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Report by the Karen Human Rights Gr



Subject: Report by the Karen Human Rights Group: 1 of 27


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      AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

________________________________________________________________            

          STATEMENTS_BY_INTERNALLY_DISPLACED_PEOPLE


Karen_Civilians_Displaced_by_SLORC_Activities_in_Thaton_District
________________________________________________________________           

                         April 28, 1993

Filename: apr28_93

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The following statements have been transcribed from recorded
interviews with internally displaced Karen civilians.  The
interviews were conducted in the Karen language in March 1993, in
villages inside Burma which are temporarily safe from Burmese
troops.  The villagers are from areas under SLORC control in Thaton
District, but recently had to flee due to the unilateral and
unprovoked wave of atrocities against civilians which SLORC troops
are currently committing in the area.  This campaign appears to be
aimed at cutting off all possible contact between the Karen
population in the area and Karen resistance forces, as well as
terrorising the civilian population into complete submission,
establishing a captive relocated population for use as slaves and
porters, and clearing entire areas as free fire zones.  All of
these could be preparatory moves for an upcoming full-scale
offensive on Karen areas near Manerplaw, to the east.

Those displaced as a result of this SLORC campaign now join the
hundreds of thousands of others already internally displaced by the
SLORC in Karen State.  These families brought little or nothing
with them, and receive no outside aid.  For now, they are surviving
on food given to them by other villagers.

Their names have been changed and some personal details omitted to
protect their relatives still in areas of SLORC control.  However,
all the names and places included in their stories are real. 
Please feel free to use this information in any way which may help
end the suffering of these people and allow them to return safely
to their homes without fear of further persecution.

_________________________________________________________________

1) NAME:    Naw Mi Lah Htoo      SEX: F      AGE: 40
   ADDRESS: Pa'an Township, Thaton District
   FAMILY:  Married with several children

We had to leave.  We couldn't even dare go to work our farm
anymore.  Our children are very young, and we didn't know how we
could keep supporting our family.  We never had any time to work to
support ourselves, because we were always having to run from the
SLORC soldiers.  We don't dare face them, so whenever they came we
couldn't stay in the village to work.  Also, because our children
are very young, only my husband is free to work the farm, but we
never dared let him go because if he ever met the soldiers they
would hurt him.  We've heard of this happening again and again, and
I couldn't bear the thought of the soldiers doing anyting to my
husband because we all depend on him.

Every time we returned to the village after running away from them,
we found many of our things gone or destroyed and many of the
houses damaged.  The soldiers took almost all our livestock.  If
they saw any animals like pigs or hens they took whatever they
wanted, and just didn't care.  No one dared to stop them.  If any
of us stayed and tried to stop them they said, "We must take it". 
They tried to accuse the Karen soldiers by telling us, "If the
Karen soldiers came to your village they'd take it too".  But I
told them that if the Karen soldiers want anything, they come and
ask; if they don't get permission then they never take anything,
not like you.

If the soldiers come across families living in one or two houses
alone out in the forest they also rape the women and do other
things.  Our village is a big village, but even so they sometimes
came and camped outside the village very quietly in the forest. 
Then if any villager went outside the village the soldiers caught
them by surprise, tied them up and tortured and interrogated them. 
Now everyone is afraid to leave the village alone.  I have a niece
who had many buffalos, and she worried a lot about them.  One day
when they were a little far from the village, I saw her on the
outskirts of the village.  She asked me if any villagers were going
out to get their carts near where her buffalos were, so she could
go with them.  I told her I didn't know and advised her not to go
anywhere.  She was worried about her buffalos and wanted to get
them.  Then later another villager told me, "Your niece and her
friend were captured by the soldiers".  The mothers of the two
girls were very worried and cried, "My daughter is still young. 
What will the soldiers do to my daughter?"  But all they could do
was sit and wait for news.  Several days later we heard that the
soldiers had been looking for information about Karen soldiers so
they'd arrested and interrogated many people from other villages
too, including men.  Because there were men there, the soldiers
didn't rape the two girls.

Battalion #24 used to be in our area and they weren't as bad to the
villagers.  But now 77 and 99 Divisions have taken over from them. 
The soldiers said they were sent because 24 Battalion couldn't
handle our villages.  Now, whenever soldiers from 77 or 99 Division
come to a village they always torture the villagers.  If anyone
looks unfamiliar or suspicious, they just take them and kill them
on the spot.  In our village, they beat one man nearly to death,
and they tied up the headman for 2 or 3 days and beat him.  His
name is Saw Bay.  They beat him all over his body.  They heated up
pieces of metal and put them on his mouth.  They put his head in
water again and again and held him there.  He suffered so much that
he said, "I can't bear to suffer your torture any more.  If you
want to kill me just kill me, but don't torture me anymore.  I'm
not guilty.  I haven't done anything".  Another village elder
pleaded with them to free Saw Bay.  After 3 days they freed him. 
He looked like he'd come back from hell.  He nearly died.  He
couldn't bear it.

The soldiers grab any villager on the road anytime they like, and
do anything they want to them.  We heard that they raped one woman
at a place called Kway Ta Kaw.  There are only one or two houses
around there.  She's married with children, but one night she was
home alone and they came and raped her.  I can't believe it - even
though she has a husband and children, they still raped her.  She
was so upset that she tried to kill herself.  She didn't eat for
many days, but the villagers and her relatives tried to comfort
her.  If they hadn't looked after her she would have killed
herself.  We're all shocked that the soldiers can do such horrible
things.  We can't even mention all the horrible things they say and
yell at us.  But still they say that they always do good things for
the civilians; they say, "the Karen soldiers hurt you but we do you
good".  But it's only the SLORC soldiers who treat us badly.

Then the soldiers ordered us to move our village.  They said we had
to build our houses along both sides of the road in the new place,
and said we had to guard the road against Karen soldiers and each
family has to send one person to mend the road, because the Army
wants to use it.  We had to say Yes to whatever they asked, just
say Yes with our mouths because we live under their power and we're
so afraid of them.  If they speak ill about Karen soldiers then we
have to also, even though it's not true.

Now the SLORC troops destroyed alot of the paddy near our old
village and they keep a tight grip on the area.  No one dares to go
back.  When we ran away and came here I brought nothing with me. 
Nothing at all.  When we were leaving we had to hide in a boat so
they wouldn't arrest us for leaving.  The village headman gave us
permission to leave, but he warned us, "If you meet with SLORC on
the way they'll interrogate you.  What will you say?  If you have
an answer for them, then go."  He advised us to go stay with
relatives if we have any somewhere.  After we left, the soldiers
noticed we were gone because of the Family Registration List, so
they interrogated him.  But we were already gone.
_________________________________________________________________

2) NAME:    Naw Bo Wah           SEX: F      AGE: 26
   ADDRESS: Pa'an Township, Thaton District
   FAMILY:  Widow with one infant

My husband Tha Htoo was killed by SLORC soldiers.  I had gone to
them to get permission to go to our farm, and they gave us 5 days
so we went.  But my husband's friend told him there were soldiers
nearby in No Kwa, so we had to find a hidden place to sleep.  We
went and slept in the forest the first night, then early in the
morning we came back to the farm.  My husband was walking behind
me, and a soldier yelled at him to stop.  He tried to run, but he
couldn't get away.  The soldiers grabbed me too, interrogated me
and hit me with a gun.  Then they dragged me to my husband.  When
I got there they were searching his friend.  The soldiers spat at
me and freed me, so I went back to the village and asked the
village head to go and vouch for my husband.  As we were going, the
soldiers saw another group of people running from them, so they
shot at them.  They dragged my husband to the bushes and he tried
to run, but another group of soldiers from Noh Ni caught him.  Then
they took him and tortured him for a week.

We decided to try to collect 10,000 or 20,000 Kyat and pay the
soldiers to free my husband.  The village headman said not to worry
- if we can buy his life we will.  He said don't worry about the
money.  But the soldiers refused us.  They said, "He is a Karen
soldier, so if you want him you must give us a gun.  Go and tell
his commander that he's still young and strong and useful, and he
can buy him back with a gun.  We'll free him."  But my husband was
just a farmer.  We told them, "He's not a soldier, we have no gun. 
If you want money we'll pay you somehow".  But they said "No way"
and kept asking for a gun.

After a week, the village head had vouched for him 3 or 4 times and
they said they would free him, but they didn't.  Two or three days
later they let us see him, and then they killed him that night.

At the time I was 6 months pregnant with my child.  24 Battalion
murdered my husband.  Now we have 77 and 99 Divisions in our area. 
Since they killed my husband, the soldiers never even look at my
house anymore, but before they killed him they used to come and
interrogate us all the time.  They always accused him of being a
Karen soldier, and said I wasn't married to him.

They took all of our livestock, and even our rice.  If they saw any
food or livestock in the village, they took it to eat.  If we tried
to stop them they beat us.  If the village head tried to stop them
they tied him up.  I had nothing left to bring when I ran away to
come here.  When my mother wasn't home I didn't even dare stay in
my house - I had to go stay with others.  We were all so afraid of
them.
_________________________________________________________________

3) NAME:    Saw Klo Wah          SEX: M      AGE: 30
   ADDRESS: No Tha Ray village, Pa'an Township, Thaton Dist.
   FAMILY:  Married with several children

Two or three months ago the soldiers came to the village to get
porters, but I ran away.  The people they caught told me they had
to carry very heavy things.  If they couldn't climb the mountains,
the soldiers kicked them.  They also didn't feed them much at all. 
The villagers got a little bit of cooked rice in the morning and
had to pack it.  They didn't get a chance to eat it until 7 or 8 in
the evening, and it was spoiled by then.  The soldiers take
everyone they can get to do this, they don't care if you're single
or married, and sometimes they take women too.  The soldiers go
along in front, in the back, and in the middle.  They're
everywhere.

Once when I was a porter they also took my wife and my son along
with them and made them march to Ko Ta Gyi.  They made them walk in
the sunshine at noontime.  It was too hot.  I was carrying a load
of rice and I saw my wife and my son.  My son was only 4 years old. 
It was hard for him to keep walking in the hot sun and he was
moving very weakly, so I picked him up and went on.  It was very
heavy and hard for me with my load, but I had to carry my son until
they freed the women and children in Ko Ta Gyi.  The village
headman had tried to get them to free the children before that, but
the soldiers had taken so many villagers, even the old men too,
that there was nothing he could do.  Since then, my son died of
disease.

Usually when they ordered us to send porters to them, if I could
hire someone to go in my place I did so.   I used to make many
baskets to make money.  Whenever I had nothing to do I slivered
bamboo and made baskets to sell.  For 15 days' work I could make
500 Kyat.  But to hire a porter for 5 days I had to pay 300 Kyat,
and we also had to give 30 or 40 Kyat to the soldiers' money
collector every time he came.  [Note: The SLORC routinely sends
orders to Karen villages to send porters, and the villagers often
hire itinerant workers in the area to go in their place.  However,
SLORC troops also storm villages to capture porters at random, and
when this happens the villagers have no way out.  'Captured'
porters are generally treated much more brutally than 'Conscripted'
porters.]

The soldiers always took our things, and never gave us anything. 
they took our rice, and if we ran from them and they saw our houses
with no one in them, they took everything, even the planks so they
could sell them.

Recently the soldiers came to No Tha Ray from Par Pu Po at night. 
That night they went very closely twice around the outskirts of No
Tha Ray.  They called to my mother, "Hey Mother, have any Karen
soldiers been here?"  My mother told them she hadn't seen anyone. 
Then the SLORC men went to the Christian part of the village, and
they saw Pa Day Khay going to the toilet.  He tried to run from
them and they shot him.  This happened when the cocks were crowing
for the first time in the morning - we couldn't see clearly because
of the morning mist.  My younger brother, my brother-in-law and I
wanted to escape from the soldiers.  We got out of the village but
we met more soldiers in the banana trees.  They put their rifle
barrels against us and said, "Don't run away or try anything -
we'll kill you if you disobey us".  We told them we're civilians,
and we won't do anything for sure.  They checked our baskets and
found my woodcutting tools, so they asked, "Where are you going?" 
We said, "We're going to saw and load wood in Htee Po Neh".  But
they followed us to the stream and then arrested my brother-in-law. 
They took us back to his house and searched it.  Many girls in our
village had gone to harvest rice and left their beauty powder and
makeup there.  The soldiers asked about it but when my
brother-in-law told them they weren't satisfied.  They said it
belonged to Kyaw Soe's wife, and that Kyaw Soe had been there. 
[Kyaw Soe is a local Karen Army commander]  They asked, "How many
are in Kyaw Soe's group?" and threatened to hit my brother-in-law,
so he said, "I only saw 5 of them".  Then the soldier hurt him with
a karate chop to his neck, and said "You sure there weren't 15?" 
But my brother-in-law insisted that he had only seen five.

Then they took my brother and hung him up by his hands with rope. 
They dragged him along with them and hung him from the coconut
trees again and again.  Finally the village headman pleaded for his
freedom so they stopped torturing him but still kept him tied up. 
Then after a while they went to another village and dragged a man
named Cha Day out of his house and ordered him to show them where
the Karen soldiers stay, even though he was just a civilian.  He
couldn't speak Burmese well so they took him and submerged him in
water.  He couldn't breathe so he stood up quickly, and the
soldiers who were stepping on his back fell over.  This made them
very angry, so they put their knife in a fire until it turned red,
and then put it on his face twice, once on each side of his face. 
Then they dragged him to the village and poked his chest again and
again with the knife.  The village headman finally got them to stop
by vouching that Cha Day was just a civilian.

The soldiers then went to Paw Tha Pru at about noon, arrested the
village headman for interrogation and brought him back to No Tha
Ray.  On the way they saw a man slivering bamboo and when he tried
to run away they shot him.  The bullet grazed the side of his skull
and he fell down, but got up and managed to run away from them. 
The other villagers cured him, so he didn't die.
_________________________________________________________________

4) NAME:    Pa Neh               SEX: M      AGE: 35
   ADDRESS: Pa'an Township, Thaton District
   FAMILY:  Married with 2 children

We ran away because they forced our village to move.  they forced
us all to dismantle our houses and then go and build a hut in their
relocation camp.  I was very upset about moving and I discussed it
with my wife.  We both thought, "If we go and stay there, how can
we earn our living?  We have no farm there, we won't be able to
survive".  We knew if we ran out of food, the soldiers wouldn't
give us anything for sure.  So we decided to escape from them.  My
wife and children left first, took the boat to Shwegun and then to
Ka Ma Maung, then went on by foot.  I stayed back and went to the
relocation camp, because if I didn't we would all have trouble.

I gathered some bamboo to make a hut, just to make the soldiers
believe we were moving to the camp.  They hung papers in front of
each hut for family registrations, and I just sat and started
slivering bamboo.  But then some soldiers came to me, so I asked to
go to the toilet and ran away.  When I got to the river a friend
told me, "The soldiers are following you to arrest you", so I kept
going with just a pot and some rice.  I got to Lay Kho village and
it was empty, so I continued to another village but nobody lived
there anymore either.  I just slept in the bush at night and went
on.  Some villages still had people, and I stopped and did hard
jobs for them for a day or a few days to make some money to keep
going.  In one village I reached, I found out SLORC troops were
already in the other part of the village, and I had to ask a
villager to take me to the road to get out right away.  Finally I
found my family, and we all arrived here just 4 days ago.

My brother-in-law was also living with us before the relocation
because his wife died last summer, but he ran away with his 4 kids
as soon as he heard that the soldiers were going to force us to
move.  But I think he ran in the other direction.  And I don't even
know where my mother is anymore.  We'd built a good house for her
in the village so she didn't want to run away, but after they
relocated us we all had to run in different directions.  For people
who had livestock, it was very hard.  We couldn't bring anything
ourselves, only a couple of pots.  We are very poor.

Many people had to run from them.  I don't know what happened to
them all.  We all had to run around everywhere - I was separated
from my family for a whole month.  If the SLORC troops meet people
in the forest, they shoot.  One villager tried to go to work his
farm to get rice.  The soldiers found out, so they followed him and
shot him.  He was killed on the spot.

We couldn't dare go back home.  If they find people still in the
village, they tie them up and beat them very badly.  As for the
villagers in the relocation camp, right now the soldiers don't
allow them to go anywhere, not even to the surrounding forest. 
They don't provide them with anything.  The soldiers tormented our
minds terribly with all their ill treatment.

The soldiers are from 99 Division.  With them around, villagers
like us have no chance to sleep at home.  We always have to be
ready to run away from them.  In many villages they took almost all
the livestock - after they left you could see the hair from the
dead livestock all over the place.  They take whatever they want. 
They took almost all my Aunt's rice.  They just took and took, and
never asked permission for anything.  If we asked for the cost, we
were ignored.  They just tormented us.  I can't describe how angry
they made me.

At Kwee Hta Kaw village, a man named Ko Htaw had run away from the
soldiers because if they see any men in a village, they always tie
them up and beat, hit, and kick them.  So Ko Htaw's wife stayed
alone with her children, and usually slept at her sister's house. 
Her sister is single so she's very afraid of the soldiers, so
whenever they come near the village she goes away to stay with her
aunt.  This left Ko Htaw's wife alone with her children, one boy
and one girl, and one night the soldiers came to her house and two
of them raped her.  She wanted to tell their commander but they
threatened to kill her if she did, so she had to keep quiet.  When
Ko Htaw found out he was so angry he wanted to fight them.  But we
can do nothing.
_________________________________________________________________

5) NAME:    Naw Shee Ku          SEX: F      AGE: 27
   ADDRESS: Pa'an Township, Thaton District
   FAMILY:  Married with one child

The SLORC soldiers say to us, "If Karen soldiers come and ask for
your livestock you give it to them.  If we ask you refuse all the
time."  They get drunk and ask to have sex with us, so we can't
dare sleep at home.  Group after group of soldiers come to our
houses, and they're very often drunk.  They ask for alcohol but we
have none, so they say we keep it for the Karen soldiers.  They
went to my sister's house, took almost all of her fish paste [a
staple Karen food, eaten with rice] and broke the vat.  No one
dares to stop them.  She asked for the cost, and they didn't
answer.  they said, "You keep the fish paste for Karen soldiers". 
If we stopped them they would accuse us of being rebels, so no one
dares speak to them.  They say, "You are relatives of Karen
soldiers.  If you give birth to a boy then when he grows up you'll
let him join the Karen Army".  A few months ago they were even
arresting the girls as rebels, they didn't even care if they were
single or married.  If they see children around the village they
call them "Son of a Karen soldier" and beat them, so all the
children run from them.  They even hurt the children.

One morning when they came to ask for alcohol, they saw a widow so
they said she's a Karen soldier's wife, and she had to run away
from them and could only come back after they left the village. 
They arrested my cousin and accused her of being Kyaw Soe's wife
[Kyaw Soe is a local Karen Army commander].  A militiaman came to
my house twice and asked me "What is the name of Kyaw Soe's wife?",
but I said I didn't know her.  So they went to my mother and asked
her again and again until she was afraid, so she made up a name and
said, "Her name is Mu Chit".  Then they said "We've got Mu Chit" -
but the woman they'd arrested is Ma Bee, and she's single.

They told Ma Bee, "You are Mu Chit - admit it and we'll free you",
but Ma Bee said "I'm not Mu Chit, I'm Ma Bee, and I'm single.  Mu
Chit has 3 children."  Then the soldiers beat her.  They only freed
her the next morning, after the villagers had vouched for her.  A
few weeks later they caught a woman named Mu Chit, who is about 25
and single.  They accused her of being Kyaw Soe's wife and tortured
her alot - so I think if Ma Bee had said she was Mu Chit just to go
free, they would only have tortured her more instead.  They
tortured Mu Chit until she was bruised very badly.  They tied her
hands behind her and beat her again and again.  They wouldn't allow
the village head to see her.  They just said, "It's not your
concern, so mind your business or you'll get trouble too."  Then
the headman said, "She is my niece.  If she's going to die then
I'll die too."  He spoke very bravely, and he told them she's
single.  But the soldiers insisted she was married because "she
doesn't look single".  Finally when the village headman bribed them
and vouched for her again, they freed her.  Kyaw Soe's real wife
had already escaped the village long before, so the soldiers just
tortured poor Mu Chit in her place.

The soldiers are very proud of their 99 Division.  They said, "24
Battalion couldn't handle you, but we are 99 Division."  They
always took our chickens and fried them as if they were free.  They
took our things and tried to sell them cheaply around the village,
but no one would buy from them.  They even went around selling our
spoons for 2 Kyat each, and our pots and knives.  If no one will
buy it from them they keep it, or if they don't want it they just
throw it away.  They come and take our things again and again. 
None of us dares to stop them, because we're scared of their guns.

They don't like anyone to speak against them.  If you do, they
threaten you with a gun.  They abuse the villagers and say that if
you are against them they'll shoot you for sure.  They even shot an
old woman who went against them - she was very old and just a
civilian.  They arrest even the women to carry loads for them, and
even the children all run away from them.  No one dares wear any
green clothes or a black watch because they will say you're a Karen
soldier.  If a woman wears new clothes, they accuse her of being
the wife of a Karen soldier.

They saw one man slivering bamboo in the village and tried to
arrest him.  When he ran they shot him, but he wasn't killed and
got away.  They came to another woman's house to take all her
chickens and she told them, "If you want you can take 2 or 3 of
them, but you're very stupid if you take them all."  So they shot
her, and she died.  They took her body and buried it outside the
village.

No woman can go anywhere alone - we must always go in groups of at
least two or three, or they'll take us for sure.  They arrest
people again and again, and they take everyone's possessions.  Even
if they don't want it, they take it anyway and just throw it away. 
they even took my new sarong that my mother-in-law gave me. 
Whenever they take everything they say we are all Kyaw Soe's
relatives and members of the Karen Army.
_________________________________________________________________

6) NAME:    Naw Aye Da           SEX: F      AGE: 30
   ADDRESS: Tee Pa Doh Kee area, Pa'an Township, Thaton Dist.
   FAMILY:  Married with several children

The soldiers always made us work in their camp, making fences. 
They took everyone, they didn't care how old or young.  They just
made everyone go and stay until the work was all finished.  Even
the old women always had to go make fences for them.  The soldiers
in the camp guarded us.

We never saw them kill people in our village but we know they
killed people in other villages.  Two people from our village
disappeared, though.  We saw their families crying.  Nobody was
sure whether the soldiers had killed them or just took them away.

Not long ago the soldiers came to our village and forced us to
move.  They came and threatened us with their guns and said, "You
must move right away.  You can't stay here."  Some people said they
didn't want to move, but they were beaten very badly.  So we had to
move.  For people who had alot of livestock or possessions it was
very hard.  They couldn't take all their things with them.  The
soldiers forced us to dismantle our houses.  We pleaded with them
only to remove the leaf roof and the bamboo floor, but they forced
us to dismantle them completely.  They said if we wouldn't, they'd
pull them apart nail by nail for us.  I thought if we refused, they
might burn the houses.  So we had to dismantle everything.

They moved us to a place called No Ka Ray, on the riverbank, on
sand.  We had to build our huts there, and the soldiers put guards
around us.  There were guards on every gate into and out of the
village.  We didn't dare try to go back to our old village.

Earlier this month we ran away and came here.  We had to flee from
them.  They didn't know we ran away, or they would have tried to
catch us on the way and we would have disappeared because they
would have killed us.  They want us all to stay under them, and
they can do anything they want to us.
_________________________________________________________________

7) NAME:    Saw Kyaw Moe         SEX: M      AGE: 35
   ADDRESS: Pa'an Township, Thaton District
   FAMILY:  Married with children

Recently the soldiers surrounded No Tha Ray village to catch
villagers.  They arrested Po Kyauk Kae and tortured him.  He
couldn't bear it, and later he told everyone how they had tortured
him.  So they took him again, forced him to show them places where
people were hiding, and then killed him.

Two men, Po Kwa Lay and Du Du, were on their way to his funeral
when they met some soldiers.  The soldiers knew Po Kwa Lay is a
Karen soldier, so they tied him up and slashed his friend Du Du's
stomach with a knife.  Du Du's cousin Maung Htay vouched for Du Du
and they freed him because Maung Htay is in their militia, but he
didn't dare vouch for Po Kwa Lay.  The soldiers took Po Kwa Lay to
show them hiding places, and then they killed him.

Whenever we see the SLORC soldiers we run from them because
whenever they see men in a village they torture us.  Just before I
came here they arrested my brother, and I still don't know if they
killed him or freed him.  He was walking to another village with
his friend Kyaw Oo to buy a cow.  A group of soldiers arrested them
and tortured Kyaw Oo.  Then they went to Kyaw Oo's wife in the
village, but quietly so no one knew.  They interrogated her, and we
heard that she had to sleep with them to save her husband, but
we're not sure.

Another girl from the village disappeared while watching her cows. 
When her mother went to get her back, she met soldiers on the way. 
They just slapped her in the face, pulled her hair and sent her
home.  She never got to see her daughter.  The soldiers held her
daughter for a week before they freed her.

Also, at Pa Boh village they shot 30 cows at once.  Then they just
took a little of the meat, and left the rest laying there to rot.

I'm married, but if I were single I'd get a gun and fight them.  I
really want to fight them.
_________________________________________________________________

8) NAME:    Saw Po Thay          SEX: M      AGE: 25
   ADDRESS: Tee Pa Doh Hta village, Pa'an Twp., Thaton Dist.
   FAMILY:  Married with one child

Sometimes the SLORC soldiers come to our village once every two
days, sometimes only once or twice a month, but it's not always the
same Battalion.  If any men are in the village, they take 15 or 16
of them as porters.  If no men are there then they take the women. 
Sometimes they say they'll take them for 2 or 3 days but then take
them for a month.  None of the porters get enough food, and some
are beaten.  The soldiers make us carry 84 mm. rockets, 6 apiece,
or 81 mm. shells, other equipment and food.  Even those who get
sick have to carry.  Two or three men from the village got very
sick with dysentery or malaria as porters.  Sometimes the soldiers
even keep the porters for 2 months.

We hear rumours that the women have been raped when they're taken
as porters, but they never talk about it.  If they get pregnant
they take special medicine to stop it, and just keep quiet about
it.  The soldiers take the women for two purposes, firstly as
porters and human shields for long time periods like one month, and
secondly for one or two nights at a time to be raped.  Soldiers
come from the nearby camp of 19 Battalion and take girls away into
the forest.  This happens frequently.

In December 1992 I had to go as a porter with one of my friends. 
The soldiers came into the village and shot some chickens and
ducks, then they forced us to go with them for one day to Nya Po
Kee.  There were 140 soldiers and 16 porters.  The porters were
convicts from Taungoo Prison, but some had already escaped so the
soldiers were capturing villagers to take their place.  The
soldiers were from 19 Battalion of 99 Division, Battalion Commander
Tin Nyunt.  Their home camp is in Pegu Division, but now about 300
of them are based just 20 minutes' walk from our village.

There is also 15 Battalion, and whenever they meet villagers they
beat them and torture them saying that they're Karen soldiers. 
They tortured two men from my village, Saw Ta Pu Ka, who is 24
years old with a wife and one child, and Pa May Kay, who is 26 with
3 children.  On January 3, 1993 these two men were going to the
forest to collect firewood, and the soldiers saw them, captured
them and took them to their camp.  They said, "You are Karen
soldiers" and beat them and tortured them.  They told them to go
and get their guns and bring them, as if they were Karen soldiers. 
Then they put a 5 foot bamboo pole across their shins, and soldiers
kept standing on both ends of it until they couldn't bear it
anymore, and then the soldiers rolled it up and down their shins by
hand.  Next they poked them in the stomach with bayonets until it
bled, just to cause pain, and put nylon bags over their heads and
poured cold water over the bags so they couldn't breathe. [This is
a common SLORC torture; the victims can breathe through the nylon
until water is poured on it, which makes it airtight].  Saw Ta Pu
Ka and Pa May Kay were kept tied up while this went on for 3 days,
and then they were untied but the torture went on for 4 more days. 
On January 10, Win Nay Soe, who commands 15 Battalion, said that if
a teacher and the village nurse went to their camp and guaranteed
that the men weren't Karen soldiers then they'd be released.  After
they were freed, they had to be treated in the village for one
whole month, and even now they still have internal pain.  Now they
can work again, but not as much as before.

Also, about one month ago near No Aw Lah village, 84 Battalion was
along the road.  Some villagers saw them and tried to run away, so
the soldiers shot at them and killed 2 people.

In December 1992 they ordered us to relocate, but the village has
400 houses, so it is too big and we didn't move.  All of the small
villages with 50 houses or less have been forced to move, though. 
I think over 100 villages altogether have recently been forced to
move in Thaton and Papun Districts.  They're doing this to cut off
the Karen Army from the Karen people.  In our area many have been
forced to move to the big villages like Tee Pa Doh Hta which has
400 houses, Lay Po Hta with 320 houses, and Tee Chu Baw with 260
houses.  Some of the villages near Tee Pa Doh Hta which have been
forced to move are Tee Chee Baw Kee (30 houses), Ma Klu Taw (35
houses), Kwa Lah (35 houses), Ta Meh Kee (25 houses), and Nya Po
Kee (28 houses).  That's well over 1,000 people, just from those
villages.  Many of them are now in Tee Pa Doh Hta.  They have no
way to earn a living anymore because they can't go back to their
farms.  It's even dangerous now for Tee Pa Doh Hta villagers to go
to our farms, because SLORC troops patrol everywhere and if you
meet them they take you as a porter.  But everyone in Tee Pa Doh
Hta feels sorry for the people who've been forced to move, so we
give them rice and they try to help us on our farms.  All of them
still hope that sometime they can go back to their home villages
and farms, but now it's very hard for them.  It's worse than ever
before.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Karen Human Rights Group
Box 22
Mae Sot, Tak 63110
Thailand

(Email for the KHRG sent to strider@xxxxxxxxxxx will be forwarded
to them)