Karen Human RIghts Group Report (#2

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Subject: Karen Human RIghts Group Report (#2)


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       A REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

Karen Human Rights Group
PO Box 22
Mae Sot, Tak 63110
Thailand
(email sent to the KHRG at strider@xxxxxxxxxxx will be forwarded)


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INCOMING FIELD REPORTS:  #1
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
April 29, 1994

The following information has been reported to us from individuals
in the field.  Please use it to help end the suffering of people
in Burma.
_________________________________________________________________

1)  Mergui/Tavoy District (Tenasserim Division)

This report was sent in by the Mergui/Tavoy Information Service
from the Karen regions of Tenasserim Division:

The SLORC has given orders to all villages in Tavoy District that
each village must send 2 recruits to become SLORC soldiers. 
Villages
which cannot provide the required recruits are forced to hire
itinerant workers or others to go in their place for 15,000 Kyat
each.  Any family which sends their son to be a SLORC soldier
must thenceforth be given 30 tins of rice and 300 Kyat every year
by the other villagers.  These families will also henceforth be
free from all slave labour and forced porter assignments by SLORC
troops which apply to the other villagers.

Note:  There are hundreds of villages in Tavoy District.  This
is an increasingly widespread practice throughout Burma; villages
in several states and divisions have already reported being forced
to provide 1 recruit per month per village or per village tract
for the SLORC army.  This is in line with the SLORC's continued
program of expanding its army to half a million men.  The fact
that this expansion is continuing despite all the SLORC's "peace
talk" propaganda provides a good measure of the SLORC's sincerity
in seeking "peace" and transition to civilian government.  In
every ceasefire to date, the SLORC has followed the agreement
by immediately launching a massive increase in troop concentrations
in the ceasefire areas in order to massively outgun the opposition.
 SLORC then proceeds to progressively break the terms of the
"ceasefire" agreement, knowing that retaliation is almost
impossible, until the opposition group is divided and crushed. 
Even should the opposition group shoot back, the SLORC can say
"They broke the ceasefire."  This appears to be their strategy in
Tenasserim Division.  By forcing Karen villages to provide SLORC
recruits, they also achieve their aim of dividing villages and
turning people against each other.
_________________________________________________________________

2) Papun (Mudraw) District

This information was brought back by independent civilians visiting
Papun District:

On March 3, 1994, soldiers from SLORC Infantry Battalion #35 (based
in Kyauk Kyi) entered Paw Mu Der village.  They found photos in
Saw Gay's house showing a man in Karen uniform, so they accused
Saw Gay of having a relative in the Karen Army and ordered him
to explain.  Afterwards they took him in front of the whole
population of the village, including his wife and 2 children (aged
4 and 2), and cut off his arms and legs.  They left him bleeding on
the ground for 2 hours, but he was still not quite dead so they
cut off his penis, then cut open his belly and ripped out his
internal organs.  Saw Gay's brother is in the Karen Army, but
Saw Gay himself was just an innocent villager.  The troops stayed
in the village for 3 days, during which others have reported that
they held 19 villagers hostage - 2 men, 7 women and 10 children.
 Naw Lay Swai, age 75, was reportedly kept tied naked to a tree.
 When the troops left the village, they took with them 40 pigs,
38 goats and all the villagers' chickens and ducks.  Since then
many of the people in the village have fled to Karen-controlled
areas closer to the Thai border.
_________________________________________________________________

3)  Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaunglebin (Kler Lwe Htoo) District

This information was brought back by independent civilians visiting
Nyaunglebin District:

In June 1993 SLORC troops commanded by Maj. Soe Hlaing from #73
Infantry Battalion came to Say Pa Let village, captured U Aw Htoo,
age 55, and asked him where his son was.  U Aw Htoo said his son
had gone trading, but they didn't believe him so Maj. Soe Hlaing
took U Aw Htoo and detained him for 1 month in the military
barracks. When his son had still not appeared after that time, U Aw
Htoo was executed.

Around Kyauk Kyi area, young women often go into town by bicycle
to buy things, then bring them back in the bicycle's carrier.
 SLORC soldiers in the area now use what they call the "bullet
trick".  At the first SLORC checkpoint coming out of town, a SLORC
soldier searches the bicycle carriers of young women, and in the
process slips a few bullets inside.  Then at the second checkpoint,
a soldier "finds" the bullets, interrogates the girl on where
she got them, and when she can't answer she is detained for 3
days, during which she is repeatedly raped by soldiers.  She is
then released with no questions asked.  This has been done
repeatedly by soldiers from #73  and #351 Infantry Battalions,
particularly at Ye O Zin village in Kyauk Kyi township.  At Kyaun
Zut village in February 1994, troops from #351 Infantry Battalion
used a similar trick.  They keep a pot of drinking water for
travellers in front of their checkpoint, and they hid some bullets
at the base of it.  Then when a pretty girl came past and stopped,
the soldiers went out, "found" the bullets, and detained and raped
her for 3 days.

In November 1993, Captain Soe Naing and some of his troops from
#73 Infantry Battalion came to a small shop in Kyaun Gone village,
Kyauk Kyi Township, out of uniform and dressed as highway robbers,
each carrying a carbine rifle.  They stole money from the shop
at gunpoint.  Then some other soldiers from #73 Battalion arrived
in uniform and pretended to attack the "bandits", opening fire
into the air above the heads of Capt. Soe Naing and the others.
 The villagers were frightened by the automatic rifle fire and
all of them fled the village, after which the two groups of
soldiers proceeded to go through the village looting everything
valuable they could find.

Yeh Mu Plaw village is situated where the Sittang River plains
meet the eastern hills, and features a market for trading goods
between the plains and hill areas.  The SLORC didn't want such
trade to continue because the Karen Army is in the hills, so in
the last week of December 1993 SLORC troops burned down the whole
market and the village and ordered the villagers to move into
the SLORC-controlled area on the plains, which the villagers did.
 Mat La Daw village had a very similar market, where Burman traders
would come to sell rice and take back betelnut and other produce.
 In the latter half of January 1994 SLORC troops forced all 34
shops in this market to close and drove the shopkeepers to the
plains.

During this year's harvest (Dec/93-Jan/94) the four SLORC
Battalions
in the area - #73, #351, #35, and #26 - ordered every farmer to
give them three sacks of rice per acre (probably 100-kg. sacks).
 The troops said they would sell the rice elsewhere and pay the

farmers back a reasonable price.  Four months later, the farmers
are still waiting for the money.  In Mu Per Hta village at harvest
time, the SLORC burned the villagers' entire crop and stole all
the animals in the village.

Villagers in the area commonly refer to  #351 Infantry Battalion
as "the rapists", and #73 Infantry Battalion as "the robbers".

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The Karen Human Rights Group is a small and independent
organization operating out of Manerplaw, headquarters of the Karen
National Union (KNU) and Burma's democratic forces.

Although the KHRG relies on the logistical support of the Karen
National Union, the group is independent and apolitical and focuses
on human rights abuses in Karen regions.  Whenever possible, abuses
against other ethnic peoples in Burma are also reported.