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PHOTO SET 2005-A: Soldiers
The SPDC Army, the Tatmadaw Kyi, continues to expand as the regime tries to consolidate its control over every village in the country. From its estimated strength of 180,000 in 1988 the Army has been edging toward its declared target of half a million men at arms, and has presently reached an estimated total of 350,000 to 400,000. Such an expansion requires a large influx of new recruits each year, but since 1988 the numbers of people interested in joining the Tatmadaw have dwindled to a fraction of the pre-1988 intake. Though officially a volunteer army, the Tatmadaw has therefore switched to obtaining most of its recruits by forced and coerced conscription. Recruiting officers often prey upon children because they are far more easily frightened and bullied than adults. Recruiting agents hang around schools, train and bus stations, festivals, and markets, stop teenage boys and demand their National Identity Cards, knowing most teenagers do not have one. They then threaten the boy with prison if he doesn't join the Army. Those who still resist are beaten into submission, then signed up. The youngest are only 11, 12 or 13, but they are registered as age 18 (see photos 12-1 , 12-3 , 12-7 and 12-8 , 12-9 , 12-11 , 12-12 , and 12-13 ). After 4½ months of training, soldiers are assigned to active units. Many, particularly children, are used as road labour (see photos 12-7 and 12-8 and 12-9 ) or for work in money-making projects run by their officers like brick factories (see photos 6-190 and 6-191 ) and fishponds. Many officers steal some or all of their salaries and rations (see photos 12-7 and 12-8 ), leaving them to live by stealing from local villagers, and they are frequently subject to beatings (see photos 12-4 to 12-6 ). Their camps, maintained by the forced labour of villagers while the officers focus their attention on making money, are often in dilapidated condition (see photo 12-2 ). Morale is low, and many soldiers feel remorse for the abuses they are ordered to commit against villagers (see photos 10-28 and 10-29 ). Even after completing a ten year term of service, able-bodied soldiers are not discharged from the Army unless they can enlist 5 to 10 new recruits. Desertion rates are therefore high; most of the soldiers shown below are deserters. If caught, they are usually imprisoned and then forced back into the Army (see photo 12-3 ). Some commit suicide. In recent years the SPDC has attempted to win their loyalty with thousand-percent increases in their salaries, but even this has not been successful in attracting more volunteers. The regime has also come out with newer and updated weaponry in an attempt to make its troops more effective (see the discussion accompanying photos 12-16 and 12-17 ), but the low morale of the troops has combined with the corruption of the officers to cancel out most of the gains in this direction.
A few photos below relate to the DKBA and KNLA. The DKBA relies extensively on forced conscription by demanding quotas of recruits from villages; once chosen, the only way a villager can escape is to pay a very large bribe or flee the village (see photo 12-14 ). Children are often recruited as part of these quotas. Though the KNLA and its associated Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) militia mainly rely on volunteers, they also do some forced recruitment by quota which results in the recruitment of children (see photos 12-10 , 12-11 , 12-12 , and 12-15 ), and they normally accept child volunteers as well. Their claims to be putting an end to these practices have not yet been reflected in their actions. Soldiers in these armies, though lacking in salary and supplies, tend to be treated much better than their counterparts in the Tatmadaw . Morale is also usually higher. While the DKBA is implicated in many abuses against villagers, the KNLA is more often involved in operations to protect villagers against SPDC forces, including demining, escorting villagers in dangerous zones, and sharing information with IDPs (see photos 11-20 to 11-24 , 11-1 , and 11-42 and 11-43 ). KNLA medics also treat the wounds and illnesses of many displaced villagers; photos illustrating this can be found in Sections 5 ( Shootings and Killings ), 10.3 ( Flight and Displacement/Health ), and 11.2 ( Landmines/The Victims ). Some villagers have close relationships with the DKBA, more with the KNLA, but almost none maintain friendly relationships with the Tatmadaw . More background on some of the issues mentioned above can be found in "Abuse Under Orders: The SPDC and DKBA Armies Through the Eyes of their Soldiers" (KHRG #2001-01, March 2001), or in "My Gun Was as Tall as Me": Child Soldiers in Burma (Human Rights Watch, 2002).
Photo #12-1: Seventeen-year-old Maung A--- deserted from SPDC LIB # xxx in January 2005 in Thaton district. He is shown here with his assault rifle. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-2: An SPDC Army outpost on a hilltop in Thaton district, January 2005. Many such outposts host only 10 or 20 soldiers and are left virtually unguarded when the troops are on patrol. Their rundown condition results from the officers focusing their efforts on making money for themselves, the low morale of the rank-and-file soldiers, and orders from higher up for field units to 'live off the land' (i.e. off the villagers). [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo # 12-3: T---, age 18, deserted from SPDC LIB #340 in Papun district in December 2004. Originally recruited by force as a child to the SPDC Army, he says he deserted several times, but each time they caught him back at his home in T--- township and forced him back into the Army again. This time he says he no longer dares return home. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-4, 12-5, 12-6: Two SPDC soldiers who deserted the army together in Papun district in August 2004, and the G3 assault rifles they used in the army. A--- (left) is 19 years old and W--- (right) is 18. Both had been in the Army for one year and had been together since training. They said the youngest soldiers in their group of trainees were 13 years old. Both say they fled because the column commander regularly beat them. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-7, 12-8: Both of these photos show child soldiers on active duty with SPDC LIB #xxx in Papun District. They both told their stories to a KHRG researcher who they thought was a local villager. The boy in photo 12-7 was doing sentry duty at xxxx Army camp when this photo was taken in June 2004. He said he was kidnapped and forced to join the SPDC Army when he was 12 years old, and that when he first arrived at this Army camp his commanding officer (the camp commander) pocketed a large portion of his salary and forced him to work laying stones for a nearby road project. He dared not complain for fear of being beaten. The boy (right) in photo 12-8 serves with the same battalion, and was only 15 years old when this photo was taken in June 2004. In 2002 Human Rights Watch estimated there to be approximately 70,000 child soldiers in the SPDC Army, making up about 20% of its total strength, and no action appears to have been taken to reduce that number since then. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo # 12-9: Maung S---, a 14 year old Burman from a town in Mandalay Division, was arrested in broad daylight and forced into the SPDC Army. He was approached by three soldiers who asked to see his ID card. Unable to produce one (many children do not obtain ID cards until age 18), he was then arrested and sent to Mandalay where he received four and a half months of basic military training. This trick is commonly used to forcibly conscript children, most of whom are unaware that no law exists stating that a child must serve a jail term for failure to produce an ID card. Following his training, he was to be assigned to LIB #xxx in Papun District, but en route he was sent to Papun town where he was used as forced labour collecting stone for road projects. He had to begin work at 7 a.m. and was forced to collect the stones all day, only resting to eat. He eventually deserted when he could no longer endure the work that he was being forced to do. This photo was taken in April 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-190, 6-191: A brick baking business controlled by LIB #376 (Major Aye Lwin commanding) in Pa'an township of Thaton District. Between March 1 st and 20 th 2004, Major Aye Lwin ordered the villagers of K--- village to bring enough loads of firewood to fire the brick kilns (some of the leftover firewood is visible in photo 6-190 ), and used his own soldiers as labour to bake the bricks for his personal profit. Not only were the villagers forced to work without pay but, adding insult to injury, they were forced to buy the bricks afterward at 15 Kyat per brick. These photos were taken in May 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-10: Though he doesn't know his exact age, Saw K--- is clearly under 18 and is a KNLA child soldier. He says the KNLA demanded a quota of recruits from his village tract, and the KNU village tract leader forced him to go as part of the quota. This photo was taken in April 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo # 12-11: N---, a 17 year old Karen from Irrawaddy Division, was kidnapped and forced into the SPDC Army against his will when he was only 14 years old. During his two and a half years of service he was assigned to IB #xxx Company #x stationed at P--- in Karenni (Kayah) State. He has not had any contact with his family since he was kidnapped in August 2001. In March 2004 he deserted the SPDC Army and fled into KNU-held territory where he decided to defect to the KNU: "I didn't want to stay with the SPDC. They tricked me and took my salary and they punched me. I couldn't suffer anymore so I fled. I was arrested by force. I was not willing to join the Army. I think that now I will join the revolution. ... I don't want to go home. If I go home the SPDC will arrest me." He was accepted into the KNLA despite still being a child, and contrary to the KNU's stated policy of no longer recruiting children. This photo was taken in March 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #10-28, 10-29: These photos show a message of remorse written in charcoal on an abandoned villager's house by an SPDC soldier from the unit that forced them to relocate. When IB #39 ordered K--- village in Toungoo district to relocate, the villagers fled into the hills instead and had not yet returned when this photo was taken in February 2004. On the abandoned house of a girl he clearly liked, this soldier wrote: "To Ma C---, full of remembrance I have written this note. When I arrived at little sister's [your] village, I imagined little sister. [I] Remember the place where [I saw you] wearing [your] skirt. But I'm sorry that we can't do anything. I am sorry. That is all. IB #39, H---." Photo 10-28 shows the entire note; photo 10-29 focuses on the second half more clearly. [Photos: KHRG researcher] Warning: these images may disturb some viewers
Photos #11-20, 11-21, 11-22, 11-23, 11-24: Early on the morning of December 30 th 2003, SPDC soldiers from Light Infantry Division #55 found and burned a paddy storage barn containing approximately 100 baskets [2,500 kgs. / 5,500 lbs.] of paddy which displaced villagers had hidden near K--- village in Lu Thaw township, Papun district. Later that morning some villagers went to the site to see what rice they could salvage, accompanied for protection by 18-year-old Saw S--- from M--- village, who is a member of the KNU's Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) militia. When they reached the destroyed paddy barn at 11:45 a.m., Saw S--- stepped on a landmine the SPDC soldiers had planted there before leaving, presumably to kill anyone who came back for the rice. The mine blew off Saw S---'s right foot and mangled his left leg. photo 11-20 shows all that remained of his right shoe after the blast. Photos 11-21 through 11-23 were taken as he received treatment from a mobile team of Karen medics a week later on January 8 th 2004. In photo 11-24 , one of the medics displays just one of the pieces of shrapnel removed from Saw S---'s leg. [ Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #11-1: A KNLA soldier removing a Burmese-made MM-1 stake fragmentation mine, planted by soldiers from LID #101 in the vicinity of T--- village in Lu Thaw township of Papun District. This mine has been mounted above-ground on a stake to maximise its destructive effect, and rigged to a tripwire strung across an overgrown footpath. According to a KHRG researcher, soldiers from LID #99 who replaced those from LID #101 also continued to plant many landmines throughout the region. Disregard the date stamped on the photo; this photo was taken in March 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher] Warning: these images may disturb some viewers
Photos # 11-42, 11-43: Saw D---, a 25 year old KNLA soldier, was wounded while attempting to remove a DKBA landmine in the Meh Pleh Toh area of T'Nay Hsah township, Pa'an District, on November 20 th 2002. The explosion blew off two of his fingers. The fact that he lost only two fingers and not his entire hand suggests that the mine was either a small American-made M-14 mine (see photos 11-9 and 11-10 in Section 11 [ Landmines ] ), or a DKBA-made pipe landmine (see photos F13 and F17 in Photo Set 2002-A), both of which are known to be used by the DKBA. The Meh Pleh Toh area suffers heavily from landmine contamination; many civilians have lost their lives to mines in this area. This photo was taken three days later as he was receiving medical care. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-12: 17 year old Maung H---, a Shan from K--- village in Mandalay Division, is an SPDC deserter. He was arrested and forced into the SPDC Army by recruiting officers while looking for work in Rangoon when he was 16. Following his training at #9 SPDC Army Training Camp in Thaton, he was assigned to a battalion. He was then sent to IB #xxx based in Papun District in August 2002. Soon after arriving at the camp he was ordered to perform sentry duty, but having only just arrived, was unaware of where the sentry hut was. An NCO named M--- then proceeded to beat him for not knowing where the post was. He fled from his battalion after spending only two nights in the camp. This photo taken in February 2003 shows him in KNLA fatigues. Deserters in Karen areas usually end up in KNLA hands; once interrogated, they are executed if considered spies, or offered assistance in their choice of future otherwise. Some try to return home, some try to cross into Thailand, and some ask to join the KNLA. Burmans are generally not accepted into the KNLA, but other ethnicities sometimes are, even if they are still children. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-13: K---, age 13, was captured and forced to become a soldier in the SPDC Army. He was held for eight months in one of the SPDC's Su Saun Yay ('gathering place') holding centres for new recruits prior to attending four months of basic military training. After training he was sent to serve with LIB #xxx in Papun District, but fled from his unit on September 29 th 2002. This photo was taken in October 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo # 12-14: In early 2004, DKBA #999 Brigade special battalion in T'Nay Hsah township of Pa'an District demanded three men per village for forced conscription as soldiers in the DKBA. Those selected who did not wish to become soldiers were required to pay a 30,000 Kyat fee for failure to perform their 'duty'. Saw P---, 49, from K--- village had to sell one of his cows in order to raise the necessary funds to avoid conscription. This photo was taken in May 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-15: Maung W---, age 13, and Saw M---, age 15, were forced to join the local Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO), the KNU's paramilitary militia, by the local KNDO leader despite their young age. This photo was taken in October 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo # 12-16, 12-17: Weapons captured by KNLA troops from an SPDC armoury in Nyaunglebin District during the KNU-SPDC ceasefire negotiations being held in Moulmein in February 2004. Included in this cache are numerous G3 (BA-63) assault rifles and G4 (BA-64) light machine guns. Both of these weapons are locally produced in Burma's Ka Pa Sa munitions factories (abbreviated from Karkweye Pyitsu Setyoun – the Burmese name for the Directorate of Defence Industries) in central Burma under licence from German arms dealer Heckler and Koch. The G3 was the standard SPDC Army assault rifle before it was replaced by the MA-1. A number of M79 40mm grenade launchers were also captured, as was an amount of communications equipment; all of which may be seen in these photos. KHRG believes that the weapon shown in the foreground of photo 12-16 may be the often rumoured but elusive MA-13 sub-machine gun (referred to by some other commentators as the BA-94). For years there have been reports of this weapon's existence, but until recently very little concrete evidence has been available. The rumours state that the MA-13 is an illegal copy of the Israeli Military Industries (IMI) Uzi built under the supervision of Israeli consultants (alleged ex-IMI employees) with plans acquired through Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS), who make the weapon there under licence. While the weapon shown in these photos resembles the IMI Uzi, there are a number of very marked differences that suggest that this weapon may be locally produced. The stamping on the side of the receiver is noticeably different from the Israeli-manufactured weapon. The moulded plastic furniture on the handle, fore-stock and shoulder-stock is quite different from the original as well, as are the sights. The shoulder-stock looks as though it is merely a slightly modified version of that seen on the G3 (compare with the G3 rifles shown here). Perhaps the most notable difference seen between this weapon and the IMI Uzi is that the charging handle is on the side of the receiver – not on the top as it is on the original Israeli-made model. However, all of these differences aside, the actual identity of this weapon remains unconfirmed. The ceasefire negotiations being held in Moulmein at that time were cancelled by the SPDC as a result of the raid. In a display of good faith and commitment to the ceasefire, the KNU later returned all of the weapons shown in these photos to the SPDC. These photos were taken in Papun District in early March 2004 shortly before the weapons were returned. [Photos: KHRG researcher] |
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