SLORC TROOPS BEAT, MALTREAT AND CON

[lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: SLORC TROOPS BEAT, MALTREAT AND CONSCRIPT KAREN VILLAGERS

                              PRESS RELEASE
                           Date: June 19, 1997


        SLORC TROOPS BEAT, MALTREAT AND CONSCRIPT KAREN VILLAGERS
        =========================================================         


SLORC troops and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) solders
beat a heavily pregnant Karen woman and broke her teeth in the
village of Thwahta in Karen State, while forcing another woman to
take off her clothes in public and poking her genitalia with the
barrel of a gun.

The incident is part of a series of human rights abuses carried
out against the Karen villagers in Papun District by the SLORC's
Light Infantry Regiments (LIR) 546, 547 and 548. These troops
have also been responsible for burning churches, schools and
houses, and destroying food supplies including tons of rice, and
other property belonging to the villagers.

According to eyewitness Naw Rogyi Phaw, the incident involving
the woman occurred on 27 March when approximately 150 soldiers
from LIR 548 and the DKBA arrived at Thwahta to round up
villagers as porters. Naw Rogyi Phaw who recently arrived at Mae
Yel refugee camp from Thwahta, told the ABSDF that the pregnant
woman was beaten for failing to bring her husband Saw Pulaw Pho,
a former member of the Karen National Union (KNU), to the
soldiers.

Naw Pulaw, the wife of Saw Maung Kyaing, the headman of the
village, was forced to strip naked in front of the remaining
female villagers and a soldier poked her genitalia with the
barrel of his gun. 

Saw Maung Kyaing was accused of being responsible for the
villagers who fled before the troops arrived at the village. The
soldiers tied him to a tree in front of his house and lit a fire
next to him as a punishment for failing stop the male villagers
from running away.

The following day on 28 March, the SLORC and DKBA troops took the
pregnant woman and several other young Karen women from the
village as porters when they left. 

Saw Keini from the village of Nakokhee, who had been with a group
of 40 Karen women porters before his escape, told the ABSDF that
the same pregnant woman, whom he knows as the wife of Saw Pulaw
Pho, and another Karen woman were forced to carry heavy loads of
supplies. He said the women were beaten if they staggered or
couldn't walk, and were abandoned in the jungle after they became
unconscious from fatigue and from the beatings.

About 3,000 villagers from the area have so far fled to Thailand
since the beginning of the offensive in February this year. The
refugees have been sheltering in refugee camps in Thailand's Mae
Sarieng District. 

All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF)

For more information please call:  01-654 4984