KHRG #96-31 (r)

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

                 DKBA / SLORC CROSS-BORDER ATTACKS

       An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
                August 1, 1996     /     KHRG #96-31

        * SOME DETAILS OMITTED FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION *

 - PART 2 OF 4 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT -

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                                    #3.

NAME:    "Ma Sein"        SEX: F     AGE: 30    Karen Buddhist, shopkeeper
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children aged 3, 12, and 15
ADDRESS: xxxx refugee camp, Thailand            INTERVIEWED: 18/2/96

["Ma Sein"'s shop in Sho Kloh refugee camp was looted by DKBA during
their attack on the camp on 26/12/95.  She has since moved elsewhere.]

I don't remember exactly the date when DKBA came into the camp [it was
26/12/95] because I went around and around afterwards.  At the time, I
was sleeping in my shop.  It was after midnight.  They didn't call us.  They
suddenly broke the fence and came in.  Suddenly they burst into our
bedroom and looted all our belongings.  At the same time, others also
arrived through the back door.  They called us and ordered us to open the
door because the door was locked.  I was staying with my husband and two
of my children.  Altogether we were 4 people in the house.  They didn't
allow us to speak.  If we spoke, they would kill us.  They pointed their
guns
and searched for things.  They said: "If you don't give us your belongings,
we will kill you.  Our leaders ordered us to come and kill you."  They
didn't
do anything to us.  They ordered us, "Stay quiet!" and we stayed like that.
There were over 20 soldiers.  About 8 of them came to our shop and the
others went to other shops.  All of them had guns.  They were all Karen.  I
even knew some of them.  They used to live in Sho Kloh.  They ordered:
"If you have gold, jewellery and money, give it to us.  If you don't give
us,
our leader told us to shoot you."  They filled 3 or 4 big plastic bags with
the goods from the shop: food, Coffee-mate, shoes, sarongs and a lot of
things.  They took whatever they wanted.  Even toothpaste, and all new goods
[not used yet].  They also took money.  The money alone was over 48,000 Baht
and the value of the goods was more than 20,000 Baht.  They also took 17
golden chains, earrings, golden amulets.  And a tape recorder.  We lived in
Sho Kloh for a long time and we bought these things with the money we
earned in the shop.  They already brought along big plastic bags with them
to carry away the things.  Afterwards, they told us: "Don't say anything
about it, otherwise we will come and shoot you."  But how can I stay quiet
and say nothing?

Q:  Did they shoot when they came?
A:  Yes, a lot.  When they came, they were shooting along the way.  A
child and his father were shot at and wounded in Section 7.  This child is
only two years old and he was hit by 2 bullets.  His father got one bullet
in
his leg. His name is Noh Three.  He was the rice storehouse keeper.  They
were in their house when they heard the shooting and they started to run
away.  It was a short distance from my house.  Around my shop, they didn't
shoot.  They were talking on their walkie-talkies.  They pointed their guns
at
the whole family and didn't allow us to speak, they said "If you speak
someone ordered us to shoot you.  You must give me all the money you
have."  My husband told them: "My friends, take only half and leave some
for me."  But one of them replied: "Don't speak or I'll kill you...".  It
was
Maw Win.  He used to be a civilian in Section 7 of Sho Kloh.  [In April
1995, he went into Gray Hta refugee camp to rob somebody and killed
one person there.  Apparently, he was arrested by the camp security and
later let free.  Then he joined DKBA.]  My husband ran away before they
left.  I stayed with my children under the house.  When they left we got out
quietly.  Then they came again and looted again in the shop.  They tore the
pillow cases.  They thought money and jewellery were hidden inside the
pillow cases.  They also looked under all the mats.

They also robbed 3 other shops.  Altogether 7 houses, all in the market.
The other shops were near my house.  They didn't take the rice [from the
camp rice storehouse] but they took food, clothes, cassette recorders and
gold.  They stole gold in 3 houses.  In one house, 14 golden chains and
earrings.  From another person, one chain of one-baht-weight gold, earrings
and rings.  The owner was crying a lot.  As for her, the DKBA pointed
their guns at her while she was crying and told her, "We will shoot you, we
will shoot you!".  And the DKBA also went to the mosque and took the
clock there but I don't know how many other things.

They came along with porters, they even had some women porters to carry
back the things for them.  People said that there were 2 or 3 women
porters.  They had big plastic bags with a zip.  They left by going along
the
river and under the bridge [they went under the bridge of the main north-
south Mae Sot/Mae Sariang road, right past the Thai Army post which is
supposed to protect the camp.  Apparently they were even singing and
talking, but the Thai Army did nothing to stop them.]

After they left, I couldn't do anything.  I was going around and thinking.
I
dared not stay there anymore and the next day, in the morning, I came here.
Only my husband stayed in Sho Kloh and asked me to go and collect our
things.  But I dared not go there. Here I feel safer.  If I had stayed in
Sho
Kloh, I wouldn't dare sleep at night.

The Thai soldiers did nothing.  After DKBA left, they only came the next
morning and registered the things stolen from the shops.  The DKBA just
came to look for money and things, they had no time to arrest people.
They were in uniform, but some were wearing shorts.  When they arrived,
they announced that they were Ko Per Baw [DKBA].  They called
themselves "the monk's soldiers".  All of them were wearing yellow scarfs.
As for me, I dared not look at them. I was not allowed to look at them.

Before I had a shop in Baw Pa Hta and I had to move to Sho Kloh a year
ago.  Now, I bought just a few things to sell in a shop here, because all my
money is lost.  Even here, I am afraid to sleep at night in my shop.
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                                    #4.

1) NAME: "Naw Sah Lwe"      SEX: F     AGE: 22         Karen Buddhist
FAMILY:  Married, 1 child aged 9 months
2) NAME: "Naw Nwee Paw"     SEX: F     AGE: 31         Karen Christian
FAMILY:  Married, 2 children aged 3 months and 7 years
ADDRESS: xxxx refugee camp, Thailand                   INTERVIEWED: 18/2/96

["Naw Sah Lwe" and "Naw Nwee Paw" work at a malaria research clinic
in the refugee camp.]

Q:  Which day did DKBA attack the Malaria Research Unit in Sho Kloh?
"Naw Sah Lwe":  It was on 3rd January.  They came at about 1 a.m.
[actually 1 a.m. on 4/1/96].  I didn't really see it happen.  Somebody told
me that they came across the bridge to the hospital.  Then they went up
[the hill] and came back.  We heard the shooting, and we ran and hid
under the bridge.   They went and came back twice over the bridge.

"Naw Nwee Paw":  Her house is very close to mine.  When she heard the
shooting she ran to the fence near my house with her mother and her child.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  We heard them shouting "Maw Sah, Maw Sah" [a
person's name] and they also shouted "The 'pa kyaw' ['horny roosters'] are
coming!!"

"Naw Nwee Paw":  One also shouted - because they saw many cars, I
think there were 4 cars there that night - "Many white cars!".  Another one
called "Shall we burn the cars?".  But then another one called back "No,
don't burn them!  If you burn them, you will be in the middle and it would
be hard to get out."  They were shouting at each other and talking on the
walkie-talkie.  "Naw Sah Lwe" was hiding under the bridge, near my house.
She saw them passing across the bridge.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  I saw 7 crossing the bridge.  They were wearing uniforms.

"Naw Nwee Paw":  They had black uniforms like the Thai soldiers and
they had guns with them.  When you saw them, if they didn't shout you
wouldn't know that they were DKBA because they dressed themselves up
as Thai soldiers, in black uniforms.  [Thai paramilitary Rangers in the
camps wear black uniforms.]  All of them were wearing black uniforms.
But they were speaking in Karen.  Those who came to our unit, we heard
that they were all Karen.  They came from 3 different directions.  Some
came through Section 6, some through Section 2 and some from Sections 4
and 5.  Not all came to the Malaria Research Unit, only those who arrived
from Sections 4 and 5.  They also went to the MSF [Medecins Sans Frontieres]
hospital nearby. While some came to our hospital, our
guesthouse and Dr. xxxx's house [a foreign doctor], others went to the
MSF hospital and took three microscopes and things like blood pressure
cards, stethoscopes and medicines.  They broke into the store to take the
medicine.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  All the medicines, and also the blood pressure cards and
stethoscopes.  They also asked where were all the medics and the lab
technicians.  Maybe they wanted to arrest them.  [The DKBA is short of
medics in their area and is often looking to kidnap some.]  They asked for
the medics but they didn't find anybody.  One of the nurses was just putting
a drip to a patient, and when she saw DKBA she just pretended she was a
patient herself.  She took a blanket from a patient and just sat there like
a
patient saying nothing, so the DKBA didn't do anything to her.  The group
that came to our clinic took our clock.

"Naw Nwee Paw":  They also took the CB radio that we used to contact
Bangkok and also the thermometers.  I think they thought that these were
walkie-talkies because they look like walkie-talkies.  You put them on the
table when you take the temperature of the patients and they have a wire
from them, with a stick.  You put the stick in the patient's mouth.  You
turn
it on and when the time is up, it goes "Bip...Bip...".  Then you take it out
and check the temperature.  They took only two of these thermometers.  I'm
sure they thought there were walkie-talkies [laughs...]  We have computers
but they didn't come to our office.  They went to the guesthouse, to the
hospital and to Dr. xxxx's house.  That guesthouse was only used by
foreigners who visited the unit.  There were only mats in there, nothing
else.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  Some DKBA stayed looking around the hospital area.
They saw Naw xxxx and asked her "Who are you?"  And she replied "Just
me, Naw xxxx".  So they didn't do anything to her.

"Naw Nwee Paw":  Some of the soldiers saw people hiding but they didn't
shoot.  First they went to the hospital, then to Dr. xxxx's house [the
foreign
doctor] and then to the guesthouse.  They stole the CB radio from Dr.
xxxx's house.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  They stole the forks and the spoons from his house too.
And also his shoes, his jacket [an expensive leather jacket] and his shirts.

"Naw Nwee Paw":  And his boxes of cookies...

Q:  How did DKBA carry all these things?
"Naw Sah Lwe":  They didn't have porters with them.  It must have been
very heavy for them to carry everything on their backs!  I have no idea how
many DKBA soldiers came altogether because they came from different
directions.

"Naw Nwee Paw":  Some went to the shops up the hill in the market,
some to our unit, some to the MSF hospital and also some to Section 6.
Nobody was hurt, but some DKBA were wounded.  We saw blood in the
morning, on the sand of the street in front of the MSF hospital. But we
don't know how many of them, maybe 1, 2 or 3.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  Naw xxxx's husband said that beside him he saw a
wounded DKBA soldier who was dragged by another DKBA soldier.
When they passed beside him, he stayed quiet.  It was under a tree.  I heard
it was the camp security who attacked them but we'd better say that it was
the Thai Army.  DKBA was pulling their wounded friend beside the river.
Just when they were about to cross the river, the Thai soldiers and the camp
security attacked them.

We stayed hiding for a long time.  Even after they left, we stayed there for
a
long time.  In Section 6, they said: "We are leaving now but we will come
again."

"Naw Nwee Paw":  They were there for about one hour.  The same night
they came to our unit, they also went to Section 6 and took a cassette
player
and money, maybe 200 or 300 Baht from a shopkeeper.  We were very
afraid, so we stayed hiding and we dared not come up to our houses.  They
were already gone but we still kept hiding.  Finally, later, we went back to
our houses.  And the next day, the Malaria Research Unit decided to move.
Not the whole team, but most of us.  They told the people who were hiding,
"You are very bad.  We asked you to go back to Burma and you didn't, so
when we come next time, we will burn the place down!"  But because we
were hiding, they didn't see us anyway.

"Naw Sah Lwe":  As for the other sections [of the camp], they had
known these DKBA for a long time, so the people replied: "When you
finish the car roads in Burma, only then will we go back!"  [Just across the
border, the DKBA and SLORC in Pa'an District are using all villagers as
forced labour building roads.]

"Naw Nwee Paw":  But some women were so afraid of them that they
told them "Tomorrow we will go back".
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                                    #5.

[On 30 January 1996 in the middle of the night a large DKBA force
attacked a Thai Karen Buddhist monastery at Mae U Su, about 90 km.
north of Mae Sot along the paved road which parallels the border.  A
Buddhist monk, a 67-year-old lay helper and a Thai policeman were shot
dead and the DKBA troops looted the monastery before retreating back
across the Moei River into Burma.  A KHRG monitor visited the
monastery and wrote the following report after interviewing monks and
villagers there.]

Observations:  The monastery at Mae U Su is located on the top of a hill
beside Mae U Su village and near the main Mae Sot-Mae Sariang road.
The monastery has mainly Thai-Karen monks and is visited by both Thai
Karen villagers and Karen refugees.  There were bullet holes everywhere, in
the roof, walls and floor of the main monastery building (built of wood with
a tin roof, raised above the ground on supporting posts), and also in the
cement walls of the building which is under construction [on the grounds
beside the main monastery hall].  Two RPG's were fired [rocket-propelled
grenades fired from a shoulder launcher, originally designed as anti-tank
weapons but commonly used as a form of 'portable artillery'], one under
the monastery main building just near one of the supporting poles and
another in the wall of the caretaker's room causing a big hole in the wall.

Account of the Incident:  On Tuesday January 30, 1996 at about 12.30
a.m., two groups of DKBA soldiers emerged from 2 directions surrounding
the monastery at Mae U Su, which is located on the top of a hill beside Mae
U Su village and near the main Mae Sot-Mae Sariang road.  One of the
groups came from the direction of the old Kler Ko refugee camp
[abandoned in 1995 due to DKBA security threat].  There were many
DKBA soldiers.  Nobody knows how many but the people said maybe a
hundred.  No Thai Army was around - they usually stayed at Mae U Su
primary school and in a building near the river just downhill from the
monastery but all the Thai troops had left just two days before the incident
happened.

The DKBA troops first shot at the primary school, then went uphill and
shot at the monastery and as they were retreating they shot at the Thai
police box on the main road.

At the time they came, 4 monks, 3 novices and about 13 or 14 villagers
were sleeping in the main monastery building and the villager who was
looking after the monastery was sleeping with his wife and 4 other people in
the room near a building under construction on the monastery grounds.
The bullets which killed the monk and the villager were fired from outside
the buildings while the victims were inside. [The victims were not
specifically targeted].  One bullet hit the monk in his back, probably as he
was sitting up, and came out through his chest.  Stains of blood were still
visible on the wooden post beside the spot where he was sleeping.  The
monk was Thai Karen, 29 years old, and his name was Pra Bisukathammal.

Just before they left, one DKBA soldier came to the entrance of the
monastery and asked one of the novices "Where are the Thai troops?"

The villager who was killed in the room near the building under
construction was U San Poe, 67 years old.  He was a Karen from Burma
but had been staying for 20 years at the monastery with his family and was
helping around the temple.  He had a blue Thai ID card.  He was sleeping
beside the wooden shutter of the window which was shut.  The bullet went
through the wooden shutter and hit him in his head through his right cheek.
It was an AK-47 bullet and it didn't come out of his head.

His wife was sleeping beside him.  She said: "When I heard the shooting, I
wanted to wake my husband up.  I shook him because he was not moving.
Then I saw blood all over his face.  He was already dead."  She and the 4
other people sleeping in that room ran out and away to hide, just before a
group of DKBA soldiers entered the room.  They stole everything that was
there: the video-player, the radio/cassette recorder and the fan, all
belonging to the monastery and which were kept in that room, but also
5,000 Baht, clothes, blankets and mosquito nets belonging to their family.

After that the DKBA troops retreated down to the main road, shot dead one
Thai policeman at the police box and went back towards the Moei river.
The whole shooting only lasted for 5 or 6 minutes.

It is difficult to find out the reason for this attack.  The monks don't
understand why DKBA have attacked a monastery.  They believe that
DKBA actually wanted to attack the Thai troops [which would explain why
so many DKBA came] but they didn't know that the Thai troops had left.
So instead, they took the opportunity to loot the monastery.

I personally believe that the main reason was probably to loot the monastery
in the first place since they knew that some valuable equipment was there.
They definitely shot a lot at the room where the valuables were kept and the
villager killed [bullet holes were everywhere and a hole blown by an RPG
grenade], more than they shot at the other buildings.  Maybe they came in
such a large number because they expected to face the Thai troops in the
process.  Or maybe the attack was a combination of the two.
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                                    #6.

NAME:    "Saw Shwe Than"    SEX: M     AGE: 32          Karen Christian
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children
ADDRESS: Meh S'Kup refugee camp, Thailand         	INTERVIEWED: 6/6/96

["Saw Shwe Than" is a security officer in Meh S'Kup camp who describes
SLORC soldiers crossing the Salween River (which forms the Burma-Thai
border) to loot a house.  The refugee camp is just 20 minutes' walk into
Thailand from the river, and there have been many incursions of SLORC
soldiers in the area during 1996.]

It happened at the riverbank [Salween river].  It was in April, nearly at
the
end of the month. I could check the exact date in my register but it is in
Htee Hta at the river bank.   They came twice to the Thai side, in the
daytime.  I was even staying there the first day.

The first time, at about 11 a.m.  6 of them came down from their camp and
swam across to steal the boats on the Thai side, because they have no boat
on the Burma side.   The boats were near the shops on the river bank.
When they got the [two] boats, they went back to their camp.  After a few
minutes, they came back on the boats with their weapons and robbed the
goods from the trader's house.  They looted until 2 p.m.

The trader was in the house.  His name is Saw xxxx, 30 years old.  When he
saw the SLORC troops he ran away.  He is from a village in Burma.  He
came to Thailand and bought some goods to sell in Burma.  At that time, he
was staying at his friend's house and had his goods with him [the house
actually belongs to the trader's friend, but he keeps his goods there in
transit].  He always buys things from Thailand and goes back to sell them
in Burma.  So the SLORC robbed all his goods. They took clothes, shoes,
soap and shampoo.  The value was 6,320 Baht.  They didn't shoot at him
[when he ran away].  They carried the goods in the boat and took them to
the other side.  I don't know where he is now.  He lost all his things.
Probably he went back home because he has no money to continue doing
his business.  The other shop owners who are staying there [on the Salween
riverbank] got some news before the SLORC soldiers came, so they had
moved their goods to the camp before the soldiers arrived.

The next morning at about 8 a.m., they came again like that.  They came in
the two Honda motor boats that they took from the people the previous
day.  They decided to come to the [refugee] camp, but unfortunately for
them the Thai soldiers were waiting for them at the riverbank.  The SLORC
officers had previously told the Thai soldiers "Don't do anything to our
soldiers if they don't bring their weapons with them".  But these 6 soldiers
came secretly with their weapons, like thieves.  So the Thai soldiers
started
shooting at them on the Thai side.  They had already arrived on the Thai
side, probably to loot the goods in the shops of the camp.  Three of them
were wearing uniforms and three civilian clothes.  They all had guns.  When
the shooting started, they also shot at the Thai soldiers.  But a few
minutes
later, two of them ran to the boat and of these two, one was wounded.
Then they went across the river and ran back to their camp.  The other one
escaped by swimming across the river.   They left one boat at the other
[Burma] side of the river and they left the other boat behind on the Thai
side.

Two SLORC soldiers died on the Thai side and one died while he was
swimming back across the river.  Three of them got to safety but I know
that one was wounded.  They were from #434 Battalion.  They came from
the SLORC post which is only 20 minutes upriver by boat.  They were all
Burmese.

The villagers [refugees] are under the control of the Thai Army who told
them: "Don't go anywhere and just stay in the camp.  Nothing will happen
to you.  If the Burmese troops come, we will attack them.  Don't worry.
Don't be afraid."  The people don't want to go anywhere.  They are afraid
but they are controlled by the Thai Army.  No refugee was wounded in the
shootings.  Now most of the people who were staying there [at the river
bank] moved into the camp.
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     - [END OF PART 2 - SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 3 AND 4] -