[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

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.]

_____________________________________________________________________________
				 #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] -