KHRG Report: A SLORC Forced Relocat

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: KHRG Report: A SLORC Forced Relocation Camp

Status: R


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


             A REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

________________________________________________________________

            THE_SLORC'S_RELOCATION_CAMP_AT_BO_KA_HTA
________________________________________________________________

                   Manerplaw, October 31, 1992

Filename: oct31_92

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

The following account from Ler Doh Township, Kler Lu Htoo
(Nyaunglebin) Province, was given in an interview with a Karen
Baptist pastor who has witnessed firsthand the conditions at Bo Ka
Hta relocation camp:

Not long before the rains began, I think in June, SLORC troops from
#57 Burma Regiment came to 5 villages in Ler Doh Township:  Ma Pi
Po, Ma Pi Doh, Hin Tha Weh, Kyone Gyi, and Shwe Di villages.  They
forced all the villagers, well over 1000 people altogether, to move
to their camp at Bo Ka Hta.  The soldiers have built their camp in
the middle, surrounded by all the villagers' houses so the Karen
Army can't attack.  The villagers are also under strict orders to
report any evidence they see of Karen soldiers or else face severe
punishment.

There was already a village of several hundred people at Bo Ka Hta,
so there is no land available for the new people to grow any crops,
and the SLORC provides nothing for them.  When the villagers were
forced to move to Bo Ka Hta, the troops took all of the food
supplies that were in their villages.  Now the villagers only get
a bit of their own food rationed back out to them once every 3
days.  Their villages are only a few hours' walk away, but they can
only return if they get a special 3-day pass from the SLORC troops. 
Most families get these passes when they can, but only 4 or 5
families have used this opportunity to escape -  the troops say
anyone who escapes is the enemy, so any family that escapes
couldn't dare come back, and has to flee the whole area without any
food to take with them.

In the camp, the soldiers often beat the villagers with bamboo
sticks if they suspect them of knowing anything about the Karen
Army, or even just because of simple misunderstandings.  The
villagers are forced to dig bunkers, build fences and do other work
for the troops.  They are often beaten for working too slowly or
any other reason.  Many villagers are also taken as porters.  Every
time a company of troops goes as reinforcements to attack the Karen
at Tee Moo Khee, they take 40 villagers from the camp as porters
for 2 months.  The porters have to carry heavy loads, they are
often beaten, and some of them die.  Both women and men are taken
from Bo Ka Hta, and some of the women porters are raped many times
by the soldiers.  Some of the porters escape and return to their
home villages, but there is no more food around there so in the end
they have to go back to Bo Ka Hta.  Twenty or more of the people at
Bo Ka Hta have already died as porters, and now the troops are
taking more porters than ever because they are increasing their
attacks on the Karen around Tee Moo Khee.

Another 20 or 30 people have died at the camp of disease, mainly
malaria and stomach diseases, because they are weak and there's no
medicine.  The SLORC has also arrested some, like Thra Ler Mo, the
pastor from Ma Pi Po village.  They took him away to Taungoo
Prison.  Thra Ler Mo was pastor to a lot of people in the area. 
Not long before the relocation, he had gone to the Revolutionary
Area to visit some of his former parishioners who now live there. 
Before he came home, they gave him a small electric piano they'd
bought in Thailand for his church.  When the troops at Bo Ka Hta
saw this piano in July, they accused Thra Ler Mo of having contact
with rebels, took the piano and took him away to Taungoo Prison,
where he still is now.  His wife has 5 children to take care of and
some of them are small, so she hasn't been able to go all the way
to Taungoo to visit him.  A few others have been able to go and see
him, though.  They say he appears to be well, but nobody knows how
long the SLORC will keep him in prison.

All of the villagers are still staying in Bo Ka Hta with the SLORC
Army, and things are only getting harder for them as more and more
of them are being taken as porters for the SLORC's new attacks on
the Karen Army.  I've heard that other villages in Ler Doh Township
have also been forced into camps, but I haven't been to those areas
so I don't know any details.


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

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

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