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III. Displaced Villages

"They say that the KNU relies on the villagers. The soldiers will fight them until the KNU loses. They will fight until the KNU has lost so we have to flee. All of us fled with the cats and insects. If we didn't flee like this, then they would have killed everything when they saw it. Only the cockroaches don't flee. If the soldiers see things, they burn them. They burned the huts and houses and even burned the little beds. They didn't leave anything. We couldn't do anything. We know the situation of the enemy when they come. If they arrest us they beat us. So we fled and hoped that they won't try to destroy us until two or three years from now." - "Myo Nyunt" (M, 20), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #141, 9/00)

The SPDC's Campaign of Destruction / Living Conditions / Shootings

Detention & Torture / Landmines / Crop Destruction & Food Shortages

Health & Education / Reason for Living as IDP's

The SPDC's Campaign of Destruction

"There is no plan to get peace. The enemy has a plan, though. It is that when they come we have to flee and escape. If we do not escape, we must die. That is the only plan. Because we are staying inside the country and we can't flee to another country, we can't do anything. We feel that we were born here, so if we live, we work and eat, and we die, it is finished. We can't do it any other way." - "Pu Law Tee" (M, 70), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #78, 3/00)

Prior to 1997 the SLORC had made sporadic relocations in various parts of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts but they didn't last for very long. Columns also went into the hills burning villages but the soldiers usually went back down at the onset of the rainy season, allowing the villagers to move back into their villages. In 1997 the SPDC made the decision to consolidate its control over the region once and for all. The new campaign began by destroying about 200 villages in northern Papun and eastern Nyaunglebin districts. Army columns approached villages and then began firing mortars and small arms into the villages. Once the villagers had fled the attack, the villages were looted and the houses and paddy storage barns burned, after which the soldiers moved on. Everyone fled into the hills where most of them have been surviving, on the run, ever since. (For more information on the 1997 campaign see the KHRG report "Wholesale Destruction", April 1998.) Each year since 1997 the SPDC sends increasing numbers of battalions into the hills to hunt down the villagers.

"In the training, they said to not steal people's things and to not abuse the civilians. They taught many things, but when we arrived here [at the frontline] they were doing it and it hurt the villagers. That is why I don't like it. I came here when I arrived at the frontline. When they saw a paddy barn, they burned it. They burned whatever they saw. They are doing it under duress. So, I don't like this." - "Soe Tint" (M, 18), Lance Corporal from Light Infantry Battalion #xx, Papun District (Interview #226, 11/00)

"We heard that they are going to clear the west of the Bu Loh Kloh [remove all the villagers living to the west of the Bilin River]. It means they are going to clear out the people who stay there. If the soldiers see them they will shoot to kill and drive them out. The leader [KNU] told me. They received that information from a radio intercept [the KNU often monitors and intercepts SPDC radio communications]." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

Saw Aw Hta village, Nyaunglebin District not long after it was burned by LIB #5 in March 2000. [KHRG]

"They threw everything out of the houses and kicked the walls out. The houses were broken and there were just the pieces of the houses left. They destroyed too much in the village. We couldn't stay in the houses anymore even if we had to. The houses are already broken." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

When SPDC columns come to destroy villages, the villagers often have to flee quickly, carrying nothing but their children and a small quantity of food. Most of their belongings are left to the mercy of the soldiers, who generally loot and destroy them before burning the houses. Nothing is left which may be of use to the villagers. Livestock is shot and what can't be eaten is just left to rot. Matches, axes, saws, machetes, farm tools, clothing, and jewellery are all stolen by the soldiers, presumably to give to their families or to sell. Cooking utensils are taken away and pots are pierced with bayonets to make them unusable. Clothing is also destroyed. The crops are destroyed in the fields and if the paddy storage barns are found, the soldiers take what they or their porters can carry and burn the rest [see the section below on "Crop Destruction and Food Shortages" for more information]. The corpses of villagers who have been shot dead are often robbed of money, jewellery, tobacco and even cloth bags and clothes. Without any income, the villagers have almost no way to replace their belongings or food supplies, and even those who manage to retain some jewellery or money often cannot dare go to buy things in SPDC-controlled villages, where they risk being arrested as outsiders and therefore 'suspected rebels'. Even those who somehow manage to replace some of their possessions and grow some new food often lose it the next time they have to flee.

"Everybody has had to suffer because we live in the same village. When they come they immediately destroy things and eat people's paddy and rice. … They destroyed the flat fields. They already came and destroyed some and the dew also destroyed some of the paddy, so we are in big trouble. We have to find food to eat, ask for food to eat or buy food to eat. When the soldiers come and see the paddy they destroy it in the field. We get a harder and harder life. They already came and destroyed things so people bought new things and came back and kept them. We have no money, we just borrow and owe people, but we can't pay them back anymore. They themselves have to buy salt and chillies to eat, but they can't buy them anymore. We can't give them anything anymore. We have no clothes and we live naked." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

"They [the SPDC] said they were going to come and make their house [build their camp] so we told them that we dared not stay in our houses anymore. Then we took up our belongings and all of us came up to stay in the upper place [in the mountains]. But the soldiers come to block us always. The foolish Burmese. We are living without knowing anything and they want to shoot us. They took our machetes and baskets and threw down all our things and took all the good things. There was one of them who threw the things down and took a pot and spoon that he liked. They had already come and burned our houses so we don't have pots and spoons anymore. So we bought them and they took them and we bought them and they took them again and again." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01)

"This time when they came everything was destroyed. It has been three years since they entered the last time. At that time we had everything. We had cattle, buffaloes, matches, axes, Mateo saws [a brand name] and many supplies and animals. They came and destroyed it all. Now it has been just three years and we get a little paddy each year by year. For me I'm not free to go and clear my hill field. This year if it is good I will clear my hill field. I have no money to buy cattle or buffaloes right now. I think I will try a little by little. But I didn't do it yet because the SPDC came and destroyed it again. We couldn't work anymore. If the responsible leaders can help us we are going to stay and listen to the situation. If other people can live their lives, we can also live our lives." - "Saw Htoo Lay" (M, 53), internally displaced village head from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #89, 12/00)

"At that time they took chains, earrings and boxes of clothing. At that time they were #77 [Division]. This time they took 2 pots that they saw when we fled and hid under a bamboo tree. They take it all. Nephew, when they see our things it is not enough for them. They grabbed our old clothes and threw them away. They took all the good things, even the good clothes and sarongs. I guess it is for their wives and children. They took all the chickens. That was #44 [Division]." - "Pu Law Tee" (M, 70), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #78, 3/00)

"It is good if they don't see things. If they saw things and wanted to take or destroy them, they took or destroyed them. They left nothing. They destroyed it all. If they see a tin, they take it. If they see a knife, axe, tools, or clothing, they take them all. If they don't want to take it, they destroy it. They came and took boxes, tins and other things. They took three tins, ten viss [16 kg / 36 lb] of salt, two or three viss [3.2-4.8 kg / 7.2-10.8 lb] of chillies, a big pot and a big jar. There were many other things taken like a machete, an axe, a knife and other stuff." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

A burned house in Pah Ko village, Naw Yo Hta area, northern Papun District. Two SPDC columns combined to burn 10 villages in the area. [KHRG ]

"In December [1999] they came down and did things again. At that time they burned down peoples' gardens, farmfield huts, and the places where people thresh the paddy, including every house and hut. … They came to destroy all of the buildings where people stay when they come back to work the fields, and they also burned all the mats that people use when they thresh the paddy [people thresh the grain onto huge mats of woven dried grass]. They burned everything they could. They didn't burn down the paddy barns because they didn't see them, but they would have if they'd seen them. They burned down all of the huts that they saw." - "Pa Say" (M, 41), internally displaced villager from W— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #40, 1/00)

"They did not burn it but they ate it all and took all the things that I kept in my paddy barns, including wooden boxes and other belongings. Our new clothing, because we didn't keep old clothing in those boxes. There was one Kyat [16 g.] of gold and 5,000 Baht. They took all the pots. People saw our old pots that they had thrown away along the path, along with our machetes and hammers. Before, there were 150 baskets of paddy. When we went back, all of the paddy that they had scattered on the ground had already sprouted. We dared not go back to look [for a long time afterwards]; they went to stay very far from the paddy barn, but we dared not go back. They did this to everyone the same way, to all of the people in the Saw Mu Plaw village tract. They destroy humans, buffaloes, paddy, and shelters. They do it to all of them until they disappear, and they do it very harshly." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

While the campaign has continued, the SPDC has now added a new tactic; rather than move on, the soldiers now establish a camp in a central village from which they can control the surrounding area. Many villagers reported in 2000 and 2001 that they had left their villages before the SPDC soldiers arrived and then stayed in the forest nearby, but after watching the soldiers build a camp, they had decided to move farther away. Many of the villages are left intact by the soldiers as their mere presence is enough to depopulate the area, and thus bring it under their control. The SPDC has also shifted its focus from burning the village, since most of them are destroyed or abandoned anyway, to destroying the villagers' food supplies and crops. Paddy storage barns are looted and burned and the villagers' livestock is shot and killed. Crops still in the fields are burned, trampled on and uprooted. Increasingly the soldiers are making it difficult for the villagers to even plant crops by burning the brush in the fields before it has been properly dried. Hill fields rely on the ash from the cut and burned brush to provide nutrients as well as to protect the seeds. Burning the fields early results in an uneven burnoff and only parts of the fields are usable. Hill fields have also been landmined by the soldiers to deny their use to the villagers. At harvest time from October to December more battalions are sent in and go on patrol, because groups of villagers harvesting rice in the hillside fields are easily visible from one or two hilltops away. The patrols sneak as close as they can and then open fire on the harvesting villagers with small arms, shoulder-launched grenades and 60-millimetre mortars. Many villagers have been wounded or killed this way, and it has the added effect of making villagers through the whole area too afraid to harvest, so the crop is abandoned. After driving the villagers off of their crops, the troops often trample or landmine the fields. The targeting of the food supply is done in the knowledge that the villagers cannot survive in hiding or support the KNU without those crops. This is not lost on the villagers, who have commented to KHRG that the loss of the villagers will mean the defeat of the KNU.

"They think that they will do this until the Karen nationality has disappeared. We don't know whether they will take the KNU's place or not. Right now they can't stop yet because they are still staying close to us. They have their place and have built their camp well. They stay there now so we can't stay there anymore and we have to leave our region." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"It is not only my village but every village in xxxx village tract. It happened also in K—, M—, P—, L—, T— and S— [villages]. They have fled to stay in the jungle and are cornered. None of them dare to stay in their villages. They also don't dare to go back because the soldiers stay there. They just go back to visit sometimes and after that they go back to stay in the jungle. They never go back to visit anymore." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"The Burmese unit which has come up to Per Kee Der is LIB #365. In the beginning three of their battalions came up. LIB #369 came up from Thay Koh Hser Der in 3^rd Brigade. LIB #365 came up from the Koh Sghaw camp. Then they came up to Po Wah Der, Yoh Po Loh and Per Kee Der. When they arrived at Per Kee Der they made their camp there. They are operating and patrol in that area and they have nearly arrived to the village. They came up at the same time, on November 14^th 2000." - "Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #3, 2/01)

"When they saw us, they wouldn't let us live, they killed at once. When they saw our things, they burned them. When they saw small pigs or small chickens, they ate them all. The enemy came in the paddy growing time, so people dared not grow paddy. When they see paddy growing, they always come around. When they see the people, they arrest and kill them including the children.  When they come to one place, we have to flee to another." - "Saw Meh Wah" (M, 35), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #28, 11/99)

"I would like to report some information about what we have to bear from the SPDC. We fled from our village, L—, to the place where we stay now and we will have to flee again. We have to face difficult troubles. They destroyed our paddy in L— and will still destroy it in the place where we stay now. If Battalions #388 and #386 come they will do the same things to us again. They torment us by eating our animals, taking our belongings and burning our houses. We hope to find peace. We want to stay peacefully. If that doesn't happen we will have to face a lot of troubles. If they see us, they shoot to kill. They never help us. If they helped us, we would be happy and think that they are good to us. But their way is not like this. If they see people they shoot them dead. If they see men, women or children they shoot them all dead. They don't go into battle, they just come and fight the villagers. Some of the villagers get hurt and some of the villagers die. It happens very often. This is the last of the information I would like to report." - "Saw Nu Nu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #51, 4/00)

"They flee to stay in the areas that are a half hour or one hour away. They make hill fields. They take a few things with them so they can live. We take what security we can. We take security so they have time to flee. The soldiers come and shoot us dead in the fields when we are cutting the grass or harvesting the paddy. That is why we have to suffer. Some people are still suffering." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01); villagers often send out a few people to act as security watching for approaching Army columns

"They are staying around the village in the jungle. It is difficult for them to find food. They are making little hill fields, but that is not enough. They are foraging for food between visits from the enemy. When they get enough for one or two bowls, they come back. When they eat it all, then they go to get more. They don't know where they will move next, because the enemy follows them every time." - "Saw Meh Wah" (M, 35), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #28, 11/99)

For much of the last four years the IDPs (internally displaced people) have been moving back and forth across the Nyaunglebin and Papun District borders depending on the movements of the SPDC columns. For example, 1999 saw the movement of people out of northern Lu Thaw township into Mone township, while early 2001 saw large scale movements of villagers from northeastern Shwegyin township into southern Lu Thaw township. Villagers and KHRG field researchers have said that KNU radio intercepts in 2001 indicate that the SPDC soldiers in the area are under orders to clear out all the villages to the west of the Bilin River. Increasingly the villagers are being hemmed in by the SPDC strategy of building new camps in newly occupied territory and constructing roads across the two districts. The camps allow the patrolling of the surrounding countryside, even in the rainy season, to hunt down the villagers and destroy their crops. The roads have camps placed along them and are fenced, landmined and heavily patrolled, making them an effective barrier to the movements of both villagers and KNU. The new road running eastward from Kyauk Kyi (near the Sittaung River in Nyaunglebin District) to Saw Hta on the Salween River has effectively cut off northern Lu Thaw and Mone townships from the rest of the two districts, which has made it almost impossible for villagers from northern Lu Thaw township or from Toungoo District to get to the Thai border.

"We flee and stay in the jungle. We look and listen for any news. We look at the heads of the enemy [the direction in which their columns are moving/looking]. When their head is directed toward us, we turn to the other side. When their head is directed toward another place, we turn to this side. When they come from the east, we flee to the west. When they come from the west, we turn to the east. We avoid them up and down, and we have escaped each time. We go between the rocks and the valleys, and to the sources of the streams." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"We have fled from place to place until now. I have come and stayed at P— village for the past 3 years. I can't count all the places I have fled from. I have fled and stayed everywhere on the rocks and among the rocks. We flee to one place and the Burmese come. We flee to another place and the Burmese come. We have to find food in the jungle and sometimes we buy it from the rich people. We don't have medicine to treat the sick. There is no one coming to sell it here. We just stay in the jungle and treat them with bitter gourd leaves. Sometimes we eat boiled rice soup. When our children cry, we have to close their mouths because the Burmese are staying close to us. We are living like wild birds and chickens. We don't have huts and fences. We make roofs from leaves to keep the ground dry." - "Saw Thay Doh" (M, 28), internally displaced villager from P— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #81, 3/00)

"I want to tell how the Burmese have arrived again and again in our village of T— and they have taken everything belonging to the villagers, so we have problems. No pots to cook with, nothing to eat, no blankets to warm ourselves in the cold and no money to buy anything, so I think that T— village needs help. Our village has already been destroyed many times, and other villages in Lu Thaw township have had to face the same problems as us, so all of Lu Thaw township needs help to free us to do our work, to have clothes to wear and food to eat. Some people can't even afford shirts for their sons and daughters, and many small children have to go around naked with their penises  and their bottoms showing. We only have some pieces of old blankets, and they have to wear those to keep warm. The  parents worry for them.  Mostly we have to use fire to keep us warm. Parents can't buy pots to cook for their children, and if they buy one the Burmese come and destroy it, so everyone has problems. Our people also face many diseases from many different things. These problems have spread throughout Lu Thaw township and everyone now has to face them, these very big problems." - "Saw Lu Doh" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #32, 1/00)

A villager stands in the ruins of his house in Tee Tho Kee village, Nyaunglebin District, burned by SPDC troops from LIB #6, Column 2, in late March 2000. [KHRG]

"The troops who entered our village have only come to do bad things and oppress the civilians. They can't win victory over the [KNLA] soldiers, so they're driving the civilians into hunger. If there are no civilians then the [KNLA] soldiers can't survive either, that's why they're trying to starve us." - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

"The areas in Ku Thu Hta, Ma Lay Ler and Meh Way village tracts suffer worse than us. The villages in the mountainous areas are fleeing in different directions. In Ma Lay Ler village tract villagers from L— have fled to M— and K—. … In the beginning [of 2000] they were staying in the mountains [as IDP's], but the Burmese were coming up two or three times a month and they couldn't endure it anymore. They couldn't search for food. Some were hungry for rice and salt last year." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"We fled up to S— village tract. We then went to L— village. We then crossed into the area of 5^th Brigade [Papun District], the people call it B—. We slept five nights on the way. We met with problems for a few days on the way. Our people who have responsibility [KNLA] took security for us and we came." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"It is dangerous to cross the car road [the Saw Hta-Kyauk Kyi car road]. … It is about one hour by walking [it takes one hour to pass through the danger area]. The area starts from K— to the car road. The car road is on a hill in the forest. To cross the road we have to cross the valley and then go up to the car road. After we cross we will be on the north side. There is another valley on the north side of the car road. It is another half hour walk to be safe from danger [on the north side after crossing]. It is safe, no danger anymore. It is safe after H—." - "Bo Tha Ku" (M, 45), KNLA military officer from Papun District (Interview #57, 3/01)

The SPDC has begun to leave 'Peace [Nyein Chan Yay] passes' behind when they go through the villages. They have also given these to people they have captured and then released in the jungle. These cards come in various colours and styles, most having some sort of picture of an SPDC public work like a bridge, or a picture of happy Karen people enjoying talking to SPDC soldiers. Whatever the style, they all have messages written on them in Karen and Burmese asking the villagers to come down to the relocation sites. They promise that the holders of these cards will not be harmed if they show them to the soldiers. One villager was told by the soldiers that if he was carrying the pass the other Burmese units wouldn't harm him when they saw him. Most villagers find this unconvincing, because the cards are often left behind after the soldiers have opened fire on the villagers and looted their rice and belongings, or given to people who have just been detained and beaten. Many villagers wonder at the SPDC's promises of safety and help when they are confronted daily with the realities of the SPDC's shooting of villagers, looting and burning of their villages, destruction of their food, and landmines. Some of the language in the 'Peace passes' is aimed at KNU leaders and soldiers, encouraging them to 'exchange arms for peace', but the several which KHRG has obtained have all been given to villagers.

"They wrote it in a letter. For the 'Peace Pass' the Burmese make it look like a book. My uncle, he is the brother of my father, is old and didn't flee. When the people fled he stayed in the village. It wasn't in T— village but in a place above the village with only two houses and a building. When the people ran away, he stayed there. When the SPDC soldiers came they passed by and saw him. They poked him with a gun barrel but he wasn't afraid because he was old. They searched him and then called him to sleep with them. Then they cooked chicken curry and pork curry from animals they had taken from the village and beaten [to death] and fed him. Then they searched his bag and took his Nationality Card. He asked them to give it back, but they said they would give it back to him the next day. The next day they gave him a Nyein Chan Yay ['Peace'] pass, so he didn't ask for his Nationality Card anymore. Then they asked him his name and other things. He told them everything. They said, "Don't be afraid. If you are holding this pass and the other Burmese see you, they won't do anything to you." It was in November 2000." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

The following is a translation of a 'Peace Pass' distributed in Papun District. It is a small card which folds out into 8 panels. Panels 1-3 are written in Sgaw Karen. Panels 5-8 are a rough translation of Panels 1-3 into Burmese. [This 'Peace Pass' was also published as Order #413 in "SPDC & DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 2001-A" (KHRG 2001-02, 18/5/02)]

"About the enemy, they also wrote one letter. My daughter, Naw K—, went to P— [village] and the Burmese gave her one paper. They wrote on it in Karen. They wrote to come back and make peace with them. 'Even though you stay there, [former KNU President] Bo Mya can't take care of you enough. Come back to us.' They said it doesn't matter, even soldiers can come and put down their weapons. 'Come back and work together. We don't need to fight anymore,' they said. 'You do your language and I will do my language. You hold my hand and I will hold your hand. If we hold hands it will be finished.' I myself don't like things like that." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"It was Major Htun Myint's group who came. At that time we were gathering the paddy while some people acted as sentries. We worked in groups of two, and in the afternoon we stopped. When they came, people [the villager sentries or KNLA] saw them first, so we didn't get injured. After they finished shooting, they went down to sleep in our new farmfield huts. We hadn't put the roofs on them yet. They wrote a letter on a piece of split bamboo and left it there. It said to exchange weapons for peace. It said that the villagers must go back to them, and when the villagers go to carry our paddy they will guard us. They also said that when they saw us they wouldn't kill us. They signed it 'Major Htun Myint, Meh Way patrol unit'. They say they don't search for us, but whenever we go to watch their camp we see all the ways that they use to go up on the mountains to where we are staying. They are searching everywhere." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

The SPDC's Army has succeeded in the destruction or forced abandonment of most of the villages in eastern Nyaunglebin District, Lu Thaw township and western Dweh Loh township of Papun District since March 1997. KHRG's first report on the situation ["Wholesale Destruction: the SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate All Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts" (April 1998)] contains a list of 192 villages which were partially or completely burned by the SPDC based on interviews, independent monitors and KNU reports. For this report KHRG has compiled a new listing, now including 226 villages which have been destroyed or abandoned and another list of 42 which were given specific orders to relocate [these lists can be seen in Appendix A and Appendix B]. These lists are not complete and many more villages are unreported. Most of the villages from Lu Thaw township and central Nyaunglebin District on KHRG's 1998 list, as many as 150, were destroyed in 1997 or 1998 and have been on the run, living in hiding in the forest ever since. In 2000 and 2001 the SPDC began moving up from the west into the far eastern portion of Nyaunglebin District along the border with Papun District, and these villages have now become displaced as well. Most of these villages were not burned but were abandoned when the soldiers approached. The new SPDC strategy of building camps among these deserted villages and landmining the villages and fields means that many of these will never be reoccupied. A wave of forced relocations in western Dweh Loh township in 1999 and 2000 resulted in many of these villages also being destroyed as the villagers fled and the SPDC burned the villages. Much of the best rice-producing land has now been occupied and/or landmined. The number of villagers affected is hard to confirm but a least 30-35,000 are now living in the forests, while at least 10,000-20,000 have fled to the refugee camps or the illegal labour market in Thailand.

"Naw Yo Hta village tract. There are 22 villages in the village tract. Every village can live near their village, but all the villagers have to flee around [the villagers have fled but are still staying near their villages ]. The SPDC who operate around here do a lot of activity in this tract. They have made their camp in Ler Mu Plaw village tract [to the west]. They always stay there. The greatest production of paddy is in Ler Mu Plaw, Saw Mu Plaw and Toh Thu Plaw. The SPDC has taken all those places so our civilians have to stay poor and cannot eat anymore." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

Internally displaced villagers on the run in Dweh Loh township, Papun District, in late June 2001.  When this photo was taken the SPDC soldiers were only 10 minutes' walk away. [KHRG]

"When they came to Ler Mu Plaw the villagers had to flee. They went to Saw Mu Plaw but those villagers had to flee also. The other villagers from around Saw Mu Plaw had to flee too, but I don't know the village names. They are the villages around the Ler Mu Plaw area. They are Ler Mu Plaw, Bler Ghaw, Tee Mu Kee, Loh Koh, Hser Tee, K'Neh Mu Der, Khaw Kho Hta and K'Baw Kee villages. … Now we live in B—. The villagers from Loh Koh and Hser Tee fled to stay in H—. The villagers from Khaw Kho Hta and Yu Loh Der fled to K—. The villagers from Bler Ghaw fled to stay in H—. All of them had to flee to stay in a new village. … In B— village there are over 1,000 people including the children. In K— there are nearly 1,000 people. In H— there are about 400 to 500 people. In H— there are over 1,000 people." - "Saw Nu Nu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #51, 4/00)

"Q: How many villages did they burn in Meh Thu village tract?

A: They burned all the villages near where we stayed. They also burned Nya Hsa Kee, Ler Toh Po, Ker Kaw Law, Meh Gha Law and Paw Wah Der. They burned them. I didn't go there but the people told me that. The soldiers destroyed all that they saw. All the villagers had to run and stay in the jungle." - "Pa Kah Lay" (M, 39), villager from W— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #132, 5/00)

"They went to P---, Y---, T--- and K---. These are the most serious villages. They are the same as T---. People say that the soldiers still live there, they haven't gone back yet. At our village the soldiers came one time and went to stay close to our village and came again to carry the food from our hill fields. They came twice like that. At P---, Y---, T--- and K--- the people live nearby and spy on the SPDC and saw that they live there all the time. We can't tell what they destroyed. They destroyed everything. Everything was destroyed in those four villages." - "Saw Htoo Lay" (M, 53), internally displaced village head from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #89, 12/00)

"They are Tee Lee Kha Kee, Li Pway Kee, K'Bu Kee, Blaw Ko, Tee Baw Kee, Hsi Mu Heh Der, Shway Mu Der, Toh Pwih Der, Baw Gho Der, Paw Khay Ko, Bee Ko Der and Ko Say Der. There are 12 villages in the village tract. Presently in Saw Mu Plaw village tract none of the families from those villages can stay in their villages anymore. They are all destroyed." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01)

"They've burned many villages, like Lay Hta, Maw Pu, Tee Thareh Kee, Meh Gha Law, Paw Wah Der, Dta Kaw Hta, Da Baw Kee, Ka Pu Soh, and Maw Thay Hta villages. They've burned them down place by place. They go to one place and burn it down, then stay there for a month. Then they go to another place and stay there for a month, eating and destroying everything, then they burn it down and move to another place. The first two villages they burned were Dta Kaw Hta and Meh Gha Law. Paw Wah Der, Lay Hta and Maw Pu were burned at about the same time, and Tee Thareh Kee was the latest place they burned." - "Saw Bway Htoo" (M, 42), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #130, 4/00)

"The villagers from Khay Kee, Tee Ler Kee, Kler Ka Plaw, and Klu Thay Der villages all fled. Whenever they came, the villagers from Thaw Pi Der, Plaw Ghaw Kee, Deh Bo Hta and Dta Law Ploh fled. Sometimes everyone fled together and sometimes all separately, to places nearby like P—, T— and T—. Some fled over the hills together. If you added it all up, there would be 500 or 600 villagers who fled [just around his village]." - "Saw Toh Wah" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #39, 1/00)

Living Conditions

"Too many years. It has been four or five years. We are poor in everything. We live naked and our testicles and penises are hanging down. We have no clothes anymore, we are in trouble about everything." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

Life on the run for the displaced villagers is very difficult, although many do prefer it to living in the relocation sites and performing forced labour at the whim of the local SPDC commander. Others were not given the choice and were forced to live on the run when their villages were burned down. The hiding places of the internally displaced villagers usually consist of no more than two to four families in small shelters in the forest, as this makes them more difficult to find by the SPDC soldiers. A few sites are much bigger with twenty or more families and have become almost like villages. Some of these larger sites have been arranged by, and to a degree supplied by, the KNU and are better protected by the KNLA. This security is by no means permanent and the villagers have to be ready to move at all times. For most displaced villagers there is little or no protection. The only warning is from villagers who have been posted on the trails around the site to give warning of the approaching columns. These 'sentries' are usually unarmed and they themselves have often been shot dead. The KNLA does warn the villagers if they have information about SPDC movements, but they are not always around and do not have the numbers to directly confront the SPDC columns. The villagers usually don't wait to see the soldiers but flee as soon as they hear a gunshot or a landmine explode, whether it is nearby or not. Most of the time the villagers play a cat and mouse game with the soldiers.

"We stayed near the village and listened. We hid in fear of our safety. The soldiers climbed the trees and bamboo and walked around the field looking for us. We saw that they were very close to us. They searched for us around the fields for a while. When I came back I saw the place where they had searched. Maybe they were searching for a gun. If they had seen a gun it would not have been easy for us. Maybe they would have killed us if they had seen us. The commander ordered them to shoot so they shot. When the soldiers went back we still stayed there [in the jungle near the village]. Only the men came back and secretly watched the village. We saw that they had written a letter and left it." - "Saw Nuh Po" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #143, 9/00)

"We have to stay and listen [to whether the soldiers are coming or not], stay and listen like that. We don't stay very far from them so we can hear the sounds of mines exploding or the sounds of shouting. We have to be careful and afraid of them. When are they going to come to us? Are they going to come secretly in the nighttime? We don't know so we are living in fear." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"The Burmese came along the river, and when they saw my house they started to fire a lot of guns - people yelled out 'P'Yaw!!' ['Burmese!!'] Even though my son is bigger and taller than me, I started carrying him. The Burmese were firing their guns, and my back was becoming very hot but I had to keep going. My son called to me, 'Father, drop me and leave me!' but I thought, I will never drop you, because if I can save you we all need you. When I reached the top of the hill I didn't even know how exhausted I was, and the sound of gunfire went quiet." - "Saw Kleh Wah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #42, 2/00); his son had injured his knee previous to the attack.

"They have laid landmines in those areas, and whenever we heard the explosion of landmines, we had to run. If we tried to burn off our hill fields and the smoke went up, then their bullets started flying. If they weren't firing too many bullets or shells, we stayed and hid in a valley [otherwise they had to keep running]. We were working under horrible conditions and having to flee all the time. If we could work there, we'd have enough food to eat each year. But now we can't work there." - "Saw Thay Muh" (M, 45), refugee from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #67, 1/00)

"The villagers from Koh Lu Der village tract are mostly suffering because they have to live in fear of the SPDC. The villagers have to make their hill fields quickly so sometimes they don't have enough food. Because they have to work hurriedly, they can't take enough time. At the time when people harvest paddy, the SPDC soldiers are sometimes beginning to be active. The villagers have to fear [the soldiers] like that so we don't have the right to work. It is causing us a problem. That is not only in May Per Hta village, it also happens in Baw Peh, Hsaw Moh Hu Der, and down to Tee T'Kay Hta and T'Bo Hta and all the places close to the enemy." - "Bo Tha Ku" (M, 45), KNLA military officer from Papun District (Interview #57, 3/01)

Flight from the soldiers is the most difficult time for the IDPs. They are usually forced to leave most of their possessions behind, taking with them only some food, a machete, a cookpot and whatever small items they can carry. Families with small children must also carry their children when they flee. The fleeing villagers sleep on the ground until they can build huts again. Sometimes they don't even have a tarpaulin to shield themselves from the rain. One villager described to KHRG how after placing a tarpaulin over his wife and children, he then crawled halfway into a tree to seek shelter from the rain and to sleep. The huts are usually small and temporary as the villagers know they will probably have to flee again soon anyway. Sometimes the escape routes are between two Burmese units or camps and the villagers have to move in complete silence. The adults have to cover the children's mouths to keep them from crying and alerting the soldiers. Some of the villagers have been fleeing like this off and on since the early 1970's, and some have been living in the forest continually for five years or more.

"We have a lot of problems. We can't do it. We have to sleep on the ground under the huts. We didn't have time to build huts so we have to sleep in the rain. The insects and mosquitoes bite a lot. We slept on the ground last night. We have no huts or tarpaulins. We slept in the damp and the mosquitoes and insects bit us. … We have to build huts in one place then move to another place. Build one day and stay for one day. Way! We can't go. The malaria and the headaches are caused by the places where we build our huts. We build in one place then have to stay in another place. The SPDC is doing this to us. Recently two Army units came up and are staying close to us. Right now, after we are finished talking, we have to flee again. The troops are coming and burning the villages, burning the huts and pulling the paddy out of the ground. We can't eat. The rice is uncooked and the water not boiled [for drinking]. The SPDC comes and oppresses us and the animals. I can't think about the SPDC. This SPDC unit is saying they represent the government but why do they have to do this? They call themselves the government but they come to oppress us and beat us. They treat us like animals and it is not right. They don't think that we are human. They call themselves the government but they know nothing. … We are still on the move. We will continue to move forward. We sleep one or two nights and then we must move again. If they search for us we have to flee again. We don't dare to suffer so we have to flee. We dare not go down and stay inside [the relocation area] because the villagers there are tied up and forced to porter. … We can't suffer this but we also dare not go and stay among them. We fled but they came up and saw us and beat us. They chased us and shot at us with guns. Way! They shot and it hit people and they bled. ... They have done it for a long time, since the Ko Per Baw [DKBA] began [in late 1994]. They always do this. If we go down or up from here, the SPDC are all the same. We just hide nearly in front of them. Sometimes we stay between two of them [two units]. When we live between two units, we travel at night. We go together with our children and we can't see the way. If the babies cry, we close their mouths. We can't do anything. They don't like it if the babies cry because if the SPDC hear the babies they will kill us." - "Myo Nyunt" (M, 20), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #141, 9/00)

"We just think that the Burmese come and oppress us and eat our things so we always flee when we can. We flee and we are sick and lie down and we have to bear the cold, we have no medicine to eat. We have no hats, no tarpaulins. We have to flee and sleep in the night in the dew and the leeches bite us also. So we are poor. We have no clothes and no blankets to cover ourselves. Our babies and children are sick and we have no medicine to give them to eat." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

"I have faced and borne these troubles for a whole year. We don't have our hut anymore. We sleep in the jungle and have to worry that ants, termites or snakes will bite us. We are afraid but we can't do anything. Even if the ants bite us, we can't do anything. We sleep in the damp. It was raining the whole year. We couldn't burn off our hill field and we just stayed like that the whole year. We couldn't do anything because of the Burmese. If it were not for them, we could live our lives. Before, we never stayed like this. But now we have to stay like this always. We can't do anything. … It was calm for just one or two days. Most days we have to flee. Now we have to run away again. If it calms down longer than this and we can stay longer, it will be better. I hope the Burmese will go quickly and then we can go back and stay at our place. Now we have to stay on the ground because we can't go to our huts. If they see any huts they burn them. There are no good huts left. We have to live on the ground in the summer. We can't build a good hut because they will burn it. They even burn little huts. If we roof it with tarpaulin, it doesn't stay dry and the water comes in. It is very unpleasant. If we make a more pleasant house, when they see it, they will burn it." - "Naw Mu Lay" (F, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #142, 9/00)

Villagers fleeing their homes in northern Shwegyin township, Nyaunglebin District in March 2001. [KHRG]

"There has been a lot of the enemy coming and torturing. They come to our village and we can't just stay and live. Sometimes we had to flee in the nighttime. We couldn't drink or eat and the women fell down in the rain. We had to deal with the mist, the mosquitoes and insects. The children were crying so the people had to scold them, beat them or put clothes or blankets over their mouths. We dare not face the soldiers because they are making life difficult for us. If they see us, they torture, beat and do many things to us. I have seen it and I have suffered it myself." - "Aung Aung" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #150, 11/00)

"Then on February 15^th [2000] they went through the hill fields. When they come, we see the smoke from the fire and we all watch together. If the situation is bad, we move and flee into the jungle. We come back later and look around. If their column did not come to our place, we go back to work again. After we finish working, we go back to the jungle. We stay there until finally they come to shoot us there." - "Saw Kler Htoo" (M, 51), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #77, 3/00)

Some villagers interviewed by KHRG indicated that it was only the young who can stay in the jungle and that many of the elderly or families with small children are forced by the difficulty of the situation to go down to the relocation sites or flee to Thailand. Villagers have been forced to leave the elderly behind on the trails when they flee because they are too slow. Sometimes they catch up later and sometimes they die there on the trail. Elderly villagers have also been left behind in the villages when the villagers have to flee, especially if the person is too frail to walk. The fate of these people is uncertain; some have been left unharmed after being forced from their houses before they were burned, others have been killed by the soldiers when they arrive, and still other elderly villagers have been burned along with their houses when the soldiers set the village alight. The handicapped have also, on occasion, been left behind if they cannot keep up and are too heavy to carry. A mentally handicapped man in Bu Tho township who didn't listen when his siblings told him to flee the village was shot five or six times and killed when the SPDC soldiers came to his village.

"In the rainy season, all of the children, young people and old people are the same. But the young people like us are a little better because we are young and a little stronger. The old people are cold and the young children cry because they have fever when they are sick and malarial. We can't do anything because we have no medicine so some of them died. We don't know how to get the medicine to heal them. We just go through this kind of thing day by day." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

"If there are old women and men who can't flee, we carry them. When we can't carry them anymore we leave them. We don't know if they can eat or not. They just die like that. We do not dare to go back and look for them. We saw some of them when they had already begun to smell. Like Auntie Nya Da and Grandfather — [inaudible], they already smelled bad when we saw them. Maybe they died because they were hungry or sick, we don't know. We didn't dare to go back and look after them. The other children know nothing. Nobody went back to see them." - "Naw Mu Lay" (F, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #142, 9/00)

"On May 4^th 2001, Battalion #19 killed a villager in his house at Paw Dee Der village, Bwah Der village tract, Bu Tho township. His name was Saw Pa Dway, 38 years old, and he was mentally handicapped. His mother and father are dead and he was staying with his siblings. His siblings told him to flee and stay outside the village when the Burmese came, but he didn't listen. He stayed in the house. The people fled for two days and he didn't get any rice to eat. He didn't die from hunger though. The Burmese shot him dead. They shot him five or six times. The next morning the people buried him." field report from KHRG field researcher (Field Report #21, 5/01)

Villagers fleeing from Nyaunglebin District into western Papun District in January 2001. [FBR researcher]

"They came and when they arrived at B--- they burned down about 10 of the villagers' houses. They burned the houses of T—, K—, N—, L—, and L—, and also the school and an eating place, and they burned one old woman to death. The villagers couldn't find her later. The Burmese had burned her in the fire. Her name was Pi Toh Loh, and she was 70 or 80 years old. She already had grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Burmese came very quickly and her children and grandchildren couldn't carry her. When they came back to find her, she had disappeared along with their house and all their things." - "Po Tha Dah" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from B— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #46, 2/00)

Families living as IDP's in the hills include many small children. Women often give birth in the jungle without the benefit of even a midwife to assist. Many babies do not live through their first year. The mothers are also at risk, both during their pregnancies due to malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies, and afterwards when they are forced to flee without adequate recovery time from childbirth. The children are more susceptible than the adults to diseases in the forest, and without medicine many have died. It is not as easy for the families with small children to run as the children have to be carried, and it also means the family can't carry as much rice or belongings. Children are not spared by the SPDC soldiers and many have been shot or wounded by shrapnel when the soldiers open fire on the villages. There have been many instances when the soldiers were close enough to see it was children they were shooting at, but they continued shooting anyway.

"Aye! We faced problems. It was terrible for the old people. It was nighttime and we had to sleep in the jungle, so people got diseases. The children were coughing and it was raining. We couldn't make fires in the night." - "Saw Ghaw" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #98, 3/01)

"The enemy was already coming close to us. They had arrived at D—, which is only half an hour from our place. I had gone back to harvest. When they moved up to L---, I came up to send my wife to the bank of the Mwih Loh Kloh river.  When we arrived there, my wife gave birth. The same day, the enemy entered Maw Pu. All of the villagers were fleeing, but some were left behind. I told the leader of KNDO [Karen National Defence Organisation; village militia] that we must flee. He asked me, 'Can the mother of your daughter walk?' I answered that either way it wouldn't be easy for us. We were afraid but we stayed there. We couldn't flee. If we fled, it would have been very terrible for her. We waited, and if they had come to shoot us, it would all be over. If they couldn't shoot us, we would run. … My child was born in the jungle. My child was born smoothly, but we were afraid. After the birth, the mother was in the delicate state of health of a woman after childbirth. She went to take a bath and got sick. When she got sick, we couldn't do anything. We were afraid, but we still stayed there.  At night, the [KNLA] people were talking and then a person went and fired a gun. I thought that the enemy must have arrived near us. We fled and carried [our belongings] in the dark. We could walk but it was slow going. I thought, 'As long as we are alive, we will keep going. If we die, it is finished.'" - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

A villager and his young child fleeing in Nyaunglebin District after SPDC soldiers occupied his village in May 2001. [KHRG]

"If we must tell about the enemy, they are very terrible. We can't even tell about how they are torturing us. When we were fleeing, we fled at night and then sat in the jungle. The children didn't dare to cry. When they cried their mothers put their breasts to their mouths. The children were shouting, 'Euuu. Euuu. Ahhhh. Ahhhh.' We were hungry for rice and salt. The next morning, we ran and ate rice in another place. We met with our friends there and we got rice to eat." - "Saw Maw Ray Heh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #151, 11/00)

Christian churches are among the first buildings burned by the troops, and Buddhist monks and monasteries are not exempt. Monasteries have been looted and the monks shot at on sight along with the villagers. The monks don't dare to confront the SPDC soldiers and flee along with their villagers. This is despite the fact that most of the soldiers are also Buddhist. Among the displaced villagers who have little or no food, some of the monks have had to begin working their own fields because their followers can no longer provide for them. This is unusual and illustrates the seriousness of the situation because monks normally are forbidden to work fields for fear of killing an animal or insect while digging.

"Back when I could stay in my village, my villagers built me a monastery. But since 1997 the SPDC battalions have driven us up and down and burned the village. They drove some of the villagers to Meh Way and others to Pway Day, and some villagers fled into the hills. Right now we who live in the jungle don't have hill fields anymore, because every time we try to work them two or three battalions come and burn it. We can just get a little for each of us after they burn it. The troops searched for all of our things, they saw all of the things which belonged to the monastery that my villagers had provided and they took it all. All of the things they took would cost 200,000 Kyat. The SPDC battalions don't fight other armies anymore, they just attack the villagers. It's not easy for me to be a monk anymore. They shoot all the people that they see. Right now even though I'm a monk I have to work a hill field, because the villagers can't feed me anymore. We have to work for ourselves. We don't have our monastery anymore. We have to live in the jungle, and if they see us they will shoot us. If they capture us they will torture us and kill us." - "U Myint Oo" (M, 37), internally displaced monk from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #144, 9/00)

"Yes, they are Buddhists, but when they are struggling for their country they don't treat the monks the same, they will oppress them. It wouldn't be easy for me if they came and saw me again. They would think I am the Nga Pway's monk ['Nga Pway' is the derogatory SPDC name for the KNU/KNLA]. The only way is to run. They have not seen me yet so I will continue to hide." "U Than Dah Sara" (M, 41), internally displaced monk from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #114, 3/99)

The bell is all that is left of this Christian church in Tha Baw Der village, burned down by SPDC troops in 1999. [KHRG]

Shootings

"We stay in the jungle like this so it is better if they do not see us. If they see us everything will be cut off [they will all be killed]. They treat the civilians just like their enemies. They will kill all the Karen, every man or woman, every time they come up into the mountains. For the children, they will kill them all, even the little babies who are still drinking from their mother's breast." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"My children's father was injured in his arm and came to me and told me he had been injured. When I looked at him his arm was bleeding. I thought he was only wounded in the arm so he couldn't die. Then he showed me his stomach and there was a big wound. I told him that this time you are going to die. At first he dared not tell me about his wound. He thought that if he told me he didn't know how I would feel, so he dared not tell me. Then he told me. When he told me he was resolved and told me to call his children and grandchildren to come back." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01); he died soon afterward.

A common reply villagers give to the question, "What would the soldiers do if you faced them?" is "They would kill us." This is borne out by the numerous testimonies of villagers who have said that the soldiers opened fire on them on sight. The shootings are intended to make the villagers so afraid that they will come down out of the hills, but actually have the opposite effect of driving them further into the mountains. Villagers flee whenever the soldiers come close, even if they do not actually come to the village, because they know that if they are seen they will be shot at.

"No, I don't dare to meet them. If they see me, they will shoot me and I will die immediately. They won't capture me or call to me anymore. They have shot many people everywhere. If they see people making a hut or reaping paddy or cutting grass, they shoot them every time. They don't care if they are men, women or children. They shoot them all." - "Saw Nu Nu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #51, 4/00)

"I don't know why they shoot villagers when they see them, but when they shot at people on February 21^st 1999, we weren't carrying anything, we were just working in the hill fields with working machetes. There were girls and boys together in the fields, but as soon as they saw us they shot at us. We had no guns in our hands, but they don't only shoot at soldiers - they also shoot at villagers. … Right now the enemy [SPDC] does not only shoot at soldiers, they also shoot at villagers like us, so what do you think about their behaviour toward us? I want to know. Do they think villagers like us are their enemy? Maybe they think we are their enemy. If their porters [i.e. Burmans, like the soldiers] run to escape to us villagers, we try to save them as far as we can, we give them food and show them the way. But if they see us they shoot to kill us. Why? If we see their [Burman] villagers should we do like they do?" - "Pa Maw Htoo" (M, 27), internally displaced villager from P— village, Mone township (Interview #41, 2/00)

"They try to shoot us. They say we are the enemy and they really shoot at us. I don't know what to think. They shouldn't do that. If they are really searching for their enemy, they only have to shoot their enemy. Now they are shooting the villagers. The villagers are not their enemy. When the Burmese shoot like this we can't shoot back because we don't have anything to shoot with." - "Saw Muh Dah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #87, 4/00)

"Q: But doesn't the SPDC say they won't hurt or shoot the other nationalities anymore?

A: Yes, they said that, but they still shoot us." - "Thein Shwe" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #55, 4/00)

The soldiers usually don't call out to the villagers before they open fire. If the soldiers call out to the villagers it is usually only a split second before pulling their triggers, and the villagers are given no time to respond. Attacks on villages and IDP hiding places are carried out as military operations, sometimes including supporting mortar fire. The soldiers sometimes arrive quietly and silently observe the villagers before attacking them, giving them ample time to see that it is unarmed villagers they are about to attack. Other times outright ambushes are laid to trap and kill the villagers. In most cases the soldiers come so close to the villagers that there can be no doubt that the people being shot at are unarmed civilians, including women, children and the elderly. Villagers automatically run whenever they see the soldiers or hear gunfire because they know that to remain would probably mean being shot, or at best being detained and tortured or taken as a porter.

"They just come, and if you hear about them you have to run, and you can never have legs long enough to run. … In those areas, even if you heard them firing weapons very far away, you had to run further away. We had nowhere to run to in the jungle. If there was some place to run to, it would be easier. But through the whole Saw Mu Plaw and Ler Mu Plaw area, through the whole area of Lu Thaw township, we didn't dare face them. Sometimes you saw them at a distance when you were staying in the bushes. But if they saw you they came towards you and they got angry right away. They started shooting right away. They shot to hit us, but if we weren't hit we could run to escape. But if they hit us, it's finished, and they even treat your corpse very cruelly. … They shot to kill people even if they knew they were villagers who had gone to hide in the jungle, whether they saw them or even if they just heard voices among the bushes, they always shot at them. I want to tell you about all of the people they shot, but I can't tell about all of them. According to the order that they issued us from the battalion in Pwa Ghaw, in the area of Saw Mu Plaw village tract in Lu Thaw township, no women or men would be safe if they saw  them. They designated that area as the main place of their enemy [a KNLA stronghold], so no woman, child, or man dares to face them because if they see them, they shoot them all." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K--- village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

"They shot us when we were carrying our paddy. It was the time when people carry their paddy [from the threshing ground to the paddy storage barns]. We didn't see them, they just came and immediately started shooting." - "Naw Paw Si" (F, 11), internally displaced villager from D— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #38, 1/00)

Maung Thay Paw from Tee Thu Der village, Papun District, who was shot on sight and killed on March 23rd 2000 while working in his hill field. The soldiers then looted his body. [KHRG]

"In 2000 they've shot two people dead; their names were K'Paw Htoo [a woman a.k.a. Nay K'Paw Mo] and Eh Roh [a man]. Naw K--- [a woman] was injured. The Burmese shot dead K'Paw Htoo after they had burned down her paddy barn. She had gone away to try to find food last year, and she arrived back in time to plant but the rains came early so she couldn't plant much. She had just finished her harvest, and the Burmese burned it all. She set out to find some paddy, but she encountered them and they shot her dead. Life was very difficult for her, because she has very young children and she had to work very hard. She knew that the situation wasn't good, so she'd hidden her paddy. She hoped that she could earn money cutting grass in people's fields until her paddy was dry [newly harvested paddy takes time to dry and cure properly before it is considered good for eating]. She had to do things like that because they had nothing to eat, but then they met her and shot her, and now it's finished. Now her husband and two baby children do not know what to do." - "Saw Kleh Wah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #42, 2/00)

"There were U Traw and Pa Ghaw Khay. They are related to us. U Traw was 50 years old. The other one was 35 years old. They were from Ler Wah village, Ler Wah village tract. The SPDC soldiers shot them dead. They shot at them many times because we heard the sound of shooting many times. Pa Ghaw Khay was alone. He was going to listen to the news for us [see whether the SPDC soldiers were coming or not]. He was staying at T---. He didn't know that the Burmese were waiting on the path. Then the Burmese shot him. The people didn't see it. The sound of shooting lasted for a while and they thought he had disappeared. The people then went to find him. The Burmese didn't bury him so his elder brother went to bury him. It was last year after we had finished preparing the hill field [about May or June 2000]." - "Naw Mi Mu Wah" (F, 35), internally displaced villager from K— villager, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #94, 3/01)

"It was on March 28^th [2000], at the same time that they came to M—. He had received information that the enemy was coming but he didn't know exactly when, so he stayed there and listened for them. He thought the Burmese would pass far from him. The villagers said that when the Burmese arrived at his house his son was keeping watch, but his son suddenly heard gunfire explode behind him, in the hut. His son hid, then left at 6 in the evening to K— and followed the villagers from there. I don't know why they shot his father. They couldn't have seen anything unusual, because he was just a villager and a farmer." - "Pa Hla" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #85, 4/00)

Woman from northern Papun District who was shot while burning off their fields. She was hit by a bullet in the back which exited just below her left shoulder. She also had multiple wounds from grenade shrapnel. Her husband was also wounded in the attack. [KHRG]

"They also shot dead one of my elder sisters just 4 or 5 days ago, on the evening of the 14^th [of March 2000]. Her name was Naw Eh Muh. Three of them were coming back and carrying their paddy. They didn't know that the path wasn't safe. When the enemy saw them, they shot them. The other two fled and escaped, but she was shot in the head and fell right there. Later we didn't see her rice and paddy there. They had taken everything, and they also tore her clothes and sarong to shreds." - "Saw Lay Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #76, 3/00)

"We don't know why the SPDC troops came and shot at us. We don't know their plans for us. We just work on our hill fields. We just know there was the sound of shooting, and some people were injured. Maybe they have bad plans for us because we are Karen people. They would like to destroy and torture us. … We are just farmers. We just work on our hill fields and flat fields. We have no weapons to fight them with. We just have our machetes, knives and axes for doing our hill fields. We never shoot them or shoot at their town. It is not fair for them to come and hurt us. If we hurt them we could bear the consequences, but we never hurt them. They just came and shot us. We don't know what their plans are for us." - "Pa Mer Ler" (M, 25), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #49, 4/00)

"When he was wounded we were almost on top of the guns [he was very close to the soldiers when they began shooting]. We threw down our machetes and baskets. We looked at them and knew that we couldn't flee anymore. We fled into the bushes and the bullets were flying in front of us, 'fee-fee-fee' [the sound of the bullets]. Hay aye, hay aye! The brush was being cut down [by the bullets] 'preh-preh-preh'. It sounded like an elephant eating, it was so noisy. 'Hay-hay-hay'. There was light in front of our noses, red-red-red, red-red-red [tracer bullets]. Hey, hey! We couldn't flee anymore. I was carrying my grandchild and she was crying too much. Below us there was the sound of groaning. There was the sound of someone calling in the river, Hey! It was too noisy above and below us. There were a lot of people. I thought they had already fled away but they had come back. Then we stayed together. Then I asked who was making the groaning sound there. Someone said it was his child. He said there were two people [wounded]. Then he said that if we take that other person's child it would be hopeless. So we were going to leave the child there. We didn't know whether we would live or die. If the Burmese had come and seen us at the higher place they would have killed us." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01); describing an attack in which her husband and another man were shot dead and herself, her daughter and her grandchild were wounded.

"[W]e never saw their faces - anyone who saw their faces died." - "Saw Thay Muh" (M, 45), refugee from P--- village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #67, 1/00)

The soldiers shoot at men, women and children even when it is obvious that it is women and children that they are shooting at. It is difficult to see very far in the forest so most shooting incidents occur at close range where it should be obvious that the targets are women and children. In the open fields it should also be obvious to the soldiers who their targets are. Children make up a large percentage of the people shot dead or wounded by the SPDC's soldiers. A villager from Lu Thaw township related to KHRG how the soldiers came upon her hut in the forest and immediately opened fire on her three children. There were no adults as they were away in the fields. As her two sons were running, one of them 7 years old and obviously not an adult, a rifle grenade landed behind them and wounded the 7 year old boy in the leg. He was carried away by his brother and survived, but many others have not. Some villagers have lost whole portions of their families. During an attack on an IDP site in Shwegyin township in January 2000, "Saw K'Baw's" [not his real name] 6 month old son was shot in the head and killed while suckling milk from his mother's breast as she was fleeing. After another shooting in late 1999 in Lu Thaw township a villager interviewed by KHRG learned that he had lost his 13 year old daughter, his 11 year old son, his brother and his uncle. Villagers often express their bewilderment as to why the soldiers are shooting at them when they are unarmed civilians and have done nothing to the soldiers or to Burman villagers. Most villagers believe it is a part of a plan to exterminate the Karen people.

"We had gone to work our hill fields. When they shot at us, all of our children were at home. There were three of my children there. The three children were home playing. When they shot my babies, the eldest was cooking and the two boys were playing far from their sister [who was cooking]. They left the pot on the stove and fled without anything. When they started shooting, my daughter, the eldest child, fled away. She couldn't wait for her two brothers. When the two brothers got to the hut a kway boe [a rifle grenade] dropped behind them. It was not far from them and the younger one was wounded in his leg. Then they helped each other run away. We found all of our children but the youngest one was injured in the thigh. He is a seven year old boy. When I got back people asked me if I had seen my child. I told them that I hadn't seen my child yet. They told me they had carried each other and gone to another place. I went to take my children and send them to another house. His name is Christ Nay Thay. He is 7 years old. He was injured about one month ago already. … We have no guns. We have nothing. We don't work against them. We just work in our hill fields. We don't understand the SPDC. We are just farming our hill fields and living among the hills. If we think about it, it is not fair that they come and shoot our babies." - "Meh Bya" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #54, 4/00)

"One of my sons was killed while his mother was carrying him. They shot him on January 20^th [2000], at 9:10 a.m. They shot him in the head and it was broken. He was not so big. He would have been 6 months old in two days. They came very close when they shot at us. We didn't know they had come. The enemy are finding civilians to shoot at like this. If they chase their enemy [KNLA soldiers], they have to chase them their way [they have to use military tactics and fight]. But they know we are civilians without weapons, so they chase us like pigs and dogs. They chase and shoot us like this. They are not chasing their enemy, they are chasing the civilians." - "Saw K'Baw" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from H— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #72, 2/00)

"They had fled and stayed at the source of a river named the Saw Theh Loh Kloh. It was time to cook for the afternoon and they thought they would cook. They chopped some firewood. The enemy came to watch and listen, then came out of the jungle and shot at the place where they were living. When the soldiers opened fire, they fled. "Saw K'Baw"'s wife was carrying their small son, who was in her arms and sucking milk. When the enemy shot  him, it hit him directly in his neck and a part of his head chipped off. She threw down her child and fled to  escape herself. He was 2 years old [according to his father he was only 6 months old]. LIB #5 did it." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"I know that in W---, they came and shot up P—'s house once. They [SPDC] surrounded it and shot it. They didn't see anything unusual [there were no KNLA]. There were only villagers there. They shot and killed one of P—'s children. He was a ten year old boy." - "Pa Kah Lay" (M, 39), villager from W— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #132, 5/00)

This 5 year old girl was shot in the head and left behind in the confusion when SPDC soldiers opened fire on her family's hiding place. This photo was taken one year later, but her wound had still not healed properly. [KHRG]

"[T]hey shot my children dead. Two of my children and my brother and uncle. My uncle's name was Bee Wah Htoo. He was 43 years old. He has six brothers. I don't know where he was injured. The second one was my daughter, Meh Hsa Htoo. She was 13. She was shot by a small gun [a rifle] in her thigh, in the head and again in her buttocks. The other one was La Kaw Mu, my 11 year old son. He was wounded in the head and in his buttocks. The last one was April Htoo. He was 20 years old. He had 8 brothers and sisters. He was wounded in his thigh by a bullet from a small gun [a rifle]. They were going to work in the hill field. The soldiers shot them when they were in the field. It was in the afternoon during the time when the paddy was ripe [harvest season; November or December]. ... They see us and shoot us. I have never gone and shot or burned their village. They just came and shot us. We don't know the reasons why they came to shoot us. They just came and did it." - "Thein Shwe" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #55, 4/00)

"They shot Bee Wah Htoo and his three nephews at Tee Th'Waw Kee [actually two nephews and a niece]. They hadn't done anything; they just went to thresh their paddy. Their names are Meh Hsa Htoo, Lah Kaw Muh, and Pa Thu Ko. After they'd finished threshing the paddy, Bee Wah Htoo filled one big tin of paddy for each of his nephews and three for himself, and said, 'Come on, let's go'. They were just villagers and weren't carrying any guns, just small knives, small bags and a tobacco box. But the Burmese came secretly. Pa Thu Ko was carrying the paddy and when he was coming back he met the Burmese on the path. He was just carrying one or two bunches of bananas and a big tin of paddy. They shot him and he fell down and died. When Bee Wah Htoo lifted some paddy up onto his head and started carrying it, they shot him and he fell right there with his paddy. Meh Hsa Htoo started running but he was hit, and he fell down under the trees and died. The other nephew Lah Kaw Muh ran, but when he arrived near the path he was hit and fell. All of them died. When they were dead, there were only a few armspans between them. Then the Burmese came up and took Meh Hsa Htoo's necklace and bracelet and everything from Bee Wah Htoo, like his bag and his tobacco pipe. He didn't have money because he was just going to thresh his paddy. One of his other nephews [Lah Kaw Muh] was only young, so he just had a little bag with a slingshot, and they didn't take that." - "Naw Ghay Muh" (F, 42), internally displaced villager from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #48, 2/00)

"There are many things. For myself I had 11 brothers and sisters. There were four men and seven women. The four men are all dead because of the SPDC's oppression. The one man left is my old father. I would like to see my brothers but I can't see them. Why not? Because of the SPDC's oppression. They killed all my brothers." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

Hillside rice fields are open patches in the forest and are clearly visible from one or two hills away. At weeding time (August) and harvest time (October-December), more SPDC patrols are sent out to look for groups of villagers working in these fields and open fire on them. Working in family groups, they make an easy target even from a distance. Troops also watch for smoke from the burning off of hillfields in March-April, and smoke from cookfires at the villagers' hiding places. Some displaced villagers have resorted to harvesting only by night with KNLA troops posted for security. When the SPDC soldiers are too far away to use their small arms they have used mortars to shell the villagers. If they see cooking smoke in the distance they fire a mortar shell at it. Even when they cannot find any villagers, they sometimes 'walk' their mortar shells up the valley of a stream (meaning to shell the whole streambed, aiming progressively further away) on the assumption that villagers may be hiding there. This method of attacking the villagers is more to harass them, but it does kill and it certainly can't be claimed that the soldiers were trying to capture anyone.

"They tried to find people in the hot season along the river valley. Civilians had run to stay along the river, so they tried to follow the river and they searched through the forest. If they saw smoke rising up [from cookfires], they shelled with big weapons. They do this to our civilians, so people couldn't stay there. I heard people say that they also planted landmines. I am not sure, but I think that they plant them to get both the KNU and the villagers who stay outside the villages." - "Saw Wah Pa" (M, 33), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #30, 1/00)

"They never caught us, but they saw us and fired guns at us one or two times. Whenever they saw the smoke from villagers' cookfires, they fired big weapons [mortars] many times to hurt the villagers. If they see you they shoot, they don't capture you. If they are close they shoot with small arms, and if it is farther they shoot at you with big weapons." - "Saw Toh Wah" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #39, 1/00)

"Sa Ka Ka [Military Operations Command] #10, [LIB] #366 led by Commander Maung Set Oo from Meh Way comes to search for us regularly. When they come and see us, they usually shoot at us. When they came and saw us, they shot at us with their small arms [rifles]. No one was injured and the ten families fled together. Sometimes they shoot at us with small mortars and the children flee everywhere among the trees. Right now, we are going to start fleeing again. We took a rest for one or two days and now we are going to start fleeing again." - "Saw Nyunt Htin" (M, 20), internally displaced villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #135, 9/00)

Villagers shot by the soldiers are sometimes able to escape after being shot, only to die later from loss of blood. The soldiers often don't bother to take the time to see what happened to the person they shot at. Other wounded villagers have fallen where they were hit, but rather than capturing them the soldiers have finished them off by shooting them at close range or stabbing them with their bayonets. The dead are often searched and robbed of whatever valuables they have on them. Sometimes the soldiers have mutilated the corpses. A villager from Kyauk Kyi township who was shot dead in January 2000 was later found with his liver and intestines cut out and his penis and testicles cut off. Even if the villagers are able to escape with their wounds there is little or no medicine to treat them and recovery is slow. Many die later from complications due to inadequate treatment, lack of proper medicines, infection or the need to continue fleeing, even if their original wound was relatively minor. [See also the section 'Health and Education'].

From the hundreds of interviews and field reports used in this report, KHRG has compiled lists of 312 civilians in the region who have been killed by SPDC troops in the region since 1998, and another 190 who have been wounded. Even these terrible numbers only reflect a portion of the cases, most of which go unreported. These lists can be seen in Appendix C and Appendix D.

"He was going to find food. We fled and were staying in the jungle, and we didn't have food to eat. He was going to find some paddy. His name was Pa Maung Dah. He was 28 years old and he had a wife and a child. They shot him at Tee Der Aw in Maw Pu village on December 14^th [1999], at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He was with his 2 friends. One is Pa K— and the other one is K—. They escaped. After they shot him, he didn't die at once. It hit his calf. He couldn't flee to escape, and he died. We didn't see his body there. We don't know if they buried him or not. He disappeared and we couldn't find his body. We only saw the place where he had bled. We haven't seen him again, but we always think about it. I can't tell you what it has done to my heart." - "Saw Po Thu" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #128, 12/99)

When they came they saw us and shot at us. They didn't call to us first but I saw them. They killed two people. One was hit in his leg and the other in the stomach. The one who was injured in the stomach died immediately but the other one didn't die until later. He fled, dragging his leg along the ground. They didn't see him anymore. When they found him he was already dead in the jungle. He had fled into the forest and nobody saw him. He was bleeding and then died from lack of medicine. The older one's name was Maung Nay Tu and the younger one was Saw Pah Htoo. They were brothers. They were 30 and 25 years old. They both had wives and their old father is still alive. They were shot in the month of Wa Kaun Lah [July-August 2000]." - "Saw Nuh Po" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #143, 9/00)

"The Burmese shot at them and two of them were killed. After they were killed, the Burmese put sand in their mouths and then wrote a letter in their language and hung it on their bodies saying, "Kayin nga yeh, t'may theh" ["In the Karen spirit world, sand is rice"; normally people put money in the mouth of a dead person for their use in the spirit world, but the soldiers stuffed their mouths with sand to send them with nothing, and also to insult the spirit world of the Karens]. They must have hated them a lot. One of them was named Saw Paw Htoo - he was single, he was my nephew. He was from Ko Say village." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

"After they released the children they shot dead a person right there. His name was Maung Dta. He had a wife and two children. His wife has a lot of relatives so she is able to rely on them and stay with them. After they killed him, they mutilated his body. They took out his liver and intestines, and cut off his penis and testicles. This happened on January 4^th 2000. They usually shoot at villagers whenever they arrive someplace. They shoot and it hits people randomly, even people who have gone to watch the paths." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #75, 3/00)

"Then they entered the place where the villagers were hiding and they starting shooting their guns. The villagers fled and one woman died. Her name was K'Paw Htoo. Two bullets hit her, and she couldn't even scream before she was dead. She had 2 children. They are girls; one is 6 and the other is 4 years old. They took everything in her  bag: some money, earrings, and everything else. Then they dragged her body.  After shooting her, they shot another woman and it hit her armpit, then came out through her back. Her name is Naw Kyu Eh. She didn't die, but she has still not healed yet because the wound is very deep. It's a terrible wound - it's already been 3 weeks but it still hasn't healed, because there is no medicine." - "Naw Si Si Po" (F, 49), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #47, 2/00)

Saw Dee Mu, a 17 year old villager from Lu Thaw township, Papun District, who was shot dead by SPDC soldiers. The soldiers had positioned themselves in bushes nearby, then opened fire without warning. His mother was also killed in the same attack. [KHRG]

"Just two of us were staying there. We were staying in the hill field. They shot at us in the afternoon at around 3:30 on April 17^th 2000. Both of us were wounded. We were shot in the hill field. After we were wounded we came home. The other person who was wounded was Naw L—. She is my wife. She is 31 years old. She was shot by a little gun [a rifle bullet]. She was injured in the shoulder and it went through to the other side. She was wounded by a G3 [assault rifle]. She came back home herself, but we went and carried her when she had almost arrived home. … At first we had no medicine. I couldn't find medicine for a whole month. My friend and I each tried to look for a little. They [other villagers] gave a little medicine to her when she was at home, but none of them had any training. We just looked after her ourselves. She is a little better now, but she has not recovered yet. She was severely wounded but she will recover in maybe about a month. … It has been two months between the last time they shot at us and this time. They come and shoot at us regularly. The first time my wife was injured by a big gun and a kway boe [shrapnel from a mortar shell and a rifle grenade] in the hill field. She was injured behind her ear, on her nose, inside her ear, twice in her thigh and twice in her leg. After she fled to another place, she was shot in the shoulder by a small gun [this is the time he described above]."- "Thein Shwe" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #55, 4/00)

"We didn't know that the SPDC was coming to shoot us. Suddenly there was gunfire and the children were running back and forth. When they shot their small arms [their rifles], nobody was injured. But when they used the big gun [rifle grenades] some people were wounded. The people were very close to the enemy when they were wounded. They fled and hid, suffering with their injuries and the bleeding. When we looked at the Dta Kho Thee Loh Kloh [the Dta Kho Thee River], it looked like a battlefield, but it wasn't. The small river was full of the blood of villagers. The wounded people went over to the south side of the river and stayed there. They stayed very close to the unit of the SPDC which had just shot them. There was a little child named Po Naw Htoo who was wounded in the head. She fainted and was left during the gunfire. Nobody dared to go and take her. At that time her father, Maung K— quickly came up with his wife. His wife was very pregnant and brought one injured baby. They came up during the gunfire. They left their injured child the whole afternoon. At 7 p.m. in the night they went and took their child back. They felt hopeless because they were in the jungle and we had no medicine to heal their child with. The child's whole body was covered in blood. It looked like she was soaked in blood. After they took their child back they just left her like that. Nobody treated the child. They couldn't do anything because there was no medicine. … The SPDC said that they wanted to hurt the villagers. The soldiers saw that the children were going to die. They kept pulling the triggers of their guns and shot the children until they died. Then they went directly back to their camp. After that, the villagers collected the injured. Some of them were saved. The two people who died were just shot to pieces. The first one was shot to pieces but the second one was just seriously injured and died at 8 p.m." - "Pa Mer Ler" (M, 25), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #49, 4/00)

"He went on his own, and he heard someone calling him so he looked. A Burmese was calling him and said, 'Uncle, don't run. Uncle, don't run.' Then he shot him, and Uncle ran. His thigh had been hit, and he fell down. … His younger brother came back, got some people from his house and then went back to his elder brother. When they got there, it was already 8 p.m. When they got him back here, there was no one to treat him. His thigh was broken, and we couldn't do much. We treated it with salt, and the elders bound the wound with yellow [turmeric] powder and spit. Until now, he still can't walk. I don't understand what could have been wrong with the heart of that Burmese? He just saw someone going to find a buffalo, and shot him. … My child came and told me, 'Mother, the Burmese shot Father. His thigh is broken.' At that time I was fetching some water. I asked, 'Is he dead?' and my child said, 'I don't know if he has died or not'. Then his brother arrived and I asked, 'Is he dead? If he is, tell me truly.' Then I started crying, and I asked again, 'Is he dead?' He said, 'He isn't dead, but his thigh is broken.' … I followed him when people went to carry him back, but I had nothing with me [no medicine]. People gave a little yellow powder and P— gave a tablet of penicillin. That was all. After that, people treated it with traditional medicine and it healed, but he still can't walk yet." - "Naw Ghay Muh" (F, 42), internally displaced villager from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #48, 2/00)

"Infantry Battalion #48, Column #2, came to shoot in our village on April 14^th [1999] at 2 p.m., led by commander Soe Min. They shot 7 villagers dead, captured 10 others, and the rest of us escaped, but we couldn't escape with any of our belongings. After they had entered the village, they took all of our belongings and burned down our houses and the church. As for the villagers they had killed, they threw all their bodies into a pile as though they were animals. They took the villagers they had captured to their camp, and then wouldn't let them come back to the village." - "Saw Thay" (M, 49), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #25, 5/99)

"They took everything and burned down the whole village where we had gone to stay [xxxx village], and then they killed those 7 people. … They said that their Operations Commander had ordered them to kill all the men, but those people had done nothing to them. No one shot at them [the KNLA did not attack the SPDC]; they just came and captured villagers and burned down the whole village, including the schools and the church. Then they tied up all of the men and shot them all to death. They killed them horribly, and then piled their bodies all in the same place. They didn't bury them." - "Saw Wah Pa" (M, 33), refugee from S— village, Mone township (Interview #30, 1/00)

"Muh Doh Paw Pa had gone to thresh his paddy at Ler Daw Kee and had just taken a small [cloth] bag. He was in his field on the threshing mat with a bundle of paddy and a stick, and he was beating the paddy, 'peh, peh, peh'. He wasn't looking around, and while he was beating the paddy they came and shot him. He fell down on the mat, and the Burmese left him there. One of his nephews was harvesting but stopped to eat some cucumber [villagers usually grow cucumbers among the paddy plants in their hill fields]. He took a cucumber and ate one or two bites standing up on a stump, and they shot him. He fell. The uncle and the nephew both died." - "Naw Ghay Muh" (F, 42), internally displaced villager from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #48, 2/00)

Detention and Torture

"They captured an old man named Saw D—. He was paralysed from polio. His children didn't have time to carry him, so he was left behind and they found him and tied up his feet. They booted him down on the ground in front of their commander, and then they tied his hands behind his back and interrogated him. They pushed a gun into his mouth and banged his temples, and they kept him tied through the night in the rain. He stayed like that through the whole night until people came back and found him. It was on the 16^th of June that they entered the village and abused him. They didn't kill him, they just tied him very uncomfortably. When people found him the next day they untied him, but a month later he died because of the torture." - "Saw Lu Doh" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #32, 1/00)

Occasionally the soldiers are able to capture villagers whom they have surprised or wounded and decide not to kill them. After being captured, these villagers are usually beaten and tied up, then taken back to a relocation site or Army camp. Nooses are sometimes placed around their necks which are then used by the soldiers to pull them along. Once they arrive at the relocation site or an Army camp the villagers are sometimes released after interrogation, but other times they are detained for a while longer and may be tortured. A villager from Dweh Loh township who was captured in 2000 related to KHRG how he was locked up in a pen for pigs, kicked, beaten, shot, and had water forced down his throat. He was kept like that for more than a month, and by the time he arrived home his wife was pale and had wasted away to skin and bone because she was unable to find enough food without her husband. Those who are told to remain in the relocation site may be provided with a one-time handout of rice and then left to fend for themselves. No other assistance is given, even though some of them have been captured only after being wounded and unable to escape. A 70 year old man from Dweh Loh township told KHRG how he had been shot in the arm and then captured with his children and grandchildren by the soldiers in early 2000. His bag was taken and money was stolen from him and his children and grandchildren. They were taken to a relocation site, where he was put in mediaeval-style leg stocks and left like that overnight despite his age and his wound. In another incident in 2000, the SPDC soldiers shot dead a villager and then took his three young children back to the relocation site. It is not known what happened to the children.

"They questioned me a lot. When we arrived at K— they kicked me, trampled on me, poured water down my throat and shot me. I was wounded in the shoulder. They treated my wound but because I was not their people, they still hurt me. Then they put me in a cage and kept me there. The cage was like a pen where they keep pigs. They still kept me tied tightly. … Yes, they jabbed me with a knife. It was just a little knife. It almost cut me and sometimes I was injured by their servants [the soldiers]. They hurt me behind the back of their officer. I spoke to them, but they didn't listen to me. They stared at me. They grabbed me and pulled me [by the rope tied around his neck]. It made it difficult to breathe because they tied my neck. I had to stay in that cage for more than one month. … My wife couldn't do anything. When I came back her skin was white. She had only bone and skin. There was no food." - "Win Naing" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #140, 9/00)

"We heard the sound of shooting, 'raw raw raw raw' and then we jumped. They came and searched secretly for us and they saw us. I don't know why they shot at us. They shouted at us and told us not to flee. Suddenly I heard the sound, 'tak' and looked at my arm and saw that it was broken. I got hit on my left arm. When I sat down they rushed toward me. I picked up my bag, my pipe and my basket. I told them that if I die then I die, and if I am alive, then all right. Then my children and grandchildren came back and sat beside me. My arm started bleeding and bleeding. … They took our bags and our money. They took a lot of things. I couldn't ever ask for them back. They took things from everybody. They started questioning me. They asked me about the hills and the valley. They picked up a stick to beat me. It was bamboo, a very long piece. It was the commander who did that. I don't know his name but the ones who shot me were Division #66 [LID #66], Infantry Battalion #14 under Major Tun Myint. … They put a little medicine on it. They just took care of me once at the beginning but after that I had to look after myself. I had to bandage it myself. I pounded some turmeric and tied it around the wound. … They just told us to come and stay here. They didn't tell us anything else. Anyway, they were going to beat us and punish us. When we went along the way, he [the officer] kicked me one time. He kicked me twice with his boots. I didn't look at him. He had his head raised. I had a wound but they kicked me anyway. … They made me sleep in the camp and locked my legs [in mediaeval-style bamboo leg stocks]. They locked me for one night. They locked me like that and put everyone else inside the camp. They only locked me alone. All of my children and grandchildren slept beside me. There was no roof, so we slept on the ground. They said we were bad people. They released us the next morning and let us sleep in the camp. … The village head came to vouch for us. They agreed and we came back and ate our own rice. We stayed in our cousins' houses." - "Saw Tha Dah" (M, 70), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #137, 9/00)

"In the Burmese month of Da Boh Dweh, on the 7^th [February 23^rd 2000] at 3 p.m. they came to M— [village] to shoot us. One man was killed, Pa Maung Tu. He was 40 years old. His wife was already dead but he still had three children. The enemy arrested them, they shot their father dead and called the three children to M— [relocation site]. The eldest is a daughter, 11 years old. His wife had gotten sick and died." - "Saw Ner Kaw" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #149, 11/00)

"The next morning we went directly to W—. There, they tied me with nylon rope. I didn't bleed but the wounds became swollen and felt like they were burning. I couldn't feel anything and it was very hot. P— was there and he said, 'Hway! You tied this person very tightly. Release him. Untie the rope a little bit. He hasn't done anything. He is a villager. You have tied him very tightly and that is not our way.' The SPDC replied, 'He is Nga Pway and I will do as I like. Don't tell me anything.' Then the village head from W--- came to vouch for me. He [the SPDC officer] said, 'Hay! We can't release him like this. You must give me 1,000 Kyat. I will release him when I get 1,000 Kyat. I won't release him if I don't get 1,000 Kyat.' Then he released me." - "Aung Aung" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #150, 11/00)

"They shot at us in our houses, not outside the village, and we couldn't run because our children were with us. About 10 people escaped, but they captured over 10 people. As soon as they captured us, they took all of the earrings and bracelets that we were wearing, they grabbed and searched our bags, and some of them tore the bags apart. ... They took everything from everyone, but that was not enough for them. One woman was carrying her child, and they hit her back with a rifle butt so hard it went 'Dtuh!' … They didn't even allow us to keep our baskets. They turned them upside down, and when our sacks of paddy dropped out they threw all the paddy on the ground. … After they captured us they tied us up. They tied our hands together in groups of two or three, and then they tied all of us together with a rope. They tied the married women as well as those who were single, and some of the women who were very old too. They tied us and then left us to sleep that night like that. At night the rains came, but they had already taken our plastic sheets. So the rain came down and the ground became wet, and we just had to sit like that. We had nothing to eat, and they didn't give us any rice or water. We had to stay like that for 2 days and one night. The next day they pulled us up and untied us, and forced us to follow them." - "Naw Lah Muh" (F, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #43, 2/00)

Sometimes the captured villagers are taken along as guides or as porters for the soldiers. This is especially the case if the soldiers are not going immediately back to their camp. The soldiers constantly ask the villagers questions, and then threaten or hit them whenever they don't know the answer. Most villagers in the Papun hills either cannot speak Burmese at all or speak very little of it, which angers the soldiers and results in serious beatings. Captured villagers have also been forced to walk in front of the soldiers to act as human minesweepers or to deter ambushes. While the villagers are with the soldiers they are often given little or no food. They are also usually hit, punched and kicked along the way. They are left tied up for much of the time, even while sleeping.

"[T]hey forced me to go directly there. They forced me to go to M---. We had to sleep two nights along the way. It wasn't comfortable, I just laid down on the ground. We slept together among the trees and bamboo. They didn't give us food, we had to eat our own. They guarded us and asked us many things. They asked us about the hills, the valley and peoples' names. They asked us very threateningly. We were afraid of them and we couldn't speak loudly. In the morning after breakfast they drove us down here [to M---]. We asked them to go first but they told us we had to go first [villagers are often made to walk in front of the soldiers in case of landmines or ambushes]." - "Saw Tha Dah" (M, 70), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #137, 9/00)

"They captured me on January 5^th [2000] at 11 a.m. They captured me on the path when I was carrying betelnut. They punched me, beat me and kicked me. My whole body was bleeding. They beat me and jabbed me with a gun. He [the commander] kicked me with his leg and big shoes [boots]. He kicked me with both his right and left legs. He also punched me with his hands, both right and left. I don't know his name but he was an officer. After they beat me they tied me up and questioned me. They put my hands behind my back and tied me. They also tied my neck [a noose was placed around his neck with which they could pull him along]. They tied me firmly with a kind of nylon string. After they tied me they told me to go and show them T— [village]. … They asked me why I didn't go and stay inside [the relocation site]. I told them, 'We are afraid of you so we don't dare go and stay there.' I just told him like that. 'We are afraid of you. You force us to work so we don't dare to go.' … They met with the KNU and they fought with them. Then they asked me, 'Who is shooting at us? You have to know them because you know people around here.' I told them that I didn't know who shot at them. Even if I knew some of the people, there were a lot of people that I didn't know. I told them, 'I am just following you and I don't know who shot at you.' Along the way they were asking me questions. They kept me in front of them when they heard the sound of shooting. They asked me questions while I walked." - "Win Naing" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #140, 9/00)

Captured villagers are sometimes accused of being KNU or KNLA and summarily executed by the SPDC soldiers. No evidence is presented against them and they are never given a trial. The villagers are simply killed for the crime of living outside the SPDC's control. Of one group of six villagers who were captured in 2000 by SPDC soldiers, two were released but the other four were tied up by the soldiers and taken to an Army camp. They were accused of being KNU and then executed after five days.

"They [the soldiers] organised the people and they surrendered to the soldiers. They were from my village. The soldiers captured them at W—. I don't remember the date but it was many days ago. They lived a little far from the village so maybe they didn't have food anymore and went to find food and salt. Then they met the SPDC and were captured. They captured six people and let two go. One of them was a little boy. They tied the other four up with plant fibre and pulled them along to their camp. I didn't see this happen myself but I heard from the other two who were released. One of their names was Naw P—, 27 years old, and the other was M—. … After they pulled them to their camp, they needed someone to guarantee for them and then they would released. But the person who would guarantee for them would be giving his life. They couldn't guarantee the other three. They were just villagers and they weren't against them. They had nothing with them. They were just villagers. They only had their bags, pipes and tobacco. The SPDC believed that they worked together with the KNU and the KNU are the people who have weapons and are against them [the SPDC]. So they let the villagers stay for four or five days and then they killed them." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

Landmines

"They put them every place when they come: in the village, beside the path and in the forest. They put them every place they go. The Burmese do it. They [the landmines] hurt and kill the villagers and they hurt and kill the soldiers. They lay the landmines in the villages and outside the villages. Everywhere where they are going to stay they lay landmines all around. When the people [the KNLA] couldn't find them all, it is mostly the villagers who step on them and die." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01)

Landmines are extensively used by both the SPDC and the KNLA in the hills of the two districts. A tactic used by SPDC soldiers which is becoming more and more common is the placing of landmines in deserted villages and in the hill fields. Villages are often mined by the SPDC soldiers after the villagers flee to prevent the villagers from returning, and the landmining of the fields prevents the harvest of those fields or any future use of the fields until the mines have been cleared. Burned villages are sometimes landmined because the soldiers know the displaced villagers will return to forage for their belongings. Abandoned villages are sometimes landmined instead of being burned. Landmines have been placed next to people's houses and even at the foot of the ladders up into houses. The use of landmines has become so common and the fear of them so great that villagers are unwilling to go back to their villages after the soldiers have been there out of fear of them.

"They planted landmines. The [KNLA] people saw one. They went to clear the place and saw it at the foot of the steps, so they took it out before the owner went back to the house." "Naw Si Si Po" (F, 49), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #47, 2/00)

"Q: Do you think the SPDC lays landmines?

A: Yes. There are some in the P'Nah Ay Per Ko area. We heard one of the porters who came back say, 'They [the SPDC soldiers] said they had come and laid 30 landmines in Ler Mu Plaw village tract at P'Nah Ay Per Ko.' If we step on these 30 landmines we will die immediately. None of their mines allow us to live if we step on them. We will die on every mine." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

"Right now they are also planting a lot of landmines. They plant them everywhere they go. They already planted some at Aw Mu Kee, Aw Mu Hta, and Ghaw Kee." - "Saw Lay Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #76, 3/00)

"On February 22^nd 2000 they entered the big village of M— and planted landmines. The people don't know how many landmines they planted, but people found 3 landmines. They do this to decrease the space where we can live - they have many kinds of tricks to do that.

Q: Do they plant landmines close to the village?

A: They plant them very close to the village, some are even right next to people's houses. A landmine exploded on January 13^th 2000 near Po Khaw Der village and it hit Hser Ghay Htoo who died. And on January 23^rd 2000 another landmine exploded in Po Lah forest. A villager named Maung Yay Han stepped on it, and he died. We do not know why they do this. People don't know and can't see how many they have planted, so people have to worry and be afraid. People have already taken out 7 landmines that the Burmese planted. If we include these with the ones which already exploded, there are 14 landmines that we have already found, just in the Kheh Der village tract area." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #75, 3/00)

A villager killed by a landmine in mid-April 2001 in Bu Tho township, eastern Papun District. [KHRG]

"We don't dare go back to stay there, because they've come and planted landmines. We know that they've planted them, but the area is very wide and we can't find them. That's why people don't dare go back and stay there. They haven't found any landmines there yet, but the mines have hurt people. Pa B— stepped on one, last Friday [January 28^th 2000] at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He lost his leg." - "Saw Pwih" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from H— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #31, 1/00)

"If the Burmese had already arrived at your hill field, you had to leave that hill field and you couldn't dare work in it anymore. If you worked there again, maybe you would step on a landmine. If you clear your hill field by burning it, maybe bombs will explode beside you." - "Saw Thay Muh" (M, 45), refugee from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #67, 1/00)

"We still dare to work the hill fields. The villagers go, but the Burmese plant landmines. Some villagers have died, and some have survived. The Burmese know all because they are not far away and they can look down on us [from their high position they can see the villagers working the hillside fields]." - "Saw Tha Say" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #33, 1/00)

Landmines are also placed on trails used by the villagers to restrict their movements. This is especially so on trails which the SPDC knows the villagers are using to get rice and other supplies. Some are buried, while others are attached to a trip wire which has been strung across a trail. Landmines have also been used as booby-traps. In one instance a woman was raped and then killed by an SPDC officer. A landmine was then placed beside her body which later killed her brother who had come to find her.

"They didn't torture the villagers because we were able to flee and escape. But when the civilians went back to search for food [in the village] the soldiers had planted landmines and one of the villagers stepped on one. His name was Kaw Ka. He was about 60 years old and has a wife and children. His wife and children are here [with them]. She has married again." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"They plant landmines on the main path which people use for transportation. After planting them, they just move on. It is the path that the villagers usually walk on because it is a very big, red path. When people go on it, they step on the mines. They [the SPDC] don't care about that. It's a main path, and after they pass along it they lay landmines on it. If you lay landmines on a main pathway that the villagers use, you can't fail to hit the villagers. So it strikes the villagers." - "Saw Lay Pa" (M, 39), refugee from T— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #66, 1/00)

Neither the SPDC nor the KNLA has signed the International Treaty to Ban Landmines. In the mid-1990s the Chinese government supplied the SPDC with a factory to produce landmines domestically, so the regime no longer needs to rely on supplies of Chinese or American-made mines. The SPDC now produces two main landmines: the MM-1 and the MM-2. The MM-1 is a copy of the Chinese-made PMOZ-2 or 'corncob' mine, and the MM-2 is a copy of the Chinese-made PMN mine; both of these Chinese models have been heavily used in Cambodia [photos of these mines can be seen in KHRG Photo Set 2001-A (September 2001)]. Prior to the introduction of the MM-1 and MM-2, the SLORC/SPDC primarily used PMN mines and American M76A1 mines. The MM-1, roughly the size and shape of a soft drink tin, can be buried or rigged to a tripwire, while the disc-shaped MM-2 is buried so that the flat top surface is at ground level. Of the two, the MM-1 is the more powerful.

Landmines are often removed by the KNLA if any of their units are around. Sometimes it is the villagers themselves who remove them. Neither the KNLA nor the villagers have any mine detection equipment or body shields, so landmine removal is very dangerous and numerous KNLA soldiers and villagers have been killed or maimed while removing them. In the past 5 years the KNLA has also become a heavy user of landmines. During this time American and Chinese mines have become much less available on the black market, so the KNLA makes most of its own out of simple materials like PVC piping, scrap metal and shotgun pellets. Hugely outnumbered by SPDC troops and short of ammunition, the KNLA has become heavily reliant on landmines to restrict the movements of SPDC troops and keep its own supply and movement lines open. The KNLA also uses its mines to ambush SPDC columns and protect KNLA positions, and vehicle mines are also made and used to ambush SPDC supply trucks on the roads. KNLA landmines also keep open some routes used by villagers and protect some of the larger IDP sites. Neither side, however, keeps maps of where their mines are laid. The KNLA tries to tell villagers which pathways are mined, but their efforts always prove insufficient. The result is that while most villagers are killed or wounded on SPDC mines, many also step on those laid by the KNLA.

"The soldiers [KNLA] who stay there went to take them out. The soldiers [KNLA] stepped on it, but no villagers did. The chickens and pigs don't go there and I haven't seen them [SPDC soldiers] lay landmines in the village. The people [KNLA] haven't seen any landmines there yet. … They [the SPDC] laid them at Loh Day and on the path between Per Kee Der and Thay Koh Hser Der. They laid the landmines when they came up. They lay them outside the village on the path. The people [KNU/KNLA] went to take one out on the path between Ta Keh Pu and Baw Kwaw and they also removed two landmines between Thay Koh Hser Der and Khaw Lu. … Kaw Thoo Lei [villager slang for KNU/KNLA] plants landmines and the Burmese also plant landmines. The Kaw Thoo Lei plant landmines near the Burmese camps." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

"When they came to the village they burned down our houses. After they burned the houses they went back. They stepped on a landmine planted by our brothers who take responsibility [KNLA]. Two of them were injured. They then went back to their place and stayed there for a few days and then went down [to the plains]." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"We couldn't stay in our place anymore. It is not fair, but because we couldn't defend well against them, whether it is fair or not we have to let them. This was in 1999. In 2001 they oppress us hard but because the people [KNLA] defend us with landmines, they can't come and oppress us anymore. But they always will still have their plan for us." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

"They planted landmines at Loh Day. They planted them on the path and they hurt the buffaloes. The people went and saw the landmines and took them out. The KNU took them out. They took out two landmines at Thay Koh Hser Der and one at Loh Day." - "Saw Ler Wah" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #5, 6/01)

Two SPDC landmines unearthed by KNLA soldiers in Papun District in March 2001. On the left is an American-made M76A1 mine and on the right is an MM-1 mine made in Burma. [KHRG]

The toll on civilians has been high. In these remote areas with no clinics or hospitals and almost no medicine, stepping on a landmine almost always means death as there is no way to treat the extensive injuries. Of the 313 villagers KHRG has documented as being killed by the SPDC and DKBA since mid-1998 (see list in Appendix C), 35 of them died as a result of stepping on landmines. This number is far from complete and reflects only those areas where KHRG was able to gather information; the real number is probably two or three times higher. During the same period of time, only six villagers in the area were documented as surviving landmine injuries. Some villagers do survive, but there is no treatment for them and prosthetic limbs are scarce. If they survive their best hope is to reach a refugee camp in Thailand where there are prosthetic and rehabilitation programmes, but this means a long and difficult flight through even more minefields.

"A villager also stepped on one, and that also happened in December. People called him Kyaw Yeh. He was about 30 years old. He was going to feed his pig in our village and stepped on a landmine. He died, but he didn't die immediately. He suffered for 3 days." - "Saw Bway Htoo" (M, 42), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #130, 4/00)

"On the 18^th they crossed to Po Kler/Ber Baw Kee and planted landmines. A villager stepped on one. His name was Saw Pweh Kaw. He stepped on it on the 18^th at 2 p.m., and he died that night. He wanted to see his wife and children, that's why he was coming." - "Po Tha Dah" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from B— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #46, 2/00)

"Usually they come up and burn the paddy, and now they are also planting landmines. They are doing this the same way elsewhere as in our area. In Ler Doh township, [KNLA] Battalion #9 area, they are planting landmines. We've seen 6 or 7 of our villagers step on them. I don't know how well the people are surviving in the other areas, but I would guess that they are the same as us. The enemy was operating everywhere around here during harvest time, so I guess that their survival is not different from ours. They must be the same as us." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"That second time they came to plant landmines. Two people were killed when they stepped on those landmines, between the Neh Loh Kloh and Khoh Loh Kloh [Salween River]. There was another person who stepped on a landmine at Wah Tho Day, his name was Yu Po. I think parts of his body were blown off, and then he died. He was young and a good worker." - "Saw Lay Thu" (M, 38), internally displaced villager from D— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #36, 1/00)

Animals are not immune either; many pigs, buffaloes, cattle and even elephants have fallen victim. For villagers doing flatland irrigated rice farming buffaloes are essential for ploughing the paddies, and raising and selling livestock is the only way villagers can get money to buy rice in difficult times or pay SPDC extortion fees. Elephant owners derive their entire living from hiring out their elephant to haul logs and do other heavy work. The landmines do not usually kill the elephants because they are so big, but they do destroy at least one of the legs and the animal then slowly dies from lack of treatment and medicine.

"People, elephants and buffaloes. There is one elephant that was hurt by a landmine. It happened in July 2000. After one of the people stepped on the mine, two weeks later the elephant was hurt by the landmine. It hasn't healed and it doesn't walk. It doesn't work anymore and it is getting thinner. It has three legs left. The owner couldn't treat it. He just gives it penicillin injections. He has already given it a lot of penicillin injections. He just treats it with turmeric and ginger and vegetables and bamboo leaves boiled in water."- "Saw Ko Suh" (M, 54), internally displaced village head from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #58, 3/01)

"Another landmine exploded on January 5^th 2000 at Poh Kyo and killed Pu M—-'s buffalo. On January 8^th 2000, another landmine exploded near Po Khaw Der village and killed a pig. A landmine exploded on January 9^th 2000 above Paw Taw Lay Ko and also killed a pig." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #75, 3/00)

"They come and landmine our area. When you go out [of the village] you get hurt. When you go out you get hurt often. So our families and our villagers are fewer and fewer. There have been 30 or 40 buffaloes hurt by the landmines. This is both the male and female buffaloes. One of my sisters had four buffaloes but all of her buffaloes are dead because they stepped on landmines. Her husband also died at that time. So my sister has to remain a widow with three children. We couldn't help her in any way." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

Crop Destruction and Food Shortages

"Their aim is to destroy the paddy so the civilians won't be able to stay anymore. Then the KNU leaders won't be able to rely on us and if the leaders can't rely on us and there are no civilians, they [the SPDC] will think they have gotten their country. So they are cutting off everything." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"They came up and destroyed things often. If they came and saw something they destroyed it and if they saw our hill field they destroyed that too. If they saw our storage barn they destroyed that. … They also burned the hill fields that people hadn't burned off yet. It was during the time when people were cutting their hill fields [in January or February 2001]." - "Saw Wih Kyay" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #111, 4/01)

A key element of the SPDC's strategy since 1999 has been its sustained effort to deprive the villagers of their food supply. This has been a much more effective tactic than the shooting or capturing of the villagers. The SPDC's columns have already burned down most of the villages in the area, but the villagers simply moved to live spread out in smaller shelters in the forest. The new strategy targets not only the rice storage barns but also the fields themselves. The soldiers go through the fields and trample, burn or landmine the crops just before or at harvest time, and also sabotage the fields before they can even be planted. Without their food supplies, and with no hope of growing more food, the villagers try to survive on roots and jungle vegetables, but eventually face the choice of going down to the relocation sites, fleeing to Thailand or dying of starvation in the jungle. In the testimonies gathered by KHRG for this report, it is apparent that the villagers are very aware of the SPDC's strategy and that without food they will be forced to leave the area. Whether or not this would actually bring about the end of KNU/KNLA activity in the region, as the SPDC believes, is not easy to predict.

"They came over 2 months ago, when the villagers were harvesting. They destroyed our paddy and rice. They destroyed the paddy from many villages: Meh Gha Law, Da Baw Kee, Lay Hta, Maw Pu, Dta Kaw Hta, Si Pa Leh, Meh Kyay Hta, Nya Peh Hta, and Eh Hta [some of these villages are in northwestern Dweh Loh township, such as Meh Gha Law, others in Lu Thaw township, such as Dta Kaw Hta, and others in Shwegyin township, such as Si Pa Leh; however, they are all in the same Bilin River area]. Those villagers had to flee and hide, so they came to our area." - "Saw Po Lay" (M, 50+), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #69, 1/00)

"Then when I had not yet finished cutting my hill field last year, the Burmese came and burned it again. We had to run during the hill field burning time. We also had to run during the grass-cutting [weeding] time and also during the paddy-planting time. We were late in burning the field and planting the paddy. The paddy wasn't good and there wasn't enough, so we thought that if we stayed there this year the way would be closed for us. The Burmese came and stayed in Khaw Kyo so if we needed rice we could not come and carry it from here every time [from safer areas in Papun District]. That is why we came and stayed a little closer to here, because we think we will carry rice to eat." - "U Gah Lu" (M, 46), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #102, 3/01)

"When we look back on last year and this year they have been worse than the previous one or two years. Last year we couldn't work for a living. We had to work and run, work and run. That is why we don't have enough paddy. We should have gotten 10 or 20 baskets of paddy [after the harvest] but we only got one or two baskets. This year it is the same as last year. The soldiers come to operate near us. It has already been one or two years. The situation is much worse. We can't stay in our own village and we can't work easily. We have to flee and work in the jungle. We don't have as much food as in the past. In the past, we had enough food some years and some years not enough. If there was not enough food in the past it was because the mice and birds destroyed it. Now the mice and birds don't come and destroy it much, it is because the enemy is always coming up and oppressing us. We haven't finished doing our work [they hadn't finished the harvest]. When we run away the birds, pigs and buffaloes eat the paddy. Everything has been a problem for many years." - "Saw Tee Ko" (M, 50), internally displaced village head from H— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #91, 2/01)

"We don't know anything about what they will do next. We thought that they would go back, but the [KNLA] people said that they will continue to work here for 3 months. They think that they will eat all of our paddy and everything that belongs to us, so that we will starve to death. When we all die, they will go back. If they don't go back, they will stay forever and rule this area. They do not come to develop the future of the civilians. They just come to break us all." - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

Much of the SPDC's efforts are now concentrated on destroying the villagers' crops. For much of the June-October rainy season the villagers are left in peace as the rain and mud makes it difficult for the SPDC to keep up their patrolling of the hills. The end of the rainy season means two things: the villagers can now harvest their crops and the SPDC's Army can now send its columns through the hills. The hill fields by nature are very easy to see, the trees have been cut down to make the fields and the golden paddy at harvest time stands out in contrast to the green of the forest around it. A month before the harvest can begin, SPDC patrols already start looking for planted fields and trample down the crops or landmine the fields. The movement of these patrols through the hills also puts the villagers on the run, taking them away from their fields just at harvest time. Even more patrols are sent out when harvest time starts to look for the family groups working in the fields. When the SPDC columns see villagers harvesting they sometimes open fire from the adjacent hill, but they usually try to approach right to the edge of the field, then open fire without warning using assault rifles and rifle grenades. Once the villagers have fled, leaving their dead and pulling along their wounded, the soldiers don't actively pursue them but concentrate on destroying the crops. The unharvested paddy is burned or trampled down by the soldiers. Some of the paddy may also be harvested and taken away by the soldiers. In some cases, villagers have resorted to harvesting at night with KNLA soldiers posted around the field to avoid being shot at by SPDC patrols.

"We left last year [2000]. We worked and had a hill field. After we finished working, the Burmese ate all the paddy in my paddy barn. During the rainy season I ate my brother-in-law's paddy. When we carried up my brother-in-law's paddy to the place where we pound the paddy, the Burmese came and chased us and got 10 baskets of paddy. The Burmese ate it all." - "U Gah Lu" (M, 46), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #102, 3/01)

Part of a hill rice field in the Meh Gha Law area burned by SPDC troops. Note the paddy dumped on the ground (left foreground) which has gone to seed. [KHRG]

"It was during the time when the paddy is getting ripe [October/November]. Before the paddy was ripe they passed through it and ripped off all the grains. They didn't even keep the grains that were already ripe, they just stripped them off and destroyed them like that. Everywhere they went, they destroyed all of it. I think they hit the paddy stalks with sticks and the grains scattered, because we didn't see any sign that the plants had been trampled." - "Saw Lay Pa" (M, 39), refugee from T— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #66, 1/00)

"[T]hey harvest, pound, and carry it away. They send it to their battalion camp where they are based. They harvested the best rice and trampled on the rest. They beat it down with a stick. They are destroying all the hill fields. The villagers dare not go back to harvest, because the Burmese are capturing porters." - "Puh Ghay" (M, 60), internally displaced village head from N— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #125, 11/99)

Once the villagers have been able to harvest at least some of their crop, they carry it to small storage barns hidden in the forest. The soldiers then seek out and destroy any of these paddy storage barns they can find. The soldiers first loot as much paddy and rice as they can carry from the barns. The rest is then thrown on the ground or burned together with the storage barn. Paddy which has been harvested but left on large mats in the fields to dry is also taken away or destroyed.

"We managed to reap some of our paddy, but then we fled. We had to leave all the paddy that we couldn't reap. We dared not go back and touch it. Animals like pigs and buffaloes have eaten it all. The paddy that we got was not enough for ourselves, and we hid it in the jungle. The enemy troops came and searched and found our paddy barns. When they saw the paddy barns, they took everything. The villagers keep boxes [wooden boxes of clothing and other belongings] and rice inside and they took it all. They burned down all the paddy barns that they saw. They leave nothing. When they see our chickens, pigs, and buffaloes, they eat some and some they don't eat, they just shoot them dead." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"They came to destroy the rice because it was harvest time. They threw away the rice that people had stored in their rice barns. They destroyed some, threw some and pounded some [to eat themselves]. They dug a hole and laid the paddy from the sacks in it and then cut a tree and used it to pound the rice in the hole. They carried as much as they could and pounded it. The paddy that they couldn't carry they threw away." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

"They didn't catch or hurt anyone or burn the rice barns but they took all the paddy. There was only one rice barn. It was about 20, 30 or 40 baskets and they carried it all. I don't know what they do with the things they take. Maybe it is a gift for their wives or children, I don't know. They can do whatever they want to do." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

"They destroyed all the paddy they didn't carry away. They threw it all on the ground. The other people are the same and don't have any paddy anymore. It was in the second week of harvesting paddy, so we hadn't taken it from the hill field yet. We have to dry it before we put it in the rice barn. It happened too fast. We heard the news [that the SPDC soldiers were coming] and it was not more than three days before they arrived." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"They came up one time when the villagers were harvesting. We were trying to harvest the paddy, but in fear. We were able to finish. After that they came up, and we fled. The people [KNLA] shot at them and followed them. Their trail led to the paddy barns and the Burmese had already burned them…" - "Saw Muh Dah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #87, 4/00)

The last two years has also seen the soldiers using a new tactic; burning the cut brush off the fields before it has properly dried. Before a hill field can be used the trees and brush which have grown up on it since it was last used must be cut down. This cut brush is then left to dry where it fell in the fields for a month or two. When it has fully dried the villagers then burn it. The ash provides both nutrients for the soil and protection for the seeds against the wind and the coming rains. When the soldiers burn the brush beforehand it burns unevenly because much of it has not yet dried sufficiently. If the villagers try a second burn, the fire will keep going out. The result is that the villagers can only use those parts of their fields which did burn properly, drastically cutting down the area that can be planted and thus the possible amount that can be harvested.

"There is a problem among the people where I am staying. Most of them don't have enough food. There is not enough because last year they did their hill fields at Tee Tha Reh Kee and Kaw La Wa Lay and before they were finished clearing their hill fields the Burmese came and burned them. The people didn't have time to burn their hill fields because the Burmese came up and they had to flee. The Burmese burned the 'kaw' [the cut brush and trees which must be fully dried to ensure a complete burn so the villagers can use all of the field]. They burned the 'kaw' and then in the rainy season they came again. When it was time to cut the grass and plant the paddy, they didn't have time to plant the paddy. Some people planted late so their paddy was no good. When the paddy was gold [ripe] the soldiers came again and the people fled again. When the soldiers left the people went back to harvest and could only get a few baskets. Each person who has come now only got 10 baskets. It is because they couldn't do large or long hill fields. It was not enough to eat, so the people moved here to hire themselves out and harvest the paddy for other people. One of my friends didn't even get 10 baskets. He has come and hired himself out here. The people don't dare do their hill fields anymore." - "U Gah Lu" (M, 46), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #102, 3/01)

"Now we don't have food to eat. We can't find it. We can't even go to look for it. We want to clear the hill fields now, but we don't have any rice to eat and we can't burn off the fields because the Burmese came and burned them already. … We don't know what we will do because we don't have any rice. If we had rice [to plant], we would go to burn off the hill fields. This year we don't have rice to eat, but next year will be worse because we won't even have our fields."- "Saw Muh Dah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #87, 4/00)

Sometimes the villagers are forced to abandon their fields when the Army columns come close. Depending on the movements of the columns the villagers may have to stay away from their fields for weeks. By the time the soldiers have moved on, much of the crop has been destroyed by animals which have trampled it or eaten it. SPDC soldiers also sometimes harvest the ripe paddy themselves and take it with them. If they are able to go back to the village, the villagers try to harvest as much of their paddy as they can before the soldiers come again. Too often the amount they are able to harvest amounts to only a few baskets, or enough to feed a family for a month or two. The SPDC's new tactic of establishing camps in the villages and landmining the fields makes it almost impossible for the villagers to go back and harvest their crops or to return to take harvested paddy from their storage barns, leaving them with very little food for the coming year.

"Since we started working on the hill fields, the Burmese have been coming up during the harvest time when the paddy turns gold. They hadn't arrived yet, but we dared not harvest the paddy so pigs destroyed it all. When we went back to harvest it the next time, we finished but they [the soldiers] came again. They searched our things and slept at our places. They saw everything [they found all their belongings and paddy barns] and we just fled and escaped. We couldn't stay there so we started to come up [to the refugee camp]." - "Pa Kah Lay" (M, 39), villager from W— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #132, 5/00)

A villager stands in his hill field which was prematurely burned by SPDC troops. His field is no longer usable to plant rice in the rainy season and he will be unable to grow a crop. [KHRG]

Another problem for the villagers is the environment, which has not been kind to them over the past few years. Hill rice farming does not produce the same volume of paddy at harvest time as irrigated flat rice fields. Even in good years, villagers are usually only able to harvest enough to take them through to the next harvest with a small surplus. The last few years have seen droughts followed by early and heavy rains and also insect infestations. This is in addition to the other problems mentioned above caused by the SPDC's policies.

"The problem in the country is about working to eat. Some people's paddy is no good. The rain doesn't fall and the weather is not right. The enemy is operating. It is not easy to work. We can't do the hill fields anymore, so they have become destroyed. Some people made large hill fields but they only got 10 or 20 big tins [of paddy]. Some people got 40 or 50 big tins. Some people have to work in the water [flat fields] so they are faced with a problem because sometimes there is no water. When there is water there is a lot of water. We can't work anymore anywhere." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"This year it rained and the villagers couldn't burn the hill fields anymore. They couldn't cut or work anymore. When is it going to dry? If it doesn't dry we can't eat rice anymore. The only thing is for all of us to go to the refugee camp. If we go, Kawthoolei will be finished. ... Insects destroyed a lot of the paddy this year [the harvest in December 2000]. It will not be easy to get past this." - "Saw Lin Yone" (M, 32), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #2, 2/01)

"In the past, we had to work in fear and terror but we could get enough food for each year. But last year, we couldn't work our fields because they kept destroying things, and then the rains came before we'd burned off our fields so we worried that we wouldn't get enough paddy for seed [for next year]. This year no one in the whole village got enough food, out of 40 households in Saw Ka Der village tract." - "Saw Kleh Wah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #42, 2/00)

When the SPDC soldiers arrive at a village they shoot and eat any of the livestock which they find including chickens, pigs and buffaloes. The animals which they can't eat or take, they kill to deny them to the villagers. One SPDC deserter told KHRG that he and the other soldiers had been ordered to kill the chickens and pigs when 'clearing' villages. In one village of Lu Thaw township a note was left by the soldiers on the carcass of a dead buffalo, after its heart had been removed and its eyes stabbed with a knife, which said that the buffaloes and other animals were also their enemy because they were used to feed the Karen people who were their enemy.

"When the SPDC came the people were harvesting their paddy at that time, but none of them had finished harvesting their paddy yet. All of them had to leave their hill fields like that [half harvested]. They ran to stay with us. None of them could carry and bring their food, so when they came to stay among us they had a food problem. … They can't go back to get food. They don't dare to go back to their village because the Burmese have made camps step by step to Per Kee Der. They just go and ask for a little bit from the villagers in our village. " - "Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #3, 2/01)

"We could only send the old people and children, so we couldn't bring the food. We had to find food at Kheh Pa. When we started to flee we still had food in our village, but the Burmese ate it. The paddy was ripe but we couldn't do anything, we had to leave it and flee. We worked the whole year and when we saw the paddy ripen, we had to leave it for the Burmese." - "Saw Ghaw" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #98, 3/01)

"Most of them don't have paddy anymore. Among ten people there will be one who still has paddy. When there is enough time [when the SPDC columns aren't around] they run and carry the paddy away quickly." - "Saw Kyi Po" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #107, 3/01)

"They ate them all. They also ate the cattle and buffaloes they shot dead. They ate everybody's pigs and chickens. There was nothing they didn't eat. There were many chickens so I can't remember how many. … [T]hey shot and ate them. Some of the buffaloes they didn't eat, they just shot them dead. I don't know why, maybe they [the buffaloes] were against them. It is because they couldn't control us so they fight us with food and with the animals. They killed seven buffaloes. There were big female buffaloes and there were also male buffaloes." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

"They also shot some buffaloes, then cut open the body of one of them, took out the heart and stabbed out its eyes with a knife, and then left a note that said: 'Buffaloes are feeding Karen people, and Karen people are my enemy, so all the buffaloes and other animals that feed Karen people are also my enemies. Everything that feeds Karen people is my enemy.' … [T]hey said that Karen people use them [cattle and buffaloes] to plough and plant, and that's why Karen people can survive from our work - and that all of these things which help Karen people to continue our lives, they will see as their enemies. They shot to kill all of them. They shot pigs and chickens to eat, then wandered through the villages and burned down all the villages. None of those villages are safe. They [the SPDC soldiers] eat the paddy from our barns and if they cannot eat it all, they throw it away, and if they don't scatter it, they set it on fire. So we could not stay there anymore because what they are doing to Karen people is very hateful. They deal with Karen people as terribly as they want to, they beat us and tell us that they consider us their main enemy, so we Karen can't tolerate it." - "Saw Lah Htoo" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #35, 1/00)

"They ate some and destroyed the rest. They shot one buffalo dead but didn't eat it, it just rotted there. In our area, they carried away about 200 tins of paddy. They ate it in the place where they slept, and destroyed what they didn't want by just leaving it there." - "Saw Kweh Pa" (M, 34), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #45, 2/00)

"[A]t T--- the people fed the animals when they fled, but when the soldiers came they ate all the animals. This time when they came maybe some of the soldiers ate them. People said that when they saw the soldiers pass into the fields they destroyed them all. There are no cattle or buffaloes anymore in the village. There were cattle and buffaloes but the last time the soldiers came they ate them all. There were about 20 cows and buffaloes altogether." - "Saw Htoo Lay" (M, 53), internally displaced village head from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #89, 12/00)

"They ate the buffaloes and pigs. All! I just had three pigs and three chickens. One of the pigs was 30 viss [48 kg / 108 lb] and the other two were about one viss [1.6 kg / 3.6 lb] each. People sell them for 500 Kyat per viss. They also ate the other people's poultry. We didn't see anything when we arrived at the village. They had eaten them. We went and saw the blood. They ate all the pigs and chickens. They ate H—-'s buffaloes, B—-'s buffaloes and  B—-'s buffaloes. They ate some and some stepped on landmines and died. A lot of the buffaloes have stepped on landmines and died. They are the SPDC's mines." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"There are no chickens or pigs in our village. When they came the first time they ate them all. They ate everything they could capture."- "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

A buffalo lies dead in an abandoned village in the Meh Gha Law area, Dweh Loh township, shot by an SPDC patrol. [KHRG]

"They cut up and ate one of Saw P—-'s cattle, and they shot dead 9 cattle and buffaloes including 3 of mine. They just shot them dead, they didn't eat them." - "Saw Pwih" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from H— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #31, 1/00)

In many locations the villagers try to grow cash crops in small plots in the jungle like betelnut trees, coconut trees and betel-chewing leaf plants. The villagers can then sell or barter the produce to villagers from the SPDC controlled villages in order to get rice. Because of this, these crops are also targeted by the SPDC. Cash crops which the soldiers find in the jungle are stolen or destroyed by the soldiers when they come upon them.

"They destroy our things too. When they come if they see rice, they pull it [the plants] out. If they see betelnut trees, they cut them down. If they come upon a hut they burn it and destroy everything. I had 1,500 betelnut trees. The battalion that came and cut down my trees was Infantry Battalion #11, Division [LID] #66. Their Commander was Major Tun Myint. They cut down the trees in five betelnut plantations. Just on my plantation there were 1,500 trees. I could get 200,000 to 300,000 Kyat for the betelnuts [per year] on my plantation. … In the past we worked on our hill fields and betelnut plantations. We sold the produce and we were able to feed all 13 people in our family. Since the SPDC destroyed our betelnut plantation, burned our hut and destroyed our things we have had no idea what we will do for our future. Now we have a very hard life. We have to eat boiled rice soup [this is eaten as a last resort to make the rice last longer] and bamboo shoots. I have no idea about the future. I don't have a betelnut plantation anymore. We have no jobs to do. The SPDC came and destroyed all our things and now we can't do anything." - "Saw Mi Taw" (M, 41), internally displaced villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #138, 9/00)

"We are not against them [the SPDC], but when they come they destroy everything they see. They burn the huts, cut down the betelnut trees, and cut down any plant which is useful. If they see a durian tree they wait until the fruit is ripe. If they can't watch over it, they cut it down. They have cut down a lot of durian trees. If they see rice barns they burn them. If they see people they shoot to kill them. What are we going to do? If we have to endure it for much longer we are going to die." - "Saw Nyunt Htin" (M, 20), internally displaced villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #135, 9/00)

"They cut the yellow durian out of the trees. We couldn't eat durian anymore. It seems like they want to make all the native inhabitants poor. When they came we couldn't eat chillies anymore. They pulled out all the chillie bushes and collected all the chillies. When we went back to look there was nothing left. They said that they would do things like that until the KNU military collapses. So they drove all the villages together." - "Myo Nyunt" (M, 20), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #141, 9/00); durian is a highly valued seasonal fruit

"We were going to grow dogfruit, betelnut and pepper [to sell or barter for rice]. But when the enemies saw these things, they cut down the dogfruit trees and pulled out the pepper plants. Then we couldn't find any money and we didn't have food to eat. That is why we had to make our way, step by step, to here." - "Saw Maw Ray Heh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #151, 11/00)

The villagers in the hills of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts practice a subsistence form of agriculture which provides them with enough food to make it from harvest to harvest. A bad harvest would normally mean that a villager would have to borrow or barter for rice from his neighbours or from the next village. Rarely would a villager starve or be in danger of starving. Villagers with more paddy helped those who didn't have enough. The chaos caused by the many years of dislocation due to fighting, forced relocations and fleeing into the jungle from the Burmese soldiers has destroyed this mostly self-sufficient system. The harvests are too small and it is becoming more difficult to borrow rice because no one has enough rice anymore. The shortage of food has become a serious problem for the villagers. Boiled rice porridge mixed with whatever they can forage in the forest is traditionally eaten by Karen villagers at the end of the rainy season to make the rice supply last until harvest if the harvest was a little small the previous year. It is often used by villagers as a measure of how bad the situation in an area is. In many areas villagers now talk of eating boiled rice porridge at the beginning of the rainy season, or even while they are still preparing their fields. The fact that they are eating it this early in the year means that they will probably run out of rice long before the harvest.

"It is because of the SPDC. If they didn't do this, the people could live year to year. If the SPDC soldiers hadn't come to operate we would not have had to come to this place. We could work and eat year by year. If we didn't have enough and needed a bit, we could ask for it from our brothers and sisters. In the past, sometimes the soldiers weren't active. For example, when they weren't active 'Saw Thu' had enough, and if 'Saw Thu' didn't have enough and needed two or three baskets, the villagers arranged with each other and they were okay."- "U Gah Lu" (M, 46), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #102, 3/01)

"Last year no one among us needed to eat boiled rice soup [a last resort when the rice has to be made into a porridge in order to stretch the supply], but I think that by the middle of this year a lot of people will need to eat boiled rice due to the Burmese oppression. Even just finding rice to boil will be a problem." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 63), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #70, 2/00)

"Sometimes people go and borrow food from their friends who stay near them. They have a little. Sometimes they have no more and their children beg for rice to eat. They go to ask their friends for one or two milk tins of rice, and they eat that. Right now we don't dare go back to get any [rice from their village], so we can only ask for some from our friends from villages around ours. If they don't give any, we will be hungry and die." - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

"This year we don't have enough food, because the enemy came up during the paddy harvesting time and we fled. We don't dare reap our paddy. The paddy that we did reap, they came up and burned in our paddy barns. This year and in the future it is going to be a very big problem for us. Right now, we can't say exactly how we are going to get food. In the future, if the enemy moves down [back into the plains to the west] our leaders will find a way to arrange food for us. We were going to find food from P—, but right now we can't go anywhere. We are hiding so the enemy doesn't see us, and we are borrowing food from each other. If they don't go back [out of the hills] in the rainy season, it will be very difficult. When the bamboo shoots come up, we must eat bamboo shoots and wild banana trees. We must mix them and eat it as 'dta ka baw' [a type of rice porridge]. After the bamboo shoot season, we will eat 'gher mee tee' [a taro-like root]." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"The suffering that our civilians here have endured is very hard. Every village is suffering. The enemy entered our area and tortured us hard, but we couldn't do anything. We fled to the jungle. Some people have run out of paddy and rice. We run to borrow it from other people. If we can borrow it we can eat, but if we can't borrow then we don't eat for two or three days. The Burmese SPDC people came down and burned all our paddy and rice in our village. We have to suffer hard. We are one of the groups which has had to flee to stay in the jungle." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

The lack of food has left the villagers increasingly desperate. Much of what the villagers eat consists of vegetables and roots, like bamboo shoots, which they can gather from the forest. Items like salt and chillies have become luxuries for most villagers, and meat is unobtainable except for whatever can be hunted in the forest or caught in the streams, or the occasional chicken among villagers lucky enough to have carried one or two chickens with them. Some villagers have resorted to eating roots and vegetables which they know to be unhealthy but which at least make them feel full and give some energy. One example of this is the klee root. Eating this root involves a long preparation process, but even after this villagers say eating it can result in dizziness and nausea and tiredness for two to three days afterward. Although villagers told KHRG no one had died from eating the root, they recognised that it can't be healthy for them and that all it really did was make their stomachs feel full. Villagers sometimes can't even make fires to cook their food because the firewood can't be kept dry. Just gathering the firewood can be dangerous because the sound of the villagers cutting the wood may bring the soldiers, as can the smoke from the cooking fires.

"Sometimes the food was finished and we had to borrow one or two pots from the other villagers. We ate that for one or two days and it was gone again. We can borrow because we have to take care of each other. When we need salt, we borrow salt. When we need fishpaste we borrow fishpaste. We even need seasoning crystals and chillies. We have to borrow everything we eat. Things are bad. We don't dare go fishing in the river. We cannot do that unless the situation gets a little better. It was better in the dry season." - "Myo Nyunt" (M, 20), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #141, 9/00)

"That night when they shot him dead, we fled and slept in the jungle, under the bushes. Our six or seven households couldn't find our friends. Sometimes we ate boiled rice [porridge] and sometimes we didn't even have boiled rice to eat so we ate May Kweh Thoe [rice boiled until there is no water and mixed with salt] and sometimes we ate rice. We stayed like that and we didn't know what to do. We searched for our fellow villagers from M— and went to them. But before we got to them we were thirsty for boiled rice. We hungered for boiled rice for three days, but we didn't get any to eat. After three days we met with them. They had some seed paddy. The village head told us, 'Take it to eat. You must eat it since you are in such poor condition. If you don't eat it, the women and children can't continue. You must eat.' We ate it. Then we searched for things to eat here and there and lived day by day." - "Saw Ner Kaw" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #149, 11/00)

"They are also still not happy with me about food. They come and burn my paddy every year. I couldn't work very well this year. I can eat until the month of July and then the food will run out. We can't get new rice yet in the coming month so we don't know what we will do in the middle of the year. I believe we will have to eat klee [a kind of root] and bamboo shoots. When it is bamboo shoot season we will have to eat boiled bamboo shoots. When it is klee season we will have to eat klee again. When we eat klee a lot of people get dizzy [it has to be properly prepared or it is mildly poisonous]. We eat it but it doesn't give us energy. We are dizzy and we have to suffer for many nights. It is not like rice. It lets us live for a little bit. It looks like a kind of sweet potato or tapioca. It is white. There aren't any in the hot season, it grows in the rainy season. We have to go and dig the root and wash it with water. After we wash it we have to scrape it into pieces with a spoon and have to soak it in water again. After that we have to boil it. After we boil it we have to put it beside the fire the whole night. If we put it beside the fire and it is not cooked, we become dizzy when we eat it. When we are dizzy we sleep for two or three days. People don't die. If they did we wouldn't dare to eat it. There is no medicine when we get dizzy, we just have to bear it. We don't know any other food anymore. We just eat klee and bamboo shoots." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

"No, I'm not comfortable. We face a problem from a lack of food. The pots are dry [there is no curry in them]. We can't eat rice or drink water anymore. We just go and eat trees and bamboo leaves. We can't live. There is no food so people have to eat that kind of thing. If there is food people don't eat that kind of thing. We also eat klee roots and bamboo shoots. Even though we eat the klee roots there aren't many of them. The klee roots are far away from us there are none close to us. We can get it only in the rainy season. … Yes, we eat bamboo shoots. I don't cook them together with rice. I just boil them and eat them with salt and chillies. Sometimes I have to eat that for one or two days and sometimes for three or four days. We have to eat boiled rice. I go and ask for it from my brother and sister and sometimes they give me one or two milk tins [condensed milk tins; 195-391 grams / 6.8 13.6 ozs.] and I come back and boil it and we can eat together with the children and grandchildren." - "Saw Ta Pla Pla" (M, age unknown), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #60, 3/01)

"I can't cook rice. I can't light a fire. When I blow on the fire, if the fire goes out, all of the coals go out. We dare not cut wood loudly. We have to cut the wood with a little knife so that we can cook just for a short while before the fire goes out. I can't blow on it. I blow until my mouth is swollen but there is no fire. If we are at home we keep the firewood dry so we can cook." - "Naw Mu Lay" (F, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #142, 9/00)

There are limited ways to get food once the villagers' own rice supply runs out. Villagers in the hills near the Sittaung River are sometimes able to go down into the plains to buy rice, but this is becoming increasingly risky as the SPDC solidifies its control of the area. In other areas the villagers are able to purchase or barter for rice from villagers who come up from the SPDC-controlled villages around Papun, along the Bilin River or the Papun-Ka Ma Maung vehicle road. This is also risky and the SPDC attempts to shut these supply routes whenever it can. The new camps which the SPDC has been establishing also have the effect of blocking these supply routes. Villagers carrying rice in the jungle are shot on sight by the patrolling soldiers, even if they are from SPDC controlled villages. Finding the money to buy the rice is also difficult. Some villagers find work on other people's fields, while others sell any heirloom jewellery they may have or try to make money by going to buy rice to bring back and sell.

"If they can go and get it to the front [in the plains to the west] they will go and get it, but if they can't go and get it from in front, then they are going to go up to S—. They go to the places like between Battalion #9 and Company #1 [both KNLA units]. If the way is open they can go and get paddy to eat, but if the place isn't open they can't. It is two days away. There was danger all along the way. We had to pass two of their Army camps." - "Saw Kyi Po" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #107, 3/01)

A displaced villager in Nyaunglebin District cooks rice in her hiding place in the forest after SPDC soldiers burned her village on February 28th 2001. [KHRG]

"When the villagers who have fled T— to stay in the forest have no more rice, they must go to carry it from among the Burmese [they must go to buy it from the Burmese controlled villages]. The villagers had hill fields but the paddy didn't yield enough rice." - "Saw Lin Yone" (M, 32), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #2, 2/01)

"I don't have money. When I came recently I bought a few tins [of rice]. I think that in the future if others hire people [to work their fields] I will work for daily or monthly wages. I can carry baskets for people. If there is a fee and I can carry it two or three times then I could get one big tin of rice. I think like that. I can't think of another way." - "U Gah Lu" (M, 46), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #102, 3/01)

"They carry things to sell. They carry and sell bread. They go and get it at K— and come back to sell it around their place." - "Saw Ler Wah" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #5, 6/01)

"In the rainy season the Burmese open the ways [they patrol less often and don't man all their camps] so people from T— can come and do their hill fields and we can go and take a little bit of rice to eat. Right now it is the hot season and the Burmese have shut the way so the people from T— can't come up anymore." - "Sein Maung" (M, 52), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #109, 3/01)

"They can't go on the small paths to the front [to the west]. We have talked to people who go to carry [rice] from T—. It is two days between here and there. There are dangers along that path. It is three hours by walking. The way is dangerous." - "Saw Wih Kyay" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #111, 4/01)

"I don't know, but they asked me about the contact place. They said that people were coming and selling things and people were contacting [the IDP's and KNU/KNLA]. I told them I had never come and carried things and I didn't know about it. I told them I sold goods in my house and if they didn't believe me, they could see it when they went back to K—." - "Saw Peh Yah" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #211, 3/01); from an SPDC-controlled village, he was arrested and forced to guide the soldiers to the place where the villagers trade things with the internally displaced villagers

"If they have some money they buy rice which comes up from Papun at K— village. They go to buy a little bit of food from K— where people bring and sell it. They have a little of their own money, but they can't buy things to eat for long. The villagers who don't have money will have a problem." - "Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #3, 2/01)

Limited outside assistance does reach the villagers from the KNU and other Karen organisations which bring in small amounts of rice and other things from Thailand to the villagers. These groups are only able to bring in what can be carried on a person's back, making the amounts inadequate to feed the large numbers of IDP's living in the forest. In some cases these organisations give the villagers money with which to buy food instead. This also is usually not enough; one villager noted that he had been given 7,000 Kyat to use to buy rice for the year, but 1 big tin of rice [12.5 kg / 27.5 lb] is 2,000 Kyat thus allowing him to buy three and a half tins. In normal times one adult villager would be able to eat one big tin of rice in a month, so he must get by on three and a half tins for himself and his family for a year. When rice is bought it is usually only in small amounts, about 1.5-3 kg [3.4-6.8 lb], so the villagers must make the dangerous trip to buy it many times before they have enough. These are just stop-gap measures and cannot be supported indefinitely.

"Q: Is the IDP group [a Karen group which sends food and other supplies to IDPs] in L--- village tract?

A: Yes, they help us sometimes when they come. They come a few times [a year] but not often. If they are needed they come." - "Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #1, 2/01)

"In the beginning they arranged food and rice for us. In the waxing of this month [the beginning of January; he is using the traditional lunar calendar] they gave us money and we went to buy food ourselves. We get it at K—. It is one day away [by walking]. For now it isn't dangerous. There are no [SPDC] camps. In the past we could go for a few days and get enough for one load, but we don't know about the future. We go and buy it from other people. Sometimes if the people have rice to sell then we can take it to eat. If they don't have rice to sell we can't take it to eat. It is difficult and we don't know what will happen." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"We could carry it one time and it was difficult. We carried one or two big tins [12.5-25 kg / 27.5-55 lb] of rice each time. We ate for a few days and it was all gone. We went to go and carry it again but we didn't have money to buy it. I get the rice from K—. They sell one big tin [12.5 kg / 27.5 lb] of rice for 1,500 Kyat. We can buy it to eat but it is very difficult." - "Naw K'Ser Tee" (F, 48), internally displaced villager from K— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #100, 3/01)

Wherever the IDP villagers run to they try to clear new fields to give themselves some measure of self-sufficiency again. They are limited in where they can plant and are sometimes forced to make fields on slopes which are too steep or on ground that is too rocky. Some villagers don't even have any seed to plant, but they prepare their fields anyway in case they can find or buy some. The harvests are small and still inadequate. Many times, however, these fields are also destroyed by the Army when it comes through, forcing the villagers to move again and try to make another field elsewhere. Some villagers are forced to move three or four times a year and never get a field prepared before the rainy season comes.

"We are just cutting the hill fields but we don't get enough paddy so we have to find paddy to buy and eat. We can't do anything anymore. Some people can cut [a field] and get enough paddy every year, but this year we didn't get enough paddy. The hill fields are just up and down [they are too steep]. They are not like the 'kyew' hill fields [more gradually inclined]. If it was a 'kyew' hill field, even if there wasn't enough we could grow it more easily. We try to cut the hill fields but in the end we only see leaves, all of the grains are lost. … Only some of the paddy is good. It is because the paddy is young. We don't have enough old paddy seeds and we just plant them on the rocks and beside the rocks where we look up a cliff. We can't grow it anymore. If we could do a field on a plain it would be a little better." - "Naw Mu Lu" (F, 50-60), internally displaced villager from S— village, Mone township (Interview #62, 3/01)

"The people who stay there work but it is difficult. They have to cut the hill fields with difficulty between the hills. They have to make their hill fields in the hidden places like that." - "Saw Wih Kyay" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #111, 4/01)

A: Don't even think it. They don't even care. They are going to step on your neck and cut off your head. It is not an easy thing. We don't dare to go and face them like that. They even say that they are going to take care of us, but they lie to us for a few days and then step on us. It is not the correct way to go and meet them. It isn't easy because they are against us. When they see your head or leg, they destroy it. If we must tell all, they don't even want to keep our footprints." - "Saw Tee Ko" (M, 50), internally displaced village head from H— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #91, 2/01)

"The second thing is that the villagers can't eat anymore. They can't go and ask to borrow food. Some of them steal. We know, but we don't want to tell anymore. It is because we can't do anything anymore. I told them to share among each other. A frog cannot live alone and a fish cannot live alone, so we need to live together. The leaders should give us suggestions for the things that don't go the right way." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"Even though I have made a hill field, I don't know what will happen. Whether I will be able to finish cutting it or not I don't know. Even though I have cut the hill field, I don't have any paddy seeds. I am just cutting it." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

The shortage of food has reached very dangerous levels in many parts of the hills. Malnutrition is rife and starvation a very real possibility for some IDP's in the upcoming year. The IDP's are being slowly worn down by the exhaustion and illnesses from the lack of food and constant stress of trying to find food. One villager from Shwegyin township commented to KHRG that a walk that would have previously have taken him and his villagers a day now takes two or three. Many of the villagers are willing to endure fleeing, being shot at and suffering from diseases as long as they can remain on or near their land, but it is the lack of food which eventually makes the IDP's choose to try to reach the refugee camps in Thailand or go down to the SPDC-controlled relocation sites. The villagers try to hold out as long as they can, but when there is no more rice, no more seed to plant and no more land where they can safely make their fields there is no choice but to leave.

"They are planning that when they can no longer search for food to eat in the rainy season, they will come up to the refugee camps. One family came recently to Meh Ka Kee refugee camp. The other people have planned to come up. They will continue staying there for one or two months with the rice they already have and then if they can find food from other places they will continue staying there. If they can't find any food, the enemy is operating and the rainy season comes then they will come up here [to Thailand]." - "Saw Lin Yone" (M, 32), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #2, 2/01)

"There was not enough food to eat so I had to find work. I worked in the landmine assembly shop. The people step on the landmines and their legs are broken. Then a landmine exploded and didn't destroy anything else but it did destroy one of my eyes. After that I have always been getting sick until now. This happened in 1989 in the Saw Ka Der area, 8^th [KNLA] Battalion. It was a Karen landmine. They [the KNLA soldiers] didn't go and lay it, I thought I would go and lay it. It was because of the Burmese operations and I thought I would go and lay it but it wounded me [he set off his own landmine while laying it]. It exploded and wounded me. My health has not been good since then. I need my children to learn and get an education. For me also I will get food, and the third thing is to get medicine and maybe I will be healed." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01); he was partially blinded in the explosion.

"We flee and suffer troubles, rain and wind. We have now returned from fleeing and the whole group is sick. We can't even walk. It was a one day walk to come back here, but it took us 2 or 3 days. We had to climb the mountain when we fled recently. We also didn't take any rice to eat when we fled. We just ate boiled rice soup. We asked to borrow some from people who had a bowl of rice left. We shared a little with each other." - "Saw Muh Dah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #87, 4/00)

This man was among a group of villagers from Shwegyin township who sneaked back to their village in May 2001 to take rice from their paddy storage barns. They brought it back to a location halfway to where they are hiding in the forest to winnow and pound the rice. [KHRG]

Health and Education

"Health is the most important thing. I think that if it is possible and we can build a clinic it would be good. Health is a big weakness. For example, if I am seriously sick and I go to ask for medicine from the medic they say there is no medicine. It is difficult. I also think about other things. The way is difficult. The medics have to cross the car road [the Kyauk Kyi Saw Hta car road which is heavily guarded and mined on both sides] among the enemy. It is a problem. If the medicine arrives there are a lot of people and they can't share it out to everybody, so the medics apologise. Some of the villagers went to get 'kyaw pi' [a type of leaf used to make herbal medicine] and some of them are healed. Some of the villagers who believe in animism treat the animist way and people are also healed. Some people can't be treated and die. Some of them were single, some were old." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01); the medics he refers to are from the KNLA and from Karen organisations operating from Thailand

Medicine and people trained in medicine are almost nonexistent in the Papun hills and eastern Nyaunglebin District. Most villagers rely on traditional medicines made from roots, leaves and tree bark which can be foraged in the forest. People do occasionally come up into the hills and sell medicine to the IDP's, but it is usually only in small quantities and not very strong. Most of the medicine consists of Burmese patent over the counter drugs which are often of low quality. Injections and other high quality medicines, usually from Thailand, are difficult to obtain and very expensive. It is very risky for the people to come up to sell medicine because any villagers caught carrying medicine in the hills can be executed by the SPDC soldiers after being accused of aiding the resistance.

"No clinic and no medicine. They find plants like Na Paw Kyaw and they boil them to drink [as an herbal medicine]. The other medicines are Khoh Bay and Noh Bay [types of bark made into medicines]. In the case of malaria they use boiled Theh Ka Po [a small plant used as an herbal medicine] and drink it and they are cured. We don't have medicine. We cannot come and buy medicine from this side [in Thailand] because there are a lot of problems on the way to come and bring medicine. They cannot go and buy medicine from the SPDC." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"They cannot do anything. The people who have money can buy it. Sometimes people carry injections and sell them. The people from xxxx [village] or other places must carry and sell it. For the people who don't have any money, they just suffer and suffer. If they are blessed to be alive then they are alive, and if they are not blessed with life then they die." - "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01)

"We can't do anything. We just boil bitter things, roots and leaves [make traditional herbal medicines] and drink it. Sometimes they are healed but there have been some people who died and were lost. Recently Naw Lay Li Paw died. She died because she had just given birth to her baby and she was very weak. The Burmese came and oppressed and threatened us so she couldn't stay in her house and get warm. People had to flee and carry her into the jungle when it was raining and she got wet. Because of that she became sick and afterwards she couldn't bear it anymore and died. … Her family feels bad. They think of her always. She had two children, three children including the new one. The eldest is Saw Kaw Blut. He is four or five years old. The other one is Naw Kya Wee La Paw. She is three years old. The youngest one is Saw Day Kyaw. He was two months and two days when his mother died. Now in March he will be ten months." - "Saw Ko Suh" (M, 54), internally displaced village head from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #58, 3/01)

"Many people were sick. There were no shelters from the rain. There were no fences or huts. We are staying among the trees and bamboo. When it rains we get wet and sick. We don't have any medicine. We just treat them with traditional medicine from the jungle. Some people who know about medicine treat and cure the diseases. Some buy medicine from their friends who have kept some. They take it and are sometimes cured." - "Paw Paw Mo" (F, 45), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #86, 4/00)

"We have a little medicine, but it is not enough. When we get sick, we take it. Mostly, when we get a fever or headache, we eat Nya Baw Saw, when our bodies have pain, we eat Blaw A'Mu, and when we get a cough, we eat Paw Pwaw. [These are herbal medicines made from plants and roots found in the forest.] Sometimes we are cured and sometimes not. Not only the children die from disease; the old people are also suffering from disease, and many have died in our area." - "Saw Maw Htoo" (M, 31), internally displaced villager from D— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #71, 2/00)

"Some people from the town sell medicine, but they just sell Mingala, Ngwe Maung, Lay Kweh Say, and Ko Baw Say [over-the-counter Burmese patent medicines]. The Burmese don't allow them to sell medicines that need injection, which come from Thailand, because they think such medicines would be useful to the KNLA. The Burmese don't support the people with medicine or food at all." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M—village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

The KNU and other organisations do maintain small mobile medical teams which move about the area, but these can't reach everyone and many villagers have never met them. These medical teams are made up of trained medics but usually don't have much medicine, and what they do have has to be rationed to the point of sometimes turning away all but the most seriously ill people. Villagers don't dare to take sick or wounded people down to the towns for treatment for fear of being arrested. The hospitals are too expensive anyway, and in Burma the sick are turned out of the hospital as soon as they run out of money.

"Before when the medicine was finished we were told there is no help, so the sick people suffered. But then when the people [KNU] have medicine, we get it." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"No, there is no one. During the whole year there are only some times when the medics [KNU medics] stay with us for a while. They just arrive once a year. I got medicine the last time but it wasn't enough. We just got enough for two or three days." - "Saw Ko Suh" (M, 54), internally displaced village head from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #58, 3/01)

"This is because of the SPDC. If it weren't for the SPDC, the civilians could go and buy medicine and take it like before. The villagers don't say too much anymore. They say we can't do anything anymore. If sick, then they just die. Even if you go and ask for medicine, they have no medicine for you. If they look at you and let you go, you can go get medicine, but if they don't let you go then you have to go back [to the village]." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"Q: Can you take the serious patients to town?

A: No, we can't because the Burmese are living there, so nobody dares to go." - "Pa Lah" (M, 35), refugee from M--- village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #52, 4/00)

"People haven't died but many have illnesses. Some villagers want to go to the hospital, but they can't. If they went their families couldn't carry the pots, food, and bedding for them. They do not have enough food or cookpots." - "Saw Lay Ghay" (M, 34), internally displaced village head from P— village, Dweh Loh township, (Interview #127, 12/99)

"In the beginning when we fled there were a lot of children, old people, women and men who were sick, but because our leaders arranged for medicine for us there was nobody who died from sickness. There are KNU health workers." - "Saw Yo Tha" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from K— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #101, 3/01)

The result of this is that many people are dying from treatable illnesses. Malaria, fevers and diarrhoea are common and deadly. Small children and the elderly are especially susceptible to illness and many newborn babies don't live past the first few months. The constant movement, poor diet, stress and general living conditions leave the villagers especially susceptible to many diseases and infections. Villagers wounded by SPDC bullets or shrapnel have to make do with traditional medicines. Those more severely wounded, especially people who have stepped on landmines, usually succumb to their wounds due to lack of treatment. A typical example is Sho Per Ko village, a cool highland village of 70 families high in the hills of northern Lu Thaw township. It was abandoned and then destroyed when SPDC troops set up a base at nearby Ler Mu Plaw in 1997, and one of the village elders told KHRG that since then 28 adults from his village of 70 families have died of treatable illnesses - more than one from every three families, leaving at least 50 orphaned children. The following quote is from an IDP villager who kept a list of villagers from his area who had died of illness in his village tract in Lu Thaw township in 1999-2000 alone.

"We always have sick people in this place. We can't find medicine anywhere. I don't know what kinds of diseases they have, mostly fevers. They are seriously sick. Some of them have died. More than 10 people died last year. [He is reading from a list.]

17. Hsa Mu Thaw, 2 years old."

- "Meh Bya" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #54, 4/00)

"There are a lot of sick people. One by one, one by one. Children and old people are sick. We can't treat them. We just go and take medicine from the District [KNU health workers]. It is about two hours away. The medics give the medicine and some of the people are healed, but some of them have fevers all the time. We can't do anything. There was one person who has already died. He was old. His name was Saw Kaw Naw." - "Saw Pleh Wah" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #99, 3/01)

"Yes, there were people who were sick when we fled to W— and came back. We thought we were going to go back and look at the situation, maybe there was some rice or paddy left. … It was about one or two days later and people informed us and said, 'Grandfather, one of your grandchildren is seriously sick.' Then we turned around and went back, but she had already died before we arrived. She was my granddaughter. She was four years old. Her name was Naw Mu Si. … We did [have medicine], but not enough. We asked for some from a doctor [a KNU medic] and he gave us some. I thought that I would go and call a doctor also, but it was already too late. People told us, 'Peh Wah Pu [Peh Wa's grandfather; another grandchild] your grandchild is already dead.' There was some medicine they still had with them, but it wasn't enough. They had only a little bit. Maybe they couldn't have treated her. There were only our children and grandchildren living there. She died before we arrived. They had already buried her when we arrived. The parents were upset." - "Saw Htoo Lay" (M, 53), internally displaced village head from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #89, 12/00)

A woman arrives with her sick daughter to seek treatment from a KNLA mobile medical team in early April 2001. The young girl died a few days later. [KHRG]

"People get sick and die. My mother and two or three children have died. I only know Hser Lay Wah and my mother, Kaw Naw, but there are many others whose names I don't know. My mother got sick and died. She took some medicine but not much. I just found a little bit for her." - "Saw Thet Wah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #97, 3/01)

"There are a lot of diseases. The children and old people are fleeing and staying on the ground and in the mud. We can't make fires and we can't roof the huts. We sleep on the ground and get sick. There is no medicine so we take the leaves of the trees and bamboo [to make herbal medicines] but they do not cure us. Two or three people have died. Hser Lay Wah and one of my nephews died. My nephew was small and I didn't know his name. Hser Lay Wah was five years old. The other one was my mother, Kaw Naw. She was old and had to flee in the jungle and got sick. She became swollen. She had to sleep on the ground and maybe she got sick from the steam of the earth. When she had stayed at home [in her village] nothing happened. She was 80 years old." - "Saw Ghaw" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #98, 3/01)

"Aye aye! Many people. When we went up to Khaw Mu Kee many people were getting sick and some children died. I don't know their names. Some children died after they were born. The sick people took medicine but I don't know what kind." - "Naw K'Ser Tee" (F, 48), internally displaced villager from K— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #100, 3/01)

"We can't get any medicine. We just got sick and managed to cure it each time. We don't know how we got better, maybe it was the Lord [Buddha] who helped us, because we were praying. If the Lord wasn't helping us we would surely have died, because we don't have any medicine. We can't find any medicine because we are fleeing in the jungle." - "Saw Muh Dah" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #87, 4/00)

A 10 month old baby from Papun District who has been on the run in the forest with his parents since shortly after birth. He is now showing signs of serious malnutrition and is not growing properly. [KHRG]

"There was no medicine. We just took the roots of trees. People died in the jungle and also in the village. Mu Ler Wah Mo's child died when they fled to the jungle when the Burmese came. He was over one year old, a boy. They fled in the cold. It was not so long ago. I saw his body. There were 4 villagers who died in the village because of illness. They were coughing but there was no medicine, so they died." - "Pa Lah" (M, 35), refugee from M— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #52, 4/00)

Education is important for many villagers but finding time, teachers or books in the forest is not easy. Some villages had their own small unofficial primary schools, with one of the parents (who usually only had 3 or 4 years of schooling themselves) teaching the children part time. Since being displaced, many of these teachers have heroically continued their efforts, and in hiding places deep in the forest it is still common to see a group of children sitting on the ground with notebooks being taught by a woman holding her own baby, possibly writing on an impromptu blackboard. In some more established and larger IDP sites there may even be a temporary shelter serving as a school and a couple of teachers. These schools only go up to the 2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th standard (grade). The only educational materials available are whatever has been salvaged from the village, which is not enough for all the students. The parents try to help, but their means are very limited. The instability of the situation means that the schools often have to close or be moved due to the movements of SPDC soldiers. Eventually the schools are rebuilt again in a new place, but children will have already lost a few months or a year of education. Even this is better than the situation for most children in the region, who receive no education once displaced.

"We can't get education now, and people are sick but there is no medicine. We had a school in our village, but not now, because the SPDC came. Now the children just stay together with their parents in the jungle. The schoolteacher has also fled to stay under the trees, and he is old so he is not happy to teach here." - "Saw Po Lay" (M, 50+), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #69, 1/00)

"The students had to run in December, but they are opening the schools again. There is a school in T—. It is only a primary school with three standards [grades]. It is a village school [on supported and run by the villagers and not the SPDC]." - "Saw Lin Yone" (M, 32), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #2, 2/01)

"I couldn't study well because the Burmese were coming up. The teachers moved and then set up a new school. Then I went to study again. The new school wasn't built nicely. It is on the ground and we laid straw on the ground. We have books." - "Naw Paw Ghay" (F, 11), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #95, 3/01)

"Now we don't have the school anymore. We couldn't build our school anymore because of the SPDC's work. The SPDC came and burned our school. There were a lot of schools that were burned. They were high schools and middle schools. The teachers couldn't teach anymore because the SPDC came and burned their schools down. They were destroyed and the teachers scattered. The teachers have gone to teach here and there. There is just a primary school left; Kindergarten A and B and 1^st and 2^nd Standard [grades]. The villagers are scattered here and there. We couldn't look after the children anymore. There is no food to go and send to them. If we teach in the houses there are no teachers. We couldn't find teachers anymore. It is difficult to go and call the teachers. We need to spend money for the trip. We have no money to hire them, so we can't call them. Now, we just close our eyes and stay like this. … There is one school in T—. There are schools at T— and at K—. Today the school is here and in the nighttime in another place [meaning that the schools are often moved]. It is because the SPDC oppresses us, so they can't build them in stability. They just build them [quickly]. Sometimes when the SPDC comes they flee together with the students into the jungle and teach in the jungle. They just do like that. When the SPDC has gone they go back to their place and their school." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"We have problems getting them [books]. We can't get enough for all the students. We have problems getting books, pens, or blackboards. The parents are willing to help, and I am also willing, but we don't have enough." - "Pu Ko Wah" (M, 67), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #129, 1/00)

"There is a little school, just one standard [grade]. There were two teachers, but now there is one teacher left. The other teacher went up there [to the refugee camp] already. They can't learn regularly because they have to run often. They go to school and run, go to school and run." - "Saw Kyi Po" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from L— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #107, 3/01)

"There is a school at the Brigade [at KNLA 3^rd Brigade headquarters]. There is no school in our village anymore. Even though we don't have a school our Kler Lweh Htoo District [KNU district office] has arranged it for us so the students can go back to finish school this year. So we do have a school [the students were sent to continue at the school at the brigade headquarters]. If the situation improves, they will make it a middle school. We don't know what will happen in the coming year. … He [his son] couldn't go to school for one or two months but because the leaders arranged it he went back to finish school. The school is closed now [school holiday]. Even though they have to learn in the jungle they can learn well.  There is no school in the place where we stay now, but because the leaders arranged it I let him go to the KNU government school." - "Saw Yo Tha" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from K— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #101, 3/01)

For most children even these schools are beyond their reach. If they receive any education it is most often from a more educated villager, usually someone with a third or fourth grade education, who lives in the same IDP site. The children gather together from the different families and learn in someone's shelter. For these children there are usually no books and no pencils. The children themselves often find it difficult to study after all the pressures of life on the run. Many of the children are eager to learn, but the situation and the weight of their problems make it very difficult. Often there is no time to study, as everyone in the family is needed to work the field or look for food. Many villagers have told KHRG that they did have schools in their villages before the Burmese soldiers arrived. Most of these were KNU-run or village-run schools, but most of these have been destroyed as the SPDC's path of destruction swept through the villages. A villager from Lu Thaw township explained to KHRG his disappointment that his children couldn't even read the Karen alphabet.

"They don't have a school. When I write down ka kaw tee or ya aw htaw [names used for Karen letters roughly corresponding to 'k' and 'y'] my children cannot remember them. They cannot tell which letter is ka kaw tee and which one is ya aw htaw. … They couldn't study in the village. There was a school in the village when the situation was good. The school has been gone since 1976 when I was young until now when I am 38 years old. It was a long time ago. I didn't tell my children they would see a school, even I didn't go to school. None of my children have been to school. There are no schools in the jungle."- "Saw Tha Pwih" (M, 38), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #56, 2/01)

"There is a school but we can't open it. The children do nothing because the school can't open so they can't learn in school. There are 10 or maybe 20 children. If there is no need to flee then they can learn in the school. The school was open for almost one year last year. It closed because the Burmese came up. If they hadn't come up it would have finished." - "Saw Wih Kyay" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #111, 4/01)

"They could learn in the past. Because they were just little children, we only had primary school. Since 1999, we haven't had any school. The SPDC came and hurt us so often that we didn't continue with the school programme anymore. It's because we have to flee so often and we don't have a place or a village where we can be sure to live. It is very difficult for us to build a school." - "Pa Mer Ler" (M, 25), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #49, 4/00)

"It is not easy to have a school. Some people have built a small school for their children's education. From three or four houses they try to find a teacher in the forest. They can't pay money for the teacher. The teacher just gives his time for the children. The parents also help teach as they are able." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"Before they [the KNU] helped the teachers for a long time. Now just the civilians help the teachers themselves. The leaders don't send money to them anymore. The parents of the students give one big tin of rice and 10 or 20 [Kyat] of money and go to help the teacher by cutting the grass. They just work and eat like that. They don't receive enough help anymore. … If the leaders will help, I would like to build a school. If the children can get a little education they will be a little improved. To tell the truth there are a lot of children who can go to school, but we don't see the teachers anymore. The parents also don't have anything to pay the school and the teacher with. So we can't build a school." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"I can teach in the bush, but I dare not go back to teach in the village. I am teaching in the jungle. We teach in the jungle because a group of SPDC soldiers are oppressing and coming to torture us. Therefore we fled to escape, and now we try to teach the children in the deep jungle as we can. I have 18 students in all. … Now I am getting old and I can't help people do other kinds of work, so I will help them by working as I can. I give support to them by teaching the children so they will be educated. … The students are willing to learn, but they are afraid because of the problems made by the SPDC. They are very excited to become educated adults in the future. Since I was young and finished school, I have never cared about the salary. I love my people and I am interested to teach our children. While growing up and until now, sometimes I have lived happily and sometimes poorly. However, I love my nationality and giving knowledge to them." - "Pu Ko Wah" (M, 67), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #129, 1/00)

Children studying in a makeshift school in the forest after fleeing Nyaunglebin District into Papun District in January 2001. [FBR researcher]

Reason for Living as IDP's

"When they came up they posted an order and said we must go back to them. Der! We dare not go back because they are not our nationality. … They said it is better if we go back to them and we are fleeing and getting sick and dying. They said we must go back to them and we must unite with them. It will be better, they said. But we dare not go back. We don't face them and when they see us they shoot us. We dare not face them. If we face them they are going to hurt us. They even shoot people who don't carry guns. … If we can't work in the future we will have to leave. If we can work, we must work and eat. We dare not go among the Burmese. We don't know whether they will continue to be active or not. We are farmers and don't understand about that. If the people [the KNU] say that the soldiers will be active then they will, and if the people say they won't, we are very happy to make hill fields." - "Saw Ghaw" (M, 32), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #98, 3/01)

Karen villagers have a deep attachment to their land and their villages. They do not want to be relocated from their villages nor do they want to leave them to live in the forest. The villages are where they were born and for most, where their parents and grandparents were born. Karen villages sometimes shift location due to land conditions but never go very far, and most of the villages have been in their present locations for fifty or more years. While the plains along the Sittaung River contain Karen, Burman, Pa-O, Indian and Shan villages, the population in the hills of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts is more than 95% Karen. The area has long been a stronghold of the KNU and governments in Rangoon have never had much centralised control over the Papun hills. Even during the colonial period this area was administered separately from the rest of Burma. The first significant incursion of Burmans into the area was as part of Aung San's "Burma Independence Army", who entered the area as part of the Japanese occupation force during World War Two, and committed such brutal atrocities against the local villagers that even the Japanese had to rein them in at times. The villagers still remember those days. The SPDC and its Army of predominantly Burman soldiers are seen as outsiders and an occupying force of a foreign nationality; most villagers refer to them simply as "the Burmese", because this is the only side of the Burmese people they have ever encountered. They speak of going "down into Burma", because Burma is the country that sends "Burmese" soldiers up to kill them, not their home Karen hills. Many villagers in the area refer to the KNU as their "leaders", and even if they don't, they do usually agree with its aims.

"We can't do anything. Our paddy is all gone. We will flee further up [into the hills], but we don't want to go to another country. If our leaders [KNU] support us with food and we can look for some food on our own, we will last out the year, so we won't have to go. … Anyway, we don't want to go. Since 1994 when the Burmese started the Four Cuts here [the program to undermine opposition by wiping out villages and villagers' food supplies], I have never gone. I thought that I would work and stay here. The other people have gone when they had no more paddy. I also didn't have any paddy, but I was still working and surviving." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

"Some people only came to stay here two years ago. Other villagers came many years ago. K'Neh Khaw Hta village is 30 or 40 years old. It started when Kaw Thoo Lei started [1949]." - "Htun Htun" (M, 42), village head from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #213, 3/01)

"If the enemy doesn't oppress us a lot we will stay in the country and die in the country. But if there is a lot of oppression and if we can't bear it anymore and we have to go, then we will go. If we can bear it we will stay. If it is still a little bit like this [stable enough that they can make small hill fields] we will stay and work like this. If we have to go to another place we won't go. We don't want to go. We will stay in the country and die in the country. It is our own country. We will fight by ourselves. We will do it by ourselves. If the other countries pity us, help us. If the other countries don't pity us, we will fight until everything is ruined and it is finished. Nobody can eat. It will be finished at that time." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

Many villagers tell KHRG that SPDC units have called them to "come back to them" or "join hands with them", an idea which they find absurd because it comes from the mouths of the same soldiers who burn their villages and shoot them on sight. They speak of going to live under SPDC control like they would speak of volunteering for a long prison term with hard labour. They know what life is like in SPDC-controlled villages and relocation sites, both from their own experience and from the stories of others who have fled those places into the hills. They know it means having no land, trying to find elusive paid labour, doing forced labour regularly for the SPDC, having their food and livestock looted, paying never-ending "fees" and "taxes" to the local Army units, and being treated by the SPDC with suspicion as "someone from the hills". Many who have tried it have found they could not survive or bear it and have fled back into the hills. If their villages have already been abandoned or destroyed, they end up internally displaced in the forest once again.

"I think that if I have to go and stay with the Burmese, I don't want to go. This is why we flee. If we can't flee and we have to go back and stay with the Burmese, I don't want to go. I think that if we flee and then after that we go and stay with the Burmese it makes no sense. That's why we don't want to go. If it is safe for us to flee like this, then we will flee. … We had to go [for forced labour] all the time when we stayed in the village. We have many brothers and sisters so we rotated to go with them [the SPDC] one by one. Now we don't go, we flee. We flee regularly. I don't dare go to my hut. I flee every time. The other people have to go [the people who stay in the relocation site]. We don't go when they order us to work because we don't want to be their slaves. We just stay with our brothers and sisters among the caves and stones in the jungle. If they see us they will kill us. We are afraid of them and we don't dare go anywhere. We don't even dare to go wash in the river. We just wash ourselves like cats [they wipe themselves off with a little bit of water]." - "Naw Mu Lay" (F, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #142, 9/00)

"We had no food to eat. We had to search for food and work and we didn't have enough for our families. Moreover, they ordered us to porter and work for 'loh ah pay' and they demanded food. We had to feed them. They ordered us to leave our work and go work for them. Because of this, we couldn't live under their organisation. We had to live in the jungle." - "Saw Mu Kaw" (M, 23), internally displaced village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #145, 9/00)

"It is in a 'black' area [an area considered by the SPDC to be under the control of the resistance forces]. We always have to flee. We never face them. We don't dare to face them because they are not doing good things. They are doing bad things all the time so nobody dares to face them. No one from my place dares to face them. All the people are fleeing." - "U Gah Lu" (M, 46), internally displaced villager from S— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #102, 3/01)

"[W]e can't dare stay without running. They will kill us, because they always say, 'We couldn't call these villagers to come down and stay here [at a relocation site]'. They can't call us to go there because we dare not stay there. If we go to stay there, they force us to be their slaves. We can't do it, so we don't go. So we were staying around our village, and if they came, we fled. Sometimes they came up to shoot us, but they failed. We fled and escaped from them, and we stayed in the jungle. Now many groups of villagers are staying in the jungle." - "Saw Dee Wah" (M, 28), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #64, 6/99)

"They wrote a letter telling us to go back and cooperate with them. We did not go back, and they said if we did not go back to cooperate with them by the deadline which they told us, they would do worse and worse things to us. They said they will cut off our roots and energy [destroy their houses and food]. They always say these kinds of words to us, but according to our experience they never do what they say. If they want us to go back and cooperate with them, then they shouldn't be planting landmines in our villages and shooting dead all the people, including women and children. If we compare what they do and what they say, it does not make any sense. Most of the time they see villagers now, they shoot at them. On the [deadline] date that I mentioned before, they came and planted landmines again, but they said that they never plant landmines. They do, though, and we should all see through what they say. ... There is no one here who will go back, but maybe you will hear some people teasing each other  about it. For the people who can really endure and have strong feelings about it, whether they die or not, they will never go west [to the relocation site] or east [to the refugee camps in Thailand]. But, if we can't do anything else and if we have to move, we will go east as our leaders have arranged for us. No one will go west. Nobody wants to go back." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #75, 3/00)

This family in northern Papun District was forced to a relocation site, but could no longer bear the conditions there and fled back up into the hills. [KHRG]

The villagers prefer to live near their villages and sneak back to work and harvest their fields. If that is not possible due to the Army's presence then they prefer to at least live somewhere in what they consider to be Karen land. Displacement is forced on the villagers, most of whom just want to live in peace farming their fields, but in spite of the shootings, frequent bouts of malaria, fevers and diarrhoea, extreme poverty and the ever-present threat of starvation, they still prefer to stay near their land rather than go down to the SPDC controlled villages or flee to Thailand. Thai government authorities always claim that refugees from Burma come only because they have heard of an 'easy life', but for these hill villagers the idea of fleeing to Thailand is extremely frightening. To them Thailand is a very foreign place where they have no land or relatives, and without land to grow food or relatives people starve. They have heard that the refugee camps are not safe from Burmese attack, that conditions there are not good, that Thai authorities regularly force people back across the border, and they know the trip is long and difficult, dodging SPDC patrols and landmines. Most only undertake the trip if their food supplies have run out and the SPDC patrols make it impossible to stay anywhere near their village, when they see the only choices as flight or death.

"The SPDC still plans to come and make problems at this place. But we think that we will try and stay here until the end of this year. If they come and shoot us often it will not be easy to stay here anymore. If there is no plan for us then we have to find a new place again. But I will never go and surrender to them. I do not dare. They try to hurt us and we are already hurting. We can't bear to hurt much more than this. So we won't ever go and surrender to them. If the SPDC still comes and hurts us like this and we can't stay or if it is not easy for us to work here anymore, we will move up and stay with our brothers and sisters. Maybe we will move to Naw Yo Hta or Kay Pu [both are to the east in Papun District]. If there is some space for us we will go and work there. We will protect ourselves. We have to flee and hide like this." - "Pa Mer Ler" (M, 25), internally displaced villager from T— village, Mone township (Interview #49, 4/00)

"They classify our village as people who are hiding in the forest. They ordered the villagers to go and stay at their place. The villagers didn't go so they are chasing us. They are oppressing us. We are afraid of them so we flee." - "Saw Dee Ghay" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from T— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #90, 1/01)

"We can't work if they are active, it will not be easy for us. Right now they stay a little far from us and if they are active they come up to our place so it is not easy to work. If we can't stay here we hope we can go to a refugee camp. We can't do anything else if they are still oppressing us like this. We dare not accept them. Accepting them is not the way." - "Saw Tee Ko" (M, 50), internally displaced village head from H— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #91, 2/01)

"Q: If the situation is like this do you want to go to the refugee camp?

A: We don't want to go to that side [to Thailand]. We are not happy to go. We love our country and we would like to stay in our country. Even if we can't eat good food or are faced with a food problem we are going to endure it. We just eat 'dta p'ghaw po' [boiled rice porridge with vegetables]." - "Saw Ko Suh" (M, 54), internally displaced village head from P— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #58, 3/01)

"Some of them said to go to the refugee camp, but the villagers said, 'No, we don't want to go. We will work in the country and eat in the country, have our life in the country and die in the country.' I also think like that. I think if they won't go then I won't go also. But if everyone goes then I have to go also. I dare not stay alone anymore." - "Po Naw" (M, xx), internally displaced villager from S— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #61, 3/01)

"Q: The SPDC says they love their civilians and look after them very well so why do you flee?

A: They just talk like that. All of the women and men, if they see us they kill us, moreover they also kill all the children. … We saw it recently when they came to Bler Ghaw and cut off three women's heads. One of them was named Naw Kler Htoo, but I don't remember the other two. They were all from Bler Ghaw village. I don't know it all, but I will tell you what I know. The soldiers came and saw them [the three women] when they went to work their hill fields. They weren't doing anything else. They just went to their hill field. When the enemy came they saw the three women and cut all their heads off and they were dead. The people didn't see it directly. Afterwards the people went to see and they saw the three women with their heads cut off. They were married. Naw Kler Htoo was taking care of her family, her husband and her sister. The SPDC came the next time and killed her husband. I don't know which battalion. We are women and don't know about the military. Their families feel bad and cry because of the SPDC's torture, but they can't do anything anymore." - "Naw Paw Paw Htoo" (F, 30), internally displaced villager from K— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #59, 3/01)

Internally displaced children during flight from one hiding place to another, April 2000. [KHRG]

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