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KHRG Report: Karenni State
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REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
________________________________________________________________
SUPPLEMENTARY_REPORT_ON_KARENNI_STATE
Further_Statements_Regarding_SLORC_Murder,_Extortion,_Slavery,
and_Forced_Relocation_in_Karenni_(Kayah)_State
________________________________________________________________
Manerplaw, November 15, 1992
Filename: nov15_92
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This report is supplementary to the report "Karenni State: Forced
Relocation, Concentration Camps and Slavery" issued at Manerplaw on
August 10, 1992. The following accounts were given in interviews
with more of the refugees who have fled to the Karen Revolutionary
Area to escape SLORC persecution, internment in Deemawso
concentration camp, and forced labour as porters and on the
Loikaw-Aung Ban railway line.
These statements are corroborated by evidence from SLORC sources.
Firstly, there is documentary evidence, in the form of signed and
sealed SLORC orders, that the SLORC has been extorting property
and slave labour from villagers in this area for years, and that
SLORC troops had written orders to shoot to kill any man, woman, or
child found in 76 villages of Deemawso, Pruso, and Loikaw townships
after March 25 (see previous reports). Secondly, the SLORC has
refused Australian diplomats permission to observe the railway
site, while on October 13, Lt. Col. Than Han of the SLORC's Border
Areas Development Committee admitted that the mass relocations to
Pruso and Deemawso camps occurred, and that camp internees and
others are being forced to do slave labour on the railway. "We are
doing it for them. But for the present people must suffer by
putting in labour", he said. "Every day people are dying. It's a
normal thing." [See Reuters report in The Nation, Bangkok, Oct. 14
1992]. The testimony of the villagers in this report proves that
his other statements, claiming that women and children are not
being used on the railway and that food and medical care are
provided in Deemawso camp, are absolute lies. Furthermore, the
accounts of the villagers themselves should be used to judge Than
Han's statement, "We are doing it for them".
The names of those interviewed have been changed. All other names,
including those of soldiers and victims of SLORC brutality, are
real. Some details of addresses and other details are omitted
where necessary to safeguard against SLORC reprisals. Please feel
free to use this information in any way which can help these
people.
_________________________________________________________________
Name: Naw Hai May Sex: F Age: 33
Address: Ku Pra Village, Deemawso Township
Nationality/Religion: Kayah, Christian Baptist
Occupation: Farmer
Family: Widow of Saw Samuel [his real name], age 36.
Five children aged 3, 5, 8, 10, and 12.
We had to leave our village in March. The SLORC sent a letter to
the headman, which said "You have 3 days to move to Deemawso. If
you don't obey this order you are rebel supporters. If you don't
leave we will kill you." My husband didn't want to go. He said
our farm is here, and if we go to Deemawso we'll have no food so we
shouldn't move. Many of the others in the village agreed with him
but everyone was too afraid to disobey the SLORC.
The letter came to the headman on a Sunday. On Tuesday, many
soldiers came to the village to check that everyone was leaving.
Most of the villagers had already left because it takes 2 days to
walk all the way to Deemawso carrying everything you can, even your
children. But my husband still didn't want to leave. The soldiers
told him we had to go but he was brave and said he wanted to stay
in his home village. So they killed him.
I was outside our house with my children, and when I heard a shot
I was so scared I just grabbed them and ran to get out of the
village. I looked back and saw my husband fall down, and the
officer was standing there holding his pistol. Right then I knew
my husband was dead, but we had to get away. We didn't dare go
back, we just kept going all the way to Deemawso. We met other
villagers from Ku Pra on the way - nobody dared stay in the village
after the soldiers murdered my husband. It took us 2 whole days to
walk to Deemawso, and it was very hard for the children, especially
the small ones. The older children and I had to carry them all the
way. We had no rice or belongings with us. When we came to
villages the villagers fed us and took care of us.
When we reached Deemawso camp 2 days later, the soldiers there said
I could go back again to bury my husband. I went back without the
children because it was too hard for them, but together with a
group of soldiers. We buried my husband at the village, then
returned to Deemawso. I saw his body - he had been shot in the
left side of the head just below the ear, and there was a large
exit wound in the same place on the right side of his head.
We were in Deemawso camp for two and a half months. There were a
great many people in the camp. Ku Pra is a big village of 80 or 90
houses, and we were in a group of 10 villages. There were other
such groups too, but I don't know how many. My relatives gave us
food to survive. The Army provided nothing at all. My children
got sick with malaria, but there was no medicine and no hospital.
I saw a lot of people die of malaria, and others of cholera and
dysentery. People were all running out of food. They had to eat
rice soup instead of rice, or less rice, and ration their supply.
But the soldiers wouldn't allow anyone to leave the camp.
Every 3 or 4 days I saw the soldiers beating villagers with their
rifle butts. Usually it was people who had run out of food; they
would ask permission to leave the camp to get some food, the
soldiers always refused and then sometimes the villager would argue
with them. Then the soldier always attacked the villager with his
rifle butt. Sometimes they beat people until they were
unconscious.
Nobody dared try to escape during that time. But after a month or
two, the SLORC started letting some people go out for up to 3 days
to go and find some food. I couldn't go because all my children
were sick, so my relatives kept taking care of us. Once the
villagers were allowed out, they started escaping. Finally on June
25, I ran away with all my children. We fled back to Ku Pra, but
there was nobody there, so we went from village to village. After
4 days we saw some KNPLF [Karenni Nationalities People's Liberation
Front] soldiers and went with them. They took care of us and
eventually sent us here where it's safer.
Now I think there must still be many people in the camp, including
some of my relatives. I don't know what their situation might be
now. We just want to go back to our home village, because being a
refugee here is very hard. It's a strange place for us, and I
don't know how to get vegetables here or anything. We just want to
go home.
Note: The KNPLF says that according to their intelligence, it was
Column #3 of SLORC Light Infantry Battalion #72 that entered Ku Pra
Village, and it was the Column Commander who murdered Naw Hai May's
husband.
_________________________________________________________________
Name: Saw Pah Wah Sex: M Age: 46
Address: Western Deemawso Township
Nationality/Religion: Padaung, Christian Baptist
Occupation: Village Baptist Pastor (unordained) and Farmer
Family: Married with 7 children aged 5 to 24
We were forced to move out of our village in March. Even the
village pastors in all the villages were forced out as "rebel
supporters". The SLORC sent a letter to the headman ordering us to
move to Deemawso, and we had to go. In Deemawso concentration camp
there is nothing - no food, no clothes, nothing. If we wanted to
go back to get food or anything from our village we had to ask
permission from the guards, but they wouldn't allow us.
I was in the camp for about 4 months. The soldiers supplied
nothing at the camp, so everyone only had what they'd brought from
the village, which they shared with their relatives who needed it.
There was a small lake for water, but we had to use it for bathing,
drinking, and everything. I saw many people get very sick and some
died. In our group of 600 to 700 people, at least 40 or 50 died of
starvation, and more than that from disease. I didn't see the
soldiers kill anyone but I saw them beating villagers sometimes.
Some villagers would go outside the camp for emergency reasons,
like looking for medicine for a serious illness, and came back
after 6 p.m. without permission. For things like this they were
beaten severely.
In May I was taken from the camp to work on the Loikaw-Aung Ban
railway. All families in the camp were ordered to go, including
women and children big enough to work, which usually meant age 12
and above. If a family couldn't send anyone they were supposed to
pay 2500 Kyat. Otherwise, every family had to go. The soldiers
said, "If you don't work on the railway you can't live in Burma".
We were afraid of them, so we obeyed. The elderly and some mothers
were allowed to stay behind to care for the smaller children.
We had to take our own food with us to the railway. They made us
walk about 25 miles all the way to Pay Ko, where we had to work.
Every day we had to work from 8 to 12 in the morning, then from 1
to 5 in the afternoon. I had to dig dirt and carry it from 50
yards away to make the railway embankment. I had a basket and hoe
that I'd brought with me. The embankment had to be 26 plah [39
feet] across at the base, 8 plah [12 feet] high and 16 plah [24
feet] across at the top. It was very hard work.
There were always 30 to 60 soldiers guarding us. I saw them beat
villagers fairly seriously with their fists and rifle butts for
getting up late in the morning. You had to obey them, because they
would beat you for any reason at all. Many people got sick,
especially of malaria. The soldiers always accused us of
pretending to be sick. If you say you're sick, the soldier feels
your pulse and your forehead. Then if he decides you're really
sick, there's no medicine but at least you're allowed to rest. But
if he decides you're pretending, he beats you with his fist, his
boots, or his rifle butt, and then forces you to work. This
happened very often.
Most people had brought plastic sheets with them, and we used these
to make shelters and slept underneath on the ground. We also
brought our own pots for cooking. The soldiers supplied nothing at
all for us. People who ran out of rice had to borrow from other
families or go all the way back and get more. When I ran out of
rice I walked all the way back to Deemawso Town, where I have some
relatives, and borrowed some from them. But the people in Deemawso
Camp still weren't allowed to leave to get more food.
Going to get rice didn't save us any work, because each family had
been given a work assignment that had to be finished before they
could go home. I had to make a stretch of embankment about 13 plah
[20 feet] long, together with my 13- and 15-year old sons. It took
us about 1 month before we could go back, although some bigger
families finished a bit faster than that.
Not long after we got back to Deemawso Camp, our village headman
got another letter from the senior Operations Command officer,
saying we were going to have to go back to the railway again. That
was just too much for us, so on June 28 we ran away together with
4 or 5 other families, back into the hills. Eventually we found
the KNPLF and went with them.
The SLORC soldiers told me they want to finish this railway in 4
years, all the way down to Maw Chi to carry the wolfram out from
the Maw Chi mines. All the villagers in our area have already been
forced to work on this railway for 2 years. I had to go 3 times
already before we were forced to move to Deemawso. Every time it's
the same conditions. The whole village has to go as slaves, then
after we all get back home, only a couple of months later we get
another letter ordering us to go back and work again. It's
unbearable.
_________________________________________________________________
Name: Koo Hteh Moo Sex: M Age: 28
Address: Western Deemawso Township
Nationality/Religion: Keyoh, Roman Catholic
Occupation: Farmer
Family: Married with 1 daughter now 9 months old
(only 1 month old at time of forced relocation)
The SLORC Army used to come to our village frequently, but we
always heard they were coming, and we fled into the jungle so they
couldn't take us as porters. Only the old, the women and small
children stayed in the village because it was too hard for them to
run away. In March when the soldiers came and found the old
people, the women and children, they ordered them to go to Pruso
Town. The soldiers went there with them, and then took them by
truck to Deemawso Camp.
My wife and 1-month old daughter had run into the forest with me
that time, so we didn't have to go to Deemawso. But my mother is
very old and she was in the village. They took her with them.
We made a little shelter out in the jungle and lived on food we'd
brought from the village. When we ran out of food we went back to
the village to get more, but only if the enemy wasn't around.
Battalion 249 often came and stayed around the village, and then we
couldn't go. We didn't know they had orders to kill any villager
they saw, but we were sure they would take us as porters, or kill
us or take us to Deemawso if they captured us.
Our shelter was about a one hour walk from the village, and there
were others like us scattered in the same area, hiding from the
SLORC. Before March our village had 17 families. I don't know how
many of us were hidden in the jungle, but everyone who could was
hiding. We stayed like this until August, getting our food from
the village and the forest. Then on August 31 the SLORC troops
came and burned down the village because they knew there were still
some villagers hiding in the area, and they had always accused us
of "supporting the rebels".
Then when we ran out of rice we had to leave. We went from village
to village getting help from the villagers we found. Some of the
villages still had people in them, but others were empty.
Eventually we came all the way down to the Karen area, where we
arrived on September 18 together with over 100 other villagers. I
heard that my mother finally escaped from Deemawso Camp and went
back to stay around our village, where maybe she can find a bit of
food and try to plant some rice, but it's very dangerous. I think
staying here is better than back in the village because here we
don't have to fear the SLORC. The SLORC doesn't do anything except
come to villages to burn them down, beat, torture, and kill the
people, all kinds of horrible things. We want to go back to our
village, but there's no way as long as the SLORC is around.
_________________________________________________________________
Name: Naw Eh Paw Sex: F Age: 39
Address: Outskirts of Loikaw Town (Karenni State Capital)
Nationality/Religion: Kayah, Christian Baptist
Occupation: Farmer
Family: Married with 7 children aged 8 months to 14 years
In Loikaw now the Army comes to everyone's house 2 or 3 times every
week and demands "porter fees". Every family has to pay 50 Kyat
every time, or sometimes 100 Kyat. Most of us are too poor to be
able to pay every time, but the Army says if we can't pay we have
to go to jail for more than 3 years, or go as a porter. I don't
know anyone who's gone to jail, but many had to go as porters.
Most of the porters die at the front line. Most of thos people
never came back. The ones who did come back told us how the others
all died. Some died of disease, some of starvation, and some got
too weak so the soldiers tied their hands and beat them to death or
beat them and left them behind in the jungle. My husband saw all
of this - he survived being a porter 2 times. Once they let him
come home after 1 month, and the other time only after 2 months.
But even while he was gone as a porter, the soldiers still came
around and made me pay Porter Fees! The porters never got anything
from that money. It was always soldiers from 54 Battalion who
collected it, and the Army took it all.
But even that isn't enough for them. Every month they also come to
collect "Railway Fees". The soldiers say now they're using
machines to build the railway to Aung Ban, and that we have to pay
for the machines. Every month each family has to pay 40 to 50
Kyat. Like with the porter fees, anyone who can't pay is tortured
and persecuted, and they threaten us with jail or take us away as
porters. If you can't pay a fee, they still come back later and
demand more, and then more, like charging interest, and then they
take you away. Everyone in Loikaw has to pay all these fees.
That wasn't all we had to do for the railway. For about a year
now, the Army has also forced us to go and work on the railway for
one or two weeks every month. Every house has to send one person.
My husband went once, I went twice and our 14-year old son had to
go 3 times. The other 6 times we just couldn't stand to go, so we
hired someone to go for us for 100 or 150 Kyat. Every house in the
whole area has to do this.
When I went to the railway, I had to leave our older son and
daughter to take care of the younger children. Each time we had to
take all our own food and tools. At the railway I had to cook for
all the other workers and carry water. There were many women there
working, cooking or carrying rocks and dirt. The youngest
villagers were about 12, and the oldest I saw were about 50 years
old. We had to work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a one hour rest at
noon. There were always armed soldiers around guarding us and
giving us orders. We slept in little shelters with our plastic
sheets laid on the dirt as a floor.
There is no fighting around Loikaw, but we just couldn't pay all
the fees any more or survive all the slave labour. At the end of
August, my 7 children and I fled our home in Loikaw to Ler Ba Ko
Village in the forest. My husband stayed behind just to try to
sell our house and belongings before following us. I walked all
the way south through the mountains, through fighting areas and
places where all the villagers were gone, together with my 7
children, even my 6-month old baby. It was very hard for the
children, but after 18 days of walking we finally reached the Karen
area on September 18. My husband still hasn't arrived, and I'm
worried about him. The situation in Loikaw is really terrible for
the people these days.
_________________________________________________________________
Naw_Lah_Gay,_a_28-year_old_mother_of_3,_adds_the_following_about
the_railway:
I was taken from Deemawso Camp to work on the railway in April.
Many women had to go. I was the only person from my family who
went that time. I walked to Pay Ko as part of a group of 5 people.
At the railway we had to work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the morning
I had to cook, then all the rest of the day I had to carry rocks.
The women had to carry rocks, while the men had to break them. We
were there for more than a week before our group of 2 women and 3
men was allowed to go back. When the guards weren't around we
could bear it, but when the guards were around we were all very
afraid. I saw one man beaten by a SLORC officer because he was
sick. The officer didn't even ask anything, just started kicking
him with his army boots. The villager was badly hurt, but he
didn't go unconscious.
_________________________________________________________________
Name: Koo Htee Rai Sex: M Age: 35
Address: Western Deemawso Township
Nationality/Religion: Kayah, Christian Baptist
Occupation: Farmer
Family: Married with 6 children aged 2 days to 13 years
We were forced to move to Deemawso Camp in March. It was too hard
to walk all the way with the children, so we walked about 2 hours
to the car road and then paid 60 Kyat to go to Deemawso by
passenger truck. While we were at Deemawso, we survived because I
sneaked out every day to go and work for people in Deemawso Town.
They paid me in money or rice. Only a couple of people could do
this because it was completely against the rules. If the soldiers
had found out I'm sure they would have arrested us and sent us to
the jail they had at the camp. We had to make sure we were always
back before evening, because every evening without fail the
soldiers checked all the houses in the camp to make sure everyone
was there. I don't know what they would have done if they'd found
anyone missing.
Two times I was there when they shot villagers dead just for being
outside the camp. The men weren't escaping, they were just trying
to go outside the camp alone to go find some food. Their names
were Saw Kyaw Kay and Koo Bu Su. Saw Kyaw Kay was 28 years old
with a wife and 2 daughters, 1 and 3 years old. The SLORC shot him
just outside the camp boundary at about 9 p.m. on April 20. I
wrote it down at the time. Koo Bu Su was just 18 years old and
single - the SLORC shot him in similar circumstances at 8 a.m. on
May 27. Both men were shot by ordinary soldiers, who were ordered
to fire by an officer who was there. The officer didn't even call
to the villagers first, he just ordered the soldier to shoot. I
saw Saw Kyaw Kay's body afterwards in what the SLORC called the
camp "hospital" - although it had no doctors and no medicine. Kyaw
Kay had been shot in the front 3 times, once in the right half of
his chest, once in the lower belly and once in his upper left leg.
Altogether I saw about 200 soldiers at the camp, all from 102
Battalion. I often saw them beat villagers very severely for
having gone outside the camp. When the villagers came back, the
troops arrested them and beat them with rifle butts, fists, and
sticks, sometimes until they went unconscious. Koo La Sein was one
man I knew who they beat very badly.
In April I was forced to go work on the railway at Pay Ko. At
least one person from each family had to go. I was the only one
from our family who had to go, but other families had to send more
people. If nobody from your family could go, you had to pay 600
Kyat, but hardly anyone could do that. Everyone had to take their
own food and tools if they had any. At the railway they made me
carry big rocks, about 2 feet in diameter, and break them into
pieces with a big hammer the soldiers gave me. Whatever the
soldiers ordered us to do, we had to do. If we didn't, we were
beaten. Even if the soldiers caught anyone resting during the
daytime, they beat him because they wanted us all to work nonstop.
I couldn't survive doing this work all day long, so after 2 days I
ran away to a village. I stayed with the villagers there for
several days until eventually I saw some of the villagers from the
railway going back to Deemawso Camp. Then I slipped in with them
and went back.
After that, I stayed with my family in Deemawso Camp for another 2
months. Eventually, the soldiers started allowing people to make
short trips back to our villages to look for food, so I went with
my family and escaped. We found the KNPLF in the hills and went
with them. They took care of us for a while, then sent us down
here to the Karen area. I think there must still be a lot of
people held in Deemawso Camp, and they probably have no food. If
they have anything left to eat at all by now it would only be
watery rice soup,unless they have relatives outside the camp who
can help them. There's no way they can escape unless the soldiers
allow them to leave the camp to get food.
The SLORC has always persecuted us, even though we're just innocent
villagers. Even before we were relocated, I had to go work on the
railway one time in September 1991. They came and ordered 1 person
from every house in the village to go or else pay 600 Kyat. If we
couldn't go or pay, they said they'd throw us in jail for 6 months.
We had to walk all the way there and take our own food and tools.
At the railway, we had to sleep on the ground on our plastic sheets
with another plastic sheet for a roof. It was still raining
sometimes because it was the end of rainy season. From 7 a.m. to
4 p.m. every day, I had to load dirt into a basket, then two of us
had to haul it and dump it on the railway embankment. I saw the
soldiers beat people twice by slapping them in the face and kicking
them hard with army boots for not working hard enough. After about
a week we finished our assigned part of the embankment, and they
sent us all home.
Then in the village in January 1992 the soldiers accused me of
supporting the rebels, even though they had no reason and no
evidence. They took me and beat me for hours. First they
interrogated me, then beat me for 5 minutes, then took a short
break, interrogated and beat me again, over and over again like
that. There were 5 soldiers all beating me at once with sticks,
and I kept falling unconscious and then waking up to be beaten
again. They broke one of my teeth out with a stick, and they held
my head and put a bayonet against my throat and threatened me, but
I didn't even know anything. They held me like this for 3 days.
The village headman tried to get them to free me, but the officer,
Aung Kyaw Oo, wouldn't let me go until after the headman had gone
all the way to Deemawso and got a release order from the senior
officer there, and even then I was only set free when the headman
gave Aung Kyaw Oo two good roosters.
I want to go back to my village, but not without a weapon. That is
the only way we can fight the SLORC. If only all of us from my
area could get weapons, we could defeat them. I've had enough of
being persecuted and not being able to fight back.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Karen Human Rights Group
Box 22
Mae Sot, Tak 63110
Thailand
(Email for the KHRG sent to strider@xxxxxxxxxxx will be forwarded
to them)