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KHRG #98-05 Part 7/7 (Dooplaya)



                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 7 OF 7 - SEE PREVIOUS POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***

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                              #6.
NAME:    "Naw Eh Ghay"      SEX: F   AGE: 53    Karen Christian missionary
FAMILY:  Married, 4 children aged 8 months to 6 years
ADDRESS: Meh Tharaw Hta village, Dooplaya District      INTERVIEWED: 4/98

["Naw Eh Ghay" was interviewed in Noh Po refugee camp.]

Q:  Since you came here did ever go back [to Dooplaya] to visit?
A:  I went back the first time to Kwih Kler village, then I went back again

during my children's school vacation.  The situation in Burma is too bad.  
The people are in fear.  Every time the SLORC [SPDC] Army comes the 
men have to run away and hide, because they try to capture the men 
whenever they come.  Every day 6 people must go to stay with them so 
that they can use them whenever they need them.  Wherever they want to 
go those 6 people must go with them and carry their things, which are very 
heavy, sometimes until they cannot carry anymore.  Sometimes they have 
to do other work, and sometimes it is dangerous.  People who do not dare 
to go must give 1,500 kyats for 3 days [in lieu of 3 days of work].  If 
people don't go then the Burmese will never set free the previous group.  
People must always stay with them and keep rotating.

Then they brought prisoners [convicts] up into the jungle on Army trucks.  
Along the way they tied the prisoners' necks and hands tightly to the sides

of the trucks and made them stand up straight.  When they arrived at the 
T'Ku Kee church they let them get down from the truck.  Some prisoners 
couldn't stand up anymore and they fell down.  The soldiers saw that and 
kicked them and hit them until they became unconscious.  Then they 
picked them up and dragged them under a shady tree.  I heard that they 
will use those prisoners to do road construction.  The road will go from 
Kyaikdon to [Kya In] Seik Gyi.  I know the prisoners are in Kyaikdon 
right now because I saw Aunty S--- at the bible school there and she told 
me, "Now Kyaikdon is full of Burmese military and prisoners.  They've 
probably brought the prisoners to do road construction."  Right now the 
villagers aren't doing road construction because they have to rotate doing 
forced labour in the Army camp full time, and they must go and do 
whatever the soldiers order them to do at any time.

Q:  Before you came back here did you hear about any villages being 
forced to move?
A:  About the relocations, now Kalay Kee and Kyaw Kay Ko have to 
move because the Burmese accused them of feeding the KNLA, so the 
Burmese won't allow them to stay there anymore.  The people of Kyaw 
Kay Ko have to move to Kya In and the people from Kalay Kee have to 
move to T'Ku Kee.  I heard that relocations will also occur in many other 
places.  Even the villagers in Kya In [western Dooplaya] must move to the 
roadside.  I also heard one village headwoman say, "If I'm going to build a

house I will build it at the roadside, because we must move there anyway". 

I heard her say that in H---'s shop in Seik Gyi.

Before the 11th [of March or April 1998] they arrested villagers from Kya 
In and put them in jail.  They beat them badly.  I didn't see them when
they 
were beaten but I saw their wives and children who had to give bribes to 
save them.  Finally they set them free after many people had come and 
vouched for them, but they had to pay 10,000 kyats for each villager to be 
freed.  Not only that, they had to buy clothes and food for the soldiers
too. 
The arrested people were villagers of Kya In.  I don't know their names, 
but younger brother Pastor Tha Du was among them.

The villagers there are afraid of them and have to give money to them all 
the time.  They must give them whatever food they want whenever they 
ask for it.  If the villagers don't give it to them then they just steal
whatever 
they want.  They always demand rice, vegetables, salt and fishpaste.  I saw

that happening in T'Ku Kee.  When I went back there I didn't have a 
chance to ask about too many things, and I often had to hide and couldn't 
dare go outside.  But I heard about many things from the villagers there 
who have to live in fear.
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                                     #7.
NAME:    "Pa Boe"         SEX: M   AGE: 30      Karen Dta La Ku farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 4 children aged 7  months to 7 years
ADDRESS: Kwih Kler village, Dooplaya District   INTERVIEWED: 20/2/98

[When interviewed "Pa Boe" was staying in a hut near a Dta La Ku 
village in Thailand.]

Q:  Where is your village?
A:  My village is Kwih Kler.  I guess it takes about 3 or 4 hours to walk 
from here.

Q:  How many months have you stayed here?
A:  I fled and came here one or two months ago.  I came because we had a 
bad time there, because they forced us to do their work until we had no 
chance to do our own work.  They forced us to do many things such as 
portering, standing as sentries, and many other kinds of labour.  We had to

carry bullets for their sentry troops.  Many people from Kwih Kler had to 
go.

Q:  Where did you have to go as porters?
A:  Sometimes to nearby places and sometimes far away.  If they were 
sentry troops based nearby they would set us free sooner, but if they were 
going down to the town to change their troops then it would take many 
weeks.  Sometimes they did not tell the truth.  If they said that a trip
would 
take 2 or 3 days, it really took one to three weeks.  Many people had to 
face that.  Some people coughed up blood after they came back from 
portering.  If we had not come here we would still be serving as porters.  
When they first arrived [in February 1997], we ran away.  After that we 
went back to the village to stay, and we've had to go as porters since
then, 
until just before we came here.  Now we do not dare go back.  

Q:  How many families live in Kwih Kler village?
A:  At first there were more than 100 families, but now fewer families are 
left in the village.  Some have left, but some still stay.

Q:  Where was the camp of the Burmese who forced you to be porters?
A:  In Kwih Kler they had a camp, and we also had to go to their Saw Hta 
camp.  I'm not sure how many soldiers they had because they changed their 
troops often.  They're not the same as Karen soldiers - sometimes they 
changed once or twice in one month.  So I don't know how many soldiers 
there were.  They had many groups.  Right now #62 [Infantry Battalion] is 
in the village.

Q:  Were there other types of labour that you had to do for them?
A:  We had to do many kinds of labour for them.  We haven't had to build 
the car road yet, but we will have to build one.  There is a car road in
the 
village but it is not good.  

Q:  Were the villages in Kwih Kler area relocated?
A:  Some people still stay in the village.  Some people such as the Dta La 
Ku didn't like to stay in the village anymore because they couldn't live 
according to their religion.  There were many different kinds of religion
in 
the village, so it was difficult for the Dta La Ku to practice their
religion.  
In the village there were Baptists and Buddhists.  The Dta La Ku wanted to 
go away but the village headman never allowed them to leave the village, 
so some Dta La Ku tried to run away secretly.  Many families came with 
us, about 10 families.  In Kwih Kler there were not too many Dta La Ku 
people but there are still some families left in Kwih Kler.  Some Dta La 
Ku people who came here also went back.  Before they went back there 
were nearly 20 Dta La Ku families [from Kwih Kler] here.  

Q:  Many people already went back, so why don't you go back?
A:  I do not dare to go back because I am afraid of the Burmese.  I will go

back when there is peace in my village, after the Burmese leave my 
village, because the Burmese treated us badly.  

Q:  How can you get your food here?  Can you farm here?
A:  Yes, we must farm.
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                                  #8.
NAME:    "Saw Beh Htoo"      SEX: M   AGE: 28      Karen Buddhist farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children
ADDRESS: Kwih Kalay village, Dooplaya District     INTERVIEWED: 22/2/98

[When interviewed "Saw Beh Htoo" was staying in a hut just on the Thai 
side of the border.]

Q:  How long did it take you to come here?
A:  It took a day.  Our village is to the west, near Kyaikdon.  I've stayed

here for one season, with my brother and sister.

Q:  Did the SLORC come to your village?
A:  Yes, they came.  I was staying in the village when the SLORC came.  I 
stayed about 25 days and then I came here.  First I came alone, then I went

back and called my family.  I don't want to go back because the situation
is 
not good.

Q:  How many houses are there in Kwih Kalay village?
A:  It has more than three hundred houses.  Sgaw and Pwo Karen, Thai 
and Mon.  About a hundred houses are Karen.  Several families have come 
to stay here.  The KPA come here all the time.  They tell stories to try to

get us to go back.  They told me to go back to my village.  He said, "You 
can go back, nothing will happen".  I told him I won't go back, first I
will 
stay here for 4 or 5 years and then maybe I will go back.  I told him that
I 
don't like Burmese soldiers.
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                                  #9.
NAME:    "Saw Lay Ghay"      SEX: M   AGE: 30+      Karen Christian farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children aged 8-12
ADDRESS: Noh Dah Kee village, Dooplaya District     INTERVIEWED: 22/2/98

[When interviewed "Saw Lay Ghay" was staying in a hut just on the Thai 
side of the border.]

Q:  When did you arrive here?
A:  I arrived here in October 1997, because the SLORC came into our 
village.  After they came I stayed for less than a month.  The SLORC told 
us to do so much for them that we couldn't do our own work, so we came 
here.  Every day the SLORC told us to get rocks from the river and carry 
them up the hill.  Their camp is on the hill, just near Lay Po Hta.  We had

to go every day to carry rocks.  Every man in Noh Dah Kee village had to 
go every day.

Q:  How many houses are in your village?
A:  It has eleven houses.  We came here with one other household.  We 
came a secret way.  Five households are still staying in our village.  The 
SLORC [SPDC] makes the people work for them every day.  The people 
have to carry rice up the hill for the SLORC whenever their rations come.  
I'm afraid to go back because the SLORC makes us work all the time, 
there is not enough food and I have no money to buy food.  My house was 
made of bamboo, so I think it is probaby destroyed by now.  The Thai 
soldiers told us to go back but I am afraid of the SLORC.  I will stay
until 
the SLORC go back to their place.  If they go back to their place I will go

back to my village.

Q:  Will you go back if the SLORC leaves and only the KPA stays there?
A:  No, I am afraid to go back because the KPA also works with the 
SLORC.
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                                 #10.

[The following field reports were sent in by a KHRG human rights 
monitor who obtained some of the information from villagers and some 
from KNLA intelligence reports.]

On 17 May 1998, SPDC troops from Strategic Command #2, Infantry 
Battalion #357, commanded by Battalion Commander Than Shwe, entered 
the villages of Lay Mila [4-Mile], Bone Kaw and Meh Ter Pwee and 
arrested village elders Saw Ku, Pa Ter Ru, Pa Per Lweh, Mer Hu Lah, Saw 
Myint Thay, Nya Shu, Maw Shwe Thay, Neh Kyaw Pay, Maw Lah Shwe, 
Maw Lah Tha, and Maw Per Eh [all men, ages not given; 12 men were 
arrested, though only 11 names are given] and beat these men badly until 
4 of the 12 died of the beatings.  They accused the men of having had 
contact with the KNU.

On 18 May 1998, Battalion Commander Than Sein and his troops from 
SPDC Infantry Battalion #231 arrested Saw Htoo Lay (male, age 37) from 
Meh T'Kreh village and beat him to death.

On 22 May 1998 at about 10 a.m., SPDC Frontline Engineers #904 
Battalion forced villagers from Kyaikdon village, Kawkareik township to 
work under duress on the road from Kyaikdon to Kyo G'Lee village tract.  
They forced the villagers to begin construction on a road bridge, to break 
stones into pieces and to lay stones and gravel to make the roadbed.

On June 5th 1998, SPDC soldiers from Infantry Battalion #356 led by 
supply officer Cho Win entered Waw Lu village and captured villagers 
there to be porters.  The villagers tried to escape but 4 men were caught: 

Pa K'Lah (age 50), Pa Lu Lah (age 30), Pa Day Thu (age 25), and Pa Tha 
Kyi (age 40).  The soldiers then beat the 4 men [probably in anger that 
they could only catch the four of them].  Pa Lu Lah was beaten badly and 
was seriously injured.

Now the officers of SPDC Strategic Command #2 continually demand 
money from the villagers in the area, but they have issued an order 
prohibiting many villagers from going to work in their fields.  People in 
the area are now suffering from hunger and vitamin deficiency, because 
meats such as pork and chicken are getting more and more expensive.  
One viss [1.6 kg/3.5 lb] of meat  costs 500 Kyats, and one viss of dried 
meat costs 1,000 Kyats.  [The prices of meat are most likely being driven 
up due to the systematic looting and slaughtering of livestock by SPDC 
troops.] 

                      - [END OF REPORT] -