Village Destruction

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KHRG - Aug-99 Excerpt Repost  khrg@xxxxxxxxx

Village Destruction

"They burned our village down twice, first our big village and then they
came back and burned the new village we?d built in this place. Everyone
ran to Thailand, or to the jungle and the mountains. Later we came back
again but we?ve never been able to go back to our old village. We don?t
dare stay there. We?ve had to live in the forest far from our village
and move once every year or every two years. Kwih Law Ploh is also a new
village, so is Pler Kloh, and over that way there are other new
villages. We just built this village here and gave it the same name as
our old village. We started building it here about 2 years ago. ? [Now]
I?m not sure whether they will come to destroy our villages or not. If
they are angry and do something bad to us we can?t do anything, because
we are just villagers, not their enemies. We have to be afraid of many
things." - "Pati Lah Say" (M, 43), xxxx village, northeastern Pa?an
District (Interview #24, 4/98)


Villages have regularly been destroyed by SPDC troops over the past few
years in Pa?an district, particularly in and around the Dawna Range. In
the Meh Kreh area in the northeast near Meh Th?Wah, SLORC troops burned
and destroyed many villages when they first captured Meh Th?Wah from the
KNU in 1989. Villages such as Meh Kreh, Kwih Law Ploh and others were
burned again in 1995/96. The villagers in the area have now rebuilt
smaller villages with the same names in slightly more isolated sites,
but under current SPDC policy this isolation could make them even more
likely to be burned once again rather than protecting them. Some
villagers in the area have already fled to the forests due to their
expectation of raids on their villages over the coming dry season.

The major destruction of villages so far this year has occurred slightly
further south, about 100 kilometres north of Myawaddy in the eastern
slopes of the Dawna Range near the Thai border. As part of the "Aung Moe
Haing" operation to undermine KNLA activity in this area by wiping out
the villages, Light Infantry Division #44 increased its harassment of
villagers in August and then in early September sent columns to burn and
destroy several villages. Three columns of approximately 100 soldiers
each approached the villages from separate directions. In some cases,
such as in Meh Lah Ah village, they first shelled the village from
outside without warning. In each case all the villagers fled as soon as
they knew the troops were coming, then when the troops arrived they shot
livestock, looted the houses and then burned them. The first column
burned some houses then moved on, then the second column passed through
and burned more houses, and the third column repeated the process until
few or no houses were left. First Meh Keh village was destroyed, then
Tha Pwih Hser, Po Ti Pwa, Meh Lah Ah, and Noh Aw Pu. The 40 houses of
Meh Lah Ah were completely destroyed as well as all the chicken sheds
and other outbuildings. The first warning that Meh Keh villagers had of
the approaching troops was the sound of explosions as SPDC troops and
their porters stepped on several KNLA landmines on Ghu Kee hill outside
the village. The entire village was then burned to ash. Villagers claim
that at the same time, SPDC troops also burned Tee Wah Klay and Tee Wah
Blaw villages further west in the Dawna Range.


"The Burmese came and destroyed the village. Two columns came
separately, one from the east and one from the west. The total number of
soldiers was 300 to 500. ? That happened about a month ago. ? When the
Burmese got close to the village all the villagers fled into the jungle
or to come here. We dared not face them. We came directly here. Some
slept for one or two days on the other side of the river before coming
here. When the Burmese entered the village, they didn?t see any
villagers so they burned down all the houses except for one or two of
the older houses. I think they burned our houses because they hate all
people of our nationality. When the villagers fled they couldn?t take
all of their belongings. Blankets, clothes and food were left behind. I
left my chickens and pigs in the village and the Burmese ate them all.
They ate the pigs of all the villagers." - "Pa Shwe" (M, 29), Po Ti Pwa
village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #1, 9/98)

"Three groups of soldiers came to the village with about 100 soldiers in
each group. About 300 soldiers came to the village altogether. When the
first group of Burmese entered the village, they burned many of the
houses and then they continued on to another village. Then another group
came and burned down more of the village. They burned down many houses
in many villages. First they burned Meh Keh, then Tha Pwih Hser, then Po
Ti Pwa, and then Meh Lah Ah village. ? They took the newest clothing
from our houses and then burned everything else. They arrived less than
a month ago, within the last 18 days." - "Saw Joseph" (M, 34), Meh Keh
village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #2, 9/98)

"We barely escaped, just after we ran out of the village a bomb exploded
behind us in Meh Lah Ah. ? We didn?t even think to take our pigs and
chickens. We could only take what we were wearing and a small bag." -
Woman from Meh Lah Ah village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #3,
9/98)

"We began to flee when the Burmese had arrived at Si Po Kee, which is to
the west of Meh Keh. We heard from the Karen soldiers that the Burmese
were going to come in the next month and clear our village. We didn?t
how they were going to clear the village. When we heard the sound of
explosions, all the people from Meh Lah Ah village fled. That was about
400 villagers. ? We had to run without our belongings. I had to leave my
pots, clothes and livestock. ? By the time we had arrived at the Moei
river only a short walk away, the Burmese were entering the village and
started shooting their guns. We also heard the sound of large shells
exploding. Meh Lah Ah has over 40 houses. ? They burned the whole
village, nothing is left. They even burned the pig pens, the chicken
sheds and the coconut trees." - "Saw Pler Hai" (M, 31), Meh Lah Ah
village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #3, 9/98)


As soon as they heard of the troops destroying villages people from most
of the other villages in the area fled as well, including Ma Oh Pu, Wah
Mi Klah, B?Nweh Pu, Po Paw Lay, and Klay Po Kloh. At least one house in
Wah Mi Klah village and one in B?Nweh Pu village were also reportedly
burned down. In Tee K?Haw village a DKBA officer told the villagers not
to run, that the SPDC would do nothing to them, so the Tee K?Haw and Wah
Mi Klah villagers tried to stay. However, as soon as the troops arrived
they began shooting livestock, looting, and capturing villagers to be
porters, so all the villagers tried to flee; some, however, were
captured and detained under torture or taken as porters. One 19-year-old
girl from Wah Mi Klah stepped on a KNLA landmine as she was fleeing
along the path and had her leg blown off. Now the SPDC troops have based
themselves around the villages, at Meh Keh and at the pre-existing camps
of Gka Deh, Kyi Ghay Kyo and Wah Bway Kyo; the last two are both within
15 minutes of Meh Lah Ah. They have reportedly already laid more
landmines through the area, which was already heavily mined by all sides
in the conflict. The villagers have fled to the hills or to Thailand and
don?t dare return with so many troops around their villages.


"The DKBA commander who was staying in the village, Pa Pa Nar, said,
?Don?t run, stay in the village. If the Burmese come they won?t do
anything to you.? Then when the Burmese came they ate the villagers?
pigs and chickens. If we had complained they would have shot us. We
couldn?t complain. There were only a few DKBA soldiers, about 50 to 60,
but there were masses of Burmese soldiers, everywhere you looked you saw
the green of their uniforms. The Burmese weren?t afraid of the DKBA." -
"Pa Li Kloh" (M, 21), Tee K?Haw village, northern Pa?an district
(Interview #3, 9/98)

"They came in the evening, more than 20 days ago. We didn?t know when
the Burmese were going to come. When they came to the village and passed
by my house, the villagers who lived behind my house fled from the
village. I couldn?t flee. When the Burmese came, they called me down
from my house and 4 or 5 soldiers stood surrounding me pointing their
guns at me. They asked me if I had seen the T?Bee Met ["closed eyes",
name used by the DKBA to refer to KNU/KNLA]." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 45),
Wah Mi Klah village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #4, 9/98)

"They didn?t burn down our village because there were many women still
in the village and they wanted to steal their belongings. At first the
villagers didn?t flee, but they started to flee when the Burmese began
torturing villagers. ? When we fled in that direction my youngest
sister, 19 years old, stepped on a landmine and injured her right leg.
She had been walking in front of me when she stepped on the KNLA
landmine. I carried her to Meh Daw hospital and then the nurse there
sent her to Mae Sot hospital." - "Pa Li Kloh" (M, 21), Tee K?Haw
village, northern Pa?an district (Interview #3, 9/98) 

"They [SPDC troops] have already encamped on the side of the Meh Keh Toh
river. It?s not so far from my village, about 1 hour?s walk. Now they?ve
burned many villages. They burned down Noh Aw Pu, Tha Pwih Hser, Po Ti
Pwa and Meh Lah Ah." - "Pa Shwe" (M, 29), Po Ti Pwa village, northern
Pa?an district (Interview #1, 9/98)


Thus far the villages in the far southeast of the district, such as Taw
Oak, Sgaw Ko and Pah Klu, have not been destroyed, but as noted above
they have been told that they will be forcibly relocated at the end of
the rice harvest in late 1998. If the SPDC and DKBA follow through with
this forced relocation, it will almost certainly be followed by a spate
of village destruction similar to what has recently happened further
north.


"We looked down on our village from a hill when we arrived in Thailand
and saw that everything was yellow. We saw the smoke and fire from the
burning houses because it wasn?t far away. Nobody dares to go back there
because there are landmines planted by the Burmese, the DKBA and the
KNLA there." - "Saw Pler Hai" (M, 31), Meh Lah Ah village, northern
Pa?an district (Interview #3, 9/98)

"They burned my mother?s house in Wah Mi Klah. Now she is staying in Beh
Klaw refugee camp. She lived alone but wasn?t in the house when they
burned it." - "Naw Paw Htoo" (F, 45), Wah Mi Klah village, northern
Pa?an district (Interview #4, 9/98)

"I went back. I saw only ashes. I couldn?t count how many houses had
been burned but many had been, approximately 40 to 50. They also burned
other small villages in the area. They burned Meh Keh, Tha Pwih Hser, Po
Ti Pwa and Meh Lah Ah. In the four villages there would be about 100
houses but I couldn?t count them because everything was in ashes." -
"Saw Joseph" (M, 34), Meh Keh village, northern Pa?an district
(Interview #2, 9/98)