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KHRG #98-09 Part 1 of 5 (Dooplaya)
- Subject: KHRG #98-09 Part 1 of 5 (Dooplaya)
- From: khrg@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 19:59:00
DOOPLAYA UNDER THE SPDC
Further Developments in the SPDC Occupation
of South-Central Karen State
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
November 23, 1998 / KHRG #98-09
*** PART 1 OF 5: SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR REMAINING PARTS OF THIS REPORT
***
[Some details omitted or replaced by 'xxxx' for Internet distribution.]
Note: The 'Selected Interviews' and 'Field Reports' have been omitted from
this version for brevity, though they are included in the version
which can be viewed at our website:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/
In early 1997, the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
military junta ruling Burma mounted a major offensive against the Karen
National Union (KNU) and succeeded in capturing and occupying most of
the remainder of Dooplaya District in central Karen State. Since that time
the SLORC has changed its name to the State Peace & Development
Council (SPDC), but its occupation troops have continued to strengthen
their control over the rural Karen villagers who live in the region.
Almost
all of the people in the region are Karen, though there are minorities of
ethnic Mon, Thai, and Indian-Muslim people in parts of central and
western Dooplaya. This report provides an update on the current
situation for villagers in Dooplaya's farming communities under the
SPDC occupation. Some of the main issues covered are general human
rights abuses against the villagers, which include arbitrary killings,
torture, detention, rape, forced labour, forced relocations, looting and
extortion; the special plight of the Dta La Ku, a Karen religious minority
who have been targetted for persecution by armies on all sides of the
conflict but who are almost completely ignored by the outside world; the
effects on villagers of the changing military-political situation in the
region, including the activities of the Karen Peace Army (KPA) and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), rival armies both allied with
the SPDC; and the effects of the ongoing struggle between the SPDC and
the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), both of which are
increasingly using landmines in the area. Differences and similarities are
examined between the situation in Dooplaya's central plain, the
mountainous eastern 'hump' which projects into Thailand, and the
district's far south.
This report provides an update to the June 1998 KHRG report
"Strengthening the Grip on Dooplaya" (KHRG #98-05, 10/6/98). For
further background on the 1997 offensive in Dooplaya and its immediate
aftermath, see the previously released reports "Refugees from the
SLORC Occupation" (KHRG #97-07, 25/5/97) and "Clampdown in
Southern Dooplaya" (KHRG #97-11, 18/11/97).
This report is divided into several parts: immediately following this
introduction is a description and analysis of the current situation in
Dooplaya supported by quotes from local villagers, internally displaced
people and refugees, and following that are the full texts of ten
interviews
selected from among those conducted by KHRG in the region between
April and October 1998, field reports selected from among those
submitted by KHRG human rights monitors, and seven examples of SPDC
written orders which were sent to villages in Dooplaya between December
1997 and July 1998. Interviews #11-16 are quoted in the analysis section
but are not included in full for reasons of brevity. All names of those
interviewed have been changed and some details omitted where necessary
to protect people. False names are shown in quotes, while all other names
are real. Note that many places throughout Dooplaya are known by more
than one name; for example, the central village of Saw Hta is known as
Azin in Burmese, and Th'Waw Thaw in eastern Dooplaya is Sakanthit in
Burmese. Villagers often use the names interchangeably. All numeric
dates in the report are in dd/mm/yy format.
_______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
Preface ......................................... 1
Table of Contents ............................... 2
Abbreviations ................................... 3
Map 1: Central and Eastern Dooplaya ............. 5
Map 2: Southern Dooplaya ........................ 6
The Current Situation in Dooplaya ............... 7
The Dta La Ku ............................. 7
The KPA and the DKBA ...................... 10
Life of the Villagers ..................... 13
Killings and Other Abuses ........... 13
Extortion and Looting ............... 16
Forced Labour ....................... 18
Forced Relocations .................. 22
Internally Displaced People ......... 24
Problems for Farmers ................ 25
Education ........................... 26
Illness and Medical Care ............ 27
Landmines ........................... 29
Future of the Area ........................ 31
Selected Interviews ............................. 33
#1: Villager, Saw Hta, central Dooplaya ...... 33
#2: Elder, xxxx, southern Dooplaya ........... 38
#3: Villager, Meh T'Ler, central Dooplaya .... 42
#4: Schoolteacher, xxxx, central Dooplaya .... 48
#5: Relief worker, central Dooplaya .......... 54
#6: Dta La Ku elder, south-central Dooplaya .. 61
#7: Dta La Ku elder, south-central Dooplaya .. 65
#8: Dta La Ku villager, Meh T'Lah, central Dooplaya .. 69
#9: Villager, xxxx, eastern Dooplaya ......... 71
#10: Villager, Saw Hta, central Dooplaya ..... 74
Field Reports ................................... 77
Examples of SPDC Written Orders to Villages ..... 81
Copies of Original SPDC Written Orders in Burmese .. 85
Abbreviations
SPDC State Peace & Development Council, military junta ruling Burma
SLORC State Law & Order Restoration Council, former name of the
SPDC until Nov. 1997
KNU Karen National Union, main Karen opposition group
KNLA Karen National Liberation Army, army of the KNU
DKBA Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Karen group allied with SLORC/SPDC
KPA Karen Peace Army, known as "Nyein Chan Yay A'Pway", or
"Peace Force", in Burmese; set up in Dooplaya in 1997
after the SLORC occupation
Ko Per Baw "Yellow headbands"; name used by villagers to refer to DKBA
Ko Per Lah "Green headbands"; name occasionally used to refer to KNLA
T'Bee Met "Closed-eyes"; name used by DKBA to refer to KNU/KNLA
Nga pway "Ringworm"; derogatory SLORC/SPDC name for Karen soldiers
IB Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers
fighting strength
LIB Light Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500
soldiers fighting strength
LID Light Infantry Division (SLORC/SPDC); one Division consists
of 10 LIB battalions
Viss Unit of weight measure; one viss is 1.6 kilograms or 3.5 pounds
Kyat Burmese currency; US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 300+ Kyat at
current market rate
Baht Thai currency; US$1 = approximately 38 Baht at time of printing
________________________________________________________________________
The Current Situation in Dooplaya
Dooplaya District covers much of the southern half of Karen State, from
the Myawaddy - Kyone Doh - Pa'an motor road in the north to the Three
Pagodas Pass area 160 kilometres (100 miles) further south. In early 1997
the SLORC regime mounted a major military operation and successfully
occupied almost all of this area, though the Karen National Liberation
Army (KNLA) is still very active in guerrilla operations. While the
SLORC/SPDC has gradually increased its repression to establish control
over the area, they have also formed and employed a Karen proxy army
called the Karen Peace Army (KPA) under Thu Mu Heh, a former KNLA
officer who defected in 1997. In Burmese the KPA is known as the 'Nyein
Chan Yay A'Pway', which literally translates as 'Peace Force'. The SPDC
removed the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) from most of the
region and made a show of giving 'authority' over the area to the KPA.
The Dta La Ku
"(W)e went to the [SPDC] Operations Commander and asked if he
could excuse us from portering. He agreed and gave us a letter of
permission to be excused. After only six days, the Burmese soldiers
ordered the Dta La Ku villagers to be porters again, and they told us that
if the Dta La Ku people don't do as they require then all Dta La Ku
people must leave their country." - "Pa Bway Htoo" (M, 44), Dta La Ku
elder on the Burma-Thai border (Interview #6, 9/98)
The KPA set out to gather recruits by promising villagers that the families
of those who joined would be exempted from forced labour for the SPDC,
and by trying to force all able-bodied men of the Dta La Ku people to join.
The Dta La Ku are a religious minority among the Karen, numbering some
5,000 people, who live mainly in southern Dooplaya District. They have
been persecuted and pressured to join the struggle by both the
SLORC/SPDC and the KNLA, even though taking part in an armed
struggle or supporting one goes directly against their strict religion and
lifestyle.
"There are two sides to our religion. One is Ter, which are the
traditional practices of our religion, and the other is Taw, which is the
word of our God. We must follow both our traditional practices and the
words of our God. We must not become soldiers or aid in an armed
struggle. However, when we were living among the people there we had
to do some military work for them. We knew that if we lived among
them for a long time we would have to violate our religious
requirements. If we keep living among those people our traditional life
will disappear. Even now it is deteriorating." - "Maw Hla Shwe" (M,
44), Dta La Ku elder from Ywa Thay village, Kawkareik township
(Interview #14, 9/98)
For further background on the KPA and the pressure on the Dta La Ku, see
the report "Strengthening the Grip on Dooplaya" (KHRG #98-05,
10/6/98). When this report was published in mid-1998, most of the Dta La
Ku refugees in Thailand had returned to their villages in Burma, but they
were under increasing pressure to join the KPA and they had sent a
delegation to request SPDC military authorities for permission to gather
and live together in one small area near the Thai border, where they would
be free of forced labour and KPA pressure and in return would not take
any part in the struggle. Since that time, the local SPDC Tactical
Commander granted them the permission they desired. About 2,000 Dta
La Ku villagers gathered in the Kwih Lat Der / Taung Ka Lay area near the
Thai border hoping to be able to farm and practice their beliefs freely
without forced labour and military pressure.
Now the KPA is no longer demanding that all Dta La Ku men join the
army, though they are still trying to attract recruits from among both Dta
La Ku and non-Dta La Ku villagers [see below under 'The KPA and the
DKBA']. However, over the past two months the SPDC military has
reneged on its promise and has begun placing ever-increasing demands on
the Dta La Ku villagers to provide porters and other forced labourers.
Most of the forced labour demands are being made by troops from Light
Infantry Division #44, particularly Light Infantry Battalion #343. The
latest demand is that Kwih Lat Der and some other villages each provide 4
porters at all times, rotating the people every 5 days, or pay 80,000 Kyats
per month. 80,000 Kyats is a huge sum of money for rural villagers. Even
Kwih Lat Der, a large village which now has 150 households, could only
come up with 40,000 Kyats the first month, so they negotiated a deal
whereby they have to send 2 of the 4 people demanded and pay 40,000
Kyats. SPDC patrols coming through Kwih Lat Der area also demand
additional porters every day and charge 100 Thai Baht per day as a fine for
anyone who cannot go.
"Now we have been under the control of the Burmese soldiers for two
years, so I know all about the Burmese soldiers. The longer we live
under the control of the Burmese soldiers the poorer we become. We
don't have time to work on our farms. They always demand that we
work for them, even though no KNU people come to our village. ? We
went to the [SPDC] commander and asked if the Dta La Ku people could
be exempted from going as porters. They agreed once. Then we asked
for that chance again but they never allowed it again, so now the Dta La
Ku people must carry things as porters. Recently they demanded four
Dta La Ku people or 80,000 Kyats from Kwih Lat Der area. [The village
was ordered to send 4 people at all times on a rotating basis, or pay
80,000 Kyats per month to be exempted.] We begged them to be left to
do our own work instead, so then they said they would accept two people
and 40,000 Kyats." - "Saw Meh Doh" (M, 44), Dta La Ku elder from xxxx
village, southern Dooplaya (Interview #7, 9/98)
Dta La Ku village elders in the Kwih Lat Der area have repeatedly
approached local SPDC military commanders, asking for the release of
porters and protesting that portering and soldiering go directly against
Dta
La Ku religious beliefs. In response, they have only been scolded by the
SPDC officers for being "irritants and troublemakers", and told that if the
Dta La Ku are not willing to support the Army with their labour then they
are to be driven out of Burma. This word has also been sent out through
the soldiers, as returning Dta La Ku porters have said they were frightened
when they heard the same thing from SPDC troops.
"(W)hen we asked the second time for the Dta La Ku people to be
excused from portering, the Burmese soldiers said that the Dta La Ku
people must not live in Burma. ? We begged them to excuse us from
carrying their military supplies because it violates our religious rules.
But in response they told us that we Dta La Ku people are irritants so we
cannot stay in their country." - "Saw Meh Doh" (M, 44), Dta La Ku
elder from xxxx village, southern Dooplaya (Interview #7, 9/98)
Further into SPDC territory and away from the border with Thailand, the
40 Dta La Ku families of Meh T'La village are being forced to provide 2
porters at all times on a 5-day rotation to carry rice and ammunition to
Kyaikdon for the SPDC, and 100 people at a time also have to do forced
labour building a security fence several kilometres long along the local
motor road. Villagers are not allowed to go to their fields to tend their
crops without a pass, and cannot stay in their field huts for more than 2
consecutive nights. In August a 20-year-old man named Maw Lu Po from
the village was executed by SPDC troops for being caught in possession of
medicine. He was bringing injection sets for the villagers, who have no
doctor, but the troops accused him of possessing medicine to give to
KNLA units. The village was also forced to move to another site by the
SPDC, but was then ordered by the local KNLA unit to move back or be
shelled with mortars. The villagers don't dare go back against SPDC
orders, and many see no option but to flee. At the same time villagers,
including Dta La Ku, in Kru Tu Kee have been forced to provide 100
baskets of seed paddy, plant a crop and tend it for SPDC troops in the
area.
Dta La Ku villagers from Ywa Thay village in western Dooplaya claim
that they have also been facing an increase of forced labour as porters for
the SPDC, the KPA and remnants of DKBA (who still have troops in the
far west and far east of Dooplaya), as well as forced labour building and
maintaining an SPDC camp, pathways, and planting and tending a rice
crop for the local SPDC Battalions. One village elder from this area
stated
that they could survive under the SPDC for the first year of the
occupation,
but by the end of the second year "everything is gone" because of all their
demands for food and forced labour; in order to tend their crops and do
other work, villagers pay money to avoid forced labour whenever possible,
and to do this they must progressively sell off their livestock and
valuables
until nothing is left and they must go for forced labour or flee.
Dta La Ku villagers from Kwih Kler village in central Dooplaya report that
they are also being used as SPDC porters and that the only way to escape
this work is to pay money, but they have no money left. In the months
before rainy season (up to June 1998) they were also forced to cut down
many of their coconut trees to clear a path for a new road route.
Construction on this road (probably a more direct route to replace the
existing Azin - Kwih Kler - Lay Po Hta road) has not yet begun, but could
begin in November or December 1998, and would most likely involve
heavy use of forced labour from villagers in the Kwih Kler and Azin (Saw
Hta) areas. SPDC officers have already ordered all Dta La Ku villagers
who have already left Kwih Kler to return or have their homes and fields
confiscated by the Army, but some of those who have left say they won't
go back anyway because they can no longer take the burden of forced
labour.
As a result of all of the above, over 900 Dta La Ku villagers crossed the
border to become refugees in Thailand in August and September 1998, and
in late September elders from Dta La Ku villages in Dooplaya District
claimed that all of those who had gathered to live in the Kwih Lat Der /
Taung Ka Lay area, totalling close to 2,000 more, were preparing to cross
the border the moment the pressure intensified further. At the time of
printing, it appears that some of these have already crossed but most still
remain just on the Burma side of the border ready to flee. The Dta La Ku
refugees are not willing to go to the existing Karen refugee camp at Noh
Po, because they fear that among the 10,000 refugees already at Noh Po
they would have no chance to maintain their religion and lifestyle.
Furthermore, Thai officials have told them not to go to Noh Po because
Noh Po is a strictly closed camp and the Thai officials fear that the Dta
La
Ku would always be slipping in and out in order to attend religious events
at their religious centres. Should another 1,000-2,000 Dta La Ku refugees
arrive in Thailand, how they will be received remains uncertain.
"I don't know what to do. The villagers are going to flee and come here
again. We are not sure whether the Thai soldiers will allow them to
come here or not, but I'm sure myself that the Thai soldiers will not
allow them to stay. I want to know what we can do to stop the Thai
soldiers from coming here to block their arrival." - "Pa Bway Htoo" (M,
44), Dta La Ku elder on the Burma-Thai border (Interview #6, 9/98)
Ironically, although they are in Thailand many of the men return back
across the border once per month to do a shift of forced labour as porters
for SPDC troops. This is because when they fled villages like Kwih Kler
to gather around Kwih Lat Der the SPDC noted down all the family
registrations and use these to demand one person from each family for
forced labour each month. If the villagers, including those already in
Thailand but still on the SPDC list, do not return for their shift then the
SPDC troops force the Kwih Lat Der village elders to pay 300 Kyat for
each missing person. Rather than bring suffering on the elders, even the
Dta La Ku refugees already in Thailand either send 300 Kyats each month
or go for a shift of portering.
- [END OF PART 1: SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 2 THROUGH 5] -