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KHRG Report #99-04: Nyaunglebin Dis
- Subject: KHRG Report #99-04: Nyaunglebin Dis
- From: khrg@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 03 Jun 1999 07:23:00
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] -