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KHRG Report #99-04: Nyaunglebin Dis



Subject: KHRG Report #99-04: Nyaunglebin District 


              DEATH SQUADS AND DISPLACEMENT
 
Systematic Executions, Village Destruction and the Flight of 
             Villagers in Nyaunglebin District
 
   An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
            May 24, 1999     /     KHRG #99-04
 

Following is the Introduction and Executive Summary of KHRG Report #99-04, a
detailed report on the current human rights 
situation in Nyaunglebin District of northern Karen State and eastern Pegu
Division.  The full report (93 pages in its published 
version, including tables and photos) can be seen on the KHRG website 
(<http://metalab.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive>http://metalab.
unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive).  The report uses the texts of
over
50 interviews conducted by 
KHRG between December 1998 and May 1999 with villagers in the region, the
internally displaced, and newly arrived 
refugees in Thailand, supported by field reports and photographs by KHRG field
reporters.
 

            Introduction / Executive Summary
 
Nyaunglebin District (known in Karen as Kler Lweh Htoo) is one of the northern
Karen districts, straddling the border of 
Karen State and Pegu Division (see maps on pages 4-5).  It covers an area
about
110 kilometres from north to south and 
averaging 40 kilometres from east to west, bounded by the Sittaung River in
the
west and the upper reaches of the Bilin River 
in the east.  To the north lies Toungoo District, to the south Thaton
District,
to the east Papun District, and to the west the 
heartland of Pegu Division and the Pegu Yoma hills.  The District is divided
into three townships: 
 
Shwegyin (Hsaw Tee in Karen) in the south, Kyauk Kyi (Ler Doh) in the centre,
and Mone (Mu) in the north.  The District 
itself is a Karen designation dating back to colonial times; the SPDC
regime no
longer recognises districts, only townships and 
States/Divisions.  The westernmost part of the district is a narrow strip of
fertile plains which form part of the Sittaung River 
valley.  Just 10 to 15 kilometres east of the river itself, the hills abruptly
begin and cover the eastern 75% of the district.  
Villages in the western plains tend to be larger and more prosperous, and have
a mixed population of Karens and Burmans.  
Some villages are unofficially divided into a Karen section and a Burman
section , while in other places one village is 
entirely Karen and the next village up the road is entirely Burman. 
Because of
the easy terrain, the proximity to central Burma 
and the roads which already run between Shwegyin, Kyauk Kyi and Mone, this
area
has been strongly controlled by the 
SLORC/SPDC military for a long time.  As soon as you enter the hills to the
east the situation is different; the population is 
almost 100% Karen, life is harder and based more on shifting hillside rice
cultivation instead of flat paddy fields, and there are 
no vehicle roads except one which goes eastward from Kyauk Kyi into Papun
District.  Villages are more numerous but 
smaller than in the plains, averaging only 10 to 30 households in size.  In
these hills the Karen National Liberation Army 
[KNLA] is very active in guerrilla operations, and neither the SPDC nor the
KNU/KNLA exerts strong control.
 
Finding itself unable to suppress Karen resistance activity in the hills, in
early 1997 the SPDC (then named SLORC) began a 
campaign to wipe out all Karen civilian villages there.  Where villagers could
be found they were ordered to relocate westward 
into the plains; where they could not be caught, their villages were shelled
without warning, looted and then burned to the 
ground, while villagers found afterwards were shot on sight.  In 1997 KHRG
compiled a list of 35 villages in Shwegyin (Hsaw 
Tee) township alone which had been completely destroyed [for this and other
details of the 1997 campaign see Wholesale 
Destruction , KHRG April 1998].  A similar number of villages were
destroyed in
Kyauk Kyi township.  Most villagers fled 
into the hills to live in hiding in small groups of families while trying to
grow small patches of rice, and many others moved 
westward as ordered into SPDC garrison villages in the plains, or to stay with
relatives in the comparative safety of larger 
villages.
 
Many of those who fled to the plains found they could not survive there; they
had no land to plant and there was little work to 
be found, because villagers in the plains were suffering heavily under the
heavy extortion fees and crop quotas imposed by the 
SPDC military and civilian authorities.  At the same time, the hill villagers
found they were being used as forced labour by the 
SPDC much more in the plains, both at Army camps and on local infrastructure
projects.  Unable to survive under these 
conditions, many have fled back to their home villages in the hills, only to
find that the clampdown on the hill areas is 
continuing.  In most cases the hill villages have not been rebuilt because
SPDC
patrols continue to move through the area 
destroying whatever structures they find, destroying rice stockpiles and crops
in the fields, shooting livestock and shooting 
villagers on sight.  Those living in the hills and those who have returned
from
the plains have no choice but to live in hiding in 
small groups, usually near their home villages or their old hill fields.  They
try to grow small crops, forage for food in the 
forest and flee further into the hills whenever SPDC patrols come near.
 
At the same time, something is happening which has never occurred to such a
large extent before: an increasing number of 
villagers native to the Sittaung River plains, both Karen and Burman, are
fleeing eastward into the hills, and some are fleeing 
southward along the main road through Pegu and Kyaikto, then eastward to the
Thai border.  In the past the prosperity of the 
Sittaung valley villages has always made it possible for them to survive even
under the burden of SLORC/SPDC demands for 
extortion money and forced labour, but things have changed in the past two
years.  The SPDC has increased its military 
presence in the area in an attempt to increase its control in the hills to the
east, and these troops are placing ever-increasing 
demands for extortion money, crop quotas and forced labour on the civilians. 
The SPDC in Rangoon is no longer sending 
them full rations and has ordered them to grow their own food or take it from
the villagers; as a result, not only are they taking 
food from the villagers, but they are also taking their land and forcing them
to work to grow food for the Army.  At the same 
time, crop quotas which all farmers must hand over to the SPDC have increased
and the corruption of the civilian authorities 
who collect the crop quotas has grown worse.  The farmers might be able to
survive this in good years, but most of them have 
suffered partial or complete crop failures for the past two years running due
to droughts when they need rain, followed by 
floods once the crop is planted.  The combination of the crop failures and the
increased demands has made it impossible to 
survive.  As though this were not enough, many have found they have to flee a
new SPDC force which has been introduced in 
the area:  the Sa Thon Lon Guerrilla Retaliation death squads.
 
The Sa Sa Sa, or Sa Thon Lon, is the Bureau of Special Investigations of the
SPDC s Directorate of Defence Services 
Intelligence (DDSI), and its Guerrilla Retaliation squads have been handpicked
from Battalions based in the region, reportedly 
under the direct orders of DDSI chief Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt.  They began
operations in the region in or around September 1998, 
and currently operate in the plains area east of the Sittaung River, covering
Shwegyin, Kyauk Kyi and Mone townships.  The 
Guerrilla Retaliation squads operate secretively in small groups, but with a
clearly stated purpose: to execute without question 
everyone suspected of any present or past connection with the KNU or KNLA,
regardless of how long ago or how slight that 
connection may have been.  Their obvious purpose is to deliver a message to
villagers that any contact whatsoever with 
resistance forces will be punishable by death, if not now then 10 or 20 years
from now.  They have already executed dozens of 
villagers both in the plains and the hills, both Karens and Burmans, guilty
and
innocent, and the terror they create is now 
driving many to flee their villages even if they have had no contact with the
opposition.  Recently they have expanded their 
operations northward into Tantabin township of southern Toungoo District, and
they have also begun searching for people on 
the western side of the Sittaung River.  This combined with all the other
forms
of oppression the villagers are suffering has 
driven them beyond their endurance, and villages in the plains as well as the
hills are now breaking up.
 
          - [END OF SUMMARY - SEE KHRG WEBSITE FOR FULL REPORT] -