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KHRG Report Part 23 of 4
THE SITUATION IN PA'AN DISTRICT
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
May 15, 1996 / KHRG #96-17
[PART 3 OF 4 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT.]
[SOME DETAILS BLANKED OUT WITH 'XXXX' FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION.]
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#10.
NAME: "Saw Eh Say" SEX: M AGE: 20 Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY: Single
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Kawkareik Township INTERVIEWED: 29/4/96
I arrived here [the refugee camp] on April 27. Now on the Nabu-
Myatpadine road they have finished the earth work. Now we have to lay
the road with damaged bricks. The road is about 10 feet high, and wide
enough for two trucks to drive aside. SLORC trucks bring damaged bricks
from the brick kilns to the road site. Then villagers have to arrange the
bricks on the road. There are about 500 people there from Myatpadine
village tract, which includes 5 villages. We have to work for about 15 days.
We start work early in the morning and work until noon, then we rest for
about 2 hours. It is very hot. Then we continue to work from 2 p.m.,
sometimes until 9 p.m. if the moon is shining.
There are soldiers watching along the road, and they scold people when
people rest. Sometimes the young soldiers let the villagers rest for a while.
There are some Burmese who give orders to us through the village heads.
Children about 11 years old and old people with no teeth have to work
there. In March 1996 an old man 60 or 70 years old who had already
worked there nearly a month died of exhaustion at the road. He was from
Naung K'Loung village. His body was taken to his village. A week later, a
Sergeant shot his Lieutenant at the Naung K'Loung worksite. The Sergeant
let the villagers rest, so the Lieutenant scolded him and then the Sergeant
killed him with a gun. I don't know what happened later to that Sergeant.
I always have to do the road construction, and my father also does forced
labour for them. He is called to grow rice, then reap the harvest, and then
to carry the harvested paddy to the Army compound. Now he also has to
carry wood for the bridges along the road in his cart.
_____________________________________________________________________________
#11.
NAME: "Naw Myint" SEX: F AGE: 20 Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY: Married
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Pa'an Township INTERVIEWED: 30/4/96
I came [to the refugee camp] 2 days ago, together with 4 girls from YYYY
village. XXXX village has about 300 families and YYYY
village has over 500 families. Our village was called by SLORC and
DKBA soldiers to cut down and carry trees and bamboo, so the villagers
had to go about 15 miles with our carts to cut trees. Each log had to be 15
plah [22 feet] long. Then we had to carry them to two Army camps. I
don't know the Battalion number, they are from Pa'an. Then we had to
build camps and barracks for SLORC soldiers and their families.
Since March 1996, XXXX and surrounding villages have received orders
to work on road construction at Kaw Tho village. The villagers took food,
supplies and tools with them and went to Kaw Tho. They had to work and
stay there for 15 days. The road starts from Pa'an and goes to Shwe Bo,
Kaw Palaung, Mu Ka Wah, Kaw Tho, Meh Tha Laung and on towards
Three Pagodas Pass. The height is about double a person's height, and the
width is about 30 feet. Children about 11 or 12 and also people in their
50's have to work there. If people get sick the soldiers allow them to go
home, but there is no clinic. Some villagers hired people from Pa'an to go
for road construction work by paying them 1,000 to 2,000 Kyats. There
are about 100 soldiers along the road to watch the villagers. The soldiers
are from Shwe Pyi Taung camp, and they often scold the villagers.
_____________________________________________________________________________
#12.
NAME: "Tha Muh" SEX: M AGE: 19 Karen Christian farmer
FAMILY: Widower
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Kawkareik Township INTERVIEWED: 4/96
I left because the Ko Per Baw and Burmese troops make so many problems
and fees in our village. They do to you as they like - even though you aren't
guilty of anything they can make up things, say you have weapons and
torture you. They do it for money. If they beat you, they will ask you only
a few questions about your weapons and then they'll surely start asking for
money to release you. Mostly they do it to people who have some money
or animals with them. If people don't have money to pay then they have to
give half of their animals. If you try to complain then they say, "I'll kill you
without a single drop of your blood coming out". [A Karen expression
meaning to kill someone especially brutally and painfully.] They did that
to a Pa'O man whose village is not far from mine. His name was Maung
Khin Kyi. He was 49, with 3 children - 2 sons and 1 daughter. His son
told us about it. He owed some money to a Karen, and the Karen asked for
rice instead of money. Maung Khin Kyi agreed, and when he was coming
along to the Karen village with the rice in his bullock cart, unluckily he met
with Ko Per Baw and Burmese troops. They said to him, "We know you're
taking this rice to KNU soldiers. We are very sorry we have to kill you, but
don't you know we have to kill all Ta Bee Met ["Closed Eyes", DKBA's
name for KNU] and everyone who helps Ta Bee Met?" They killed Maung
Khin Kyi by stabbing him in the throat 3 times, but first they burned him
with fire. His son xxxx was with him in the bullock cart. They didn't kill
his son, I guess they didn't want to. If they'd wanted to kill his son, his
son would also be dead. That happened on March 14th.
These Burmese troops and the Ko Per Baw, if they want your ear to eat
with their whisky then you have to chop off your ear and give it to them, or
you'll be killed. They say, "The ear is very delicious to eat, when you chew
it it goes 'kyet-kyet-kyet' and it is very pleasing". They did that to Tee Paw
Bu Say, he is 47 and already married 16 years but he has no children. The
Ko Per Baw and the Burmese ordered him to get them a chicken to eat with
their whisky, but he couldn't find a chicken. When he got back to them,
they said, "Where is the chicken?" He said, "I couldn't find any". The
SLORC were drunk, they said "Come here", and then they chopped off his
ears. There was so much blood. He asked the Ko Per Baw to release him
to go and get treatment, but he had to stay with them the whole night with
no treatment. He nearly died because he bled so much. Early in the
morning he was very angry, and he said, "I'm going to get traditional
medicine even if you don't release me. If you kill me, I dare to die." But
the Ko Per Baw didn't do anything, and he went to Kyet Tu Ray village and
got traditional medicine. The old man gave him a cup of water to drink,
and then the bleeding stopped. Ko Per Baw said they would give him an
injection, but he was afraid to have an injection. Most Karen people still
believe in our traditional medicine and are afraid to have injections or to
drink medicine.
We also have to go as porters and carry food, bullets and weapons, about
10 viss [16 kg.] weight. Not the women and children, but they have to go
for forced labour at the military camp. At the camp they have to gather
bamboo to build the soldiers' fences and houses, carry water, cook and
clean in the camp - but the main work there is building fences, digging
trenches and building bunkers. Fifteen people have to go for 3 days and
nights, then it changes to another group. They sleep at the military camp.
Sometimes the soldiers sleep with them. They are afraid and dare not
speak, and if they shout the soldiers will kill them. The Ko Per Baw do it
too, so the Burmese have no respect for Karen girls, they copy the Ko Per
Baw and do it even more. To them Karen girls are just a meal, and to Ko
Per Baw they are just leftover rice. [In a Karen kitchen the leftover rice
sits in a pot to be taken anytime by whoever's hungry.] Some of the Ko
Per Baw soldiers travel around and get married with girls in different
villages. If any villagers complain, the Ko Per Baw soldier goes to them
and says, "If you complain again we'll kill you", and they have to stay quiet.
Kyaw K'Htee, he is 28 and he already has 2 wives and 2 children. He is
from Tawon Thee village, west of Bee T'Ka. Now he's left his new wife
and gone back to his old wife. His new wife also has one child by him.
She named the child "Saw Ko Per Baw", because she got the child from Ko
Per Baw. She keeps it to remember her hate for Ko Per Baw.
In January [1996] Ko Per Baw arrested me. About 100 soldiers tied me up
and ordered me to direct the way to where the Kaw Thoo Lei soldiers stay,
and they asked me for a gun. I have no gun, I'm a civilian. It was a group
from Khaw Taw [DKBA headquarters]. They took me to XXXX
village and tied my eyes tightly with a yellow scarf. They kept me under a
house, tied to a post. They beat me 4 times, about 20 hits each time. They
pierced my earlobes with a blunt pin, twice a day for 3 days. It was very
painful. One of their leaders, XXXX, told me, "You have to give me
your weapon, or you'll be killed". I was afraid and I told him, "Don't kill
me. I'll give you my cow", and he agreed. They do that to so many people.
First they ask for weapons, then if you don't have any they ask for money to
release you, and if you don't have money then you must pay them your
livestock. After 3 days I had to carry for them, then after 1 week and 4
days they handed me over to the Burmese troops. I was released exactly 2
weeks after I was arrested, on a Friday. After that I couldn't work for
several days because of the beatings.
When I was arrested, my wife was in the hospital. She was sick, and then
after the Ko Per Baw arrested me she died. I don't know how she died. I
was being held by the Ko Per Baw, and no one told me the news. I don't
think I'll marry again. We were married only two months.
_____________________________________________________________________________
#13.
NAME: "Saw Wah Lay" SEX: M AGE: 27 Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY: Married, 1 child aged 4
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Hlaing Bwe Township INTERVIEWED: 4/96
I left because Ko Per Baw and the Burmese burned my house and my rice
barn. They said, "You have a lot of rice, you will give it to Kaw Thoo Lei".
Once when Kaw Thoo Lei soldiers came to our village, I was kind to them
and gave them some rice, so they heard about it and they came to my house
and burned it. They took all my animals - 20 buffalos and 50 cows. That
was at the end of March [1996]. About 20 of them came. People said his
name is Kyaw Tha Da, from Bee T'Ka village [a DKBA officer notorious
for abusing civilians - see other KHRG reports]. I wasn't home, but my
wife and mother-in-law were there. They slapped my wife's face and
kicked her with jungle boots, and they put my mother-in-law's head in water
for 2 or 3 minutes. She nearly died. They are a really bad group of Ko Per
Baw. Now I heard that Kyaw Tha Da and Kyaw Nu Poh [Kyaw Tha Da's
brother, also notorious] lost their rank, because all their walkie-talkies and
handcuffs were captured by KNU during an attack at Bee T'Ka. Pa Nwee
[a senior DKBA commander who is less hard on the villagers] took away
their rank, and now they are trying to get it back. Maybe that's why they
burned my house. These two brothers are very hard on the villagers.
People say their parents were dogs, that they are dog children. I think they
won't quit, because if they stay at home without their weapons people will
probably kill them.
We have no contact with KNU, but even so if we stay in the village, though
we are born with mouths of our own we dare not speak. If we speak about
Ko Per Baw we must only say good things, and if we speak about KNU the
Ko Per Baw come and torture us. That's why I don't want to stay in my
village anymore. There are plenty of Ko Per Baw informers in the villages.
If someone leaves the village, the Ko Per Baw take his land and belongings
and give them to their informers. So some of the informers plan ways to
push people out of the village to Thailand. Maybe that's what they did to
me. I'm not sure, because I haven't heard anything since then. When I left
for Thailand, it took me 1 week because I had to avoid the Ko Per Baw. I
had to hide 2 nights in the forest.
My friends go as porters, but I always hired someone to go for me. It cost
1,000 Kyat each time, twice a month. The people who go have to carry
weapons and food from village to village, and when they come back I've
seen that there is no skin on their shoulders. Sometimes they beat them
until the porter dies and then leave them there. Saw Pa Deh from Kyet Tu
Ray village was sick and couldn't carry, so the Ko Per Baw beat him on his
head and he died very easily. They hit him only 3 times. They beat the
other people more than that, but they didn't die. Saw Pa Deh was about 35
and had no family. The headman didn't dare ask for compensation - when
someone dies there is no compensation, moreover the Ko Per Baw usually
ask money from the headman or the family, saying, "This person showed
disrespect to us and didn't do a good job, so we killed him".
_____________________________________________________________________________
#14.
NAME: "Pa Ler" SEX: M AGE: 57 Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY: Married, children
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Pa'an District INTERVIEWED: 4/96
["Pa Ler" used to be head of the Karen village militia (KNDO) in his
village several years ago.]
Now I have been in Thailand 10 days, because I cannot stay there. With
Ko Per Baw always trying to arrest me, I dare not stay there so I have to
come here. Ko Per Baw asked me to work with them but I wasn't
interested in their group. They told me to go to Myaing Gyi Ngu to drink
vow water. The order came from Maung Cho, he is Ko Per Baw in Toh
Kaw Ko village. I didn't go there and I avoided them, so they got very
angry with me and sent me a letter in red ink. It said, "If you avoid going,
we'll take serious action against you". They forced every headman to go
and drink the vow water. When the headmen came back from Myaing Gyi
Ngu I asked them, "Do I have to worry about it?" They said, "Don't worry
about it", so I didn't take care. I thought it would be no problem. Then
after one month they came and arrested me. It was in the month of the
solar eclipse [October 1995].
I was alone in my field hut. I'm not sure how many of them arrested me,
because it was dark. It was Burmese troops together with just 2 to 5 Ko
Per Baw who showed them the way - the Ko Per Baw were Bo Sat Lat
['Officer Machine-Gun'], Kwih Lay, and Ta Muh Heh. They searched my
bag and took 21,500 Kyats, 2 rings, 1 stone, and my Seiko watch. After
they searched my body they tied up my hands, took me to the village and
handed me over to another group. They pulled me under a house and
started to torture me. They kicked, punched, and poked my temple with a
gun barrel. They asked me, "Where do you keep your walkie-talkie, your
AR [a small version of an M16 assault rifle] and pistol?" I told them I
had these things before, but I don't have them anymore. I'm not doing
anything for KNU anymore so I don't have them. They asked me again for
a long weapon [rifle] and told me to stop helping the Revolution. But I
don't have a weapon. Then they beat me until they got tired, and they
stopped.
They tied my hands to a beam [above his head] and my legs to the house
post. Only my legs and my butt could touch the ground, but just barely -
my body was hanging like a hammock. Then they hit my face, punched my
head, kicked my back, then kicked me in the ribs and the chest and hit me
in the nose with a gun. They hung me up and burned my stomach and my
hands with fire. They took firewood that was really burning and put it on
my stomach - until now I still have black and green marks on my stomach.
When he put the firewood on my hand I pushed him, and he came back
and kicked me. They asked about my weapons and walkie-talkie. I told
them I've been retired 5 or 6 years already.
They kept me tied like that for one night, then they untied only my legs and
pulled me like a bull on a rope to Kaw Toh village. I asked them for a
cigarette but they didn't give me one. When we arrived in Kaw Toh village
I was handed over to another group. That group put me in a cattle corral,
and the Burmese came and tortured me again. They kicked my head, rolled
my shins with a piece of bamboo and burned me for a while. Then they
asked me, "Have you eaten yet?" I said "No", and they gave me a plate of
rice. After eating they moved me to Tee Klay village. They pulled me on
the rope, and then to Ler Pu and Noh Baw Heh villages. At Noh Baw Heh
they just tied me tightly to the post of a rice barn, and under the rice barn
was all cowshit. They tied me by my legs, hands, and neck, and they kept
me tied there. Altogether I was tied for 6 days. They tortured me again.
They punched my face, my nose, they stabbed my hand with a knife -
there's a hole right through my hand from the knife. They stabbed all over
my body - the knife was blunt, and I could hear it go "kru-kru-kru" [as it
cut his flesh]. My hand was really bleeding, my longyi [sarong] was dirty
with my blood and I hadn't had a bath for 6 days. They did feed me
though, twice a day, rice with fishpaste and chillies, or sometimes curry.
After that, my son's mother [his wife] came with the villagers to vouch for
me. They took me to the Major, and he told me I would be released. He
handed me over to Ko Per Baw officer Maung Cho, who took me to his
house. He untied me, and I took a bath and ate. My wife gave him 70,000
Kyats - that doesn't include the 21,500 Kyats they'd already taken from my
bag. That 70,000 was just to release me. My wife borrowed it from other
people, then later we sold all our things to pay it back. The Ko Per Baw
demanded that money. They got a gun and said it was my weapon. I heard
it was an AR. It was like I had to pay them for this weapon. Then they
gave that gun to the Burmese troops. That was at Noh Baw Heh - they
didn't tie me, but it was like I was under 'house arrest' while some of my
wounds healed. A Ko Per Baw Sergeant looked after me, he gave me
medicine two times. Then a soldier took me to Kawkareik. There Bo xxxx
said he had to go with an officer to Thingan Nyi Naung and told me to wait
for him for 2 days, then he would take me for the vow water. I waited for
2 days, 3 days, and they hadn't come back. After 6 days I ran away into the
jungle. Altogether they had held me for about 1 month. After I ran I didn't
dare stay at home, I stayed in the forest for a month. In that one month
they took my bullock cart, 11 buffalos and 20 baskets of paddy from my
house. They said my children had helped me run away, and they fined
them 10,000 Kyats and tortured them. The Ko Per Baw said my nephew's
mother was hiding my cattle and buffalos and fined her 7,000 Kyats. Bo
Sat Lat and Maung Nyunt Kyi did that. So I can't stay there anymore, and
I had to come here.
_____________________________________________________________________________
#15.
NAME: "Naw Ghay Muh" SEX: F AGE: 47 Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY: Married, children
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Pa'an District INTERVIEWED: 4/96
["Naw Ghay Muh" is the wife of "Pa Ler" (see interview above).]
It was 7:30 at night when they arrested my husband. I was not with him. It
was mainly Burmese troops who came, with Ko Per Baw only to guide the
way. The same night my children told me, "Our father was taken away by
some people". They didn't know who had taken him, but when I got
halfway to our field hut people told me he was arrested by the Burmese. I
followed right away to the Ko Per Baw base, and they told me to find his
weapon. I told them, "I can't find it. I have no weapon." They said, "You
have. Your husband's weapon is with Pa Ta Roh's column. You must go
and find it." [In effect ordering her to go find a Karen Army column and
beg a weapon from them.] Then I left.
I tried, but you can never find them [the KNLA column] because they stay
in the mountains. When I came back, my children said the Ko Per Baw
told them, "I know that your mother couldn't get it. They will give us one
weapon anyway, and you have to give 70,000 Kyats for it urgently." I said
to my children, "We will give it to them if they release your father, we will
borrow the money and then sell all our things to pay it back later." The Ko
Per Baw said, "Don't tell anyone that you borrowed money from people
and I gave the weapon for you. That wouldn't be good." I told him, "I
won't tell, I only want my husband to be released."
Then he packed up the weapon and we followed him to xxxx monastery.
We sat in the corner and he talked to the officer, and then my husband
appeared. They took all the rope off his hands and released him. When we
got to xxxx monastery I asked my husband, "Where's your bag that I gave
you?" When I looked in the bag none of the things were there - the sugar,
money, torchlight, betelnut and betel leaves, they'd taken everything in the
bag. I didn't want to say anything but I started crying. I told the Ko Per
Baw, "You say that you do only good things, but really all you do is steal."
My husband told me not to speak like that and to stop crying, but I was still
crying. They are doing bad things, if they were doing good things I
wouldn't be crying. I told them so. But the Ko Per Baw didn't say
anything, he didn't dare look at my face. He returned to the Burmese.
Then I tried to take my husband home but they wouldn't allow him to go,
they said he must stay with them in Noh Baw Heh village. They didn't look
after him - don't hope for that! They came and gave him yellow medicine
only two times. We ourselves had to buy the medicine to heal him. I
bought the medicine and asked the village elder to give him an injection and
heal him with traditional medicine like special oil and special water. We had
to stay there a long time. It was like he wasn't dead but he wasn't alive.
I asked permission to take him home, I said "If we must drink vow water we
will, but if not I'll take him home. Here we haven't got any treatment."
I wanted to take him to Kawkareik [hospital], but Ko Per Baw told me, "If
you take him there the Burmese will kill him with a poison medicine
injection". I said, "Better we go there and die from an injection than die
here from no treatment. As for you, we carry your rice for you and still
you call us 'informers'. We will just kill two toads, one for him and one for
me, and after we eat them we will die." We asked permission, but they
wouldn't allow us to go. Finally people came to take him to drink vow
water, or he would never have been released.
After he ran from them he stayed in the forest. It was really cold because
the rain was heavy, and he was wet and sick. I was really upset and I had
no strength for that. I didn't dare stay at home, we all ran away with
children and grandchildren and none of us stayed in the village. The Ko
Per Baw said if they see us they'll take off our skins and eat them, so we
dare not go near them. They took all our things, our buffalos and bullock
cart. They took our paddy and 11 buffalos - I'd sold the others to return the
money [70,000 Kyats] I'd borrowed. I don't know what happened to our
house and other things. We all left together with my husband.
_____________________________________________________________________________
- [END OF PART 3 - SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTING FOR 4TH AND FINAL PART] -