Nyaunglebin District

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

Nyaunglebin (known in Karen as Kler Lweh 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 Muh 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 western parts of the district near the Sittaung River, 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 over 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:  Houses in Kya Plaw village, Ler Doh township, after the villagers there were forced to move to a relocation site just outside Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi) town at the beginning of January 1999. The villagers dismantled their houses to cart the building materials to the relocation site in order to build small huts there. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N3, N4, N5:  Leh Wain Gyi village, Ler Doh township. The SPDC ordered these villagers to move to a relocation site just outside Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi) town in January 1999. These photos were taken as they were dismantling their houses in early January so they could cart the building materials to the relocation site, where they will likely only have enough space to build small huts and no way to earn a living. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N6:  Villagers in Ler Doh township in early January 1999, loading their bullock cart with the housing materials they have stripped from their houses to go to the relocation site near Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi) town. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N7, N8:  Villagers in Ler Doh township living in hiding in the forest in early February 1999 after part of their village was burned. They have to dodge SPDC patrols which constantly come through the area. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N9, N10:  Villagers in Tee Muh Hta area, Ler Doh township, living in hiding in mid-December, 1998 after Tee Muh Hta village was burned by SPDC troops in November. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N11:  A group of temporary shelters in Ler Doh township in February 1999. Villagers came to stay here in hiding after their villages were ordered to move to a relocation site near Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi) town. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N12, N13:  On 25 February 1999 near Ler Wah village, Ler Doh (Kyauk Kyi) township, an SPDC patrol from LIB #351 met KNLA troops and there was a skirmish. As punishment, the SPDC column shelled Ler Wah village without warning. The villagers fled carrying next to nothing, then the SPDC troops entered the village and looted and burned their belongings. The villagers are now living in these rough shelters, not daring to return to their village. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N14, N15:  After the fighting on 25 February 1999 (see photos N12-N13), Column #1 of SPDC LIB #351, commanded by Major Kyaw Kyaw, searched the area around Htaw Ee Soh village, Ler Doh township, and destroyed all the paddy storage barns they could find. On 27 February, fifteen families lost all their rice supply, totalling an estimated 715 baskets of paddy. The troops burned some of the barns and emptied the contents of others onto the ground. These two photos show all that remains of the rice supplies for two families. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N16-N18:  Villagers from Htaw Ee Soh village, Ler Doh township, try to salvage some of their paddy after Column #1 of LIB 351 poured it out of their paddy storage barns onto the ground to destroy it on 27 February 1999. Fifteen families lost an estimated 715 baskets of paddy. They are now living in hiding in the forest to avoid the Army Column. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N19:  Villagers from Htaw Ee Soh village, Ler Doh township, living in hiding in the forest at the end of February 1999 after SPDC LIB #351 came to punish them for fighting which occurred near their village. The villagers escaped, but the troops destroyed all of their rice. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N20:  Inscription carved on a tree by an SPDC patrol out to hunt villagers and destroy food supplies in the hills of Ler Doh township. The inscription reads, "351" (for LIB #351), and underneath, "25.12.98". [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N21:  Villagers from Tee Muh Hta village, Ler Doh township, fleeing further into the hills on 2 February 1999. In November 1998 an SPDC column from LIB #361 shelled, shot up, looted and burned their village, and several villagers have already been shot on sight in the area (see Photo Set 99A, Photos N6, N12-N15, N22, etc.). As a result, when the villagers heard that a column of SPDC LIB #369 was entering their area on 2 February, they fled further into the hills and forests to hide. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N22, N23:  A villager points to the place where Saw Hsaw Pah Kaw, 35 years old, was gunned down by SPDC troops from LIB 351 on March 17, 1999. Originally from Tee Blah village in Shwegyin township, he brought his wife and 5 small children to Ku Pah Leh, where they built an isolated hut and began to farm. While out working, his wife spotted an approaching LIB 351 column and ran home. She managed to get their children out of the house and run, but as Saw Hsaw Pah Kaw came down the steps he was spotted by the troops and gunned down on the spot. He was later buried where he was killed, and the villagers placed some of his belongings on his grave. Photo #N23 shows his gravesite in front of his house, which now lies abandoned. The same troops killed his father-in-law on the same day (see Photos #N24-N25). [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photos #N24, N25:  On March 17, the same day that they killed Saw Hsaw Pah Kaw (see Photos #N22-N23), the LIB 351 column also shot dead his father-in-law Saw Lah Yo, age 60-70, married with 7 full-grown children and several grandchildren. Saw Lah Yo had also come from Tee Blah village to farm at Ku Pah Leh and was gunned down on sight beside his house like his son-in-law. In Photo #N24, a Karen soldier points to the spot where he died and the villagers buried him beside his house. Photo #N25 shows another view of the gravesite and his house, now abandoned and stripped. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N26:  Naw M---, a Karen woman from Shwegyin township. She and her husband fled their home area to Papun District because of SPDC abuses, but recently returned to live internally displaced in an area not far from their home village. At 5 p.m. on 9 March 1999, troops from LIB 351 spotted them in the forest and opened fire, wounding Naw M--- in the lower back. She and her husband escaped into the forest and she suffered from her wound all night, then the next morning they were found by the troops and marched at gunpoint to the commander. On the way her husband S---, age 50, was tied up and the soldiers hit him 5 times with rifle butts. The SPDC commander then interrogated them. He had his soldiers inject Naw M---’s husband with an unspecified drug and bandage Naw M---’s wound. Shortly after that, KNLA troops ambushed the column and the SPDC troops fled, leaving Naw M--- and her husband alone in the forest. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N27:  Saw N---, age 18, from Shwegyin town. While he was harvesting rice in late 1998 in his field near the town, an SPDC LIB 351 column saw him and opened fire on him. He was hit in the chest by shrapnel (the wounds are still visible) but survived; however, he believes there is still a piece of shrapnel lodged between his kidney and his liver and is still in pain. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

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Photo #N28:  Saw K---, age 27, who was shot on sight when SPDC troops from IB 96 spotted him harvesting rice in late 1998 near his village in Shwegyin township. He was hit in his right hand, and the hand is still not properly healed. [Photo: KHRG monitor]