News, Personal Accounts, Report &
Analysis on Human Rights Situation in Mon Territory and Other Areas
Southern Part of Burma
The Mon Forum
Issue No. 12/99
December 31, 1999
The Publication of Human Rights
Foundation of Monland (BURMA)
Contents
News:
(1) Prisoners and civilians are used as forced labourers in
local SPDC's farms and the related huge tax collection,
(2) Unusual tax
collection in Gyaing river area,.
(3) The local Mon
farmers are forced to sell their paddy, and some farmers are arrested,
(4) Paddy-husking
mills were ordered to close down in Kya
(5) Heavy Tax
Collection on Pa-an-Myawaddy Motor Road,
Report:
Crimes committed
by LIB No. 120, under the command of LID No. 88 in Karen State
Personal Account:
Interview with a Karen villager from Kyone-sein village
Some Acronyms in This Issue
SPDC - State Peace and Development Council,
SLORC - State Law and Order
Restoration Council,
IB - Infantry
Battalion (of Burmese Army),
LIB - Light
Infantry Battalion (of Burmese Army),
LID – Light
Infantry Division
KNU - Karen
National Union,
KNLA - Karen
National Liberation Army,
NMSP - New Mon
State Party,
News
Prisoners and
Civilians Are Used
Prisoners
and civilians are used as Forced Labourers in Local SPDC's Farms And the Related Huge Tax Collection
(December, 1999)
There are about
200 prisoners detained in a prisoner detention center in Kyaikparan
village tract, Kyaikmayaw Township, east of Moulmein city, the capital of Mon
State. Since the beginning of rainy season in May/June, 1999, those prisoners
have been used as unpaid labourers in the farms owned by the army, government
departments, intelligent units and police departments, which base in Kyaikmayaw
and Moulmein townships areas. In November, those prisoners are forced to reap
the paddy produced from the authorities' farms.
Those prisoners
were mainly brought from Moulmein'jail and detention
in that prisoner camp called No. (6) New Life camp.
The camp was divided into two places in one.village
tract and all of them are forced to work in different departments' farms.
According to the source from the authorities, they just use only some prisoners
to do farming who are determined by the authorities to be released after six
months.
According to
villagers who work closely to the labour camp or near authorities, the
prisoners were forced in farms inhumanely and were treated as animals. During
the prisoners are working in the farms, they are heavily locked and tied with
chains and forced to work about 10-11 hours a day. At night time, they are put
in detention cells.
When the authorities, they are treated as animals. For the authorities who have no enough equipment and animals such as
oxen and buffaloes, also used human in ploughing the
lands and crashing lands. According to villagers, the prisoners were forced to
draw a land ploughing equipment instead of oxen or
water buffaloes. In the work-places whenever the prisoners could not work well
or could not make satisfaction to the authorities, they were severely beaten.
Besides the
prisoners are used as unpaid labourers, the authorities also arrested some day
labourers from Moulmein city and Kyaikmayaw town and ordered them to work in
the rice-farms as a punishment. In both towns, the police and municipal
officers also arrested some trishaw drivers, truck drivers, and horse-cart
drivers, who broke the municipal laws and regulations related to roads, structure
of their ferries and others. Normally, the poor drivers could not fix their
passenger ferries to be look good and most of them
were arrested for the uncompleted and less facilities in the ferries.
If the police met
those ferry drivers with lack of facilities in their ferries, they must be
arrested and as a punishment, they are forced to work in the authorities'
farms at least for one day. Some are forced to work about three days.
Besides forcing
the local civilians and prisoners to work in their rice-farms, the villagers in
Kyaikmayaw township area are regularly requested to pay tax or provide fund for
army, government authorities and police for various types of expenses in their
farms. Since November until December 1999, the Kyaikmayaw Township authorities
planned to repair such as digging more deeply and widen the 14 canals that was
dug last year and instructed the village headmen in the township to collect
fund from the villagers including farmers. Before the tax collection, the
authorities went to many main villages and explained for the purpose of tax
collection. On
Additionally, the
army also instructed the villages in the area that they required another 100
acres of paddy growing lands and all villages must have responsibility to give
that land. Thus, in the same period, November, the villages in the township
area, such as Kyone-wan, Kyaikpayan, Thangalaung, Nyaung-pin-seik,
Babugone, Khayongu,
Kawkareik, Kaw-swe, Tarana and Damathus villages are
instructed to give 10 acres from each village.
In Kyaikmayaw
township area alone, there are about 30,000 acres of farmlands totally and
which are used mainly to grow paddy. In comparison with the numbers of farmers
in the area, these lands are feasible for the survival of the people in the
area. Traditionally, the Mon farmers are growing paddy in the rainy season and
other crops such as sesame and peanut in cold season (from November to
February), after they reaped their paddy.
Unusual Tax Collection in Gyaing River Area
(November, 1999)
In the area under
the firm control of SPDC's
Only in SPDC,
when the military government ordered their local departments to raise fund by
their own way, the tax collection from fishermen is the new way that the authorities
have created only in November. Following the order of
Kawkareik township police department, Police Officer, Ma). Mm Thu, who
takes base in Kant village police station, has collected the new type of tax
from the fishermen. Thus, about 250-300 fishermen from.many
villages including Kawbein, Kaw-pauk,
Kaw-gu, Karit, Kaw-kataw, Thayet-taw, Kanni, Gyaing, and Than-hlae villages were instructed to pay tax in November 1999.
In collecting
tax, depending on the size of boat and type of fishing nets, the amount of tax
are also different. According to fishermen, they had to pay at least about
1000-2500 Kyat per month to the police. In November, after the fishermen the
defined tax, the police again ask for tax in December. When the fishermen
complained for the continuous tax collection, the police said the tax must be
paid monthly. Actually, those fishermen are poor inhabitants and they are in
quite hard for survival of their families. One fisherman said to our workers
that they could raise only 3000-4000 Kyat within one
month from selling fishes caught from the river and now, he has to pay about
1000 Kyat to police outpost.
After the
fishermen paid tax to the police, they also received a permission letter to catch
fishes. If a farmer was arrested without that permission letter by police or
authorities, his boat and net must be confiscated. Under this condition, the
poor fishermen who have no enough cash to pay for tax must have to stop their
traditional occupation and also faced hardship for the survival of their
families. Some of them also abandoned this work and migrated into Thailand to
seek new works and for the better income. The restriction of economic rights is
a general situation in many parts of rural area in
The Local Mon Farmers are Forced to
Sell Their Paddy, and
Some Farmers are Arrested
(December, 1999)
In November to December,
1999, after the harvest season in Mon State, the government authorities in the
whole Mon State have created many paddy-buying centers in Mon State and forced
the local Mon and other ethnic farmers to sell their paddy in the respective
paddy buying centers. In Mon State, the government required to buy about 2
millions baskets of paddy during 1999-2000 paddy buying year and so the
authorities have forced the farmers to sell about 10-15 baskets of paddy per
acre to the centers. Depending on the quality of the lands and rate of paddy
production, the set amount of paddy to be sold is also different. The
government's paddy buying centers would buy the paddy at price 2-3 times lower
than the market price. In the market 'while the farmers could sell their paddy
at price about 800-1200 Kyat per basket, the centers pay to them at price about
350-400 Kyat per basket.
Because of some
reasons such as earlier rain, flooding and late rain, some farmers lost some
percentage of paddy production and they could sell the set amount of paddy to
the centers' set amount. Due to delay or unable to sell the set amount of paddy
to the center, some farmers were also arrested in November. As an evidence of
arrest, Ye Township paddy-buying managing committee also arrested about 7 Mon
farmers from Ye township for their failure to sell the set amount of paddy.
On November 20,7 Mon farmers, (1) Nai Hla Aung, (2) Nai Kyaw Mm, (3) Nai
Tun Ngwe, (4) Nai Yout, (5) Nai Balaing,
(6) Nai Myane and (7) Daw Pyone
from An-din and Hnee-karot villages were arrested by
the authorities after they could not sell the set amount of paddy. The villages
are situating in the northwestern area of Ye Town and most rice-farms are close
to Andaman Sea. In last rainy season, after much rain, these farms were flooded
under water and some salty water also went into these farms. After the paddy
plants faced with salty water, the plants died immediately and most farmers
from that area also lost crops and they have nothing to sell paddy-buying
centers.
Although those
farmers complained that they have nothing to sell the center, they were
instructed to buy paddy from other area and sell the set amount of paddy to
centers. Some farmers also sold their belongings, houses, gardens, oxen, water
buffaloes and others to buy the paddy and gave to the centers. The 7 farmers
had nothing to sell and buy the paddy. Then, the soldiers arrested them as a
punishment for the failure of selling the set amount of paddy. While they were
in detention, the authorities also faced their relatives or spouses to sell the
set amount of paddy to the center.
Not only in Ye
Township area, but other townships' authorities also forced the local farmers
to sell the set amount of paddy to centers at government set low price. In
Mudon
and Chaung-zon townshp
area, the authorities went into every farmer house, which are not complete to
sell the set amount of paddy and set the deadline for selling the paddy.
Some arrest also
happened in Mudon township area after the farmers failed to sell the paddy.
Such mis-treatments against the farmers are yearly committed by
the authorities during the paddy-buying season. Sometimes, the authorities by
cooperating with army, militia and police, loot the farmers' paddy that are
stored at house for their own foods for their families. They pointed the guns
to farmers, break the paddy-stores and takes all paddy
without compensated costs.
Paddy-husking Mills were Ordered to Close Down in
(December, 1999)
From November
until the end of December, during the government authorities have been giving
pressures to the local Mon farmers from Mon villages in Kya Inn Seikyi township
of Karen State, they also order the local paddy-husking mills to not operate
their paddy-husking works until all farmers in the villages sold the set amount
of paddy to the respective paddy-buying center. As the township authorities
have worried that all farmers husked their paddy crops and kept without selling
to the government, they have make a restriction against the farmers.
In Kya Inn Seikyi
township, nearly 80% of Mon villagers and over 50%
are paddy growing farmers and while the remaining owned rubber or fruit
plantations. In comparing with the Karen villages, the SPDC local authorities
have more influence on Mon villages and so the Mon villages •were always
instructed to provide foods, tax, building facilities and labour to army or
authorities.
During this
1999-2000 paddy buying year, Kya Inn Seikyi township authorities instructed the
local Mon and Karen farmers to start selling the set amount of paddy to the
government set paddy-buying center at low price. Within one month, November,
all farmers must sell their paddy completely and if not, the local village
headmen must take responsibility to give pressure to farmers.
Before this order
was issued, the Township authorities called a meeting with every village
headmen and also instructed them that during the government was attempting to buy
paddy from farmers, all paddy-husking mills in every village must be closed for
a moment. After all farmers sold the set amount of paddy to paddy-buying
centers, they will allow the mills to re-operate again.
Thus, during the
whole month of November, the authorities had not allowed any paddy-husking
mills to operate and the villagers also had difficulties to husk their paddy to
get polished rice. Normally, although they had used traditional methods of
paddy-husking by wooden equipment, due to crowded population in Mon village,
the rice could not provide enough amount for all villagers.
As the request to
get the set amount of paddy from the farmers was quite high, many farmers could
not sell the set amount of paddy at the end of November. Therefore, the
hopeless authorities called another round of meeting with all village headmen
on November 25, and instructed them again to sell the remaining amount of
paddy. Even in December, the farmers had not completed selling the set amount
of paddy and the authorities have continuously instructed to paddy-husking
mills to not operate crop husking works.
Heavy Tax Collection on
Pa-an-Myawaddy Motor Road
(November 1999)
In October, when
Karen State authorities planned to buy paddy from farmers at low price, they have
no budget in State bank and the military government from Rangoon also could
not allocate the required budget and instructed the authorities to collect the
budget as they could. Since then, the authorities have found the way to
collect the budget. And, they also found a way to collect tax from all ferry
trucks that run on Paan-Myawaddy motor road. Since
November, the Karen State's various departments including army, police and
intelligence unit have created a checkpoint between Kawkareik and Paan towns to collect tax from ferry trucks.
The authorities
have collected about 1500-2500 Kyat from each truck, which passes their
checkpoint, and all trucks, •which run forth and back between Myawaddy and Paan have to pay this tax. Depending on the numbers of
passengers that the truck could carry, the amounts of tax are also different.
Besides the
official tax paid to the check-point to the authorities, the ferry trucks also
have to pay every army or militia outposts along the road. For security of
the road, Karen State PDC also deploys more troops from army, local militia
troops and DKBA or surrendered Karen troops along the road and near all
bridges. As the government worries for the possible sabotage of bridges by
rebel troops, the authorities created small outpost in each of large bridge and
deploy soldiers or militias to guard them.
By taking a good
chance, the soldiers or militias who take security along the road in bridges
collected tax from every ferry truck. There are about 20 outposts along this road, each ferry truck has to pay tax 100-300 Kyat for each
outpost. DKBA troops who take bases in some part of this road also collect tax
from the ferry trucks.
Thus, according
truck drivers, one truck has to pay as tax along the road about 5000-10000 Kyat
to both checkpoint and many other security outposts. After the ferry trucks
have to pay huge amount of tax, they have also increased the ferry fares from
the passengers again. Therefore, the passengers who traveled on that road have
to pay more fares to trucks and also waste their time because of the often stop
made by soldiers and militias.
Report
Crimes Committed by LIB No. 120,
under the Command off LID No. 88 in Karen State
The New Military Offensive in Karen State by SPDC
At the beginning
of October 1999, the Burmese Army's Light Infantry Division No, 88, entered
into Karen State, and launched a new offensive against KNU's
6th Brigade. Like every year, after the rainy season over, the
Burmese army always prepares new offensives to all KNU and other ethnic armed
group, which has not agreed for cease-fire with regime in Rangoon. The terrible
and intensive offensives occur in most part of Karen State, Tenasserim Division
and Shan State.
Unlike to previous
years, the Burmese Army has planned to launch more intensive offensives to
launch the offensives against KNU. Before the offensives started, the Burmese
Army had ordered the concerned regular military battalions in
In launching
offensives against the KNU, the Burmese Army not only used the troops under the
command of Southeast Region Military Command, but also had brought many
thousands of troops from LID No. 33 and LID No. 88, which base in Sagaing
Division, the middle of Burma, and Arakan State, in the western part of
Burma. Those troops came down with many
military trucks and stopped at Mon State for 2-3 days to collect porters. The
troops from these LIDs came to Mon State since the
beginning of October and more troops beefed up in Karen State after
mid-October. The troops brought the porters with their own trucks or ships into
Karen State's Kya-Inn-Seikyi town. From Kya-Inn-Seikyi town, the troops moved
to east part of Zami river
and launched offensives against KNU's outposts and
permanent bases. The KNU troops also responded mainly with ambush attacks.
Among many
troops, LIB No. 120 under the command of Lt. Col. Maung Maung
Oo went to Karen State and moved into east part of Zami
river and launched offensives against the KNU troops who have been active inthat area. The LIB No. 120's went into many Karen
villages and inquired the activities of KNU troops. Related to inquiry, the
Burmese troops arrested many Karen men and women and accused them as
rebel-supporters. Accompanying with this suspicion, these villagers were killed
or tortured cruelly by the soldiers. Some women were also arrested by soldiers
to be civilians to carry their ammunition and food supplies and some were raped
repeatedly by soldiers during porter service or in their own village.
During this
offensive, LIB No. 120's troops have been active around Kyone-sein and Mae-sa-kit village tract
areas of Kya-Inn-Seikyi township, which is situating in east Zami river area. During the whole month of October, 1999,
the troops from LIB No. 120 went around the Karen villages such as Kyone-sein, Kyone-see, Ka-kyat, Kyu-mahtee-khee,
Khaw-lae, Palaw-tokee,
Htee-pat-kat, Mae-sa-kit
and other villages. When they went into these villages, the villagers have been
constantly suffered from various types of human rights violations by the
government.
The following
accounts are the human
rights violations committed by soldiers and the commander from LIB No.
120, led by Lt. Col. Maung Maung Oo, when he went
around the above mentioned villages. These accounts are mainly collected from
the interviewing with displaced victims.
Cruel
Torturing and Killing of Karen Villagers
When the Burmese
Army launched offensives against the villagers, some villagers were accused as
rebel-supporters or sympathizers and were arrested by the troops of the Burmese
Army. Sometimes, the villagers were arrested by the soldiers, while they were
working in their farms, plantations and other work-places, or sometimes, they
were arrested on the way returning homes. Depending on the situation that the
soldiers met them and the answers given to the soldiers, some villagers were
tortured less cruel or more cruel, or killed.
According to
villagers from Palaw-toki village, Mae-sa-kit village tract, she said,
The Burmese
Army's battalion LIB No. 120, led Lt. Col. Maung Maung
Oo went into our villages on October 25 and arrested five villagers with
suspicion of rebel-supporters. The five arrested villagers were, namely, (1)
Saw Pel Khaw - 40 years,
(2) Saw Thaw Hae - 35 years, (3) Saw Chit Chit - 28 years, (4) Saw Hae Say
(unknown age) and Saw Special - 26 years.
After the villagers were arrested, they were brought by the soldiers to
a place and were interrogated to tell about the activities of Karen soldiers.
During the interrogating of those villagers, the soldiers dissatisfied on them
and beat them and were suffered from other mis-treatments.
Those villagers were beaten, burnt with fire, cut with knife, and were treated
with other cruel treatments. After those
villagers were cruelly beaten and treated, the soldiers killed three of them
(1) Saw Pel Khaw, (2) Saw
Thaw Hae and (3) Saw Chit Chit
were killed by cutting with knife.
During these
days, the SPDC troops went into many Karen villages and tried to arrest the
villagers who were suspected as rebel-supporters. Or, they arrested all men who
they met in the village and tortured them to tell about the activities of the
Burmese Army. Otherwise, besides the villagers from Palaw-toki
village, the other villagers were also beaten.
On October 3,
1999, when the SPDC troops went into Kyone-sein
village, the soldiers arrested about 12 villagers including two women. After
arrest, the soldiers also tortured many villagers and some villagers were
severely beaten and cut with knife until die. When they went into this village,
first, they arrested five villagers and tortured them
nearly die. The five arrested villagers were: (1) Saw Thar See - 16 years, (2)
Saw Kaw Kaw - 40 years, (3) Saw Ohn Myint - 28 years,
(4) Saw Kar Doe -17 years and Pastor Saw Kwae Kwae (unknown age). The
soldiers beat them with gun-butts, kicked and beat them, burnt them with fire
and at the end, the soldiers cut Pastor Saw Kwae Kawe's ear. They accused him as rebel-supporters and said, his followers were also rebel-supporters.
The soldiers
stayed in the village for nearly 7 days and they also tortured to other
villagers. Two women, namely, (1) Naw B—B----16
years, and (2) Naw M- K----17 yeari,
were arrested along with 10 men. They were severely tortured with various types
and they were also raped by soldiers. Those women were already married and
their husbands were away from homes. Thus, they were accused as rebels' wives
and that was why they were tortured and raped by soldiers. Among the two women,
the soldiers also cut Naw B—B—'s breasts with knife.
Because of serious injuries, the woman also lost consciousness. Similarly, the
soldiers also pulled hot water into Naw M- K—'s
noses. So, her whole face was burnt and skin was spoil. Her face became red and
severely pained. Naw M- K— had 4 months old baby and
when she asked to feed milk to her baby, they also had not allowed her. Her
hungry baby cried for the whole day.
Among 10
villagers arrested by soldiers, three villagers are also killed by soldiers
after they suffered by the humanely torture and hurt. The villagers were (1)
Saw Lay Doe -17 years, (2) Saw Kaw Kaw - 40 years and
(3) Saw Phar Kalu - 23 years were arrested in the
same days and they were tortured cruelly during the interrogation conducted by
soldiers when they asked about the activities of the Karen troops near their
village. The soldiers cut the bodies of Saw La'y Doe
and Saw Kaw Kaw in many places with knife and put
salt in there as a method of torture and asked them to tell the true about the
activities of Karen troops and how they had supported the guerrillas. They
tortured the two villagers like this for five days. At the end, the soldiers
clamped the two men with bamboo slats and burnt in the fire until they died.
Similarly they tortured Saw Phar Kalu for many days
and then killed him by rounding his neck with strong rubber loops. They soldiers rounded his neck and made the
loops tightly and at the end, he could not breathe and then died.
Then, they also
tortured the remaining villagers who were a father and two sons. They were also accused as rebel-supporters
and the name of the father was Saw U Htoo. The torture to the father was quite
cruel and they also beat his head until some skin from the head was spoil. A
lot of blood came out from his head. They also cut his body with knifes in many
places. They also beat him. Then, they brought him away on the last day and at
the end he was detained in a detention of Kya-Inn-Seikyi town.
Torturing and
killing was the crudest way that the SPDC's LIB No. 120 had treated to the Karen
villagers. Not only LIB No. 120 troops alone, the other troops from the other
battalions under the command of LED No. 88 also mis-treated
to Karen villagers. Because of the fear being arrested and tortured, many
villagers fled into forests nearby whenever the SPDC troops entered their
villagers. The soldiers also arrested all men and some women in the villages
and interrogated about the activities of KNU troops. Whenever the villagers
gave answers true or false, they were always tortured with various types and
made them hurts and dead.
Looting from the Villages
As a common
violation, whenever the SPDC soldiers entered any rural village, they also
looted villagers' belongings, which they met in the village for their foods or
for their wealthy. Mainly, the Burmese Army always accuses that the villagers
are offering and providing foods for the guerrillas and so normally they took
all rice or paddy as much as they can from Karen villagers. During 1997
offensives, after SLORC soldiers arrived in the villages, they confiscated all
food supplies including rice and paddy, from all villagers and blocked them in
the villages. Then the soldiers distributed to those villagers with inadequate
foods. Taking home raising animals for the soldiers' food is a normal situation
in rural village and no villager or village headmen are dared to tell the
soldiers to stop this abuse.
Similarly, when
LIB No. 120 went into area east of Zami river area,
Kya-Inn-Seikyi Township, the soldiers acted looting of villagers' belongings
like other battalion. As evidence, on
Whenever the
Burmese troops went into a village, they went around every house, climbed onto
every house, took every thing they met on the houses,
and walked around the gardens and took every thing which they met. No soldiers
asked any permission from the villagers to climb the houses or to look around
the gardens.
An another evidence of looting the villagers' belongings
was in Htee-pat-kat village on
Similarly, on
October 3, 1999, when the same troops went into Kyone-sein
village, the soldiers not only took rice, vegetables, chicken, pigs and ducks,
they also took some valuables, such as gold-wares, cassette recorders, and
household materials such as pots, spoons, from the whole village.
Normally, when
the soldiers from the Burmese Army went into a village, they always accused
that village was a rebel base and believes the villagers also provided foods
and other assistance for rebels nearby. Thus, the Burmese soldiers always
thought they could take every sort of foods, and if not, the Karen soldiers
came and took them. According to the villagers, during the intensive offensives
of the Burmese Army, the Burmese soldiers regularly arrived into the village,
at least twice and three times within one month and the huge number of soldiers
took nearly all of foods from the village.
As a result, the villagers also faced insufficient in the villages. Many
villagers tried to hide their foods or paddy outside of the villages or in the
forests. But when the Burmese met this stored paddy in the forests, they took
it as much as they could and burnt the remaining into ashes. Or, if the
soldiers met one villager with food supplies outside of the village, he or she
must be severely tortured until die, because the Burmese Army would accuse him
or her that he or she would provide foods for rebels.
Conscription of Civilian Porters in
the Battle-fields
During the
battalion, LIB No. 120, launched an offensives against the KNU and moved into
east part of Zami river, the
soldiers arrested many civilian porters to use them in carrying of ammunitions
and food supplies for the army. As many men in the village were afraid of being
arrested with accusation of rebel-supporters or sympathizers, they also fled
from the villages and hid in the forests. Then, when the soldiers arrived into
village, they did not meet men to use them as porters and also arrested women
to be porters to carry their ammunitions and food supplies.
The
instance is,
On October 15,
when the troops went into Palaw-toki village, they
also arrested about six women from that village and used them as civilian
porters. They used these women to carry ammunitions and food supplies. They
soldiers took these women for nearly 7 days and nights and fed them with only
insufficient foods during the porter service.
Among the five
women porters, woman had about three months pregnancy.
However the soldiers forced the women to carry 20-25 (about 3040 kilograms) of
supplies or ammunitions in the battlefields.
On the other hand,
whenever the soldiers took the women as porters, they had never cared whether
the women had pregnancy and small babies at houses to be cared. They took the
women as a punishment for the absent of their husbands in the village. During
this offensive, LIB No. 120 took some women who had pregnancy or had babies to
be taken care at homes.
The
instance is,
When the troops
from LIB No. 120 went into Htee-pat-kat village, they
also arrested about six women from that village and used them as porters. The women were used to carry ammunitions and
food supplies. Most women had pregnancy or babies as below:
Name of victims Age Pregnancy
or had babies
l. Naw Noe La Soe
32 years unknown
2. NawDar Pu 21 years unknown
3. Naw Ae Ar
Htoo 20 years with 4 months pregnancy
4. Naw Tu 25 years had a baby with 1 year and 5 months
old age
5. Naw Da Baleh 19 years had a baby, with 2 months old age
6. Naw Mu See Soe Mu 30 years had two babies, with two years old
and 5 months old age
Similarly, on
October 11, 1999, when the troops left from Kyone-sem
village, the soldiers from LIB No. 120 also took about 20 women from the village.
Most of them had babies at their homes and some of them had pregnancy. They
took those women for nearly two weeks and forced them to carry ammunitions and
food supplies.
Although the
women victims were not saying about the treatments of the Burmese Army, the
villagers believed that the soldiers sexually abused some of them. Most badly
situation was even some women were with pregnancy, the soldiers had not sympathize on those women and used them as
porters. All women whether they are young or old, each of them have to carry at
least about 20 kilograms weight of ammunitions or food supplies. If they walked
slow in the battle-fields, they were also shout to
walk as fast as possible. The soldiers also did not allow any tired women to
take a short rest on the way.
The soldiers also
used those women porters like men in the front-line and did not provide a
better treatment for them. The soldiers also brought most women for at least
about 3 days or for 10 days along with them. There were also some women in front-line
while the fighting between the Burmese Army and guerrilla troops broke out.
Population Displacement and Refugee
Flux to Thailand-Burma Border Area
After the abuses
to the Karen villagers were severe and serious, many hundreds of villagers had
not dared to stay longer in their own village. First, many men were hiding in
the forests to escape from the arrest of the Burmese soldiers and the related
accusation of rebel-supporters. Later when the men could not hide longer in
forests or had not received sufficient foods, or faced food-shortage, they had
to decide to flee to the places where they could get enough foods.
In some area, the
whole family was hiding in forests and then, they slowly moved from one place
to another where they could get foods. Some Karen villagers also moved from
their area and then fled into NMSP area, where they faced less abuse or had
more stable situation. They were internally displaced persons who moved from
one place to another, without fleeing across the border and entered into
Thailand.
For such
displaced families, after they arrived into NMSP area, they tried to find some
jobs mainly day-labourers to get income for work owners and fed their families.
Many of them had to pass various difficulties in these areas, because they had
no land and no good shelter. And the area was quite new for them and did not
know how to get jobs. For most villagers, because of arrest and terrible use of
forced porter in their native area, they had to abandon their jobs, houses,
gardens, farmlands and etc.
Besides many
hundreds or some thousands of displaced villagers, many of them fled to
Thailand-Burma area. While many of them arrived to Thailand based refugee
camps, some of them are blocked on the Burmese side of the border. During
November to January, about 200 villagers arrived near a Mon returned refugees
resettlement area, Halockhani, and took refuge there. They are not allowed to
cross the border and take refuge in a refugee camp, Ban Ton Yang, which was
established about two years ago and situated in Sangkhlaburi district of Kanchanaburi province in Thailand.
Personal Account
Interview with a Karen villager from
Kyone-sein village:
Name: Saw Lu Phaw (not a real name)
Age/ Sex: 37 year/ Male
Nationality/ Religion: Karen/ Christian
Occupation: Farmer
Native place: Kyone-sein village, Kya Inn Seikyi township,
Interview date: December 15, 1999.
Why did you arrive to this village
(a village in Three Pagoda Pass area inside Burmese territory)?
In my village,
the SPDC soldiers tortured and killed the villagers and I was very afraid of
being tortured and killed. That was why
I fled to here.
Why the soldiers killed and tortured
the villagers and how?
After SPDC
soldiers arrived into our village, they gathered village leaders and a
Christian pastor. And the commander told the pastor that his followers were the
supporters of KNU, because he did not teach the good disciplines to them. Then the commander ordered his solders to
torture the pastor and other two village leaders. Furthermore, the soldiers tortured other two
women and ten men in the village.
Besides tortures,
the soldiers also raped the two women. They raped the first woman, and cut her
breasts. Because of a serious injury,
the woman also lost consciousness at the end.
Other woman was also repeatedly raped and the soldiers poured hot water
in her noses. Because of hot water, her
skin the whole face was spoiled and became red. When her baby cried to suck milk from her,
the soldiers did not allow the hungry baby.
Do you
know the names of those women?
Yes. I know them. They are Naw
B-- B~, 16 years old, and Naw M- K--, 17 years
old. Both of them already married.
How did
they torture the men in the village?
Among many
villagers, the two villagers were severely tortured until die. The soldiers cut their body with knifes in
many places and put salt in the injuries.
They put those villagers like that for five days and at the end, the
soldiers killed them by clamping with the sharp bamboo slats and burnt them in
the fire.
Do you
know the names of two villagers?
Yes, they were
Saw Kaw Kaw, 40 years old and Saw Lay Doe, 17 years
old. Besides them, other villager, Saw Pha Kalu,
23 years old, was also rounded with a strong rubber loops and was killed. They also
tortured Saw Pie Htoo and his two sons.
After torture, the skin from the man's head was also spoiled. Another man, Saw U Htoo, was also beaten
severely beaten and the soldiers cut his body in many places.
Besides torture
against the villagers, the soldiers also took the villagers' belongings. Normally, whenever the soldiers arrived
into our village, they also took rice, chicken, pig, duck and vegetables.
How many
times did the SPDC soldiers into your village?
They arrived
about 3-4 times every month.
Which
date the killing incident happened in the village as you told me above?
It was between October 3 to 10.
Did you
remember from which battalion and the name of the commander?
The battalion was
No. 120 and commander was Lt. Col. Maung Maung Oo.