Toungoo District

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

Toungoo (Taw Oo in Karen) District forms the northern tip of Karen State, sandwiched between Karenni State to the east, Shan State to the north, and Pegu Division to the west. The vast majority of villagers in this region are Karen. Many live in small, difficult to access villages in the very steep and forested hills covering most of the district. Further west, the hills let off into the gentler terrain of the Sittaung River valley near Toungoo town.

For two to three years now the villagers in the western plain of the district have faced heavy burdens of forced labour on roads, army camps and the Pa Thee dam project, while some of their villages just east of Toungoo town were forcibly relocated to make way for the dam. Things have been even worse for the hill villagers, as over the past two to three years the SLORC/SPDC has steadily increased its troop presence in this previously inaccessible area. Several SPDC camps have been established along the new dry-season road from Baw Ga Li Gyi (Kler Lah) to Bu Sah Kee, which was built with the forced labour of villagers in the area. This road is not passable during rainy season, so villagers have to do forced labour as porters carrying supplies to and from all of these Army camps, then they have to do forced labour rebuilding the road after every rainy season. They are also being used for forced labour to build a new road from Baw Ga Li Gyi (Kler Lah) to Mawchi in southern Karenni (Kayah) State.

Battalions operating in the area include SPDC Infantry Battalions #26, 30, and 48. Villages which are not within easy reach of SPDC troops, where the villagers cannot be rounded up or controlled, and villages which are perceived as uncooperative, have been treated brutally. In mid-1998 an SPDC column was ambushed by KNLA troops near Kaw Thay Der village and responded by going into the village, calling out all the villagers and systematically beating them. Saw Wah Der village has been ordered to move to Kler Lah since several years ago but has never obeyed, so on 29 June 1998 the church and all of the best houses in the village (those with wooden construction and metal roofing) were burned. This village has been burned many times over the years. Now some of the villagers have fled to Toungoo town, while others live in hiding in the forest, dodging passing SPDC columns.

Three years ago the villagers of Bu Sah Kee settled in the forest away from their village for fear of SLORC abuses. They are still there, growing their hillside rice crops but fleeing further into the hills whenever SLORC/SPDC patrols come close. Some of their crops are visible from the Infantry Battalion #26 camp in the distance, so in September Major Myo Myint ordered his troops to go and destroy all of Bu Sah Kee’s rice crop, presumably with the logic that some of this rice would be used to feed Karen troops. On 6 September 1998, IB 26 troops began moving through all the ricefields, pulling up, cutting down or stomping down the villagers’ crops, which would not be ready for harvest until November/December. They managed to destroy approximately half of the entire crop of the village for this year. Then on 30 October troops from Infantry Battalion #26 opened fire on Bu Sah Kee villagers in the fields who were trying to harvest some of the remaining rice, and on 31 October they shot dead an elderly villager on sight and burned the harvested rice they found. The 60 families of Bu Sah Kee now have almost no rice to last them until next year’s harvest.

Villagers of Saw Wah Der, Bu Sah Kee and Klay Soe Kee (Yay Tho Lay) are now all displaced and living outside their villages, and more villagers could be affected as the SPDC continues to clamp down on the area. For more information on this situation, see the Information Update "Continuing Hardships for Villagers in Northern Karen Districts" (KHRG #98-U5, 15/11/98), "SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-A" (KHRG #99-01, 10/2/99), and a KHRG report soon to be released about Toungoo District.

Photo #T1:  A Karen farmer from Bu Sah Kee village stands in the middle of his ricefield, where SPDC troops from Infantry Battalion #26 pulled up and trampled down all of his rice on 6 September 1998. This photo was taken in late rainy season, which is growing season; the black stumps are there because the villagers burn off the field earlier in the year before planting it. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T2:  The same field as shown in Photo #T1; the IB 26 troops also burned down the farmfield hut which stood here. Villagers often stay in their farmfield huts during much of the growing season. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #T3, T4, T5:  Some of the ricefields of Bu Sah Kee village, pulled up and destroyed by IB 26 troops on 6 September 1998. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #T6, T7:  Ruins of a house in Saw Wah Der village, burned by LIB 707 on 29 June 1998. The villagers had failed to obey orders to move to Kler Lah village, so the troops burned all the nicest houses in the village. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T8:  All that remains of Saw Wah Der village’s Christian church, built by the villagers at a cost of 300,000 Kyats and burned by LIB 707 on 29 June 1998. The church was one of the nicer buildings in the village and had a metal roof. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T9:  One of the LIB 707 soldiers who burned Saw Wah Der village left this inscription behind on one of the unburned houses, written with the burnt wood of another house: "You stupid people who follow Nga Mya, come into the light (says LIB 707)". "Nga Mya" is a derogatory name for Saw Bo Mya, president of the KNU. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T10:  Since the burning of part of their village, Saw Wah Der villagers have had to flee and live hidden in the forest in small groups; this is one of their hidden shelters. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T11:  Part of the new road being built from Toungoo to Mawchi using the forced labour of villagers in Baw Ga Li Gyi village tract. Many farmers with ricefields along the road route didn’t dare plant a crop in 1998 in fear of being grabbed for forced labour by the troops. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T12:  A storehouse of SPDC Army rations and supplies which have been brought up to Kaw Thay Der by truck. From here, women of Kaw Thay Der village will be forced to carry them under guard to an SPDC Army camp at Naw Soe. The sacks contain rice, chillies, tinned fish and beef, dried foods and other items. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Caution: This photo is quite graphic.

Photo #T13:  Saw Htaw Say, male, age 16, a young farmer from Htee Hsah Bper village, Than Daung township, Toungoo District. On 16 January 1999 at about 2 p.m., a column of troops from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #535, Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Soe Nyunt, came to Htee Hsah Bper village. In the cardamom gardens outside the village they saw Saw Htaw Say heading back to the village from his garden together with his aunt. They immediately opened fire at Saw Htaw Say with a carbine rifle. The first bullet hit the side of his face and tore off his cheek. The second bullet hit the right side of his chest and exited through his back, and the third bullet hit his right thigh. When the villagers went to the scene afterward, they found Saw Htaw Say dead with blood all over the path. His right arm was missing, possibly cut off and taken away by the troops, and the flesh of his right thigh was cut away right down to the bone. On close inspection the photo shows where his right arm has been severed at the shoulder. He was buried by the other villagers. SPDC troops have been known to occasionally cook and eat the liver or bits of flesh from their ‘enemies’ for mystical spiritual strength. See also following photos. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Caution: This photo is quite graphic.

Photo #T14:  While some of the LIB 535 troops were killing Saw Htaw Say, another group ran to a nearby farmfield hut and found Saw Dtaw Law, male, age over 60, a cardamom farmer from the same village. They killed him by stabbing him twice in the back and once in the chest. The villagers who later found the body say that one of his arms was also bent and broken behind his back. All of the flesh on both sides of his face had been carved off with a knife, as well as his ears and his nose. His neck had been slashed and his tongue cut out. The top of his skull had been smashed, probably with the butt of a rifle. His cloth bag was still with him but the contents had been stolen, as well as several thousand Kyats in cash and a cassette player. His hut had been ransacked. The body was buried by other villagers. Though dirt is still clinging to the face, on close observation you can see where the flesh has been carved away from his scalp and the side of his face. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #T15:  The farmfield hut of Saw Dtaw Law, age 60 (see photo #T14). After killing him the troops ransacked the hut, looting some of his belongings and destroying the rest. [Photo: KHRG monitor]