GAS:
SITUATION OF VILLAGERS IN YADANA GAS PIPELINE AREA
(Note: 1
Military
service salary (from minimum to maximum) is 3000-100000 Kyat.
Civil salary 1000-15000 Kyat. Daily wages 200-500 Kyat.
EXTRA JUDICIAL KILLING
Burma army's troops from Light Infantry Battalion 376 has
tortured seven villagers from Kaw Htee
Lor and Htokiponor to death
in Tavoy district, Tenasserim
division on July 16, by accusing them of fail to inform the troops about Karen
resistance activities.
According to a villager from that area who arrived to
Thai-Burma border on July 16, said that
According to this source, on July 7 there was a clash
between KNU's soldier and
(Keep this information confidential)
Burma army tortured village headmen, one died:
A troop from
According to a villager from that area who
arrived to the Thai-Burma border said that on July 2, four Wahsuhko
village headmen Saw Hseh Pya
(45 yrs.), Saw Tin Win (43yrs.), Saw Htoo Dee
(45yrs.), and Saw Ku (42yrs.) were arrested by a troop of LIB 237. That troop
accused them of supporting Karen National Union resistance group and asked
three firearms and tortured them. One of them Saw Ku was stabbed with bayonet
severely and died the next day.
On July 3, that troop released Saw Hseh Byah and ordered him to find
three firearms within a week. The troops have threatened him that if other
people learn about this, the troops will kill the rest of his friends who
remain under arrest.
The fate of the rest of his friend was not
learnt. According to this villager Saw Hseh Byah pleaded the troop to give money for the firearms,
because they do not have any firearm and no connection with KNU, but the troops
reject his plea.
Burma army's LIB 376 try to get firearm and the
dead body of KNU's soldiers as much as possible to claim
that they can capture the weapons from their enemy and report back to their HQ
for honor. During their two months assignation to this area, they have not
captured any firearm. Instead the troops
use their tactic by accusing the villagers of have support the KNU and asked
for firearms on money to buy firearms.
Since May and until now the following villages
were accused and asked for firearms but they pay the money for substitution.
1. Pwayhpoklah village
was asked 2 firearms, villagers gave 200,000 kyat
2. Kaw Htee Lor village was asked
1friearm, villagers gave 100,000 kyat
3. Htokiponor village
was asked 1 firearm, villagers gave 100,000 kyat
4. Naw Trutaw village was asked 2 firearms, villagers gave 200,000
kyat
5. Kameik village was
asked 1 firearm, villager gave 1000,000 kyat
6. Kleh Pu village was asked 2 firearms, villagers gave 200,000
kyat,
7. Kapaw village was
asked 3 firearm, villagers gave 300,000 kyat,
But in Wahsuhko village
that troop asked three firearms for the accused village headmen, they pleaded
to give the money 400,000 kyat but the troop reject them.
Family was arrest, daughter was raped and killed:
Summary
[Zaw Lwin captured a 75 year old Karen man Saw Dah Ble who he said having 2 walkie talkie radio communication and asked the old man to
hand over to him. The unsatisfied officer again captured Saw Dah Ble's wife Naw Soo Hko
(60yrs.), daughters Naw Aye Myint
(25yrs.) and Naw Hpaw Sa (20yrs.) and ordered Naw Aye Myint to find out the two radio communication. On 27 July,
the villagers found two naked corpses of women between Pawat
Htein and Pawat Peindaw
villages in
As the villagers could not persuade any KNU's solders and hiding villagers to surrender to Zaw Lwin
on July 20, he and his men entered to Chan Tha Oo village in Pawat village tract and arrested all the villages.]
In July 2001, Burma Army had rape and killed two young
women, tortured three old men, by accusing them as having two walkie talkie radio communications according to information
came from the most southern part of
30 men from
The same day Zaw Lwin captured two other villagers namely
Saw Htay Yi (30yrs.) and Saw Nga
Toe Bine (45yrs.) and interrogated them about the
radio communication. As those two men know nothing about the radio
communication, they were blamed as covering the old man Saw Dah
Ble and were prodded repeatedly with a bayonet by Zaw
Lwin. After that they were ordered to submerge in the water and whenever they
came up to the surface they were shot at to make them frighten and were ordered
to submerge again and again until they unable crawl to the bank. The villagers
said that though they were not killed by that
The unsatisfied officer again captured Saw Dah Ble's wife Naw Soo Hko
(60yrs.), daughters Naw Aye Myint
(25yrs.) and Naw Hpaw Sa (20yrs.) and ordered Naw Aye Myint to find out the two radio communication. Actually as
there are no sets like that in the village or in the hand of the poor old man,
his daughter could not find it. After Naw Aye Myint could not find any communication sets Zaw Lwin
handcuffed her and asked her to wander in the whole village for the whole day
to be seen by the villagers.
In the morning of 26 July some soldiers from that troop
called along Naw Aye Myint
with them to another village (Pawat Htein) to let her
search for the radio communication. Saw Dah Ble and his wife his younger daughter have to follow the
rest of that troopers led by Zaw Lwin to Pawat Hta.
On 27 July, the villagers found two naked corpses of women
between Pawat Htein and Pawat
Peindaw villages in
The old man Saw Dah Ble and his remaining family members are still detained by
their captors and their fate was not known, said the source.
In the begging of July, Zaw Lwin No.2 Column Commander from
As the villagers could not persuade any KNU's
solders and hiding villagers to surrender to Zaw Lwin, he and his men entered
to Chan Tha Oo village in Pawat village tract and
arrested all the villages on July 20.
According to a villager from Kaw Htee Lor who arrived to the
border said that on July 10, a group of Burma army soldiers arrived to Saw Po
Tot's house and informed him that his land now belong to the military. Saw Po
Tot receive no compensation and nothing was arrange of his resettlement.
The next day this troops ordered every villages within Kawpaw (Myinkanbaw) village tract
which are Pwayhpoklah (Pyinthandaw),
Kaw Htee Lor, Naw Trutaw
(Hninpayoke), Htokiponor (Kyaythainn), Klerpoo (Nyaungdon), Kameik, Kawpaw, and Wahsuhko (Seikphyone) to send the
building materials as follow,
1. 500 wood for post.
2. 500 bamboos (small)
3. 500 bamboos (big)
4. 500 piles of thatch
5.
1 ton of planks and scantlings.
Started from July 11, Light Infantry Battalion 376 has
summoned one person from each household in Kawpaw
village track for the construction. Those who fail to come have to pay 500
kyat. Villagers have to bring along their own food and tools for the
construction.
Mover over, on
Troops from
The troops accuse him as possessing an M-16 firearm and
asked him to give to them. He was interrogated and beaten severely while he
unable to tell whereabouts of such firearm. The troops threaten him that if he
could not find the firearm he will be killed. Later Saw Thu family approached
the LIB 376 commander and pleaded that they would give the money to substitute
the unknown firearm. The commander accepted their plea and later Saw Thu's family gave 50,000 Kyat for the release of their
father. Saw Thu is an ordinary villager in Kawpaw
village.
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DAILY
Ban Ei Tong
5.7.2001
Kanbauk, a village in southern Burma where
the international petroleum
companies natural gas pipelines passed
through, is now suffering the fall of livelihood, extortion from authorities
and insecure social life, said villagers who left their village and looking for
income works on the Thai-Burma border on July 5, 2001.
Since from 1995 to 1998 Kanbauk
became very famous in the southern most region ( Tenasserim
division ) in Tavoy
district, Ye Byu township, because Total, the
natural gas petroleum company came to set up it's natural gas pipeline
construction headquarters on that village's vicinity, and followed by Texaco
and Premium companies. At that time the villagers earned good wages by working
in those companies work sites. So they did not care about the rising prices of
food and commodities. But as the constructions were finished they became
unemployed and have no income to face the cost of living. “There
is no work to earn money for my family to match the higher and higher prices of
food and essential commodities, and I have to choose to go and work inside
Thailand with my family said a recently migrated
plantation worker in Taun Hpa
Phon area.
One recently arrived immigrant said that by the request of
Total Company the authorities did not conscript porter from Kanbauk.
Anyhow they stay collect money every month such as 150 kyats
for fire protection fund, 150 kyats for development
fund, and 150 kyats to host and feed authorities from
township or other visiting officers. Those who absent to pay those quotas were
arrested by the police.
Most of the migrants use to blame the everyday unsecured situation
as the troops who take security duty for Total and Premium companies entered
into the village every day and use to take away villagers' chickens, ducks and
some time they even took away the cloths from the drying ropes as the villagers
washed and dried it under the sun. The drunken soldiers use to search for
quarrel with the villager create queasiness among the villagers all the time.
The most uneasiness in the village is every night village PDCs (SDPC village officers), fire fighters, and No. 19 intelligence troopers combined and searched
every households even the monasteries to see the uninformed guests in the
village. When see, they used to fine the guests 500 kyats
each and the house owner 1500 kyats so whenever a
guest arrived to a certain house the host must show up his guest to the village
authorities and give 50 kyats for his guest to stay 3
days with him.