BURMA ARMY OPERATIONS IN KYA INN TO

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Burma Issues
December 1997

BURMA ARMY OPERATIONS IN KYA INN TOWNSHIP

The statements below were made by civilians who recently fled from their
villages in Kya Inn Township area Dooplaya District, Karen State. In
February 1997, the Burma Army launched a massive offensive against the Karen
National Liberation Army (KNLA) in southern Karen State and parts of
northern Mon State, which quickly resulted in the occupation of large areas
formerly under the control of the Karen National Union (KNU). In many areas,
organized armed resistance ended within a week.

The people in the group were interviewed shortly after they arrived in
Thailand in October and November, 1997. They had waited in their villages or
at relocation sites for over seven months after the Burma Army had
successfully occupied the area, in the hopes that the situation would
improve. It did not, though the war in these areas was clearly over.

Newly-occupied areas are typically pacified using a "cut, clear and cleanse"
strategy, where villagers are first cut off from contact with insurgent
military groups, cleared from their villages and forcibly relocated to one
centralized area, usually adjacent to an army camp, and the population is
cleansed of weapons and insurgents by use of intimidation and torture. Other
typical abuses faced in newly-occupied areas include forced labor on access
roads and other projects, forced portering, extortion/excessive taxation and
extortion, confiscation and/ or destruction of food and other property, and
religious and cultural persecution.

Many of the people in the group interviewed are Ta La Ku, members of a Karen
Buddhist sect who live a very disciplined and orthodox lifestyle in
accordance with their religious beliefs. A primary Ta La Ku concern is the
pres ervation of and survival of their culture. Because of their strict
codes for behavior, Ta La Ku often live in remote areas and traditionally
try to minimize contact with outsiders, including other non-Ta La Ku Karen.
The fact that this group finally decided to abandon their homes and leave
their sacred places is an indicator of the severity of the difficulties they
faced inside Burma.

Karen man, Ta La Ku leader
I am responsible for the preservation of the Ta La Ku religious and cultural
mores. Being under the control of the military government is very difficult.
We faced a lot of problems and hardship under Slorc control. The Slorc called
us to go back [from Thailand] and work together with them for a better life.
It was very difficult to work together with them [before]. We had to do
whatever they told us to do. The Burma Army soldiers called us useless
turbaned Karen ringworms [the Ta La Ku men wear their hair long and in
turbans]. It was very painful to hear them abuse us like that, but we could
still bear the burden. The only burden we could not bear was forced
portering. The loads were enough for horses and elephants to carry but they
demanded that we humans carry them. If one of us could not carry, they would
kick us and beat us severely.

Eventually, we called a meeting to discuss these matters with other Ta La Ku
people, because according to our religion and traditional lifestyle it is
hard for to stay among other people. We agreed that we would come to Lay Taw
Kho [a Ta La Ku village in Thailand, a religious center.] If we just stayed
on in our village, our difficulties would keep getting worse. Our religion
and culture would be destroyed. If we come to here to Lay Taw Kho, we can
maintain our religion and culture. To make it easier for us to come here, I
wrote to the villagers and told them that we would go to Lay Taw Kho for a
religious ceremony. A lot of people came together. [This way,] if we died
then we would die together with our religion and culture at our religious
center. I wrote to the local Slorc authority and asked him to come up here
[to find us at Lay Taw Kho] if they want us to go back. We won't run away.
We will stay here with our respected religious leaders.

Slorc asked us to go back. They said that they wouldn't treat us badly and
harshly the way they've done before. They said that they won't ask us to
work [do unpaid "voluntary" labor], but we do not trust them. We told them
that if they want us to go back then let their authorities come to our place
and make an agreement in front of our leader that they won't oppress us any
longer and drink thit sa ye to complete the vow, so if they abuse us all the
abuse and problems will return to them. [If a person who drinks thit sa ye
when making a vow, it is believed that the person will suffer or even die if
the promise is ever broken] If they agreed to do it in the way we ask, then
we would go back. They sent a message in reply: "There is no way we will
obey orders from villagers."

We left all our property and rice stores behind in our village. We don't
have any food and we have no rice fields here in Lay Taw Kho, so I asked
people "What should we do in this situation?" We want to go to a place where
we can get rice, but when we think about our religion, we realize cannot go
there [to other refugee sites] because the way we eat and the way we live is
different from other people. If we go there we will lose our religion. We
worship together four times a month. We will have to stay here and die with
our religion.

Ta La Ku people have very strict rules which all the Ta La Ku have to obey.
For instance, men cannot wear trousers and women cannot wear skirts or long
dresses, they must wear sarongs and shirts which they make themselves.
Unmarried women must wear traditional white smocks, which they weave
themselves. They must be the same style as the old Karen wore in ancient times.

We asked permission from the Thai authorities to let us stay here in Lay Taw
Kho. People who are not Ta La Ku members can go further into the refugee
camp. Currently there are 165 families totaling about 800 Ta La Ku people
staying here. There are some people who have not arrived yet. None of us
could carry rice along with us.
The village people helped each other. We hope that we'll get help from
overseas organizations. Some people stay in friends houses, some with
relatives, and some build their own shelters. Because we have had to move to
this new place most of the families have developed various health problems.
In one family we [typically] have two or three sick people. People have
fever, malaria and coughs. We have to buy medicines in the shop. There is no
doctor [here], no nurses and no school for the children. We are very worried
about food because we have no food right now.

Ta La Ku Karen man, 38
I came here because I could not bear the Slorc oppression any longer. There
are too many problems - I cannot speak out [about all of them]. For
instance, during summer of 1997, a landmine exploded between G and V
villages. I was in G village that night. The next morning when I came back
to my village I met Slorc soldiers on my way back home and they stopped me.
They asked me, "Where do you live?" and I said, "I'm from O village."

Then they told me I had to use my cart to clear the road of landmines. They
got some other carts too. They told us to fill baskets with sand and put
them on our carts to make the carts heavier. Altogether, there were six
carts, in cluding mine. I had to clear the road of landmines between M
village and D village. One cart would go in the middle of the road, one to
one side of the road and one off to one side of the road completely [and the
second three would follow in the same pattern on the other side of the
road]. This was the system they used to clear landmines. I was incredibly
worried, but I was lucky and we didn't find any landmines that day. Since
then I have felt unsafe.

Karen man, Buddhist
There were forty families in my village. The whole village had to relocate
between the end of September and the 4th of October. There was no other
choice. They didn't accept it if anyone didn't want to go. They said that
families who did not want to go are the families who are in contact with the
KNU.

My father is very old and he is blind so I told [the commander], "This old
man cannot go; he will stay here." They told me to carry him to the new
site. They beat and punched me. The commander "Maung Win" himself beat me.
He said that I had contacted the rebels, and that I hadn't informed him when
the rebels came back. I told him that the rebels hadn't come back. "Maung
Win" didn't trust me; he said that when the rebels came back I had fed them
and given them pigs. I said that it was not true but he didn't believe me,
and he continued to beat me.

While the battalion commander talked to me, his soldiers called the village
secretary and asked him to show them the rebels' hideouts [see story below],
but they found nothing. The commander talked to them by walkie-talkie and
asked if they had found any of the rebels' places. His soldiers reported
that they hadn't found anything. Then the commander told them, "The
secretary will never find the place you want to see if you don't beat him."
Then the soldiers started beating the village secretary and [eventually] the
secretary escaped. So "Maung Win" told me "Now the secretary has run away,
and he is going to contact the rebels." So he beat me [again].

I came here because I cannot stay there any longer. I couldn't sleep at
night because I couldn't stop thinking about all our problems. We have no
time to work for ourselves [because of forced labor and forced portering]. I
came here on September 27th. Three families left the village that night. We
had to walk all night. I couldn't sleep because I was afraid that the
soldiers would follow us. I left everything behind in my house and the Slorc
came and took it all.
People feel better once they arrive here, but we still have health problems
such as diarrhea.

Buddhist man, 34, village secretary
The Burma Army came into our village and ordered me to be the village
secretary. They came into the village quickly and later they accused me of
having contact with the rebels.

They said that when the rebels came I guided them. I said that I didn't meet
with any of the rebels, but they didn't trust me. The platoon came the next
day and told me to show them the rebels' hideout. They didn't find any
rebels places and after they talked to their commander they started beating
me and said that I didn't tell the truth. They said that B village and H
villagers are all liars and that "Village people never tell the truth, so we
must treat them very badly." After they beat me I ran away and hid in the
forest for two days without food. When  I came back to the village my
father-in-law told me that the soldiers had already moved my wife and my
children to H village. People warned me not to go into the village, they
said "The Slorc will kill you". But I decided to go back anyway.  I met the
soldiers in the middle of the village.  They talked to me very nicely and
said that I would have to carry a load enough for two men to carry and they
said that they still would have to beat me five times. I thought that I
could not face this, and I already had my wife and children back with me, so
I ran away that night with my whole family. We slept two nights in the
jungle on our way here.

Sources: 'Kya Inn District'

Introductory notes: Karen Human Rights Group, Refugees from the Slorc
Offensive, #97-07, May 25, 1997

Clampdown in the Southern Dooplaya KHRG #97-11 (18, September 1997)

Anonymous testimonies, gathered and translated by friends of Burma Issues


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