camp of internally displaced people at Meh La Po Hta lives in fear of attack at all times.

For more information on the current situation in Pa’an District, see "Uncertainty, Fear and Flight" (KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98) and "SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-A" (KHRG #99-01, 10/2/99).

Photos #P1, P2, P3:  Some of the anti-personnel landmines increasingly being used by SPDC troops in Pa’an district. SLORC/SPDC used to rely mainly on imported mines, but over the past few years China has provided them with factories and technology to produce most of their landmines themselves. Photo #P1 shows, from left, a Burmese-made MM-1 mine, an old U.S.-made M76A1 mine, a Burmese-made MM-2 mine, and another U.S.-made M76A1. Both the MM-1 and MM-2 are made in Burma in factories built for the SPDC by China. The MM-1 is a copy of the Chinese-made POMZ-2 or ‘corncob’ mine, and the MM-2 is a copy of the Chinese-made PMN mine; both of these Chinese models have been heavily used in Cambodia. The SPDC Army has extensive stockpiles of Chinese-made mines and a few old U.S.-made mines, but is increasingly reliant on the mines they manufacture themselves. Photo #P2 shows some MM-2 mines (foreground) and MM-1 mines with detonating pins installed (background). Photo #P3 shows three American M76A1 mines, the one on the far left with its detonator installed (the string holds a small safety pin inserted through the button at the top). The MM-1 and M76A1 are buried until just the top of the detonator, topped by the small activation button, is at ground level; the MM-2 is buried so that the flat top is at ground level, and the entire flat top is the activation surface. MM-1 and M76A1 mines can also be rigged as booby-traps with tripwires, and are more powerful than the MM-2. [Photos #1 & 2: FTUB Pa’an District; Photo #3: KHRG]

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Photo #P4:  A Burmese-made MM-1 landmine rigged as a booby-trap, on a wooden pole with a tripwire. The pole elevates it to knee or waist level, which will increase the chance of killing the person who trips it and wounding or killing more people standing nearby. SPDC troops have been rigging these along paths which internally displaced villagers use to get to their fields, and in Papun district they have been used to booby-trap burned villages in order to kill displaced villagers who try to return. [Photo: FTUB Pa’an District]

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Photo #P5:  Bottom view of a Chinese-made Type 72A mine commonly used by the SPDC Army. The top is covered by a soft activation pad, and the safety pin can be seen on the side of the mine (beside the pen). These mines are small and cheap and are very common throughout Asia; though they are not nearly as powerful as the others, they can quite effectively blow off the bottom of anyone’s leg. [Photo: KHRG] 

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Photo #P6:  Villagers and KNLA soldiers try to carry to help a villager who stepped on a mine while doing forced labour portering for an SPDC column. Porters who step on mines are often left behind to die by SPDC troops. This porter had his foot blown off. [Photo: FTUB Pa’an District]

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Photo #P7, P8:  Villagers in T’Nay Hsah (Nabu) township on their way to the local SPDC Army camp. They were ordered to each bring 2 pieces of bamboo and do forced labour building a security fence around the camp. As the photo shows, parents who have to work for their family’s survival often have no choice but to send their children. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #P9:  Villagers in T’Nay Hsah (Nabu) township gather in response to an SPDC order to go for forced labour cutting and clearing a road. One person per household has to go on a regular basis, and this often includes children. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #P10-P16:  People stand among the ruins of their homes in T’Nay Hsah (Nabu) township in mid-October 1998, the day after they had been burned by DKBA troops who accused the villagers of having contact with the KNU. The DKBA troops are based at the camps of SPDC Army Light Infantry Battalions #547, 548, and 549 in Nabu. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #P17:  Ruins of part of a village destroyed by SPDC troops, Myawaddy township, southeastern Pa’an District, October 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Caution: These photos are quite graphic.

Photos #P18, P19:  Neh Shway Lay, age 42, a Karen animist farmer of Thi Wah village, southeastern Pa’an district. Neh Shway Lay had fled his village because of abuse and forced labour inflicted by both SPDC and DKBA. After fleeing, in early November 1998 he returned with two friends to his home to sleep one last time in order to complete animist ceremonies connected with leaving his house. On arriving, he and his friends stood talking by his livestock manger when a column of SPDC LIB 356 troops together with some DKBA saw them and immediately opened fire. Neh Shway Lay was shot, apparently in the back with an exit wound in his belly, and his friend M--- was hit in the thigh but managed to escape. As Neh Shway Lay fell, he said to M---, "These people are really shooting at us!" He then lay on the ground moaning and dying all night. His wife, who was in the house, tried to go to him but the SPDC and DKBA troops would not allow her. These photos were taken the next day, after the troops had left and the villagers were preparing the body for the funeral. Photo #P19 shows Neh Shway Lay’s wife and 3 children, aged 10, 7, and 20 months. At the time his wife was 8 months pregnant. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #P20:  M---, Neh Shway Lay’s friend (see above) who was wounded in the thigh but escaped. When the photo was taken he could not walk. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #P21, P22:  Villagers in southeastern Pa’an District flee through the forest, hoping to reach the border with Thailand. They said they were fleeing because they could no longer bear the forced labour, extortion and random killings of farmers in their area. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #P23:  Displaced villagers in southeastern Pa’an District trying to survive in hiding in the forest in late 1998. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #P24-P28:  Internally displaced villagers at Meh La Po Hta, a site adjacent to the border with Thailand, in January 1999. They did not want to go to a refugee camp in Thailand because they still hoped to return to their fields to harvest; this has now proven impossible, but they are still trying to stay in their homeland rather than cross into Thailand, despite the very close presence of SPDC bases. At the same time their numbers have swollen to well over 4,000 with more people fleeing SPDC abuses. In this IDP camp they live in fear of attack by SPDC troops based just over an hour’s walk away. Overseas non-governmental organisations have managed to supply them with basic food and plastic sheeting from Thailand, but since January Thai authorities have tried to block all help. [Photos: KHRG monitors]

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Photo #P29:  A Karen porter, captured in his fields near Myawaddy town in southern Pa’an District and immediately forced to porter supplies with an SPDC column whose soldiers said they were headed to attack the KNLA in Pa’an District as well as Mae La (Beh Klaw) refugee camp in Thailand. After being badly mistreated for 2-3 days and seeing others brutalised, he escaped on 26 February 1999 with a friend. He heard his friend being captured and tortured, so he fled through the forest in the dark and stumbled over a tripwire rigged to a landmine. He suffered serious wounds to his entire left side, particularly his arm, and his left eye is also damaged. He managed to continue, bleeding and in pain, until reaching the Thai border and being sent to a refugee clinic where he received treatment. His wife and family were never notified when he was taken, and probably still have no idea where he is or whether he is alive. [Photo: KHRG monitor]