"This report documents the gross violation of human rights of the civilian population during the Burmese offensive against the KNU from November 1994 to February 1995.t is based on data collected by Human Rights Watch/Asia during a research mission to the Thai-Burmese border in January and February 1995. We interviewed over fifty men who had been forcibly taken as porters by the Burmese military to carry heavy artillery and other supplies to mountain tops near Manerplaw, the KNU headquarters on the Moei River between Thailand and Burma. The men were taken from their places of work, from cinemas, trains and even their own homes from October onwards. From the moment of capture, the men were subject to physical abuse and inhumane treatment. Many had been severely beaten by the soldiers when they slipped or fell from exhaustion, and all had witnessed the deaths of fellow porters. We also spoke to villagers who had been the victims of reprisals by the Burmese military following ambushes by the KNU. In one case, many Christians from a single congregation were beaten as they arrived for Sunday service; in another, the women and children of one village were forced to sit all day in the sun and all night in the cold while eight men suspected of being KNU supporters were hung by their ankles from trees. The following day, the whole village was ordered to move close to a Burmese army camp, a tactic frequently used by the Burmese military to cut off any possible support for rebel groups..."