KHRG#97-08 Part 4/4 (Pa'an)

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ABUSES AND RELOCATIONS IN PA'AN DISTRICT

      An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
               August 1, 1997     /     KHRG #97-08


 *** PART 4 OF 4: SEE PREVIOUS POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***

*** Some details omitted or replaced by 'XXXX' for Internet distribution. 
***

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                                   #15.
NAME:    "Naw Hsah Lwe"     SEX: F    AGE: 30       Karen Christian farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 2 children aged 1 and 4
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Dta Greh township            INTERVIEWED: 7/97

["Naw Hsah Lwe" describes the looting of her village by a column of 
SLORC and DKBA.]

Q:  When the Burmese entered your village what did they do?
A:  They entered the village, they came into the houses, they searched 
through everything in our houses and took it.  They took my medicine, 
over 
100 tablets, and some clothes, and chickens, chillies, rice, tinned 
sardines,
my torchlight, a radio, and 2 packs of candles.  While they searched 
through 
everything in my house they said to us, "You people are trying to set up 
a 
bomb".  They gave me nothing, except 100 Kyats [33 cents US at current 
exchange rate] for the radio.  It was someone else's radio which had been 
left at my house.  I hid in my house and didn't dare go out because I was 
afraid Ko Per Baw would see me, so I didn't see what they did at other 
people's houses.  They never listen to you no matter what you tell them, 
they 
just take everything they want.  They took 4 of my mother's goats, and 2 
from another woman.  They ate 5 of my chickens.  And they pulled down 
one house.  This was the first time they've come here.
___________________________________________________________________________
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                                   #16.
NAME:    "Naw Lah Htoo"     SEX: F     AGE: 24        Karen Animist farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 1 child aged 4, 2 other children already died
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Dta Greh township              INTERVIEWED: 15/7/97

["Naw Lah Htoo" had her house and her entire village looted in early July 
by a routine SLORC patrol.]

Q:  What did the Burmese take from you when they entered the village?
A:  They took one basket of dogfruit and one tin of rice, 2 packets of 
Ajinomoto [commercial MSG seasoning] and one machete.  They wouldn't 
listen to me and they grabbed me, they pushed me and punched me.  They 
opened my box [wooden box where people keep their best clothing and 
belongings] and searched through everything.  People said these soldiers 
come from Po Three Kyo.  Ko Per Baw came together with them.  I didn't 
dare go out and look at them, I just stayed in my house.
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                                   #17.
NAME:    "Thra Ler Muh"     SEX: M   AGE: about 30     Karen Animist 
teacher
FAMILY:  Single
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Pa'an District                  INTERVIEWED: 
15/7/97

["Thra Ler Muh" talks about the education situation in the area, 
particularly the problems faced by villagers who try to set up their own 
school because SLORC never provides one.]

Q:  How is your work?
A:  Padoh xxxx [a KNU official] asked me to reorganise the school because 
they dared not enter the village anymore.  Places such as K--- and K--- 
they 
also can't enter, so he asked me to go back, try to collect all the 
[students'] 
names, give them chalk and open the school, then send him the list.  I 
went 
back, but I couldn't open the school because people [meaning SLORC and 
DKBA] wouldn't allow it to open.  Later [after the start of school in 
early 
June] I asked people there, "Did the school at T--- already open?"  
People 
told me it had opened but only for 2 weeks - then the Ko Per Baw asked 
for 
100,000 Kyats, so the school had to close.  I don't know why they asked 
for 
the money.

I have been teaching for 4 years.  We have over 50 students - some of 
them 
come from xxxx [a nearby village].  We wanted to open our school, if M--- 
[village] could open their school then we were going to open our school 
as 
well.  The high school at Ker Ghaw, the schools at Toh Aw, Pah Klu, all 
the 
lower places [in the plains], we just waited to see if they would open, 
and if 
they couldn't open then we couldn't either.  Now I think it won't be easy 
to 
open the school this year.  If they [SLORC and DKBA] allow us then we can 
open it, otherwise we cannot.  Last year we opened it and they asked, 
"Whose school is this?"  We said it's the villagers' own school, it's not 
a Kaw 
Thoo Lei [KNU] school, not a Buddhist school, not a Burmese school, just 
our own village school.  But whenever the Army came we had to close the 
school.  And if they saw us outside the village, they made problems.  
Once 
they arrested one of my teacher friends and he had to be their porter for 
over 
a week.  His name is Saw H---.  We were teaching together when the column 
of soldiers came, so we closed the school and went to the monastery.  We 
had no time to run, so we  let all the children go home, it was just the 
two of 
us.  Then the Burmese arrested him and made him a porter.  They also 
arrested me, but the monk came and told them, "This man has to look after 
the monastery", so they let me free.  That was last year in rainy season 
[mid-
1996].

Q:  Didn't they know that your friend was a teacher?
A:  No, no one dared to tell them, even he himself dared not tell them.  
He 
said that he was a villager who works on his farm.  All are afraid of the 
Burmese.  If they know you're a teacher, they will ask many questions, 
like 
"Where did you go to school?" and things like that.  [Any teacher 
suspected 
of having been educated in KNU territory would be arrested.]  If we kept 
the school open when they came I'm not sure what they would do, but the 
old men in the village don't dare face this problem so we also don't dare 
face 
it.  We can't tell what they will do, so we have to think of our own 
safety.

Q:  Why don't you go and ask permission to open your school?
A:  No, I dare not.  If the old men in the village ask I don't know what 
they 
will say.  We just wait to see what the old men will do.  [Note: this may 
sound cowardly, but young men like "Thra Ler Muh" are always suspected 
of being rebels by SLORC, and run a very high risk of arrest and torture 
every time they deal face to face with SLORC authorities.]  We have no 
way 
of knowing what they [SLORC] are thinking, we only know that they are the 
Burmese and that whatever they choose to do to us we simply have to face 
it.  
Even if we are teachers or headmen, if they see us away from our place 
they 
will take us and keep us for no reason.  We are Karen, and we have to 
think 
and know about these things.  If they enter the village and they see 
anyone 
running, they shoot them dead.  If you don't run, they make you a porter 
for 
2 or 3 days.  So everyone runs away as soon as we hear they are coming.

One old man named Saw B---, the Ko Per Baw came and asked his wife 
where he was and she said he wasn't at home.  Then the Ko Per Baw went 
and searched through the house and found him, so they hurt his wife, they 
showed her a knife and said to her, "The old man is here but you said 
he's 
not.  I'll cut your throat", and the woman's eyes turned white [i.e. she 
almost 
fainted from fear].  The Ko Per Baw are all captains, they don't have any 
leaders in their organisation. Any one of them can kill people.   They 
always 
eat our animals, people can't stop them, and they demand porters.  
Yesterday 
people had to carry their rice for them, and this morning more people had 
to 
go to be porters.  If they ask for seven porters we have to send seven, 
if five 
we have to send five.  We have to hire porters [to go in their place] for 
2,000 Kyats each for 5 days.  If they ask for 5 porters and we only send 
4, 
then they say, "I asked for 5 porters but you sent only 4, so if I come I 
will 
arrest people, and furthermore you will have to give money before I 
release 
the porters already here".  They say, "We asked only seven people but you 
didn't send them, so I don't want these porters, I'll come and arrest 
some 
myself."  So whatever they demand, we have to fulfil it.  If they come 
they 
will destroy things.  Last time they went to L--- village they demanded 2 
tins 
of paddy from each house, and then they made the people grind it for 
them.  
Ah-ah, so many problems, even if we try to run we can't run!  It's like 
coughing and coughing but nothing ever comes out [i.e. no matter what you 
try to do it never helps].
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                                   #18.
NAME:    "Mugha Lwee Paw"    SEX: F    AGE: 49       Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY:  Widow, 4 children
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Myawaddy township             INTERVIEWED: 4/7/97

["Mugha Lwee Paw" had to flee her village after being arrested and 
tortured by DKBA.  Her testimony shows how the village structure breaks 
down when the lack of any rule of law causes people to make false 
accusations over personal grudges.]

Q:  When did they arrest you?
A:  They arrested me at my village because they had ordered me to go to 
L--- 
post [and she hadn't gone].  I didn't know anything.  It was [DKBA] 
Battalion #XXX.  Their battalion commander is Bo XXXX and the second-
in-command is XXXX.  They said that I joined with the Karen [resistance] 
but I never did that.  They accused me and asked me, "Do their soldiers 
come to your house in the middle of the night?"  I answered that I never 
see 
them, and they asked, "How many times have you sent rice to their 
soldiers?"  
I told them I'd never done that.  He said people told him they'd seen me 
talking to Bo K--- [a KNLA officer] in my garden. I've never seen him, I 
answered.  I've never spoken with him, people just said that to the Ko 
Per 
Baw.

They beat me with a bamboo branch that still had the husks on it.  They 
hit 
me one time and my skin was split, and my youngest child cried until she 
fainted, and my son looked at me and he was also crying and afraid.  They 
beat me because they said I had stolen some cattle.  I am a woman, why 
would I have to steal cattle?  Even a chicken, I would never steal.

That was the first time they arrested me, in March.  They kept me for 2 
days.  
It was T--- who beat me.  The second time it was T--- and Bo H--- who 
arrested me, and they kept me for 8 days in April.  They called me to go 
to 
them, and then they tied me all over my body, they tied up my neck, 
around 
my chest, and my legs.  I couldn't stand and I couldn't sit - they tied 
me up 
like a ball.  They kept me tied like that for one and a half days.  I 
couldn't 
stay like that.  The knots were not very tight, so I told Bo H--- I 
couldn't
stay the way he had tied me anymore and then I untied my own hands and 
the 
rest of my body.  I told them, "I won't run.  If I run, shoot me dead and 
keep 
shooting until my body falls to pieces.  If I had done anything wrong I 
wouldn't even have dared come here.  I only came because I know nothing."

In the afternoon they took me back to Thra K---'s place and we slept 
there.  
They tied one of my hands again.  I told them not to tie me, I said "I 
will 
follow you wherever you go.  I would die rather than run."  But every 
time 
we were near people's houses they tied me again - they tied my hands very 
tightly, and they tied my neck and my whole body.  I said to T---, "Why 
do 
you tie me like this?  I won't run, untie me please".  Then he said to 
me, "I 
am not a leader.  We have leaders and we have to do this by order, so I 
cannot untie you now."  I told him "No problem", and I untied my foot.  I 
was thinking, "If you want to kill me just kill me, but I will untie 
myself".  
Then I couldn't sleep, so I untied my whole body again.  Their porter 
told me 
not to untie myself like that, he said "If people see it won't be good".  
But I 
told him I couldn't stay like that, and then I untied everything.  I 
stayed at 
their side, and I told them to sleep close to me because I was afraid.  
My 
child had stayed behind, and I worried about whether it could eat or not 
because it is very small.  Then in the morning they tied one of my hands 
and 
some villagers from K--- arrived.  They  talked to each other and said 
"This 
woman knows nothing, don't beat and torture her."  After that Bo H--- 
didn't 
do anything to me, even though I know he'd wanted to torture me at first. 
 I 
said to him, "Don't torture me, I know nothing", and I tried to stay 
close to
T---.  But then T--- said, "I'll send you to N--- post and you'll stay 
with
Bo H---."  So I got angry and told myself, "If you will go back, then go.
If I die I will die."  But then Bo H--- didn't do anything, he said not to
worry because he knew people had falsely accused me.  He took me to Bo 
XXXX
who asked me more questions, but then he said "This woman knows nothing.
Three people have come and accused her, but she knows nothing."

The first time they arrested me alone, but the second time they also 
arrested 
my relatives P--- and L--- [both men].  P--- is 40 years old and L--- is 
over 
30.  They beat P--- one time, but not L---.  They said that Bo XXXX's 
father-in-law died because these two had joined with the Karen soldiers 
to 
come and kill him.  Bo XXXX told me he would kill 5 people to repay this 
one life.  Then they demanded money for the death [when they realised 
that 
none of the three had anything to do with it].  At N--- village they 
demanded 
100,000 Kyats, and P--- and L--- had to give 50,000 Kyats, altogether 
150,000 Kyats.  No one helped us.  They arrested us for no reason, and 
they 
released us with nothing.  When they released me they told me not to go 
anywhere, not even to search for food, just to stay in the house. 

Then I stayed in my village, but one of the Ko Per Baw told me, "If you 
can 
go anywhere then you'd better go away".  Then Bo H--- told me, "People 
still 
accuse you, so you'd better go away.  You know who is accusing you, so if 
you come back later you can do what you can do [i.e. get revenge]".  But 
I 
told him I would never do anything to anyone.  I dared not stay anymore, 
so I 
went to N--- with my child.  I saw my brother in his field planting 
paddy, and 
he asked me where I was going.  I told him I couldn't dare stay, that 
people 
will keep accusing me until I'm killed.  I told him wherever I go they 
arrest 
me.  He asked me to stay there a few days so I stayed and helped him in 
his 
field.  I was still afraid and always watching out because Ko Per Baw 
come 
to that village as well.  People there told me the situation there was 
not good 
either, so I left and came here.  Along the way I nearly met the Ko Per 
Baw.  
If I meet them again I will die.  I don't dare go back to my village.  I 
used
to work my fields, but now I can't dare do anything.  In many places they 
[DKBA] are burning all the field huts and straw, because they say this is 
where the Karen soldiers hide and sleep.  Along the way here, I saw that 
they 
had burned all the villagers' field huts as well as their coconut trees.

With Ko Per Baw, if we can give them money things are a little bit 
better, but 
if not then things aren't easy for us.  They do whatever they want to the 
villagers.  As long as their own families stay happily, they don't care 
about
the villagers.  For them the most important thing is to get money.  They 
don't 
care if the information people give them is true or not, they just arrest 
everyone.  The man who was killed [Bo XXXX's father-in-law] was U 
XXXX, he was about 50, from XXXX village close to the Burmese post.  
The villagers have had to face many problems since his death [retaliation 
by 
DKBA].  He was very cruel to the villagers, so earlier this year the 
Karen 
soldiers came and shot him dead and got a rifle and a pistol from him.  
DKBA gave him permission to have these 2 guns and put him in charge of 
some work for them.  He was in charge of trading logs, and he was a DKBA 
spy.  He stayed in the village, did whatever he wanted and helped the 
DKBA, 
like if they wanted to trade logs in secret, capture your cattle, do you 
want
to drink wine?  All these things he did for them.  Whenever he knew any 
information he would go straight away and ask for money.  People would 
shake when they heard U XXXX's voice.  For example, if some villagers 
didn't have enough rice, they would sell one cow to get money to buy 
rice.  
Then if he heard about it he would come and take all the money, saying 
that 
the villagers are illegally trading.  If I planned to buy a bullock to 
work in
my field and he heard about it, he would come and take all my money and 
say 
that I was illegally trading.  They arrest all the traders, take their 
money
and divide it among themselves.  Then if their shares are not equal they 
fight
each other.  No one is free to sell anything.  We have to ask their 
permission
and give money for a pass before we can do anything.  If we build a 
cattle hut 
here near the village, there's not enough room for the cattle, but if we 
build
it farther away then they demand money and punish us because they say 
we're 
in contact with Kaw Thoo Lei.

So now Bo XXXX is arresting villagers and saying, "My father-in-law is 
dead,
he is only one, but even if I kill 5 of you for it I will not be 
satisfied".
Now U XXXX's wife is staying at XXXX, and whatever she says people 
have to do.  She is the same as her husband was.  Her name is XXXX, she 
is 
in her forties.
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                                   #19.
NAME:    "Saw Shwe Htoo"    SEX: M     AGE: 48       Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 2 children
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Pa'an District                INTERVIEWED: 17/7/97

[When interviewed "Saw Shwe Htoo" was still suffering from a broken rib 
and a fever.]

Q:  Where did  the DKBA arrest you?
A:  At T--- village, last month.  A woman had died in T--- village so I 
went 
there with 4 friends.  In the afternoon they came into the village and 
asked 
one of the women, "Did you see our 2 or 3 friends come through here?"  
She 
answered that we didn't know, and then they said to us, "Why didn't you 
see 
them?"  They were drunk, and they arrested us, beat us and tied us up at 
T--- 
for one day.  They tied my feet, my hands and my neck [i.e. they tied him 
up 
in a ball].  Then they took us to N--- and demanded 22,500 Kyats from us. 
 
Then they asked me, "Do you dare go back to your village?"  I answered, 
"Why wouldn't I dare go there?"  They told me to follow them to my 
village, 
and I followed them there.  Then they beat me over 10 times in my chest 
and 
ribs.  They beat me and said, "You used to be headman and Karen soldiers 
came to your house".  I said it wasn't true, but they said, "I saw you, 
you had 
contact with Karen soldiers."  They beat two of us, myself and a villager 
from N---.  The other villager was in his thirties.  The soldiers were 
all Ko 
Per Baw, there were 17 of them.  They used to be villagers but now they 
are 
Ko Per Baw.  I knew 2 of them, C--- and L---.
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                                   #20.
NAME:    "Saw Bo Gyi"       SEX: M     AGE: 38       Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Pa'an District                INTERVIEWED: 8/7/97

["Saw Bo Gyi" was arrested and beaten by SLORC troops.]

Q:  When did the SLORC arrest you?
A:  They arrested me on June 16th at N--- and took me to A---.  I was at 
N--
- for a wedding, and one person accused me before them, because they knew 
I used to help collect money for the Karen [KNLA].  I was never cruel to 
villagers, but the soldiers all held guns and so did I.  The Karen asked 
for my 
help and I used to help them a lot.

They kept me for one day.  They told me not to work for the Karen and not 
to follow the headman.  I told them that if they didn't believe I'm just 
a 
villager they should go and see the headman.  Then they punched me in the 
face.  They were from #XX Battalion.  There were many of them who beat 
me.  They arrested two of us and tied up our whole bodies, they even tied 
our necks.  The Burmese soldiers told their officer that I'd tried to 
take his 
gun.  How could I take his gun from him, when they are many and I am only 
one?  They punched me in the face.  I tried to cover my face with my 
hands 
but they wouldn't allow me to do that, they told me, "Let us punch you, 
just 
stay still".  A lot of blood was pouring out of my nose.   Then they made 
me 
go with them to T---, and when we arrived at the L--- main road they 
tortured me again, they tied me and tortured me a lot.  When we arrived 
at P-
-- they didn't torture me anymore because then we were near their 
captain, 
but by then I couldn't even move anymore because I had no more strength.

Now I have scars on my face, here on my hand, and the skin on my back was 
split.  They beat me on my back with a gun.  The wounds still aren't 
better 
because they beat me many times.  I've tried to treat myself but it's 
still not 
better.  My wife tried to treat me with special oil [combined with spirit 
worship] to heal me and I've also taken a lot of injections, so it has 
cost me
a lot.
___________________________________________________________________________
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                                   #21.
NAME:    "Pati Kyaw Than"   SEX: M   AGE: 37   Karen Christian 
farmer/cowboy
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children
ADDRESS: xxxx village, Myawaddy township       INTERVIEWED: 28/6/97

["Pati Kyaw Than" talks about villagers being forced to buy DKBA 
calendars and other general abuses in his area.]

Q:  How many years has DKBA been distributing their calendar?
A:  Two years already.  If they send 20 calendars to our village then we 
have 
to buy them all.  We can't stay there if we don't buy them.  If we buy 
one and 
keep it in our house there will be fewer problems for us.  As far as I 
know the 
order came from Myaing Gyi Ngu [DKBA headquarters] to sell these 
calendars.  Then Maung Chit Thu [a DKBA officer] came and gave the 
order for how many calendars had to be sold in each village and township. 
 
Last year we had to buy them for about 250 Kyats, and this year 280 Kyats 
[a high price compared to other calendars].  Maung Chit Thu said 
everyone has to buy one, that no one can stay without buying the 
calendar.  
So some villagers think it must be better to have one in your house than 
not 
to have one.  But when the SLORC comes, if they don't see anyone in your 
house they burn it down anyway, and it doesn't do any good to have a 
calendar in your house.  They are honourless people.  One Christian woman 
hung a DKBA calendar in her house.  A DKBA soldier who knew her saw it 
so he asked, "Are you a Buddhist or a Christian?"  She answered that she 
is a 
Buddhist, and he laughed at her.

Q:  How many  new members do the DKBA try to recruit from each village?
A:  It depends on the number of houses in the village.  Generally they 
ask for 
2 or 3 people from each village, but if the village is especially big or 
small 
they ask for as many as they think they can get.  In the past they asked 
for 4 
or 5 villagers each year from each village tract, but now they ask for 
over 10 
people.  They know how the Kaw Thoo Lei [KNLA] used to do it, so they 
do it the same way.  Maung Chit Thu tries to organise it.  When Kaw Thoo 
Lei asked for soldiers they always said "over 17 years of age", they 
didn't 
want very young people.  But now many people say that the DKBA don't 
care about the age, and that very young children like 15, 16, and 13 
years old 
are with them.  For each recruit the village can't send they ask for over 
10,000 Kyats, so each village tract has to give over 100,000 Kyats.  That 
is 
only for one year.  Sometimes they don't need men, they only need money.  
In May [after already demanding recruits once], Toh Thu Kee village was 
ordered to send money again to lower officers like Bo Kya, but that time 
I 
think those officers were just taking it for themselves.

I think myself that some of that money they give to SLORC but most of it 
they use themselves, because in May, Pa Klay [a DKBA officer] went to Day 
Law Pya and Meh Pleh Wah Kee and told the village heads, "Ask for the 
money now because we need it.  Later we'll pay it back when it's time for 
you 
to give the money for this year's DKBA members."  [In other words, DKBA 
has financial problems supporting its own soldiers and has to get 
'advances' on extortion money from villagers.]  For example with a DKBA 
soldier, if we were friendly with each other back when he was Kaw Thoo 
Lei 
and the situation was better, now he will ask, "Friend, lend me 10,000 
Kyats 
because I need it for my family".  You don't have much but you dare not 
tell
him that, so you have to give it to him.  Or he asks for 1 or 2 tins of
dogfruit for his family so the villagers have to collect it and give it to
you so you can give it to him.  They don't know how hard they make it for
the villagers.

Q:  What does the SLORC do in the village?
A:  For example, if they want to clear the area then they ask for DKBA to 
go 
with them, but the SLORC enter the village before the DKBA, take all the 
villagers' belongings and eat everything.  They come in the house and one 
jumps to take your Ajinomoto, another one jumps to take your chillies...  
No 
one can stop them.  One woman from Day Law Pya told me that when they 
came to her house some stayed in the house while some others killed a 
7-viss 
[11-kilo] pig under her house without any noise.  When they come on April 
2nd they asked for people's rice because they said their rations were 
gone.  
There were 2 or 3 DKBA together with their [SLORC] group.

Q:  Do the SLORC ask for porters?
A:  Two or three porters who escaped told us that the first group they 
were 
with made them carry very heavy things, and the soldiers put their own 
[personal kit] bags on top of the porters' loads and they had to carry 
those 
too.  The SLORC soldiers give their rations to the porters to eat, and 
for 
themselves they demanded good food from the villagers.  The rations they 
bring for themselves are not good so they don't eat them.  If they enter 
a 
village they kill, cut, cook and eat the chickens all night long, so by 
morning 
there are none left.  If they go to a hut where a woman is staying they 
demand one chicken, so the woman gives it quickly hoping they'll soon be 
gone.  But then 2 or 3 more come and ask again and again.  In the daytime 
they demand it, at night they just steal it.

Before, when SLORC had a post in our village and Kaw Thoo Lei was 
attacking them, the SLORC tried to make pressure on the villagers.  If 
one of 
their soldiers died or one gun was lost the villagers had to give money 
for the 
gun or the dead person.  If Kaw Thoo Lei put a bomb [mine] near the 
village 
or on the road and one of their soldiers was wounded, they made problems 
for the villagers.  Now it is still like that, with DKBA also.  If we 
can't
give them security then we have to give them our lives.

                              - [END OF REPORT] -