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KHRG #98-05 Part 3/7 (Dooplaya)
- Subject: KHRG #98-05 Part 3/7 (Dooplaya)
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 21:34:00
STRENGTHENING THE GRIP ON DOOPLAYA
Developments in the SPDC Occupation of Dooplaya District
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
June 10, 1998 / KHRG #98-05
[Some details blanked out or omitted for Internet distribution.]
*** PART 3 OF 7 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***
____________________________________________________________________________
__
Index of Interviews
Note: All names of those interviewed have been changed; FL = Forced
Labour.
# Pg. Name Sex Age Village Subject
1 16 "Saw Lay Doh" M 33 Waw Lu Fleeing after initial
occupation, return to village, SLORC promises, arrest of
headmen, FL as porters and at Army camp, demands for weapons,
his experience being arrested and tortured for 10 days, release and
flight to Thailand, present at Thay Pu Law Htwee shooting by Thai
soldiers, forced to move back close to SPDC, conditions in Noh Po
2 19 "Saw Htoo Wah" M 35 Kwih Lat Der Dta La Ku villager
describes forced labour since occupation, portering, building
barracks, DKBA replaced by KPA
3 20 "Pa Hla Myint" M 30+ Kwih Kler Dta La Ku villagers
reading their notes on events since the occupation, with further
explanations by a Dta La Ku elder; destruction of belongings, FL
cutting bamboo and making roads, SPDC demands for bullock
carts, FL carrying rice, extortion to rebuild a school, arrest and
ransoming of cattle traders, SLORC soldiers shooting up the
village,
FL as sentries and making fences, forced to haul supplies across
flooded rivers and carts and bullocks swept away, FL carrying
cement, flight and forced repatriation by Thais, villager killed
by
landmine, forced recruitment of Dta La Ku to KPA, KPA setup
and training, convict labour on roads, destruction of villages
4 25 "Pa Bway Htoo" M 44 xxxx Dta La Ku village headman
describes flight of villagers after occupation, increasing
repression after villagers returned home, arrests and demands
for weapons, extortion, looting, FL portering cement and resulting
injuries and sickness, second flight of more people from villages,
promises of DKBA to improve things, disappearance of DKBA, forced
recruitment of Dta La Ku by KPA, desertions of KPA soldiers,
decision of Dta La Ku elders to seek a safe place in Burma,
extortion and threats by KNU/KNLA, threats and slander of
Dta La Ku by Thai official
5 30 "Saw Lah Htoo" M 24 K--- Shopkeeper in Thai Karen border
"Pa Lah" M 35 xxxx village of Ber Kler tells news
from
Dooplaya villagers and traders; SPDC forcing all villagers in
Kyaikdon
to pay for their own land and many to put on metal roofing,
bulldozing
betelnut plantations in Kyaikdon, looting of betelnut, coconuts,
and
chickens, FL on roads, extortion of fuel money for road-building
bulldozers, forced relocations, restrictions on movement,
arrest/torture, persecution of Muslims, KPA recruitment,
KPA vs. DKBA, SPDC troops in Ber Kler, stealing
betelnut and shop goods in Thailand, SPDC officers carrying
pistols and beating a shopkeeper in Thailand, commandeering of
villagers' cars to carry SPDC supplies, destruction of a car and
death of a child due to KNLA landmine, SPDC threats to attack Noh
Po
refugees, lack of Thai security, desperation of Dooplaya villagers
6 36 "Naw Eh Ghay" F 53 Meh Tharaw Hta Noh Po refugee who repeatedly
returned to Dooplaya; rotating forced labour of villagers, brutal
treatment of convicts brought for road labour, forced relocations,
arrest and ransom of Kya In villagers, extortion of food and
money
7 37 "Pa Boe" M 30 Kwih Kler Dta La Ku villager; FL
as porters and sentries so often that they fled,
discrimination against Dta La Ku in Kwih Kler
8 39 "Saw Beh Htoo" M 28 Kwih Kalay Flight to Thailand after
occupation due to problems, KPA entering Thailand to convince
people to return
9 39 "Saw Lay Ghay" M 30+ Noh Dah Kee Flight from his village
due to daily FL carrying rocks to build a SLORC base
and carrying SLORC rations, mistrust of KPA
10 40 KHRG monitor Dooplaya Field reports from KHRG
human rights monitor, obtained from villagers and KNLA
intelligence; arrests of villagers, 5 villagers beaten to death
on 17 and 18 May 1998, FL on a road bridge near Kyaikdon,
capture and beating of villagers to be porters,
demands for money, forbidding villagers from going to
fields, hunger and rising meat prices due to looting
__________________________________________________________________________
Interviews
#1.
NAME: "Saw Lay Doh" SEX: M AGE: 33 Karen Christian farmer/teacher
FAMILY: Married, 6 children aged 8 months to 6 years
ADDRESS: Waw Lu village, Dooplaya District INTERVIEWED: 4/98
["Saw Lay Doh" arrived in Thailand in late 1997 and was present when
the Thai Army fired on refugees at Thay Pu Law Htwee. He and many of
the others were finally allowed into Noh Po refugee camp, but at the time
of the interview they were still living in long open shelters because Thai
authorities had not allowed them to build proper huts.]
Q: Can you tell me about the situation of your village?
A: In February 1997, SLORC troops from #22 [Division], Battalion #206,
camped in Waw Lu village and they called the villagers who had fled from
the village during the fighting to come back to the village. They said to
us
that they had not come to kill or make problems for the people, that they
had come to make peace. Then the villagers all came back. After that
they held a meeting with the villagers in the monastery of Waw Lu, and
they said "Come and give us your arms; we won't do anything to those
who give us their arms." They pressed the villagers to hand over some
weapons. So finally the villagers had to show them the guns of the village
defence force [villagers armed by the KNLA to defend their village]. But
after that they still accused and pressured the people to give them more
arms. They said to some village headmen, "You have guns and walkie-
talkies, so you must give us all of them." They frightened those village
headmen until they had to give up whatever they were hiding. After that
they asked the village headmen to build a new school. The villagers cut
wood and bamboo and built the school and fenced it. After that they
called for teachers and let them teach there for a month in April. There
were 4 teachers, I was one of them.
Q: What about the villagers who had no guns to give them?
A: After they made their camp, they forced the villagers who had no guns
to carry their things as porters. They had to carry bullets and rations
when
the soldiers went from place to place to find their enemies. Each person
must carry 3 big tins of rice. We saw some people who got wounds on
their backs. Their backs were bruised. Sometimes they had to carry for 3
days, sometimes 4 days. While they were carrying the heavy things the
soldiers forced them to run. If they could not run the soldiers kicked
their
buttocks. If people couldn't understand their language [Burmese] when
they gave orders the soldiers hit them too. The villagers who came back
from portering explained that it was very hard for them to suffer it. I
know
a person who had to carry to Po Theh. The Burmese soldiers asked him a
question but he could not understand Burmese language, so they hurt him.
They hit him with the butt of their gun.
My nephew once came back from portering for the Burmese soldiers, and
at my house he told me how the soldiers had forced him to carry heavy
things for 4 days. He showed me his wounded back which was really
badly bruised. His name is Saw E---. He told me that he had to climb up
the mountains while carrying heavy things, and that when they went to
Meh K'Waw it made him cry because it was such hard work. There was
another man from Po Yay village whose name was Saw Eh Wah, and he
had to climb up the hills with heavy things for the Burmese soldiers to
pass through Maw Law Ee way. While he was going he became sweaty
and exhausted from carrying the heavy things. At last his foot slipped and
he fell down to the foot of the mountain. His load was still up on the
path.
He was going to die but nobody took care of him. Everyone passed him
by. That's why we can say that their behaviour is terrible toward the
villagers. Saw Eh Wah is about 40 years old. He is better now.
Ever since they started to settle down in Waw Lu they've forced the
villagers to do labour every day. There is no payment. They never give
food, and they never give medicine. They force the villagers to dig
bunkers and to work for them in Kyaikdon, but the villagers must take
along their own rice. If they don't take their own rice then they have to
go
hungry. And they always ask the villagers, "Have any of you seen any of
the arms that people are hiding?"
Q: Why did you have to flee the village?
A: As for my situation, while they were staying there they accused me of
working for the outside people [KNLA]. They said I was breaking their
law so they would arrest me. I was a teacher. At that time the school had
already closed. They arrested me and interrogated me about the places
where the KNLA were hiding, and I answered that I had not seen them.
Then they punched my jaw once on each side and asked me to wait there.
Later they said to each other that they would keep me to pressure me some
more and would tie me up. Then they tied me up with rope. They tied my
hands tightly behind me and made me lay on my belly, then they
interrogated me again. This time only one person was interrogating me.
He asked me, "Isn't it true that you have guns and a radio?" I said, "No,
I've never had those kinds of things". Then he told me, "Your education
supervisor Kaw Mu surrendered to us with weapons, and he told us that
you have guns and a radio." I answered to him, "No, that is not right. If
you don't believe me then you can ask everybody in the village. This is
all
I have to say. When you ask everyone you will hear the truth." Then they
tied me up for 10 days and beat me badly until I had to sleep with blood
all
over my body every night. They punched my nose twice, and blood was
running down from my nose. They beat my body as well. They punched
me in the chest, left, right, left... They punched me in my head and on my
temples. Both of my shins were beaten with a big stick. They tied me up
tightly, made me lay down and then beat me badly on both shins until both
of my shins were completely bruised. That was the most painful thing I
ever had to bear. Finally they told me that if my friends and I could show
them just 5 bullets then they would surely set us free at once. We said,
"There is no way we could show you that", and then they left us.
Later they came back and told us that they would kill us because we had
broken their law. They told us that if we could find just one gun for them
then they would set us free at once. We answered again that we could not
find them anything like that. Then they said they would put us in jail if
we
could not find one. We were quiet because there was nothing we could
say. Those 10 days they never let the village headman or elders come to
vouch for us. Even our relatives could only give us rice through their
soldiers. The soldiers brought the rice to us and then took the plates
back
to our children or wives. After ten days they allowed the headman to
vouch for us. First they called T--- [the other villager being held] and
untied him. They called him out for a while, then they came again and
untied me and asked me to get up into the house there. They asked me,
"Are you okay?" I said, "Yes I am okay." Then they wrote on a piece of
paper that they were setting us free under the assurances of the village
headman. They asked the village headman to put his signature on it and
then they set us free. We arrived home at night and my body was filthy.
Then I saw my mother who had come and been waiting for me for four
days already, worrying about me until she could not even sleep or eat. She
was very happy to see me.
I saw that since I had been taken there [since his arrest] they were
forcing
the villagers to work harder and harder all the time. I knew it wasn't
possible for me to stay, so I had to prepare to come here secretly. When I
came, the problem was that I couldn't bring any food or belongings like
cookpots because I had to carry my children who are too small to run.
Q: Did you have any trouble when you arrived in Thailand?
A: The trouble when I arrived in Thailand was that we camped in an area
and suddenly the Thai Army came and camped right near us. A Thai
Army officer came to me and asked me, "Don't you think you should dig
bunkers here?" I answered him, "If we need to dig them we'll dig them
tomorrow". He told me that the DKBA or KPA may attack so we should
be cautious. Then they went back to their place. We talked about it with
each other in our huts until late, and then we slept. When we were
sleeping at about 5:40 a.m. they fired their big gun at us. An M79 shell
[grenade] fell on a hut and 2 old people about 60 years old were injured.
All the innocent people were shocked, ran out of the area and hid in fear.
A newborn baby died because he fell to the ground while his mother was
running with him. Then we heard the noisy sound of bullets [small arms]
being fired. When the daylight came we found out that it was the Thai
soldiers who were shooting at us. We looked all around our shelters and
cleaned things up. After a while they came to see the place too. They
asked the villagers, "Who was shooting at you last night?" The villagers
told them that it was them who were shooting at us. Then the Thai
soldiers were quiet and didn't say anything. [This is the shooting that
occurred at Thay Pu Law Htwee on November 15th 1997.]
Shortly after that they asked the villagers to fix up a bridge which leads
to
Kwih Hta, so the villagers built up the log bridge. When we had finished
building the bridge we went home and ate our meal. After that the [Thai
Army] senior commander arrived at our place and called me and the other
headmen. He told us to prepare our things and be ready in one hour to
move to another place, which we would reach by passing through Kwih
Lat Taw. I told the people to get ready, but some people were not obeying
me and they asked me "Why are you doing this?" Then the Thai soldiers
were angry with the people who wouldn't obey. They forced them, they
tied some of them up and hit some of them. After that they called the
villagers together and told us to be quiet. They told the villagers, "Now
all
of you see these three people we have tied up because they were not
obeying us. This will happen to people who do not obey us." Then they
kicked some people. Finally they called the headmen to come out in front
and then ordered them to go in front of the people to lead them. So the
villagers were following us.
The Thais guided us by car but we had to walk. We were walking along
like that until noon, and by then we could see that the children were
walking with difficulty and they seemed very tired. Some were crying
sadly. The women were weeping sadly. We kept on going, then we took a
rest for a while and then we kept on going again. When we reached the
foot of the mountain near the place where they were going to keep us, the
sun was already going down. We settled down there and started cooking
some food to eat. Some people had not brought any food but others had,
so we shared with each other what we had. By the time we finished
cooking the children were crying because they were so hungry. After we
fed them they went to sleep under the trees for the night because it was
already late.
Q: When you arrived in Noh Po did you have any more problems?
A: There was no problem except that we could not build houses [the Thai
authorities would not allow it]. Those of us who had no houses had to
live in a barracks. [A long bamboo shelter with no walls, covered in
plastic sheeting; the Thai authorities forced them to live like this for
4-6
months.] I think that now we will get a chance to build houses because
one or two days ago they allowed us to go and get bamboo for flooring
from Thay Pu Law Su. I believe that we will be able to build houses soon.
Q: Is it different here than in your village?
A: It is a little different. When we stay here we receive good care and
good food, we don't need to do forced labour and we can help each other
however we're able. When we were in our village the SLORC Army
persecuted us and forced us to do labour without any payment, we even
needed to bring our own food. We have already decided to go back when
there is peace in Burma, but we will never go back before there is change
there.
____________________________________________________________________________
_
#2.
NAME: "Saw Htoo Wah" SEX: M AGE: 35 Karen Dta La Ku farmer
FAMILY: Married, 2 children
ADDRESS: Kwih Lat Der village, Dooplaya District INTERVIEWED: 20/2/98
[When interviewed "Saw Htoo Wah" was staying in a hut near a Dta La
Ku village in Thailand.]
Q: When did you arrive here?
A: Five months ago. We came because the Burmese persecuted us until
we couldn't stay in our own village anymore, so we came to live here near
our religious centre.
Q: How did they persecute you?
A: They forced us to work for them. They told us that they would go just
over there [a short distance], but then they made us go for 2 to 3 days.
They forced us to carry very heavy things. Although we could not carry
the things, we had to try hard until we could. We had to carry bags of
cement, or bullets, rice and other food. We had to carry anything that
they
needed us to carry for them. They came and commanded the headman,
and the headman called us. Because we love peace and we wanted to live
in our village peacefully, we went and obeyed their orders whenever our
village headman told us to go. Thirty people from Kwih Lat Der village
had to go to do that. One person from each family.
Q: How many houses were there in Kwih Lat Der village?
A: About 30 houses I think. If people had not run away, there would have
been more than that. For portering, not only the people from Kwih Lat
Der had to go; the people from Kwih Kler, Kwih Chit Mu, Meh Tharaw
Hta, and Maw had to go together. There were more than 100 porters on
the trip. That trip was the very worst. I didn't count the times I had to
go,
but it was many times. Sometimes it took one day, sometimes one day and
one night. When I was there I had to go 2 to 3 days at a time, or 3 to 4
days at a time. It was never the same. They told us they would only go
for
one day, and sometimes they really went for one day. Sometimes they
spoke the truth, but often they did not. They always said to us that they
would go to a nearby place, but sometimes they went to very far places.
>From Kwih Lat Der to Htee Hta Baw, from Maw to Kwih Lat Der, K'Yeh
Theh to Kwih Lat Der, Kyaw Kwa to Kwih Lat Der.
Q: When did they start ordering you to be porters?
A: Since they started to come. They came last April [1997]. They have
been forcing us ever since they came. When they arrived in the village all
the villagers fled, so they called the villagers back into the village. At
first
they did not use the villagers as porters, but after the villagers had all
been
back in the village for a while they started. First they forced us to
build
buildings for them, then when that was finished they started using us as
porters.
Q: Where was the Burmese battalion camp?
A: Their main camp is in Saw Hta [Azin]. They also had a camp in Kwih
Lat Der and a camp in Ber Kler. And another in Pu Kler. The big men
[senior officers] are living in Saw Hta. Their troops are changing often.
One group comes up for 2-4 months and then they change. Right now
[Infantry] Battalion 62 is living there.
Q: Are they building a road in Kwih Lat Der area?
A: Not yet. They're not building a road yet.
Q: Are there any DKBA soldiers in your village?
A: No, the DKBA has already left by now. There are KPA living there.
When I was in my village they hadn't come yet, but now they are living in
my village. Some people who go back and forth to our village told us that
the KPA are in our village, walking around together with Burmese
soldiers.
Q: I've heard that more than 2,000 people from Kwih Lat Der and Kwih
Kler came to live here, but now more than 1,000 of them have gone back
again, so why don't you go back?
A: Some people are still living here and some have gone back. My whole
family is here. I won't go back yet, because we are worried about the
problems they will make for us. That is why we dare not go back. I'm not
sure how long I'll be here.
____________________________________________________________________________
_
- [END OF PART 3 - SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 4 THROUGH 7] -