Karen Human Rights Group Report (#4

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Subject: Karen Human Rights Group Report (#4)

Status: R

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       A REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

Karen Human Rights Group
PO Box 22
Mae Sot, Tak 63110
Thailand
(email sent to the KHRG at strider@xxxxxxxxxxx will be forwarded)


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SLORC ABUSES IN HLAING BWE AREA
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
March 16, 1994


The following account of some of the SLORC's severe mistreatment
of villagers in the Hlaing Bwe Township area of Pa'an District
in Karen State was given by an ethnic Burman trader who travels
the area buying and selling goods.  As such, he gets a very good
view of the systematic human rights abuses being conducted in
the whole area by SLORC troops.  His name has been changed and
his full address not given in order to protect him from SLORC.

Please feel free to use the information in this report in any
way which may help stop such abuses against civilians by SLORC.
_________________________________________________________________
________________

NAME:     Maung Win SEX: M    AGE: 42   Burman Buddhist, Trader
ADDRESS:  Hlaing Bwe Township
FAMILY:   Married with 2 children

I'm Burmese myself, but I want to tell you about all the many
kinds of abuse the SLORC does to all the villagers around there,
about forced labour, slave labour, torture, collecting porters,
and murder.  They do such horrible things.  Starting from last
November and December 1993, it was time for them to build roads
up to their operations areas [the "front line"].  There are very
many villages in Pain Kyone Township [east of Hlaing Bwe] - like
Tha Mo, Pah Gyi, Pah Ka, Leh Ghay, Leh Gyi, Nya Mayaw, Pa Nah
Gyi, and Eh Thay Gone.  The SLORC troops collect at least 20,
or sometimes 30 or 40 villagers from each village to do slave
labour building the road, and the villagers have to bring their
own food.  Mostly what the villagers have to do is clear the bushes
on both sides of the road.  The SLORC hopes that if there are
mines there the villagers will step on them, so by clearing the
bushes they are really clearing mines for SLORC.  Also, before
the army trucks come along the road they force the villagers to
go along the road first in their cattle carts.  The SLORC wants
to get rid of land mines, so they use the people to sweep for
them.  All the villagers who live near the road have to suffer
like this.

The SLORC is building a road from Hlaing Bwe town to their
Operations
Camp of #928 Strategic Command, at Ler Bu.  They are building
the road right now.  I've heard many times of villagers being
beaten while working on the road, but I haven't seen it myself.
 The village heads are all getting orders demanding slave labour.
 I think they could use their soldiers to do the work, but they
just oppress the villagers instead.  The Karen villages have to
suffer the most.  The villagers have no time to work for their
families, because most of the time they have to work for the SLORC.
 They have nothing to eat.  They have already given all their
livestock to SLORC soldiers.

There are also many kinds of slave labour cleaning the compound
in the army camp, finding firewood for the soldiers, cutting bamboo
for them, and sometimes we have to carry water for them.  It is
hard labour so the villagers don't want to go.  Sometimes the
villagers don't go, so the soldiers send an order to the village
head saying "You're responsible for the village, so collect the
villagers and bring them to work or else we will come arrest all
of you and take severe action."  Once when Tha Mo village refused
to go for slave labour they sent a package to the village head
with a message that said "You figure out what this means."  When
the village head opened it he saw one red chillie, one bullet,
and one piece of charcoal.  At first no one understood it, but
then people guessed:  that the chillie is very hot, so it means
we have to suffer a hot situation and a great deal of trouble,
the bullet means they will shoot us and kill us, and the charcoal
means they will burn down our village.  After that, the villagers
were very afraid to refuse again.  The SLORC was threatening them.

They kill porters - they use old porters and if they can't carry
anymore or get sick, the soldiers kill them or leave them behind.
 We see their dead bodies in the forest.  They also killed a friend
of mine named U Soe Thein from Ka Ma Ko village.  They just beat
him to death with a very big stick.  No one knows why they killed
him.  This happened in November 1993.  In every village which
is anywhere near a military camp, the SLORC orders the village
head that no lights can be used in the village, no one is allowed
to use a flashlight, and no one can go out before 6 a.m.  The
order says anyone who breaks the rule will be shot on sight.

In Ter Pa Ket village in March 1993, one night at about 9 o'clock
there were many villagers at one house for a funeral.  The
villagers were drinking.  SLORC Infantry Battalion #28 came into
the village and went straight to that house.  When the villagers
saw the SLORC troops they were very afraid, so one of them tried to
run away and they shot him dead.  There was absolutely no reason. 
Another villager tried to run so they grabbed him and shot him, but
he was still alive so they beat him to death with a very big
pounding stick.  The villagers' names were Bo Dot and Saw Heh. 
Both of their wives had already died.  Saw Heh took very good care
of his 3 children, but now his 3 children are orphans.  It's a
horrible crime.

The soldiers are trying to drive Pain Kyone village out, but the
village has not moved yet.  The people there say they won't leave
their village and their farms, so for now they are still living
there.  The SLORC came with a bulldozer and bulldozed Gaw Ler
village without even warning them first.  It was a small Karen
village, with about 10 houses.  The villagers had to run away,
and they couldn't even carry their belongings.  Then the SLORC
built a camp for #338 and #39 Infantry there.  They had a budget
from the Army to build the camp, but they didn't use it.  They
used slave labour of villagers from Ta Maw, Pa Gyi, Wah Kyi, Pah
Ka, Da Maw Kah Kee, Nat Kyi, Tha Yet Taw, and Leh Ker Day villages.
 Most of the people there are Pwo Karen.

My village is Burmese, so they don't do too much there, but they
abuse the Karen villages much more.  There are Infantry Battalions
#338, #39, and #28, and they belong to 928 Operation based at
Ler Bu.  I only know Lieutenant Kyaw Kyaw from #28 Infantry. 
#28 Infantry is the worst, but the others are also bad.  Whenever
they enter villages they steal as much of the villagers' livestock
as they can catch, and loot the villagers' property.  Most of
the Burmese villages are closer to the town, so they are more
careful about human rights and they treat the people better. 
But sometimes if they need porters, they surround the cinemas
even in the downtown area, grab the people and use them as porters.

The "porter fees" we have to pay are indescribable.  We have to
pay them several times a month.  One old woman complained that
"We are very poor already, but to make it worse we must pay porter
fees many times.  Sometimes there's no money to pay with.  I had
to sell my daughter's new sarong just to get money to pay porter
fees."  The amount depends on the situation - sometimes we have
to pay twice a month, sometimes 3 times.  Each time we pay 200,
300, or 400 Kyats - the minimum is 200.  Most people are now just
living from hand to mouth.  Some are traders, like me, but we
have to cross so many high mountains just to get our living. 
It's a very hard road, and rocky.  No one wants to earn their
living the hard way, but they have no other way to earn it, so
they must in order to survive.

Some villages are quite big, so the villagers collect money and
build a school for their children, but then the SLORC doesn't
allow it.  They come to the village and give the villagers big
problems.  So the villagers have to teach their children secretly.
 The SLORC has a school close to the town, and they say that any
villager who wants their children to go to school must send them
to this school and no other.  But the villagers can't, because
it's too far.  To get there takes a 7 hour walk, from early morning
till noon.  [With all the SLORC's looting and porter fees, the
parents could never afford to pay boarding fees in town for their
children, and they also need them at home at least part of the
day to work for the family's survival].  Now the SLORC has called
all the heads of villages to a meeting to pay donations for
Education.

 Each village must pay 1,000 Kyats, and the SLORC says this money
is to pay for Education everywhere, including Rangoon.  But I
think they're just taking the money for themselves.

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The Karen Human Rights Group is a small and independent
organization operating out of Manerplaw, headquarters of the Karen
National Union (KNU) and Burma's democratic forces.

Although the KHRG relies on the logistical support of the Karen
National Union, the group is independent and apolitical and focuses
on human rights abuses in Karen regions.  Whenever possible, abuses
against other ethnic peoples in Burma are also reported.