[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
BurmaNet News: Feb. 1 (complete)
- Subject: BurmaNet News: Feb. 1 (complete)
- From: burmanet@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 03 Feb 1995 03:43:00
************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
**************************************************************
The BurmaNet News: February 1, 1995
Issue #103
Special Issue: Karen Refugee Crisis
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
[They] "will be pushed back without having to wait for
fighting to cease...My understanding is that it is a
military, not a political, matter. If it was a political
matter we would give them protection...but I want to stress
that we will certainly push them back, we cannot let them
stay here for years."
Sanan Kachornprasart, Thailand's Interior Minister
<see "NATION: FLEEING KAREN REFUGEES TO BE SENT BACK>
Contents:
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
1 BURMANET: FEW CASUALTIES IN MANERPLAW FIGHT, KNU REGROUPING FOR
GUERRILLA WARFARE
2 KNLA: THE BATTLE SITUATION
3 NATION: FLEEING KAREN REFUGEES TO BE SENT BACK WITHOUT WAITING
FOR A LULL IN FIGHTING
4 BURMANET: SITUATION NOTES ON THE THAI-BURMA BORDER
5 KNU: FORCED RELOCATION OF ZAW HE VILLAGE, MURDER OF HEADMAN
6 VOA: SITUATION IN BURMA
7 AP: BURMESE EXPAND OFFENSIVE
8 BURMANET: THAI POLICE HAND REFUGEES TO SLORC AT MYAWADDY, USE AS
PORTERS FEARED
9 REG.BURMA: KAREN REFUGEES
10 KHRG: SLORC SHOOTINGS & ARRESTS OF REFUGEES
11 VOA: U.S. CALLS ON BURMA TO END ATTACKS ON KAREN
**************************************************************
The BurmaNet News is an *********************************
electronic newspaper * *
covering Burma. Articles * Iti *
from newspapers, magazines, * snotpo *
the wire services, news- * werthatcor *
letters and the Internet * ruptsbutfea *
are published as well as * r.Fearoflos *
original material. * ingpowercor *
* ruptsthosewhoare *
The BurmaNet News is * subjecttoit...Theef *
e-mailed directly to * fortnecessarytoremain *
subscribers and is * uncorruptedinanenvironm *
also distributed via * entwherefearisanintegralpar *
the soc.culture.burma * tofeverydayexistenceisnot *
and seasia-l mailing * immediatelyapparent *
lists and is also * tothosefortun *
available via the * ateenoughtol *
reg.burma conference on * iveinstatesgo *
the APC networks. For a * vernedbytheru *
free subscription to * leoflaw...Iam *
the BurmaNet News, send * n ota frai *
an e-mail message to: * d.. *
* .D *
burmanet@xxxxxxxxxxx * aw *
* Au *
Subscriptions are handled * ng *
manually so please allow * San *
for a delay before your * Su *
request is fielded. * uK *
Letters to the editor, * yi *
comments or contributions * . *
of articles should be *********************************
sent to the strider address as well. For those without e-mail,
BurmaNet can be contacted by fax or snailmail.
Tel/Fax: (in Thailand) (66)2 234-6674
By snailmail:
Attention to BurmaNet, care of Burma Issues
PO Box 1076, Silom Post Office, Bangkok 10504 Thailand
By email: burmanet@xxxxxxxxxxx
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
BURMANET: FEW CASUALTIES IN MANERPLAW FIGHT, KNU REGROUPING FOR
GUERRILLA WARFARE
February 1, 1995
Kawthoolei
Casualties in the fighting around Manarplaw were extremely light
considering the number of people with guns around. The KNU withdrew
rather than fight a pitched battle. According to a KNU colonel, the
Karen forces withdrew once the SLORC, with their DKBA guides, were
across the Salween in force. Even though the KNU still held the high
ground, they would have been forced to defend along two ridgelines
stretching some 20 kilometres. With DKBA defectors to guide them, the
SLORC troops would have been able to penetrate the thin defence lines.
Rather than fight under these conditions, the KNU ordered a general
evacuation and consequently, casualties were extremely light (between 20
and 60 killed, probably closer to the lower number).
Manarplaw was the best known of KNU bases, but dozens of smaller bases
remain in KNU hands further inside Burma. The corrent SLORC offensive seems
to be aimed at the bases right on the Thai border; Manarplaw and Kawmoora.
Inside Karen State (Kawthoolei), some 1 million people live in territory
firmly controlled by the KNU and approximately another 2 million live
in contested areas.
After the fall of Manarplaw, rumors circulated briefly that Gen. Bo Mya was
wounded, but the reports turned out to be groundless. BurmaNet has received
several enquiries have been received about the Karen Human Rights Group
staff. The KHRG staff was safely evacuated to the Thai side and are with
the refugees at Pwe Ba Lu, where they have resumed work. <See the KHRG report
in this issue>
Although a large number of refugees and troops are demoralized over the
evacuation, there is a sizable group within the Karen National Liberation
Army that is not disappointed with their departure from Manarplaw. Among
the second and third tier officers (colonels and majors), there is a group
that has been pressing Gen. Bo Mya to end the strategy of defending fixed
positions and move to aggressive guerilla warfare. One young officer
claimed that over the last two months, they have finally been getting
the attention of Bo Mya and this particular officer discussed the end
of Manarplaw with barely disguised glee. If views of these two
officers are representative of the rest of the KNU leadership,
we can expect to see a more mobile, bloodier campaign of hit and run
tactics, targetting SLORC government personnel, infrastructure and
foreign investment projects which cause harm to the Karen people.
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
KNLA: THE BATTLE SITUATION
February 1, 1995
Karen National Liberation Army
Kaw Thoo Lei
Due to the massive SLORC force consisting of Divisions 22,33,44 and 66 brought
up against our troops, we were forced to give up Manerplaw. Now battalions
from the Light Infantry Regiments 201, 203, 204, 209 and 210 are
reinforcing the Nawta area. Battalions of the Burma Regiments 338 and
339 have moved up to Hlaing Bwe. On the Wanka front, the 441 Tactical Command
and battalions of LIR 1, 118, 335, 9, 356, 357, 102 and BR 2 are poised
for a major attack with armor reinforcing them
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
NATION: FLEEING KAREN REFUGEES TO BE SENT BACK WITHOUT WAITING
FOR A LULL IN FIGHTING
February 1, 1995
About 10,000 Karen refugees forced into Thailand by recent Burmese army attacks
"will be pushed back" into Burma "without having to wait for fighting to cease,"
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said yesterday.
Sanan's statement confirmed fears of private aid agencies who have expressed
strong opposition to any forced repatriation of refugees before the Burmese
offensive against armed ehtnic groups dies down.
He said he considered the latest Burmese operation against the Karen guerrillas
an internal affiar of Burma and "not a political matter", se "we [Thailand] can
push the refugees out at any time."
Thailand, he added, "will assist only those who are wounded or sick, and send
them back immediately when they are well enough to travel, without waiting until
the fighting stops."
"My understanding is that it is a military, not a political matter. If it was a
political matter we would give them protection...but I want to stress that we
will certainly push them back, we cannot let them stay here for years" he said.
The Interior Minister said Thailand would arrest Karen leader Gen Bo Mya if he
was found to be taking refuge in the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Karen guerrillas are preparing for a possible major Burmese offensive
against he area under the Karen National Union 4th Bridgade in the southern
Tenasserim division, after their outpost in the area was attacked last Saturday.
Preparations are being made in response to Burmese army movements and
reinforcements in the Mergui and Tavoy districts, where KNU forces are active.
A senior KNU leder from the area, while acknowledging that the situation has
been calm since cthe clashes last Saturday, predicted that an imminent major
offensive against hte KNU's 4th Brigade would take place "soon."
Saturday's attack on a KNU frotnline outmost at Kawmawhaw, which is under the
control of the KNU's 10th Battalion, forced about 1,200 refugees to take refuge
in Thailand's Bong Ti Pass in Say Yok district of Kanchanaburi province. The
assault was conducted by about 100 Burmese troops from the 25th Battalion.
Kwee Htoo Win, KNU governor of Mergui and Tavoy distric, said in an interview
yesterday that he believed the offensive is aimed at smashing the KNU's southern
strongholds and facilitating the passage of a gas pipeline which will run
through the 4th Brigade's area.
He said the Kraen had benve been consulted by either Thailand, or US or French
oil firms--Unocal and Total--which are partners with the Burmese junta in a
multi-billion dollar project to extract natural gas from the Gulf of Martaban
and transport if for sale in Thailand.
"We have tried to contact the [US and French] companies but we have heard
nothing from them in response." Kwee Htoo Win said.
He did not state clearly whether the KNU would obstruct the projected gas line
but said "everything that benefits Slorc, we will destroy."
The Burmese and Karen troops who engaged in clashes last weekend are currently
confronting each other on opposite banks of the Tenasserim River, which runs
parallel to the Thai froniter and is between 15 and 40 kms awayu.
A senior Thai official in Bangkok said yesterday that local Thai security
officers in the region had not allowed Burmese troops to enter into Thailand to
tatack the Karen from the rear, as Thailand will not tolerate territorial
violations by either side in the conflict.
The official said after the clash, Thai border patrol police and rengers had
been sent to strengthen the border area to prevent any forces from trespassing
onto Thai soil.
The KNU governor predicted that between 7,000-10,000 people living close to the
area of confrontation and the 4th Brigate Headquarters at Minthamee could be
affected if the Burmese offensive starts. Minthamee is about 20 km south of
Kawmawhaw.
The whole population of 50,000 people who live along the river could pour into
Thailand if the Burmese army stages an all out offensive to wipe out the 4th
Brigade's controlled area.
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
NCGUB/DAB/NDF/NLD: JOINT STATEMENT REGARDING SLORC OFFENSIVE AGAINST MANERPLAW
January 28, 1995
Manerplaw has been the Headquarters of our Burmese opposition organizations
struggling for democracy and antional freedom. We, NCGUB, DAB, DDF and NLD(LA)
are therefore issuingf this joint statement regarding the recent SLORC offensive
against Manerplaw.
1 SLORC has declared widely that it intends to bring about cease-fires with
various ethnic minority groups, border area developments and national
solidarity. But now the recent SLORC offensive against Manerplaw demontstates
that in practice it does not want national solidarity and contradicts its own
declaration.
2 On the other had the varios armed groups decided to depart from their earlier
decision that they should only talk jointly and such they tried talks one by
one. Some of them have obtained a cease fire with SLORC, while some are still
in processes of negotiation and some are still looking in an appropriate means
to begin negotiation. The KNU was still in the process of trying to obtain
negotiations with the SLORC, but the SLORC's recent offensive has demonstated
its insincerity.
3 Recently the SLORC declared that except for the Khon Sa group in Shan State it
intedns to negotiate with all other ethnic armed organizations and will engage
in reconstruction work of the nation. But the recent offensive against
Manerplaw shows that the SLORC is attempting to deveive the people of Burma and
the international community as well.
4 Although the SLORC has captured Manerplaw by military means, this hshoudl not
be regarded as the final victory for SLORC, but rather as just a temporary
military win. This can not solve the essential underlying political problems in
Burma. As such the consequences which arise in future will be the
responsibility of SLORC.
5 We acknowledge and honor the effors of the KNU and KNLA to denfend Manerplaw
against hte SLORC's offensives. We all stand united with KNU to resist and
over-come the SLORC offensives.
6 We will continue out struggle to finish the military dictatorship from Burma,
and try hard to find the solutions to Burma's problems by political means, and
establsih a Federal Union for Burma, where theer will be full human rights and
genuine democracy.
Signed,
U Maung Aye
Information Minister, NCGUB
Myint Zaw, Joint General Scty, DAB
Khaing Soe Naing Aung, General Scty, NDF
U Tin AUng, Vice Chairman, NLD(LA)
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
BURMANET: THAI POLICE HAND REFUGEES TO SLORC AT MYAWADDY, USE AS
PORTERS FEARED
February 1, 1995
Mae Sot, Thailand; Myawaddy, Burma
A three week long roundup of "illegal immigrants" by Thai police in the
border town of Mae Sot has wound down. During the crackdown, approximately
400 ethnic Burmans who did not have legal papers or the money to bribe their
way out were handed to SLORC authorities at the Moei River crossing at
Myawaddy. The handover took place on January 20, 1995. The "illegals"
are refugees from Burma who do not live in the refugee camps. They are
regarded by the Thai government and UNHCR as "economic migrants" rather
than refugees.
Reports from Karen people in Mae Sot indicate that the returnees have been used
by SLORC forces as porters in the current offensive. Reports of their use in
forced porterage have not yet been confirmed. Due to the large number of
porters used and the confusion of battle, a number of porters regularly
escape and end up in refugee camps along the Thai border. If this instance
of porterage turns out to be true, border sources expect to see some of the
400 turn up in camps in the near future.
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
BURMANET: SITUATION NOTES ON THE THAI-BURMA BORDER
February 1, 1995
by Wednedsay Observer for BurmaNet
Thai-Burma border
1. Overall Political Analysis
The current offensives against Karen strongholds at Manerplaw, Ka Moo Raw and
Htee Hta (4th Brigade) mark a rapid escalation of Burma army efforts to gain
control over Karen-held strategic border points. The Burma army has had the
resources to mount this campaign for some time, but chooses to do so now,
apparently with a crisp, border-wide strategy.
Burma-watchers may be surprised at SLORC's timing; why launch a huge offensive
just as international recognition is coming to fruition? Why risk increased
contact and approval with the world when the status quo-- successive ceasefire
deals and a declared unilateral "ceasefire" were winning praise globally?
My speculation is that SLORC has entered into a clandestine deal with Thailand,
and that last week during his visit Thaksin Shinawatra sealed the agreement with
Rangoon. Thailand is banking on two massive energy projects with Burma: the
Martaban pipeline and, a little further down the road, damming the Salween.
Both of these projects will provide long-term energy resources to Thailand; both
of these projects will provide large amounts of long-term foreign exchange for
Rangoon; both of these projects are threatened in all stages by continued armed
resistance in Karen and Mon states. Other projects, such as the completion of a
bridge and road network linking Mae Sot to Moulmein and beyond, and rail and
road links to connect a deep sea port at Ye to Western Thailand, also promise
economic gain for both countries. Both are also threatened by continued
insurgencies.
Of course, one unpalatable ramification of an all-out assault on the rebels
would be an enormous refugee influx to Thailand-- a scenario that Thailand is
eager to avoid. We can speculate that in the past five years or so since
relations with SLORC have warmed, fear of another large refugee influx inhibited
Thailand from encouraging large-scale military operations against the rebels.
Also, lucrative local business interests provided incentive for official and
non-official Thai policymakers from putting the brakes on Karen timber. But now
the stakes have been raised way beyond the timber game, in which the KNU had
figured heavily.
Is it possible that SLORC and Khun Thaksin cut a deal: SLORC would wipe out
the KNU, ABSDF, NMSP (?) and DAB once and for all by displacing them from the
border jungles. Thailand would have to accept thousands of refugees. NGOs
would provide humanitarian assistance, but the Thais have the power and the
right to set up and control the refugee camps, access to them, and distribution
of aid. With the formerly rebel-held areas under SLORC control, both countries
could argue that the villagers would be safe, as combat had ceased. Within one
year, a huge forced repatriation program would begin, including all recent
arrivals as well as all refugees who have come since 1984 (who have now all been
registered by the MOI).
Meanwhile, SLORC troops would secure and prepare the Salween and pipeline routes
for energy projects.
Supporting evidence:
-Proximity of Shinawatra's trip
-Agreement to sign further accords on the gas agreement
-Shinawatra's Foreign Ministry immediately issuing a statement that refugees
would be accepted short-term, while the MOI, which in the past had been the
issuing office, was silent even though it has a new tough guy on refugee
affairs.
Possible future supporting Indicators:
-Further Thai military and government control over refugee camps and assistance
(which has been hinted at for months) -Dialogue within the next four or five
months about the Salween projects -Harassment of KNU and other leaders,
including possible arrest or restriction to special camps -Road-building from
Myawaddy westward
-Shinawatra extending personal business and political contacts with key players
in the aforementioned projects
2. Conjecture on the Situation in Karen State
SLORC's seizure of Manerplaw deals a crippling blow to mobility of Karens in the
mountains of some parts of Karen state. Soldiers, civilians seeking refuge in
Thailand, people who periodically trek back from the border to their villages
(and vice-versa), aid workers, students, missionaries, teachers, and anyone else
who had use the Moei to reach the critical juncture of the Salween to head north
into 3rd and 7th brigade areas will either choose not to travel or travel only
at risk of confrontation or harassment with the Burmese soldiers. The freedom to
travel thus is a mainstay of the traditional Karen life, as well as the
perception that the mountains belong to the Karen people.
Thus restricted, whatever infrastructure has existed in the form of schools,
covert aid programs, decentralized training, fact-finding and other
communications will face extreme hardship. Up until now, many if not all of
these activities were coordinated and launched from Manerplaw under the
protection, in many cases, of the KNLA. Unless either the Burma army or
incumbent Karen elements can sustain or replace these systems, Karen villages--
particularly displaced Karen villages-- will face serious setbacks in their
struggles to survive.
Depending on how extensive the Burma army's grasp on the territory becomes, some
of the economic sabotage that has been documented in other parts of Burma may
follow suit and be added to the repertoire of human rights abuses by which the
Burma army has subsisted and defined itself. Perhaps these village-level abuses
will be particularly harsh in areas that once enjoyed the protection of and
provided sustenance for the KNLA. Economic abuses would include: land
confiscation, crop taxing, forced labor on military farms an business projects,
rearrangement of village political structures to channel resources to the
military.
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
KNU: FORCED RELOCATION OF ZAW HE VILLAGE, MURDER OF HEADMAN
Karen National Union intelligence sources
January 17, 1995
Kaw Moo Rah, Kaw Thoo Lei
Chronology of the forced relocatoin of Zaw He village.
25 November, 1994
Warrant Officer Kyar Ma Naw, Battalion 97, demanded Yan Koke village,
(near Kawkreik,) to pay 2,000 kyat each month for the next 5 months
in recompense for a Burmese soldier who was killed near their village.
1 December, 1994
U Ba He, the village head of Zaw He village was arrested by a patrol
from the 230 Battalion, headed by Capt. Kyaw Moh Thoo, and was
subsequently secretly executed.
Naung Keing village was required to give Mya Pa Daing, the headquarters
of the 230 Battalion, headed by Capt. Kyaw Moh Thoo, porter fees at
the rate of 4,000 kyat for 1 month througout 1994, thus bringing the total
given for the year to 48,000 kyat.
29 December, 1994
An officer of the 230 battalion demanded Tee Po San village give
30,000 kyat and Naing Keing village give 20,000 kyat, "for the
construction of a school at Mya Pa Daing."
1 January, 1995
Zaw He village forcibly relocated, and cannot be traced. The
reason for this, and the execution of U Ba Eh has been given
as first, that U Ba Eh was accused of being a "robber" by the
230 Battalion and second, that a Karen soldier who was killed
at the nearby Po Kya bridge was found to have been a member
of the village.
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
VOA: SITUATION IN BURMA
DATE=1/30/95
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-173172
TITLE=BURMA SITUATION (L)
BYLINE=DAN ROBINSON
DATELINE=BANGKOK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: NON-GOVERNMENT AID AGENCIES IN THAILAND ARE CONTINUING
EFFORTS TO ASSIST REFUGEES FROM BURMA FLEEING A GOVERNMENT
OFFENSIVE AGAINST ETHNIC KAREN REBEL AND OPPOSITION FORCES.
FROM V-O-A'S SOUTHEAST ASIA BUREAU, CORRESPONDENT DAN ROBINSON REPORTS
KAREN OFFICIALS; SPOKESMEN FOR THE BURMESE OPPOSITION ALLIANCE;
AND, THAI MILITARY OFFICIALS SAY FIGHTING IS CONTINUING ALONG THE
BORDER.
TEXT: SEVERAL DAYS AFTER THE FALL OF MANERPLAW -- THE MAIN BASE
OF KAREN REBELS AND OTHER GROUPS IN THE BURMESE DEMOCRACY
ALLIANCE -- GOVERNMENT FORCES ARE REPORTED CONTINUING ATTACKS.
REPORTS SAY SEVERAL THOUSAND BURMESE TROOPS ARE PRESSURING
REMAINING KAREN UNITS ALONG THE MOEI RIVER, SOUTH OF MANERPLAW --
AN AREA ABOUT 250 KILOMETERS EAST OF RANGOON.
THAI AUTHORITIES ARE PERMITTING NON-GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO ASSIST
AN ESTIMATED SIX THOUSAND REFUGEES WHO HAVE FLED ACROSS THE RIVER
MARKING THE BORDER.
AN OFFICIAL OF ONE RELIEF AGENCY, WHO ASKED NOT TO BE IDENTIFIED,
TOLD V-O-A MANY REFUGEES WERE SCATTERED IN THE JUNGLE -- IN HIS
WORDS -- WAITING FOR THE DUST TO SETTLE. HE SAYS THERE IS A
CONTINUING NEED FOR FOOD, BLANKETS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES.
// OPT // THE RELIEF OFFICIAL SAYS AN ESTIMATED THREE THOUSAND
KAREN CIVILIANS WHO FLED MANERPLAW TO A SMALL VILLAGE
(KWAY-BAW-LU) HAVE MOVED FURTHER INTO THAI TERRITORY. ANOTHER
FOUR THOUSAND OR SO REFUGEES HAVE ARRIVED IN ANOTHER AREA. // END
MEANWHILE, THE LEADER OF THE KAREN REBELS -- GENERAL BO MYA --
REMAINS IN THAI TERRITORY. KAREN STATEMENTS VOWED THAT THE
REBELS WOULD RE-GROUP AND RESUME THEIR GUERRILLA CAMPAIGN.
IN A V-O-A INTERVIEW, TIN MAUNG WIN -- A SPOKESMAN FOR THE EXILE
DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE OF BURMA (D-A-B) -- SOUGHT TO DOWNPLAY THE
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LOSS OF MANERPLAW. HE URGES THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST BURMESE GOVERNMENT
ACTIONS:
// TIN MAUNG WIN ACTUALITY //
YOU KNOW WE NEED A CONCERTED EFFORT. NOT ONLY THE
UNITED STATES BUT BRITAIN SHOULD SPEAK OUT, AUSTRALIA
SHOULD SPEAK OUT, GERMANY SHOULD SPEAK OUT, THE SAME AS
THE UNITED STATES. AND ALSO THE ASEAN NATIONS. I THINK
THIS IS A SITUATION THAT CONCERNS NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
AND THEY SHOULD BE MORE VOCAL ON THIS THING. I DON'T
KNOW WHY THEY HAVE KEPT THEIR MOUTH SHUT ON THESE
THINGS.
// END ACTUALITY //
TIN MAUNG WIN SAYS HE LACKED ACCURATE INFORMATION ON KAREN
LOSSES. HOWEVER, A REUTER REPORT -- QUOTING REBEL AND THAI
MILITARY SOURCES -- PUTS REBEL LOSSES ANYWHERE FROM 15 TO 60
DEAD.
IN THE FIRST OFFICIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE OFFENSIVE, BURMA'S
MILITARY-CONTROLLED MEDIA SAYS MANERPLAW WAS TAKEN BY KARENS WHO
BROKE AWAY FROM THE MAIN REBEL MOVEMENT.
KAREN REBELS ADMIT THEY WERE HURT BY AN INTERNAL SPLIT THAT
EMERGED IN DECEMBER, PITTING BUDDHISTS AGAINST CHRISTIAN K-N-U
MEMBERS. OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN SAY SOME OF THE MUTINEERS ACTED AS
GUIDES FOR GOVERNMENT TROOPS IN TAKING MANERPLAW. (SIGNED)
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
AP: BURMESE EXPAND OFFENSIVE
January 30, 1995
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Burmese forces attacked the Karen rebels' last
major northern base Monday and moved against guerrilla positions to the south,
Thai military and aid sources said.
Some leaders of the ethnic rebel movement, along with thousands of
followers, have fled to Thailand, and more refugees are expected. Refugee
estimates run from 6,000 to 15,000.
The Karen, in rebellion for 46 years, were the strongest of more than a
dozen ethnic insurgencies fighting for greater autonomy from the brutal,
military-run central government.
In recent years the Rangoon government has crushed or negotiated peace
deals with most of the insurgent groups. Last week, Karen rebels said Burma's
military regime launched its biggest offensive in at least three years against
the group.
The headquarters of the Karen National Union at Manerplaw, about 150 miles
east of the Burmese capital of Rangoon, fell to government troops Thursday
after six days of fighting.
Thai border patrol police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
the rebels also lost six other bases along the Thai-Burmese frontier to the
north and south of Manerplaw.
The officers said Burmese troops were attacking the rebel stronghold of
Kawmoora and had opened up another front further south, opposite the Thai
province of Kanchanaburi.
Nearly 1,000 refugees fleeing the offensive were reported inside
Kanchanaburi, and more Karen villages were being evacuated.
Burma's junta rulers, who crushed a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, have
been condemned by human rights groups for widespread abuses, including
arbitrary execution, torture and rape of villagers in ethnic minority areas.
End..
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
BURMANET:
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
REG.BURMA: KAREN REFUGEES
To: reg.burma@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Karen Refugees
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.90.950130094207.4193H-100000@sol>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
I received a call from Thailand with the following information:
Karen refugees are being allowed to stay in Thailand in new camps around
Puay Baw Loo village. NGOs are not being allowed to take supplies into
the refugee areas, but they can drop the supplies off at the Thai
checkpoint on the road into Puay Baw Loo. The Karen can then pick up the
supplies and take them to the refugees. Reporters are not being allowed
into the Puay Baw Loo area, but some Karen have been able to come out and
give interviews to the reporters. The Karen refugees are safe at the
moment, and they are not being shelled by the Burmese troops who continue
to occupy Manerplaw.
Christina Fink
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
KHRG: SLORC SHOOTINGS & ARRESTS OF REFUGEES
Manerplaw
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
January 14, 1995 / KHRG #95-02
There are currently over 60,000 Karen refugees registered in refugee
camps in Thailand. These camps are scattered along the Burma border
for hundreds of kilometres, from Kanchanaburi in the south to the Mae
Hong Son area in the north. None of these refugees or camps are
officially recognized by either the Thai government or the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees. They only receive strict rations of rice,
salt and fishpaste, little or no clothing or educational aid, and
extremely limited medical assistance, all of which comes from
overseas agencies and is tightly restricted by the Thai Ministry of
the Interior. As a result of the overcrowded and restrictive living
conditions in some of the camps, thousands of other refugees avoid
them and stay in villages outside the camps, where they receive no
aid and must earn their living themselves. Both these people and
those inside the camps find that they need their own sources of food,
money and building materials in order to survive, but they are not
allowed to plant anything or cut any bamboo or wood on Thai soil.
Some find sporadic day labour for Thai farmers, but many find they
have to take the risk of planting fields, cutting bamboo or searching
for vegetables on the Burma side of the border. Over the past year,
there has been an alarming increase in the numbers of these refugees
who are being arrested, tortured, or shot on sight by the SLORC
Battalions who control the areas across the border. This report
documents some of the incidents which have occurred in the Moei River
area where it forms the Thai/Burma border north of the Thai town of
Mae Sot. The incidents documented here make up only a small sample of
the hundreds of arrests, disappearances and killings of refugees
which the SLORC has conducted up and down the border.
These incidents are of special concern right now, because Thai
authorities are starting to indicate that they want to repatriate all
Karen refugees as soon as possible. Over the past year, the Thai Army
has already been conducting large-scale forced repatriations of Mon
refugees and refugees from Shan State. In the Mon case, refugees were
driven into an area where they were later attacked and fled, only to
be driven back there again; while many of the refugees from Shan
State were handed back to SLORC patrols who then took them as
frontline military porters. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) has done nothing to protect those refugees, and has given no
indication that it will do anything to protect Karen refugees in the
event of a forced repatriation (refoulement). Instead, UNHCR Bangkok
chief Ruprecht von Arnim recently commended the Thai authorities for
their "changing attitude" towards refugees from Burma, while a UNHCR
press release volunteered to "assist in any voluntary repatriation
operation". Von Arnim held up the UNHCR-assisted repatriation of
Rohingya Muslim refugees from Bangladesh as an example - however,
recent reports by Mdcins Sans Frontires, Refugees International and
others have stated that most of the Rohingyas are being forced back
against their will, that many of those who tell UNHCR they don't want
to go have subsequently been deprived of food, beaten by camp
officials, and summarily sent back, that many returnees are being
taken for slave labour by SLORC and their land is not being given
back to them, and that UNHCR is seldom to be seen in the camps in
Bangladesh or in Burma, where they reportedly stay exclusively in the
towns and only travel escorted by SLORC Military Intelligence.
The Thai authorities and UNHCR seem to feel that Karen refugees are
only in Thailand because of battles between SLORC and Karen forces,
when in fact it is Burma Army repression in their villages which
drove these people to Thailand. As documented in other KHRG reports,
this repression, including slave labour, looting, extortion,
destruction of homes and crops, torture, rape, and killings, is only
getting worse. The incidents documented in this report should be
enough in themselves to show why no repatriation should even be
considered until there is significant improvement in the human rights
situation in Burma. The SLORC's attitude toward refugees remains
clear: SLORC leaders have repeatedly been quoted stating that "there
are no refugees in the border areas, only insurgents in the disguise
of refugees". A typical article in SLORC's newspaper "The New Light
of Myanmar" (15/9/94) referred to people who fled from forced railway
labour as "those who lived in insurgent camps and kept going into the
other country [Thailand] as 'refugees'." Some of the soldiers'
comments mentioned in the following testimonies make it clear that
SLORC tells all its soldiers to consider refugees as insurgents (see
for example Interview #7 with "Pi Lah Ghay"). This attitude is hardly
likely to suddenly change in the event of a repatriation deal. Some
of the testimonies show that the refugees do not even feel safe on
the Thai side of the river if SLORC is on the other side, because
SLORC troops have shown little respect for the Thai frontier in the
past. Only a few days before our visit to Don Pa Kiang refugee camp,
SLORC soldiers crossed the river in civilian clothes, stole some
cattle, took them back across and then demanded extortion money from
the refugees to get them back.
Some of the people interviewed live in refugee camps, some live in
villages on the Thai side. The interviews were all conducted
throughout November 1994 in several camps along the border north of
Mae Sot. Across the river the area is controlled by several
battalions of SLORC #44 Light Infantry Division. The testimonies
sometimes refer to sawmills; these are small Thai-owned sawmills,
often on the Burma side of the river. All logging has been banned in
Thailand since 1988, so Thai loggers pay large bribes to SLORC
commanders to take logs from Burma, and often hire refugees to work
for them. Sometimes the Thais fail to pay the ever-increasing bribes,
so the soldiers go after their sawmill. Thai loggers also log
illegally on the Thai side, then bring the logs along the river as
though they came from Burma. The "river" referred to by many people
is the Moei River, which is the border. All interviews were conducted
on the Thai side of the river. In this report, people often refer to
others as "uncle" or "nephew" - Karen people often refer to their
elders or juniors this way. Where it does not refer to a real
relative, we have put it in quotation marks. SLORC soldiers often
accuse people of being "Kaw Thoo Lei", the name of the Karen
homeland, which SLORC men use to mean "Karen soldier". Two currencies
are mentioned: Baht (Thai currency; US$1=25 Baht), and Kyat (Burmese
currency; US$1 = 6 Kyat at official rate, 120 Kyat at market rate).
Names of those interviewed in this report have been changed to
protect them - throughout the report, false names are denoted by
enclosing them in quotation marks. All other names are real. Please
feel free to use this report in any way which may help alleviate the
suffering of the peoples of Burma.
TOPIC SUMMARY: Shootings and killings of refugees (Interview
#1,2,3,4,5,7,12,13,14,16,17,18, 19,20,21,22,23,24,26), arrest,
torture and detention of refugees (Int #1,6,7,8,9,10,12,20,28),
disappearances (Int #15), extortion(Int #9,10,25,28), shootings in
villages(Int #26), forced labour (Int #12,26), forced portering (Int
#27), robbery (Int #10,11,19,24). (See list below for a more
comprehensive index.)
VICTIMS OF INCIDENTS IN THIS REPORT
The table on the following page lists the victims of the main abuses mentioned
in this report. All the Battalions listed are in #44 Light Infantry Division.
IB = Infantry Battalion, LIB = Light Infantry Battalion. IB #1 and LIB #3 hav
e both been rotated home now, and LIB #9 arrived in August. Refugees say LIB #
9 is much worse than the others. Note: all numeric dates throughout this repor
t are given in dd/mm/yy format. Names enclosed in quotation marks have been ch
anged to protect interviewees.
Battalion
No. Date Name Age Sex Incident Refug
ee at No. Interview #
1 Jan/94 Pa Dee Mah 50 M Shot dead Kamaw Lay Ko IB ? 24
2 Jan/94 "Saw Po Thay" 18 M Shot at " IB ? 24
3 19/2/94 Pa Wah Mu 35 M Shot dead Tala Oh Kla IB 1 21,22
4 19/2/94 Kalay Tay 40 M Shot dead " IB 1 21,22
5 19/2/94 "Pa Kyaw" 23 M Shot at " IB 1 22
6 19/2/94 Saw Wih ? M Shot at " IB 1 21
7 28/2/94 Pa Doh 40 M Shot, wounded " IB 1 23
8 28/2/94 "Maung Tay" 40 M Shot, wounded " IB 1 23
9 28/2/94 Ta Bwey 25 M Shot, wounded " IB 1 23
10 28/2/94 Thaw Aye 16 M Shot, wounded " IB 1 23
11 Apr/94 "Saw Ler Wah" 32 M Arrested, detained Gray Hta LIB ? 28
12 4/5/94 Kyi Way 24 M Shot, wounded Noh Pa Doh LIB 3 n/a
13 May/94 "Pa Boe" 29 M Detained,tortured Noh Pa Doh LIB 3 12
14 5/6/94 "Pa Htoo" 38 M Shot, wounded Don Pa Kiang LIB 3 20
15 5/6/94 name unknown 19 M Arrested, detained " LIB 3 20
16 3/7/94 Saw Kya Po 34 M Disappeared " LIB 3 n/a
17 3/7/94 Pa Yah 28 M Disappeared " LIB 3 n/a
18 July/94 Po Htoo Doh 60 M Detained,tortured Noh Pa Doh LIB 3 9,10
19 July/94 "Pa Lah" 38 M Shot, wounded Gray Hta LIB ? 26
20 20/8/94 Pa Noh Ter 36 M Shot dead Tala Oh Kla LIB 9 16
21 20/8/94 Pa Noh Kee 36 M Shot dead " LIB 9 16
22 21/8/94 Po Tha Htoo 19 M Shot at, drowned " LIB 9 16
23 2/9/94 Saw Eh Say 27 M Shot at, drowned Noh Pa Doh LIB 9 4,3
24 3/9/94 Kwe Tha 39 M Shot dead Ka Na Su LIB 9 17,18,19
25 3/9/94 "Saw Ler Thu" 30 M Shot, wounded Don Pa Kiang LIB 9 17
26 3/9/94 "Saw Bway" 34 M Robbed Ka Na Su LIB 9 19
27 19/9/94 "Thein Lwin" 24 M Detained, tortured Noh Pa Doh LIB 9 6
28 3/10/94 Maung Tin 38 M Disappeared Kamaw Lay Ko IB ? 15
29 3/10/94 Pa Paw 50+ M Disappeared " IB ? 15
30 27/10/94 Naw Koh Mit 19 F Shot at, drowned Wah Pa LIB 9 n/a
31 28/10/94 Pa Klih Bo 43 M Arrested, killed Kler Ko LIB ? 13,14
32 28/10/94 Pa Dee Dee 15 M Arrested, killed Kler Ko LIB ? 13,14
33 29/10/94 Saw Tah Kee 30 M Arrested, still held Noh Pa Doh LIB 9
7,8,2,10
34 29/10/94 Maung Kyaw Pu 27 M Arrested, still held " LIB 9 8,7,
10
35 29/10/94 "Saw Bo Gyi" 42 M Arrested, robbed " LIB 9 11
36 29/10/94 Day Wah 27 M Shot dead " LIB 9 2,3,5,12,7
37 29/10/94 Ah Toe 18 M Shot dead " LIB 9 2,3,4
38 29/10/94 "Naw Tee Ker" 27 F Shot at " LIB 9 3,2
39 29/10/94 "Kaw Thaw" 21 M Shot at Don Pa Kiang LIB 9 2
40 30/10/94 Pleh Ghaw 35 M Shot dead Kler Ko LIB 9 1
41 30/10/94 "Aung Htoo" 35 M Arrested Kler Ko LIB 9 1
42 8/11/94 "Maung Aye" 32 M Escaped porter " LIB 9 27
43 9/11/94 "Toe Aung" 42 M Arrested,extortion Noh Pa Doh LIB 9 9,10
44 9/11/94 "Naw Paw Kee" 45 F Arrested,extortion " LIB 9 9,10
45 9/11/94 Mi Sho 40 F Arrested,extortion " LIB 9 9,10
46 9/11/94 Ma Tay Myint 21 F Arrested,extortion " LIB 9 9,10
47 9/11/94 Pu Lu 21 M Extortion " LIB 9 9,10
48 26/11/94 "Htoo Klay" 48 M Arrested,extortion Tala Oh Kla LIB 9 25
#1.
NAME: "Aung Htoo" SEX: M AGE: 35 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Noh Po Kee village, Pa'an District - now in Kler Ko refugee
camp, Thailand FAMILY: Single
We came to Thailand about 10 years ago because we were afraid of the
Burmese, so we ran. They tortured people. We didn't dare stay
anymore. The whole village came. Nobody lives there anymore. The
Burmese never arrest us here, but in our village they shot people
every time they saw them. This year I went back to Noh Po Kee on
October 30th, because it's not so far. My uncle and I went to collect
betelnut, and we were staying in a little field hut. He went to look
for betelnut in the village while I stayed in the hut. I was cooking
rice for us. Then I turned my head and I saw a Burmese soldier. Just
then another soldier ran up behind me and stuck his gun against my
back. He had come up running, and I hadn't seen him. There were 3 of
them, but then more came. They said "Don't run away". Then they took
me and the officer tied me up to a tree. They asked me, "Do any
[Karen] soldiers stay here? How many?" I answered, "Sometimes many,
sometimes few." They also asked about the refugees. They asked, "Do
you sometimes go to the refugee camp?", and I said "No, I never go."
If I said I went, they would have killed me.
At 9 o'clock [a.m.] my uncle came back from the village to eat with
me, and he met the soldiers along the path. I heard the sound of his
shouting from over by the cliff. I also heard gunshots: "Ta! Ta! Ta!"
I couldn't count them- 7, 8, or 10 gunshots, I think. I never saw him
after that. The soldiers tied me up and tied one of my hands, so I
couldn't walk ["Aung Htoo"'s leg is deformed from polio, and he can
only walk slowly and with difficulty, leaning on a stick. He still
has a mark on his wrist from the rope he was tied with.]. Then they
said they would come with me and take me half way home. They carried
me a short way, then they told me to go back home alone. They didn't
beat me, but they would have beaten anyone else.
My uncle's name was Pleh Ghaw. He was 35. When I got back here, some
villagers went to look for my uncle. They found his dead body the
next day [October 31]. They saw it, but I didn't ask them how many
wounds there were. I couldn't go there anymore. We used to survive by
growing betelnut, but now we can't, neither here [in Thailand] nor
there.
[Pleh Ghaw's widow added: "Nobody told me about the body. If they
told me, I feel like I would die! I thought I would go there with
them, but I couldn't. If you ask them about the body they can tell
you. Nobody told me anything. I couldn't eat anything, and I still
can't. Nobody would tell me if he died or didn't die. We have 3
children - the eldest is a girl, 15 years old. The second is a son,
aged 12. The third is 11. I just have to stay here like this, and now
my children are sick. We have nothing, and we can't buy anything. We
just have rice that people give us. My head feels very heavy, and my
eyes are dark."]
[Note: the man who found the body reported that Pleh Ghaw was hit in
the chest by 2 bullets. There were no visible marks of torture.]
_______________________________________________________________
#2. NAME: "Kaw Thaw" SEX: M AGE: 21 Karen Christian
farmer/boat driver ADDRESS: Gker Ghaw village, Myawaddy Township Now
living in Beh Klaw refugee camp, Thailand; interviewed at Don Pa
Kiang camp FAMILY: Single, 2 brothers and 3 sisters
I have been in Thailand for 7 years, because my father was in the KNU
[Karen National Union] so we found it very hard to stay in our
village in Burma. I stay in Mae La [a refugee camp also known as Beh
Klaw, 60 km. north of Mae Sot] but I came up here to visit my uncle.
On October 29 [1994] I went to the other side of the Moei River and
went fishing. There is a place to fish a little ways from the river.
That day many others had gone to fish before me [other witnesses
confirm that there were 15 people fishing at the pond]. While we were
all fishing at the pond at about 11:30 a.m., we heard people calling
us from Noh Pa Doh on the Thai side of the river. They yelled, "Don't
come back!", but we didn't hear them well and we thought they were
shouting "Come back quickly!"
Only four of us ran toward the riverbank to get back by canoe, but on
the way the SLORC soldiers were waiting for us hidden in the bushes.
When we passed them they started shooting at us. We didn't see them,
but they saw us and started shooting. As we arrived at the riverbank
we tried to split up. Two of us ran in one direction and the 2 others
ran the other way. I was with Day Wah. I jumped and dived into the
river, and Day Wah jumped in the boat. The soldiers were sitting and
shooting at us from the bushes along the path. They shot at me while
I was running but they didn't get me because I dived into the water.
They shot Teacher Day Wah first. Two soldiers shot at him, one
sitting and one standing, with a G3 and a carbine [G3 is the standard
Burma Army automatic assault rifle; carbine is a bolt-action rifle,
usually carried by officers or NCOs]. Day Wah was hit by a G3 bullet
in the chest and he died immediately. He fell into the water while I
was in the water. After they shot Day Wah I saw the 2 soldiers
running back into the bushes. I tried to swim across the river with
only my nose above the water and the rest of my body underwater. When
I got to the other side I could see that the soldiers weren't there
anymore so I got out of the water. I just sat there. I wanted to cry,
I wanted to laugh, but I couldn't. I just rested for a while and then
came back to the village.
Across the river there is bamboo, and behind that there are fields.
There were 2 soldiers shooting at us, and I saw 4 others hiding in
the bamboo. The other 2 villagers ran further down the river, took
off their trousers and started swimming. They were one man and one
woman. Then the soldiers arrived at the riverbank. The woman couldn't
swim and asked the man to take her across the river, but he couldn't.
He tried to help her but he let her go when the soldiers started
shooting. The soldiers shot at the woman. I looked downriver and saw
this while I was floating in the river. I also saw Teacher Day Wah
fall into the water, and I saw 2 people with the soldiers at the
riverside, one of them tied up with his hands behind his back. I saw
one soldier shaking the man and shooting his gun in the air right
beside the man's ear. It was the disabled man. [Saw Tah Kee: see
testimony #7 by "Pi Lah Ghay", his mother.] Then they all disappeared
into the bamboo.
The other people who were at the pond hid in the bushes and after the
soldiers left they all came back. Nothing happened to them. Day Wah
was my "uncle". His sister is married to my uncle. He was 27 years
old and single, and he was the teacher in Noh Pa Doh primary school.
As for me, I feel bitterness and pain for what SLORC is doing to the
people. I'm afraid of them. I was helping my uncle in his peanut
field, but now I don't dare go anymore. There is nothing we can do
about that - the weeds will just grow over everything.
_______________________________________________________________
#3.
NAME: "Naw Tee Ker"
SEX: F
AGE: 27
Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Wah Klay village, Myawaddy Township -
now living in Noh Pa Doh, Thailand
FAMILY: Married, 4 children aged 6 to 10 years
I came to stay with my husband in Noh Pa Doh after we got married 10
years ago. I was afraid of the Burmese because they often came to the
village and arrested people to be porters. People were afraid and ran
away. My brother-in-law was arrested and they took him to Kway Sha,
and his relatives had to pay 10,000 Baht [US$400] to get him free.
That's when I came here. We have a field where we grow banana,
jackfruit and mango on the other side of the river, but I didn't see
soldiers there until this time. The SLORC soldiers often steal our
fruit, though - and they don't just take the fruit, they break off
the whole branch.
I went over on October 29th to catch fish. At least 10 people went
along. Then we heard people shouting at us not to go back to the
river: "Don't come back". We didn't know who was shouting, and we
were afraid so we didn't hear them clearly. Four of us ran back
toward the river: me, Ah Toe, Day Wah and his nephew. My friends who
stayed and hid in the bushes yelled for us to come back to them
because SLORC was in front of us, but we didn't hear them. We just
ran because we were afraid and wanted to get to the boat to escape. I
followed the others. I heard gunshots so I ran through the bushes for
the river because our boat was there so I thought I could escape. We
were running for our lives. The SLORC soldiers came from behind us
and shot at me but I didn't know. All I heard was the sound of the
bullets: "Tchee...twing...twing...". When I got to the river, I saw
Ah Toe so I grabbed him and said, "If you're going to swim, I'll
follow you." I cannot swim. I held his hand and asked him to drag me
across the river but he said "I'm not strong enough to pull you
across." I got in the water and let myself float. I saw the soldiers
shooting at me from the riverbank. I tried not to drown. I grabbed a
branch and held on. Day Wah called to me to wait for him. I looked up
to call back to him and a soldier shot at me, so I didn't dare call.
I heard the sound of the bullets hitting the water. I heard one
bullet near my ear: "Twing...", and I moved a little and thought "I
might be hit". Then another one came and I moved again. Three bullets
came very close to me. Then Day Wah turned the boat to come to me,
and he was shot and died. His body fell like a pig. He had just
started the engine, and the boat went drifting down the river until
it hit a bush on the riverbank. I floated with only my nose above the
water and I didn't dare look up because the soldiers were shooting at
me. Then the soldiers thought that I was dead.
Ah Toe let himself drift down the river. I didn't see him anymore.
Later I heard that he was shot in the head in the middle of the river
and died. The bullet hit his head and came out through his mouth. He
was 18 years old.
I was in the water for about one hour. My whole body except for my
nose was hiding under the water, like a dead body. I was holding a
branch so I wouldn't float away. I was shivering, and I still have a
cold now. In the water I thought, "Live or die, I must stay here". I
was so afraid that my heart was not in my body [a Karen expression
for extreme fear]. I was afraid the soldiers would see me and find
me. I prayed a lot to God. I worried so much about my family. I
didn't know if my husband was safe because he was together with me at
the pond. I thought, "If I die, what will happen to my children? With
whom will they stay?" I imagined my children crying and running alone
around the village. When the soldiers left, I wanted to look but I
couldn't move, and I was also afraid that a soldier might still be
hiding there. Two villagers on the other side of the river saw me
floating and didn't know if I was alive or dead. One villager, "Thein
Lwin", came with a canoe and helped me after the soldiers had left.
Now I'm still afraid. I never want to see SLORC soldiers again. If I
hear of them I'll run away. If we don't run they shoot us, and if we
run they also shoot at us. The soldiers said "Don't run away" but
then they shot at us, so we must run to escape. Even if we have
nothing, they shoot at us. Teacher Day Wah had nothing in his hands
but they shot him. He tried to save me. If he had run away somewhere
else and not taken the boat I think he would have been safe. At first
the soldiers were only shooting at me and Ah Toe, but when they saw
Day Wah taking the boat they shot at him too. The soldier who shot at
me had 2 guns: a big one [probably G3 assault rifle] and a small one
[probably a carbine - this indicates that he was probably an NCO or
officer; he may have grabbed the G3 from one of his soldiers]. He
used the small one to shoot at me. I only looked once and I only saw
him. Later the villagers told me there were 2 soldiers, that one put
his gun on the other's shoulder and shot. I didn't dare look again,
and I was afraid to see them shooting my friends. I didn't want to
see. I had to stop breathing because my nose went under the water
several times, and I swallowed water. When Day Wah turned the boat to
come and help me I wanted to tell him "Don't come! Just save
yourself" but I didn't dare call. Now I've escaped and he didn't, and
it is so hard for me to bear. After he died, I couldn't do anything.
Four of us ran, two of us died and two of us are still alive, "Kaw
Thaw" and I. The other people who were at the fishpond ran in the
other direction when they heard the gunshots and escaped. Now my
husband still goes across to look after our field, just for a short
time each time.
I knew Ah Toe well. He and his brother came here together, and now they are bo
th dead. His brother also died because of SLORC. He saw the soldiers in rainy
season, tried to escape and drowned in the river. He wasn't shot, he drowned
because he was afraid of them and tried to swim across when the river was flood
ed. [See related testimony of "Naw Say Muh", #4 in this report.]
_______________________________________________________________
#4.
NAME: "Naw Say Muh" SEX: F AGE: 23 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Gker Ghaw village, Myawaddy Township - now living in Noh Pa
Doh, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 1 child aged 14 months
I left my village about 20 years ago with my family because the
Burmese were doing their 4 Cuts policy [Four Cuts is a Burma Army
policy of systematically terrorizing, executing and driving into
destitution civilians in the villages in an attempt to undermine
civilian support for opposition forces - this policy is still in full
force]. They were killing many people. First we went to Noh Pa Doh on
the Karen side of the river for about 10 years, but when the Burmese
arrived there we moved to the Thai side. We still have a field on the
other side where we grow beans, rice and some vegetables.
On a Friday evening in August 1994 [others indicate that it was
19/8/94] at 5 p.m., my husband was over there setting nets for fish
when he saw some SLORC soldiers. They said to him, "Don't run!", but
he was very afraid and he ran towards the river and jumped in to swim
across. Then he drowned. [Note: this happened in rainy season, when
the Moei river gets 50 m. wide and very fast-flowing; furthermore,
1994 saw the highest flood waters in years, causing several deaths.]
He was with his brother-in-law. My husband ran to the river first and
his brother-in-law behind. When they got to the river, his
brother-in-law ran upriver along the bank, but my husband thought the
soldiers were behind him so he dived into the water. His
brother-in-law told me they only saw one soldier, but afterwards my
father went there and saw the footprints of many more soldiers. We
tried to find my husband's body but we couldn't. We followed the
river to Tala Oh Kla but we couldn't find it. The river was too
flooded. My husband's name was Saw Eh Say, he was 27 years old. We
were married for 2 years.
I still have my parents and my brothers, and they help me to survive.
I can't work myself because I have a baby to look after. After my
husband's death his brother Ah Toe helped me. We were living in the
same house. Then Ah Toe went across the river to fish on October 29th
because the previous day my parents had gone and caught alot of fish
there. He wanted to go, so he quickly finished pounding the rice and
went with 10 other villagers. Then I heard that SLORC soldiers
arrived along the river, and I was very worried because my parents
were also there. I went to shout for them not to come back and to run
in another direction, but all they heard was "Mother! Mother!", and
they ran back towards the river and the SLORC was in front of them.
When they started shooting I dared not look. I took my baby and ran
back to my house. In the afternoon I tried to find out what had
happened, and they told me that Day Wah was dead and Ah Toe was shot
in the head in the middle of the river. I shivered when I heard it.
They found Day Wah's body at the end of Noh Pa Doh stream, and the
next day people found Ah Toe's body just a little way down the river.
He was 18 years old. He was still an adolescent. He was going to get
married the next Thursday. He died 5 days before his wedding, on
Saturday. His parents are already dead, and his elder sister in Burma
died of disease. He only had one brother and one sister. Now they are
all gone.
_______________________________________________________________
#5.
NAME: "Pi Muh Thay" SEX: F AGE: 67 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Tha Daw Hta village, Papun District - now living in Don
Pa Kiang camp, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 8 children but only 4 left
alive, aged 27 to 43, grandchildren
We came to Thailand about 7 years ago because the Burmese disturbed
us all the time, tortured people, arrested people and ordered them to
be porters and do many other things. First we went to Noh Pa Doh
refugee camp, then we moved here. I had 8 children but 3 of my
daughters died, two of them from fever. I had only one son, my
youngest child, Day Wah. He was 27.
On October 29th I was at home. In the evening people came to tell me
that Day Wah was dead. They brought his body on Monday at 4 p.m., and
we buried him on Tuesday afternoon. This was his third year teaching
at the school. He did everything he could to help the family. At
first when he died I felt terrible, but I got better. I have to
accept it. It must have been his time to die. Sometimes I feel very
angry but I can't do anything. Yesterday someone told me that the
soldiers have pork curry to eat, and I said to him, "Why don't they
eat people instead of just animals like pig and cattle? They are
cruel enough." People told me Day Wah was trying to save a person
when he died.
_______________________________________________________________
#6.
NAME: "Thein Lwin" SEX: M AGE: 24 Burmese Muslim
ADDRESS: Kyaikkaw, Thaton Township - now living in Noh Pa Doh
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, no children
I am from Kyaikkaw. It used to be a village, but now it has become a
small town. When I was 14, the soldiers came into the cinema at 9
o'clock at night and took me to be a porter. [The Burmese Army often
surrounds local cinemas and takes everyone inside as porters.] That
same night, they took us to Pa'an, then in the morning they sent us
to Pain Kyone, where we got off the car and they gave us loads. I had
to carry 2 shells and we had to climb up Noh Da Ya mountain. I got
tired and thirsty and I told them "I can't carry anymore", so I sat
down to rest and the soldier kicked me in the chest with his big
boots. I went unconscious for a little while. It took us 2 days to
reach the mountaintop, then they sent me to the Strategic Command
camp near Maw Po Kay and Mae La. I had to stay there for over 5
months, carrying food and water, cutting wood, and building their
bunkers. Then they made me carry rations to Mae La. On the way I said
to my friend, "I can't carry anymore. Live or die, I'm going to
escape", and I dropped my load and ran away. I finally got to Lo Baw
and stayed with a Karen medic soldier for the rainy season. Then the
Burmese came close and we all had to move to Law Thee Hta. I stayed
there for 2 years. I worked carrying water and cutting cane. Then the
Burmese came to that place too, and we didn't dare stay anymore so I
came to the Thai side at Noh Pa Doh. I got here 6 years ago. Now I'm
married, but no children yet. Right now I have no work, but in rainy
season I worked growing beans across the river in someone else's
field.
I don't remember the exact date SLORC arrested me but it was Taw Tha
Lay month [on the lunar calendar: Sept. 4-Oct. 3/94]. In the morning
I went to sliver bamboo to use in tying off the beans, and I met the
soldiers. There were 3 of them hiding in the bamboo. One of them
grabbed my hand and the other two pointed their guns at me. They took
me to their camp. The soldiers beat me and punched me. They tied up
my hands and ordered me to lie down, then they walked on my shins in
their boots. Then they rolled an iron bar up and down my shins [this
is an extremely painful form of torture, and "Thein Lwin" still has
scars from it]. At their camp they said "You are a soldier! Don't
lie! I recognize you!" They thought I was a Karen soldier. The
soldier said "When I'm in this area I go around every month or two,
and I've seen you." I said "No", and he said "You are lying. You are
hiding something." He grabbed my hair, covered my head with a plastic
sheet and tied it until I couldn't breathe. When I was suffocating, I
shook my head but they kept the sheet on awhile longer, then they
took it off. My nose started bleeding. All this happened the day I
was captured and the next day. The third day they asked me "How long
have you been around here?" I said "About 3 years", and he said "The
people working getting logs are soldiers, right?!" I told him, "They
are not soldiers. They are villagers. They pile some short logs [for
the Thais] and get paid a few Baht". The same day they asked me about
this 2 or 3 times. Then he told me that I was lying. He said "I
recognize you. I've seen you delivering rice sacks to them." I said
I'd never done that but he said "Yes, yes, you are the one. I
recognize you." I'd never delivered any rice sacks, and I'd never
seen him before.
On the first day they gave me food, but on the other 3 days they
didn't give me any. I only had water to drink. They beat me up every
time they asked questions, every day. They punched my face until my
head got swollen. I got a wound on my head, here ["Thein Lwin" still
has a scar above his left temple where the hair isn't growing
anymore]. The first 2 nights they interrogated me and I couldn't
sleep. He told me I am a [Karen] soldier. He asked me where my
friends [other Karen soldiers] are. In the night, they covered my
mouth and nose with a piece of cloth and poured water on it so I
couldn't breathe.
The fourth day they put me in a hole in the daytime. I overheard one
of the commanders saying "This evening more soldiers will come and we
have to go fetch them. Is anyone from #4 Company here?" The other
said "Yes. You go and tell them to get ready to go." Soon after they
left, a soldier came and grabbed my throat tightly, punched me in the
face and my nose bled so much that it clotted in my nostrils and I
had to pull it out with my fingers so I could breathe. After he hit
me I pretended to go unconscious. He said "Tomorrow I'll come again
and ask again. If you lie, think about this, you will die." Then he
left. At dusk, I stood up and my whole body was aching. I saw a
soldier sitting with his gun at another hole. I thought there must
only be a few soldiers around because the others had gone to fetch
the new soldiers. I looked the other way and I saw soldiers making a
fire and hanging two messtins over it. One soldier was lighting a
candle and talking to the radio, and the other was writing. I didn't
see any others, so I thought "I must escape now, or I might die". So
I climbed out of the hole, got into a trench and followed it. There
was a sentry on the bunker guarding the entrance, but it was already
dark and I ran behind him. I got away. When I got to the stream, I
heard 2 or 3 gunshots. I ran for about 2 hours, and arrived back at
the [Moei] riverbank at 8 or 9 p.m.
The soldiers were from #44 Division, #9 Light Infantry Battalion. I
saw "44" and a small "9" on their badges. There were 4 soldiers who
asked me questions, and they all beat me up. One of them was named Bu
Paw or Eh Paw, I'm not sure. I escaped one month ago and I haven't
been back across the river since. Now I'm staying with my
parents-in-law. I have no work, I only have debts and no money to pay
them back. [Note: When Day Wah and Ah Toe were shot dead on Oct.
29th, it was "Thein Lwin" who rescued "Naw Tee Ker" from the river -
see her testimony, #3 in this report.]
_______________________________________________________________
#7.
NAME: "Pi Lah Ghay" SEX: F AGE: 74 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Pee Ta Ka village, Pain Kyone Township, Pa'an Dist. - now in
Noh Pa Doh, Thailand FAMILY: 4 children aged 30 to 43, grandchildren
When I was in Pee Ta Ka village, people chose me to be headwoman. The
village head has to stay in the village all the time because when
SLORC comes and demands things like porters, the headperson has to
deal with them or else they go and make trouble for the villagers,
and the SLORC also orders the headperson to go here and there all the
time. The SLORC camp is near the village, in Paw Yin Pu, so they
could come every day when they wanted. I was too old and weak to go
here and there whenever SLORC ordered me. I couldn't do it, so I left
the village. The villagers liked me and wanted me to go back, but I
didn't dare to stay there anymore. I came to Thailand about 5 years
ago.
My son went across the river on October 29 to work in his peanut
field. The SLORC captured him while he was covering his peanut seeds
with soil, with the hoe still in his hands. He was together with "Daw
Hla Thein"'s husband [Maung Kyaw Pu - see "Daw Hla Thein"'s
testimony, #8]. There were other people there but they ran away when
they saw soldiers. But when these two saw the soldiers they were
already too close, so they didn't dare run. [Another woman added, "It
was just the other side of the bamboo from where the soldiers took
"Saw Bo Gyi"'s watch. It happened at about the same time."] Now they
are holding my son, and he still hasn't been released. My son's name
is Saw Tah Kee. He is 30 years old. His arms don't work well, and
also his legs are not good. When he walks, sometimes he falls down by
himself, and he cannot speak clearly. He stutters. When he was a
child he was seriously ill, and he became this way. [He probably
suffered from polio.]
I went over to my son's farm with "Daw Hla Thein" to wait for SLORC
to get news. I saw them only yesterday [Nov. 9]. I was fishing with
"Daw Hla Thein" when my daughter called me that they were coming. I
asked "Daw Hla Thein" if she would go with me and she said "In a
short time". I couldn't wait and I hurried toward them. I saw
footprints but no soldiers, so I went to the place where they
captured my son but I saw nothing. On the way back I saw soldiers
hiding in the bamboo but they didn't see me. I was behind them, so I
made a noise and then they saw me and called me and I went to them
and greeted them. One of them pointed his pistol [Note: only
officers, and sometimes NCOs, carry pistols] and said, "If you want
to die, don't tell the truth. If you don't want to die, tell the
truth. Are there any walkie-talkies around here?" I answered "No." He
said, "I know there are walkie-talkies because at night I heard the
sound." I said, "I've got grey hair, I am old, I don't lie. If you
see any walkie-talkies around here you can kill me. If you don't
believe me, search. There are no walkie-talkies." Then he put his gun
away and I asked, "Did you bring my son with you?" He said "Who is
your son?" I told him and he said, "Now he is in our camp." I asked
"Why didn't you bring him?", and he said, "He's in the camp, so it's
not easy to release him. Maybe later. We won't kill him. We didn't
beat him, and we serve him very good food. What would you do if I
killed him?" I said, "I can't do anything. He's in your hands, so you
can kill him and I can't do anything." He asked me, "Weren't you
afraid to come here?", so I told him, "No, we are all human beings.
I'm not afraid of anything, because I want my son. I wanted to go to
your camp, but I don't know the way." Then the soldier said he was
hungry, and "Let's eat some rice." I told my daughter to serve them
rice. Then the soldier said, "You can eat with me. We're not the
cruel ones." He said, "One day, they shot 2 people, one on a boat
[Day Wah] and one in the river [Ah Toe]. I was told the one on the
boat was a KNU leader. [Karen National Union]" I said, "There are no
KNU leaders in Noh Pa Doh. How can you look for a KNU leader on the
Thai side? He was a teacher, a single man. My grandchildren studied
in his school." The soldier said, "Then why did he run from us?" I
answered, "When you come you arrest everyone you can, so he tried to
escape because he was afraid of you." The soldier said, "That teacher
had a gun" and I said, "He didn't have any gun." He said, "I was told
there was a gun in his boat. Where was he hit?" I showed him and said
"But the boy who was swimming, he was hit in the back of his head."
Then the soldier told me, "I'm not the one who shot them. I don't
know who shot them. Your son will be released, but later." I said,
"Please release him soon", and he said, "I'll ask permission of the
column commander. If we release him, it will be west of Noh Pa Doh,
further away."
They didn't tell me why they arrested my son and they didn't ask for
money. He said, "Don't waste your money to get your son. When his
time's up, we'll send him back to you." I couldn't tell his rank, I
only saw the badge with "44" on it [#44 Light Infantry Division]. I
asked permission to go and see my son, but they wouldn't let me. I
asked them, "If he is alive, tell me, but if you have killed him,
please tell me the truth." You can't do anything, whether you believe
them or not. "I like your son so I won't kill him", the soldier told
me. "I never kill anyone who's in my hands. We know that your son is
disabled. We don't beat him." I keep waiting. When will they release
my son? I don't know! I worry and cry every day. I can't do anything.
[As of Dec. 25/94, neither Saw Tah Kee nor Maung Kyaw Pu, age 55, had
been released. They are being held by #9 Light Infantry Battalion of
#44 Light Infantry Division, either at "Camp 606" or "Camp 1153". See
also "Kaw Thaw"'s testimony about Oct. 29th: "I saw 2 people with the
soldiers at the riverside, one of them tied up with his hands behind
his back. I saw one soldier shaking the man and shooting his gun in
the air right beside the man's ear. It was the disabled man." The
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Burma, Mr. Yozo Yokota, is aware
of their case, and KHRG has notified the UN Centre for Human Rights
and Amnesty International and requested action on their behalf.]
The soldier told me there are Karen soldiers around Noh Pa Doh. I
said, "No. Noh Pa Doh is Thailand, Karen soldiers can't stay there."
I told him I only see Thais and villagers, never people with guns. He
said, "Really?" [Note: the soldier's comments about Karen soldiers in
refugee camps and Day Wah being a "KNU leader" with a gun are
revealing about the type of propaganda SLORC feeds its soldiers to
get them to shoot refugees. SLORC has always publicly stated, "There
are no refugees, only insurgents in the disguise of refugees."]
_______________________________________________________________
#8.
NAME: "Daw Hla Thein" SEX: F AGE: 65 Pwo Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Mya Pin village, Pa'an District - now living in Noh Pa Doh
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 2 children aged 35 and 40
I came here 5 or 6 years ago because we lost everything there. We had
a field but the government took it. My father loaned the field to the
government because he needed to borrow money to buy goods to trade.
Then we couldn't pay back the money so they took the land. Now we
have a field on the other side of the river where we grow beans. On
October 29th, my husband crossed the river with "Pi Lah Ghay"'s son
to work the field and they were arrested. I went across the river
with "Pi Lah Ghay" to see the SLORC soldiers, but the soldiers
wouldn't tell me anything. When I asked about my husband, the soldier
said, "Don't worry. He's alive." They told me they will release him
sometime later. My husband's name is Maung Pu [full name Maung Kyaw
Pu]. He is younger than me, 55 years old. His health is not very good
- over a year ago, he had to have an operation because of gastric
problems. Now he always has to take medicine, but where he is now I
don't know if he is getting any medicine or not. He didn't have any
medicine with him. The SLORC told me that they will release him and
that they are looking after him. Even if I don't believe them, I
don't know what to do. I wanted to go see him but they wouldn't let
me.
_______________________________________________________________
#9.
NAME: "Toe Aung" SEX: M AGE: 42 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Haw Pwee Der village, Papun Township - now living in Noh Pa
Doh village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 5 children aged 8 to 21 years
We have been in Thailand for 10 years now, because we couldn't stay
in our village any longer. Although we worked, we could never get
enough to survive. Here it is better. Now I grow beans and rice on
the other side of the river [in Burma]. It's not good enough but we
can survive. It's better than in our village.
Yesterday [Nov. 9/94] I went across to my field to thresh the paddy
at 8 a.m. Before I got to my field, I saw Burmese soldiers near the
riverside. There were 6 soldiers and one Burmese porter. They were
beside the bamboo. While I was walking by, they punched me. One of
them grabbed me and they pointed their guns at me. They asked me
"Where is the sawmill?" I told them that I had heard the sound of the
sawmill but I didn't know exactly where it was. Then they asked me,
"In that village [Noh Pa Doh, on the Thai side] are there any Kaw
Thoo Lei soldiers?" [Karen soldiers] I said "No". Three soldiers
touched me with their guns. They tied me up with my arms behind my
back. They took me to the place where they had heard the sound of the
sawmill coming from. I had to follow behind them. We arrived at the
sawmill, but there was nothing left there. Then we came back. They
saw some cut wood and asked me, "Who are the people who cut this
wood?" I said "I don't know". Then they asked me if it would be
possible to meet with the [Noh Pa Doh] village leader and also if
there is a school there. I said "Yes".
We came back along the riverside. A soldier was holding the rope that
I was tied up with, and his officer told him to hide the rope in the
basket I was carrying so that nobody [on the Thai side] would see
that I was tied up. I had a pumpkin and some vegetables in my basket.
We arrived opposite Noh Pa Doh at 2 p.m. The soldiers called across
the river to the villagers to tell the schoolteacher to bring some
wine. The soldiers said, "If she comes to meet you, we will release
you." The schoolteacher came along with 2 other women, but they came
without anything so the soldiers asked for wine again. [Note: this
was the new schoolteacher who had just been chosen to replace Day
Wah, who was murdered by Burmese soldiers on Oct. 29th.] We were
there until 3 p.m. Then they said "If you send us to Pa Dee Kee Hta
we will release you." [Pa Dee Kee Hta is a short distance downriver
by boat.] They didn't give us any food, and not even water. I had a
bit of water left and we all drank from that. I was tied up the whole
time.
My son-in-law came by boat to help us, but one boat was not enough
for everyone so they ordered another man to come with his boat as
well. Then we all went to Pa Dee Kee Hta together with the 3 women.
On the way to Pa Dee Kee Hta they untied me. Then they released us
all in Pa Dee Kee Hta at 6 p.m. We had to walk back to Noh Pa Doh
because we couldn't paddle the boat back upstream. We just crossed
the river in the boat and then walked.
My wife's uncle Po Htoo Doh [age 60] was also arrested, in July this
year. He is from a village near Hlaing Bwe town. He also has a hut
across the river, near my hut. He worked there to grow beans. First
they arrested a woman and held her for 3 hours, then they released
her and arrested him. His wife and daughter were with him but they
weren't arrested. They arrested him when he was in his hut,
blindfolded him and spun him around so he wouldn't know directions.
He was tied up, and then they took him to their camp [either Camp 606
or Camp 1153, the 2 camps in the area, occupied since August by LIB
#9]. When they got to Wa Mi village they tightened the rope. Then
when they got to their camp they put his legs in the stocks and kept
him like that all the time for 2 months. [SLORC often uses
mediaeval-style leg stocks of bamboo or wood to hold prisoners in a
prone position.] Then they held him for another month in their camp
near Thingan Nyi Nau. They released him there. It was 3 months
altogether. When the commander interrogated him they hit him, beat
him and punched him. They kicked him and broke one of his ribs. They
pushed a gun barrel into his mouth and broke two of his teeth. They
covered his face very tightly so he was suffocating, then they took
off the cover and asked him questions. They poured water in his nose
until he almost died. After that he couldn't even take a bath,
because his broken rib was so painful. After he was released in
Thingan Nyi Nau, he went to Dta Oh village, and later he came back to
Noh Pa Doh.
I have to go back across again because now the paddy is ready and the
work is not finished. I have to carry it all across to this side. It
will be finished in 2 days' time. I'll just have to be very careful
and watch. I'm afraid, but I have to go.
_______________________________________________________________
#10.
NAME: "Naw Paw Kee" SEX: F AGE: 45 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Dta Oh village, Myawaddy Township - now living in Noh Pa Doh
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 4 children aged 16 to 24 years
We came across to Thailand 10 years ago, first to Noh Pa Doh refugee
camp [there was a refugee camp at Noh Pa Doh, but after SLORC
occupied the opposite side of the river it had to move to Don Pa
Kiang for safety], then to Don Pa Kiang. We have a field across the
river, but this year the harvest was not good and it wasn't enough
for us to eat [due to the floods]. We have to go and farm there even
though we are afraid of SLORC, because we have to survive.
I was a schoolteacher before, when I was single. Now I am a
schoolteacher again. [She has replaced Day Wah, who was murdered by
SLORC on 29 October, as primary school teacher in Noh Pa Doh.]
Yesterday [Nov. 9/94] we were in the school. Classes weren't finished
yet. Then somebody came and told us that there were a lot of soldiers
at the other side of the river. We were very scared, so I told the
students to all go home quietly. A boy came to me and said
"Grandmother, please go across the river. They have arrested
someone." I was very afraid and I grabbed my bag so I could run away,
but then people gave me one duck to take across the river so the
soldiers would set the villager free. When I arrived at the river the
soldiers called across, "Not a duck, we want cheroots", but we didn't
have any cheroots so I took 2 packages of cigarettes. Then I started
paddling a canoe across but I couldn't paddle and the canoe went in
all directions ["Naw Paw Kee" had no experience with canoes]. I was
with "Toe Aung"'s wife Mi Sho, 40 years old, and his daughter-in-law
Ma Tay Myint, who is 21. I had to go because I can speak Burmese and
they can't. We can't swim and we were afraid, but there was nothing
we could do about it because they ordered us to come. Then they
laughed at us because we couldn't control the canoe.
When we got across the river we saw "Toe Aung" tied up and the
soldiers asked me "Where do you live? What is your occupation?" I
said I am a farmer. They asked if there were Kaw Thoo Lei soldiers on
the Thai side and I said "No". They asked me, "Are there any sawmills
around here? Do you want to work in the sawmill? We'll find one for
you." But I said I didn't want to work in a sawmill. I think they
want to know about the sawmills because they heard there is logging
around here and that the wood is very cheap. I don't know about
sawmills, I'm not interested in that. Some Thais own sawmills further
up the river.
It was 2:30 p.m. when we met the soldiers. There were six soldiers
and one porter - they always come in groups of six. They said, "If
you don't like us then give us chicken and wine and we'll leave." We
called across the river for other villagers to bring wine and
chicken. First they asked for 3 chickens, but we didn't have any.
Then they asked for 6 bottles of alcohol but we could only give them
two. They also asked for cheroots, 2 packages of 50, and bananas,
pumpkins, and other things. A SLORC captain crossed the river in a
boat. He stayed in the boat and got the things from the villagers.
When he came back he said, "If you take us to Pa Dee Kee Hta we'll
release you." They needed 2 boats for everyone, so Pu Lu, who is 21,
brought another boat. When we got to Pa Dee Kee Hta they released all
of us.
A soldier asked me where I used to live and I said Dta Oh. He looked
at a map and asked me if I had a farm on the Burma side of the river
and I said "Yes". He said the soldiers wouldn't make any trouble for
me, but I said, "What if other soldiers come and shoot at us?" They
couldn't answer that question. I said, "We are afraid when you call
us to cross the river. Last time when some villagers came over, they
were killed." He said it wasn't him who killed them. He said "It
wasn't me who killed Thra Day Wah. And as for the 2 men we are
holding, they are not dead. We are feeding them well." We didn't ask
them about those 2 men, they just told us [this refers to Saw Tah Kee
and Maung Kyaw Pu - see testimonies #7 & #8 in this report]. They
didn't say where they are being held, only that it is about 1 hour
away.
Now we owe 300 Baht [US$12] for what we had to give them and we have
to pay it back. We'll have to find wood that we can sell or catch
wild chickens and sell them. If they order you to come across the
river, you have to go! But next time I'll shout at them from this
side that I have no money to give them and I'll run away. This time I
took off my jacket before going across, because I didn't want them to
steal it from me. In rainy season my husband went across to work in
his paddy field, and some soldiers came to a sawmill further up the
river and started shooting. My husband heard it and ran away leaving
all his things, knife, basket, clothing, shoes, a chemical sprayer,
and the soldiers stole everything. The sprayer cost 850 Baht [US$34].
They also took farm tools, plates, and 2 blankets. That was a Sunday
in July. They also robbed the other huts around there. In rainy
season the SLORC also arrested a woman named Toe Thu Mo along with
her uncle Po Htoo Doh who is 60 years old. They released her after 3
hours, but they held him for 3 months before he arrived back.
_______________________________________________________________
#11.
NAME: "Saw Bo Gyi" SEX: M AGE: 42 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Dta Oh village, Myawaddy Township - now living in Noh Pa Doh
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 5 children aged 5 to 16 years
I came to Noh Pa Doh from my village 10 years ago because the Burmese
came and captured villagers and shot their guns in our village. Now I
have a field on the other side of the river where I grow bananas,
mangos and other things. On October 29th this year, I went over there
to make charcoal together with a friend. We don't have a hut over
there, we just sleep under the bamboo. At about 11 a.m. I was
together with my friend weaving a basket [of bamboo]. I heard a sound
like something cracking, and I suddenly saw one soldier creeping very
close to me. He came from behind me and scared me. He pointed his gun
at me. I had a watch on my wrist. With one hand he motioned me to
take off my watch, and with his other hand he was ready to shoot. He
didn't want to speak loudly and he just said "Take off ... take off
..." I took off my watch and moved to give it to him but he didn't
want me to come too close so he ordered me to throw it to him: "Throw
... throw ... throw". So I threw it to him, and he put it in his
pocket. After that, he looked behind him and I saw a Corporal coming.
When the Corporal arrived, the soldier asked me, "Are there any Karen
soldiers here?" While he asked me, the Corporal came behind and
started taking my things from my sleeping-place. Just then my friend
ran away. The soldier tried to run after him for a few steps, then he
pointed his gun at me and ordered me, "Call your friend back or I'll
shoot you now!" I said, "Please wait. I'll call him". When I called
my friend, the Corporal pointed his M79 gun at me [an M79 is a
rifle-sized grenade launcher] and put it against my back. I was only
wearing a pair of shorts. The other soldier was searching for
something, and a third soldier arrived. The Corporal pushed his gun
into my back 2 or 3 times and shouted, "If you don't call your friend
I'll kill you now! Call quickly!" We were beside a slope and I told
him I'd climb up a little bit to call my friend. The other 2 soldiers
were busy searching through my things, so then I pushed the Corporal
aside and ran away. I thought, "I'll have to push him now or I won't
escape." There was alot of bamboo, so they couldn't see me and I
escaped. I kept running until I came to the river. I saw my friend -
he was swimming and he had almost reached the other bank. I was too
tired to swim and I saw a boat, so I took it to cross the river. When
I got on the boat I heard the gunshots that killed Teacher Day Wah,
but I didn't know that at the time - I just heard gunshots. It was
the same group of soldiers. I know because some villagers saw from
the riverside that one soldier was carrying the chemical sprayer they
stole from me.
>From me they stole pots, some rice, a knife, a machete, a chemical
sprayer, 2 plates, a pair of worn-out trousers and a sarong. Now I'm
too afraid to go back over there again. A few days ago I crossed but
came back very quickly. I don't dare to go and get the charcoal I
made.
_______________________________________________________________
#12.
NAME: "Pa Boe" SEX: M AGE: 29 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Gker Ghaw village, Myawaddy Township - now living in Noh Pa
Doh, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 2 children aged 9 months and 3 years
I came to Thailand about 10 years ago because the Burmese oppressed
us. Whenever they came to our village they took people to be porters,
and I was afraid of that. Now I survive as a day labourer on the Thai
farms around here. I get 30 or 40 baht [US$1.20-$1.60] per day. In
dry season I also cut the leaves of wild banana trees and sell them.
I get 10 baht for 1 kilo. One Sunday this year [in May 1994 according
to others] I went across the river to cut bamboo. On a hill about 1.5
km. from the river where the path to Meh Ma Laing meets the path to
Noh Pa Doh, I saw about 30 soldiers around, and 5 soldiers hiding in
the bamboo arrested me. I was alone. They took me to their company
commander. When I arrived there they tied me up at once. They tied me
around my neck and tied my arms behind my back. One soldier pointed
his gun very closely at my chest, while the others also guarded me
with their guns. Then they slapped me, punched me in the face and
pointed a carbine rifle at my forehead. They asked me about their
enemies and asked where the sawmill is. They ordered me to tell them.
I told them, "I don't know where the Karen soldiers are." Then he
said, "You know! You are a spy!" Then they killed my dog, and they
said, "You must die like your dog!"
This happened on the hill behind the sawmill. Then they took me to
the riverbank. When we got there, they saw 4 people coming across the
river and went to ambush them. They arrested them and took the engine
of the sawmill, then they took us all to their camp. The first
evening at the camp, they punched me in the face and gave me a big
bruise for about 2 weeks. They punched me on the jaw and my mouth
bled. They kicked me in the neck while I was sitting. They hit me in
the head with a rifle butt, and then they pointed the rifle barrel
and touched it against my throat. A soldier came in and stuck the
barrel of a carbine rifle in my mouth, then he shook it around until
my mouth was bleeding. That night, I was left with my hands tied
behind my back. An officer came and told the soldiers, "If you tie
him like that, he won't be able to sleep." The next day they put my
legs in the stocks [mediaeval-style leg stocks - the victim sits with
his legs stretched out flat and his ankles clamped between 2
horizontal segments of bamboo], and they tied one of my hands to a
bamboo with rope. They told me that I am a spy.
They kept me like that for about one month. I was always in the
stocks. When I had to go to the toilet, they tied my hands behind my
back [and released his legs]. I was always in the camp. They kept me
in the same place as the porters, separate from the other prisoners.
They fed me a little rice and some beans, and in the evening I got
sour soup and rice. I was there for 29 days, then the soldiers
brought 3 of us down to Htee Kay Po. The other two were also from Noh
Pa Doh - one of Hser Nay Mu's workers, and a man originally from Peh
Toe. They tied us until our blood couldn't even circulate anymore and
took us along. When we got to Htee Kay Po they arrested 6 more people
who had come across the river from Tala Oh Kla [refugees from the
Thai side]. Then they took us back to the camp together. We slept one
night along the way. They tied the hands of 3 of us together, and we
had to sleep like buffalos or cattle, all squeezed together. When we
got back, they put 2 of the people from Tala Oh Kla in the stocks, Ta
Kaw and his friend. They accused Ta Kaw and his friend of being Karen
soldiers - maybe because Ta Kaw has long hair. The soldiers kept them
separately so I didn't see what they did to them. I was put back with
the porters, but not in the stocks. After that we had to work for
them twice every day, in the morning and the evening, cutting the
grass and clearing the compound. It was less than an hour each time.
Before we went to Htee Kay Po I got enough food, but after we came
back with more prisoners it was never enough.
I was there for another 8 days, then I escaped. There was a wall
around the porters' area. Before dawn at about 4:30 a.m. I went to a
part of the wall that was in bad condition and pushed the bamboo open
until I could squeeze through. Then I ran to the soldiers' toilets,
climbed over the fence and ran to the forest. It was raining. I just
ran in the dark, and I almost met the soldiers again. I saw their
torchlights twice while I was running. I thought I was going to Noh
Pa Doh Kee but I arrived in Noh Po Kee instead. I arrived back the
same day, in the morning.
The soldiers were from #3 Light Infantry Battalion [part of #44 Light
Infantry Division]. They held me at Kyaw Kay Kee camp, but they
called it Kyaw Kay Chaung [a Burmese variation of the Karen name].
Some of the soldiers were Htun Lay Oo, who guarded me when I was
arrested, Pah Di, and Nyi Nyi. One of the soldiers who tortured me
was Sia Win Sein, I think he is a Corporal. The camp commander beat
me, but I don't know his name.
While I was gone my family had to stay with Bu Wah's father [a
relative] and he had to look after them. I was across the river again
on the day that the soldiers shot Teacher Day Wah [Oct. 29]. We were
fishing and I didn't know where the soldiers were, so I ran to a boat
stop further down the river. I had to run very fast because I heard
many gunshots. I came back swimming, and I almost drowned. The
soldiers didn't see me because there were clumps of bamboo between
them and me. When I was swimming I saw Day Wah turn the boat, then I
saw him falling. I knew for sure that he was shot. I swam as quickly
as I could, and when I was across I grabbed a branch. I was already
tired after running, and after swimming I was exhausted. If some
soldiers had followed me I would have died for sure. I don't dare go
back over there any more.
_______________________________________________________________
#13.
NAME: "Saw Tha Kler" SEX: M AGE: 45 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Maw La Kee village, Hlaing Bwe Township, Pa'an District
- now in Kler Ko refugee camp, Thailand
FAMILY: Married, 10 children aged 10 months to 17 years
This is our second year in Thailand. We came because the Burmese
asked for porters and we didn't have time to work to survive, so we
didn't want to stay anymore. I came with my whole family. My
second-eldest son went across the river searching for food at the end
of October, 4 days before the monthly rice distribution [he went on
October 28th]. His name was Pa Dee Dee, he was 15 years old. He
should have come back by the end of the month to carry the rice.
Several days later, I went across to look for him. I slept one night
on the way. Then I found his body, a short way from Wah Kyaw village.
There were 2 bodies in an irrigation ditch, covered with grass. The
other body was Pa Klih Bo [see following interview]. I didn't look
closely at the bodies because they were already badly decomposed, and
the people there didn't want me to take them out. We were afraid and
in a hurry so we couldn't bury the bodies. I just went with a few
people and covered them with more grass because they were already so
decomposed. There are many wild vegetables over there, and I used to
go get them. But now I don't want to go anymore.
_______________________________________________________________
#14.
NAME: "Naw Wah" SEX: F AGE: 40 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Wah Kyaw Klo village, Hlaing Bwe Township - now in Kler Ko
camp, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 5 children aged 5 to 20
We escaped from the Burmese and came here about 10 years ago.
Everybody in the whole area ran away when they got near. There was
fighting going on when we left.
My husband's name was Klih Bo. He was older than me [other sources
say he was 43]. At the end of October, he went across the river to
search for food in the forest. I expected him back by the end of the
month, but I didn't dare go to look for him. Then "Saw Tha Kler" [see
preceding interview] came and told me he was dead. Now I can't think
of what I will do. Before, I always depended on my husband. Now he's
dead and I can't do anything. All we have is the rice and fishpaste
we get from the refugee camp. I think we can't survive. No one will
support our family.
_______________________________________________________________
#15.
NAME: "Maung Zaw Oo" SEX: M AGE: 38 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Kah Hta village, Pain Kyone Township, Pa'an District
- now in Ka Maw Lay Ko refugee camp, Thailand
FAMILY: Married, 4 children aged 1 to 20
We left our village and came here 10 years ago because the Burmese
came to our area [they were making an offensive against Maw Po Kay at
the time]. This year on the 2nd or 3rd of October, over one month
ago, they captured my friends Maung Tin and Pa Paw. Four of us went
across, 2 of us in one canoe and Maung Tin and Pa Paw in another. We
crossed the river to search for food. When we got across and went up
the riverbank, we didn't see them. When I arrived at the hut, I
thought they must be out looking for food and that they would come in
the evening. I didn't worry about them. But two days after they
disappeared, we were sure that SLORC had captured them. I think they
must have been captured as soon as they went up the riverbank. When
we crossed, we were about 200 metres from them along the river. I
didn't see any soldiers or hear any gunshots, but my friend said he
heard someone shouting in the distance. After that, people went and
saw the footprints of soldiers. They saw by the footprints that the
soldiers had been hiding behind a termite mound. It was right at the
place where Maung Tin and Pa Paw landed on the riverbank. Nobody
found anything else. We cannot guess what the soldiers did to them.
Maybe when they passed the soldiers' hiding place, the soldiers came
out and grabbed them. The canoe was still just left on the riverbank.
Maung Tin is 38. He has 2 daughters, 8 and 18 years old, but his wife
already died. Pa Paw is over 50. His wife is alive but she is blind.
They have one daughter, and grandchildren. Their families both stay
here in the refugee camp. [Note: the 2 men have probably already been
killed, but until this can be confirmed there remains a possibility
that they are being held in a SLORC camp or used as porters, and
appropriate international pressure should be brought to bear on SLORC
on their behalf.]
_______________________________________________________________
#16.
NAME: "Saw Ler Doh" SEX: M AGE: 45 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Wah Klay village, Myawaddy Township - now in Tala Oh Kla
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 2 children aged 15 and 20
We came to the Thai side because we didn't dare stay there anymore -
the Burmese arrested people and used us as slaves and porters. If you
didn't escape, they never released you. We've been on this side for 9
years now. I have a field on the other side. I haven't met SLORC over
there, but I've seen them arrest some friends so I'm afraid of that.
In August, Pa Noh Ter and 3 others had no [meat] curry, so they went
over to dig the ground to catch moles. They caught 6 moles and turned
to come back. Then they met with SLORC soldiers, and they were shot
at without being asked any questions. There were 4 of them. Pa Noh
Ter was shot and died immediately, and the other three made it to the
riverbank without being hit. Pa No Ter was shot in the back of the
neck and the bullet went out through his forehead, and he was also
shot in the back of his shoulder and that bullet came out through his
chest. The same day, Pa Noh Kee had also gone to look for food. He
was shot in his leg and it was broken, and there was no one there to
help him so he died of bleeding. They found his body the next
morning, and he had been hit by 2 or 3 bullets. Pa Noh Ter was
married with 3 children between 3 and 9 years old. He was 36. Now his
wife can't do anything. The relatives invited them to go and stay
with them. Pa Noh Kee was about the same age as Pa Noh Ter and was
married with 3 children. The youngest is 6 years old.
More than 10 people went across to bury Pa Noh Ter's body. Then the
SLORC soldiers came. The villagers had already put the body in the
hole but not covered it yet when the soldiers arrived and started
shooting at them. They ran back to the river. Po Tha Htoo was very
tired from running, but he tried to swim across the river and he
drowned. [Note: it was in rainy season, with the river in full
flood.] Nobody else died, and nobody was hit by the bullets. Po Tha
Htoo was about 19 years old and single. He had no field on the other
side, he just used to go and help in his friends' fields. Me, I don't
dare go anywhere. I just do day labour on this side. If there is no
work, I have to borrow from my friends.
_______________________________________________________________
#17.
NAME: "Saw Ler Thu" SEX: M AGE: 30 Pwo Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Bu Ka Tee village, Pa'an District - now living in Don Pa
Kiang refugee camp, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 4 children aged 3
months to 7 years
I came to Thailand 5 years ago because it was too hard for us to stay
in our village. We couldn't get food for ourselves because we had to
work for SLORC all the time. I also had to go as a porter twice for
10 days each time. When I went, the soldier who registered my name
was drunk and spelt my name incorrectly, so later when they did
roll-call they called for "'Ler Tay'" and nobody answered. When they
found out it was me, they punched me hard in the back and it hurt
badly for 2 hours. I had to carry 4 mortar shells in a basket to Noh
Pa Doh, Noh Ra, and Noh Mo Kwee for #24 Infantry Battalion.
When I came to Thailand, first I stayed at Ka Na Su, then we couldn't
stay there any longer because SLORC was too close, so we moved here.
I go across the river [to the Burma side] every 2 or 3 days because I
have a bean field there, and sometimes to cut bamboo. I never had any
problems until they shot at me, just over 2 months ago [in
September/94]. It was 1 p.m. After I ate lunch I went to find bamboo
shoots [a staple food in rainy season]. There were 6 of us, spread
around there cutting bamboo shoots. My field is right on the
riverbank, so I went up away from the river about 10 minutes' walk. I
saw 4 soldiers. One shouted, "Don't run away!", and then they shot at
me. I just turned and ran away very quickly. The soldiers appeared
along the stream where I was with 2 friends cutting bamboo shoots, so
I ran up the slope beside the stream. They shot at me many times:
"pa, pa, pa, ...". One of my friends was running in front of me, and
Uncle Kwe Tha was behind - he was hit and he fell down. He tried to
run away but he couldn't. One bullet hit my foot, but I still tried
to run. I ran into the bushes, so they didn't see me anymore and they
didn't follow me.
Uncle Kwe Tha's leg was broken, his right leg. He tried to keep
running but he couldn't, so the soldiers captured him. They asked him
many questions and afterwards they killed him with a knife right in
the chest. They tortured him a lot with a knife. They stabbed him a
lot. Some other people found his body the next day. He was 39 years
old and has 5 children. The eldest is 12 years old, and the youngest
is not even 1 month old. When he died his wife was still pregnant.
They live in Ka Na Su.
The rest of us were safe. I stayed in the bushes overnight, then I
came back on my own, crawling on my arms and legs by myself. I waited
at the riverside, and one of my friends came from the other side and
got me. When I got here they sent me to the hospital. There was no
bullet inside my foot, but now I can't walk. My wife and my brother
have to look after my field. They have to be very careful, and listen
to hear if SLORC is near. My wife and my brother just finished the
harvest. My mother-in-law looks after the children.
I don't know what Battalion shot me. This happens often at Noh Pa
Doh, all the time. My 2 friends Bo Taw Oh and Bo Cher died last year.
They went to the other side of the river to find food, and the
soldiers shot them. The soldiers are bad people - whenever they find
people, they torture and kill them. They are not good to us. I didn't
know the soldiers would come. But they just shouted "Don't run!" and
shot at us.
_______________________________________________________________
#18.
NAME: "Naw Paw Ghay" SEX: F AGE: 38 Karen Animist farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Cha Ra village, Myawaddy Township - now in Ka Na Su
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 5 children aged 1 month to 12
years
I came over here because the Burmese came and shot their guns in our
village at nighttime, so we ran away directly here - first we stayed
on the Karen [Burma] side of the river, then we crossed to here. That
was nearly 5 years ago. I don't know what date the SLORC killed my
husband - it was a Saturday, about 3 months ago during the dead moon
[others indicate it was Sept. 3/94]. My husband said "Because of the
dead moon we have to rest, so I'll just go look for vegetables."
[Animists traditionally rest during the "no moon" period.] I didn't
go because I had pain in my belly [she was 8 months pregnant at the
time]. Two of them went together. When I came back later from the
refugee camp hospital, people said they didn't see my husband when
everyone else came back. Then they found his body the next morning.
It was on the other side of the river, nearly 2 miles away. Over
there people often have to run, but if he didn't go over to find
vegetables we'd have nothing to eat. My children are very young so I
can't do anything to live, no work. [By this time "Naw Paw Ghay" was
crying, and the interview could not be continued. See the following
interview.]
_______________________________________________________________
#19.
NAME: "Saw Bway" SEX: M AGE: 34 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Cha Ra village, Myawaddy Township - now in Ka Na Su
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 3 children aged 4 to 11
I found "Naw Paw Ghay"'s husband's body. His name was Kwe Tha. He was
39 years old. That day [Sept. 3/94] the Burmese soldiers shot at him
and he didn't come home. We thought maybe they had arrested him, or
shot at him and he was wounded and couldn't come back. We went and
searched, and I found his body in a stream in the forest. It was the
day after he was killed. Then we knew the SLORC had killed him beside
the stream and thrown his body in the stream. It wasn't deep, just
one handspan. His body was laying face up. The soldiers had put his
hands in his pockets. There were flies all over the body. When we
looked closely at the body we could see it wasn't a gunshot, it was a
knife wound in his belly. There were 2 wounds, about 2 inches apart,
and there was one wound in his back where the knife came out. He was
thin, not fat. I looked at the palm of his hand and there was a
bullet hole, and his right leg was broken with the bone sticking out.
His head was swollen and looked like it had been beaten, and his hair
was all standing up out of place. There were knife poke-marks up and
down his arms. I saw blood on the ground beside the river, so I
guessed that the SLORC had stabbed him there. In the stream there was
no blood because the water had washed it away. We were afraid of the
Burmese soldiers, so we hurried, picked up the body and came back. We
buried him the same day. The body smelled very bad.
The Burmese soldiers have never caught me, but the same day they
killed Kwe Tha they burned my hut on the other side of the river. It
was a hut I built to rest when I was working. There was nothing in
it. Another time they took all the clothes, my plates and my pot that
I had left in the hut. If I see SLORC soldiers coming near my farm, I
run while they're still far away.
_______________________________________________________________
#20.
NAME: "Pa Htoo" SEX: M AGE: 38 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Cha Ra village, Myawaddy Township - now in Don Pa Kiang
camp, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 3 children aged 6 months, 2 and 5
years
I came to Thailand 9 years ago because we faced many problems and we
were afraid of the Burmese. Whenever they saw us they arrested us and
forced us to carry things for them, and sometimes they beat us. I had
to go as a porter so many times I can't even count them. When they
told us to carry we didn't even know how many days it would be, we
just had to run away because they never released us for 5 or 10 days.
If my back or shoulders hurt too much to carry anymore I told them,
and they beat me with sticks or guns, and they kicked us too.
At the beginning of this rainy season [on June 5/94 according to
other sources] we were working across the river to plant vegetables,
and I went over to cut the grass. There were 2 of us. When we
finished our work we were coming back and the SLORC Army followed us,
but I didn't notice. They called "Hey!" Then I turned around and saw
them, and they started shooting at us. The first bullet hit me in the
back [it hit his buttock near the anus, and came out through his
groin to one side]. I fell down, then I tried to get up and run
again. They fired again, and I pretended to be hit, fell down and
pretended to be dead. The soldiers came up to me, kicked me on the
back and asked, "Why did you run?" I didn't answer, I just laid there
with my eyes closed. They asked me if I was Kaw Thoo Lei and many
other questions, but I didn't dare answer because I was afraid they'd
kill me. Then they looked at me and said, "He'll die soon" so they
grabbed me by the arms and legs and threw me away. They threw me
under a tree. Then the soldiers left and I called my friends, but
they didn't dare come or call back [they were probably already gone].
I was bleeding alot and I couldn't walk, so I crawled with my hands
and came back to the river slowly, slowly, on my own. I couldn't
stand up. It was about 300 metres to the riverside. I managed to get
there, and then my friends went across and got me.
The boy who was with me was captured, and they held him for 1 month.
Then he ran away from them. When he got back here I asked him what
happened and he said the soldiers tied his hands and feet and covered
his face. They didn't beat him. They interrogated him for 2 days and
then untied him, then they just kept him at their camp without doing
anything for a month. I don't know his name because he lives in Burma
and only came out here for a short time. He was about 18 or 19.
When I got back I couldn't walk. I asked my friends to take me to the
hospital. I couldn't walk for more than one month. [The medic
reported that the wound kept abscessing because a piece of gauze had
been left inside during cleaning. Finally the gauze was removed, and
only then could he begin to walk.] Now I'm much better, but some bits
of gauze are still inside. They took out one piece yesterday. There's
still a hole wide enough for a pair of scissors, but there's no more
pus.
_______________________________________________________________
#21.
NAME: "Daw Than Nwe" SEX: F AGE: 36 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Dta Oh village, Myawaddy Township - now in Tala Oh Kla
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 4 children aged 6 to 16
We ran from the Burmese and came here. We couldn't work in our
village. They arrested people, and we ran away and came here 8 years
ago. My husband worked and made a field on the other side of the
river. This year when the roofing leaves were falling [others report
it was Feb. 19, 1994] he went over there to cut bamboo and the
Burmese shot at him. Four of them went. Two died, and two came back.
The Burmese shot at my husband at 9 a.m., and his two friends "Pa
Kyaw" and Saw Wih came back at 10 a.m. and told me the news. They had
to run away, they didn't have time to look after each other.
My husband's name was Kalay Tay. He was 40. The other man killed was
Pa Wah Muh. [Pa Wah Muh was 35.] People found their bodies 2 days
later. They'd been shot dead. My husband was shot in the neck, and
people said there were also 2 bullet wounds around his bladder. We
can't do anything. My children and I don't even dare go to the farm
now. I asked my women friends to go and help me. At harvest time we
were just there for half a day, then the Burmese came and we had to
run back. I can't think how we'll survive this year - I suppose just
doing day labour. Sometimes I go myself, and sometimes my daughter
goes.
_______________________________________________________________
#22.
NAME: "Pa Kyaw" SEX: M AGE: 23 Karen Christian farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Hoh Taw village, Myawaddy Township - now in Tala Oh Kla
village, Thailand FAMILY: Married, no children (wife pregnant)
I came here because the Burmese came and stayed in my village. I
arrived in 1984, first in Noh Pa Doh refugee camp, then here. In
February I went together with Kalay Tay and Pa Wah Mu to cut bamboo.
We didn't see any soldiers or hear anything. We were cutting bamboo,
and then they shot at us. We didn't even see them. We ran, and when
we had run half the way back, the soldiers shot at us with the big
gun, just one shot [probably an M79 grenade launcher or an RPG
(rocket-propelled grenade)]. The dust flew up and covered me, and I
kept running but my uncle was left behind. When they shot the big
gun, I know my uncle fell down. His name was Kalay Tay. When I got to
the river, people came across and brought me back. Later, Bweh Tha Ko
went and found his body.
_______________________________________________________________
#23.
NAME: "Maung Tay" SEX: M AGE: 40 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Lay Kay Tee village, Nabu Township, Pa'an District - now in
Tala Oh Kla, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 3 children aged 7 to 14
I left my village because of SLORC oppression. They ordered us to do
sentry duty for them at night, and we couldn't bear it. During the
day, we had to deliver their letters and messages even if we didn't
dare go. We had to deliver their orders to the village headmen. If we
didn't dare go, they harmed us. They abused me twice. The first time,
they hit me with a rifle barrel on my back and my head. I got a wound
on my head and had to go to hospital. The second time, they ordered
me to deliver a letter at night and to go and ask about the Karen
soldiers [as a spy]. When I got there I asked the village head about
the Karen soldiers and he said he didn't know anything, so I went
back and told the SLORC and they beat me. They punched me more than
10 times, on both sides of my face. Then I came to Thailand. That was
just a year ago.
Then I went back across in February and they abused me again [others
report it was Feb. 28/94]. I went to cut bamboo and wood to build a
house. There were 4 of us, and we'd already finished cutting and were
bringing it back. We didn't see the soldiers, they saw us first and
they shot at us. All of us were wounded at the same time. I was hit
in the head [a graze wound]. Pa Doh was hit twice, once in the
shoulder and once in the neck but the bullet didn't go inside. Ta
Bwey was also wounded. A bullet hit his buttock and stayed inside.
Thaw Aye was wounded in his leg. Three of us still ran. Ta Bwey fell
down, then after a few minutes he got up and tried to run again. The
soldiers didn't come and find him. The three of us ran back to the
riverside and then swam across the river. We could still run. Ta Bwey
came back slowly, limping. He got back 2 hours later. I suffered from
my wound for 1 month, but it's better now. During that month I
couldn't work. When my friends got back, the people here sent them to
hospital. I haven't met any of them since then. Now I just survive
doing day labour in the fields, just work to eat, work to eat, living
hand to mouth. Right now, there's no work [because the floods wiped
out crops].
_______________________________________________________________
#24.
NAME: "Saw Po Thay" SEX: M AGE: 18 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Kah Hta village, Pain Kyone Township, Pa'an District
- now in Ka Maw Lay Ko refugee camp, Thailand
FAMILY: Single, 2 brothers and 1 sister
I have been in this camp 5 years, because the Burmese came to our
village and we didn't dare stay. Here, my uncle owned two elephants
on the other side of the river. We used them to pull logs and get
some money. I went with him to feed them. ["Saw Po Thay" was unsure
of the time, but others in the camp say this incident happened in
January 1994.] The elephants were just across on the riverbank. When
we arrived there, we didn't see any soldiers. They surrounded us and
then appeared. There were 30 or more. They told us "Don't run! Don't
run!" Then we ran, and they shot at us. Luckily, we got through the
soldiers and ran to the river. I started swimming, but my uncle
didn't make it to the river. He was shot and died. They shot at me
too, but I escaped. They chased me but they couldn't catch me because
there were too many bushes. I swam across the river.
My uncle didn't die as soon as he was shot. He managed to jump in the
river, floated down and died. We found his body 3 days later. There
were 2 bullet wounds, one in the left side of his chest and one on
the shoulder. My uncle's name was Pa Dee Mah, he is nearly 50 years
old. He had 4 children. The eldest is 20 and the youngest is 3 years
old. Now his family has to work in people's fields on this side of
the river because they can't do anything else to live. After they
shot at us, the soldiers took the elephants too.
_______________________________________________________________
#25.
NAME: "Htoo Klay" SEX: M AGE: 48 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Tee Wah Ker village, Hlaing Bwe Township, Pa'an District
- now in Tala Oh Kla village, Thailand
FAMILY: Married, 5 children aged 7 to 20
In the area where I lived we went to work for the SLORC soldiers
whenever they ordered us to, so they didn't make too much trouble for
the villagers. Whenever they wanted porters they sent an order to the
village head, and he sent them every time. When it was my turn, I had
to go. I had to build their fences at their camp. They made us build
the fences, but they wouldn't let us go inside the camp. Then when
the fences wore out we had to go and rebuild them. I had to go for a
day at a time, sometimes once or twice a month. I came here nearly 1
year ago because for awhile I couldn't work so I built up a debt. I
came here to get money to pay my debt, but instead I just got more
debt. A Thai "rich man" [Karen idiom for businessman] gave me beans
to plant on the other side of the river [a common arrangement: the
businessman gives the farmer seed to plant, then after harvest the
farmer pays back the loan and sells the produce to the businessman at
a low price]. I planted them beside the river, but because of the
flood they were all killed. Then the Thai gave me just one more tin
of beans to plant, so I planted them. The day before yesterday [Nov.
26/94] I went across to spray the field. Two soldiers came and
arrested me. They told me to put down the spray tin, and I put it
down. He took out a rope and started tying me up. I said "No need to
tie me. If you want me to go with you I'll go." They said "No, we
have to tie you up." They pointed their guns at me and tied my right
arm, not very tightly. Then they led me by the rope to their officer.
My wife was with us too, but they didn't tie her. They'd lost their
officer so they took us while they searched for him, for 20 minutes
through the forest. Then they found the other soldiers and they
untied me.
The officer asked my wife "Can you speak Burmese?", and one of the
soldiers answered "Yes, she can." Then the officer looked at me and
said "What about you?" I said "Yes, I can speak it." The officer told
me to go back to the village and get 2 bottles of alcohol and one
package of cheroots. I said "I'll go, because my wife can't paddle
the canoe." He asked how long it would take and I said "30 minutes".
He said "Go very quickly. The sun is going down." If both of us came
they wouldn't trust us, so I had to leave my wife with them. I came
and got it, went back and gave it to them. He said to me, "If you
come here to clear land to plant rice, you can come. But if you see
us and we call you to come then come, don't run away. Don't be afraid
of anything." I said I'd like to build a hut there because sometimes
people die crossing the river when it floods. He said, "Come and
build your hut. If you come just to cut trees and plant rice, you can
do that. But don't take any logs or bamboo, we don't like that. And
don't bring any guns." Then the officer gave me a container of spray
for my sprayer because I'd had to buy wine and cheroots for them. I
asked him where he got it and he said he got it from Thai people [in
other words, he stole it from another Karen farmer, not a Thai. See
the related testimonies of "Saw Bo Gyi" and "Naw Paw Kee"]. I
respected him, because when they see other people they kill them,
torture them and take them away, but they didn't do anything to me
and he gave me some spray. Maybe the Lord [Buddha] is taking care of
me.
_______________________________________________________________
#26.
NAME: "Pa Lah" SEX: M AGE: 38 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Paw Nya Kyo village, Hlaing Bwe Township - now in Gray Hta
camp, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 6 children aged 6 days to 16 years
We left our village because the Burmese Army came. They arrested
people to be porters, tortured people and buried some people alive to
kill them. We went to Kler Day, then 4 years ago the Burmese Army
came there too so we had to come here. This July I went back to my
home village to visit some relatives. The soldiers came to catch
porters. Their camp is close by, and there were more than 10 of them.
Everyone ran away, so they shot all around, and they hit me. The
bullet grazed the flesh of my leg [he still has a scar]. I carried on
running to the forest. We went through the forest and crossed a
stream, and stayed there for a while until after the soldiers went
away. Nobody was hit except me.
I healed it by magic power [traditional medicine]. Then I could walk
with difficulty, and I came back here. My village is far from here.
It took me 4 days. [For a healthy person it is a 2 day walk.] When I
was at my village, the villagers told me that they have to go and dig
the ground in the army camp. The SLORC also demands 6 people every
day: 4 to go as porters and 2 to be their informers. The villagers
have to pay 4,000 Kyat per month to them too, and 1,000 Kyat each
time for food for the porters [generally, porters are forced to bring
their own food and this money just goes to the military officers].
_______________________________________________________________
#27.
NAME: "Maung Aye" SEX: M AGE: 32 Burmese Indian, Hindu
ADDRESS: Kawkareik Town, Pa'an District Trishaw driver
FAMILY: Married for 5 years, no children
I am a trishaw driver, and I also grow carrots and sunflower in my
garden to live. I can earn 70, 80 or 100 Kyat per day [US$0.60-0.80
at market rate], but it's not enough because sometimes my trishaw
breaks down and I have to repair it. I was arrested in Kawkareik on
November 1 [1994] because I couldn't pay money to the quarter head.
[Burmese towns are divided into "quarters" or sections, each with its
local SLORC administration. Everyone has to pay extortion money to
these officials as "porter fees".] The quarter leader caught me and
sent me to Battalion #97. On November 1st between 9 and 10 a.m., they
sent me by truck to #9 Light Infantry Battalion of #44 Division in
Thingan Nyi Nau. There were 23 porters on my truck, and there was
another truck with more porters on it. They were from Thaton. They
were sent to other camps. I spent one night in Thingan Nyi Nau, and
then early in the morning I had to start carrying rice to Kway San
village, then to Meh Pleh, then to the army camp at Tee Cha Ra. Then
we went to another camp near Tee Cha Ra the first night. We had to
carry 2 sacks of rice between 3 men, and there was an old man with
me. I already had fever when they sent me there. I can't eat
fishpaste, so I could only eat rice with water. I felt too weak to
carry, so when we started climbing a mountain early in the morning on
the second day, I could hardly carry anymore. Then on the third day,
they started beating and hitting me. They hit my head with a big and
long stick. It was very painful and I was bleeding. They also kicked
me with their big boots. They did that all the way along, the whole
day. I fell down on the ground many times, and each time the soldiers
ordered me to stand up and carry again. I couldn't carry the rice
anymore, so then they ordered me to carry a soldier's bag, but I
couldn't carry that either so they kicked and beat me again. I could
hardly walk, so the other porters helped me to arrive at the camp. At
that time, I couldn't carry anything anymore.
They had medicine but they wouldn't give anything to the porters.
Another porter gave me a packet of traditional medicine for my fever.
On the third day at noon we arrived at the outpost. There were 12
soldiers there from Company 1 of #9 Battalion. The next morning I was
feeling very sick, and they told me, "You have to work so you will
get better". I had to cut bamboo and split it to make a fence. From
then on I only received fishpaste to eat. I spent 4 nights at that
outpost, then the soldiers went to replace the soldiers from another
outpost. The 5 other porters had to follow the soldiers who were
going back, but I was ordered to stay. They told me I'd go back when
the soldiers from my outpost went back.
At night when the soldiers were sleeping, I opened a gap in the
fence, crossed 3 fences and escaped. I ran and slept in the forest
near the outpost. In the morning I heard a machine, so I followed the
sound and saw a woman who sent me to the [Moei] riverside. At 1 p.m.
I arrived at this refugee camp. Now I feel very weak, and sick the
whole day. I would like to have a checkup at a hospital. ["Maung Aye"
arrived at the refugee camp on Nov. 9/94. The head of the refugee
camp hospital said "Maung Aye" was suffering from malaria and
diarrhoea. He was also coughing badly throughout the interview.]
_______________________________________________________________
#28.
NAME: "Saw Ler Wah" SEX: M AGE: 32 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Kler Day village, Pa'an District - now near Gray Hta refugee
camp, Thailand FAMILY: Married, 3 children aged 8 months, 6 and 11
years
I went from inside Burma to live in Kler Day [near the Thai border].
My children were born there, then we came over to Thailand 6 years
ago because the Burmese soldiers came and frightened everyone. Now we
get some food from the refugee camp, and we cross the river [border]
to grow things in a small field and collect "betel" leaves. We grow
some vegetables, banana and sugar cane. In April [1994] I was staying
in my banana field hut and I went to see my new field which is close
to the SLORC outpost. I planned to plant betelnut trees there. I had
already cleared it, and someone else had burned off the brush for me.
I went to see if it had burned well. I thought "Other people have
gone there, so I'll be okay too." When I got there a soldier was
hiding under a tree. At first I didn't see him, so he clicked his
tongue at me from behind. I just kept walking away - I didn't dare
run. Then he called "Hey!" and I had to go to him.
He asked me "How many people came with you?", and I said "I came
alone." He asked what I was doing, and I said I'd come to look at my
field and collect vegetables. I answered in Karen, and he said "I
don't understand. Speak in Burmese", so then I had to try to speak in
Burmese, whether I can or not. There were 6 soldiers pointing their
guns at me. They ordered me to wait awhile with them, and then they
took me along with them back to their camp. My friends had told me
that Karen soldiers had put some mines near my field and not to walk
on the path. The SLORC soldiers followed that path but I didn't want
them to, and I told them so. They asked why, and I told them "Kaw
Thoo Lei men came here but we don't know if they laid mines, so we
have to be careful!" Then I think they suspected me. We walked
through the grass and bushes.
When we were almost at their camp at Tha May Ah, we heard 2 shots
behind us from a flintlock gunpowder gun, and a dog started barking.
My "nephew" was out hunting with his dog. The soldiers said "Kaw Thoo
Lei is shooting. That was a carbine rifle." I told them it was just a
powder gun. Then they asked me, "What are they shouting?" I said,
"That's just a dog that's barking." Then they blindfolded me while we
went up the hill to their camp. They dragged me along for about 20
minutes while they walked a bit, then stopped to talk, walked and
stopped, and so on. Then they whispered to each other and took off my
blindfold just before we entered the camp. When they capture people,
they usually take them into their camp blindfolded. In the camp they
took me a bit uphill and put me in a hole. That is their prison. It
is a hole underground on a slope. It is about 8 feet deep at one end
and 10 feet at the other, 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. [This hole
is more like a cave that has been excavated out of the hillside. On
the downhill side it has a bamboo wall above ground level.] It has a
wooden roof. On top of the hole they keep their food, like milk,
sugar and other things. In the hole, they keep the people. You can't
get out. I could see the light coming between the cracks, but I
couldn't get out. I was alone in the hole.
After 5 minutes, an officer came and said "Are you 'Ler Wah'?" I said
yes, and he said "What do you want from me?", so I said "Nothing
special." Then he blindfolded me, took me to his hut and offered me a
drink. I told him "I can't drink. If I drink I get a stomach ache."
He said, "Don't worry! My alcohol already contains medicine." He
passed me a bottle. I poured myself just a little but he ordered me
to fill the cup. It was very good, not like Karen alcohol, the same
colour [gold] as alcohol from Thailand. He forced me to drink it
because they wanted to ask me questions. They only drank a little but
they forced me to drink alot. He asked my name, my age, my parents'
names and all the details of my family, and he wrote it all down.
Then he asked about his enemies, and I said "I don't know, because I
don't work with the Karen military." He said, "Think it out!" Then he
asked about Bo Pah Hta [a Karen Army / Burmese Student Army camp by
the Thai border]: he asked how many soldiers were there, how people
made their living, about the school, the monastery, the hospital,
etc. He asked me about the doctors and medics in the hospital [they
are Burmese students]. He asked me about the soldiers' movements and
their numbers, but I said "I don't know anything about that." He
said, "What about the [Burmese] students?" I told him I didn't know
them. He said "Who is the commander there?", and I told him it is Ta
Toe, because I was sure he knew that already and if I hadn't told him
he wouldn't have believed me. Then he said "Which Battalion do you
stay with?" I said "I don't understand", and he said "You should
know!", but I didn't pay attention to him. He was from 44 Division, I
saw it on his badge, but I forget his name. He didn't beat me, but he
interrogated me 2 or 3 times each day, for a long period each time.
He asked me all kinds of questions, like "How many soldiers are in
all of Kaw Thoo Lei?" I don't know that. He asked me "How did you
know about the mines on the path? Even the village headman didn't
know about that."
Each time after they interrogated me they put me back in the hole.
They fed me twice a day but never enough, just one cup of bean soup.
The second day, I heard a soldier telling the others, "You're feeding
him too early. Don't feed him until 4 or 5 p.m." That made me very
angry. They fed me in the hole, I slept in the hole and went to the
toilet in the hole. There was a bad smell. I was there for 3 days in
April, when it is very hot, and they wouldn't let me take a bath. It
was very hard for me. When the soldiers came back from patrol they
sat near the hole and I could hear them. I had to move right up to a
small hole in the bamboo wall to hear and see outside. I saw 3
soldiers in civilian clothes - I knew one of them was a sergeant, the
second a Lance Corporal, and the third I didn't know. One said he'd
just come back from sentry duty near the river and he heard a saw
cutting wood. The other nodded and said "I heard it too. I sent a
soldier to check, and he found one man with a machete and called him
over." They were speaking in low voices so I couldn't hear
everything, but I found out the man was Pa Dee Po. He said that Pa
Dee Po told the soldier, "The man you have arrested is not a Karen
soldier, but he is a Kaw Thoo Lei collaborator." When I heard this I
was very angry. I thought, "Even though Pa Dee Po is my relative he
said these things to them. If I ever escape I'll get back at him."
I was also angry at the village headman for not coming because just
before I was arrested, I met him. The SLORC ordered him to go buy
things for them but he didn't have enough money, so I gave him 500
Baht. Then the day after I was arrested some soldiers said "The
headman is coming", but other soldiers said "He didn't come", and
when I asked the officer he said "No one came for you." But later I
found out the headman had come with the things the SLORC had demanded
and he asked them to release me. He came with several people and they
asked to see me, but the SLORC wouldn't allow us to see each other.
On the third day I heard the soldiers talking strangely, and they
visited me in the hole and said strange things. They didn't bother me
or want to talk to me, and they put dry leaves on the ground all
around the hole so I couldn't get out without making noise. From that
moment I knew I was in danger. I heard a soldier in civilian clothes
ask the Sergeant, "Will you keep him?", and the Sergeant said, "No,
how can we keep him? He is a Kaw Thoo Lei village headman. It is
better to kill him." When I heard that, my head went cold [Karen
expression for great fear]. I knew I couldn't escape. Suddenly he
stood and called, "'Ler Wah', have you eaten yet?" I said "Not yet"
and he told me to wait. Then the camp commander came and I saw the
soldiers talk to him, and then the soldiers took me out of the hole
to eat. While I was eating every soldier who passed stroked my back
and said, "Uncle, feel free to eat as much as you want. If it's not
enough, tell us and we'll give you more. There's lots of rice and
curry." Then I knew they were going to kill me for sure. While I ate,
an NCO was sitting behind me. It was already dusk. Then I saw a
soldier coming from the commander with a spade in his hand and before
he saw me he said, "We don't have a hole. Can we make one with this
spade?" Another soldier said "Yes." Then he saw me, and he went to
his hut to hide the spade. When I saw that I couldn't swallow
anymore. I drank the cup of water, and the NCO said, "Have you had
enough?" I said yes and went back to the hole. I thought, "I can't
face being stabbed with a sword or having my throat cut, so I'll hang
myself." I was wearing this sarong and this shirt. I found a gap in
the ceiling boards, so I tied my sarong and hung myself with my
sarong around my neck. My ears started ringing and my face swelled
up, and then I stopped it. I thought, "If I die I'll die, but I'm
afraid to hang myself", and I went and laid down. I thought "I can't
stay like this", so I stood up, looked through the bamboo wall and
saw a fence with tin cans hanging on it so that if you shake it, it
will make noise. I knew there were 6 fences on that side, all of
bamboo with the tops cut very sharp. Soldiers were guarding with 2
guns, and there were also the dry leaves. I knew it was impossible to
escape, so I tried to hang myself again with my sarong. My ears rang
again, but I couldn't bear it anymore so I stopped, and thought, "If
they come to kill me I'll let them. I can't escape." I laid down for
awhile, but I couldn't stay like that. But I couldn't escape either,
and I was afraid to hang myself. I decided, "I'll try to escape,
whether I survive or not."
I started untying the bamboo ties that held the wall together and
managed to open the wall until my head could fit through. I
remembered someone saying, "If you can pass your head through a hole,
your whole body can pass through", so I tried to squeeze through and
then I jumped down on the ground. Then I started doubting whether I
could escape, but I thought, "If they find me they'll kill me, but if
I stay they'll kill me too." Then I started running. There was a
sentry hut, another hut where they were eating and a barracks with
many soldiers. I ran down to the fence and took off one tin. I looked
around and worried that they'd find me, and I dropped it on a sharp
bamboo [man trap] sticking out of the ground and it made a noise. I
thought, "Oh! They'll hear me", and I took off several more cans and
put them down. Then I thought "They'll find me by the time I get them
all off", so I started to pull out the bamboo stakes of the fence
[two layers of bamboo stakes woven across each other]. I pulled
enough out until I could pass through. Then I ran. There were 6
fences I had to pass through this way. It was almost dark, with just
a little light left. Then I ran down the slope very fast, but I
slipped and hit something. I hurt myself and started bleeding. I
heard gunshots behind me, so I tried to run very fast. There was
blood all over me. I reached a stream, had a drink and took a rock. I
decided that if somebody called to me "Don't run!" I would throw the
rock at him - I couldn't do anything else. I got tired and couldn't
run anymore. Then I came back here.
Two days later the soldiers came to the other side of the river and
asked people "Where is that man?", and they arrested 2 people. The
soldiers wanted people from the village to take turns staying in
their camp. Those two were released when another went to stay there.
Then the villagers were afraid to go so they lied and promised to
send another person. Then the soldiers released the man but the
villagers didn't send any replacement.
I know I'm very lucky because I escaped. I went to Pa Dee Po to say
"Even though we're relatives, you accused me in front of SLORC", but
he told me he hadn't even met with any soldiers. And the village
headman told me, "I went, but they didn't allow me to see you." Now
I'm afraid to go and sleep across the river anymore. Last year, I
combined the refugee rice with rice I grew in my field and I had
enough for my family. This year, I only have the refugee food and
some beans, so it is difficult.
*****************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI***********************
VOA: U.S. CALLS ON BURMA TO END ATTACKS ON KAREN
DATE=1/28/95
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-172129
TITLE=U-S/BURMA (S ONLY)
BYLINE=VICTOR BEATTIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: THE UNITED STATES HAS CALLED ON BURMA TO END ITS ATTACKS AGAINST
KAREN REBEL FORCES AND RESOLVE ITS DISPUTES WITH ALL ITS ETHNIC MINORITIES
PEACEFULLY. V-O-A'S VICTOR BEATTIE REPORTS THE WHITE HOUSE IS URGING RANGOON
TO CHOOSE RECONCILIATION THAT WOULD LEAD TO INCREASED GLOBAL COOPERATION:
TEXT: THE WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT (SATURDAY) SAYS THE ACTIONS OF THE BURMESE
ARMY CONFLICT STARKLY WITH THE REGIME'S STATED INTENTION OF PURSUING
POLICIES OF NATIONAL RECONICILATION. IT SAYS THEY ARE ESPECIALLY ALARMING IN
VIEW OF THE REGIME'S PATTERN OF SERIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.
THE STATEMENT CAME AS THE ARMY LAUNCHED AN OFFENSIVE THAT PUSHED THE KAREN
REBELS OUT OF THEIR JUNGLE HEADQUARTERS AT MANERPLAW. THE KAREN REBELS HAVE
VOWED TO CONTINUE THEIR 46-YEAR FIGHT FOR AUTONOMY.
MR. MCCURRY SAYS THE UNITED STATES IS WATCHING CLOSELY THE FATE OF BURMESE
CIVILIANS DISPLACED BY THE FIGHTING. HE WELCOMES ASSURANCES FROM NEIGHBORING
THAILAND THAT IT WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SAFE HAVEN FOR THOSE WHO FLEE
ACROSS THE BORDER.
MR. MCCURRY SAYS LAST YEAR'S U-S MISSION TO RANGOON OFFERED BURMA TWO VISIONS
OF THE FUTURE. ON ONE HAND -- BURMA WOULD BENEFIT FROM INCREASED
COOPERATION IF IT MOVED POSITIVELY ON ISSUES IMPORTANT TO THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY. OTHERWISE, IT WOULD FACE HEIGHTENED ISOLATION IF PROGRESS ON
HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLITICAL REFORM WAS NOT FORTHCOMING.
MR. MCCURRY CALLED FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL DISSIDENT AND NOBEL PEACE
PRIZE LAUREATE AUNG SAN SUU KYI AND OTHER PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE. (SIGNED).
CND/VB/REB
**************************************************************
NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:
AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AW: ASIAWEEK
AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt.3 DUS$1 (APPROX),
BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BI: BURMA ISSUES
BKK POST: BANGKOK POST (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI
BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN
CPPSM: C'TEE FOR PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
IRRAWADDY: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
JIR: JANE'S INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
Kt. BURMESE KYAT; UP TO 150 KYAT-US$1 BLACK MARKET
106 KYAT US$1-SEMI-OFFICIAL
6 KYAT-US$1 OFFICIAL
MOA: MIRROR OF ARAKAN
NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
NLM: NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR (DAILY STATE-RUN NEWSPAPER, RANGOON)
R.T.A.:REC.TRAVEL.ASIA NEWSGROUP
S.C.B.:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP
S.C.T.:SOC.CULTURE.THAI NEWSGROUP
SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST
SLORC: STATE LAW AND ORDER RESTORATION COUNCIL
USG: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
**************************************************************