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 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 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 loosely connected with the larger village 1 or 2 kilometres away, 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.

Currently SPDC columns are rounding up civilians in towns and villages throughout central Karen State and sending them into the hills for open-ended forced labour as porters with Army columns setting out to attack the KNLA. Porters who have escaped have testified to brutal treatment by the SPDC troops. At the same time, DKBA units are burning houses in every village which they suspect of providing any support to the KNLA. Between February 10^th and 14^th 1999, a DKBA group commanded by Moe Kyo burned 56 houses in the 4 villages of Tee Bper, Dta Wih Ko, Dta Greh Ni and Tee Pa Leh in Dta Greh (Burmese name Pain Kyone) township after accusing the villagers there of being ‘relatives of KNU’. These troops also burned all the family paddy supplies they could find and the piles of rice straw which are used as fodder for the cattle. The villagers have fled into hiding in the forests.

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.

In August 1999, new groups of villagers began to flee to Thailand from southeastern Pa’an District, reporting that the combination of forced portering, demands for money and looting of their food are now making it impossible to survive there. In addition, the SPDC has reportedly ordered that all villages in southeastern Pa’an District are to be cleared out between now and the end of 1999, and that any villagers found there after their villages have been cleared will be shot.

For more information on the current situation in Pa’an District, see "Uncertainty, Fear and Flight: The Current Human Rights Situation in Eastern Pa’an District" (KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98), "SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-A" (KHRG #99-01, 10/2/99), and "SPDC Orders to Villages: Set 99-B" (KHRG #99-03, 19/4/99).

Photos #P1,P2:  Ko A---, a 26-year-old Burman from Bilin town. In February 1999 he set off to find work in Thailand because it is difficult to survive in his hometown. On the way between Kawkareik and Myawaddy, the passenger truck he was riding was stopped by some soldiers who said their Army truck needed a push. Afterwards the soldiers offered the passengers a ride to Myawaddy, and Ko A--- and others accepted. On arrival they were taken to an Army camp and realised they were being shanghaied as porters. He had to carry mortar shells over the hills with 200 other porters and was often beaten with rifle butts. After over a week he ran to escape; he was shot in the leg while running but escaped anyway. He eventually fell unconscious in the forest from his wound, and on March 11^th he was found by a KNLA column. Photo #P1 was taken just after he was found, when he was pleading in fear for his life. In Photo #P2, some of his wounds from portering are visible as he takes his first bath in weeks. [Photos: FTUB Human Rights Section]

Photos #P3,P4:  Between February 10^th and 14^th 1999, a DKBA unit commanded by Moe Kyo burned 56 houses in the 4 villages of Tee Bper, Dta Greh Ni, Dta Wih Ko and Tee Pa Leh in Dta Greh township after accusing the villagers of being ‘relatives of KNU’. First the troops scattered each family’s paddy supply under their house and then burned it with the house. Photo #P4 shows a closeup of the paddy grains scattered among the ashes in Dta Wih Ko village, where 170 baskets of paddy were destroyed. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

Photos #P5-P7:  Villagers from the 4 villages whose homes were burned in February 1999 by the DKBA troops (see above photos) stand among the ashes of their homes. [Photos: KHRG monitor]

Photo #P8:  In addition to destroying rice supplies (see above photos), Moe Kyo’s DKBA unit destroyed piles of rice straw like this one wherever they found them. The villagers use the rice straw as feed for their cattle, particularly through the hot dry season. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

Photo #P9:  People from the four destroyed villages (see above photos) have fled and are now internally displaced in the forested hills. Here some of them gather for a meeting about what to do next. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

Photo #P10:  Naw M---, 23, from one of the 4 villages in Dta Greh township where the DKBA burned houses (see above). When the DKBA group entered her village she ran behind her grandmother, Naw B---. Her grandmother set off a tripwire connected to an anti-personnel mine and Naw M--- says she was ‘blown in half’ and died immediately. Naw M--- was wounded on her face and right arm by shrapnel. [Photo: KHRG monitor]

Photos #P11-P15:  Villagers in southeastern Pa’an District flee toward the Thai border in mid-August 1999.  At this time of year it is extremely difficult for villagers to flee because the monsoon rains are constant, the paths are flooded or washed out, and it is almost impossible to build proper shelter. These people said they were fleeing because "We can’t take it any more. They force us to porter, they make us pay money, they eat all of our food – we are always afraid." They were part of a group of 5-7 families, and when the photos were taken they were still over a day’s walk from the border. According to the latest reports from the region, SPDC commanders in the area have issued an order that all villages in southeastern Pa’an District near the Thai border are to be cleared out by the end of 1999, and any villagers still found in the area will be shot on sight. [Photos: KHRG volunteer]