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KHRG Report: 2/3, SLORC's 1993 Offe



Subject: KHRG Report: 2/3, SLORC's 1993 Offensive Against Karen Civilians

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      AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
________________________________________________________________

        THE_SLORC'S_1993_OFFENSIVE_AGAINST_KAREN_CIVILIANS        
________________________________________________________________


In three parts

Part 2 of 3

July 10, 1993

Filename: jul10_93.2_3

This report consists of summaries of transcripts of statements with
31 refugees from throughout Pa'an, Thaton, and Papun Districts in
Karen State, Eastern Burma.  Their stories are fairly grim and do
not make for pleasant reading.  Due to its length, this report is
divided into three parts.


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NAME:     Po Tha Lay      SEX: M     AGE: 32
ADDRESS:  Bu Tho Township, Papun District
FAMILY:   Married with 1 child aged 7

I left my village and came to be a refugee after they killed my
cousin.  His name was Saw Cha Naw Ku, and he was 25 and single. 
The Burmese caught him and killed him for no reason, just because
he was good-looking with fair skin, so they said he might be a
Karen officer.

In hot season the Burmese trucks came and the Karen soldiers shot
at their truck, so the Burmese came to our village and killed 4
people, just outside the village, and they burned the houses.  They
ate many cows, including my mother's cow, and they burned our house
so my mother, brothers and sisters also ran away.  They don't dare
stay there anymore, so they came out here.  I didn't see the
Burmese burn the houses, but my family and friends all saw it.

I just went back to visit my village, and I saw the Burmese still
oppressing people.  They can't oppress the Karen soldiers so they
oppress only the villagers.  They say we're all Kaw Thoo Lei and
they can't kill Karen soldiers, so they kill civilian women and
others.  They kill porters because they can't carry anymore and try
to run away.  If the men run away, they catch the girls and take
them as porters.  The women must work like the men.  They have to
carry supplies to Sleeping Dog Mountain, and any who can't carry
are beaten to death.  When they take porters they say they'll only
be gone 10 days, but then they don't send them back until their
family sends someone to replace them.  My wife had to go as a
porter and so did I.  I had to carry 1,000 machine gun bullets, or
sometimes 2 tins of rice.  All the skin rubbed off my shoulders and
I injured my head.

The Burmese always come to our village because it's on the supply
line to Sleeping Dog Mountain.  They come along the road, so we're
all afraid to work in our fields because they're alongside the
road.  Last month they caught a man who was working in his field
and staying in his field hut.  They took his rice and threw it
away, then they tied him up, cut slices all up his arns, cut the
skin on his neck and then killed him.  A friend told me this story.

In each village we have a leader.  When the Burmese come they say,
"You have guns."  But the leaders say, "We have no guns."  Then
they hang the leader up by his wrists and beat him.  When they come
to the village all the villagers run away, but one time 2 people
were on the roofs of their houses and couldn't come down, so the
soldiers caught them.  They beat them with big sticks and broke
their legs, then they broke one person's arm and stabbed the other
with a knife.  They couldn't get away.  Then the Burmese said,
"You're Kaw Thoo Lei", and they called the village leader and said,
"You have ten guns in the village.  Give us five guns."  The leader
said, "We have no guns in this village."  So they tied rope around
his neck and hung him by another rope from a tree.  They threw the
rope over a branch and pulled him up, Later they untied him and
freed him.  Then he fled the village, and so did many of the
villagers.  Now everyone has fled my village - it's deserted.  Some
came here, and many have gone to other villages.  We don't dare go
back.  If the Burmese don't kill at least 5 people in each village,
they don't feel content.
_________________________________________________________________ 
NAME:     Ma Shwe Myint     SEX: F     AGE: 26
ADDRESS:  Leh Bleh Township, Pa'an District
FAMILY:   Married with 3 children aged 7, 6, and 2

All the villagers are so afraid that they're fleeing our village. 
Me too; I'm afraid because the Burmese always come and murder
villagers.  They killed my uncle Maung Keh Deh in May this year. 
He was a 39 year old widower with three children aged 5, 7, and 9. 
They caught him at his farm and ordered him to go and get
information on Karen soldiers, but he wouldn't so they dragged him
along the path and beat him to death with sticks.  Now his children
are orphans.  They're staying with other people.

Many others have died as well, I can't tell you all of them.  Two
boys went as porters for over a month.  They went to Meh Tha Wah
and came back, then they went to Tay Htoo and didn't come home. 
They had to go a long time without enough food so they were very
weak, and on their way back they died before they reached the
village.  Their names were Maung Shwe Oo and Pa De Ko, and they
were only 19 and 15 years old.  That happened this month.

I also had to go as a porter twice.  The first time I had to go for
four days with my aunt and my small children.  My baby was too
small to leave at home, so I had to carry my baby on my front and
my load on my back.  I had to carry a big soldier's bag over
mountains, and there was very heavy rain so we got all soaked. 
They didn't even give us rice, just rotten beans.  I saw them
hitting men who couldn't carry with knives.  There were many women
too.  They didn't hit the women, but we didn't get any food.

The Burmese always came and forced us to do work for them, getting
vegetables for them, mending the roads and going as porters.  We
had to go at least 3 or 4 times in a month, sometimes constantly. 
We had no time to do our own work because we were always working
for them.  They are from 99 Division.  Their camp is near the
village and their Commander is Captain Myint Thein.  He gives the
orders and the soldiers hurt the people.

We couldn't bear to stay in the village anymore, so we fled and
came here.  It took us one week.  No one dares stay in our village
anymore - they've gone to stay in the hills, where they have huts. 
On our way here we passed many villages.  There were no people
there either; they're all hiding in the forest.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Saw Tha Ghay    SEX: M     AGE: 37
ADDRESS:  Leh Bleh Township, Pa'an District
FAMILY:   Married with 5 children aged 1 month - 13 years

We came to be refugees because we couldn't stay - the Burmese
always come to our village and murder people.  This month they
killed 5 men: Maung Keh Deh (age 39, widower with three children),
Pa Taw Kloh (age 50, with wife and seven children), Dee Ha (age 18,
single), Po No (age 20, single), and Pa Dee (age 19, single).  The
Burmese said they were Karen soldiers, but they weren't.  The last
three were taken outside the village and shot to death.  Pa Taw
Kloh was found beaten to death outside the village beside the path. 
They come and kill villagers every month like that.

There are 120 houses in our village.  They always came and forced
us to work for them, carrying big bags for them, digging bunkers
and going as porters.  If we don't do it, they kick and beat us. 
They took me as a porter several times.  For two months they made
me carry weapons and bullets.  They gave me just a little rice to
eat, beat me one time and did other bad things to me.  When I was
a porter I saw them kill two porters and they also caught two
villagers and killed them.  Many got sick, and if they couldn't
carry they just hit them and left them.  I saw two men left like
that.  I got so sick I was almost dying, but they wouldn't free me. 
They ordered me to keep carrying as always.  Finally I ran away. 
You must always run away, because they will never free you.  Many
people die as porters.  At least 5 or 6 people from my village have
died as porters this year.  I can't remember all their names, but
I remember Pa Kloh (age 40), Dee Khay (age 40), Pa Waw Wah (age
39), Pa Pleh (age 40), and Maung Ohn Shwe.  All of them died as
porters this year.  They take the women too - 60, 70, or 100 of
them at once.  Whether they called my wife in the night or the day,
she had to go.  When we fled and came here we passed many villages,
but there were no more people in them.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Klo Wah Mo       SEX: F     AGE: 43
ADDRESS:  Pa'an Township, Thaton District
FAMILY:   Married with 7 children aged 2-20

I was a village leader.  Sometimes the Burmese ordered me to follow
them, even though my baby was still young and needed milk.  They
also took my husband as a porter, and ate all my rice.  My mother
bought me 5 blankets but the Burmese soldiers took them all.  Twice
they took all my blankets, and they took all our clothes, even my
daughter's sarong.  They beat my eldest daughter until her face
became bruised, and then she came home sick, and it cost us 8,000
Kyat to get her better.  My daughter was a porter for two months,
and I had to go as a porter too.  They took everything in our house
and we became poorer and poorer.  They forced us to sleep on the
road and guard it all the time.  The Burmese put a bomb on the
road, it exploded on them, and then they fined us and beat us for
it.  They tortured me by pouring hot water in my mouth.  I couldn't
sleep well or eat well anymore, so we came here.  There we were
only getting poorer and poorer.

The Burmese catch the villagers in the hill rice fields.  The
villagers can't tell them anything but they slap their faces and
pour hot water in their mouths.  We're not Karen soldiers, but they
say, "You are Karen soldiers, you have a gun."  They catch women
and men too.  When I left they were doing this to many people.  We
couldn't bear it.

They forced me to work for them, and to give them 10 baskets of
paddy.  We also had to give them 600 Kyats for "emergencies".  When
they order labour, the women must go and work very hard for them. 
They catch many people because there are so many Burmese troops. 
We work for them very hard, then they leave and another group
comes, and we must work for them too.  I can't work for so many
people.  

They force us to work at the army camps and to cut bamboo for them,
but most of all they make us sweep the road.  We have to sweep it
whenever Army trucks are going to come along.  They tell us to find
the land mines but we don't know how to, so we only sweep.  Then
they come along to take away any mines.  The mines are very big. 
They also force us to sleep on the road at night to guard it.  Each
person has to sleep there for three nights whether we dare to or
not.  We have to take our mats and all our food and sleep there,
and during the day we have to drive carts up and down the road and
sweep it for mines.  We have to rotate in three day shifts.  When
a mine explodes we have to pay a fine to the soldiers and they
order us to show them all the other mines.  We can never find them,
and when we can't they torture us and say they'll kill us.

They take our livestock and whatever they want, and if they see
vilagers they slap them, especially the young men, so the young men
can't stay in the village anymore.  They even accuse the school
kids of being Karen soldiers.  A 13 year old school girl who was
looking for her buffalo was taken by the soldiers and they didn't
set her free for 5 or 10 days; they didn't let her go until her
parents hired someone else to go and replace her.  They took my 20
year old daughter, so as village head I went to plead for her but
318 Infantry wouldn't release her.  They said they'd call for me
but they didn't; it seemed like forever.  My husband said, "You're
the village leader - what are you going to do?"  I could do
nothing.  As for rich people, they can sell paddy to get 800 Kyat
to pay a ransom to the soldiers to free their children.  But I have
no money, so I could only stay at home waiting for my daughter, and
I got sick.

We always have to send them porters and labourers, and we have to
hire elephants to drag logs for the army camp.  The soldiers came
and demanded money to build a clinic but their truck just took away
all the money and nothing was built.  We could only watch.  It was
the same when they demanded money for the school.  No one can stop
them.  They just do whatever they want.  The soldiers are always
changing - sometimes they're from 83 Battalion, or 317 or 318
Infantry, or 99 Division.  I only knew Captain Htun Nyunt from 83
Battalion, and Lt. Bo Lay and Lt. Soe Oo.

They didn't force our village to move, but they forced all the
villages around us, like H---, L---, H---, and all the others.  And
they told our village, "Don't make any trouble or we'll drive you
out."  Everyone there is suffering as I've suffered, but they are
deeply rooted in their village and don't want to leave.  I'm glad
I came here, because here the leaders care for the villagers, and
the villagers all help each other.  If we'd known this before we
would have come earlier.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Naw Htoo Say       SEX: F     AGE: 30
ADDRESS:  Pa'an Township, Thaton District
FAMILY:   Married with 3 children

Even though our village has only 15 houses, the Burmese demand 10
porters at a time from us.  Then if we can't supply the full number
they say we're being unhelpful.  They demand labour, bamboo, and
many other things.  We tell them, "We have only 10 people and you
ask us for hundreds of bamboo trees.  How are we supposed to do
that?"  But they say, "You refuse to help us because you only help
Kaw Thoo Lei."

They make us send a go-between who has to interpret, report if any
Karen soldiers are around, do their errands, clean the compound and
do whatever else the soldiers request.  No man would dare go and
married women can't go, so it must be a single girl.  Our
go-between was N---, who is about 20 years old; now she is a
refugee.  She had to sleep at the army camp.  She thought that as
a go-between they would not mistreat her, but the Commander tried
to embrace her and kiss her.  She refused but she said it was very
hard to escape, and when she returned she told the village head
that she didn't dare go back.  He told her, "Then you'd better not
go back, or something may happen which would ruin your life."  So
she didn't go again.  Then the Burmese commander was afraid that
the villagers might go and report him to higher authorities, so he
forced our village to move.  He said our village helps Kaw Thoo
Lei, and drove us out in Wa Soe month.  He said, "You can go
wherever you want, but I don't want to see any of you in this
village again."  At that time ours was the only village forced out. 
The commander hoped that if he drove us out we wouldn't be able to
report him.

In our new places we couldn't grow our own food.  We all had to
work day by day, pounding rice for others and getting paid 4 or 5
little milktins of rice per day.  When people couldn't suffer it
any longer they moved back to our own village, but then 99 Division
forced us to move again after only one month.  They gave us only 5
days to move, and said if we didn't leave then even the smallest
baby would be shot.  So some people moved to N---, and others were
arrested by the soldiers.  They forced us to hurry.

A man named H---, who was being used as a porter by the soldiers,
was tied up, beaten, and abused.  They said he was a Karen soldier
but he told them he wasn't.  They came and tied him up in front of
my house, tied a woman's sarong around his head, then beat and
kicked him.  Then they dragged him to two other villages.  The
headman tried to plead for him but they said, "You can't vouch for
Ringworm.  We won't free him."  After many days of this, he escaped
from the soldiers.

While they were torturing him, they called the whole village
together, then went into our empty houses and took everything, even
the spoons.  My niece had 600 Kyat stolen - she was hoping to save
it to go to the full moon celebration in Wa Soe Lah month.  They
even took her sarong.  They found my small son in my house and
drove him out.  He walked around the village crying and crying,
then he went and stayed outside the village in the forest and got
sick with malaria.

The village men are afraid to meet the soldiers because they'll be
tied up and taken as porters.  Whenever the soldiers see people
running they shoot at them.  One woman was shot in the arm by the
soldiers.  We have no doctor so we had to take her to the Army
camp.  The doctor there asked who shot her and we said "the Burmese
soldiers".  He said he wouldn't treat her if she said that; he said
she must say it was a Karen soldier.  So she said it was Karen
soldiers, he treated her and she was better after 10 days.

A few days later the Burmese were patrolling near the village when
Karen soldiers shot one of them.  They were very angry, so when
they saw 2 villagers they shot one dead and dragged the other to
their camp.  The wounded soldier said that one of the Karen
soldiers who shot him had a red shirt, and the other a black shirt. 
This villager had a black shirt on, so they beat him terribly until
he passed out.  Even then they didn't free him, but dragged him to
the forest.  He died on the way.  They let the other villagers come
and collect the body.  I think the two villagers' names were Pleh
Way and Bo Po.

When the SLORC forced us to move, Naw A--- and her stepfather
gathered their possessions and left for the farm.  Her stepfather
went ahead and she followed.  On the way she met soldiers from 99
Division and they caught her.  Her stepfather turned back to help
her, and the soldiers aimed to shoot him but Naw A--- pleaded with
them, so they said they wouldn't shoot if he came forward.  He came
and they tied him up, put a uniform and cap on him, punched and
beat him and accused him of being a Karen soldier.  He told them he
was a civilian, but they said, "You're young, you must be Kaw Thoo
Lei."  Naw A--- is very young so the soldiers like her, and one of
them slapped her and said, "We'll release your father if you love
me".  She said, "You slap me then you ask me to love you?  I don't
love you.  I could never love you.  I'd die before I'd love you." 
Then they freed Naw A---, but not her stepfather.  They dragged him
away.  Nearby they saw some other SLORC soldiers and shot at each
other by mistake.  But they said to Naw A---'s stepfather, "See -
you attacked us.  You are Kaw Thoo Lei", and they shot him dead. 
Then the villagers came, collected his body, and held a funeral. 
Naw A--- is only 17 years old, and her stepfather was only about
25.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Saw Nyi Hla       SEX: M     AGE: 40
ADDRESS:  Pa'an District
FAMILY:   Married with 3 children

The Burmese tortured my cousin.  They captured him in the forest,
took his two woodcutting machetes, and made him a porter for 3
days.  When they freed him he had to ask more than once for his
machetes back.  They eventually gave them, but then they didn't
free him.  That night they tortured him.  They put a cloth around
his head, punched and beat him, then they cut the muscle on his
thigh and also cut his penis with a knife.  After 3 days they
realised he's not a Karen soldier, but he was very sick so they
treated him and let him go.  But he's still very sick.

They raped Naw M---, my friend H---'s wife.  She was coming home
one night not far from her house when they caught her and raped her
in a standing position.  When she tried to scream they put their
hands on her mouth.  Her husband was very angry and upset, but he
could do nothing.  It was very horrible.

When some Karen soldiers were active in the area the Burmese got
very angry, so they killed one villager.  They caught him in his
betelnut plantation and killed him.  They also saw a big house
there, destroyed it and stole everything.  About that time, M--'s
husband heard shooting and went to hide in a bunker.  They found
him there, beat him to death and buried his body.  Another time
there was shooting not far from my village and the Burmese got
angry, so then whenever they saw a buffalo they shot it.  They
killed 28 in all, and didn't even take the meat.  They just shot
them and left them there.  Whenever they see people or animals they
shoot at them.  They also take our small livestock; if we tried to
stop them they'd kill us.  It was terrible. 

There are so many things I could tell you that I can't even
remember them all.  A villager from Kyaw Ay Kee was going home with
his rice cart when the Burmese grabbed him, tied him up, beat him
to death and buried him in the forest.  Whenever they meet people
on the path they tie them up and beat them.  They tie a cloth
around your head, punch you 4 or 5 times and beat you 5 or 6 times
before they even ask any questions.  No one can even plead for you,
even the village headman.  The soldiers just say, "Don't bother
vouching for him.  We have to do this."  Because of this, no one
dares to walk outside the village, but if you stay in the village
you must always listen for word of the soldiers - if they come you
must run, or you face the consequences.  Then if they see you
running or in the forest, they shoot at you.  This 99 Division is
terrible; this year they're making war on all Karen people, and
life is very hard.  About 100 families from my village have already
come here, but 200 or 300 families are still there.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Eh Ghay Pa         SEX: M     AGE: 30
ADDRESS:  Pa'an Township, Thaton District
FAMILY:   Married with 3 children aged 6, 4, and 1
 I came here because the Burmese oppress us.  They ordered me to be
a porter; they also ordered me to go get information about Karen
soldiers for them, but I only went part way to the place, then I
stayed at a house.  The Burmese soldiers came and found me there
and said, "You must be Kaw Thoo Lei.  You are not even just a
relative of Kaw Thoo Lei, you are one yourself!" 

I pleaded that I was not a Kaw Thoo Lei soldier, and said that I
had gone to the place they sent me and come back.  After they asked
me one or two questions, they started to hit me.  One of the Second
Lieutenants with one star, named Myint Thein, hit me with a carbine
rifle butt twice in my chest, and I couldn't breathe for a few
minutes, which was terrible.  The officer then ordered the soldiers
to tie me up.  After a few minutes I told the officer that I had
gone to the place they asked, and I said "Anyway how could I be Kaw
Thoo Lei?  If I was, I could never go as a porter for you." 

The villagers couldn't see what was happening to me.  The soldiers
untied me, and I asked permission to cook.  While I was cooking I
heard two soldiers talking - they said, "Be careful of this man -
he might try to run, because this evening we'll take him and maybe
kill him."  I was listening closely to them.  So I decided to run
away.  I walked to the river bank, looked around to see that no one
was looking, and ran. 

I ran to my house and told my wife what happened, and that we
should leave before the soldiers came to bother her.  Later I heard
that the soldiers came that evening and asked the villagers where
my wife's house was; but my wife had already left the village.  I
ran from village to village trying to find my wife and children,
but I never found them until I finally saw them here at the refugee
camp.

Another time, 107 Battalion came and raped a girl.  She shouted
loudly but the soldier slapped her face.  We went and told the
Burmese commander about it because he had said, "If my soldiers do
something bad to the villagers, come and tell me."  But when we
told him the commander just said, "Do you have more girls?  If you
do, bring some for me". 

They come in the village, catch the women and kill the animals, so
we don't have any animals there.  Nothing at all.  If we had pigs,
they ate them all.  The women dare not sleep alone at night.  In a
house even if there are 3 women and one man the soldiers don't
care.  They don't fear the man.  They rape the women, and when the
women shout they slap their faces and pull their hair.  In a
village named Kyone Weh, there was a woman who was friendly with
the Burmese but one night they went and raped her.  She shouted
loudly and yelled, "He's come to rape me", so the Burmese soldier
hit her with his rifle butt here, on her head.  Someone went and
told the commander but he just said, "If you have another woman,
tell that soldier to rape her too". 

Two of us were cooking sugarcane when 3 soldiers from 103 Battalion
came and called us.  They caught several of us and dragged us to
the forest.  We slept there, and the next morning they took us to
the village but didn't feed us.  Then they drove many of us through
the forest with no food except a handful of rice a day.  They made
us cut and sliver bamboo and make a fence, and then they made all
70 or 80 of us stay in that fence, men and women.  The commander
said, "You have to suffer like this because you help Kaw Thoo Lei
to survive".  The next morning the Karen soldiers attacked them,
and they drove us into the hills.  We went two days with no food
before they drove us to a village, and the villagers gave us food. 
Then we left again, and a porter from B--- stepped on a booby trap. 
8 villagers were wounded, and the rest of us had to carry them. 
One Pwo Karen man had a huge hole in his hip.  Then the soldiers
captured many women from all the villages around there.  There were
so many captives, old, young, women and men.  The woman all carried
loads on their heads, and the men had loads on their shoulders. 
Our shoulders were cut open from the weight, but we dared not tell
the soldiers.  We had no choice.  Finally, after they caught
another 15 people and we couldn't bear it anymore, I ran away with
a friend.

Karen soldiers came and fought, and the Burmese lost their post. 
Then the Burmese called all the village elders around to come to
their camp.  No one dared to go, but Pa Lu the village headman
said, "I'll die for my village."  He said to the villagers, "Please
come and plead for me", and went.  When he got to the camp they
didn't even ask him any questions, just started punching and
beating him until his face was so badly bruised we couldn't
recognise him any more.  Then the Burmese said, "We caught a
ringworm - a Karen soldier".  Then they took some villagers to
their camp and asked them, "Do you know him?"  When the villagers
saw him they didn't even recognise him because his face was so
badly beaten.  His face and his whole body were covered in blood. 
The soldiers asked, "Do you recognise him?  If you're sure you do,
say yes".  One villager said, "I think I know him".  The soldiers
said, "You'd better be sure.  If you're not sure but you say you
recognise him, you'll go the same way as him".  Then no one dared
vouch for him, and they came back to the village. 

After the villagers left, the soldiers said to Pa Lu, "No one
vouched for you".  They took him to a field just beside the
village, where there's a pond, and they cut his throat.  They left
the body there beside the village, where it would smell very bad. 
The villagers asked permission to bury him.  When they saw his body
they realised it was Pa Lu.  So an old woman went to the soldiers
to protest.  The soldiers just said, "Don't be silly."  They hit
the old woman, and she ran back to the village.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Pi Paw Lah     SEX: F   AGE: 60   CHILDREN: 6
ADDRESS:  Papun District

When I was only 25 the Burmese came and started oppressing the
people in my village.  Whenever they're in the area none of the
villagers can take a rest.  They force every woman and man to work
for them.  When the Burmese first came they couldn't force my
daughter to work because she was still a baby.  But ever since she
grew up enough to work, they've forced her to work for them all the
time right up until now, while her parents are getting old.  The
villagers all have to help them and whenever they want something we
have to give them all of it.  If we worked building houses for
ourselves rather than for them, each one of us could have 3 or 4
houses to live in.  I must have spent 14 or 15 whole years of my
life just working for Burmese soldiers.

Recently when they started to build another camp I had to go to
them because I can speak a little Burmese.  When I got there they
said, "Are you the village leader?  Get ready to go to heaven."  I
asked them what they were going to do to me, and then they put me
in jail with 3 other people.  I was very afraid.

Then they were driving out all the villagers, but I pleaded with
them because we have so many families in our village, with many
animals and ricefields.  I convinced the higher authorities to let
us stay, but then they ordered us to send porters.  We sent the
porters because they said it would just be for 2 days, but then
they kept them for 2 months.  They killed some of the porters
because they were exhausted and couldn't carry anymore.  Then a new
division of Burmese soldiers came.  I thought this had to be a good
thing, but someone told me that these troops are even worse, and
they are.  They come and take many girls, they take all of our
things, our rice, clothes and animals, and all of our money and
gold.  Whatever they see, they take it all.  Did the leaders in
Burma send these men to do this to us?  Who can finally give us
peace from them?

When I was making my fence they came and fired off their guns. 
They don't even ask us any questions, they just rape many girls and
kill people.  They only ask us about "Ringworm" [Karen soldiers],
and oppress us.  If they want to find Karen soldiers they should
look in the jungle, not in the village.  Karen soldiers don't live
in the villages.  But instead of fighting the Karen soldiers, they
fight the civilians.  They catch villagers and accuse us of being
"Ringworm", even though they know we're not.  If we were soldiers
we would carry guns.  The Burmese caught my brother and tied him
up, but he didn't know anything.  The village leader went to vouch
for him and said many good things about him, but the Burmese killed
him anyway.  They oppress the women too.  I was in my house and
they called me out.  I went out, and my children started crying for
me.  The Burmese called me a relative of Karen soldiers, and they
went up into my house and stole everything.  They took all my
money, my earrings, and my chickens as well.

The Burmese don't care whether people are old, young, or even
children.  When they come to our village, if they don't see any men
they shoot our buffalos and eat them.  The Burmese leaders send
them to fight Karen soldiers but now they don't fight Karen
soldiers.  They come and fight the civilians.  They torture
villagers, men and women.  If they've come to fight Karen soldiers
they should go to Sleeping Dog Mountain - that's where the Karen
soldiers are.  In our area there are only one or two.  But I think
the Burmese soldiers are afraid to fight Karen soldiers, so they
don't go there.  They stop here instead and oppress civilians. 
When they tie us up, slap our faces, and ask about Karen soldiers,
I tell them, "Go look in the jungle.  Don't ask village women about
Karen soldiers.  How should we know anything?"  Then they just
accuse us of hiding Karen soldiers.  How can we fight them?

If you want to eat some pigs or chickens, you must ask the owner of
the animals.  If you can't ask, then don't take them.  My father
had to work for the Burmese, but he got 3 Kyats per day for it. 
Now we still have to work for them but we get nothing.  Now we have
to give them money!  The Burmese soldiers force people to follow
them, and then they won't let them come home until we pay 7,000,
8,000, or 10,000 Kyat.  We don't even dare work in our fields or
sleep in our field huts anymore.  Whenever they see us, they shoot
us and kill us.  We're not their enemies, but they kill us anyway. 
The troops never stop coming.  They started coming when my daughter
was a child, and now she's a lady.  We can't do anything about it.
_________________________________________________________________

NAME:     Naw Htoo Baw       SEX: F
ADDRESS:  Papun District

We couldn't tell you about all the things the Burmese do to us even
if we talked the whole night.  I will tell you only a few things. 
I'll tell you about Pi M---, who is a village leader.  She is 70
years old.  The Burmese came and ordered her to find porters for
them, but she couldn't because all the men in the village had
already fled the Burmese.  So the soldiers put a nylon cloth over
her head and poured kerosene on it. Then they lit a flame and put
it near her head.  She cried out, but she couldn't speak Burmese,
so she pleaded in Karen, "My son, don't do like that!"  The soldier
said, "Why can't you find us porters? We'll put the flame on you." 
She cried out again and again "My son, don't do this!"  I went to
them to save her because I can speak Burmese, and I said to the
officer, "No Captain, this woman is very old, don't do this to
her."  But the Burmese had been drinking and he told me, "This is
between her and us.  Don't bother me."  But I said again, "This
woman is very old and you put fire on her.  Imagine what she must
feel.  Think how you would feel yourself."  The Burmese said, "I
didn't put fire on her - I was just scaring her with it."  I told
them that she could feel its heat, so it's no different.

Another time the Burmese caught Saw M--- and said, "You must have
a gun."  He said he didn't, but the Burmese said, "If you give us
your gun you'll live, but if not we'll kill you."  He doesn't have
a gun so he could only deny it.  Then they put him in a pig- stall,
tied him up, beat him and burned off his pubic hair.  They
threatened him with burning things all over his body, and boxed and
kicked his face until it was all swollen, and around his eyes were
all red.  He asked for water, so they gave him salt water and water
with chillies in it.  The next morning his wife came to me and
said, "You must come help me talk to the Burmese soldiers.  We're
very poor and if they kill my husband I'll have no food for my
children."  So I went and told them the truth, that he is just a
villager.  They brought him out and said, "So you swear that he is
not a Karen soldier?"  We all said, "Yes, he is a civilian and
works with us in the fields.  If he wasn't we'd be afraid to vouch
for him."  Then they untied him, but still dragged him and yelled,
"Hey where's your gun?"  He said he had no gun, and they said, "If
you have no gun how did you shoot at us?  If you attack us again
we'll kill you.  From now on you can't walk anywhere.  You must
stay inside the village."  Saw M--- said, "I don't want to go
anywhere. I'll stay in the village.  I'm just a civilian so I'll
stay in the village."  So they freed him.

Another time they caught him again and he had three bullets, so
they called all the villagers out of their houses and said, "He has
three bullets so you must have a gun."  The people told them we
have no gun, but they asked, "Then where did you get the bullets?" 
The villagers said, "We found them on the road and kept them for
talismans."  But the Burmese interrogated four men, and beat,
kicked and slapped them until their faces became swollen, and asked
Saw M---, "Where is your gun?"  One villager tried to save him by
saying, "He has only part of a gun - just the barrel."  But then
the Burmese said he must have a gun for sure.  They took a photo of
Saw M---'s family and asked his wife's name.  Then they yelled at
me, "You vouched for a Karen soldier!"  They all yelled at me at
once so I couldn't understand them.  I said, "I vouched for a good
man.  If you watch him for a year you'll find out he's just a good
man.  If you find out he's a bad man you can say anything you
want."  I said, "If you think I vouched for a Karen soldier then
you can kill me.  A person is born just once, with blood, and can
die just once, with blood."  I was very angry.  I wasn't afraid to
die. 

I will tell you about Pa Wah Wah, another man in our village.  He
was keeping 500 bullets because the Karen soldiers asked him to. 
The SLORC found out and came looking for him.  They called all the
village men together and asked each of them their names.  Pa Wah
Wah  called out a different name, but another man falsely called
out his own name as Pa Wah Wah, so the soldiers took him.  They put
plastic around his head so he couldn't breathe and kicked him.  He
tried to run but he couldn't.  Then they took the plastic off and
asked him for the bullets, but he didn't know anything.  They put
the plastic around his face three or four times and told him, "Go
and get us many guns, otherwise you will die."  They dragged him to
the river and put his head in the water until he couldn't bear it. 
He thought he was going to die for sure because he had no bullets.

The real Pa Wah Wah knew this, so he went and told the Burmese who
he was.  They kicked him, whipped him with sticks, and held his
head underwater until he almost drowned.  Then they dragged him to
the village and he couldn't suffer it any more so he showed them
the bullets.  Then they told him to find his gun.  They said to me,
"If he doesn't get his gun we'll kill you too.  What do you say,
woman?"  I said he's a villager so he has no gun.  He was only
keeping the bullets because he was asked to.  All the villagers
supported me so I said, "If you don't believe that, you'll have to
kill him.  You can kill all of us."  Then the Burmese said if we
didn't give them a gun by the next week, we'd all be driven out of
the village.

We all discussed it and agreed that there was no way we could get
a gun, so we would offer them money.  But the Captain refused, and
demanded a gun.  I asked for more time and he gave us just three
days.  After two days another Captain came and asked if we had a
gun yet.  I told him "No, we can't get one.  You must help us
figure out how to get a gun.  How can we?  We can't buy one in town
and we can't go to Thailand.  Tell me where we can buy a gun and
we'll go get one."  Then I had an idea.  I said, "I saw some
children in a nearby village with a toy gun.  Is that good enough
for you?  If so I will buy it."  But he just smiled and sent me to
see another Captain.  I told him, "If you want to kill all the
villagers, you can, but we can't get a gun.  Show me where we can
get one."  He said, "Then you must find a pig for me.  A big pig -
not a small one.  It must weigh at least 48 kg."  So we went and
killed a pig for them, but the biggest we had was only 45 kg.  We
gave it to them and begged them to free Pa Wah Wah, but they killed
him.  They never admitted it.  They said they'd freed him, but he
never came back to the village.  I searched for news of him for
three days, to see if he'd gone somewhere else, but he'd
disappeared.  Then I went back to the army camp but the soldiers
there had rotated.

On December 30th 1992, they forced all the villagers in every
village to move.  The Burmese officer said, "If you don't move I'll
come to the village myself and give you trouble.  I'll burn your
village and kill the villagers."  We were very sad, but we couldn't
all die like this,  so we moved.   They made us move to S----,
which is a place for cows and buffaloes.  If we'd stayed they would
have killed us.  I don't know what happened after we left.  We
couldn't go back.  We had crops and vegetables but they wouldn't
let us go back to get them.  I heard that the Burmese  soldiers
went to our village and took the coconuts and other things, and ate
some but just threw the rest away.  Then after a month some
soldiers told me, "This week we will go and destroy your houses." 
I went to town to plead with the authorities, and finally they
agreed to leave our houses alone.


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

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

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