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KHRG#96-24




		  FORCED RELOCATION IN KARENNI

     An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
	      July 15, 1996     /     KHRG #96-24

 * PART 3 OF 5 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT *

[NOTE: SOME DETAILS OMITTED OR REPLACED BY 'XXXX' FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION]

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				 #3.
NAME:    "Koo Baw Reh"   SEX: M     AGE: 40   Kayah Animist (Kaytobo) farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 2 children aged 9 and 16
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Baw La Keh Township         INTERVIEWED: 4/7/96

We've been here about 2 weeks.  They ordered us to move on the 1st of
June.  First they sent a letter to all the villagers who live near Shadaw,
but I thought there would be no problem for us because they didn't say
anything to us.  Then suddenly the soldiers invaded our village and said we
have to follow them.  They said, "By this time you should have arrived at
the
relocation place in Ywathit.  We will burn all the possessions left behind
in
your village.  Go!" and they pushed us and told us to go quickly.  There
were 75 soldiers from #430 Battalion.  Our village only has 25 families.
They said, "We're forcing all the villages in this area to go to Ywathit,
not
only you.  You can't stay in your village, you must go."  They are forcing
all
the people in Baw La Keh, Shadaw and Deemawso areas to move to
relocation places.  They said, "You must not refuse.  Don't you see our
guns?  If we see you in your village we'll come, 10 Battalions will come to
your village and we'll kill anyone who's left here.  For the old men and
women I will allow them 3 days to stay here, but the rest of you must come
back and get them later".  We only had half an hour to get ready, and then
they took us from the village with their guns pointed at us.  There were two
groups of us - one group had to go in front of a group of soldiers, then a
second group behind followed by another group of soldiers.  When we got
to the XXXX - XXXX crossroad they ordered us to go toward XXXX
village and most of the soldiers went the other way, to XXXX village.
When we got halfway along the Beh Du path we gathered together and
took a rest.  The soldiers guarded us.  We decided that we weren't going to
go to the relocation place, that survive or die we'd go back to our village.
It
was nighttime.  People started moving into the forest and going back to our
village by the jungle way.  Only people from five families arrived in
Ywathit, including me.

Daw Ku Li, Ma Nay Ku, Bu Ku Dah, Wan Lweh, Nah Peh Ku - all 5 of
these villages around us had to move.  They ordered us all to go stay in the
same place.  They have forced all the villages in Ywathit area to move to
Ywathit.  I don't know what their plan is.  I thought maybe it was because
Karenni soldiers had passed through villages in Ywathit area and got food,
but our village is 7 hours' walk from Ywathit, the Karenni soldiers didn't
come there, but we were ordered to move anyway.  Maybe they want to kill
us or torture us, maybe one day they will take us as porters, maybe when
they go on operations at the frontline they will make us go in front of them
to clear the mines.  That is what I think, so I fled from them.

In Ywathit the soldiers said we will all have to stay near the military
camp.
The Burmese just told everyone, "You have to stay here, you here", etc.  I
stayed at someone's house when I arrived there.  First SLORC told people
they'd arrange places for them, but when people got there they were just
told to stay around the military camp, in the scrub.  About 2,000 people
were staying there - 20, 30, or 40 families from each different village.
All
of our things were left behind in our village, but they gave no food.  The
Burmese said, "We have no food for you, but if you want we'll sell some to
you", and some people were starving.  I heard that the Burmese took the
rice from the Shan people who had to move there and keep it for them [the
villagers must go to receive a ration of their own rice day by day].  There
is plenty of water.  They also have a clinic.  I think many people were
sick,
but we could not go to the clinic for free - we had to buy medicine from the
shop and take it to the clinic, and then they would inject it.  I didn't
hear
about any deaths while I was there.  The soldiers beat, punch and slap the
villagers, though they didn't rape the women.  They made us work on the
road near Ywathit village.  They chose people by village - they said "This
time these villages have to work, next time these villages", and so on.  We
had to work for 1 or 2 days at a time.  When they ordered us to work they
gave us some food, but only just enough.

They don't allow people to go out of Ywathit.  If we go they follow along
with us.  To get permission we have to ask step by step, starting with a
Private until we get to the Commander, and only then can we receive
permission.  We got permission to go and get the other families from our
village.  Then when we got back to our village we didn't stay in the
village,
we hid in the forest.  Then we came directly to the refugee camp.  It was 5
days' walk.  My whole family was with me, and we didn't have enough food
so we had many problems.  We had no plastic [to shelter from the rain]
and no mats to lie down on.  I could carry only one or two blankets and one
pot along with me.  I thought the Burmese might block the way and I was
very afraid.  My children were sick and I had to carry them.  We had to
climb XXXX mountain, it was very high and we were very tired.  There
were no people in the villages we passed, because people only have 2
choices - to go to Ywathit or to come to the refugee camp.

In our village there were 200 or 300 baskets of rice left behind, and about
50 or 60 chickens and pigs.  The Burmese will probably just destroy the
rice and kill the animals.  There are only 2 people left hiding in the
forest
there.  They are a man and a woman.  The woman is blind.  They are just
left behind like that.  If the situation gets better we will try to go and
get
them.  SLORC said, "If we see anybody in the village, women or men, we'll
take action and kill them, even right in the village.  Anywhere, along the
path or in the forest, we'll kill you without question."  It's not easy to
avoid them, and I know they would do it.

Q:  Why do you think SLORC is doing this?
A:  They said they won't keep any Kayah natives anymore.  They said
Kayah people who don't go to Ywathit will be destroyed, and that those
who go to Ywathit will be given Identity Cards later and will be able to get
permission to go outside Ywathit.  They said they will destroy all the
villages in the area, that those villages will not exist anymore and that
people cannot go there anymore.  They said they will destroy and kill anyone
who still says, "I am a Kayah".

The Burmese have given us trouble for so many years now.  They force our
villages to move, and they take us as porters so they can use us to attack
our
own Karenni people.  If there are mines along the way they make us go in
front of them and use us as cover.  We are under their thumb, and they can
kill us anytime they like.  They burned down our village twice already, and
they robbed it one time.  They took all of our powder guns, twenty powder
[flintlock] guns that we used for hunting, our silver containers, and a
whole
basket of coins [silver colonial-era Indian rupees, still used as currency
in
the area].  They arrested us all and tied us up.  They are very strange to
treat us like that.  I cannot tell all the ways the Burmese give us trouble,
but I hope it will end some day.  I think it is impossible to go back to our
village and make our living there.  I don't know how many days, months and
years we will have to stay in other places like Thailand before there is any
hope of seeing our village again.
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				  #4.
NAME:    "Maw Say Mya"   SEX: F   AGE: about 40   Kayah Christian (RC)
farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 3 children aged 1 week to 6 years
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Shadaw Township            INTERVIEWED: 4/7/96

["Maw Say Mya" gave birth during her flight to the refugee camp.]

I think it was 4 or 5 days ago that we were supposed to arrive in Shadaw by
their order.  When we heard that all the other villages were being moved to
Shadaw we sent a man to check the situation in the other villages.  When he
came back he said we had to move too.  I heard that they sent a letter to
order us to move but I don't know for sure.  We were very afraid to go to
Shadaw, so that night we killed a pig and made pork curry and ate, and then
we left the village.  We left our village at midnight and arrived at Daw
Kaya
in the morning.

Every village in our area was ordered to move, Daw Kraw Aw, Daw Ay
Ya, Nga M'Lo Soe, all the villagers had to move.  They ordered us to move
one time before but that time we didn't have to go in the end.  But this
year
they ordered us to move and we really have to move.  This time the
Burmese are doing it for real.  They told us, "Do you want the knife or the
gun?" and they said they would come and cut our throats.  I think they
would do this for sure if we didn't go, so we were very, very afraid and we
set out to come here.  We could only carry some pots, plates and rice.  I
inherited only one buffalo from my family but now it is left behind in the
village.  I don't know what's happened to our belongings left there, maybe
the rats have destroyed them.  Some villagers have gone back again to try to
get some of their animals, but they haven't returned yet.

When we were on the way here we didn't know if we would die or not.  I
was with my whole family.  We were very afraid and full of worry.  My
baby was born in XXXX village along the way, in the afternoon.
That evening I took a bath with hot water.  In the morning I had another
bath, and then we resumed the journey.  We arrived in the next village and I
took another bath, and then that day we had to walk in the water the whole
day [along a streambed].  We had to walk in the water the whole day and I
got sick.  Even though I had high fever I had to walk and hurry to arrive
here.  That night we had to sleep beside the path, and it was raining.  The
next day we arrived at xxxx village and ate, then we continued.  We arrived
here at night, about midnight.  When I arrived here I had fever, and my
whole body was in pain.  Now I feel very cold and I have headaches.  My
baby has a runny nose and can't breathe, he has to breathe through his
mouth.  When he coughs we can hear "Krek! Krek!"  When I arrived here I
don't know what happened in my heart, I don't know what has happened to
me.

Q:  Do you know why the Burmese are doing this?
A:  I don't know anything about it.  We always have to suffer from what
they say and what they do.  When other villagers saw the Burmese they ran
too, along the way we saw these others so we followed them.
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				  #5.
NAME:    "Koo Maw Reh"   SEX: M     AGE: 42     Kayah Christian (RC) farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 8 children aged 18 months to 25
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Preh Tho Leh Township           INTERVIEWED: 3/7/96

["Koo Maw Reh" is a village elder.]

There are 25 families in our village.  We arrived here on Sunday.  It took 6
days to come here.  The Burmese ordered us to go to live in Shadaw, but
they didn't give any food or water when we got there and we didn't have
any place to sleep there.  We felt much suffering.  Even if we asked they
wouldn't give us any kind of food.  One man asked one time and they didn't
give, then he asked a second time and they still didn't give.  They beat him
for asking.  He got swelling on his shoulders from the beating.  If you want
to eat, you have to buy food.

They ordered us to move on the 1st of June.  The soldiers sent a letter,
from #337 Battalion.  I can't read, so I gave it to the teacher to read.  It
said in the letter that the 7th of June was the last day for us to move.
It said, "All of you have to move".  If we stayed in the village they would
accuse us of being robbers or rebels, and if they see us they'll shoot to
kill.  We couldn't stay in the village, and I also felt that we couldn't go
and stay in the new place.  The teachers said they would follow us wherever
we decided to go, even to Loikaw.  I met with the villagers and we discussed
what to do - should we move down or move up?  We just waited there and asked
permission to stay from the Burmese.  But then on the 15th [of June] we
moved to Shadaw village.

They ordered us to live near the Burmese camp.  They're making 2 big
longhouses for everyone to stay in, like barracks, with walls of woven
bamboo.
Once they were finished we were going to have to stay there.  The Burmese
said that for 4 years we would have to obey this order.  They said that for
the next 4 years if they see anyone around our village they'll shoot and
kill
them.  We couldn't take all our things with us.  Some villagers have a lot
of
things and they had to leave a lot behind.  We hid some of our things in a
cave, and some things just remained in the village.  We all had to move to
Shadaw.  If we didn't move the Army would come and kill us.  They told us
to take all our cattle with us.  Some villagers took their cattle
but some had to leave them.  Other villages had to move too: Dee Leh,
Daw Tu, Daw Duh, Daw Ka Soh, Daw Kaloh Ko, Daw Mi Ku, Loi Lat,
Daw Tha Mer, Si Ko Leh, Teh Ti, Daw Chu Duh... For now, everyone
was going to the forest around Shadaw to cut bamboo to make huts, and to
make roofing.  We had to hurry to build huts for ourselves, so some people
got injured working.  The villagers all felt very unhappy, so some of them
fled back home.

In three of the areas people haven't finished huts yet, but in the other
parts
people have now built huts.  The soldiers stay there and guard the villagers
-
before it was #54 Battalion, but now I'm not sure.  They don't allow anyone
to go out at night, and they don't allow anyone to go back to our home
villages.  We carried our rice from the village ourselves.  The soldiers
don't
give any food.  Sometimes they stole people's chickens.  There is just a
little water.  When we go to fetch water we have to wait turns one by one,
because it only comes out slowly.  There are only 2 or 3 places to fetch
water, and at one place a child fell in and died when he was getting water -
a 6 year old boy, not from my village.

People there are sick, some with malaria, some with stomach aches, and
some have injuries.  I heard 4 or 5 people died while I was there.  There's
a
clinic but the nurses don't look after people very well.  To go to the
clinic
we have to pay money to buy a ticket, 5 Kyat, and then we have to take the
ticket and money to buy medicine along to the clinic.

I saw a family whose children were very hungry, so their father went to the
Army and asked for food, but they refused.  He went home, but then he
saw his children all so hungry and crying, so he went back and asked the
Army again.  They beat him, then they pushed him away and shouted "Go
away!"  That man said later, "I have to get away from here, if I stay here a
long time I will die by starvation or by SLORC".  After that he called his
family and tried to go out and get free of the place, and his village
headman
saw his saliva running out because he was so hungry.

Q:  Is there forced labour at Shadaw?
A:  The Army said, "Now you're refugees, we don't need you to work for
us for the present."  But in future I'm sure they'll order us to do labour.
They allowed us to go out until June 25th, but they said after that they
won't allow anyone to go out - on the 25th, everyone had to be back at the
camp.  If we wanted to go and get things from our village they'd write us a
pass and we could go, but we were only allowed to go straight to the village
to get our things, nowhere else.  At first they easily gave permission, but
then they would only allow one person per family to go because they were
afraid people would flee here [to the refugee camp].

Before the 25th they allowed us to go to our village to pound rice.  We
never stopped, we just came here.  We walked 6 days to arrive here.  All we
had was a mat and a blanket for each of us.  Along the way we slept in
deserted villages, and lots of mosquitos bit us.  Because of the mosquitos
my children got swelling on their stomachs.  I felt very angry and upset, so
even when we found and killed a chicken or a pig I didn't want to eat.  I
couldn't sleep either.  We were very afraid.  We saw no soldiers, no one at
all.

Q:  Do you think more people want to come?
A:  Sure, but the Army guards them.  There were 2 or 3 families who asked
their permission to come here, but the township officer refused and they
went away crying.  The Army didn't say when we can go home.  I think it
will be a long time before I can go back to my own village.  I don't know
why they are doing this.  I think it is because in the future they want to
use all of us as porters, so we escaped and came here.  All the people from
my village have come here now.
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				   #6.
NAME:    "Maw Lu Mya"    SEX: F     AGE: 30     Kayah Christian (RC) farmer
FAMILY:  Married, 8 children aged 6 months to 13 years
ADDRESS: XXXX village, Shadaw Township          INTERVIEWED: 4/7/96

I'm a farmer.  I grow paddy, harvest the paddy, pound it into rice, ... I
don't remember the date when the Burmese ordered us to move [it was 2 June
in
her village, with a 7 June deadline], but all the people ran away.  My
children and I were ill, so we didn't run.  We went and slept in Shadaw for
5, 6, or 7 nights, but then we came here to the other side [of the border].

I don't know why they ordered this.  I don't even know whether they sent a
letter or not.  People just said "Go!", and I followed them to Shadaw.  I
was
working in the fields when I heard and I didn't know what to do, we only
had a short time and I had to prepare food and things to go to the
relocation
place.  We were afraid of the Burmese, so we had to do as they ordered us.
I heard they arrested 2 people who were hiding in the jungle and put them
in prison.  Our family is too big to hide in the jungle.  Everyone fled in
different groups.  Some people hid their possessions somewhere, like in the
jungle.  Other possessions were left behind in the houses.  I could hardly
carry anything with me.  I had so much trouble, my children couldn't walk
and they cried.  I could carry only my children, and I had to pay someone to
carry other things for me, even though I had only a little money.  They
asked a lot, but I had to pay it.  We were very, very afraid!  When I looked
at my children I wanted to cry.  We could only carry a few blankets.  We
used them for carrying the baby, and at night I had no blanket for myself.
I
didn't even have a pot to make curry.  So many possessions were left
behind!  I think it must have been worth 10,000 or 100,000 Kyat.  Many,
many cattle and buffalos were left!  And our paddy was left behind in our
houses and farmfield huts - almost all of it.  I don't know what would
happen if we tried to stay.  They'd probably come into our village and burn
us.  They already said, "We'll burn all your food that you feed to the
rebels!"  We were very afraid of that.  Now I feel like there's nothing left
in my body anymore, because I left everything.

At Shadaw we had to sleep under the monastery there.  Then we had to
stay in an empty house with no roof.  We put some plastic on the roof but
we didn't have enough to cover the whole roof, so the children were crying,
and I myself wanted to cry too.  I don't know how many houses moved to
Shadaw, but I myself knew about 40 of the families who went there.  I
guess about 50 or 60 of the households from our village went there, all the
people who couldn't make it to this refugee camp.  All of our neighbour
villages, Daw Kraw Aw, Daw Kaya, Daw Seh, Daw Bu Loh, Daw Tama,
they forced all the villagers to move to the relocation place!  A few
families
stayed with relatives there, but the rest of us all had to stay in abandoned
huts and find our own places.  The men can't make up their minds where to
make a house.  We had so much trouble.  There were about 300 or 400
new families there.  First we heard that the Burmese had cleared a place for
us, but when we arrived there was nothing.  We had to bring our own food
and go back to our village if we needed more.  We ate the food we brought
with us, and we used the well that was dug by the Shan people who live in
Shadaw [Shadaw's population is roughly 1/2 Shan and 1/2 Kayah].  Many
people got sick!  A lot of children got sick, and there was stomach ache,
backache, headaches, fever, some people were always laying in their bed.
There were so many sick people from our village and other villages, and we
went to the hospital there but we didn't receive any medicine.  They sell
one
clinic ticket for 5 Kyat, and then when we got there they only gave some
medicine one or two times out of many.  Some people must have died while
I was there.  I heard that one child from Daw Ee Sah village died - he was
about the same age as my son.  I heard that now many people there are
dying of sickness.

They gave us 10 days to go to our village and get things.  When we arrived
in our village there was no way we were going to go back to Shadaw.  We
made our decision to come to the east.  All of our things were left in
Shadaw or in our own village.  I couldn't bring them so I destroyed some of
them by rolling a car tyre over them, like my weaving loom, baskets and
mats [so SLORC soldiers would not get them].  We left in the morning,
starting very early, and everyone had left by sunrise.  We slept 3 nights on
the way from our village to the refugee camp, only my children with me
and all our things left behind.  On the way my children as well as the other
adults and old people felt pain on their feet, everyone was very tired but
we
could only rest for a short time.  Whenever we would rest other people said,
"Let's go!  We have to keep moving".  My children were crying and I was
pulling them along by the hand.  We crossed the Salween River by canoe
[very dangerous in rainy season - the Salween is wide, fast, and full of
floating branches and small whirlpools which drown many people each
year] and continued here.


Q:  Do you know why SLORC is doing this?
A:  I think it's because they can't attack the rebels so they just make
trouble for the villagers instead, and when I see that I want to cry.
Before
I thought I was rich but now I've become poor, and I can see that people who
have always been poor now seem to be happier than me.  When I arrived in
Shadaw I had no idea how to live.  Even before, when they came to our
village they took our vegetables, chicken, pigs, and cattle.  If we object
they swear at us, "Nga lo ma tha!" [literally, "You were born by my
fucking",
similar to being called "Motherfucker" in English].  So we are very afraid
and we have to stay quiet.  They looted all our belongings, like pots,
plates,
and spoons.  Even if we hide our things behind the house or in the house,
they search for them and take them.  If we stay in the house they steal
everything outside, and if we stay outside they go in and steal everything
inside the house.  Before we quite often saw them in our village.  One time
when they were staying in our village there was fighting.  When we heard
the shooting we all ran out of the village, then when we returned everything
was gone, like spades, machetes, gold, money, even my traditional drum - I
lost everything.  [Note: SLORC troops often stage "fighting" by firing off
some shots on the edge of villages specifically for this purpose.]   When
we got back to our village we saw that the Burmese had killed a pig there,
but they didn't finish all the meat, so they just threw it all beside a
housepost.  They threw around all our Karenni beer and our food and killed
all our animals.  After that, every time they came to our village we all
tried
to flee.  When they came they always called all the villagers to come out
and gather in the centre of the village, then they ordered all the men to go
with them as guides and to carry as porters.  All the men always tried to
escape but the Burmese arrested them.  I always worried very much for the
men when they all had to go like that.
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   - [END OF PART 3 - SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR PARTS 1 THROUGH 5] -