TENASSERIM DIVISION
Mergui-Tavoy District Information Department,
Karen National
April 2002
Contact: [email protected]
Information follows in March
While the SPDC (State Peace and Development
Council), the ruling Burmese military junta, was in the process of trying to
convince the international community of the urgent need of humanitarian aids to
Burma, its troops were busy practicing human rights abuses against the
grassroots in other parts of the country.
On
The next day, on April 10, the
same troops came to another Karen village, Ler Ta Pu (Kyauktwin). They arrested four villagers; Saw Ko Kwi, Saw Paw Lay, Saw Dah Sei with his 13 years old
son. The troops accused them of having connection with the Karen resistance
group, and then beat, punched, and detained them. When the village headman Kya Keh learned about them, he
went to meet the troops and recommended that the villagers had no connection
with the resistance group. Unfortunately, he was also arrested and tortured.
The troops demanded three guns for their release.
On April 12, 2002, Burmese troops
from Light Infantry Battalion 409 led by Battalion Commander Thein Myint arrested three
villagers in the east of Tavoy, Tenasserim
division, southern Burma and tortured them and demanded three guns for their
release. The arrested villagers named Saw Tha Lay Kweh,
Saw Lah Pwe, and Saw Taw Pleh were from Seiku village,
which was forcibly relocated by Burmese troops in 1997 to a nearby village. The
troops accused them of hiding the Karen resistance soldiers and tortured them.
The troops beat and punched them, and demanded three guns for their release.
Burmese troops from Light
Infantry Battalion (LIB) 409 arrested three villagers including two village
elders in the east of Tavoy, Tenasserim
division, southern Burma, tortured them and demanded 600,000 kyat from them.
Burmese troops from LIB 409 led by Lt. Colonel Thet
Min arrested Heindabyin village headman Saw Hto Pre and his secretary Saw Poe Lih,
and another older villager from Ler Ta Pu. The troop took them as porter for many places and
tortured them. They were beaten and punched. The troops demanded 200.000 kyats from each of them. After having got the money, the
troops released them on April 21. The villagers were sent to the Tavoy hospital for treatment after their release.
SPDC-run militia group called Pyithusit (people's militia) from Pe village ordered local villagers in the south of Theyetchaung township, Tavoy district, Tenasserim
division to build their military camp on
Burmese troops taking security in
the east of Mergui demanded buffalos and elephants
from local villagers in
People's militia or Pyithusit
is a group of villagers armed by Burmese troops and mostly formed in Burmese
villages and few Karen villages trusted by the Burmese troops. In April,
people's militia leader Aung Ngwe from Kyauktaung demanded Karen villagers from La-baw (Sintongyi), Talayhko (Bayittaung), and Kwa-ke (Kwekke) that every
household must pay 5000 kyats monthly for their
salary. Every time when people's militia arrived at their village, the Karen
villagers had to pay rice, salt, fish paste, and other things that the militia
asked. EhEh and Htee Ser Kwee (Hkuboke) village had to
give 100,000 kyats each for people's military salary.
It was learned that people's militia in Kyauktaung
had to hire their villagers to be people's militia and they had to pay 200
baskets of paddy for one year.
People's militia leader Nya Lat form Pe village ordered Pe village tract that one person from each village had to
join the people's militia and each household has to pay 5,000 kyats for
people's military salary every month. The villages which within Pe village tract are Pe, Patauk Hpo, Sinmadan,
Petakat, Pe Hkee, Ta Kot Hta,
Koesekwe and Se Hpa Le.
On April, 20, 2002, Burmese
troops from No.2 Column of Light Infantry Battalion 431 led by Column commander
Zaw Oo arrived at a villagers-hiding site called Mo Hkee
in Tenasserim township, Mergui
District in Tenasserim division and fired at the
villagers on sight. Fortunately, no villager was wounded. The troops took away
all properties from two houses belong to Saw Sa Lo and
Saw Kay Moo. The troops arrested a villager named Saw Kleh
Shaw. They released him on the way after ordering to come back and stay in the
relocation site.
On
On March 29, 2002, Major Nay Lay
from No.2 Tactical Command demanded 30 engine boats from Paungdaw,
Kanekaw (Pyathachaung), Mamatru and Kataungni villages in
the east of Theyetchaung township, Tavoy district, Tenasserim
division to transport 500 sacks (1 sack = 16 keg) of military rice supplies from Paungdaw to Htoo Ler village, where one of their frontline commanding HQ is.
The commander ordered the villagers to finish transporting the rice within
three days.
On the same day some villagers
who went to Paungdaw to buy food were forced by that
commander to transport the rice to Htoo Ler. The Burmese troops taking security in Htoo Ler demanded villagers'
bullock carts to transport the rice and other supplies that arrived by boats at
the riverside and carry it to the gate of the camp. Four bullock carts had to
carry the rice in rotation everyday until the rice was gone. Fifteen villagers,
in rotation, had to carry those supplies at the gate into the camp everyday.
On March 10, 2002, Burmese troops
from Light Infantry Battalion 409 led by Deputy Battalion Commander Na Da Aung burnt down three cardamom plantations(the dried
seeds of a SE Asian plant, used in cooking as a spice.) and one cashew nuts
plantation of villagers from Ler Ta Pu in the east of Tavoy, Tenasserim division, southern Burma. The cardamom
plantations belong to Pe Hsa
Ae (about 5 acres), Thera
Nu Keh (about 3 acres), Tha Pwa Ler Kli
(about 2 acres) and Thapwa Dah
Sei (cashew nut plantation 3 acres).