Papun, Toungoo, Dooplaya & Pa'an Districts "The report includes the direct translations of close to 300 written orders sent from State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Army units and local authorities to villages in Papun, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Pa?an Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma (click here to see the Map). They were issued during the period mid-1998 through December 1999 and have been selected from over 350 such orders. They include orders restricting the movements and activities of villagers, demands for forced labour, support for military operations, extortion of money, food, goods and building materials, and orders summoning village elders to attend ‘meetings? at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply. Many of the orders demanding forced labour were issued well after May 14, 1999, which is when the SPDC leadership claims to have issued a general order to all of their military and administrative units to halt conscription of forced labour under the Villages Act and Towns Act, colonial-era laws which allow authorities to press-gang labour under certain circumstances. In practice, the military and SPDC authorities violate the conditions of these Acts (for example, that only able-bodied and unemployed men be conscripted) in most of their demands, and almost never even make reference to these Acts when demanding forced labour from villages..."