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Photos # : Villagers in yyyy township (Nyaunglebin District) who were beaten by SPDC troops in April 2001. On April 8 th 2001, KNLA soldiers tried to stop two bullock carts near xxxx village in yyyy township, but when the carts wouldn’t stop they burned one of them and took the two bullock teams and the other cart. SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx immediately went to seek out all the local village elders to punish them for failing to report the KNLA presence in the area. Saw G—, 35 (photos #D3 and D4), was at home in xxxx village when the SPDC troops arrived looking for the headman; they couldn’t find him, so they grabbed Saw G— and demanded to know where he’d gone. They beat him on his back with a stick usually used to drive bullocks, then threw him on the ground, stomped on his back and kicked him in the face with Army boots. They then took him to the nearby Burman village and kept him tied up there overnight, during which he got a fever. When these photos were taken two days later he was still in pain. Saw M—, 55, was also in his village when they grabbed him and demanded that he give them a bullock cart. They beat him in the back and the left shin with a wooden stick (see Photo #D5) before releasing him. In the end they forced five village elders from four local villages to their camp, detained and beat all of them for not providing sufficient intelligence, locked them in leg stocks overnight, and demanded a bullock cart and two teams of bullocks as compensation. The village heads were only released when they gave these, worth an estimated total of 240,000 Kyat (60,000 for the cart and 180,000 for the two teams). [Photos: KHRG researcher] |
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Photo # : Naw P—, age 20, from xxxx village in yyyy township, Papun District. On March 9 th 2001, a patrol of 13 soldiers, led by a Captain, from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx came to her village at night and ordered her, her father, and her 10-year-old sister out of the house, then pushed them to the outskirts of the village. Her father is deaf and couldn’t walk well so they directed their interrogation at Naw P—, accusing her of giving rice to the KNLA. She doesn’t speak Burmese well and said she knew nothing, and they hit her twice on the head with the barrel of an assault rifle. They also rounded up and interrogated 10 men for several hours before leaving, despite the fact that the village is supposedly in an SPDC-controlled ‘white’ area. Naw P— added that the troops always take their livestock without paying and forced the villagers to plant sugarcane at their camp last year. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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Photo # : K—, 31, from xxxx village in
yyyy township, Thaton District. In the middle of the water festival on April
14th 2001 a combined column of
SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx and DKBA #xxx Brigade came to his
village, captured him and demanded to know the whereabouts of a KNLA soldier
named Saw M—. He told them he didn’t know, so they beat him over 10 times
with the bamboo stick shown in the photo until it split. They continually
poked him in the ribs with a gun barrel and beat him on the head, neck and
body with a flashlight. DKBA Battalion Commander aaaa himself beat him and
told him, “You’re afraid of the rebel Saw M— but you’re not afraid of me?
I’ll kill you and eat your gall bladder with alcohol!” , then fired a pistol
between his legs. However, they released him because he didn’t know
anything. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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Photo # : M—, a villager from xxxx village who is somewhat mentally unbalanced. He was caught and detained by SPDC troops, who then bound and tortured him because he couldn’t answer their questions properly. After the torture he could no longer walk properly and had to be helped along when he fled in May 2001 along with the internally displaced from Nyaunglebin District. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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Photo # : Maung B—, 23, from xxxx village in Papun District, shows one of the positions the SPDC soldiers tied him in while beating him; note the cloth they placed covering his head so that he couldn’t see the blows coming. In May 2000, a unit led by Sergeant Major aaaa from Infantry Battalion #xx found him under his hut in his hill field and immediately tied him up, beat him repeatedly, accused him of being a KNLA soldier and demanded that he hand over a gun. SPDC units regularly try to get guns this way so they can report to their officers that they captured them from the enemy in combat. Maung B— told them he is a villager and has no gun, so they pulled him on a rope to yyyy village. Along the way they threw him in a pool of water and held him under. The next day they forced him to zzzz village, where they held him down and forced water down his throat, then tied him in the position shown and beat and punched him. Then they released him, but he and his wife and children no longer dare stay in the village, so they have fled into hiding in the jungle. Even before his capture, he says the troops regularly detained villagers and demanded guns, always forced him and the others in his village to go as porters, cut bamboo, fence the Army camp, and do other forced labour, and regularly stole their livestock. [Photo: KHRG researcher] |
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Photos # : Saw K—, age 35, a single hill field farmer from xxxx village in Nyaunglebin District who was beaten by SPDC troops. His village is in an SPDC-controlled ‘white area’ so they have not been relocated but are constantly called for forced labour and must pay extortion and other demands. Saw K— is epileptic but is still ordered to do forced labour and portering, so he must regularly pay bribe money to the military to be exempted. The wound on his ankle occurred when he had a seizure in his house and went unconscious with his leg in the cooking fire. On March 13 th 2001 he had just returned to his house in the village after gathering firewood when Column #1 of Light Infantry Battalion #xxx arrived in his village and called him down from his house. When he failed to come out because of his burned leg, they entered the house, punched him in the face and beat him several times on the back of his neck and head. He says he is not sure how much longer he can live in his village under these conditions. [Photo: KHRG researcher] |
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Photo #: Saw K—, 50, a villager from xxxx
village in Papun District. On March 12th
2001 an SPDC Sergeant from a combined column of Battalions #xxx, xxx and xxx
arrested him and interrogated him with torture. The troops covered his face,
beat him in the face, put a gun barrel in his mouth and rattled it around in
his mouth. They then put a bullet in water and forced him to drink the water
(this is then supposed to compel him to be loyal to them or the bullet will
come to kill him) before releasing him. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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Photo #: Saw M—, 20, a hill field farmer from xxxx village in Papun District. On March 16 th 2001 he was walking on a path near his village when he met an SPDC column from Battalions #xxx, xxx and xxx. The troops immediately bound his hands and feet, slapped his face 4 times, pressed his face against the ground, then shook his head around by his hair several times. He was detained for 2 days for no valid reason, then forced to porter a soldier’s backpack weighing approximately 16 kg (35 lb) before his release. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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Photo #: Saw T—, age 60, a village elder in Papun District who fled after his village was relocated and he was tortured. After his village was forcibly relocated last year, he says they were forced to build houses and fences for the soldiers and do other forced labour and were never allowed to go back to work their fields, so no one has any rice this year. Then he was detained for having an unregistered house guest. The troops robbed his belongings then tied his hands and legs, poked him with a knife, then tied a nylon bag over his head and left him overnight like that. The next day they put him in a small cage and interrogated him while kicking him and stepping on him. He couldn’t speak Burmese to their satisfaction, so they kicked him until his face swelled up and he could no longer see. Then, with his hands still tied, he was forced to carry soldiers’ backpacks to another village, where he was locked in leg stocks for the next 5 nights along with 3 others. He was finally released after 24 days in total. [Photo: KHRG researcher] |
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| Photo # : Saw T—, a 70-year-old man from xxxx village, Papun District. He was living in hiding in the forest in fear of SPDC troops when a large SPDC column came upon his family and opened fire, wounding him in the left arm. An officer then interrogated him while beating him with a bamboo pole, and force-marched Saw T— along with his 7 children and grandchildren to the Army camp at the relocation village of Meh Way, along the way forcing him to carry loads and occasionally beating him and interrogating him about other villagers in hiding. On arrival at Meh Way they locked him in leg stocks at the Army camp for a day while his family slept on the ground beside him. The next day they released him to stay in the relocation site but provided nothing, so Saw T— and his family fled back into the hills where they are now living in hiding again. [Photo: KHRG researcher] |
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Photos # : Two men in Mone township, Nyaunglebin District, show some of the scars from being tortured by SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #xxx in 1999. The first man, 25-year-old Saw H—, was arrested in mid-1999 after finishing a shift of forced labour as a sentry. All 4 men who had been responsible for the sentry duty were arrested, and the troops accused them of not doing their job because they hadn’t seen and reported the troops’ own arrival at the village, so they took the 4 men to their camp. Saw H— was punched and kicked, beaten with bamboo sticks and gun butts, kicked in the belly, poked in the chest with a knife (see marks in Photo #D28), and burned on the body, face and head with fire. Then the soldiers refused to release the men until the villagers paid a large ransom. When the ransom was paid, all of them were severely beaten again (each was hit 100 times) before being released. M—, age 37 (Photo #D29), was arrested at the same time and suffered worse torture because he was accused of being related to a man suspected of having KNU contacts. The soldiers held his head underwater, hit him in the cheeks with bricks, slashed his legs, back and cheek with a knife and rubbed salt into the wounds on his back and legs, then they locked him in leg stocks for 4 days before he and the others were released. He says that he suffered badly from the wounds for 2 months afterwards. Though these photos were taken in April 2001, the scars are still visible. [Photos: KHRG researcher] |