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KHRG: SLORC activities in Lew Ba Ko



Subject: KHRG: SLORC activities in Lew Ba Ko village


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      AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
________________________________________________________________

             SLORC_ACTIVITIES_IN_LER_BA_KO_VILLAGE:

    Testimony_by_a_refugee_from_central_Karenni_(Kayah)_State
          and_List_of_Villages_Relocated_in_March_1992
________________________________________________________________

                        December 31, 1992

Filename: dec31_92

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The following account of some of the SLORC's activities in 
central and northwestern Karenni (Kayah) State was given by a 
Karenni refugee who arrived in the Karen Revolutionary Area in 
late 1992.  His name has been changed and personal details 
omitted to protect his relatives and friends still living in Ler 
Ba Ko, which is in Deemawso Township.  Please feel free to use 
this information in any way which may help free these people from 
their current slavery under the SLORC.

Name:  Saw Bleh Say
Testimony:  I came all the way here because many people in my 
area want to get away from the SLORC, and this is the only place 
to come.  But now that Saw Hta has fallen, I don't know how 
people will be able to make it here anymore.

The SLORC has always had an office in Ler Ba Ko.  They routinely 
took us as porters.  All the villagers had to go on a rotating 
basis.  Each family had to send someone at least once a month for 
3 days as a porter, or sometimes as often as 3 times per month.  
Sometimes the men ran away, and then the SLORC took women as 
porters.  I heard that the soldiers raped 2 of the young girls of 
our village when they were porters, but I don't know the details.

Depending on how many they needed, the SLORC often took the young 
and the old to be porters; they didn't care about how old people 
are.  The youngest person I saw them take was 15, and the oldest 
about 65.  Back then being a porter wasn't as horrible as it 
often is now; we had to take our own food, and weren't usually 
beaten or abused too badly because those soldiers knew they had 
to stay in our village.  People in all the villages around had to 
go as porters like that.

In 1991 almost everyone had to go work at the Loikaw-Aung Ban 
railway for about a month.  The SLORC took the leaders of every 
village to the work site, showed them each the work assignment 
their village would be forced to do, and gave them a deadline.  
They told the village leaders, "If your village doesn't finish 
the work by the deadline we will arrest the village leaders".  
It is impossible to say no to the SLORC.

To finish on time, the whole village had to work from before dawn 
to after dusk.  It was a long way from the village to the railway 
and we all had to bring our own rice.  Our village had to hire 3 
trucks to take us the 12-hour trip all the way to the railway.  
Each truck cost us over 10,000 Kyat.  The villagers had to 
collect all this money among ourselves.  Everyone was very angry, 
but we all had to pay because everyone is so afraid of the SLORC.

At the railway, one group of us had to carry earth to make the 
railway embankment, another group had to carry stones, and so on. 

The embankment had to be 26 feet across at the base, 9 feet high 
and 15 feet across at the top.  300 people from my village had to 
make 1 mile of embankment like this.  It was brutally hard work, 
breaking and carrying rocks and dirt.  It was rainy season, and the
railway goes across fields that were all soft and muddy, so 
some villages built the embankment and it just collapsed, and 
then they had to start again.  It took a long time.  We had to 
make huts in the jungle and sleep there.  Our village took a 
month to finish, and some others took one and a half months.  The 
SLORC had allowed us 3 months to finish the whole embankment from 
Mo Pyeh to Pay Kon.  All of us had to go to the railway again for 
a month in July 1992.

In March 1992, all the villagers in Ler Ba Ko were forced to 
build 70 huts about 200 yards outside the village.  Then about 
500 people whom the SLORC had forced out of their villages came 
to stay there.  It was like a refugee camp.  The people had to 
bring their own food, and now once a month they are allowed to go 
back to their home villages to get some more.  Each month they 
all have to go at the same time, and the soldiers go along with 
them as guards.  Most of the villagers have a one year supply of 
food in their village, so for now they still have food, but soon 
they'll run out and then they'll have nothing to eat.  Apart from 
once a month with the soldiers, they're never allowed to go to 
their homes, because the SLORC has made the whole region a 
Prohibited Area.  The Ler Ba Ko villagers are still allowed to 
leave our village, but the people in the camp are not allowed to 
go anywhere.  There are 40 soldiers in Ler Ba Ko who guard them.

In the camp there is nothing for the sick - people just have to 
try to cure themselves.  Three or four children had already died 
of disease in the first four months.  All of the people have to 
go as porters like before, and they are also used all the time to 
do other work for the Army, like going to cut wood, building 
barracks for them, and many other kinds of work.  The people in 
the camp have to do much more work for the Army than the Ler Ba 
Ko villagers.  No one in the camp has dared try to run away yet.  
They are all too scared of the SLORC, so whatever they are 
ordered to do they just have to do.

      WHICH_WERE_FORCED_TO_RELOCATE_BY_SLORC_IN_MARCH_1992

The majority of these villages were forced to move into Deemawso 
and Pruso relocation camps (see related reports).  Everyone in 
these villages was instructed that they would be shot if they 
refused to move or were found in the area after March 25, 1992.

A) Deemawso Township

No. Village        Village     # of   Popn. Nationality  Religion
                    Tract     Houses

 1  Doo Payar      Doo Payar    35     254  Kayan        Baptist
 2  Ku Payar Out       "        25     154    "          R.C.
 3  Ku Payar Thit      "        23     164    "          R.C.
 4  Thar Day Kho       "        13      96  Kayan Kagan  Baptist
 5  Dan To             "        12      95  Kayan        M.T.P.
 6  Yard Khu Haw   Ler Ba Ko    50     189    "          T.K.T.
 7  Yard Khu Thit      "         8      64    "          M.T.P.
 8  Ya Bu Pa Law       "        14     124    "            "
 9  Hway Sesong        "        16      98    "          R.C.
10  Daw Yok Khu    Daw Yok Khu 109     743  Kayan Kagan   "
11  Daw Wal Khu        "        20     147       "        "
12  Lay Pa Aut Ku      "        25     175       "       T.K.T.
13  Bar To             "         9      76  Ka Yaw       R.C.
14  Zee Song           "        12      84     "         Baptist
15  Faru Khall Out     "        53     145     "         R.C.
16  Faru Khall Htat    "        14      89     "          "
17  Han Lee Khu        "        30     235     "          "
18  Hu Wal Ku          "         6      41     "         T.K.T.
19  Khu Ba Toe         "        20     159  Kayan Kagan   "
20  Daw Taw Khu    Daw Taw Khu  32     215  Kayah        R.C.
21  Sangdu Pupa/Sangdu Ywarthit 72     376  Kayan         "
22  See Le Done        "        66     349  Kayah         "
23  Lar Lae /Wathaw Ku Ywarthit 43     273    "          Baptist

B) Pruso Township

No. Village        Village     # of   Popn. Nationality  Religion
                    Tract     Houses

24  Be Yar         Ho Yar       90     528  Ka Yaw       R.C.
25  Ho Yar           "          56     395    "           "
26  Do Yaw (lower)   "          15      97    "           "
27  Do Yaw (upper)   "          20     164    "           "
28  Ta Mo Khu        "          43     234    "           "
29  Li Khu Payar     "          35     199    "           "
30  Tay Khu          "          71     492    "           "
31  Ho Mo Tee        "          30     164    "           "
32  Khar Bal       Do Mo Saw    76     520    "           "
33  Do Mo Saw         "         48     257    "           "
34  Khal Tie Khal     "         63     325    "           "
35  Khe Lu Pra        "         35     198    "           "
36  Re Ke Khal        "         31     153    "           "
37  Htee La Pu        "         35     274    "           "
38  Play Lar          "         20     139    "           "
39  Kho Bar        Ra Ee Pra    37     177    "           "
40  Ra Ee Pra         "         66     349    "           "
41  Yu Spra           "         79     488    "           "
42  Zay Tra           "         19     105    "           "
43  Chro Khu          "         70     415    "           "
                    Tract     Houses

44  Kay Kaw        Kay Kaw      21     123  Bwe Kayaw    R.C.
45  Yu Lee Khu        "         33     156     "          "
46  Bwel Doe Thar     "         40     215     "          "
47  Par Wel           "         63     316     "         Baptist
48  Phaw Lout         "         44     289     "            "
49  Lu Day            "         32     178     "            "
50  Saw Lat           "         18      95     "            "
51  Htee War Khal     "         29     140     "         R.C.
52  Khaw Lay          "          5      35     "          "
53  Tar Thee Po    Tar Thee Po  34     126     "         Baptist
54  Kay Khee            "       22     105     "            "
55  Pay Khee            "       25     125     "            "
56  Doe Mu Khal         "       23     115     "         R.C.
57  Lar Par Htee        "        9      40     "         Baptist
58  Doe Po              "       31     150     "            "
59  Parat Saw Khu       "       41     215     "         R.C.
60  Doe Lar Saw    Doe Lar Saw  34     163  Manu Manaw    "
61  Hlo Khwe So         "       70     399      "         "
62  Yar Ba Kho          "       28     145      "         "
63  Ka Kwe              "       43     253      "         "
64  Ka Yaw              "       32     169      "         "
65  Dee Ku Lae          "       44     260      "         "
66  Law Kwar            "       25     145      "         "
67  Yu Pra              "       20      96      "         "
68  Har Saw Khu         "       28     115      "         "
69  Han O          Yaw Daw Khal 45     195  Bwe Kayaw     "
70  Ka Payu             "       29     174  Kayaw         "
71  Hta Hta Chee        "       42     273  Bwe Kayaw     "
72  Ka Theet Doe        "       25     151      "         "
73  Se Ke Khal          "       21     118      "         "
74  Do Kho              "       13      83      "         "
75  Htaw Tha Khal       "       30     178      "         "
76  See Me Day          "       22     123      "         "


Abbreviations:  R.C.:   Roman Catholic
                        M.T.P.: Mieta Pyammasoe
                        T.K.T.: Ta Khun Tie

Totals:

76 villages in 13 village tracts and 2 townships.
15,481 people in 2,667 homes.

By nationality:  10 Kayan, 5 Kayan Kagan, 27 Kayaw, 23 Bwe Kayaw, 
9 Manu Manaw, and 2 Kayah villages.

By religion:  57 Roman Catholic, 13 Baptist, 3 Ta Khun Tie, and 3 
Mieta Pyammasoe villages.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Karen Human Rights Group
Box 22
Mae Sot, Tak 63110
Thailand

(Email for the KHRG sent to strider@xxxxxxxxxxx will be forwarded
to them)