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KHRG #98-08 Part 2 of 6: Pa'an dist
- Subject: KHRG #98-08 Part 2 of 6: Pa'an dist
- From: khrg@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 02:46:00
Subject: KHRG #98-08 Part 2 of 6: Pa'an district
UNCERTAINTY, FEAR AND FLIGHT
The Current Human Rights Situation in Eastern Pa'an District
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
November 18, 1998 / KHRG #98-08
*** PART 2 OF 6 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***
[Some details omitted or replaced by 'xxxx' for Internet distribution.]
__________________________________________________________________________
Forced Relocation
"They called a meeting of all the village headmen. They said that when
we finish our harvest we must move to their place. If we don't want to
stay with them, they gave us the choice of going wherever we want to
stay. The Burmese told the DKBA and then the DKBA told us. They're
forcing all the villages in Meh Pleh Toh area to move: Meh Pleh Toh,
Sgaw Ko, Kwih Lay, Toh Thu Kee, all the villages. They want to force
us out as soon as possible. They said that if we stay in our village, we
will become targets for their guns, and if we go where they order, it will
be to their place. ? If we went to their place we couldn't do anything,
we'd have to survive by selling snacks or something. I couldn't do it. In
my village I had a farm with fields. I had enough land to grow all our
food every year. Now I want my field back, because if we can't eat rice
then we can't survive. But this year I only had the chance to plant 2
baskets of seed paddy in my field. All of us who fled left many of our
things behind in the village. Some villagers left their cattle and
buffalos,
because we fled in fear. All the paddy we had planted will just be taken
by the Burmese. We just gathered what we could and came here,
though my mother and father are still back in the village." - "Pa Weh
Doh" (M, 47), Taw Oak village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #14,
8/98)
Current SPDC practice throughout Karen regions is to forcibly relocate all
villages which they do not or cannot easily control. This includes
villages
which they believe give food to KNLA units or where KNLA units simply
pass through, villages which are too far from an SPDC Army camp to be
constantly watched and patrolled, and villages which consistently fail to
comply with SPDC demands for forced labourers and extortion money.
As part of its program to consolidate control over Pa'an district, over the
past 3 years SLORC and SPDC have sporadically conducted forced
relocations in a few areas. Facing continued KNLA guerrilla activity
based in the Dawna Range and penetrating westward into the plains,
between November 1996 and March 1997 the SLORC forcibly relocated at
least 10 villages along the western side of the Dawna to Army camps and
sites along the forced labour roads, where the villagers were then used
intensively for road-building labour. These villages included Bee T'Ka, Ta
Ku Kraw (which was burned), Kwih Pa Taw, Noh Law Bler, Tee Hseh
Ker, Naw Ter Kee, Kaw Per Nweh Ko, Kwih Sgheh, Tee Baw Blaw and
Ler Dah, several of which are major villages; Bee T'Ka alone has 300
households. [For further details on these relocations see "Abuses and
Relocations in Pa'an District" (KHRG #97-08, 1/8/97).] However, rather
than undermining the KNLA, these relocations actually removed the
'shield' of Karen civilians from the SLORC troops, and after one
particularly heavy KNLA attack on SLORC troops at Bee T'Ka, the Army
began ordering the villagers to return to their villages. Many villagers
didn't dare obey, fearing intensified abuses, and scattered to towns or
into
the hills.
In southeastern Pa'an district there have also been localised forced
relocations over the past two to three years in attempts to undermine
KNLA operations in the area, though some of these have only been carried
out temporarily or half-heartedly.
"Last year, they only forced our village to relocate to Ker Ghaw. They
gave us three days to go, but when we bribed them they allowed us to
stay. We didn't want to go so we collected money, 15,000 Baht of Thai
money, and gave the money to them and they allowed us to stay one
more year." - "Pi San San" (F, 50), Taw Oak vill., south Pa'an district
(Interview #18, 9/98)
However, forced relocation is increasingly becoming the cornerstone of
SPDC military practice throughout Burma, and in mid-1998 the Army
appeared to become much more serious about forcibly relocating villages
in southeastern Pa'an district as well as those further north in the Dawna
Range. In the southeast, the DKBA called all village heads in the area to
a
meeting in Ker Ghaw in the middle of rainy season, at which they
announced an SPDC order that all villages will be forced to move to Kwih
Lay, Sgaw Ko or Ker Ghaw as soon as rice harvest is finished at the end of
this year. Villages which will be forced to move include Taw Oak, Meh
Pleh Toh, Toh Thu Kee and other villages not directly controlled by the
SPDC; the complete list is unclear, because some villagers believe that
Sgaw Ko and Kwih Lay will be forced to move, while others believe that
these villages will be used as relocation sites. At the meeting the DKBA
stated that villagers will be able to move anywhere they want as long as
they leave their villages, but that anyone who remains in the relocated
villages "will be in our gunsights". This time it appears that the SPDC
and
DKBA intend to fully implement the forced relocation. The reason they
have given such early notification may have been to encourage the
villagers to start moving out now, and this is having its desired effect.
Many villagers have already fled Taw Oak, Sgaw Ko and other villages in
the area while they can still choose where to go, rather than wait for SPDC
soldiers to drive them out at gunpoint.
"?both the Burmese and the DKBA said that after we finish our
harvest they would force us to relocate to Htee Wah Blaw K'Waw Bu.
They said that if we ran to the jungle they would sweep us up like a
broom. The commander of the DKBA, Thein Shwe, said, 'If we see you
in the jungle when we come, you will be in our gunsights.'" - "Pi San
San" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #18,
9/98)
"I heard from some people that the Burmese and DKBA would build a
camp between Pah Klu and Loh Baw, and that after 7 months they will
order the villagers to bring all of their rice to the villages [from their
paddy storage barns and field huts] and leave their villages. They said
that the villagers can go and stay anywhere that they want to go in
Thailand or Burma, but that anyone who won't leave their village will
be forced to go to Kwih Lay, Sgaw Ko or Ker Ghaw." - "Naw Kler" (F,
21), Taw Oak village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #10, 8/98)
"They haven't forced the villagers from Htee Wah Blaw to relocate, but
I've heard that they will force the villagers from Loh Baw and Pah Klu
to relocate to Htee Wah Blaw." - "Pi Wah K'Paw" (F, 60), Htee Wah
Blaw village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #20, 9/98)
"They told us we'd have to move to a relocation place. They didn't say
where. They just said that after rainy season they'll drive away all the
villagers. So as soon as we had a chance we fled. If we'd waited until
they drive the villagers away, it wouldn't be easy to flee because then
they'd keep us all under guard." - "Naw Lah Say" (F, 25), Taw Oak
village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #12, 8/98)
Some of the villages in Myawaddy and Kawkareik townships of
southeastern Pa'an District have already been served with a written
relocation order from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #104. A copy of the
original order in Burmese as it was received by one village is included on
page 41 of this report. The following is a direct translation of the
order:
Front Line Light Infantry Battalion No. (104)
Pah Klu village
Ref. No. 104 / 02 / Oo 1
Date: 1998 August
To: Chairman
xxxx village
Subject: Order to vacate issued to the villages.
1. Order has been issued to xxxx village to vacate the place and
move to Kwih Lay village or to any other place where the villagers
have relatives, at the latest by 10th September 1998.
2. After the date of issue of this order, it is warned that the Army
will go around clearing the area and should any village or small
huts in the paddy fields be found still standing, they will all be
dismantled and destroyed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
Front line, Light Infantry Battalion No.104
[Above order reproduced courtesy of the Health Workers' Union (Pa'an
District) from their 19 September report on the situation in this area; a
copy of the original in Burmese is reproduced on page 41 of this report.]
Further north in the eastern Dawna the SPDC has taken a much more
direct approach to forcing the villagers to move. In August they launched
a military operation reportedly named "Aung Moe Haing" using troops
from Light Infantry Division (LID) #44. The intent appears to be to drive
the entire civilian population out of the area with little care for where
they
go. Villagers already began fleeing the area in late August; 1,500
villagers
fled across the border into Thailand and others fled higher into the hills
of
the Dawna Range. Then in September, the LID 44 troops formed 3
columns of approximately 100 soldiers each and destroyed several villages
(see 'Village Destruction' below), causing over 1,600 more villagers to
flee
into Thailand from Po Ti Pwa, Ma Oh Pu, Tha Pwih Hser, Tee K'Haw,
Wah Mi Klah, B'Nweh Pu, Po Paw Lay, Meh Lah Ah Hta, Meh Lah Ah
Kee, Meh Keh, and Klay Po Kloh. Refugees from most of these villages
say they never received any relocation order, their villages were simply
attacked without warning.
In other regions of Pa'an district, such as the Meh Th'Wah and Myaing Gyi
Ngu areas in the northeast and the central plains west of the Dawna Range,
there are currently no major forced relocations occurring. However,
KNLA activity continues in these areas and could result in further forced
relocations over the coming dry season.
__________________________________________________________________________
Village Destruction
"They burned our village down twice, first our big village and then they
came back and burned the new village we'd built in this place. Everyone
ran to Thailand, or to the jungle and the mountains. Later we came
back again but we've never been able to go back to our old village. We
don't dare stay there. We've had to live in the forest far from our
village
and move once every year or every two years. Kwih Law Ploh is also a
new village, so is Pler Kloh, and over that way there are other new
villages. We just built this village here and gave it the same name as our
old village. We started building it here about 2 years ago. ? [Now] I'm
not sure whether they will come to destroy our villages or not. If they
are angry and do something bad to us we can't do anything, because we
are just villagers, not their enemies. We have to be afraid of many
things." - "Pati Lah Say" (M, 43), xxxx village, northeastern Pa'an
District
(Interview #24, 4/98)
Villages have regularly been destroyed by SPDC troops over the past few
years in Pa'an district, particularly in and around the Dawna Range. In
the
Meh Kreh area in the northeast near Meh Th'Wah, SLORC troops burned
and destroyed many villages when they first captured Meh Th'Wah from
the KNU in 1989. Villages such as Meh Kreh, Kwih Law Ploh and others
were burned again in 1995/96. The villagers in the area have now rebuilt
smaller villages with the same names in slightly more isolated sites, but
under current SPDC policy this isolation could make them even more
likely to be burned once again rather than protecting them. Some villagers
in the area have already fled to the forests due to their expectation of
raids
on their villages over the coming dry season.
The major destruction of villages so far this year has occurred slightly
further south, about 100 kilometres north of Myawaddy in the eastern
slopes of the Dawna Range near the Thai border. As part of the "Aung
Moe Haing" operation to undermine KNLA activity in this area by wiping
out the villages, Light Infantry Division #44 increased its harassment of
villagers in August and then in early September sent columns to burn and
destroy several villages. Three columns of approximately 100 soldiers
each approached the villages from separate directions. In some cases, such
as in Meh Lah Ah village, they first shelled the village from outside
without warning. In each case all the villagers fled as soon as they knew
the troops were coming, then when the troops arrived they shot livestock,
looted the houses and then burned them. The first column burned some
houses then moved on, then the second column passed through and burned
more houses, and the third column repeated the process until few or no
houses were left. First Meh Keh village was destroyed, then Tha Pwih
Hser, Po Ti Pwa, Meh Lah Ah, and Noh Aw Pu. The 40 houses of Meh
Lah Ah were completely destroyed as well as all the chicken sheds and
other outbuildings. The first warning that Meh Keh villagers had of the
approaching troops was the sound of explosions as SPDC troops and their
porters stepped on several KNLA landmines on Ghu Kee hill outside the
village. The entire village was then burned to ash. Villagers claim that
at
the same time, SPDC troops also burned Tee Wah Klay and Tee Wah
Blaw villages further west in the Dawna Range.
"The Burmese came and destroyed the village. Two columns came
separately, one from the east and one from the west. The total number
of soldiers was 300 to 500. ? That happened about a month ago. ?
When the Burmese got close to the village all the villagers fled into the
jungle or to come here. We dared not face them. We came directly here.
Some slept for one or two days on the other side of the river before
coming here. When the Burmese entered the village, they didn't see any
villagers so they burned down all the houses except for one or two of the
older houses. I think they burned our houses because they hate all
people of our nationality. When the villagers fled they couldn't take all
of their belongings. Blankets, clothes and food were left behind. I left
my chickens and pigs in the village and the Burmese ate them all. They
ate the pigs of all the villagers." - "Pa Shwe" (M, 29), Po Ti Pwa
village,
northern Pa'an district (Interview #1, 9/98)
"Three groups of soldiers came to the village with about 100 soldiers in
each group. About 300 soldiers came to the village altogether. When
the first group of Burmese entered the village, they burned many of the
houses and then they continued on to another village. Then another
group came and burned down more of the village. They burned down
many houses in many villages. First they burned Meh Keh, then Tha
Pwih Hser, then Po Ti Pwa, and then Meh Lah Ah village. ? They took
the newest clothing from our houses and then burned everything else.
They arrived less than a month ago, within the last 18 days." - "Saw
Joseph" (M, 34), Meh Keh village, northern Pa'an district (Interview #2,
9/98)
"We barely escaped, just after we ran out of the village a bomb exploded
behind us in Meh Lah Ah. ? We didn't even think to take our pigs and
chickens. We could only take what we were wearing and a small bag."
- Woman from Meh Lah Ah village, northern Pa'an district (Interview #3,
9/98)
"We began to flee when the Burmese had arrived at Si Po Kee, which is
to the west of Meh Keh. We heard from the Karen soldiers that the
Burmese were going to come in the next month and clear our village.
We didn't how they were going to clear the village. When we heard the
sound of explosions, all the people from Meh Lah Ah village fled. That
was about 400 villagers. ? We had to run without our belongings. I
had to leave my pots, clothes and livestock. ? By the time we had
arrived at the Moei river only a short walk away, the Burmese were
entering the village and started shooting their guns. We also heard the
sound of large shells exploding. Meh Lah Ah has over 40 houses. ?
They burned the whole village, nothing is left. They even burned the pig
pens, the chicken sheds and the coconut trees." - "Saw Pler Hai" (M,
31), Meh Lah Ah village, northern Pa'an district (Interview #3, 9/98)
As soon as they heard of the troops destroying villages people from most
of the other villages in the area fled as well, including Ma Oh Pu, Wah Mi
Klah, B'Nweh Pu, Po Paw Lay, and Klay Po Kloh. At least one house in
Wah Mi Klah village and one in B'Nweh Pu village were also reportedly
burned down. In Tee K'Haw village a DKBA officer told the villagers not
to run, that the SPDC would do nothing to them, so the Tee K'Haw and
Wah Mi Klah villagers tried to stay. However, as soon as the troops
arrived they began shooting livestock, looting, and capturing villagers to
be porters, so all the villagers tried to flee; some, however, were
captured
and detained under torture or taken as porters. One 19-year-old girl from
Wah Mi Klah stepped on a KNLA landmine as she was fleeing along the
path and had her leg blown off. Now the SPDC troops have based
themselves around the villages, at Meh Keh and at the pre-existing camps
of Gka Deh, Kyi Ghay Kyo and Wah Bway Kyo; the last two are both
within 15 minutes of Meh Lah Ah. They have reportedly already laid
more landmines through the area, which was already heavily mined by all
sides in the conflict. The villagers have fled to the hills or to Thailand
and
don't dare return with so many troops around their villages.
"The DKBA commander who was staying in the village, Pa Pa Nar,
said, 'Don't run, stay in the village. If the Burmese come they won't do
anything to you.' Then when the Burmese came they ate the villagers'
pigs and chickens. If we had complained they would have shot us. We
couldn't complain. There were only a few DKBA soldiers, about 50 to
60, but there were masses of Burmese soldiers, everywhere you looked
you saw the green of their uniforms. The Burmese weren't afraid of the
DKBA." - "Pa Li Kloh" (M, 21), Tee K'Haw village, northern Pa'an
district (Interview #3, 9/98)
"They came in the evening, more than 20 days ago. We didn't know
when the Burmese were going to come. When they came to the village
and passed by my house, the villagers who lived behind my house fled
from the village. I couldn't flee. When the Burmese came, they called
me down from my house and 4 or 5 soldiers stood surrounding me
pointing their guns at me. They asked me if I had seen the T'Bee Met
["closed eyes", name used by the DKBA to refer to KNU/KNLA]." -
"Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 45), Wah Mi Klah village, northern Pa'an district
(Interview #4, 9/98)
"They didn't burn down our village because there were many women
still in the village and they wanted to steal their belongings. At first
the
villagers didn't flee, but they started to flee when the Burmese began
torturing villagers. ? When we fled in that direction my youngest sister,
19 years old, stepped on a landmine and injured her right leg. She had
been walking in front of me when she stepped on the KNLA landmine. I
carried her to Meh Daw hospital and then the nurse there sent her to
Mae Sot hospital." - "Pa Li Kloh" (M, 21), Tee K'Haw village, northern
Pa'an district (Interview #3, 9/98)
"They [SPDC troops] have already encamped on the side of the Meh
Keh Toh river. It's not so far from my village, about 1 hour's walk.
Now they've burned many villages. They burned down Noh Aw Pu, Tha
Pwih Hser, Po Ti Pwa and Meh Lah Ah." - "Pa Shwe" (M, 29), Po Ti
Pwa village, northern Pa'an district (Interview #1, 9/98)
Thus far the villages in the far southeast of the district, such as Taw
Oak,
Sgaw Ko and Pah Klu, have not been destroyed, but as noted above they
have been told that they will be forcibly relocated at the end of the rice
harvest in late 1998. If the SPDC and DKBA follow through with this
forced relocation, it will almost certainly be followed by a spate of
village
destruction similar to what has recently happened further north.
"We looked down on our village from a hill when we arrived in
Thailand and saw that everything was yellow. We saw the smoke and
fire from the burning houses because it wasn't far away. Nobody dares
to go back there because there are landmines planted by the Burmese,
the DKBA and the KNLA there." - "Saw Pler Hai" (M, 31), Meh Lah Ah
village, northern Pa'an district (Interview #3, 9/98)
"They burned my mother's house in Wah Mi Klah. Now she is staying
in Beh Klaw refugee camp. She lived alone but wasn't in the house
when they burned it." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 45), Wah Mi Klah village,
northern Pa'an district (Interview #4, 9/98)
"I went back. I saw only ashes. I couldn't count how many houses had
been burned but many had been, approximately 40 to 50. They also
burned other small villages in the area. They burned Meh Keh, Tha
Pwih Hser, Po Ti Pwa and Meh Lah Ah. In the four villages there
would be about 100 houses but I couldn't count them because
everything was in ashes." - "Saw Joseph" (M, 34), Meh Keh village,
northern Pa'an district (Interview #2, 9/98)
__________________________________________________________________________
Killings and Abuse
"The villagers they shot were Per Talu and Pa Mu Dah [both men].
They were Taw Oak villagers. One was 15 years old and the other was
34. ? Four of us had gone to look for vegetables. On our way back, we
didn't know that the Burmese soldiers had come to our village. They
had already laid some landmines on the path, but none of us stepped on
them. Then we saw the smoke of a farm hut that they had set on fire,
but we thought they wouldn't do anything to us because we're only
villagers. Suddenly we saw a soldier carrying a gun, and I knew he was
a Burmese soldier. I started to run and he shot at me, so I fell down and
lay quietly even though I wasn't injured. Then he shot at my friend and
hit him, but he wasn't badly wounded and ran right on past me. Then
the Karen soldiers started shooting at them, and the Burmese shot dead
my other 2 friends. ? They took the bags of the 2 dead people and took
some of their vegetables and the squirrels they'd caught to eat. Then
they burned the bodies and the rest of the vegetables with some scrap
wood. After that they laid landmines around the bodies, so that nobody
would dare go to remove them. Later another villager went to the place
where the bodies were, and he died because he stepped on one of the
mines. After that the Burmese captured another Taw Oak villager and
executed him too because they accused him of being a KNU spy." -
"Saw Tha Dah" (M, 27), Taw Oak village, southern Pa'an district
(Interview #10, 8/98)
In Pa'an district there has not been a systematic hunting of villagers to
shoot them on sight as has been going on since 1997 further north in
Papun district (see "Wholesale Destruction", KHRG, April 1998).
However, over the past several years there have been continuous killings
of villagers throughout the district, particularly in the east near the
Dawna
Range. In most cases, SPDC or DKBA patrols see villagers along
pathways or working in their fields and call them over. The villagers
know they will likely be taken as porters if caught, so their first
instinct is
to run, and then they are gunned down with no questions asked by the
troops. If the villager is wounded, he or she is left where they fall or
in
some cases killed with a knife or bayonet. SPDC troops then report these
as KNLA battle casualties. The number of villagers killed this way
throughout the district is hard to estimate as most incidents go
unreported,
but is probably on the order of 5 to 10 villagers per month. Some are shot
by the SPDC, some by the DKBA, but the villagers often make no
distinction in these cases, referring to the DKBA as 'the Burmese' because
they act in the same way.
"Recently, the Burmese came to Htee Wah Blaw and shot at some
people in their house. Five people were injured and one of their
daughters died. Her name was Toh Kee [she was 6 years old]. It was
[SPDC Division] 44 who shot her. One villager was injured in his
bladder, another was injured on his leg and another was injured on his
hand. After the Burmese from [Division] 44 shot them, they took them
to Myawaddy and put them on trial. They accused them of being KNU,
so they beat them when they interrogated them. They were actually just
farmers. The injured people had to tolerate the pain of their injuries
and also the pain of the beatings. In the end, those injured people were
put in prison. Now they're still in prison." - "Saw Tee Kaw" (M), Pah
Klu village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #17, 9/98)
"They also killed our 19-year-old son. His name was Saw Ler Htee.
When he was going to get honey, the Burmese saw him and shot him
dead. We heard the sound of the gun so we went looking for him and
found his dead body. ? They've shot many of the people from our
village. Maw Pay Aye, Pa May Klay, [both are men's names] and many
other people. This was happening many years ago as well as just now,
when we ran here. They've just shot many villagers as soon as they saw
them. That is why we don't dare go back there." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F,
45), Wah Mi Klah village, northern Pa'an district (Interview #4, 9/98)
"They shot and killed my uncle and my cousin at the same time. They
shot dead my cousin Pa Mu Dah, he was 15 years old, and my uncle's
name was Per Talu, he was 30. Ah Klih was wounded too and his friend
Maung Than was wounded in his arm, but they ran away. Ah Klih is 30
or 32 years old, and Maung Than is 20 or 21. All of them were from
Taw Oak village except Maung Than, he is from Kwih Lay. In addition,
Ah Klih's wife stepped on a landmine and lost her leg. Her name is Mu
Si. She is 22 or 23 years old." - "Naw Lah Say" (F, 25), Taw Oak
village, southern Pa'an district (Interview #12, 8/98)
In villages, villagers are sometimes arrested and tortured to death or
summarily executed, usually by beating them to death or with knives, for
being suspected of helping the KNLA in any way, of being the local
village liaison with the KNLA, or being a relative of a KNLA member. In
as many as half or more than half of these cases, the villager is innocent
of
the charge. Sometimes they are accused because of a personal grudge, or
another villager gives their name while under extreme torture simply to
escape the pain. In Pa'an district it is usually the DKBA which points out
suspects to the SPDC troops. In some cases villagers captured to be
porters are treated as suspects and executed simply because they have
difficulty carrying, or because they resist in some way. Villagers who try
to stop SPDC or DKBA troops from looting their possessions, or who try
to speak up for other arrested villagers, are also often threatened with
arrest as 'suspected KNLA'.
"?they arrested people last year in rainy season [mid-1997]. Three
people. Ah Ter, Ah Weh, and Saw Wih. Ah Ter was about 30, Ah Weh
was 50 and Saw Wih was about 60 years old. They saw them on the
path, and they shot two of them dead and beat the other to death with a
rod." - "Pati Lah Say" (M, 43), Meh Th'Waw area, northeastern Pa'an
District (Interview #24, 4/98)
"When they came to Loh Baw, they forced a villager from Loh Baw to
be a guide for them. The KNLA shot at the Burmese along the way and
the guide's leg was injured, so he couldn't run far. The next day the
Burmese looked for him, and when they found him they shot him dead."
- "Pi San San" (F, 50), Taw Oak village, southern Pa'an district (Interview
#18, 9/98)
"They came to Bu Law Kloh, Meh Kreh, and Meh Ko Kee. They came to
capture some people, and some people ran away so they shot at them
and some people died. They killed two people in Kray Hta. It is near the
Thu Mwe Kloh [Moei River], near Meh Taree. Three months ago they
arrested a man there and accused him of being KNLA so they killed
him, but he was not KNLA. I don't know his name, but he was just a
villager. The SPDC killed him. So people didn't want to stay there
anymore, and some have gone to stay in the forest." - "Saw Po Htoo"
(M, 23), KNLA soldier in northeastern Pa'an district (Interview #23, 4/98)
Whenever SPDC troops are engaged in offensive operations such as forced
relocations and the burning of villages, the frequency of random killings
and killings under torture can be expected to increase. The latest
operations against villagers in the Dawna Range have not produced much
of an increase in the number of direct killings because in most cases the
villagers have managed to flee and avoid contact with the SPDC troops.
However, as these campaigns continue and spread to cover more areas in
the district and villagers are displaced for longer periods of time, the
frequency of killings will probably increase.
"They say that their soldiers go to the villages and don't destroy
anything and don't eat the villagers' animals. I want to tell how they ate
my pigs and chickens, and they even ate my dog. They say that they
don't torture the villagers, but whenever they come to the village they
shoot and kill the villagers. Last time they came they shot and killed the
sons of Thee Htoo Mo. She had two sons, and the Burmese killed both
of them at the same time. Their names were Pa Dah and Ka Taw Say.
Division #44 killed them. They shot them dead on the spot. They just
called, "Uncle, don't run", but her sons were afraid of them and ran
and the Burmese shot them. ? First they killed my husband, then they
killed my brother-in-law Aung Kyi and our Pastor, Thra Day Wah.
They shot them dead in the river. ? I had 4 brothers and no sisters, but
the Burmese killed one of my brothers when he was crossing the
mountains. His name was Pa Deh Deh. They killed him when he was
23, they killed him together with a woman who was his friend. Her
name was Naw Ka Nu, she was 25 with 3 children. Then this year at the
same time as they killed my uncle, they also arrested her husband and
killed him. His name was Maung Thaung Ngeh. Both of them died at
the hands of the Burmese. Now only their three children are left." -
"Naw Sghee" (F, 25), Taw Oak village, southern Pa'an district (Interview
#16, 8/98)
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- [END OF PART 2; SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 3 THROUGH 6 OF THIS
REPORT] -