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KHRG #98-05 Part 2/7 (Dooplaya)
- Subject: KHRG #98-05 Part 2/7 (Dooplaya)
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 21:36:00
STRENGTHENING THE GRIP ON DOOPLAYA
Developments in the SPDC Occupation of Dooplaya District
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
June 10, 1998 / KHRG #98-05
[Some details blanked out or omitted for Internet distribution.]
*** PART 2 OF 7 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***
The situation in Dooplaya is now growing more complex due to the
formation of a new army, the "Nyein Chan Yay A'Pway", literally "Peace
Force", led by Thu Mu Heh. In English they are calling themselves the
KPA (Karen Peace Army). Thu Mu Heh was the commander of the
KNLA's 16th Battalion until February 1997, when he shocked the KNLA
by surrendering to SLORC without a fight at the start of the offensive.
The surrender had clearly been prearranged, and made the SLORC's rapid
capture of Dooplaya possible. As a KNLA officer Thu Mu Heh was
notorious among villagers of the region for his corruption and
mistreatment of villagers, and he is known to particularly despise the
Muslim population of Dooplaya. However, since his surrender he has
been paraded in the SPDC media, given gifts by SPDC leaders and
publicly handed authority over several townships of Dooplaya. He formed
the KPA with the support of the SLORC/SPDC, declared himself a
General, and according to villagers from the area he has now been given
authority over the entire region from Kawkareik in the north to Three
Pagodas Pass in the south. In the process, the SPDC has ordered all
DKBA forces in Dooplaya back to Pa'an District further north, with the
exception of those in the 'hump' jutting eastward into Thailand and along
the Thai border north of the 'hump', from Wah Lay to Myawaddy; the KPA
does not yet operate in these areas.
The SPDC appears to favour the KPA over the DKBA, whom they have
never trusted; this is understandable, given that the DKBA was originally
formed with the idea of Karen autonomy in Karen State, whereas the KPA
has been formed by a corrupt officer with no interests except money and
power. Villagers from Dooplaya have already reported that the KPA and
the DKBA cannot stand each other, and it is possible that the SPDC will
pit the two groups against each other in the future. With so many groups
now tangled in the struggle in Dooplaya the villagers feel more confusion
and less hope than ever, and the SPDC is trying to use this feeling to
strengthen its control over them.
After Thu Mu Heh surrendered, most of his troops fled and either returned
to the KNLA or deserted. At present villagers report that he only has 200
or 300 troops. These are mainly untrained villagers who joined because
the KPA is now promising that the families of all KPA members will be
exempt from forced labour, extortion and other harassment by the SPDC
(a similar promise was used to expand the DKBA when it was first
formed). Villagers report that in at least some villages, once a person
joins
KPA a mark is made on his house to indicate that people in that house are
exempt from forced labour. The KPA has now completed training of its
first group of recruits in Kwih Kalay, but it has yet to organise itself
very
well on the ground. At the moment its main activity is recruiting. It
maintains an office near the major SPDC base in Saw Hta and its officers
and members who are already trained are acting only as adjuncts to SPDC
Battalions, 2 or 3 of them assigned to each large SPDC unit. All KPA
material supplies, including arms and ammunition, reportedly come from
the SPDC.
"Last month they gathered the people and divided them into two groups.
One group was to be a people's army [i.e. regular KPA] and the other
group was to be village defenders who would be sentries in each village.
They took their training in Kwih Kalay and the leader told them that
they could stay in their own houses after the training, but after they
finished they were not allowed to stay in their own homes. There were
50 of them in that training. The leader sent them from Kyaikdon to Kya
In Seik Gyi, so then they knew that their leader did differently than what
he said and many of them tried to escape. They ran away and hid
themselves, they didn't want to go to other villages, they couldn't agree
with their leader because he'd said they wouldn't have to leave their
homes. We don't know how to help the people who are in this trouble
now." - "Pa Bway Htoo" (M, 44), Dta La Ku village headman (Interview
#4)
Thus far the group hardest hit by the KPA's recruiting drive are the Dta La
Ku (a.k.a. Telekoo) people. The Dta La Ku are a Karen religious minority
who have very strict beliefs and practices which in some aspects resemble
Buddhism, in others Christianity as well as Animism. They are very
devout, following strict codes regarding food, dress and lifestyle, and
many other Karen regard them as being particularly holy and having
special powers. The men are easily recognisable because they wear solid-
colour sarongs (unlike other Karen men) and grow their hair long and wear
it in a top knot, held by a kerchief or bandana. The Dta La Ku number an
estimated four or five thousand, living in certain villages of Dooplaya and
a small part of Thailand adjacent to the Burma border. About 1,500 of
them fled to Thailand in September 1997 due to forced labour after the
SLORC/SPDC occupation of their villages. Many of them returned to
their villages at the beginning of 1998 after their elders reached an
agreement with DKBA representatives that they would not be used for
forced labour or otherwise harrassed by SPDC troops if they returned.
However, just after that the DKBA disappeared from the area when the
SPDC replaced them with the KPA. In April 1998, 187 Dta La Ku
families fled across the border into Thailand again after being abused and
threatened by SPDC and KPA forces.
"Many Dta La Ku fled to Thailand but they stayed together near here,
not at the refugee camp. They fled because the Burmese forced them to
do labour and portering. They fled from #44 and #356, then they went
back again but #61 came and forced them to carry heavy things so they
fled again. Then the DKBA came and told them if they became DKBA
they would be free from harm by the SLORC, so they waited for the
DKBA's help. But the DKBA disappeared. Then the KPA appeared and
ordered the Dta La Ku to become soldiers, but the people didn't want to
carry weapons because they knew that even if they didn't use them to
shoot at others, those others would shoot at them." - "Pa Bway Htoo"
(M, 44), Dta La Ku village headman (Interview #4)
Over the decades the Dta La Ku have been caught between many sides in
the struggle all trying to coerce or force their support, including the
KNU,
the DKBA and the SLORC; they usually manage to stay independent,
though they have often paid a heavy price for this in the form of
retaliations by the Armies of all sides. Now the KPA is trying to force
their support; this may be at the instigation of the SPDC, as a way of
dividing the Karen population even further. After the KPA was given
authority over the area early this year, the four main villages of the Dta
La
Ku (Kwih Lat Der, Kwih Kler, Maw, and Kyaw Kwa) were ordered to
provide family registration lists which had to include the numbers of all
Dta La Ku men aged 40 and above, and all those aged 15 to 40. After
receiving these lists, the KPA informed the Dta La Ku that they were
actually KPA signup lists and that all boys and men aged 15 to 40 would
be trained as KPA militia for their villages. Joining an armed group goes
directly against the religious beliefs of the Dta La Ku and against their
desire to remain above politics, so they refused. It appears that the
local
SPDC commander stayed out of any open participation in the dispute, but
he did not prevent the KPA from increasing the pressure on the Dta La Ku
until many of them fled once again to Thailand in April 1998, both from
KPA threats and forced labour for SPDC troops.
"To get people into the KPA they didn't say that people must become
KPA, they just said that they wanted to know how many families there
are in each village and how old the people are. After that, they said that
men 15 to 40 years old must become KPA. Only the Dta La Ku. They
will take all, because they already know our number and our ages." -
Dta La Ku village elder (Interview #3)
Since February 1998 Dta La Ku elders have sought a solution to this
problem; first they approached the Thai authorities with a proposal to
allow the Dta La Ku to stay as refugees in Thailand if life became
impossible in Burma, but were answered only with Thai threats and absurd
accusations that it was the Dta La Ku who had attacked and burned Huay
Kaloke refugee camp. Then they approached the SPDC with a proposal to
let them live all together in one or two villages in Burma under a promise
that they would take no part on any side of the struggle if the SPDC would
only leave them alone; the villages they chose were adjacent to the Thai
border, so that if the SPDC should break its promise they could flee to
Thailand. At first the local SPDC commander spurned their offer, stating
that he is the commander and it was not the place of the Dta La Ku to tell
him how to use his power. However, the elders still remain hopeful of this
option, perhaps because there is no other, and in the meantime they have
convinced the local KPA representatives to stop threatening them and
pressuring them to join for the time being. Despite this, it appears that
as
the situation in Dooplaya becomes more complex the position of the Dta
La Ku can only become more and more difficult.
"Now the problem is for the Dta La Ku people. Dta La Ku can't carry
weapons and become soldiers. Everyone knows that we do not make
good soldiers. First they came to make the family list [of all families in
his village]. But after we gave them our family information, they
changed our family list to the KPA list. So we bravely stood up to them
and told them that we would never enter into the Peace Army. We told
them, 'If you want to kill us, we agree to die, but we can't do their
"peace" work'. They needed us to become soldiers. They would teach
us through their training, they would give us guns. So we said that we
couldn't do work which involves carrying weapons and shooting people.
'If you kill us we agree to die.' So they got angry with us and told us
that they will report us to Than Shwe and the UN. We said do as you
like, if you want to report to Than Shwe, we don't mind [Than Shwe is
Chairman of SPDC]. If you want to kill us we will let you kill us. That
is our problem. ... [Another villager added:] Lone Shwe [a KPA officer]
said that if we don't do as the others do, it means we are their enemies.
Yes, he said that." - "Pa Hla Myint" (M, 30+), Dta La Ku villager from
Kwih Kler village (Interview #3)
"If you have a gun then others will think you are their enemy, and
everyone wants to shoot you. That's why we don't want to carry guns. I
want to say this. If you are not carrying weapons and I'm not carrying
weapons, we see each other and sit together and talk to each other in
peace. If you and I are both carrying weapons, then it is not easy for us
to sit together. We will have to be afraid of each other and stay far from
each other. If neither of us have weapons, we don't need to be afraid of
each other, we will sit closely and talk to each other. So it is not easy
for
us to answer [to groups which ask them to take sides]. If we carry
weapons, the other groups will think about us, "Are they our enemy?"
And then they dare not come to sit with us. So we don't want to do bad
things like that. Real peace is to sit together like this." - Dta La Ku
village elder describing the dilemma of the Dta La Ku, who are always
being pressured to take up arms for one side or another (Interview #5)
Just how powerful the KPA will become will depend on its usefulness to
the SPDC. Currently each village in central Dooplaya has been ordered to
provide 2 or 3 KPA recruits or face heavy fines. In recruiting, the KPA
refers to some people becoming KPA soldiers and others becoming a KPA
'people's militia'. It appears that it plans to operate largely on a
village
militia basis, sending many of its trainees back to their home villages to
exert direct KPA/SPDC control. One of the inducements offered to
villagers who join is that they will be posted back in their home villages,
although there have been reports that this promise is already being broken.
In March some recruits already fled the KPA when their training ended
and they discovered they were being sent away from their villages. If the
KPA attempts to post soldiers in every village this would probably make
life much more difficult for the villagers in terms of forced labour and
extortion (particularly given the known corruption of Thu Mu Heh
himself), though it may also reduce the number of villages in the central
part of the district which SPDC troops would otherwise force to relocate.
For example, Thay Pa Taw village was initially forced to move by
SLORC/SPDC, but later the KPA told them to return to their village. The
SPDC and KPA may decide to impose a system whereby any village
which fails to provide KPA recruits is forced to relocate.
Regardless of the KPA's existence, the number of SPDC troops occupying
Dooplaya continues to be very high. Observers and villagers in the area
state that the number of SPDC troops has greatly increased since February
at Lay Po Hta, directly across the border from the Thai Karen trading
village of Ber Kler, and that enough supplies have been brought in for a
year or for a significant operation. Until March 1998, the SPDC officers
had an agreement with the Thai Border Patrol Police and Thai Army that
they and their troops could walk into and out of Ber Kler village anytime
during daylight hours, as long as they wore civilian clothes and were
unarmed. Many of them came every day bringing charcoal, stolen cattle,
looted furniture and other items to sell, then used the Thai money they
obtained to buy alcohol, clothing, and dry or tinned foods to augment their
insufficient rations. Ber Kler shopkeepers complained that the soldiers
constantly tried to steal small items and slip them into their bags, and
that
the officers always wore pistols in the backs of their sarongs. Groups of
soldiers also crossed the border to steal betelnut from the plantations
surrounding the village. A Thai villager's gun was stolen out of the back
of his truck, and a Ber Kler shopkeeper was beaten up by a drunken SPDC
officer for refusing to sell him more alcohol. The Thai Border Patrol and
Army take no action in response to such incidents, "because they are
afraid", according to the villagers. Instead, the Thai Border Patrol
Police
regularly drink together with the SPDC officers. Thai forces have only
one post in Ber Kler and they have no post at all on the road which the
SPDC forces use to walk into the village.
"We can't trust in Thai soldiers. They do not dare to shoot. They will
never shoot, even when their duty is to shoot. ... [At the checkpoint]
They are border police. They just sit at their gate which is by the
border.
They don't dare go into the forest. They're even afraid to stay here in
the village! They're not brave." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 24), K--- village,
now a shopkeeper in Ber Kler (Interview #5)
Due to fear among the villagers and growing tensions caused by the
SPDC's threat to attack and burn Noh Po refugee camp, the Thai forces
finally told the SPDC troops not to come into Ber Kler village anymore.
However, they can still be seen there, though in smaller numbers, and the
Thai forces do nothing about it. There are still no Thai security forces
posted on the side of the village closest to the SPDC base. Many villagers
and shopkeepers in Ber Kler are very nervous, feeling that the SPDC may
want to take Ber Kler and that the Thai Army and the Thai Government
have no will to defend it. Half of one hill just outside Ber Kler has
already
been given to SLORC/SPDC by local Thai forces as an appeasement offer,
but this and the other concessions by Thai forces are most likely only seen
as signs of weakness by the SPDC commanders across the border and the
junta leadership in Rangoon.
Many villagers from the central plain of Dooplaya and the areas closer to
the Thai border report that given the choice they would rather flee to
Thailand than stay in their villages because of the forced labour,
harassment and insecurity under the SPDC occupation. However, they say
they are staying in their villages because they are afraid of losing their
land
and houses if they leave, and because they have heard that no new refugees
are being allowed in Thailand. For several months now, SPDC officers
have deliberately fed these fears by telling villagers in central Dooplaya
that they will soon attack and burn Noh Po refugee camp, particularly if
the KNLA attacks them anywhere in this part of Dooplaya.
Noh Po refugee camp lies west of the Thai town of Umphang, about 200
km. south of Mae Sot. It was created in early 1997 to shelter new refugees
fleeing the SLORC offensive and subsequent occupation of Dooplaya
District. It currently has a population of approximately 10,000. The camp
has not yet been attacked, but after attacks on other refugee camps in
March 1998 tensions were very high, and this was made worse by the
SPDC's open threats to villagers in Dooplaya that they would attack the
camp. In the area around the camp in the week leading up to March 27th,
Thai soldiers reported that SPDC troops were entering Thailand every day
to look for weaknesses in the border defences; each time, the SPDC
patrols would continue into Thailand until they were seen by Thai soldiers,
then withdraw. The SPDC has ordered the DKBA out of the area across
the border from Noh Po; there are a few KPA members there, but not
enough to attack Noh Po. Therefore, if an attack comes it will have to be
conducted by SPDC troops using the KPA as a front, or possibly by a
DKBA group brought in from elsewhere specially for the attack, as was
done in the March 23rd attack on Maw Ker refugee camp.
"The method of the Burmese is that even if they attack, they will always
say it was the KPA or DKBA who did it. They will never say it was the
Burmese. Even if KPA or DKBA won't go with them the Burmese will
still say it was KPA or DKBA, because they will just mimic the DKBA or
the KPA when they attack." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 24), K--- village,
answering who he thinks will conduct the attack on Noh Po (Interview #5)
Thai soldiers in the area have admitted that they cannot effectively defend
Noh Po camp, yet the refugees continue to be held in this fenced camp like
prisoners, with no permission to leave or reenter. Thai authorities told
the
refugees in the camp to dig bunkers, and they have done so. Since the end
of March, tensions have lessened somewhat as no attack has been
forthcoming. However, the camp could still be attacked at any time, and it
is important to note that many of the past refugee camp attacks have come
just when tensions are at their lowest and people are not expecting them.
Current Thai policy is to deny asylum to all new refugees, and many
groups of refugees from Dooplaya have already been forcibly repatriated at
gunpoint by Thai troops. In November 1997 one group of new arrivals
was refused entry into Noh Po camp by Thai authorities, so they camped
out in a remote area of fields and forests at Thay Pu Law Htwee. The Thai
Army then camped near them, and before daylight on the morning of
November 15th they fired M79 grenades among the refugees, wounding a
60-year-old couple. They then fired small arms, and when the refugees
panicked and fled a six-month-old baby was dropped by his mother and
died of a broken neck. When it was light, the Thai troops appeared and
tried to claim that someone else had done the shooting, even though it had
come from their camp. They ordered the refugees to march back toward
Burma, and when some refused several of the headmen were tied up and
beaten in front of the others. The group was then force-marched all day to
a site right on the Burma border and very close to the major SPDC camp at
Lay Po Hta. Finally, many of them were allowed into Noh Po much later.
However, they were not allowed to build huts and several hundred new
arrivals had to live for months through the hottest season of the year in
long open shelters with bamboo slat floors, no walls or dividers, and
plastic sheeting for a roof. With the current rainy season approaching,
they were finally allowed to start building proper huts in the camp.
"When we were sleeping at about 5:40 a.m. they fired their big gun at
us. An M79 shell [grenade] fell on a hut and 2 old people about 60
years old were injured. All the innocent people were shocked, ran out of
the area and hid in fear. A newborn baby died because he fell to the
ground while his mother was running with him. Then we heard the
noisy sound of bullets [small arms] being fired. When the daylight came
we found out that it was the Thai soldiers who were shooting at us. We
looked all around our shelters and cleaned things up. After a while they
came to see the place too. They asked the villagers, 'Who was shooting
at you last night?' The villagers told them that it was them who were
shooting at us. Then the Thai soldiers were quiet and didn't say
anything. ... [T]he senior commander arrived at our place and called me
and the other headmen. He told us to prepare our things and be ready
in one hour to move to another place ... Then the Thai soldiers were
angry with the people who wouldn't obey. They forced them, they tied
some of them up and hit some of them. After that they called the
villagers together and told us to be quiet. They told the villagers, 'Now
all of you see these three people we have tied up because they were not
obeying us. This will happen to people who do not obey us.' Then they
kicked some people. Finally they called the headmen to come out in
front and then ordered them to go in front of the people to lead them.
So the villagers were following us. ... The Thais guided us by car but we
had to walk. We were walking along like that until noon, and by then
we could see that the children were walking with difficulty and they
seemed very tired. Some were crying sadly. The women were weeping
sadly." - "Saw Lay Doh" (M, 33), Waw Lu village, describing the
shooting by the Thai Army at Thay Pu Law Htwee on November 15th
1997, and the forced move to a dangerous site just a few minutes from the
SPDC base at Lay Po Hta (Interview #1)
The situation in Dooplaya appears anything but promising for the
villagers. It appears that the SPDC is succeeding in using the KPA as a
proxy army, both to exert further control over the villages and to fragment
the Karen people. The option of flight to Thailand has been essentially
cut
off because of forced repatriations by the Thai Army and the threat of
attacks on refugees already in Thailand. For most villagers, this means
they have little choice but to try to survive under heavy restrictions and
an
ever-increasing burden of forced labour, extortion, and forced military
recruitment. For religious minorities, primarily the Dta La Ku and the
Muslims, survival will likely be most difficult of all; not only do they
have
to carry the same burden as all other villagers in Dooplaya, but they face
a
long uphill struggle to prevent their lifestyle, culture, and people from
being completely wiped out.
"What I really want to say is that I want our brother Burmese to keep
the Dta La Ku together in a safe place which is free from portering,
forced labour and battle. We don't want to be soldiers. I can't
understand why they don't let us have a place like that. Burma is very
big and I think that in such a big land there must be a safe place for us
somewhere. But we can't ask them for it because there are no educated
people among us who can go and ask them. I hope our English brothers
will help us by saying that for us. We are hoping for help from our
English brothers." - "Pa Hla Myint" (M, 30+), Dta La Ku villager from
Kwih Kler village (Interview #3)
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- [END OF PART 2 - SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 3 THROUGH 7] -