KHRG Report: Forced Relocation in K

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: KHRG Report: Forced Relocation in Kyauk Kyi Township

Status: R


************************Posted by BurmaNet************************
  "Appropriate Information Technologies--Practical Strategies"
******************************************************************

    AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

________________________________________________________________

         FORCED_RELOCATION_IN_KYAUK_KYI_TOWNSHIP
________________________________________________________________

June 10, 1993

Filename: jun10_93

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

South_of_Kyauk_Kyi_Town

The following report was given by a Karen refugee from the area
south of Kyauk Kyi Town in Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin
District, Pegu Division.

STATEMENT:  In February this year many villages south of Kyauk Kyi
Town were forced to move.  Thaun Pu village, which has 70 or 80
houses, was forced to move to Nat Than Gwin, a big village with an
Army camp on the Sittang River, at the end of the car road from
Kyauk Kyi.  The SLORC said this was for security reasons, because
they don't want the villagers to have any contact with Karen
soldiers.  First the villagers had to take all their rice to the
Army camp, then the soldiers forced them to dismantle their houses,
cross the Sittang River and go 4 miles to Nat Than Gwin, where they
had to build huts outside the village along the roadside.

Before February, Man Mayin, Tan Ta Bin and Dait Tu villages had
been forced to take all their rice to the Army camp at Kywetalin,
but they didn't have to move.  Then in February, the SLORC said
they couldn't control Kywetalin anymore, so they ordered several
villages to move to Nyaun Gone (the Burmese name for Noh Ku), on
the Kyauk Kyi - Nat Than Gwin car road.  Kywetalin village (70-80
houses, Karen name Thu Ke Bee), New Kywetalin village (30-40
houses, Karen name No Poh), and In Dain Gone village (about 55
houses) were all forced to move to Nyaun Gone between February 3
and February 8.  Between those dates, the soldiers went to each
village, told the villagers they would burn down the whole village
if they refused to move, then surrounded the village and forced
everyone to move out.  At Nyaun Gone, the villagers had to build
huts along the roadside.

The Army takes all of everyone's rice, then rations it back out
once a month based on the number of people in each family.  The
ration is never enough for the family, but the people don't dare
protest.  People have been allowed to go back to their old villages
to get their belongings, but no one is sure yet if they will be
allowed to go and work their farms when the season comes.  For now,
they are surviving on the rationed rice together with other food
they've brought from their villages.

In the area just south of Kyauk Kyi Town alone, about 10 villages
have already been forced to move this year.  Now everyone is forced
to do a lot of work for the soldiers:  maintain roads, build
bridges along routes to the front line, cut bamboo all the time and
maintain the Army camps, and go as porters.  They have to work
until the job is finished every time, 2 or 3 days or sometimes
longer.  As porters, they are forced to go for as long as the
military operation lasts, sometimes even one or two months.

For slave labour, the SLORC demands a total number of people from
each village every time - usually 10, 20, or 30 at a time.  If they
want a lot of people, the women must go too.  Before they were
forced to move, the villagers had to do this kind of labour
sometimes, but now they're forced to do it almost all the time.
_________________________________________________________________

                     North_of_Kyauk_Kyi_Town

The Karen man who told the following story is a refugee from the
SLORC's forced relocation camp at Thit Chat Seit, just east of the
Sittang River in Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin District, Pegu
Division.  To protect his relatives inside Burma, his personal
details cannot be revealed.

STATEMENT:  I am from Nga Lauk Tet village in Kyauk Kyi Township.
There were about 65 houses in my village.  At the end of April
1992, SLORC soldiers came to our village and ordered us to move
within 3 days.  They told us, "The villagers here are not good -
you give information to the Karen Army and then they attack our
patrols, so you have to move".  They ordered us to destroy our
houses, came and watched us do it, then forced us to the new place
at Thit Chat Seit.  We couldn't take the parts of our houses with
us.  It was also very difficult for people to take their animals,
but we all tried.

Thit Chat Seit is about 3 miles away, about 1 kilometre east of the
Kyauk Kyi - Mone car road.  When we got there, the SLORC assigned
each family a place in a field between Thit Chat Seit village and
the car road, separate from the village.  They assigned some
families to the high end of the field, but most were on very low
ground.  We all built simple shelters for our families, but rainy
season was coming and a storm blew them all down, so we had to
build them all again.  The place is a ricefield, and in rainy
season the whole field fills up with water.  We had nowhere to tie
up our livestock except a deep muddy place, so before long many of
them got sick and died.

At the new place they still allowed us to go back to work our
fields, but we had to get a pass from the SLORC-appointed village
headman; he's the one they always order to give them information,
to arrange porters for them, and other things.  We could only get
a pass for one day at a time to go to our fields; we always had to
return the same evening.  The whole family is not allowed to go,
only those who are needed for the farm work.  They say they don't
want us to contact the Karen soldiers.  SLORC troops guard the
relocation camp all the time and they're always patrolling all
around our old village.  If they catch anyone outside the camp
without a pass, they punish them.

The new place is too far to go back to work our fields every day. 
We have to plough our fields in the early morning because of the
heat, but now we cannot get there early enough and we can't get all
our ploughing done, so we can't plant all of our fields.  Because
of this, no one can grow enough food any more.  To make it worse,
the weather was bad last year, making our crop smaller.  So now we
all have to borrow food from our friends in villages which have not
been moved.  There's no way we can ask the SLORC for anything.  The
SLORC forced us to move, but they give us no food, no job, and no
help.  They just abuse us.

When we were first forced to move, the soldiers made us put all our
rice in a fenced enclosure, each family's rice kept separate in our
own baskets.  Then the Burmese SLORC clerk in Thit Chat Seit would
only ration it back out to us 3 days at a time.  The ration was
never enough, so we had to cheat; if he said we could take 3
milktins full, then when he wasn't looking we took 4 or 5.  This
year, they said we could keep our food in our own houses, but then
after we'd finished the harvest in February or March, they ordered
us to move all our rice to the SLORC camp at Au Law See village. 
We had to put it in a fenced enclosure guarded by SLORC troops.  We
didn't want to, so we took only some of our rice instead of all of
it.  When the SLORC realised their plan wasn't working, they
announced that we could go and get all of our rice back - but then
when we got there they made us pay 30 Kyat per basket, to buy back
our own rice!  One man from Myow Yo Gyi village, which had also
been relocated, had cheated by giving them a basket of rice husks
instead of rice.  When he went to get his rice back, the SLORC
accused him of cheating and made him pay 1,000 Kyat.

All the Karen villages in the area have been forced to move.  Tha
Htay Gone village, which has 80 houses, was forced to move to Thit
Chat Seit together with us.  Po Thaun Zu, Dtain Bin, and Myeh Yeh
villages were forced to move to Noh Ku on the Kyauk Kyi - Nat Than
Gwin car road.  Many other Karen villages were also forced to move
there.  There are also some Burmese villages around, but none of
them were forced to move.  The people there are just villagers like
us, and they are also angry that the Karen villages are all being
forced to move, but like us they dare not say anything.  I don't
know why the SLORC forced us to move - they just always force
villagers to move here and there, just to oppress us.

They also call us to go as porters, build fences, dig trenches, and
build their camp at Au Law See.  We have to go for 2 or 3 days or
more at a time, depending on the job that needs doing.  They also
make us provide all the wood, bamboo, leaf roofing, and whatever
else they need.  Even if their fence gets broken, they call us to
go and fix it.  The soldiers never do any physical work, they only
supervise and inspect.  They order one village to build an office,
another village to make the fence, another village to dig trenches,
and so on.

Even in the village, if a soldier walks by and sees you cooking a
curry, he comes and eats it with you without being invited.  They
have rations, but they just go from village to village and force
everyone to give them food.  I think they send their rations home
to their families.  If they want money, they capture people in the
villages and hold them for ransom.  This is their main job - to
make money.

This April, I got special permission to sleep in my field to
protect my peanut crop from wild animals.  I was sleeping in my
shelter at 4 a.m. when SLORC soldiers came and ordered me to go
with them as a "reserve porter".  They only released me that
evening, and when I got back to my shelter I found that even my
pots, pans, and knives had been stolen by soldiers.
_________________________________________________________________

Another man recently arrived from Kyauk Kyi Township reported the
following:

People in the area try to do their work but they are in constant
fear of SLORC troops coming to their village.  Whenever SLORC
troops enter the area, all men in the village flee to avoid being
tortured or taken as porters, while the women stay to protect their
belongings.  First some of the soldiers surround the village to
prevent anyone escaping, then the other soldiers enter the village. 
They call all the villagers together, then separate all the men who
are there and interrogate them one by one, deciding if each man is
a villager or a rebel.  If they decide a man is a rebel, he faces
torture and death.

In April 1993, #73 Battalion replaced #48 Battalion in the area. 
Shortly before that, 48 Battalion troops commanded by Major Toe
Aung captured Nyi Lay from Myow Oo village, Than Nyin from Aung
Kyan Tha village, and the son of Mahn Nyunt Than from Kyaun Zu
village.  The troops accused the three men of having had contact
with rebels, and demanded 10,000 Kyat for their release.  The
villagers raised the money and the men were released.

On 10 April 1993, troops from 73 Battalion came to Nga Tway Saut
village.  All the men escaped, and only the women were left.  The
soldiers captured over 20 women and said they would be made into
porters unless the villagers paid 2,000 Kyat for each woman.  The
villagers paid and the women were released.

On 21 April 1993, troops from 73 Battalion entered Maw Ker Tha Ber
Ko village and forced all the villagers to go with them to Kyauk
Ker Ba.  The villagers were then left to wait there all day.  At
sunset, one of the headmen went back to their village and found it
clear of soldiers, so all the villagers returned.  They found that
many of their houses had been looted by the soldiers while they
were gone.
         TRANSLATION_OF_A_SAMPLE_SLORC_RELOCATION_ORDER

Following is the direct translation of the typed, stamped and
signed SLORC order sent to several villages in Kyauk Kyi Township
in February 1993, ordering them to move.  A photocopy of the order
itself is attached as page 6 of this report.

          Stamped:                             Stamped:
  "Exactly, Right, & Quick;                  Township LORC
Be Simple, Be Honest, Try Hard            Kyauk Kyi Township
   to Build Up the Country;
   All Government Servants
 Must Stay Clear of Politics"

                                   (To Village Head, Thaun Pu)

                         Township Law & Order Restoration Council
                                            Kyauk Kyi Township
                                            No. 0201/1-14/TLORC
                                            Date: 3 February 1993
To,
   Chairmen,
   Kywetalin & Kyauk Sayit Village Groups;
   Heads of Villages,
   Kywetalin main village, New Kywetalin, In Dain Gone, and Thaun 
     Pu villages

Subject:  Moving the Villages

1) Concerning the subject above, due to security reasons the
villages mentioned below are instructed to move into one big
combined location.

Kywetalin main village and New Kywetalin village, from In Net
village group, to Nyaun Gone village.
In Dain Gone and Thaun Pu villages, from Kyauk Sayit village group,
to Nat Than Gwin village.
They must completely move between 4 February 1993 and 8 February
1993.

2) Therefore, since the above villages must move all paddy, people
and property between the specified dates and to the specified
places, everyone must send a family registration list to the
Township Law & Order Restoration Council committee, in order that
housing plots can be allocated.

                                      [signature]/3/2/93

                                     (Substitute) Chairman
                                     U Maung Maung Oo
                                     Township officer #2
Copy to:
         Southern Division Front Headquarters, Kyauk Kyi
         No. 351 Light Infantry Battalion, Kyauk Kyi
         No. 60 Infantry Battalion, Kyauk Kyi