[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Forced Relocation



RePost  - excerpt KHRG Report (Aug/99)

Forced Relocation

"They called a meeting of all the village headmen. They said that when
we finish our harvest we must move to their place. If we don?t want to
stay with them, they gave us the choice of going wherever we want to
stay. The Burmese told the DKBA and then the DKBA told us. They?re
forcing all the villages in Meh Pleh Toh area to move: Meh Pleh Toh,
Sgaw Ko, Kwih Lay, Toh Thu Kee, all the villages. They want to force us
out as soon as possible. They said that if we stay in our village, we
will become targets for their guns, and if we go where they order, it
will be to their place. ? If we went to their place we couldn?t do
anything, we?d have to survive by selling snacks or something. I
couldn?t do it. In my village I had a farm with fields. I had enough
land to grow all our food every year. Now I want my field back, because
if we can?t eat rice then we can?t survive. But this year I only had the
chance to plant 2 baskets of seed paddy in my field. All of us who fled
left many of our things behind in the village. Some villagers left their
cattle and buffalos, because we fled in fear. All the paddy we had
planted will just be taken by the Burmese. We just gathered what we
could and came here, though my mother and father are still back in the
village." - "Pa Weh Doh" (M, 47), Taw Oak village, southern Pa?an
district (Interview #14, 8/98)


Current SPDC practice throughout Karen regions is to forcibly relocate
all villages which they do not or cannot easily control. This includes
villages which they believe give food to KNLA units or where KNLA units
simply pass through, villages which are too far from an SPDC Army camp
to be constantly watched and patrolled, and villages which consistently
fail to comply with SPDC demands for forced labourers and extortion
money. As part of its program to consolidate control over Pa?an
district, over the past 3 years SLORC and SPDC have sporadically
conducted forced relocations in a few areas. Facing continued KNLA
guerrilla activity based in the Dawna Range and penetrating westward
into the plains, between November 1996 and March 1997 the SLORC forcibly
relocated at least 10 villages along the western side of the Dawna to
Army camps and sites along the forced labour roads, where the villagers
were then used intensively for road-building labour. These villages
included Bee T?Ka, Ta Ku Kraw (which was burned), Kwih Pa Taw, Noh Law
Bler, Tee Hseh Ker, Naw Ter Kee, Kaw Per Nweh Ko, Kwih Sgheh, Tee Baw
Blaw and Ler Dah, several of which are major villages; Bee T?Ka alone
has 300 households. [For further details on these relocations see
"Abuses and Relocations in Pa?an District" (KHRG #97-08, 1/8/97).]
However, rather than undermining the KNLA, these relocations actually
removed the ?shield? of Karen civilians from the SLORC troops, and after
one particularly heavy KNLA attack on SLORC troops at Bee T?Ka, the Army
began ordering the villagers to return to their villages. Many villagers
didn?t dare obey, fearing intensified abuses, and scattered to towns or
into the hills.

In southeastern Pa?an district there have also been localised forced
relocations over the past two to three years in attempts to undermine
KNLA operations in the area, though some of these have only been carried
out temporarily or half-heartedly.


"Last year, they only forced our village to relocate to Ker Ghaw. They
gave us three days to go, but when we bribed them they allowed us to
stay. We didn?t want to go so we collected money, 15,000 Baht of Thai
money, and gave the money to them and they allowed us to stay one more
year." - "Pi San San" (F, 50), Taw Oak vill., south Pa?an district
(Interview #18, 9/98)


However, forced relocation is increasingly becoming the cornerstone of
SPDC military practice throughout Burma, and in mid-1998 the Army
appeared to become much more serious about forcibly relocating villages
in southeastern Pa?an district as well as those further north in the
Dawna Range. In the southeast, the DKBA called all village heads in the
area to a meeting in Ker Ghaw in the middle of rainy season, at which
they announced an SPDC order that all villages will be forced to move to
Kwih Lay, Sgaw Ko or Ker Ghaw as soon as rice harvest is finished at the
end of this year. Villages which will be forced to move include Taw Oak,
Meh Pleh Toh, Toh Thu Kee and other villages not directly controlled by
the SPDC; the complete list is unclear, because some villagers believe
that Sgaw Ko and Kwih Lay will be forced to move, while others believe
that these villages will be used as relocation sites. At the meeting the
DKBA stated that villagers will be able to move anywhere they want as
long as they leave their villages, but that anyone who remains in the
relocated villages "will be in our gunsights". This time it appears that
the SPDC and DKBA intend to fully implement the forced relocation. The
reason they have given such early notification may have been to
encourage the villagers to start moving out now, and this is having its
desired effect. Many villagers have already fled Taw Oak, Sgaw Ko and
other villages in the area while they can still choose where to go,
rather than wait for SPDC soldiers to drive them out at gunpoint.


"?both the Burmese and the DKBA said that after we finish our harvest
they would force us to relocate to Htee Wah Blaw K?Waw Bu. They said
that if we ran to the jungle they would sweep us up like a broom. The
commander of the DKBA, Thein Shwe, said, ?If we see you in the jungle
when we come, you will be in our gunsights.?" - "Pi San San" (F, 50),
Taw Oak village, southern Pa?an district (Interview #18, 9/98)

"I heard from some people that the Burmese and DKBA would build a camp
between Pah Klu and Loh Baw, and that after 7 months they will order the
villagers to bring all of their rice to the villages [from their paddy
storage barns and field huts] and leave their villages. They said that
the villagers can go and stay anywhere that they want to go in Thailand
or Burma, but that anyone who won?t leave their village will be forced
to go to Kwih Lay, Sgaw Ko or Ker Ghaw." - "Naw Kler" (F, 21), Taw Oak
village, southern Pa?an district (Interview #10, 8/98)

"They haven?t forced the villagers from Htee Wah Blaw to relocate, but
I?ve heard that they will force the villagers from Loh Baw and Pah Klu
to relocate to Htee Wah Blaw." - "Pi Wah K?Paw" (F, 60), Htee Wah Blaw
village, southern Pa?an district (Interview #20, 9/98)

"They told us we?d have to move to a relocation place. They didn?t say
where. They just said that after rainy season they?ll drive away all the
villagers. So as soon as we had a chance we fled. If we?d waited until
they drive the villagers away, it wouldn?t be easy to flee because then
they?d keep us all under guard." - "Naw Lah Say" (F, 25), Taw Oak
village, southern Pa?an district (Interview #12, 8/98)


Some of the villages in Myawaddy and Kawkareik townships of southeastern
Pa?an District have already been served with a written relocation order
from SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #104. A copy of the original order in
Burmese as it was received by one village is included on page 41 of this
report. The following is a direct translation of the order: