Special Posting: KHRG Part 2 of 3

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                         KILLING THE SHAN

    The Continuing Campaign of Forced Relocation in Shan State

      An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
              May 23, 1998     /     KHRG #98-03

  *** PART 2 OF 3; SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR PARTS 1 AND 3 ***

THE FULL TEXT OF INTERVIEWS AND THE MAP ARE NOT INCLUDED WITH THIS INTERNET
VERSION OF THE REPORT.  TO SEE A FULL COPY OF THE REPORT SEE OUR ARCHIVE
WEBSITE AT http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/ OR
EMAIL US AT khrg@xxxxxxxxx (REPORT AVAILABLE IN RAW TEXT OR WORD FOR WIN95
FORMAT).

Most villagers either move to the relocation sites as ordered or flee
toward Thailand; very few risk staying in their villages or hiding in the
nearby forests, because SLORC/SPDC patrols move through the areas, shooting
villagers on sight and often destroying the remains of villages.  In some
areas military helicopters have been used to search areas the day before
armed columns arrive there.  Hundreds of villagers have been shot on sight,
beaten or stabbed to death, suffocated with plastic bags, drowned, or
burned alive in their homes upon being found in their villages or fields
after relocation deadlines.  The Shan Human Rights Foundation has
documented the killings of 664 villagers in the relocation region by SLORC
and SPDC forces during 1997 alone, and even this list is far from complete.

"The SLORC troops arrested these villagers and interrogated them, asking
where were the SURA and where the SURA are based.  They said these
villagers had given food to the SURA.  They arrested the men and then beat
them for 3 days.  And then they arrested women and raped them. After that
the SLORC troops covered their heads with plastic and suffocated them, then
threw  some bodies into the Nam Pang River." - "Loong Seng" (M, 60) from Wo
Long village, Kun Hing township, after listing 94 villagers from 12
villages who were killed by SLORC troops (Interview #1)

"Last year we could go back to work our fields, but this year the
situation's a lot worse. ? Before I came, 5 or 6 people were killed to the
north of our area.  To the west several groups of 2 or 3 were killed.  I
was very afraid!  There were 2 people who died right in our Keng Tong area.
 They were working at their farms and SLORC came and shot them.  Then the
soldiers went to the village and demanded money, blaming the villagers for
letting people go to their farms.  This was west of Nong Par.  One [of
those killed] was called Loong Ong, about 45 years old, and one was called
Loong Ti Ya, about 46. ?  They were both really good men.  They were both
married and had lots of children. Loong Ong had 5 or 6 children.  They were
just clearing their fields. Now their families are in Ton Hoong.  When I
came here no villagers were daring to hide around their villages, because
they would be killed." - "Loong On" (M, 58) from Nam Toom village, Murng
Nai township (Interview #2)

"One of my brothers died [just before they moved].  He was killed by the
Burmese because they believed that he was supplying the opposition army.
He worked in the forest so he had his things in the forest, and that is why
they accused him of supplying the opposition groups.  They accused him and
said, 'Why haven't you moved yet?  Do you want to keep on feeding these
opposition groups?'  After that he tried to take his belongings and start
moving but it was too late.  They beat him and his friend to death.  Then
they used a knife and chopped their bodies into pieces.  His name was Sarng
Hung.  He was my eldest brother, he was more than 40 years old." - "Sai
Kaw" (M, 26) from Wan Murng village, Murng Kerng township (Interview #13)

"There were two men at Wan Bang, in Wan Heng tract, Lai Kha township [Wan
Bang had been forced to move to Tard Mok].  They were staying at Tard Mok.
They went to find their cattle at their old village.  SLORC soldiers found
them at that village and arrested them, tied them up with bundles of hay
and set fire to them.  One of them died instantly. I don't know his name.
But the other, Kay Li Ta, came to receive treatment at Zai Lai for a while,
and died there after ten days.  He was 32 years old.  It took place in the
second week of May [1997].  It was soldiers from #515 [Light Infantry
Battalion] from Lai Kha that did it. Kay Li Ta had a family.  Now his wife
and children are begging around in Lai Kha town." - "Phra Zing Ta" (M, 29),
a Shan Buddhist monk from Lai Kha (Interview #5)

"They came very low.  Some people were very frightened.  They ran away from
their houses without even gathering their things. ? I don't know what the
helicopters were looking for, but if they came one day, then the next day
soldiers would come to the area.  This also happened before they relocated
our village.  One helicopter would come about twice a month.  But I've
heard that now they are coming every two or three days to the area." -
"Loong Seng" (M, 60) from Wo Long village, Kun Hing township (Interview #1)

On June 16th 1997, two different SLORC columns massacred villagers at Sai
Khao and Tard Pa Ho in Kun Hing township.  The villagers had been forced to
the relocation site at Kun Hing town.  They obtained SLORC travel passes to
return to their villages to fetch their rice, and set out in convoys of
bullock carts.  On their way back to Kun Hing they were stopped along the
road by SLORC troops.  Their passes were ignored.  At Sai Khao 29 villagers
were tied up and machine-gunned, and at Tard Pa Ho 27 villagers from a
different convoy were similarly executed; both groups included women and
children.  The Sai Khao column was led by the region's Tactical Commander
himself, and one SLORC officer told a woman whom he secretly released from
the massacre that they had received specific orders by radio the night
before from higher levels to conduct the massacres.

"I was sure I would be killed too!  I was shaking, shaking! I was sitting
and shaking all the time.  My blood was hot all over my body.  I could not
think properly.  I would have run away, but they were standing there
guarding me.  There were 3 or 4 of them.  There were 6 of us:  4 girls and
me and my baby. ? Then to the west I heard bursts of machine gun fire.  We
heard the shots.  The soldiers did the shooting.  We heard tat-
tat-tat-tat-tat!!  Shooting like that.  They were killing the 16 people.
Then after a just a bit I heard gunfire just nearby [killing the group of
10 or the group of three].  But it was all overgrown, so I couldn't see. It
was only about 7 or 8 armspans away, but they wouldn't let me go and see.
There were so many - the place was black with soldiers.  Wherever you
looked, there were soldiers.  Some were doing the killing.  Some took the
carts to be burned.  They took and killed the cattle to eat, and they let
some of the cattle go. ? After the shooting had stopped in both places I
asked if I could go, but they said I had to wait.

We were allowed to go about half an hour after all the shooting.  Then they
said I could go, but I should run, and not to go on the main road. ? I was
the only adult survivor in my group.  The rest were all killed, except for
the 3 women who were released and ran away before the shooting started.  I
think I would be dead if I hadn't had my son with me.  One of the other
women left her baby at home and her baby was even younger than mine. She
squeezed out milk from her breast to show them that she had a baby at home,
but the SLORC commander, the tactical commander himself, just said that her
baby must have died, and that was why she hadn't brought it with her.  They
killed her.

The captain [who was guarding her group] said to us that the soldiers had
been ordered to kill any woman with children over 7 months old. ? They'd
taken away and burned all our carts, shot all our bullocks and shot dead
all the others. Only the children and I were left under a tree. ? I had to
walk to Keng Kham with the children, carrying my son on my back, all night
and all the next morning.  The children were too young and we had to keep
resting under the bushes.  While we were resting, a man walking like a
drunk came after us from the same direction.  He was Nan Ti from Sai Moon,
and he was seriously wounded.  One of his arms was almost severed, and
there were two bullet holes here in his upper right chest and two holes in
his lower right chest.  I was terribly sick at the sight. I asked him if
the others were all killed and he said yes.  And I asked what about him,
and he said he'd fainted and when he came to he just walked away.  With
blood gushing out of his wounds he asked me to help him, but I just
couldn't.  I told him I would go ahead and ask other villagers to come and
help him and he said yes.  I did tell the villagers when I got to a farming
camp, but it was raining all night and no one dared to go to his rescue.
He died later, about half an hour's walk away at Kho Sai Moon bridge." -
"Nang Sai" (F, 27) from Na Kha Orn village, Kun Hing township; she was the
only adult survivor of the massacre at Sai Khao, where SLORC troops killed
29 Shan villagers on 16 June 1997.  A SLORC officer secretly released her
because she was holding her 2-year- old son (Interview #3)

Tens of thousands of villagers are struggling to survive in the relocation
sites, where they are constantly used as forced labour by SPDC troops who
give them nothing and even demand part of whatever little food or money
they still have.  Many are starving, unable to return to their villages or
fields for fear of being shot on sight.  Some eventually have no choice and
have to risk returning to their villages to try to salvage some of their
rice supply, and many of these people have been shot on sight when sighted
by SPDC patrols.  People in the relocation sites and those who have fled to
the towns are now reduced to begging in the streets or along the rural
motor roads.  Refugees arriving at the Thai border in April 1998 report
that in the relocation sites at Lai Kha town, people are dying every day
due to lack of food and unsanitary overcrowded conditions.  Most of the
dead are young children and the elderly.

"They gave us nothing.  At first when we moved we took all the rice we
could and then we shared it among us, but then the soldiers took what was
left.  In our family, six of us had to survive on one 'tang' of rice: my 2
parents, myself, my wife, and the children.  All of our crops were taken by
the soldiers before we left the village, and when we arrived [at Pang Long]
they gave us back some but very little. ? Life was very hard, we had to
work for the Burmese all the time, #513 Battalion [LIB].  We had to erect
electrical poles because they were trying to build another camp. When we
were there we also had to carry wood from the forest to build the camp.  We
had to clear the camp area and dig their bunkers and their toilets." - "Sai
Ti" (M, 24) from Bang Nim village, Loi Lem township (Interview #11)

"I was in that place for one and a half months.  It was on the outskirts.
They provided nothing to the villagers in that place ?  When we arrived
there we had to build a shelter for ourselves.  Before building the shelter
we had to clear the bushes from the ground.  We were not allowed to bring
our building materials [from their old house] so we had to find some new
building materials at Kay See, and it was very hard to get them.  There
were many other villagers there, at least 30 or 40 from each village came -
altogether four or five hundred.  The soldiers just told us where to stay
and where we could build the houses. ? Five or six people from each village
got sick, so altogether there were about 25 or 30 sick people there all the
time.  They had malaria and diarrhoea, but I didn't see anyone die.  Some
of us didn't have enough food so we had to share food, and we were not
allowed to go back to farm our fields.  Some people went to their farms
anyway, because if they didn't go they'd have nothing to eat.  When they
did that they avoided the soldiers, because sometimes the soldiers shot at
people." - "Nang Sep" (F, 22) from Khok Sang village, Kay See township
(Interview #12)

"We stayed three months in Ham Ngai [Army Camp relocation site]. There were
very many people there, about 2,000.  Everyone was newly arrived.  It was
different from our own village.  We had to buy everything we needed to eat.
 Sometimes we had to borrow from other people to eat.  We were not allowed
to go and work in our own fields. We had to grow vegetables to get income,
but we didn't have enough space to grow them.  We also worked as day
labourers and got 100 Kyat per day.  They [the soldiers] didn't give us any
food.  Sometimes they demanded cattle and buffaloes for meat but sometimes
they didn't even ask, they took them by force.  Some people got sick.  Some
died of malaria, some died while giving birth." - "Sai Kaw" (M, 26) from
Wan Murng village, Murng Kerng township (Interview #13)

"They lived all round the village, and near the army base.  It was
difficult for people to bring all of their possessions.  They've built
little huts.  Two or three families live together in each hut.  If they
have money they can afford to buy straw roofing and live separately.  If
not, they have to share a hut.  They came and took everyone's rice,
including paddy [unmilled rice].  Then they rationed it out to everyone in
Ton Hoong." - "Loong On" (M, 58) from Nam Toom village, Murng Nai township
(Interview #2)

"They built little huts and lived in the huts and then they made a living
doing day labour.  They worked for whoever needed some work done. They
didn't have any steady jobs.  They worked for one family, then another,
making 50 or 60 Kyat a day.  That's not enough, because they had to buy
rice from Kun Hing town.  They lived there for only one year, and then they
had to move again." - "Loong Seng" (M, 60) from Wo Long village, Kun Hing
township (Interview #1)

"They were watching us all the time.  If they saw someone trying to go out
to his farm they would shoot him. ? After 6 months in Ton Hoong they beat 7
people from Kher Nim nearly to death.  They beat people with sticks, and
sometimes they used a rifle butt or a knife to slash them. ? The 7 people
were Saw Tang, 35; Pan Sik Tha, 26; Saw Ling, 70; Pan Ti, 23; Loong Aw, 50;
Sai Shwe, 25; and Sai Luen, 30.  All of them were from the same village,
Kher Nim.  Later 2 of them died.  After they were beaten they became weak,
bled, lost weight and then died." - "Sai Aw Ta" (M, 24) from Nam Hoo
village, Nam Zang township (Interview #14)

"The relocation camp was surrounded by a fence, and we had to build that
fence ourselves.  We also cut the wood for the Army camp fence, and we had
to carry things.  We had to work often, especially carrying.  I myself
didn't carry as a porter, but older people from our household had to do it
an uncountable number of times. ? More than a hundred soldiers were
guarding us.  They came and took our belongings. Sometimes they arrested
some people and detained them at their place, they beat and tortured them
and then they released them - especially the headmen of the villages
because they were all suspected of providing things to the opposition
army." - "Sai Kaw" (M, 26) from Wan Murng village, Murng Kerng township
(Interview #13)

"The Burmese Army just kept on collecting money.  The Burmese soldiers
demanded everything they wanted and so did the Shan army, so the rich
became poor and the poor became poorer.  We were not allowed to go out of
the town to farm.  If we did, they would say we have contact with the Shan
army and they would shoot us.  The soldiers didn't give any permission at
all to go, not even for one or two days.  If we went outside to find things
to do we might be raped by the soldiers, not only that but after raping
women they often kill them.  Nang Nu was raped but not killed.  That was in
December [1997].  Nang Nu was my friend. Oh!  Life was very hard in that
place.  I was afraid, so I ran to Thailand." - "Nang Harn" (F, 23) from
Nong Yang village, Murng Kerng township, describing life after forced
relocation (Interview #10)


People at the relocation sites are constantly being used by SPDC troops for
forced labour portering supplies, building and maintaining Army camps,
guarding the motor roads, clearing the roadsides and maintaining the roads.
 Those in the Lai Kha, Nam Zang and Loi Lem areas were used as forced
labour to build the new military air base near Nam Zang which is now
completed, and they have also been used to build railways: first from Shwe
Nyaung to Nam Zang, which is now essentially complete and has a small train
running on it, and now from Nam Zang southward to Murng Nai and from Shwe
Nyaung up the hills to Taunggyi.

"[The railway is] from Taunggyi to Nam Zang, but people in the area from
Lai Kha, Loi Lem and Murng Kerng had to take turns working on the railway
construction site.  Now it's finished to Nam Zang.  The train is already
running from Taunggyi to Nam Zang - it runs from Shwe Nyaung [west of
Taunggyi].  They brought the locomotive by truck and then put it on the
railway and they run it this short distance.  Now they are making a railway
up to Taunggyi from Shwe Nyaung, but it's not finished yet.  It's not
running yet. ? Mostly it's used to carry soldiers, and supplies and weapons
for the soldiers." - "Phra Zing Ta" (M, 29), a Shan Buddhist monk from Lai
Kha (Interview #5)

"The soldiers often came and we had to work for them.  We had to cut wood
and work on the railway.  The railway goes from Nam Zang to Murng Nai.  I
had to work there over a period of about 7 or 8 months. We had to sleep
there.  They didn't supply anything.  Women and children about 12 years old
also had to work.  When we were working, if we worked slowly they beat us
with a rifle butt.  There was beating and killing.  I saw someone die, and
I myself was beaten there 4 months ago, before we went to the relocation
site." - "Sai Pan Ta" (M, 22) from Sanen village, Loi Lem township
(Interview #9)

"The situation in Taunggyi is totally different from before.  The situation
of the farmers is bad.  If we work 2 days for our job, we have to work 5
days for them!!  Now there is railway construction work between Shwe Nyaung
and Taunggyi.  As far as I know, 17 or 18 people have already died on this
railway construction site.  Three people were hit by a rock and some were
suffering from fever and died.  It is a very miserable situation.  Each
family had to work 9 days.  If a person can't go, he has to pay 900 Kyat."
- "Mahn Htay" (M, 43) from Taunggyi town (Interview #16)

"Any time they needed porters you had to go.  If people wouldn't go they
came and arrested and beat them.  The things they had to carry were very
heavy, and if you couldn't climb the mountains they beat you with a bamboo
rod.  Usually the men had to carry and the women had to serve as guides to
show the way [the women were most likely being used as human minesweepers
and shields]. ? [W]e also had to work for the Burmese soldiers at their
camp.  We had to clean their camp and to build fences.  For 3 months we had
to dig bunkers for the soldiers." - "Nang Harn" (F, 23), Nong Yang village,
Murng Kerng township (Interview #10)

"They're also forcing the villagers to grow a kind of bean for the Army.
Each 10 households has to grow about 10 acres of beans.  Our village has to
work on 10 acres.  Altogether there are thousands of acres like that.  They
took away all the land from the outskirts of the village to the edge of the
town, no matter whose it was.  There are no fences around that land, and if
our cattle enter those fields then they're shot by the Army. ? If the
cattle put one foot inside the plot of land, the owner has to pay 500 Kyat
for one hoofprint.  If we tell them who the owner is they'll fine him 500
Kyat, and if we don't tell them who the owner is, they shoot dead the
cattle." - "Sai Lai Kham" (M, 36) from Wan Jong village, Nam Zang township,
describing life at his village, which is used as a relocation site
(Interview #6)

"We had to dig ditches and build buildings at the Army camp near Murng
Kerng at least once or twice a month. ? Some months it was every day.
People took it in turns. ? About 40 or 50 people had to go at a time from
our village.  You couldn't refuse.  If you didn't go one day, you would
have to go for two days." - "Sai Kham" (M, 27) from Bong Murng village,
Murng Kerng township (Interview #8)

"All year round people are being forced to do one thing or another, mostly
building roads.  They have to work on the main road, fixing it where it's
gone bad.  About 10 people from each village tract have to go, so there are
usually 80-100 people there all the time.  We have to go about 24 miles
away, and work there for 5 days.  Mostly it is splitting rocks and
spreading gravel on the road, and digging ditches along both sides of the
road.  We have to sleep beside the road, under small shelters built of
leaves.  All have to go, including old people, women and children. ? [T]hey
give nothing.  Instead they give a beating to those who do not work hard
enough." - "Sai Wa Ling" (M, 40) from Loi Leng village, Murng Kerng
township (Interview #4)

"People are being forced to guard the main road, to prevent Shan soldiers
from crossing and to protect travellers from robberies.  If any robberies
occur anywhere, the villagers responsible for that spot or area will be
punished.  Along each mile of the road there are four points where they
have to stand guard.  Two persons at each point.  They build a little hut
or tent beside the road.  They have to guard for one week, day and night.
This is all along the road from Lai Kha to Murng Nong. ? And at night,
townspeople have to guard their towns.  They have to come out to the
outskirts of the town.  About sixteen people, two people at each entrance,
though there is no fence. ? People who are living around the vicinity of
the [Army] camps or the base are always being forced to do one thing or
another.  They have to grow beans, soy beans, and maize for the Army.  They
have to make fences for the plots of land where they cultivate for the
Army.  And they have to dig ditches and trenches around their bases for
them.  They fetch water for them and gather firewood, and all sorts of
things.   All the time.  It has become a routine for the villagers.  Mostly
they use the new arrivals [those who have been relocated] to guard the
roads, and to dig the ditches they use people who already lived there.  The
villagers get nothing in terms of wages, and they have to provide their own
food.  They are forced to work for the Army for three days and then they
can return to work for themselves for three days.  It's very difficult for
them to make a living." - "Phra Zing Ta" (M, 29), a Shan Buddhist monk from
Lai Kha (Interview #5)

When the mass relocations had clearly failed to undermine the Shan armies,
SLORC/SPDC not only expanded the area of relocations, they also began
ordering people at relocation sites to move yet again, this time to sites
which were even more central, crowded, and controlled by the Army. After
one SURA attack on a SLORC military unit, the SLORC troops even retaliated
by firing mortar shells without warning into Kho Lam relocation site.  The
shelling occurred on 21 February 1997.  Two Shan families hiding from the
shells in a ditch were hit; six of them were killed, including 3 children
aged 4, 5, and 7.  Some villagers first had their villages relocated in
1996, and have had their relocation sites moved again 3 to 4 times since
then.  Others had managed to avoid relocation by paying bribes of hundreds
of thousands of Kyat to SLORC/SPDC officers, but have now been forced to
move regardless.

"A relative from there came and told me that in June or July, after the
villagers had planted their rice, the Burmese soldiers came and spread
straw over their fields and burned the seedlings.  So they couldn't harvest
their fields." - "Sai Kham" (M, 27) from Bong Murng village, Murng Kerng
township (Interview #8)

"If they found someone outside they'd shoot him.  When the crops were ready
to be reaped, they burned them down." - "Nang Mawn" (F, 18) from Sanen
village, Loi Lem township (Interview #9)

"[N]ow I've heard news that in Lai Kha people will have to give their rice
to the Army and the Army will give it back to them on a daily basis. But
not yet.  Wherever there is any activity by Shan soldiers they will do it.
If it's in town, they'll also do it in town.  Now they are already ordering
people to take their rice and put it in a warehouse in Lai Kha." - "Phra
Zing Ta" (M, 29), a Shan Buddhist monk from Lai Kha (Interview #5)

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- [END OF PART 2; SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTING FOR PART 3 OF 3] -