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Special Posting: KHRG Karenni Repor



Subject: Special Posting: KHRG Karenni Report Part 1 of 2 

CONTINUING FEAR AND HUNGER

Update on the Current Situation in Karenni
An Independent Report By the Karen Human Rights Group

May 25, 1999  /  KHRG #99-05

** PART 1 OF 2; SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTING FOR PART 2 OF THIS REPORT **

A fuller version of this report, including an Interview Index and the texts
of the interviews themselves, is available on the KHRG website
(http://metalab.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive) Note:  Some
details omitted or replaced by 'XXXX' for Internet distribution.

Since mid-1996 the State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) military
junta, now renamed as the State Peace & Development Council (SPDC), has
forcibly relocated and destroyed over 200 villages covering at least half
the geographic area of Karenni (Kayah) State in eastern Burma.  At least
20,000-30,000 people have been displaced, forced to move into
military-controlled camps where many of them have been starving and dying
of disease, or to flee into hiding in the forest where they face similar
suffering as well as the possibility of being shot on sight by SLORC/SPDC
patrols.  Some have escaped to Thailand but the vast majority are still
struggling to survive in the relocation sites or in hiding in the forests
near their destroyed villages.  There is no sign that their situation will
improve anytime soon, as the SPDC continues its campaign aiming at the
complete military control of Karenni State and the obliteration of all
possibilities of resistance.

Immediately following the largest of wave of forced relocations in
June/July 1996, about 3,000 people made their way to existing Karenni
refugee camps in Thailand.  After the following few months of the rainy
season another 1,300 arrived.  Since then there was only been a slow
trickle of refugees coming into the camps, 1-3 families at a time.  In
January 1998 some larger groups, consisting of 60 or 70 people, reached the
camps.  Groups of this size came again in March of the same year. However,
since January 1999 over 1,500 refugees have arrived in the Karenni refugee
camps in Thailand.  The overwhelming reason for this sudden, large
migration seems to be a shortage of food as a result of the unpredictable
weather and inability to work farms out of fear of being shot or enslaved
by the Burmese Army.  This report is based on interviews conducted by KHRG
in March 1999 with some of these new arrivals. KHRG would also like to
thank the Karenni National Progressive Party for their co-operation and
help.  This report provides an update on the current situation in Karenni,
which has been previously described in "Forced Relocation in Karenni" (KHRG
#96-24, 15/7/96), "Update on Karenni Forced Relocations" (KHRG #97-01,
5/3/97) and "A Struggle Just to Survive" (KHRG #98-06, 12/6/98).


Throughout the interviews the villagers speak of having to do Loh Ah Pay.
This is term the Army uses throughout Burma when rounding up people for
forced labour.  Loh Ah Pay translates as 'voluntary labour', however, when
the Army is rounding people up there is nothing voluntary about the work
they must do.  If they don't go for this 'voluntary labour' they are either
required to pay money, beaten or jailed.

This report consists of a summary of the current situation supported by
quotes from interviews, followed by the full text of the interviews.  All
names of those interviewed have been changed and some details omitted where
necessary to protect people.  False names are shown in quotes; all other
names are real.  At the end of the report is a list of villages that had
been relocated as of 1997 and the relocation sites at that time.  The
numbers which appear beside village names in the report correspond to the
numbered dots on the map at the end of the report.


Abbreviations

SPDC State Peace & Development Council, military junta ruling Burma

SLORC State Law & Order Restoration Council, former name of the  SPDC until
Nov. 1997

KNPP Karenni National Progressive Party, Karenni resistance force  fighting
SPDC

KNPLF Karenni Nationalities People's Liberation Front, Karenni  resistance
group which made a ceasefire deal with SLORC in 1994

KNLP Kayan New Land Party, Karenni resistance group which has a  ceasefire
with SPDC 

KNDP Karenni National Democratic Party, political wing of the KNDA

KNDA Karenni National Democratic Army, armed group formed in  1996,
reportedly by SLORC, which acts as a SLORC/SPDC  militia and proxy army

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

loh ah pay  Forced labour; literally it means traditional voluntary labour,
 but not under SPDC

Kyat Burmese currency; US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 350+ Kyat  at  current
market rate


Summary of the Current Situation

"We couldn't build houses, we had to stay on the ground.  We cut leaves to
lay down as a floor to sleep on and made a roof with some tarpaulin. It
didn't rain but it was very cold.  We could only light a very small fire to
warm ourselves because we were afraid that the fire would show the soldiers
where we were.  The fire could only be the burning embers.  I had 4
children who were not well so they cried sometimes.  Any time the soldiers
who were chasing us headed in our direction, I suffered in my heart a great
deal because my children didn't know to be afraid.  Back when we were
living in our hill village we had to run too, but the children only learned
to be afraid of battle, they never learned to be afraid while we're
fleeing. As parents we worried about them a lot.  We were always worried
about the next time we would have to run.


"Sometimes I couldn't eat because of the anxiety.  When it was time to eat,
I could only eat one or two mouthfuls of rice and then I didn't feel like
eating anymore.  There were many troubles and a lot of suffering. When we
first left to come to the refugee camp, the SPDC army tried to chase us and
a battle occurred.  I heard the sounds of the weapons and was too afraid to
run anywhere.  I hid in many different places in the area and the children
were very noisy because they didn't understand the army troops would come
to kill us.  We had to worry about them so it was difficult for me to eat
and sleep.  We could see the houses burning in the old village, xxxx.
Where we were hiding was very close to where the SPDC soldiers were." - "Lu
Mya" (F, 30), talking about running from SPDC patrols in the jungle around
Shadaw (Interview 5).

Between April and July 1996, relocation orders were issued by the SLORC
(renamed the SPDC in November 1997) to at least 182 villages in Karenni
(Kayah) State.  The orders demand that the villagers move to
military-controlled sites within 3-7 days.  The main reason for the
gathering of the villagers into these relocation sites was to bring the
civilian population under tight military control and to prevent the
villagers from being able to provide any support to the Karenni National
Progressive Party (KNPP).  The other resistance groups in Karenni, the
Karenni Nationalities People's Liberation Front (KNPLF), the Kayan New Land
Party (KNLP) and the Shan Nationalities People's Liberation Organisation
(SNPLO) have already made ceasefire agreements with the SLORC.  The KNPP, a
notably larger and older resistance force than the others, made a ceasefire
agreement with the SLORC in March 1995. However, the SLORC used the premise
of the ceasefire to move its troops into offensive positions and then broke
the ceasefire in June 1995 by launching an offensive against the KNPP.  By
the end of March 1996 the SLORC had taken all of the main KNPP bases near
the Thai border.  The KNPP reorganised and sent guerrilla columns
throughout Karenni to disrupt SLORC forces, and the SLORC responded by
commencing the mass forced relocations.  Fighting has been ongoing ever
since, despite the false SLORC/SPDC claim that the KNPP surrendered in 1995
and that there has been no fighting in Karenni since then.  Currently the
bulk of the fighting is located in the southeastern part of the state.


The villages affected by the forced relocations account for well over half
of the geographic area of the State and are home to at least 20,000-30,000
people.  The villagers were given no more than a week to move to sites
specified by the army.  The written orders issued to the villages stated
that after that week the villagers in those areas would be considered as
enemy troops and would be shot on sight if spotted in their villages by
SLORC/SPDC patrols.  Upon receiving the relocation orders many of the
villagers fled into hiding in the jungle and some even made their way north
to Shan State to find refuge.  The rest of the villagers had no choice but
to go to the specified relocation sites.  Those who went to the relocation
sites were unable to take anything more than their children and what they
could carry on their backs during the often long walk through the jungle
and hills to the sites.  Some of the sick and elderly had no choice but to
remain in the villages because they were not physically able to make the
journey to the relocation sites or flee into the jungle.  The SLORC troops,
acting as they had promised, started sweeping the area with patrols shortly
after the time for relocation had elapsed.  They systematically moved
through the villages, taking anything of value that had been left behind
and then burning what was left. Villagers coming from the areas around
Shadaw and Mawchi relocation sites say that all of the villages have been
destroyed in those areas and nothing is left.  The villagers caught
remaining in the areas are either forced to the relocation sites or shot on
sight.


"...They gave letters [to the villages] which said, 'If you are still not
living in Shadaw by this date, we will regard you as our enemies when we
come to clear the land.'  They really came!  They captured people in our
village and then killed them.  They captured 5 people, all male, on the
fields in an old village and killed 4 of them after 1 person ran and
escaped.  The names of those killed were Ah Tun, Ker Reh, Moo Reh and Moo.
As for the Shan person, N---, who owned the field, he ran away and escaped
before they could kill him..." - "Klaw Reh" (M, 45), speaking of when he
was ordered to relocate to Shadaw (Interview 1).

Although living in the jungle was fraught with problems associated with the
danger of the patrols and finding food to eat, some people still tried to
remain there, but many gave in to the order and moved to the relocation
sites.  The relocation sites were scattered throughout the state at Shadaw,
Ywathit, Mawchi, Pah Saung, Baw La Keh, Kay Lia, Mar Kraw She, Tee Po Kloh
and Nwa La Bo.  As more villages were relocated, more sites such as Daw Dta
Hay were created.  All were under complete control of the Army, usually
located adjacent to new or existing Army bases. Upon arriving at the
relocation sites, the villagers were provided very little in the way of
food or land and nothing in the way of materials for constructing their new
homes.  In several of the sites, including Shadaw and Mawchi, villagers
report that they were given some rice during the first 3 months, though it
was much less than what they required, and after that nothing else.
Shortly after arriving, the small amounts of rice the villagers had brought
or been given were exhausted so they had to sell their belongings to get
money to buy food at inflated prices from the Army-controlled shops.  The
current situation is a result of people not being provided food for months
or years, and given little opportunity to grow their own food.

"...They gave us land to build a house on and I was able to build a house
as big as this one [approximately 15 square meters].  At first, they also
gave us some rice, one bowl of rice for each person for one month. There
were 9 people in my family but they gave us 1.5 big tins [per month; about
24 kg / 53 lb] of rice.  They gave us rice for 3 months, as they did
everyone, and then they never gave us any again." - "Doh Reh" (M, 53),
speaking about what the villagers were provided when they first arrived at
Shadaw relocation site (Interview 4).


"They gave us 2 bowls [about 4 kg / 8.8 lb] of rice per person per month
for the first 3 months.  They only gave us rice, nothing else.  However,
later, they didn't give us any so we had no food to eat.  At that time, it
was only my mother, myself and my elder sister...When we finished the rice
they gave us, we sold what we had to buy more food to eat. However, now we
have nothing.  We couldn't do anything so we didn't want to stay there any
longer.  We came here because we needed to get out of there." - "Say Mya"
(F, 21), speaking about what the villagers were given when they first
arrived at Nwa La Bo relocation site (Interview 7).

The only immediately available option to slowly starving to death in the
relocation sites is to flee to the jungle where life can be even more
difficult.  The perimeters of the relocation sites are largely left
unguarded and the fences that the villagers are often forced to build are
primarily around the army camps and not the actual relocation sites.  The
troops are lax in securing the camp perimeters mainly because they realise
that the villagers have no choice but to go and forage for food outside the
camps. This opportunity is often used by the villagers to flee the
relocation site and go into hiding in the jungle, usually near their old
villages.

This has been ongoing since the relocation sites were first established.
Many villagers have reported that large numbers of people have already left
the relocation sites in search of food and that the current populations of
the relocation sites are much less than what they were originally. Shadaw
relocation site reportedly had approximately 600-800 households in it after
the bulk of the forced relocations, Nwa La Bo initially had 80- 100
households and Daw Dta Hay had approximately 120 households. The
testimonies of villagers who have escaped and managed to find their way to
the Thai border are saying that there are far fewer families in those sites
now and many who are remaining are starving and need to find another
alternative.

However, the only alternative is to flee into the jungle and jungle life
offers up many new problems.  Not only is food still a difficulty, but also
the same problems of health care and education are greatly exacerbated
while hiding in the jungle.  Army patrols sweeping out on "clean up"
missions must be watched for at the cost of lives.  If the villagers are
found in the jungle they are often killed immediately or abused first and
then killed.  This often results in the villagers living in small groups of
1-4 families to be less detectable.


A KNPP officer has informed KHRG that the military patrols that once swept
regularly through the Mawchi area killing anything and anyone they saw have
now been reduced to approximately one patrol every three months.  This
reduction in the number of patrols may indicate that even the SPDC soldiers
are aware that the people remaining in the jungle can only be few and
hardly pose any threat.  According to the same KNPP source, these "mopping
up" patrols are still going out on a weekly basis in the Shadaw area.  When
patrols come near the villagers must quickly move to a new hiding place, so
the villagers have to move a few times a month or even a few times a day
depending on the number of patrols.  Often when two groups of villagers see
each other moving in the jungle they mistake each other for SPDC troops and
flee in fear.   Even when they meet and talk, they sometimes do not dare
share the location of their hiding places for fear that SPDC troops may
capture and interrogate them. These factors make it difficult for villagers
to get together or pool their resources, such as food and knowledge of
escape routes, in any way.

"We couldn't work fields because they would come and shoot us dead when
they saw us working on fields.  The 4 dead people I told you about before
were killed when they saw them working in the fields.  You see! [His wife
added:] If they don't see you while you are working on the farm they uproot
all the paddy or burn it all.  Sometimes they collect paddy that has been
harvested and burn it all." - "Klaw Reh" (M, 45) and his wife, describing
the difficulty of farming for those hiding in the forest (Interview 1).

"...If the Burmese saw our footprints, they followed us so we had to hide
in the bushes.  They always followed our footprints to kill us.  We never
built houses and only prepared our beds to sleep.  We could only stay a few
nights in each place because when the Burmese came near we had to run to
another place.  We had to move from place to place so often that we can't
count how many shelters we built each year.  If the Burmese saw our place
we had to quickly move to another place." - "Maw Reh" (M, ~80), talking
about the fear of SPDC patrols in the jungle around Shadaw (Interview 2).

"Sometimes, while we were moving from one hiding place to another, we came
upon each other and ran away in fear.  We were afraid of each other because
[each of us thought] the other was the Burmese [troops]. When we meet each
other we can't ask each other where we live because we are afraid and have
to hide ourselves.  Even though we occasionally met other villagers while
we were looking for food, we don't know each other's hiding places." -
"Klaw Reh" (M, 45), describing the fear of the Army in the jungle around
Shadaw and how that results in the villagers fearing one another (Interview
1).


Those in the jungle can produce little or no food because of the SPDC
patrols and must rely mainly on what they can forage in the forest, and for
those still in the relocation sites the situation is little better.  In the
relocation sites, those who have been allowed to grow food must either do
it outside of the site, which requires them getting a pass, or grow things
such as corn in small gardens next to their houses, which is the case in
Shadaw relocation site.  Villagers can pay the Army to obtain a plot of
land to farm near the relocation site, though often part of their crop is
taken by the Army.  Those who have arrived as refugees in Thailand have
reported that the Army is taking half of the rice produced by villagers.

"If there are four people in the family, we made a floor for four people to
sleep on and made a roof with tarpaulin.  People who had no tarpaulin, they
made their roof with leaves.  The situation wasn't good so we couldn't have
large hillside fields and instead had to make small fields and hide our
paddy after the harvest. ... There is no village anymore; all villages were
burned along with all the rice and paddy in the villages.  I was hiding in
the jungle for 3 years.  We had to find food in the forest most of the
time.  Even those who lived with them in the relocation site had to find
food like us.  They [villagers from Shadaw] came looking for vegetables and
then went back to either sell them so they could buy rice or exchange them
for rice.  They were also looking for Wa U [elephant foot yam] to eat as we
were." - "Klaw Reh" (M, 45), speaking of when he was ordered to relocate to
Shadaw (Interview 1).


"The first year that we were in Daw Dta Hay, we hired ourselves out to work
on other peoples' fields and bought rice to eat with the money we
earned...[Recently] we couldn't work to produce food.  Even though the
rains were less, if we didn't have to do forced labour we could have worked
and produced enough food for us to live.  We also had to give them 50 Kyats
per week to work on their farms [plots of land allocated by the Army] where
we could stay with our families.  If the Burmese needed us while we were
farming, they told the village headman and he told us we had to come back.
The money for the farm was already paid and we didn't get it back." - "Mi
Su" (F), talking about the food shortage in Daw Dta Hay (Interview 6).

"There were many problems but we had to come.  There were people near farms
along the way [to the border with Thailand], some of whom have no rice or
food.  The farmers also complain that they don't have enough rice because
the army takes half the paddy from their farms." - "Nyi Reh" (M,28),
talking about the Army taking paddy from the farmers who have farms on the
route to Thailand (Interview 9).

Even holding one of the passes which the villagers are required by the Army
to have before leaving the camp doesn't guarantee safety, particularly
farther than a few miles from the camps.  Villagers who have fled Shadaw
site say that they were told that if they went more than 3 or 5 miles from
the site they would be killed.

Another source of food for the villagers in the relocation sites was rice
they had managed to hide in the jungle before their villages were
destroyed.  However, leaving the relocation site to retrieve the hidden
rice was a dangerous proposition and could only result in small amounts of
rice being brought back each time.  By now all of that rice has either been
used up by the villagers themselves, found and destroyed by the Army or
taken by villagers hiding in the jungle who can't find food elsewhere.  The
food shortage problems have been exacerbated in 1998-99 by widespread crop
failures that are affecting not only the majority of Burma but other
Southeast Asian nations as well.  The erratic climate during this period
has resulted in alternating droughts and floods, causing much lower yields
in most of the region.


"Their rule for us was that we couldn't go farther than 5 miles from Shadaw
relocation site.  If we went further, they would shoot us." - "Lu Mya" (F,
30), who fled Shadaw relocation site (Interview 5).

"In Nwa La Bo you can't do any work to get food.  The only way to get food
is to sell all your belongings, such as the silver coins our parents gave
us, and buy food.  Finally, all our belongings were gone...They didn't
allow us to go to our old villages.  They cleared a place nearby using a
bulldozer but the soil there was no good so we had to go very far away to
cut a farm in the hills...If we did go out, we had to get a pass from them
which cost 10 Kyats... They only allowed us 2 or 3 days so we didn't have
enough time to work the farm.  We didn't get any rice from the farm because
there was no rain." - "Baw Reh" (M, 27+), describing how the villagers in
Nwa La Bo relocation site had to get food.  The silver coins he mentions
are likely colonial pre-war rupees which are held as family heirlooms in
the area (Interview 8)

"We planted corn beside our house and [my husband] took that with him to
eat.  We ate corn when we had no rice.  There was no paddy yield [the
latest crop - 1998] because the weather was hot and there was no rain.  We
planted quite a bit of corn but it wasn't enough because the Burmese came
and ate it too." - "Eh Reh" (F, 35+), talking about growing small amounts
of food in Shadaw relocation site and the Army taking some of it (Interview
10).

"...Some villagers who went to live in Shadaw still had rice in their old
villages but people who were living in the jungle and didn't go to Shadaw
took that rice because they had nothing to eat.  Also, the Burmese burned
any rice they found in the old villages.  The Burmese killed the villagers'
buffaloes and cattle that had been left behind in the old villages.  Before
we went to Shadaw we hid some rice in the jungle and later returned to get
it to eat, but we finished all that.  It was hard to keep on living." -
"Doh Reh" (M, 53), describing the food shortage in Shadaw area (Interview 4).

In and around the area of Shadaw relocation site the villagers have been
digging up a tuber called Wa U, elephant foot yam, which has become a main
food source for those in the relocation sites and those living in the
forest areas around Shadaw.  Unfortunately, if this tuber is not cleaned
and treated properly to remove the small amount of toxins found inside, the
villagers get very ill.  The Wa U has to be cleaned and sliced, then soaked
in water for a minimum of 3 days.  The shortage of usable water that
plagues the whole area often results in the Wa U not being properly treated
and thus causes illness.  After drying the Wa U slices in the sun they can
be boiled on their own or boiled together with rice.  Wa U doesn't appear
to give the villagers much in the way of nutrition or energy, but it helps
to fill their empty stomachs and hold off hunger so they eat it even though
they know it can be dangerous.


"Some days we had enough rice to eat while other days we didn't.  We dug up
elephant foot yam from the jungle and washed them in order to get rid of
toxins.  It is not safe to eat them without washing them.  It would make
you sick if you didn't wash the toxins out.  In some places there was too
little water to clean them well so we got sick.  When there was plenty of
water no one got sick.  When I got sick from eating it, I had no strength.
I wanted to collapse everywhere I went.  I wanted to vomit and go to the
toilet.  If I had some sour fruit to eat it would make me better.  Most of
the places we lived there was very little water." - "Maw Reh" (M, ~80),
talking about Wa U, the tuber which the villagers in and around Shadaw are
digging up to eat (Interview 2).

"When we had money we could buy rice from the Burmese shop but when we
didn't have enough money we had to boil rice to make rice soup and eat
other things, like tubers.  If there were no tubers there, many people
would die of hunger.  Tubers have become the main food for people living
there." - "Kay Reh" (M, 50+), speaking of the Wa U tuber as the chief
source of food from people in and around Shadaw (Interview 11).

Fortunately, the negative effects of the tuber do not seem to be fatal, but
fatalities are occurring in the relocation sites for reasons just as basic
and easily avoidable.  Deaths from basic dehydration due to diarrhoea and
vomiting are commonplace.  In the area in and around the southwestern
relocation site of Mawchi, it would seem that the majority of the people
are dying from this, which would normally be easily treatable.  Most of
these deaths are among those hiding in the forests around Mawchi, but many
have also died in the relocation site itself.  According to both villagers
and KNPP sources, this in combination with malaria, dysentery and infection
from a host of parasites that can normally be found in the jungle have
already killed more than half of the people who were living in the jungle
in the Mawchi area.  Villagers from the Mawchi area and most other areas
say that before they fled there was always at least one member of their
family who was sick, and that family members and friends have already died
of minor diseases.  The villagers in the jungle fear going very far from
their hiding places because they may be killed if seen, so they resort to
burying the dead in and around their small settlements, and this can lead
to even further spread of disease.  The villagers in the Mawchi area have
virtually no access to medical supplies and the journey to flee the area is
too long for those in poor health.


"The people who were hiding in the forest suffered from diarrhoea and
vomiting.  Almost every one of them died.  The villagers couldn't bury the
dead in places far away so they buried them beside their shelters.  As for
our village, the Burmese are encamped and living there so people ran to
hide in the jungle and then they got diarrhoea.  They had no medicine so
almost all of them died.  Only a few people are left, some live in xxxx and
some are still hiding in the xxxx forest." - "Paw Paw" (F, 27), describing
the health conditions of people in and around Mawchi (Interview 13).

"My children died of diarrhoea while I was in the jungle.  One died when he
was four months old, I hadn't named him yet.  The other one died when he
was 3 years old, his name was Htoo Nay Moo.  The two children I have now
were born in the jungle." - "Nga Reh" (M, 30), talking about two of his
children who died from diarrhoea (Interview 15).

Hospital facilities are virtually unheard of in the relocation sites.  One
exception to this rule is in Shadaw, where the hospital is understaffed and
the medicine is very expensive if available at all.  Refugees who have come
from Shadaw are reporting that the doctors who are meant to be working in
the hospital in the relocation site are only coming once every 2 or 3
months and spending the rest of their time in Loikaw, presumably because
they find life more comfortable there.  The doctors are reportedly posted
to care for the people in Shadaw, but they hardly ever appear in the
relocation site.  This is consistent with reports from other areas of Burma
such as Shan and Karen States, where recently graduated doctors are posted
to remote places but choose to stay in nearby towns instead. Diarrhoea,
malaria, dysentery and the other common illnesses previously mentioned can
all be found in Shadaw relocation site, and chicken pox has also caused
problems and death for the villagers living just outside the relocation
site.  Those interviewed have noted that the few nurses that are at the
hospital aren't capable of dealing with anything other than minor problems.
 If a serious problem has to be treated, the person who is ill must pay to
be taken to Loikaw for treatment or simply stay and suffer.


"When one of us was ill, sometimes the hospital in Shadaw didn't have
enough medicine so we had to buy medicine in other places like Shadaw town
or Loikaw.  The doctor had to give us a piece of paper with the name of the
medicine we needed to take or inject.  If we didn't have the paper we
couldn't get the medicine.  To get to Loikaw we have to walk for 4 hours to
the bus stop at Bpon Chaung beside the Pon River.  From there we can take
the bus to Loikaw.  In the first year there was a full time doctor in
Shadaw, but later we didn't know where they went to live and now there's
only a medic left there.  The hospital in Shadaw is a township hospital but
they don't have all the medicines." - "Doh Reh" (M, 53), describing the
lack of medical facilities in Shadaw relocation site (Interview 4).

"Many children got the chicken pox.  We had no medicine so they suffered
from that for 2 weeks.  They are better now.  A woman's eldest child, a
son, died of chicken pox in the jungle and now she has only one child.  She
has no husband." - "Lu Mya" (F, 30), talking about chicken pox infecting
and in at least one case killing the children around Shadaw (Interview 5).

"There is a hospital but the doctors only come from Rangoon once every 2 or
3 months.  The doctor's duty is to be in Shadaw but when they come they
live in Loikaw.  They come and show their faces [in Shadaw] once every 2 or
3 months and then return [to Rangoon] after they finish their 2 year
responsibility.  Then another doctor comes.  There are nurses in the
hospital.  If an emergency patient comes, they are ordered to go to the
hospital in Loikaw.  The patient must hire people to carry them to Loikaw
because there is no bus, car or motorbike in Shadaw.  If you can't give
people money to carry you they won't carry you." - "Ni Reh" (M, 47),
describing the poor service at the hospital in Shadaw relocation site
(Interview 3).

- [END OF PART 1; SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTING FOR PART 2 OF 2] -