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KHRG Report: Torture of Karen Women



Subject: KHRG Report: Torture of Karen Women by SLORC



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      AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

________________________________________________________________

                 TORTURE_OF_KAREN_WOMEN_BY_SLORC
________________________________________________________________

                        February 16, 1993
Filename: feb16_93

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The following three women gave accounts of how they were tortured
by SLORC troops who entered their village in the latter half of
1992.  They bear scars all over their bodies to prove their story. 
In particular, the flesh on the back of Naw May Paw's legs has been
burned completely off in large patches.

The women's names have been changed and several details of their
stories are omitted from this report in order to prevent SLORC
reprisals against villagers in their area.  Please use this
information in any way which can help put a stop to this kind of
barbarism by the SLORC.

Notes:  Longyi - a Burmese sarong
        Kyat - Burmese currency.  At the official rate, US$1 = 6  
      Kyat.  On the black market, US$1 = 120 Kyat.  These        
villagers are subsistence farmers, and would never have        
access to more than a few hundred Kyat without selling        
livestock and belongings.


1) NAME:   Naw Wah          AGE:  40
2) NAME:   Naw Lah          AGE:  26
3) NAME:   Naw May Paw      AGE:  55

NAW WAH:  The SLORC always comes to our village to take our rice,
meat, and fruit.  They also order us to send them porters, but
nobody dares go so every house has to pay 30 Kyat every month to
hire people from inside Burma to go instead.  Whenever the SLORC
soldiers are coming all of the men in the village run to the forest
to hide so they won't be taken away.  Only the women are left, and
we just give the soldiers whatever they want so they'll go away.

A few months ago the soldiers came to the village and accused us of
helping the Kawthoolei [Karen] Army.  Only some women were left in
the village.  They ordered us all to come out into a common place. 
They burned down 11 houses, including all three of ours.  We lost
everything.  We tried to get our belongings out but the soldiers
threw them back into the burning houses.  Then they dragged us away
from our houses.  The soldiers surrounded us so we couldn't escape. 
They tied up 8 of us by the hands and took us away outside the
village.  The officer shot a pistol near our ears, and I was very
afraid.

First the soldiers hung us by our hands with rope, so that our feet
weren't touching the ground.  They left us hanging like that for
one hour.  Then they laid us all on the ground on our backs, tied
our hands behind our backs and tied our legs up to the tree branch
so they were pointing straight up.

NAW MAY PAW:  Our longyis were falling down, down, down!  Until you
could see all of our thighs.  We had to stop them falling somehow
- we were so ashamed.

NAW WAH:  Then when we were laying like that, they walked across
our chests in their Army boots.  They stepped from one of us to the
other, like they were walking across logs.  Each time they stepped
on my chest, I felt like I was going to die.  I couldn't breathe. 
They kept doing this for an hour.

NAW LAH:  We couldn't breathe!  Then they took 2 or 3 women, and
piled us on top of an old woman, over 50 years old.  I was on the
top, and then the soldier walked on top of me in his Army boots. 
I was screaming loudly, and crying and crying.

NAW MAY PAW:  Sometimes they even stepped on our throats.

NAW WAH:  And they struck me in my eyes 3 times, so hard that my
eyes got very red, and I could hardly see any more.

NAW LAH:  We were all going unconscious.  We didn't even know what
was happening anymore.

NAW MAY PAW:  It was like being in a dream.  We were fainting. 
They kept torturing us for an hour one way, then changing to
another torture, then another, again and again and again.  Even
though we were fainting, we could never fall asleep because we were
all tied up in horrible positions.

NAW WAH:  Then they had a fire.  They heated the candle-oil we make
from tree bark, and when it was burning they dripped it on our
chests.  Once they dripped burning plastic on my shoulder, and it
gave me this big scar.  They put their knives in the fire, and then
put them on our bare arms and legs.  They rubbed them back and
forth up and down our legs, burning us.  They flicked the blades so
they cut us.  I was screaming and crying.  But none of the
villagers hiding in the forest dared come back; they thought the
soldiers were killing us all.

NAW LAH:  They tortured us like this the whole night, till morning.

NAW WAH:  They hung us up by our hands for an hour, and then laid
us down and walked on our chests with their boots for an hour, then
dripped burning oil and hot coals on our bodies for an hour, then
burned us and poked and cut us with burning knives for an hour. 
And then all over again.  When we were hanging straight up, they
slapped and slapped us in the face, and took a stick of green
bamboo and kept poking us hard in the chest, around the heart.

NAW LAH:  None of us knew anything anymore, we were half fainted. 
I was screaming "Help me, help me", but the others could only
answer "I can't, I'm the same".  We were all crying "Mother,
Mother", but then the soldiers just said "Shut up!  Stop calling! 
Be quiet!"

NAW MAY PAW:  I was the worst.  My whole legs were horribly burned
by the hot dagger being drawn up and down many times.  I was crying
- I couldn't bear to look at the knife when they brought it again
and again.  They cut my wrist, and when I struggled they knocked
out my tooth.  They tied me with my legs pointing straight up like
an animal for 3 hours, and beat on my legs with the blades of their
bayonets.  I was shaking, shaking so much.  Then they tied me
standing up with my hands behind my back and a rope tight around my
chest holding me just off the ground, and they beat me around the
hips with a big bamboo pole.  I was screaming, "I'm going to die,
I'm going to die".  They struck me in the front and back with a
[carbine] rifle barrel often, and they  grabbed my head and twisted
it, and slapped my cheeks until they were bleeding.  The whole time
they never even gave us any water.  They shouted at us, "Tell us
about the rebels!"  But we're just village women, we don't know
anything about that.
While they did this they poured water over our heads, and then
while we were on the ground they put cloth like silk over our faces
and poured buckets of water on it.  We couldn't breathe!  They
asked us if we were ready to die.  I was afraid to die, but they
said none of us could go free unless the villagers paid 130,000
Kyat for all of us.  I said I have no money.  They really expected
us to die, but we survived.

My scars are terrible.  It makes me so ashamed just to show them to
you.

NAW LAH:  They said if they don't get the money then we will die. 
They just kept us hanging up with rope, and kept hitting us with a
big bamboo pole on the hips and shoulders.

NAW WAH:  They tortured us like this for 3 days and nights, hanging
us up all day long and then torturing us with fire and knives all
night.  Then the captain and the others took us to their camp.  I
was separated from the rest.  They tied my hands and put a
blindfold on my eyes, and took me up a small hill.  While the
soldiers walked behind me, they yelled "I'm going to kill you!",
and they fired their guns in the air twice.  We got to the top of
the hill, and the soldiers there were digging my grave.  I pleaded
with them not to kill me.  I told them I don't understand their
problem, killing me will not help them; my life can mean nothing to
them.  They kept me tied up, put me in a rice sack with my head
sticking out, and just kept me laying there on the ground in that
sack for 3 more days and nights, beside my grave.

NAW LAH:  At the camp they kept all the rest of us tied up for the
fourth day, then they released us.  But we knew they still had Naw
Wah and we felt so much pity for her.  There was nothing we could
do.  No one was allowed to go to her.

NAW WAH:  The three days and nights they were torturing us and
burning our whole bodies, they never once gave us food or water. 
Then the three days I was kept in the rice sack they only gave me
very little water to drink, and a handful of rice to eat, twice a
day.  I couldn't move with all the pain and swelling from my
wounds, and the soldiers were guarding me with guns, ready to
shoot.

NAW MAY PAW:  All the villagers pitied us and wanted to save us,
but the soldiers demanded money before they would release us.  They
demanded 130,000 kyat to release all of us.  They said none of us
could go free until they got the money for all of us.

NAW WAH:  One woman had been tortured worse than all of us, because
the soldiers said her husband helped the rebels, even though he's
just a farmer.  They kept her tied up naked and tortured her whole
body all the time.  When her husband came to the village with money
to try to rescue her, the soldiers were burning his rice barn.  He
ran to try to put out the fire, and they captured him.  They bound
him like an animal, his hands to his feet.  They cut his flesh all
over and then built a fire and put him over it naked.  They let him
lay on the ground in the cold the rest of the night, then the next
morning they put a plastic bag over his head and poured hot water
over it.  He couldn't stand up, so they pushed and dragged him up
the hill, threw him in a pit and shot him in the head.

There were about 60 soldiers, and they were in our village for 6
days.  They burned down 11 houses and looted our clothes, blankets
and everything.  If they saw a girl wearing earrings, they forced
her to take them out and give them.  They also tied up all of our
bullocks, 20 of them, and forced us to pay 1000 Kyat for each
bullock before they would give them back.

They took 130,000 Kyat for our freedom, they got 17,000 Kyat for
our bullocks, and all our belongings.  We had nothing left.  Those
of us whose homes they'd burned had to go stay with friends who
still had their homes.

Now I can't do any work, my hands are still numb after being
tortured for so long.  The soldiers were trying to kill us - they
tortured us until we urinated and defecated all over ourselves.

NAW MAY PAW:  After I was released my legs and my whole body were
all swollen from the wounds.  I couldn't walk, and I still can't
walk properly.  I just want to lie down all the time.  I still have
pain in my chest where they poked me with the green bamboo.  They
poked and poked until my chest felt broken.

For days after I got home I couldn't even move my arms at all.  My
whole family was crying for days.  Everyone in the village was
crying for us.  They thought we would all die.

NAW LAH:  The whole village suffered and cried for us.  No one even
cooked or ate anything for days, they were so sad.

NAW MAY PAW:  My burns got all infected, with alot of pus and a bad
smell for 2 or 3 months.  We had no medicine.  I couldn't move, and
I could hardly even lie down.

We have to tell you this, because in Burma we can't even tell
anyone our story.  These scars will always remind us of what they
did to us.


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

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