WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION

Report Cover Photo: A group of villagers from several destroyed villages living in hiding in leaf lean-to's well-hidden in the forest, with only rice and jungle leaves for food.  As this photo was taken, they received word that a 300-strong SLORC column was passing nearby.  [KHRG, June 1997]

The SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate All Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts

An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
February 15, 1998  /  KHRG #98-01A

Preface

This report is an abridged and illustrated version of the previously released "Wholesale Destruction: The SLORC/SPDC Campaign to Obliterate All Hill Villages in Papun and Eastern Nyaunglebin Districts" (Karen Human Rights Group, February 15, 1998, KHRG #98-01). It consists of a detailed breakdown of the campaign to wipe out the villages, supported by excerpts from KHRG interviews with villagers in the area and newly arrived refugees in Thailand which were conducted in June and December 1997.

The information for this report was gathered by KHRG through over 60 interviews with villagers in hiding and refugees, visits to approximately 30 of the destroyed villages and many hiding-places of villagers. An index of the interviews as well as the full texts of most are available on approved request as an annex to the original version of "Wholesale Destruction." Interview numbers are noted in the captions following quotations. The names of all those interviewed have been changed. False names appear in quotation marks. All other names, such as those of the dead, are real. The notation ‘F’ or ‘M’ indicates gender. Village names listed in the captions are the interviewees’ home villages. All are in Papun District, unless listed as ‘Shwegyin township’ which is in Nyaunglebin District. Some other details and names have also been omitted or changed for security reasons. For example, in some cases village names are given as X--- or replaced with xxxx and yyyy.

Additional information used in this report was provided by several independent human rights monitors working in the area. KHRG would especially like to thank Saw D. M. and Saw N. N. for the information they provided, and Saw T.G.H. for photographs. Photographs are all by KHRG except where noted otherwise. KNU field reports radioed in by frontline units were occasionally used to fill in gaps in the information. In the report we have tried to keep our descriptive analysis minimal; most of the story is told by the words of the villagers.

KHRG would also like to thank the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the Merck Foundation, the Norwegian Burma Council, and the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia-Pacific for their support of the production and publication of this report. Thanks also to Images Asia for editing and layout on this version of the report.

Karen Human Rights Group
April 1998

Table of Contents

Abbreviations

SPDC = State Peace & Development Council, military junta ruling Burma
SLORC = State Law & Order Restoration Council, former name of the SPDC until Nov. 1997
KNU = Karen National Union, main Karen opposition group
KNLA = Karen National Liberation Army, army of the KNU
KNDO = Karen National Defence Organisation, militia/police wing of the KNU
DKBA = Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Karen group allied with SLORC/SPDC
IB = Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers fighting strength
LIB = Light Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers fighting strength
LID = Light Infantry Division (SLORC/SPDC); one Division consists of 10 LIB battalions
Kaw Thoo Lei = The Karen name for their homeland, also often used to mean KNU/KNLA/KNDO people
Nga pway = "Ringworm"; derogatory SLORC/SPDC name for Karen soldiers
Ko Per Baw = "Yellow Headbands", common name for the DKBA
Kyat = Burmese currency; US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 300 Kyat at current market rate
viss = Unit of weight measure equivalent to 1.6 kilograms / 3.5 pounds

Introduction: The Destruction of Villages

"Then we made a hut in our farmfield. We planted our paddy, and we were eating some that we had grown [the first rice can be harvested as early as October]. But on November 5^th, they [SPDC troops] came and destroyed all of it before we could finish the harvest. They burned all the paddy we had already gathered in the rice barn, and they destroyed all that we hadn’t yet harvested by walking through our fields like this [imitating soldiers knocking down the rice stalks; once knocked down, the rice is very quickly destroyed by insects and parasites]. We ran away. After they destroyed our field we couldn’t get any more rice, we couldn’t do anything, so we lived on rice soup until the rice we had with us was gone, and then we came here. If we didn’t come here, they would shoot us if they saw us." - "Naw Muh Eh", Female, 53, Nya Mu Kwee village, Shwegyin township; fled to Thailand in Dec/97 after 8 months in hiding (Interview #52, 12/97)

Since the beginning of 1996, the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military junta ruling Burma, renamed in November 1997 as the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), has launched campaigns in many parts of Burma to forcibly move or wipe out all rural villages which are not under the direct physical control of an Army camp. In February/March 1997, SLORC began a campaign to forcibly relocate or obliterate all villages in the hills of Papun District, northern Karen State, and eastern Nyaunglebin District, straddling the border of Karen State and Pegu (Bago) Division. These remote hilly areas, dotted with small Karen villages averaging 10-20 families each, have always been difficult or impossible for the Burmese military to control because the villagers always flee before the soldiers arrive. As a result, SLORC and subsequently SPDC have been carrying out a campaign to forcibly relocate those villages already close to their bases, where they can easily round up the population, and to obliterate all other villages without warning, hunting and killing on sight any villagers they see there.

The initial wave of village destruction was carried out through March and April 1997. In June, new waves of patrols were sent out to burn all remaining signs of habitation and food supplies, to hunt villagers hiding in the forest, burn them out and shoot them. Since November 1997, after the end of the rainy season, the newly-named SPDC regime sent out new patrols to burn out the hiding villagers again, to drive them off the meagre rice crops many of them had managed to plant and to destroy those crops. The shelters where villagers are hiding have also been burned whenever they are found.

Through visiting destroyed villages, interviewing villagers, information compiled by independent monitors with other organisations, and some KNU field reports, KHRG has compiled a list of 105 villages ordered to relocate, 180 villages completely burned and 10 others partially burned. The population of these villages averages about 100. These lists are by no means complete, and right now SPDC patrols continue to burn villages and shoot villagers in the area. A list of 62 confirmed killings of villagers by SLORC/SPDC troops is also included in this report, though the true number is almost certainly at least double that. Many more have also died of disease and hunger while in hiding.

The main areas targetted are the Bilin (Bu Loh Kloh) and Yunzalin (Bway Loh Kloh) river valleys and adjacent areas west, north, and northeast of the town of Papun, as well as eastern Shwegyin township in Pegu Division. In the beginning approximately six SLORC Battalions were involved in the operation, and under SPDC the number has now increased to at least 10 Battalions; the Battalions are regularly rotated in and out, so that altogether since the beginning at least 23 different Battalions have been involved at one time or another.

Villages very close to Papun, Meh Way and Shwegyin have been ordered to move to Army-controlled sites such as Meh Way and the Shwegyin - Kyauk Kyi motor road, but the vast majority of villages have been given no orders whatsoever, they have simply been destroyed. Most of the villagers in the area say they do not even understand why this is being done, and that they think SLORC/SPDC is just trying to wipe out the Karen population. KNLA [Karen National Liberation Army] troops are not based in any of these villages, and have never yet been in a village when it was attacked.

The villagers generally hear up to a day in advance that a SLORC/SPDC column is coming, so they flee further into the hills and very few of them are sighted by the troops. Once the troops have destroyed their village and passed on, they survive in leaf shelters or small huts which they build in the forest and try to continue taking care of their fields. Those whose paddy storage barns have not been destroyed generally share out their rice with those who have no more food. Most are living on plain rice with some jungle leaf soup, and salt if they are lucky enough to have any. Almost all livestock has been left behind and slaughtered by SLORC/SPDC troops, who simply shoot it, eat a small part and leave the rest to rot. SPDC patrols are now returning to areas which they previously burned out in order to seek out and destroy the forest huts where the villagers are hiding, destroy any remaining rice supplies and shoot any people they can find.

Every new patrol that comes around forces the villagers to flee yet again and build new shelters elsewhere. Malaria and other fevers, diarrhoea, dysentery, and other diseases are widespread and the villagers have no medicine whatsoever. Many children and the elderly have already died. The villagers have very few belongings left and little food. Many of them managed to plant a limited rice crop in intervals between SLORC/SPDC patrols and tended it through rainy season. Some of them have managed to get a partial harvest, but in many areas Army patrols drove them off their crop at harvest and other crucial times, so the crop was lost. In some areas, particularly Shwegyin Township, troops went through the hill fields burning or knocking down the crop at harvest time. Most villagers in hiding are now sharing their rice and living on rice soup, knowing their food cannot last more than one or two more months.

Extent of the Campaign

"They came from Shwegyin. They burned down 20 or 30 villages. They burned down Yan Aung village and Htee Blah village. They burned down our good houses, and later they also burned down the shelters that we built in the forest, the simple shelters we built with no floors." - "Naw Htoo K’Paw", F, 36, Yan Aung village, Shwegyin township (Interview #54, 12/97)

The main region affected extends approximately 50 km (30 miles) to both the north and the south of the town of Papun in northern Karen State, and from the Salween River 40 km (25 miles) east of Papun to Shwegyin township, 50-60 km (30-35 miles) west of Papun in Nyaunglebin District of Pegu Division; making the total area of the region close to 10,000 square kilometres. A map is provided at the end of this report for further details.

In the areas south and east of Papun, most of the villages have been ordered to move; for example, all villages in the Ka Dtaing Dtee area south of Papun have reportedly been ordered to move to Ka Dtaing Dtee, and villages east of Papun have been ordered to move to SPDC Army camps at Pah Heh (Par Haik) and Toh Thay Pu.

"They have many soldiers. They’ve also burned Kheh Pa Hta and Baw Thu - there are three villages in our area, and they’ve burned them all. Right now we dare not go back." - "Pu Lah Neh", M, 74, Maw Lay Kaw village (Interview #45, 6/97)

"We ran away in March, when the situation became worse..... They burned down my village on 12 March 1997. They burned down every house in Hsaw Tee [Shwegyin] township. There were 40 houses in my village, and there were over 300 houses in our area that were burned down. They burned down Nya Mu Kwee, Htee Muh Hta, K’Saw Wah Kwih, Meh Law Lah, Poh Loh, Kyi Zone Gone, Du Baw, Ler Hta Kwih, Tee Sgheh Hta, Ler Wah, Tee Law Klay Kee, Saw Theh Kee, Po Kha Law, Maw Hta Mee Hser, Saw Theh Hta, Hsaw Oh Kee, Hsaw Oh Hta, Der Wih Ko, Tee Blah Kee, Tee Blah Hta, Bpray Maw Kee, B’Ta Hta, Wah Ko Law Dteh, Ko Pler Hta, Ko Pler Kee, Maw Kee, Dta Thay Der, Yan Aung… I can think of those [28] villages just now. They burned down every village, every rice barn, every field, every thing..." - "Naw Muh Eh", F, 53, Nya Mu Kwee village, Shwegyin township (Interview #52, 6/97)

"Ten villages [in my area] have been destroyed: Mi Hta, Maw Ghu, Meh Gha Law, Khaw Klah, Dta Kaw Hta, Meh Si Hta, Maw Thay Tha, Dta Baw Kee, K’Wah Ler, Mu Ko Law, I know of those ten." - "Saw Kaw Muh", M, 40, Maw Thay Tha village (Interview #4, 5/97)

"They burned 4 villages near here: Kaw Weh Der, Toh Hta, Saw Ner Kee, and Bo Kywe." - "Htoo Htoo Pa", M, 43, Kaw Weh Der village (Interview #16, 6/97)

"They’ve burned many villages - Toh Kee, Bo Kywe, Doh Heh Der, Kwih Toh Kee, Kyaw Law, … Bpeh Deh was burned completely." - "Saw Tha Htoo", M, 49, Toh Hta village (Interview #17, 6/97)

"They burned Kheh Pa Hta, Htoo Ta Lu, Lay Po Kaw Tee, Baw Thu and Maw Lay Kaw." - "Saw Eh Tee Kaw", M, 43, Kheh Pa Hta village (Interview #43, 6/97)

Since the operation began at least 23 different SLORC/SPDC battalions have been involved at various times, with units of various battalions and divisions being regularly rotated into and out of these areas. A full SLORC/SPDC battalion usually has a fighting strength of about 500 troops, though these are often split between different locations and as a result some of these Battalions have had only part of their troop strength involved. The same is true of the two Light Infantry Divisions involved (#44 and 77); each Light Infantry Division has 10 battalions, though not all of these have been employed in the operation. Following is an incomplete list of the troops which have been involved: Light Infantry Divisions (LID) #44 and 77; Infantry Battalions (IB) #19, 39, 57, and 59; and Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) #20, 36, 106, 107, 340, 341, 349, 350, 356, 391, 434, 546, 547, 548, 701, 703, 704, 706, and 710. These battalions enter the area from Shwegyin and Papun, and some also operate out of camps at Meh Way, Pwa Ghaw, Toh Thay Pu, Pah Heh, Kyauk Nyat, Maw Pu, Kler Kyo, Baw Kwaw, Ler Mu Plaw and other locations. At least two Battalions specially designated as part of the Army’s "Anti-Insurgent Group" (known as "say ko ker" or by its abbreviation "sa ka ka") have also been active in the operation.

The overall operation has been under the control of the Southeastern Regional Command led by Major General Ket Sein, who was made Burma’s Minister of Health upon creation of the SPDC, and who sits on the SPDC ruling council. At the beginning of the operation approximately 6 battalions were involved at a time, but since November under the SPDC regime this number has increased to at least 10 battalions at a time. In just one short 15-20 kilometre stretch of the Yunzalin River between Maw Pu and Kay Pu, there are now 3 battalions on the western side of the river and 3 more on the eastern side. Some of the most active battalions in Papun District right now are LIB #701, 703, 704, 706 and 710. #44 Light Infantry Division has begun taking part in the operation in Shwegyin Township. After the first wave of village burning in March and April 1997, Light Infantry Battalions #106, 107 and 391 were rotated out of the area and replaced by Infantry Battalions #39, 57, and 59. The number of troops present continues to increase in both Shwegyin Township to the west and in Toungoo District to the north, and it appears that these numbers will still increase further.

Lay Po Kaw Tee, a beautiful and well-off village on the bank of the Bilin River which was completely destroyed. The villagers are now in lean-to’s hidden high in the hills.

The DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a Karen group allied with SLORC/SPDC) continues to exist in Papun District, but in small numbers. It is no longer a political force in the area. According to villagers who live there, the DKBA camps in the area are always attached to SLORC/SPDC camps. The DKBA’s main function is to send a few of its armed members along with each SLORC/SPDC column in order to act as guides, to locate villagers’ food caches so they can be destroyed, to capture livestock for SLORC/SPDC troops to eat and, in villages close to SLORC/SPDC camps where villagers do not flee, to point out KNU sympathisers and their relatives to SLORC/SPDC for subsequent arrest.

"Pu Dta Muh": The Burmese stay in Kyauk Nyat, Say Mu Hta, 1½ hours’ walk from here. The Ko Per Baw stay together with them. - "Pi Blu Paw", F, 50, & "Pu Dta Muh", M, >50, Paleh Der village (Interview #13, 6/97)

"The Ko Per Baw are in Pah Heh, they come along with the Burmese. Usually about 10 of them come along." - "Saw Muh Heh", M, 23, Lay Thaw Ko village (Interview #11, 5/97)

SLORC/SPDC Methods

" ... they came to the hill just over there, very near. Then they fired it [their 81 mm. mortar] at the streams where they know people usually run and hide. They fired at every stream, and at the hills where people usually hide they kept firing until the people had to get out of there.... I was in the jungle, and 3 or 4 of the shells fell near me. Then we got out as fast as we could, because we dared not stay... We ran and ran without light because we dared not light a fire. The children kept falling down but we picked them up and pulled them because they couldn’t walk. Then we went to the cave. Even when we’d already got out of the place they were still shooting their gun. When we came back to look later we could see a lot of shell pieces.... Then they entered our village. All of us were staying at the source of the stream by then. They slept in our village for 3 nights, and they fired their big gun every day. They fired it all around.... When I came back to the village I could see the whole place was burned, they had burned everything everywhere." - "Pa Weh Mu", M, 48, Kyaw Law village (Interview #33, 6/97)

After the looting the houses are set on fire. The policy is to burn every house and building, including livestock sheds. In many cases, elderly or handicapped people found left behind inside their houses have been deliberately burned to death inside the house. Village schools and churches are particularly targetted for burning. By the time the burning is done, most villages are nothing but a flat plain of black ash. Soldiers search through the forest and scrub around the village looking for the villagers’ hidden rice barns, and these are systematically burned in order to destroy all food supplies so that the villagers will not be able to live in hiding near their villages. All livestock seen in the village is killed and eaten or killed and left to rot, and larger livestock such as cattle and buffaloes seen in the fields are shot on sight and usually just left to rot there.

"There were many, so many that the hill was all black with soldiers. They came shooting at us with a lot of guns, small guns and one big gun, and with RPG [rocket-propelled grenades]. At first we fled and stayed beside the Bu Lo Kloh [Bilin River], but then they fired the big gun at us so we didn’t dare stay there anymore. We ran to Dta Paw Der, and they shot the big gun again and wounded one man. He was wounded in his foot by the big gun’s shell. He was an old man, 70 or 80 years old." - "Naw Ghi Lah", F, 23, Dta Meh Der village (Interview #15, 6/97)

"All the villagers were in the forest. We saw the soldiers coming, we left the village and looked back down..... (W)e saw the Burmese enter the village. First they fired their big gun [mortar] at the village from that big mountain over there. That was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They came after they had shot the big gun, the next morning by noon. About 100 soldiers entered the village...(W)hen they didn’t see any people they passed through and out of the village [probably to check the surroundings for people]. Then they came back again at about 3 o’clock, burned the houses and shot the chickens. They shot the pigs, shot the buffaloes for their curry, then they went back up the mountain because their friends were up there [their mortar position] and they settled down there for 2 nights." - "Pati Htoo Kuh", M, 50, H--- village (Interview #35, 6/97)

"A lot of them came. They came 3 times - the first time they came they burned houses, but not all of them. Eleven houses were still left. Then they came later and burned them all. They came from Papun and from Pwa Ghaw, from Ler Doh [Kyauk Kyi] and Meh Way. They came from many places. People who went to watch saw our whole village full of Burmese. They were trying to catch our chickens, and the village was full of noise. First they fired their big gun [i.e. they shelled the village], then they entered the village and shot the chickens and pigs to eat. We were just 5 minutes away. Some people tried to stay in the village, but the Burmese started shooting at them so they all ran away." - "Naw Kuh", F, 30, Maw Law village (Interview #19, 6/97)

"They fired more than one hundred big shells, maybe 120 or 130 - that’s only from their big gun. They fired it several times, every day for one month. Some shells fell in the village, some outside the village." - "Pati Kweh Say", M, 40+, Dta Paw Der village (Interview #30, 6/97)

"We didn’t know that they were coming... They came into the village and they immediately shot at the villagers so we couldn’t run away anymore. The children were playing volleyball, they saw that and shot at them. People ran away and they ran after them. They arrested us and tied us all up, and they made us carry things. … When I was a porter we reached Day Pu Noh [on the Yunzalin River north of Papun]. In the villages they took everything: pots, plates, clothing, sarongs. …They went into people’s houses, took clothes and many things like jewellery and money. They took all the pots, ordered us to make big baskets like this, put the pots inside and made us carry them. They did this many times [in many villages]. It was very heavy, 2 or 3 mer [32-48 kg./70-100 lb.] They made us carry the same weight that bullocks have to pull. They just carried their guns and their food. When we were walking and carrying things they never followed the road, they always went through the bush or

Elderly Karen villager who was badly burned when his house was burned by SPDC troops in late 1997. He managed to escape the village but fell and died alone in the bush. By the time he was found part of his body had been devoured by animals. [Photo: Saw TGH]

over the mountains, and when we fell down they beat us and kicked us. We never got to rest... If the villagers had rice hidden in the forest and the soldiers saw it, they ordered us to carry it. We couldn’t carry any more because our baskets were full. If we weren’t able to carry everything, they just burned whatever was left.... They didn’t give us any of their food, they took the food that they saw in the villages.... When they saw paddy that was not husked yet and they didn’t have time to husk it, they just took it and threw it away on the ground. They rationed out rice to us, about 3 spoonfuls and nothing else. Not enough, but they ate more than enough. … I saw one person that they killed. They shot him near my village because he couldn’t walk anymore. The man said, ‘I can’t walk anymore,’ so the soldier said, ‘If you can’t I will kill you’ And then he shot him." - "Saw Htoo Klih", M, 46, Ler Htoo Po village; he and others from his village were captured when SLORC came to burn their houses, and they were used as porters for over a month (Interview #8, 5/97)

"They came and burned our houses and our rice barns. It was more than 2 months ago, on 15 March ‘97. They’ve burned all the houses and everything near Bu Loh Kloh [Bilin River].... They have carried off the rice and burned all the rice barns. When they couldn’t carry all the rice they mixed it with sand and destroyed it.... When we went to get it we saw all the sand in our rice and we dared not eat it. I’m sure they were laughing." - "Naw Thay Paw", F, 40, Baw Kwaw village, Shwegyin township (Interview #10, 5/97)

"My new house was right here, it had only been finished for one month and they burned it. When they came we weren’t in the village, we were over there on that hill. We knew that they had gone out and that they would have to come back this way, so that we should go away and let them come. If we didn’t go away it would not be easy for us. … We heard them come when they started shooting their guns - their big gun [mortar], and G2 and G3 [assault rifles]. I think they were shooting at our pigs and other livestock. The Burmese ate 3 of our pigs. They burned 5 or 6 houses, and they left as soon as they were finished burning them" - "Pu Lah Kuh", M, 63, N--- village (Interview #37, 6/97)

"The SLORC keep coming again and again, so we have to live in the forest. This year they’ve come into our village 4 times, and they’ve come near our village many more times than that. We have to run very often. At least once a month they come near our village so we can’t stay there. Now they’ve burned our houses, our rice barns and everything we had, so we have nothing. Every time they come they burn something. The first time they burned the houses and left 2 or 3 unburned, but they came and burned those the next time... After their fourth visit we’d lost everything, we didn’t even have any paddy left.... [We had] 26 houses. They burned every house, field hut, and buffalo shed, and also our church and our school. We had a middle school in Kheh Pa Hta, up to 7^th Standard." - "Saw Eh Tee Kaw", M, 43, Kheh Pa Hta village, met while he was fleeing a SLORC patrol; the church in the village had just been built with timber, decorative glass windows, metal roofing and a metal bell in the steeple, all of the materials hauled across the mountains at a total cost of 200,000 Kyat. It was completely destroyed (Interview #43, 6/97)

"Then we built shelters above the village because we didn’t dare live in the village. We thought we could plant a crop, so we had already cleared the weeds. Then they came a second time, 2 weeks ago. They came to the place where we were staying, so we had to run to this side [of the river]. Then when we were staying on this side they came back a third time, one week ago. They came right here. So we ran further that time, and we’ve just come back 3 days ago. We can never stay in one place, we have to keep running like this. We’re very afraid that they’ll see us. If they come again we’ll run further than before." - "Saw Muh Lah", M, 43, Lay Po Kaw Tee village (Interview #38, 6/97)

"Lay Po Kaw Tee had over 20 houses, and including Lo Plah [another village which is considered part of Lay Po Kaw Tee] there were 30 houses. The Burmese burned them all. The first time they burned 2 rice barns too, and the last time they burned 5 more rice barns. We had to run twice. The first time we ran and stayed here for one week, then we went back to the other side of the river, to Tee Mu Hta, and we built one shelter for each family. Then on their second trip the Burmese burned those houses too. There were many soldiers. Some villagers told us that they’d seen the footprints of the Burmese, so we ran away from that place before they arrived there. When they came they fired their big gun 4 times. Some of the shells fell short of the villagers, and the others went over our heads. We were very afraid." - "Po Aye", M, 50, Lay Po Kaw Tee village; he had been living in a tiny leaf lean-to hidden among the hills since SLORC troops burned the first hidden shelters he and other villagers had built near the Bilin River (Interview #42, 6/97)

"The first time they didn’t burn the school. The second time they burned it but they couldn’t burn it all, only one side of it burned [because of the rain, only the front of the school burned]. The first time they came was the 13^th of March, but they just passed by without burning the village. Then on their way back they burned the village, on March 22^nd. The third time was on June 6^th or 7^th, that’s when they burned the school." - "Pu Lah Neh", M, 74, Maw Lay Kaw village (Interview #45, 6/97)

"They shot my husband and one of my cousins to death. Another one was wounded. My husband’s name was Maung Aye. He was 37 years old, not so different in age with me. They shot him on August 4^th at Lay K’Tee. The people gave him the duty to be the village headman..... He was going to sell betel leaves and buy rice for us. When they were going to do this, the Burmese soldiers shot them. Seven or eight of his friends went with them. They escaped. As for him and my cousin, they couldn’t run swiftly enough, so they were shot and killed. A third man was shot in his hand. The people who went with him came back and told me. They told me the Burmese shot my husband in the leg and it was broken, but he was not dead. After that they tortured him badly. Then they stabbed him to death with a knife. When I thought about that, I didn’t want to live at all.... It is best never to meet the soldiers. If they see people, they kill them all.... Now he has left me with my five little children. Two of my younger relatives went and buried my husband. … I can never forget him. While I was climbing up the mountains with my children, I felt very tired, I couldn’t go on anymore and we fell behind, and still I remembered him. I can’t forget him, but there is nothing I can do." - "Naw Htoo K’Paw", F, 36, Yan Aung village, Shwegyin township; lived in hiding in the forest from March-December 1997 before fleeing to Thailand, and a SLORC patrol shot her husband dead in August (Interview #54, 12/97)

Villagers found in their villages or sighted in the fields are shot on sight with no questions asked. The only exceptions occur if the column happens to need more porters, and in that case a captured villager will be used as a porter; but if no porters are needed the captured villager is executed, and if he tries to run he is shot. A list of 62 such confirmed killings is included on page 64 of this report, though the real number is probably at least double that. In several cases SLORC/SPDC patrols have surrounded farmfield huts knowing there are villagers inside and simply opened fire into the hut, after which they burn it with the villagers’ bodies still inside. This was how the 53-year-old wife of the Yeh Mu Plaw village tract headman was executed by Infantry Battalion #57 on 1 June 1997, and on 8 June a man over 65 was killed in the exact same way in Kyah Po Der, near Papun.

"[It happened] on the 1^st of June ‘97. They shot her dead at Htee Mu Deh, they shot her in our farmfield hut.... They came across the Bu Loh Kloh [Bilin River] from Dta Meh Der. They were from #57 Battalion, about 50 soldiers. They saw some people who had gone to fetch their cattle and followed them back along the path. I was told that at the time she was sitting in our hut, putting water in the hollow bamboos [bamboo is used to carry and store water in the villages]. The Burmese came quietly and shot her. She never saw them, she was inside the hut and they came out of the forest. They saw her in the hut. I don’t know why they shot her dead, but then they burned the hut until nothing was left but ashes.... One of the men saw it, my daughter’s husband P---. The Burmese saw him and shot at him, a bullet just missed him and he ran away.... We went but we didn’t see her body, only her bones in the ashes, so I took the bones and buried them beside the hut. My wife’s name was Naw Lah Kweh, she was 53. We’d been married for 32 years." - "Pu Tha Muh Heh", M, 55, Yeh Mu Plaw village, describing the murder of his wife one week earlier by IB #57 (Interview #22, 6/97)

"They shoot at villagers, and they killed my son. They shot him here, the bullet hit him in the back of his head and then came out here [his forehead]. They shot him in the arms, once here, once here [in both upper arms], and both of his legs also, here [both upper legs]. Two bullets in the head, in both sides of the back of his head. He was only 18 years old. … His name is Saw Eh K’Lu. He was a single boy, he was still in school. He had 4 sisters and one brother, he was the eldest. I am his father, here is his mother and this is his house. He was still studying at the school in xxxx, he was in 9^th Standard. He just came back to visit and sleep here for two nights. He was going to go back when school re-opened, but the SLORC shot him dead. When they shot him he was running back to our house to save us. We heard the Burmese coming and shooting, so we ran out of the village. But he didn’t know, he came running back to the village to see us and warn us, the SLORC saw him and shot him on the path.... Later we came back. We didn’t see my son, so we thought that he’d run away in fear of the Burmese.... [W]e waited for our son to come back for 2 days without knowing he was dead. Then we were coming back to our house, and on the hill we saw him. We saw that they’d shot him here, here, and here [pointing again to two bullets in the back of the head, as well as bullets in both arms and legs]. … When they come to our village they see us and shoot us. They don’t think of us as human. They know that we are just villagers but they want to persecute us. Man or woman, they shoot everyone. But they couldn’t shoot everyone, so they just shot my son." - "Saw Thee Way", M, 49, Paleh Der village (Interview #48, 6/97)

"The Burmese also shot dead three people. One was Saw Pay Heh and another was Pa Klay. Pa Klay was already 40, Saw Pay Heh hadn’t turned 35 yet. The third man was just over 20 years old, but I forget his name. Two of them were from Thay Ko Mu Der, and the other was from Lay Po Der. Pa Klay was from Thay Ko Mu Der. They all had wives and children, their children are still very small. Now their wives and children are in xxxx and yyyy. … [They killed the 3 men] in March, before they captured me. They shot them in their fields when they were running at Klo Tho Hta." - "Pu Lay Htoo", M, 65, Paw Say village (Interview #47, 6/97)

"They shot dead one person in our village..... They shot Kay Kyay on the 22^nd of May. He was 40 years old, with a wife and 6 children. He was just a villager. They shot him in the stream, in Htee Daw Loh Kloh stream. They shot him because he had some clothes and things, and they wanted to take them." - "Pati Kywe", M, 50, Thay Ko Mu Der village (Interview #23, 6/97)

"Two weeks ago some people went to get some rice, and the Burmese met with them and shot at them. They shot at a child, both of his legs were broken and then they killed the child. They smashed his head. His mother was shot in the chest and died too. Now the villagers don’t dare stay in our village anymore, they’ve gone to stay all over the place. Two households have come here." - "Saw Wah Lay", M, 34, Plah Ko village, just south of the Kyauk Kyi - Saw Hta car road. The village was burned, some villagers were killed and everyone fled (Interview #18, 6/97)
 

Many villagers are still alive after being shot on sight. Some have fled only to bleed to death later, like Saw Mu Pa Heh, a teenage boy from Ku Day village who was shot on sight when going home after weeding his family’s ricefield. In other cases the troops have approached the wounded villagers and killed them with knives. They have even done this to young children (see Interviews #18 and #52 above and Interview #4 below). The troops seem to have no interest in interrogating the villagers; their goal is simply to eliminate them.

"… They killed one person. His name was Mu Pa Heh. He was a teenage boy. He went to his farm and was burning the weeds, then the Burmese shot him and he was dead. It happened one month ago, I think. They shot him in his field but he didn’t die there, he died trying to come back. The villagers found him on the path a week later, and they dug a hole and put in the dead boy, and they buried him. The Burmese also shot dead two other people who were doing their weeding, and their daughter was wounded as well but not too badly... (I)f you can run and escape you’re okay, but if you can’t run you must die without knowing what you’ve done wrong.." - "Naw Muh Paw", F, 49, Ku Day village; her burned village is beside the new military road (Interview #25, 6/97)

"… if they see someone in the forest they kill him. They killed 2 children in Ko Reh Hta, close to my village. I don’t know their names, but one of them was 5 years old and the other was 8 years old. They were children. The Burmese saw the children in the forest so they killed them. They hacked them and killed them with a knife." - "Saw Kaw Muh", M, 40, Maw Thay Tha village (Interview #4, 5/97)

"We knew that the Burmese were coming so we ran away. Then they ... saw us at the place where we were hiding, and they shot at us there. They shot with G4’s [automatic assault rifles]. They shot at one girl but she was running and the bullets ripped through her dress and tore part of it away. They shot at me and didn’t hit me, but the bullets went right through my sarong - they hit my sarong here, you can see the two holes. I was running. Three of us got holes in our sarongs like these, and they shot at two young ‘say mu wah’ girls [unmarried young girls who wear the traditional white dress], the bullets tore part of their dresses away. But no one was wounded, and we ran." - "Saw Thee Way", M, 49, Paleh Der village (Interview #48, 6/97)

Forced Relocations

"We all were supposed to move to Meh Way - about 6,000 households [from all the villages]. They said that they fight the Nga Pway ["Ringworms", SLORC/SPDC name for Karen forces] but that they never succeed because of us, the villagers. They told us that if we all die, they will only have to fight for a short time. Four households [from his village] went to Meh Way. I don’t know how they will live, but I think it will be very hard for them, always carrying things. They have to stay close to the the soldiers. They’ve made three camps to surround the villagers. They keep the villagers in the middle. They have a Byu Ha [Strategic Command] there, and the Battalion is #546. The name of the major is Thura Bo Ni, and the Column Commander is Hla Htun." - "Saw Htoo Klih", M, 46, Ler Htoo Po village just above Meh Way (Interview #8, 5/97)
 

In areas where villagers do not flee SLORC/SPDC troops or where many of them are caught in their villages, they are all ordered to move to relocation sites. Many villages in the south of Papun District and those near Papun and Meh Way have had so many SLORC patrols pass through their villages in the past 3 years that living in hiding has not been possible, and they have grown used to leaving at least some people, such as the elderly, in their villages to face the patrols when they come. In these areas, SLORC has issued forced relocation orders which generally tell the villagers that they must move to a SLORC/SPDC-controlled site within a few days or be shot on sight, and that their village has been marked for destruction. Some villages included in the written orders, and many which are not, never received anything in writing but only learned that they were ordered to move when captured by patrols, or by talking to people from other villages who had been told of the order by SLORC/SPDC troops. A list of 105 villages which have either received a written order or some indication of a spoken order to move is included later in this report (page 60), though this list is far from complete.

A village near the Salween River which now lies abandoned because the SPDC troops based 1½ hours’ walk away regularly stormed the village to loot it and capture porters.

The following two pages give the direct translation of one written relocation order which was issued in April 1997. A photocopy of the original order in Burmese is included on pages 66-67 (available on request). This order identifies 64 villages which are supposed to move, though many of these villages never received a copy of it.

[A photocopy of the original order in Burmese is included on pages 66-67 (available on request) of this report. The Reference information at the top means that this order is issued because of an order from higher levels, received by radio at 17:10 on 6/4/97; the ‘Telegram Number’ starting with ‘3’ indicates that it is a message concerning Army operations with respect to civilians (Level 4 is combat operations), and ‘la wa 2’ identifies it as a ‘Secret, Class 2’ message. The Burmese often cannot properly spell or pronounce Karen village names, and in the above translation we have transliterated the names as they have been (mis)spelled. The main difference is that village names ending in "Deh" should end in "Der", which is how they are spelt elsewhere in this report. For example, "Meh Wah Deh" should read "Meh Wah Der". Some of the relocation sites, such as Kaw Boke (see item ‘d’) have existing SPDC military camps.]

Villages were ordered to move to SLORC/SPDC-controlled garrison villages, military camps, or SLORC/SPDC-controlled sites along car roads. Villages throughout the Ka Dtaing Dtee area south of Papun were not burned but were ordered to move to Ka Dtaing Dtee, the major village in the area. Many villages east and northeast of Papun were ordered to move to the perimeter of SLORC/SPDC Army camps at Pah Heh and Toh Thay Pu. Many villages along the Bilin River valley were ordered to move to the major village of Meh Way where there was a SLORC/SPDC military camp. Villages in Shwegyin Township of Nyaunglebin District were generally ordered to move westward into the plains to sites along the Shwegyin - Kyauk Kyi motor road, where they will almost certainly be used as forced labour on road maintenance work. At least five villages (Wah May Kyo, Htee Muh Hta, Deh Oo Po, Saw Theh Kee, and Bweh Si Kee) were ordered to move to one such site known as Than Seit Min Lang.

"They said to us, ‘People who won’t come to our place must run away. People who don’t want to run away must come to us. People who neither run away nor come to us must die.’ As for us, we didn’t want to go to their place so we ran away and they burned all our houses. The soldiers were from Shwegyin. There were many of them from three battalions: 57, 349, and 350. They forced all the villages below ours to go with them to Meh Way, but not ours. They just burned down our village. Ours and the other villages had to go to the motor road at a place called Than Seit Min Lang, along the road from Shwegyin to Ler Doh [Kyauk Kyi]. Those villages were Wah May Kyo, Htee Muh Hta, Deh Oo Po Kyaw Ther Kee, and Bweh Si Kee. Five villages. They burned down all those villages too." - "Saw Pah Htoo", M, 27, Htee Muh Hta village, Shwegyin township (Interview #51, 12/97)

Meh Way, a village of an estimated 200 households in the Bilin River valley, has been one of the major relocation sites because it is just at the southern edge of one of the regions hardest hit by this campaign. At least 36 villages have been explicitly ordered to move there, and our list is by no means complete. In addition, according to villagers who have been ordered to move it appears that many other villages would also be ordered to move there if SLORC/SPDC had a chance to issue the movement orders, but the villagers keep fleeing. This explains the reference in the written relocation order above to "Small villages, even those not included in the above list", all of which are to be destroyed even though they are not named in the order and did not receive a copy of it.

However, after rainy season ended in October, troops from LIB #350 and IB #57 came to Meh Way and based themselves there again. In November they had still not built a camp, but were staying in the houses of all the villagers. They began forcing villagers from surrounding villages to move to Meh Way again, often driving them at gunpoint if they found them. According to KNU reports the commander of this column, Myo Myint Thein, told the villagers that they must provide food for the 50 porters brought from Shwegyin by the troops, and that Meh Way villagers would be taken in place of any porters who escaped. He confiscated 1,024 tins of rice from a local trader for his soldiers’ rations, then began confiscating rice from the villagers. In December the troops said that each family would have to give 2 tins (about 33 kg/72 lb) of rice per month, claiming that this is because they plan to build 30 pagodas in the area. The troops bring no rations with them. Meh Way villagers and those forced to move there are still being used as forced labour, both as porters and to build things for the troops.

"When they came in May they were ordering everyone to move to Meh Way, which is where they stay. So at first many villagers went and stayed at Meh Way, but little by little they all left there and went back around their villages again until there was no one left staying at Meh Way. When the Burmese came again, whenever they saw families heading back toward their villages they took them and forced them back to Meh Way again. At that time they’d already burned down all the villages. Only the villages on the other [western] side of the [Bilin] river ever went to Meh Way, like Meh Si Hta, Baw Law Kee, Toh Baw Saw Kee, Ker Kaw Law, and Meh Gha Law. But on this [eastern] side of the river, people never went even though the SLORC tried to drive them there.... They don’t have a camp there now, they stay in the houses of all the villagers. They are from Infantry Battalion #57. The villagers there have to be porters and go wherever the SLORC goes, they always have to carry heavy loads for the SLORC. They are all complaining of all the work they have to do for SLORC. They are all hoping to escape." - "Pu Ler Mu", M, 60, Maw Thay Tha village, just north of Meh Way; his village was burned in May, he lived in hiding until end of November, then had to flee to Thailand because he had no more rice (Interview #50, 12/97)

"When they first came, they did not burn down the village. They ordered all of the villagers to come out of our houses and then commanded us to bring all of our rice and paddy which we kept in the forest into the village [many people keep their paddy in rice barns well outside the village to prevent it being looted by SPDC troops]. They said that they would kill the people who are living outside of the village. After that they went back. When they came the next time, we had already brought all of our rice and paddy back to the village. They ordered all of us to come out of our houses, and they told us that they would force us to go to Meh Way. Then they burned down everything in our village, but they didn’t force us to go to Meh Way, they just went away without a word. We couldn’t understand what was going on, so we all ran away into the forest." - "Saw Pah Htoo", M, 27, Htee Muh Hta village, Shwegyin township (Interview #51, 12/97)

"We’ve heard they want that [the villagers to move to a SLORC-controlled site] but we wouldn’t dare go. Even when they don’t see us they try to shoot us, so if we go among them it will be even more terrible." - "Po Aye", M, 50, Lay Po Kaw Tee village; interviewed while in hiding in a tiny leaf lean-to hidden among the hills. SLORC troops burned the first hidden shelters he and other villagers had built near the Bilin River (Interview #42, 6/97)

"We carried their things but they didn’t call us porters, they called us "Nga Pway ration officers". Usually two of them would lift our loads up onto our backs, then if we were unable to stand up they would shout at us, "Nga lo ma tha, Nga Pway ration officer!" ["Fuck your mother, you Ringworm ration officer!"]. Then they stomped on us, and if we were on the ground we had to get back on our feet very quickly or they would keep stomping on us.... A lot got sick but they didn’t give them any medicine. They just made them go on like that, and they lost porters one by one. I don’t know if they released or killed them. I know they killed 3 people, one from Ker Kaw Law, one from Kwa Hta, and one from Law Pu Der. I saw that with my own eyes. One was very old and couldn’t walk anymore, so a 3^rd-rank soldier came and kicked him and he fell on the path. Then a 3-stripe soldier [Sergeant] came and said, "Uncle, don’t you feel well?" The man answered, "I am not well, I can’t even talk anymore", then another 2^nd-rank soldier [probably a Corporal or Lance Corporal] came with a big stone, threw it down on the man’s head and he died. They often kill people like that. Another one was carrying things under the sun and got diarrhoea because they didn’t give us fresh rice. We had to eat rice that we already cooked the day before, so the rice was not good and we got diarrhoea. When we climbed Dweh Lo mountain he had no more strength and he died." - "Saw Htoo Klih", M, 46, Ler Htoo Po village; he and others from his village were captured when SLORC came to burn their houses, and they were used as porters for over a month (Interview #8, 5/97)

Unlike some other campaigns involving forced relocations, the purpose of this operation is not to obtain forced labour for any project, but simply to wipe out the population. In doing so, however, SLORC/SPDC troops have still used villagers and townspeople as forced labour. Even prior to the beginning of the operation, Meh Way villagers were used for labour on a road to Shwegyin, and villagers in Shwegyin township who did not flee SLORC troops were always used as forced labour maintaining the Shwegyin - Kyauk Kyi road. Since March 1997, both Meh Way villagers and those forced to move there have been used to build, maintain and rebuild Army camps and to do servant work for soldiers based in the village. Because of the army’s constant demands for forced labour, the Meh Way villagers and those relocated to Meh Way have had no time to prepare and plant their own fields. At the same time, though we have no direct information from Shwegyin township villagers who were forced to move to sites along the Shwegyin - Kyauk Kyi motor road, it is very likely that they are being used as forced labour maintaining that road.

"… they order the villagers from other villages to move to Meh Way and then they order them to work for them as they like. … The Burmese ordered us to do things for them, like dig holes, build barracks, and make fences to protect them from their enemies. We had to dig holes near their Major’s place and they covered them with logs as big as this [about 18 inches in diameter], then we had to dig 3 steps down into the hole. They made us lay the big logs like that to stop bullets. Every morning we had to go out to cut 10 bamboos each and come back to build for them, then in the evening we had to go cut another 10 bamboos to build shelters for them. Each person had to do 5 days at a time, then rotate to another group. Each day twenty people had to go to each camp, altogether 60 people because there are 3 camps. They didn’t give us anything for that, and no food.... We have to work for them for five days, then we get a rest to work for ourselves for 2 or 3 days, then we have to do their work again - everyone has to do that." - "Saw Toh Wah", M, 45, Meh Way village; interviewed as he was fleeing Meh Way with his family (Interview #49, 6/97)

"…they came with porters. They capture their porters in Shwegyin town and other places in the plains. Some [of their porters] are Karen, some are Burman. Sometimes the escaped porters come to the villagers for help, and the villagers help send them back home." - "Naw Muh Eh", F, 53, Nya Mu Kwee village, Shwegyin township (Interview #52, 12/97)

The most notable use of forced labour in this offensive has been forced portering. The search and destroy columns entering the area always bring porters with them, townspeople they have rounded up in Shwegyin or Papun, or villagers they have brought from Meh Way. Most of the villagers they find in the area are simply shot on sight, though if they have lost some porters or feel they need more to carry their loot, they occasionally capture people along the way. Usually these people are the elderly, because younger people attempt to run and are shot. One 63 year old man who was captured in this way told part of his story as follows.

"I was in the village, because others told me that being old I wouldn’t face any trouble [the other villagers fled]. But then they [soldiers] came into the village and called me. I had to go with them, and I didn’t even have time to take a bag. They captured all the old men, 4 of us. Later one of us was shot to death because he wasn’t able to carry things anymore.... When I was unable to walk anymore they beat me. It was very painful. They beat me on my head and my legs, and it’s still painful now. I was forced to be a porter for 2 months.... We had to climb mountains. We had to carry many things, like shells for the big guns. I had to carry six shells, rice, pots and plates. There was one porter for each group of soldiers. There were more than a hundred porters.... A lot of them got sick, and when they couldn’t walk the soldiers kicked them and stomped on them. They beat some people until they died of it. They beat one of my friends from the village and he died. He came from my village. He was the same age as me. His name was Saw Wih Kyay. They threw stones at him until he died.... I saw 2 men die. The other man wasn’t beaten to death, he just died because he had no more strength. He was from Saw Hta and his name was Pa Kya Po. His children were twins, and when the Burmese called their father to be a porter the children got hungry and died. Their grandmother had to look after them, and when they had to run away they didn’t have enough food, so the twins died. ... I saw women too. There were 5 women. They were from Saw Hta and Tee Po Kee. They carried food, ammunition, and many other things. The women were young. The soldiers beat one of them seriously.... They released me because I couldn’t walk any more. They released me at Papun.... I couldn’t go back to my village because there was no village left. After 2 months I came home, and I saw that my village had become ashes. I saw no one there. They had burned everything. There was no food and there were no houses, so the situation was impossible. I came straight here through the forest." - "Pu Kyaw Ni", M, 63, Ker Kaw Law village (Interview #7, 5/97)

"When I was climbing up the mountain they met me and captured me and told me to go with them. I went with them for 7 days. While I was with them and we arrived at Pah Heh they were about to kill me, but there was an elder there from Kler Pu Der and he told them not to kill me. So the Burmese didn’t kill me, instead they ordered me to show the way for them. I showed them the way for a few more days and then I ran away and escaped. I came back to my house. It took me 10 days on the way to reach my house. I came back and I saw my house and my paddy all burned, so we had to leave, and to stay like this. Now I have no house, I must live in this shelter." - "Pu Lay Htoo", M, 65, Paw Say village (Interview #47, 6/97)

"At midnight they put a rope around our necks and tied the other end to a tree, like we were cattle, and they made us sleep like that because they were worried that we could escape. They tied three of us together on each rope. There were more than 100 porters, because along the way they captured everyone they could. The porters did not know each other, but from our village there were 10 porters. There were porters as old as 60. The youngest was 16 years old. They captured 4 women and the Ko Per Baw [DKBA soldier with the column as a guide] said that one of them was the wife of a KNU soldier. They kicked and beat her, but she was pregnant and one of the Burmese officers came and said, "If you beat her don’t beat her on the abdomen, beat her on the head". She lost 2 teeth. They kept treating her like that all along the way. She was from Plah Hta village. Her husband used to be a KNU soldier, but not any longer.... They used the 4 women as porters for more than one month, then when they arrived in Papun people who knew the women came and asked for their release, so they released 3 of the women but they said the other was a KNU member’s wife so she would have to follow them. She was with her son, about 8 years old. They kicked her to kill her, then she couldn’t walk any more so they knocked her down on the road and stomped on her neck. After she stopped breathing they took off her sarong and other clothes, and they took her son away with them. I saw all of this with my own eyes. It was the 548^th Battalion, and I was with them as a porter." - "Saw Htoo Klih", M, 46, Ler Htoo Po village; he and others from his village were captured when SLORC came to burn their houses, and they were used as porters for over a month (Interview #8, 5/97)

"They took me to Bu Tho, then to their camp at Pah Heh. I had to carry rice, pots, plates, spoons and many dishes [all looted from the villages they’d burned]. It was very heavy, over 10 viss, maybe 15 viss [24 kg./52 lb.]. I got a boil on my back but they didn’t give me anything, no injection or even a tablet of medicine. If we were hurt they didn’t treat us at all. They didn’t even give us enough rice to eat. Twice a day, morning and evening. Each time just a little bit. There was one day we didn’t get anything to eat. For one day and one night we had to go hungry. We had to sleep on the dusty ground, and they stood sentry over us all night. There were about 300 soldiers. There were about 20 porters in my group, and 6 of them were women. The women had a lot of pain in their arms and legs. The porters were from Kler Oh Der, Kaneh Khaw Hta, the women were from Kaneh Khaw Hta and B’Nweh Bo, those are the 3 villages I know of.... One was an older woman, and the other five were muh k’naw [maidens, unmarried teenage girls]. At night they ordered the women and girls to sleep off to one side and we didn’t see, so we couldn’t tell whether the soldiers went to sleep with them or not.... The girls were over 10 years old, up to about 20 years old. The older woman was about 40. The oldest men were myself and a man from Kler Oh Der, 65 years old. The youngest was about 20, and some were about 30." - "Pu Lay Htoo", M, 65, Paw Say village (Interview #47, 6/97)

"They forced us to go on without taking any rest along the way. When we were climbing up mountains they kicked us... both the men and the women, they kicked everybody! … some porters were ill. One was coughing up blood, and the women had malaria and pain in the legs, because we were carrying in the rain. But the Burmese didn’t let them rest, they still had to keep carrying." - "Pu Lay Htoo", M, 65, Paw Say village (Interview #47, 6/97)

"Last time they caught us and tied us together with rope, and then they forced us to march in front of them, two or three villagers at a time. They never walk in front of us. [The villagers were being used as human minesweepers and shields.] We always have to carry things for them and do whatever they order us to do. Whenever they go somewhere we have to go with them, sometimes 10 villagers, sometimes 20 or 30, they call for as many of us as they need. Last time they captured me while I was cutting the weeds in my field, and they forced me to carry one basket of rice and 2 shells. There’s no limit on the number of days, we must go with them until they finish their journey. They never set us free, we must escape if we can. One old man from my village had to die because he couldn’t run to escape. They captured him like me, he had to carry a heavy load until he had no strength left and then he fell down along the path. Then the Burmese beat him to death. That was in April. His name was Naw Kweh Pa [literally, "Naw Kweh’s father"; in Karen culture parents are often referred to this way]. He was 60 years old, with a wife and 4 children. Those who were porters with him and escaped came and told us about it." - "Saw Toh Wah", M, 45, Meh Way village; interviewed while fleeing Meh Way with his family. Meh Way is being used by SPDC as an army base and relocation site (Interview #49, 6/97)

The New Military Road

"The road they’re building passes right between Plah Ko and our village - if we climb up a bit from our houses we can see it. They’ve built it right through the farmfields of many people. The road is going to Maw Pu. All the villagers have run away so they’re building it themselves. ....They just started to build the road this dry season, a few months ago.... They are building new [Army] camps alongside the car road as it progresses, step by step. They’ve made a new camp at Kler Ko, very close to our village. They’ve burned Ku Day, Thay Baw and Toh Kee villages - the road passes these villages, so they’ve burned them." - "Naw Muh Paw", F, 49, Ku Day village (Interview #25, 6/97)

At the same time as they have been wiping out all villages in the area, SLORC/SPDC troops have also been trying to push an access road eastward from the town of Kyauk Kyi, in the Sittang River plains north of Nyaunglebin, westward across the hills to Saw Hta, an Army post on the Thai border which is on the western bank of the Salween River just south of the Kayah State border. SLORC captured Saw Hta from the KNU in an October 1992 offensive. The distance from Kyauk Kyi (Ler Doh in Karen) to Saw Hta is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) in a straight line, though the road is considerably longer because it must wind through steep hills for its whole length. From Kyauk Kyi, the road heads east into the hills, goes slightly to the south to pass through Pwa Ghaw, Ku Day and Maw Pu, then east northeast to Maw Kyo and Leh Klay Kyo, where it begins following the Saw Kloh stream down to the Salween River at Saw Hta.

All villages along the route, such as Plah Ko, Saw Ee Der, Ku Day, Toh Kee, Lay Ghaw, Thay Baw, and Toh Loh Kee, have been burned and destroyed, and Army camps have been established at Pwa Ghaw, Plah Ko, Kler Kyo, Maw Pu, Maw Kyo and Leh Klay Kyo (in addition to the existing base at Saw Hta) to protect the route. Unlike their usual practice, SLORC/SPDC has used little or no forced labour in building the main portion of this road. This may partly be because they have been unable to capture significant numbers of villagers in the area, all of whom have fled into the forest; but the fact that they have not brought in forced labour from Kyauk Kyi and other places seems to indicate that they are in a hurry to finish this road and finish it properly, because its only possible use is to support further military control of the area. It has been pushed through very rapidly, using bulldozers under heavy military guard. It is to be a simple dirt road. Prior to the mid-1997 rainy season most of it had been bulldozed except a segment of about 10 kilometres between Maw Kyo and Leh Klay Kyo, but in June 1997 the KNLA destroyed the bulldozers at either end of this segment with rocket-propelled grenades. Rainy season then washed out much of the road, but SPDC troops are now working on it again and it is expected to be complete or almost complete before the 1998 rainy season starts in June.

"The first time the Burmese came they didn’t burn the village, but this time they burned it and they ate everything in the village. The Burmese were from Pwa Ghaw, they’ve come to build the car road. They started building it 5 or 6 months ago. They didn’t ask the villagers to build it, they’re just building it themselves." - "Naw Blu Paw", F, 38, Toh Kee village; interviewed while in hiding in a shelter in the forest (Interview #20, 6/97)

The KNLA expects this road to be used as a springboard for an offensive to secure the Salween River and the entire region, to block off KNLA supply lines and the escape routes of refugees and to allow the establishment of new military camps and further sweeps through the area to wipe out the Karen civilian population. It is hard to see any purpose for this road other than to increase military control. There are no connecting roads out of Saw Hta except a military supply road northward to Kayah State, and there are no roads on the Thai side of the border opposite Saw Hta, only 50 kilometres of uninterrupted forest in every direction. Due to the heavy military presence along the route, villagers from the destroyed villages in the area have had to flee further away than they normally would. Many of them are scattered, staying in hiding with the people of other destroyed villages one or two days’ walk from their homes. This prevents them from being able to reach their fields to even try to plant a crop, making conditions much more difficult for them.

How Villagers are Surviving

"Some [villagers] have come here, others are running to other places, and some are still staying near our village but only very few. The Burmese ate some of our livestock, like chickens and pigs, and some they just shot, like our buffaloes. We had to leave most of our things behind in the village. Some things we could carry with us, and the rest were burned. Most of our rice was burned and our pots were burned, because we couldn’t carry them with us. There were 30 houses in our village, and all of them were burned down. They burned some of our rice barns, and the rest of our rice they took to eat... All the villages are burned, no one can stay any longer. We’ve been here for 3 months. We can’t clear a field, we can’t plant our rice any more. It’s very difficult to get food. If they see us going back they will kill us. I think we must stay here, though I think we can’t stay here for a long time. We dare not go back to stay - if we stay there and they shoot the big gun at us we can’t escape.... Five families are here, further upstream there are 3 families and there are also some further downstream. Some others are scattered elsewhere. They are in many places." - "Pati Kweh Say", M, 40+, Dta Paw Der village (Interview #30, 6/97)

Villagers in the area spend a lot of time going back and forth to their fields, which are often quite a distance from their village, and they interact a lot with people from other villages. As a result, they usually know up to a day in advance when SLORC/SPDC troops are in their area and have a chance to flee the village before the troops arrive, though they can take very little with them except some rice. Many of them keep some paddy in hidden rice barns in the forest for these occasions. Most villagers in the affected areas fled into the surrounding forests when their village was being shelled and burned for the first time; in most villages this was March/April 1997, while for others it was June/July. They fled up the streams, higher into the hills, where most of them built simple shelters out of bamboo and leaves in small groups of a few families. People from some villages in the hills which are not on the soldiers’ normal routes were later able to return and build shelters near the ruins of their village, though they must always be prepared to run. To the villagers, the key consideration is to be close enough to their fields that they can try to plant a rice crop so that they do not starve.

"We ran farther away, all over the place. We stayed far away in the forest for 15 days, sleeping on the dusty ground. We had nothing because the Burmese had destroyed it all. All our poultry they ate, and everything in our houses was destroyed because we didn’t have a chance to carry it away. Each of us only carried some food, two pots and one basket of rice. Some had to carry their children so they couldn’t take much else. Most of our pots, machetes, big jars and baskets were all burned. They burned all the rice barns near the village, 4 rice barns here, 9 rice barns altogether including the ones at Bpeh Deh. Now the people who still have some rice give some to the people who have none. We share with each other whatever we have. We must take care of each other. We built these huts, and everyone is working their fields. We can plant, but there won’t be enough." - "Pati Htoo Kuh", M, 50, H--- village (Interview #35, 6/97)

"I couldn’t bring anything with me when we ran, just the blankets and pots we needed. We only have rice left for one day. I don’t know what to do about food. There is no food." - "Naw Blu Paw", F, 38, Toh Kee village; living in hiding in a shelter in the forest (Interview #20, 6/97)

"All the people who have food must share it with others, because most people can’t find any food. Most of the paddy fields have been destroyed. They don’t have enough rice even for one month. When that is gone, we will have to eat rice soup or rice broth and bananas, only that! I don’t know what we’ll do. If the Burmese weren’t there we could stay there, but if they are there we can’t make our fields and we can’t get any food. My wife and children are out in the forest right now. In Sho Per Ko it’s very cold at night, even at this time of year." - "Thra Tee Doh", M, 33, Sho Per Ko village (Interview #14, 6/97)

"We have some [clothes] but very few. Some of the clothes that we managed to keep have been eaten and destroyed by termites. We have only the one set of clothing that we’re wearing. The Burmese also destroyed and burned much of our clothing." - "Saw Muh Lah", M, 43, Lay Po Kaw Tee village; interviewed among the remains of villagers’ hidden shelters near the Bilin River which were found and burned by a SLORC patrol the week before (Interview #38, 6/97)

"They burned 7 rice barns. We ran to the forest, then we stayed at Tee Kalaw, where we built little shelters. Then they came again and burned those. We ran again, and now we stay like this. Some have gone that way, some have come this way. Some live further up in the hills. They are all spread out, not together." - "Pu Lay Doh Htoo", M, 63, Lay Po Kaw Tee village (Interview #39, 6/97)

Paddy (unhusked rice) which villagers had stored in their village. An SPDC patrol found it, piled it in the forest and set it al