Description:
"Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from SLORC Army units to Karen villages in the area south of Kawkareik, in south-central Karen State. Most of them are demands for villages to send forced labourers, while some also demand food and building materials. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend 'meetings' - these meetings at army camps are to dictate forced labour and extortion payment demands, and even though the Camp may be 3 to 5 miles away a 60-year old elder is expected to drop everything and walk there. As a result, many village elders fail to attend them, which only leads to further threats of 'action' against the elders and the village; several examples of this can be seen in this report. To show the effect of such orders, at the end of the report is an account given by a woman who went for the forced labour demanded in Order #4, which turned out to be 6 days in the hot sun planting rubber trees until she had to be carried away semi-unconscious from fever..."
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group Orders Reports (KHRG #96-30)
Date of Publication:
1996-07-31
Date of entry:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
