TENASSERIM DIVISION
Mergui-Tavoy District Information Department,
Karen National
March, 2002
Contact: [email protected]
Burmese troops executed a villager of Ko Si village, in the east of Tavoy,
Tenasserim division, southern
On March 18, the same troops came to the same village, Ko Si, again. This time they arrested Saw Wahkolo,
20 years old, son of Saw Ya Aung. The troops took him
to Kaw Paw (Myinkanbaw)
village and killed him there, accusing him of collaborating with the Karen
resistance group. Actually Saw Wahkolo had no connection with the resistance group.
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Burmese troops killed two villagers and captured more than
eleven villagers when arrived to a villagers' hiding site in Tenasserim township, Mergui district, Tenasserim
division.
On
The troops also captured eleven villagers. They were taken
to Melaunggwin forced relocation site. Lieutenant Win
Phone demanded 150,000 for their release and forced them to carry the stones to
a Pagoda construction site. They have to pile up 28 stone piles. Each stone
pile must be 12 feet high and 6 square feet wide.
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Burmese troops shot to death a villager and burnt down two
houses when arrived to a villagers' hiding site in
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A villager from Ta Hpo Hkee in
Similarly, a villager from the same village, Ta Hpo Hkee, killed himself after
being forced to serve as porter by Burmese troops and having got illness. Saw
Ta Aye, 35 years old, son of Saw Bleh and Naw Ka Meh Aye, had shot to dead
himself by a home made gun on
Army Commander Demanded Money from Cashew
Light Infantry Battalion No.280 from Burma Army which set
up its headquarter near Palauk in Mergui
district, southern Burma, demanded extortion money from those who have cashew
nut plantation in its responsible area said a source from related area on March
10, 2002.
The battalion commander Khin Maung Aye said that those who
do not pay such money will be arrested and put into his battalion confinement.
The amount of demanded money is 100,000 kyats per
plantation. He said even if the plantation owners could not pay such money they
(11 plantation owner) must pay at least 980,000 kyats
for without fail.
Fearing that they would be put into military confinement,
the cashew nut plantation owners from a Karen village, Pasaw
Oak, in the east of Palauk, urgently borrowed money
from relatives and friends and sent it to Khin Maung Aye on
Most of the Karen people in rural area of Tenasserim division depended mainly on orchard plantations
as their income source. Since 1997, the majority numbers of Karen villages were
destroyed by the SPDC's military offensive and deserted to ruin by the
military's forced relocation program, which cared nothing for the relocated
villagers' future livelihood. It resulted total
destruction to the majority of Karen people's properties in Tenasserim
region. Even so the properties of Karen were ruined in these ways the
remainders became targets for the military officers' income sources by
extorting the owners for five years already.
(Note:
SPDC – State Peace and Development Council, the ruling Burmese military junta)
Commander Htein Win form LID.No.8 and his Strategic Command
No.1 commander Soe Thet
needed to transport military supplies to their outpost camp 'Thuhka' on the Thai-Burmese border in the northeast of Tavoy and demanded 300 forced porters. Anybody who was
unable to go for forced portering must pay 1500 kyats.
Soe Thet
also demanded two elephants and two wood cutting machines from the villagers in
Paw Klo river region in the east of Tavoy for 10 days
term, three terms per month including the mahouts and the operators to work on Myitta-Kwee Waw Wa road section construction, a part of Tavoy-Kanchanaburi
highway.
The mahouts and the wood cutting machine operators were
also ordered to fall and tow the logs to loading sites where the trucks could
carry the logs to the market place or sawmill while the road construction works
were in ease. Military officers on the road construction sites used to do
business like these with the labor they demanded from the villagers said a
mahout who had worked as in term forced laborer for three years on road
construction sites.
Sergeant Major Maung Ngwe and
Sergeant Kyaw Aye who manned the LIB 403 outpost at Saw Hpya
village in the southeast Tavoy demanded the villagers
from nearby villages, Saw Kay and To Prot, to send him firewood from the forest
every two weeks. They used that firewood to produce charcoal to sell.
They two shared the profit with their battalion commander Thein Hton Aung. Thein Hton Aung also demanded all
the villages in Theyetchaung township,
in the southwest f Tavoy to present porter fees
300,000 kyats to 600,000 kyats
(according to the size of the village) to him every six month, which he said
the he would pay to the porters in frontline service.
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Villagers in Myitta village in
the east of Tavoy township,
in Tavoy district, Tenasserim
division have been being forced by the local Burmese troops to work on a coal
mining. On
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According to a local villager, starting from mid of March,
2002, Burmese troops from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 402, who are taking
security in Kamoethway area, along with their backing
Thakasapa (Anti-Insurgency Group) form Kaw Paw village forced the villagers and elephants to work on military sawmills.
Local Burmese troops LIB 402 and the Thakasapa
have owned some sawmills at a stream outside Wahsuhko
(Seikphyone) village. They forced local villagers in Kamoethway area, in the east of Tavoy
township, Tenasserim
division, to work on their business. They demanded the elephants form local
villagers who owned the elephants. Three elephants from each village of Pwaypoekla (Pyeinthadaw), Kaw Htee Lor
(Thabyutchaung), Htokiponor
(Kyaythainn), Kamaik, Naw Trutaw (Hninpayoke),
Kler Hpu (Nyaungdon), Kaw Paw (Myinkanbaw) and Wahsuhko villages
and six people along with the mahouts from each village, have to come and work
at their sawmills sites. The elephants had to tow the trees from the cutting
sites to the car road. The woods were transported to Tavoy
town, and the military and the Thakasapa sold
for their own benefits.
The villagers and elephants owners did not get any payment
form the military. The local villagers were not allowed by the Burmese troops
to own sawmill and cut down the trees to sell.
On
Burmese troops who were taking security in the east of Tavoy township, Tavoy district, Tenaserim
division looted the properties and money form a group of villagers who returned
from
On
According to a local villager in the east of Tavoy, in the end of March, Commander of Burmese troops
No.1 Strategic Command, which is responsible in Tavoy
District, ordered local villagers and SPDC's village headmen in the east of Tavoy township to build a primary
school. The school must be modern and the villagers had to build by themselves.
The school must be built with wood. The Coastal Military Command promised to
support the roofing tins, cement. However, the villagers must pay for
construction fees and the rest of the needed materials.
The villagers saw themselves in difficulty for finding the
amount of the expenses for the school. They were already facing continuous
various extortion fees which were asked by the Burmese troops. Besides, they
had to do forced labor and they did not have much time for their own income.
According to Xinhua News Agency
reported on
There was nothing learned about the Burmese military
government’s building any primary schools by their own expense in Tenasserim division, especially in Karen villages. Mostly,
schools had been built by the expenses of the villagers.
Money
Kyat rate
100 Thai baht = 1650 Kyat (Thai-Burmese
border, Na E Tong)
100 Thai baht = 1700 Kyat
(Thai-Burmese border, Three Pagodas pass)
100 Thai baht = 1730 Kyat (Tavoy town)
1
1
Price of commodities
Rice
Tavoy town
Best quality = 200 kyat/pyi
Low quality = 120 kyat/pyi
White sticky rice = 200/ypi
Black sticky rice = 250/pyi
(1 pyi = 2 kilogram)
Meat
Pork = 1,000 kyat/viss
Chicken = 1,000 kyat/viss
Goat = 1,100 kyat/viss
Beef = 950 kyat/viss
(1 viss = 1.6 kilogram)
Cooking oil
Bean oil = 800 kyat/viss
Sesame oil = 2,000 kyat/viss
Coconut oil = 900 kyat/viss
Palm oil = 450 kyat/viss
Petrol
Thai petrol = 1,200 kyat/gallon
Burmese petrol = 1,000 kyat/gallon
Thai diesel = 950 kyat/gallon
Burmese diesel = 900 kyat/gallon
Daily wages for hired labor
Male = 300-500 kyat/day
Female = 200-300 kyat/day