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KHRG REPORT #97-09 PART 2/2




KHRG REPORT #97-09 PART 2/2 (TENASSERIM)
August 20, 1997
             FREE-FIRE ZONES IN SOUTHERN TENASSERIM

      An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
             August 20, 1997     /     KHRG #97-09

   *** PART 2 OF 2 - SEE PREVIOUS POSTINGS FOR PART 1 ***

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

[The map and Interview Annex are not included with this Internet 
version of the report.  They are available on request from KHRG.]

                               Forced Labour

"They gave us nothing, we had to take our own food.  We had to work 
from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. and from noon until 6 p.m.  Before we used to 
come back and sleep in our house, but now [since SLORC burned his 
house] we have to sleep in the forest.  If SLORC comes to the village 
again I think we'll have to move.  If you run you have to run fast, and if 
not you have to go and work on the car road." - "Saw Tamla Htoo" (male, 
18) from xxxx village, central area, who was forced to do road labour even 
after his village was burned (Interview #22)

"They must build the road, and when that's done they have to go to do 
things in the Army camp, like mixing cement and baking bricks.  The camp 
is at Palaw - #280 Battalion.  The car road is not finished yet.  We build
it until it's finished, then start again to build another one!"  - "Saw Lweh 
Say" (male, 25) from Naw Ber village, northern area (Interview #44)

Before this relocation campaign, people in villages accessible to SLORC 
were already forced to do labour on roads, at army camps and as porters on 
a regular basis.  However, many of the villages in the relocation areas, 
particularly in the eastern parts furthest from SLORC bases, generally 
ignored orders for forced labour knowing that SLORC patrols would almost 
never come to their villages.  This situation was one of the motivations 
behind the relocation campaign, to bring villagers under control and make 
them available for forced labour.  Since the relocations the overall amount 
of forced labour being done in the region has greatly increased because of 
all the work being done to build and improve military access roads in order 
to strengthen SLORC control.  As a result, those in the relocation sites
have been used constantly for forced labour, while those who were already doing 
forced labour are also facing increased forced labour demands.  SLORC 
does not want to allow people to flee to the forests or to other areas, as
they are needed in the relocation sites for forced labour; this is one of the 
reasons for the continuing military sweeps to flush out the people in
hiding (the other main reason is to cut off any possibility of civilian support
for KNU activity).

"They ordered people to move to Kyauk Taung in rainy season.  In Mi 
Sein Kyu, everyone had to move to the motor road in the rainy season.  
We went and stayed by the motor road and did nothing but work for 
SLORC until we came here [to KNU-held area]."  - "A'Kyaw" (male, 60+) 
from Mi Sein Kyu village, northern area (Interview #43)

"Our houses have been burned and we have to rebuild them, some don't 
have enough to eat, not enough rice - and they want us to build the road!  
We aren't free yet, and we have told them so." - "Pati Hla San" (male, 48) 
from xxxx village, southern area (Interview #2)

The main forced labour being done is road construction and maintenance, 
on both existing and new roads.  Several thousand villagers (including the 
Karens who have been forced to move there and the Burmans and Mons 
who already live in villages along the road) are being used every day as 
forced labour to resurface the Tavoy-Mergui motor road as well as its 
continuation south of Mergui.  This road is ruined every rainy season and 
takes several months of forced labour to build and improve each year.  
Villagers from the southernmost reaches of the Tenasserim River are also 
constantly forced to rebuild and maintain the road which runs from 
Taninthari town up the east side of the Tenasserim River to Ta M'La and 
on to the mine at Thein Daw.

SLORC is also constructing new motor roads, including one which 
branches southeastward off the main north-south road and runs into the 
central relocation area, through Boke, Ka Pyaw, Aleh Chaung, Pa Thwee, 
Mazaw and Kyay Nan Daing (at least 40 km. long).  Another new access 
road being built runs eastward into the southern relocation area, from T'Gu 
to Ta Po Hta, and local people believe SLORC plans to continue this road 
northward to Ta Po Kee, through the heart of the southern relocation area
(estimated total length 30-40 km.).  Villagers in this area say that if the
road comes through, military camps are sure to follow, and they will have to
flee for good.

Forced labour construction on these new roads began in 
November/December 1996.  Villagers are being forced to move to the 
roadsides and work every day along with villagers who already live there, 
many of whose houses have been destroyed without compensation to make 
way for the roads.  Even after finishing the year's work maintaining
existing roads, people from villages and relocation sites 50 km. and more to
the 
north of the new roads are forced to walk 2 days to the new roads in order 
to work on rotating 10-day shifts hauling dirt, building embankments, 
breaking rocks and digging ditches.

"For building the road we have to buy things, carry things, do everything.  
We have to buy petrol, pay for the car, buy stones - we have to buy 
everything, and we also have to go and do it ourselves.  It is the motor 
road, it goes to Palaw and also to Tavoy.  We also have to go work on it in 
Palaw.  The width is 8 plah [12 feet], and the section we have to work on 
is 12 miles.  Every day until it is finished!  It can never be finished." 
- "Naw Eh Htoo" (female, 52) from Maw Ma Sa village, northern area 
(Interview #37)

"I had a big house, but it was in the way of the road so I had to tear it 
down and rebuild it - now I only have a small house.  The others whose 
houses were destroyed had to go and live in their parents' houses.  When 
we were forced to move here I sold all my land.  Now I have only 6 tins of 
rice left."  - "Saw K'Htoo" (male, 35), central area, who was forced to 
move to Ka Pyaw and since moving had spent most of his time doing 
forced labour on the road (Interview #25)

The main stages of the construction are building up the embankment, 
digging 2-foot deep drainage ditches along both sides of the road, 
resurfacing and smoothing the road, and clearing the scrub along both sides 
of the road.  In most cases the roads are being built wide enough for 2 
Army trucks to pass each other.  Most of the roads are dirt and are not 
being paved.  They are being "engineered" incompetently by Army officers 
and built straight across streambeds and floodplains in many cases.  Most
of them will be wiped out every rainy season, and then the villagers will be 
forced to build them again.

"Even if we work on it for 10 more years, it will never be finished.  It's 
finished, then it's ruined, then it's finished, then it's ruined, the rain
comes and it's ruined.  The roads in Burma get ruined very easily."  - "Saw
Lweh Say" (male, 25) from Naw Ber village, northern area, talking about
endless road construction (Interview #44)

Usually the village or relocation site is divided into two groups of 
households, and the groups take turns doing forced labour for shifts
ranging from 1 day to 2 weeks, depending on the worksite.  Each household in
the group must send one person to do the work without exception.  Any 
household which cannot provide a labourer must hire someone to go in 
their place, which can cost 300 or more Kyat per day.  No money, food, 
shelter, medical care or medicines are provided by SLORC at the worksite.  
Villagers must sleep in the scrub alongside the road or build small
lean-to's to stay in.  Soldiers are often present but only to guard, never
to work,
and they often beat the villagers for resting.  No convicts are being used.

At the worksite, the groups from each village are generally given a
specific assignment to be completed within their shift, such as the
completion of 1 
furlong [220 yards] of road embankment.  Many village elders, who are 
forced to go along on every shift to supervise the work, choose to
subdivide the assignment by family; for example, each family is responsible
for 3 
yards of road out of the village's assignment, and then people can go home 
as soon as their assignment is finished.  At many worksites the soldiers
only come along infrequently to inspect the work; they know that the work will 
be done in their absence, because otherwise village elders will be arrested 
and tortured and villagers will be beaten.  Villagers who become sick are 
given no medicine, but they are usually allowed to go home on strict 
condition that they return for an extra shift of labour with the next group.
If villagers become ill when soldiers are present, the soldiers often
accuse them of pretending and force them to continue working.

"I dug the soil, carried sand and stones, broke big rocks with a big 
hammer and then carried them to the main road.  Even if entire families 
worked together that would take longer than the whole summer.  
Thousands and thousands of people were there.  About 2 platoons of 
soldiers watched the workers, and when the villagers didn't work properly 
they beat them without mercy. ... Once the soldiers got drunk and beat 
people.  They ordered them to lie down in a row on the road and then beat 
them with a big bamboo pole. ... They hit them 10 or 20 times - I didn't 
count, so maybe even more.  They also ran up and kicked each person 
twice as they lay there.  The people were bruised and swollen all over."  - 
"Saw Tha Dah" (male, 29) from Nga Yan In village, southern area, talking 
about labour on the Kyay Nan Daing road (Interview #11)

"The workers were tired and they took a rest.  It was midday so they were 
resting ... The soldiers saw them and said they couldn't rest, they had to 
work. ... He was an old man already, 50 or 60 years old.  They stomped 
on his legs and then kicked him in the hips.  They kicked him 2 or 3 times 
and then ordered him back to work."  - "Saw Hla Htoo" (male, 44), 
southern area (Interview #14)

"We've been working on this for one month now, and we've done 4 
furlongs [1 furlong = 220 yards].  At the beginning they promised that 
they would give us 60,000 Kyats for each furlong, but we've done 4 
furlongs already and they haven't given us anything, so I hate them.  If 
they paid us, at least we could pay off some of our debt.  I haven't enough 
time to work for my family, so we just have to eat whatever we have."  - 
"Saw Ler Muh" (male, 35), central area, describing forced labour on the 
road near Ka Pyaw (Interview #28)

"They never gave us any food or money for working there.  They never 
gave medicine for the sick - if we had any medicine and they found out, we 
had to share it with them!"  - "Saw Tha Dah" (male, 29) from Nga Yan In 
village, southern area, talking about labour on the Kyay Nan Daing road 
(Interview #11)

"They have to work even though they're sick.  If it's very serious, they
have to ask permission to rest.  Sometimes they won't give permission.  The 
time when I was there, one villager from Meh Ngaw died.  When that 
happened none of the villagers stayed there.  The Army went to check the 
road and got angry because no one was there, and they asked, "Who gave 
them permission to go back?"  The people told them, "One man died so 
they all went back to their village".  But they said, "No.  They have to 
come back.  They have to make the road until it's finished.""  - "Saw Hla 
Htoo" (male, 44), southern area, describing forced labour on the T'Gu - Ta 
Po Hta road (Interview #14)

"Everyone has to go and carry stone and rocks, even the widows.  One 
person from every household has to go.  If we fail to go, they come to beat 
us and then take us along with them.  If we don't go we have to pay 1,000 
Kyats per day.  For those who are sick, it is 500 Kyats per day.  We have 
to go for 7 days each time, and they give us no food. ... If we are
careless they [the soldiers] are always watching so they can beat us.  If
our work 
isn't good enough for them, they curse us, give us a punch and kick us.  
One time they kicked me, and he [the soldier] slapped me with the palm of 
his hand and gave me a heavy blow with his fist.  Not a soft blow, a heavy 
and painful blow!  He said, "We don't want to hear about how you're poor 
or starving.  All we want is to see you working and constructing a good 
road!" ...  It is an old road that they are reconstructing.  The other 
villages also have to go like us.  We had to do it last year as well.  We 
have to rebuild it almost every year, after the damage from rainy season."  
- "Pati Wah Lay" (male, 51) from xxxx village on the southern Tenasserim 
River, describing forced labour rebuilding the road to the mine at Thein 
Daw (Interview #19)

Children as young as 12, people over 60, and women still breastfeeding 
their infants are being forced to do this work.  The rule is one person per 
household, and there are no exceptions.  Even if a household consists of 
only a 70-year-old couple or a widowed mother with small children, they 
must provide a person.  As a result, many of those doing the labour are 
women, children and the elderly.  Furthermore, able-bodied men are beaten 
much more regularly and brutally than women and children and they always 
face the possibility of being accused of "looking like a rebel" and
executed if they displease a soldier in any way, so men aged 18 to 50 are
often too 
afraid to go.  Women with small children often take them along to the 
worksite because they are breastfeeding or because there is no one else to 
take care of them, and these children must sleep in the dirt or small
lean-to's alongside the road with everyone else.  Many families go as a unit,
parents, children and grandparents, so that they can finish their family
assignment as quickly as possible and head back home.

"There are women working there.  If you are under age 60, you have to 
go.  The youngest must be above age 5 - children younger than that can't 
go.  We have to dig the ground.  The soldiers come and scold and beat 
people if they are not pleased.  If people work slowly or improperly they 
are beaten.  There are some people working there who are not well.  If you 
are not well they will let you go, but then you have to come back again an 
extra time."  - "Maung Shwe Than" (male, 35), a Burman from xxxx in the 
southern area who has had to work on the T'Gu - Ta Po Hta road several 
times (Interview #18)

"There were about 2,000 people working there, from Ka Pyaw, Wa Thu 
Lo, ...  Many old people as well as the young, and many women.  Children 
about 10 years and up - their parents couldn't come so they sent their 
children.  And old people about 60.  Some women came with 2 or 3 
children, there were many children there and some people had to hire 
others to look after their children while they worked."  - "Saw Tamla 
Htoo" (male, 18) from xxxx village, central area, describing labour on the 
road at Ka Pyaw (Interview #22)

"The very old and the very young have to work together with us and do the 
same work.  The work is divided the same for everyone, for example one 
yard per person.  If we have to do 2 yards, then so do the women and the 
children."  - "Ko Than Aung" (male, 25), a Burman from xxxx village in 
the southern area who has done forced labour several times on the road 
from T'Gu to Ta Po Hta (Interview #16)

"I am the youngest.  My parents already died.  I have one brother and one 
sister.  I stay with my sister. ...  I'm going to work on the road. ...  My 
sister asked me to work instead of her.  My sister is sick.  If she is well
she goes.  She is about 30 years old.  She is married and has one child, a girl 
who is 4 years old.  This is my second time. ...  It will take 15 days. ... 
[The first time] ended 10 days ago.  That time I had to work for 12 days.  
I had to dig a ditch. ... [Q:  Was it easy?] Not easy.  [Q:  Where did you 
sleep?]  In the forest. ...  I was the youngest one there."  - "Thein
Myint" (male, age 12), a Burman schoolboy in the southern area, interviewed on 
his way to forced labour on the T'Gu - Ta Po Hta road (Interview #15)

"When I was there I saw a Burmese villager together with his 3 children 
digging and labouring together on the road.  The father was digging the 
earth.  His two sons, 7 or 8 years old, were carrying the earth along the 
road.  He also had a daughter about 12 years old - she was lifting the 
earth for the 2 boys to carry [helping them lift panniers full of dirt and 
rock onto their heads].  Some of the villagers were already finished, but 
some like them had not finished yet, and they were still working there.  
When I saw them I thought, "How can they get food to eat?", because the 
father was doing the work, his 2 sons and his daughter as well, and the 
mother was cooking for them.  The SLORC are doing this, making the 
villagers and even the children have to work for them, so the children 
don't even have time to go to school.  This makes a problem for the 
parents, and the children will only grow up to have the same problems.  
The children are supposed to start school at age 6.  But the children who 
have to work on the road, how can they attend school?  They become 
older, and as for that girl, she already has to work on the road so she 
can't go to school any more.  I don't know if they were villagers or 
refugees [victims of relocation].  I think their children should be in
school, but as long as the road is not finished they will never attend
school."  - 
"Saw Hla Htoo" (male, 44), southern area, describing forced labour on the 
T'Gu - Ta Po Hta road (Interview #14)


With the new roads will come new Army camps throughout the area.  
Villagers already know what that means, as they have already had to do 
forced labour building and maintaining Army camps, digging trenches, 
building bunkers, fences, and barracks, then having to serve at the camps
as unarmed sentries, messengers and servants, cooking, carrying water, 
gathering firewood, ... Many Army camps confiscate their farmland, then 
force them to farm it for the Army, and force them to cut and haul logs for 
sale.  At the same time, they have to provide rice and livestock and pay 
extortion money in the form of "porter fees" and other "fees".  Most 
villagers in the relocation areas say that if a road comes into their area
they will never be able to live there again.

"We also had to work in their camp.  We had to carry bamboo and wood 
and build shelters for them.  We also had to pay them porter fees and 
other taxes, I think it must have been more than 1,000 every month.  
Moreover, the soldiers go and eat in Palaw town, then when they come 
back they make us give money to the camp to pay all their bills."  - "Pu 
Soe" (male, 66) from May Way village, northern area (Interview #36)

"We had to work for SLORC every day, and moreover one person has to 
go and sleep with the SLORC in their camp every night, and do whatever 
the SLORC orders them to do.  We also have to build the road every day - 
my husband and my children have to take turns going."  - "Naw Hsah" 
(female, 36) from xxxx village, northern area (Interview #52)

"We have nowhere else to go, so whatever they order us to do we must do.  
When they don't order us to work we work for ourselves.  When they order 
us to go we leave our work and we go to build the road.  If we have 
children then we send the children to build the road and we stay behind to 
do our own work.  The people who have no children, they stay as one so 
they have to go as one.  If we go somewhere else how will we live?"  - 
"Pati Wah Lay" (male, 51) from xxxx village on the southern Tenasserim 
River, describing forced labour rebuilding the road to the mine at Thein 
Daw; his village has not yet been ordered to relocate because it is on the 
road (Interview #19)

                     Effects of the SLORC Offensive

In January 1997, SLORC was already sending out many more patrols in all 
the relocation areas to seek out and destroy any means of support for the 
villagers in hiding, and to capture or shoot on sight any villagers they
could.  Then the mass offensive on KNU-held areas along the Tenasserim River 
began in early February.  The main attack force came eastward from Tavoy 
and then down the Tenasserim River, over 100 km. north of the relocation 
areas, but shortly thereafter SLORC began a pincer-type operation, sending 
troops eastward through the relocation areas to reach the southern 
Tenasserim River at Kaweh Hta, Ler Pa Doh and K'Say Hta.  These forces 
could then move up the Tenasserim River while the main attack force 
heading down to link up with them.

Most people in the free-fire zones found themselves cut off from flight to 
the Tenasserim River or the Thai border.  An estimated one to two 
thousand had already taken refuge along the Tenasserim River, and found 
themselves fleeing the offensive troops along with the villagers who
already lived there.  They scattered everywhere, many of them fleeing back
into the free-fire zones they had already left, going back to a life in
hiding in
the forest; except that this time, they had no food or belongings with them.  
Many of these will probably have no choice in the end but to go to the 
forced relocation sites and do forced labour.

Others stayed with the villagers who had given them shelter and made a run 
for the Thai border.  In the area of K'Say Hta, Way Toh Ray and Si Pyet, 
where most of the people displaced from the northern relocation area were 
taking refuge, SLORC troops coming down the Tenasserim River managed 
to go around most of the Karen forces and arrive in villages suddenly, by 
complete surprise.  Many villagers in this area literally had to run for
their lives, and in some cases children and the elderly were left behind to the 
mercy of SLORC troops.  Those who escaped had a long, difficult and 
dangerous flight through the hills eastward to the Thai border, having to 
dodge SLORC advance patrols and firefights all the time only to find that 
Thai authorities were blocking many from crossing the border.  Many of the 
people originally from the free-fire zones were among the villagers trapped 
at Ta Ma Pyo Hta and other sites in Burma until the Thai Army finally 
allowed them to cross into Thailand because the SLORC Army was 
attacking them.  These refugees from the free-fire zones can now be found 
among the other refugees from the SLORC offensives in the new refugee 
camp at Ban Tam Hin.  At this and other new refugee camps, Thai 
authorities have forced everyone to live on the dirt under plastic sheeting
for 5 months already.  A particularly heavy rainy season began in June, and 
they are now living and sleeping in the mud.  Foreign aid organisations 
urgently want to provide building materials, but Thai authorities will not 
allow it, hoping that if they force the refugees to live in a misery of
mud, disease and bad food that they will decide to go back across the border of 
their own accord.  The refugees are living in constant fear of forced 
repatriation by the Thai Army, but they know what awaits them if they go 
back and many say they would rather die.

"Q:  How long ago did you have to run from Aw Pu village?
A:   Now it's 3 months already.  We ran from place to place to place, 
many times already.  From Aw Pu we fled to Palaw town, then to Maw Ma 
Sa, then to Pyi Cha / Mi Kyin Thu, then we arrived in Bo Heh Kee, then to 
K'Say Hta, then to Si Pyet.  I was in K'Say Hta just 2 weeks and Si Pyet 
just 5 days, then we had to flee. Then to Meh Pya, and then we arrived 
here [Baw Wih refugee camp in Thailand, which was soon after forced to 
move to Ban Tam Hin].  
Q:  Do you think you'll have to run again?
A:   I don't know!
Q:  How many houses from Aw Pu are here?
A:   4 houses.  There were 22 households from Aw Pu staying [displaced] 
in Si Pyet.  Some are probably still among the Burmese.  They are 
scattered all over the place."
[Explanation: as people from a relocated village they would not be 
allowed to stay in Palaw town.  After they arrived in Maw Ma Sa it was 
also ordered to move, as were Pyi Cha and Mi Kyin Thu.  By the time they 
would have arrived in Bo Heh Kee in January, SLORC patrols were 
sweeping the area shooting everyone on sight.  K'Say Hta and Si Pyet 
were KNU-controlled prior to the offensive, but the SLORC attack forced 
her to flee to Meh Pya, then SLORC reached Meh Pya so she had to flee to 
Thailand.]
- "Naw Kree Eh" (female, 30), a widow with 3 children aged 3, 7, and 9, 
from Aw Pu village, northern area.  Her husband was murdered by SLORC 
troops 2 years ago at Kain Kee, after which she was repeatedly harassed as 
a 'suspect' until her village was forced to relocate and she fled.  Taken
from "Refugees from the SLORC Occupation" (KHRG Report #97-07, 
25/5/97), Interview #T6, interviewed on 3/4/97.)

"The situation now is more difficult than when the Japanese came.  The 
Burmese give many more problems to the Karen people than the pu-kaw 
['short-legs', i.e. Japanese] did.  When the pu-kaw came they did not burn 
people's houses, they just asked us where the English were.  But now when 
the Burmese come all the Karen must run and hide, big and small.  When 
the Burmese came and burned our village all the others ran, but I stayed 
near.  I'm not afraid - the Burmese have shot at me many times before. 
I'll search for roots and vegetables, and I'll stay here - where else could I 
go?" - "Pu K'Mwee", a 65 year old grandfather, almost deaf, living in a 
shed in a free-fire zone in the central area in defiance of a SLORC 
relocation order.  SLORC troops had already burned half of his village 
(Interview #34).

                          - [END OF REPORT] -
    - [FULL ANNEX OF INTERVIEWS IS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST FROM KHRG.] -