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KHRG #98-04 Part 3/7 (Camp attacks)
- Subject: KHRG #98-04 Part 3/7 (Camp attacks)
- From: khrg@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 02:12:00
ATTACKS ON KAREN REFUGEE CAMPS: 1998
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
May 29, 1998 / KHRG #98-04
*** PART 3 OF 7; SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***
Index of Interviews
Note: All names of those interviewed have been changed.
# Pg. Name Sex Age Camp / Section Subject
H1 18 "Naw Eh Moo" F 24 Huay Kaloke Section 4 Description of
attack,
injuries and
deaths,
list of wounded
and those
beaten by Thais,
fleeing
with her children,
opinions on Thais
H2 20 "Saw Lah Po" M 25 Huay Kaloke Section 1 Witnessed entry
into camp
of main attack
force, shot at
and ran, burning
of houses,
mother wounded by
a shell
H3 21 "Naw Eh" F 38 Huay Kaloke Section 7 Witnessed vehicles
entering
camp before
attack, fleeing
the shelling, DKBA
on drugs,
return of vehicles
3 days
later, threats by
Thai
soldiers, opinions
on Thai
complicity,
reasons for
fleeing Burma
H4 24 "Saw Lah" M 52 Huay Kaloke Section 1 Burning of their
house,
"Naw Wah" F 43 Huay Kaloke Section 1 encounter with
DKBA soldiers
who threatened to
kill them
then robbed them,
attackers
threatening other
refugees
H5 26 "Naw Eh Say" F 30 Huay Kaloke Section 1 Fleeing the
attack, caught
and threatened at
gunpoint
by DKBA
H6 26 "Saw Ghay Htoo" M 30 Huay Kaloke Section 11 Suspicious
activity by Thais,
avoiding shells,
DKBA soldier
tried to kill him,
Burmese
together with DKBA
H7 28 "Saw Po Gyi" M 38 Huay Kaloke Section 11 Shelling of the
camp, caught
and threatened by
DKBA soldiers
H8 29 "Naw K'Paw Wah" F 45 Huay Kaloke Section 4 Fleeing with her
children,
trapped when
returned to save
belongings,
burning of houses,
trying to reach
children,
fired on, wounded
by M79 grenade
H9 30 "Saw Hsah Hay Mu" M 33 Huay Kaloke Section 1 Medic on duty
night of the
attack, wife hit
by a bullet,
fleeing with his
wounded wife,
surrounded and
threatened by
attackers, saw
Burmese soldiers
H10 32 "Saw Eh Doh Htoo" M 30 Huay Kaloke Section 1 Witnessed vehicles
entering the
camp, shot at by
attackers,
friend wounded
H11 32 "Pu K'Mwee Htoo" M 58 Huay Kaloke Section 4 Witnessed vehicles
entering the
camp, fled
shelling into school
toilets, fired on
while hiding
there
H12 33 "Saw Tamla" M 50 Huay Kaloke Section 5 Fleeing into the
fields,
returned to save
belongings,
stopped and beaten
by Thai
soldiers
H13 34 "Pi Ber Tha" F 70 Huay Kaloke Section 6 Fled to the
fields, witnessed
others beaten by
Thai soldiers,
then kicked by
Thai soldiers
herself, still in
pain days
later
H14 34 "Saw Klaw Wah" M 47 Huay Kaloke Fleeing carrying
youngest son,
kicked and beaten
with a gun
by Thai soldiers
in the fields,
still suffering
internal pain
H15 35 "Saw Lay Htoo" M 50 Huay Kaloke Section 5 Fled to the
fields, slapped and
punched by Thai
soldiers for not
understanding Thai
even though
he is sick with TB
M1 36 "Saw Kaser Doh" M 40+ Maw Ker Section 6 Saw attackers
arrive,
description of
attack,
shelling and
burning of houses,
Burmese soldiers,
attackers
asking for
Muslims,
Thai response to
attack
M2 37 "Saw Say Muh" M 30+ Maw Ker Section 6 Shelling of the
camp,
"Naw Paw Thu" F 30+ Maw Ker Section 6 confusion of
soldiers,
encounter with
soldiers,
burning of their
house,
Thai response to
attack
M3 38 "Daw Sein" F 25 Maw Ker Shot in the hand
while trying
to flee with her
baby,
finger later
amputated,
description of
other wounded,
burning of houses
and
monastery, Burmese
troops
M4 39 "Saw Say Po" M 30+ Maw Ker Section 1 2-year-old
daughter wounded
by shell,
description of
other wounded
M5 40 "Saw Tha Muh" M 20+ Maw Ker Section 6 Wounded in thigh
by a shell,
saw Burmese and
DKBA troops
M6 41 "Saw Eh K'Lu" M 24 Maw Ker Section 6 Fleeing to bunker,
saw his
house burned,
heard that DKBA
commanded by Mg.
Chit Thu
M7 41 "Naw Ghay Hser" F 24 Maw Ker Section 7 Hiding in bunker,
then
fleeing the fire,
attackers asking
for Muslims
M8 42 "Pi Lah Say" F 55 Maw Ker Section 7 Fleeing to bunker,
hurt
herself running,
opinions on DKBA
M9 43 "U Than Myint" M 47 Maw Ker Section 6 Shelling of the
camp,
confusion of
soldiers,
encounter with the
attackers,
attackers asking
for Muslims,
late arrival and
shelling
by Thais,
subsequent Thai
security meeting,
reasons
for leaving Burma
M10 45 "Pu Lay Ko" M 59 Maw Ker Section 6 Fleeing to bunker
with
his daughters, saw
his house
burned, tried to
save
belongings but
pulled back
by daughters
M11 46 "Saw Bway" M 25 Maw Ker Section 6 Shelling and
burning of
houses and
monastery,
drunken and
frightened
appearance of
soldiers
M12 47 "Saw Eh Kler" M 23 Maw Ker Section 1 Fleeing the
explosions,
description by
witness to
burning, late
arrival
of Thai Army, lack
of
Thai security,
subsequent
Thai security
meeting,
shooting down of
Thai
helicopter in 1997
____________________________________________________________________________
_______
Huay Kaloke Interviews
#H1.
NAME: "Naw Eh Moo" SEX: F AGE: 24 Sgaw Karen Christian teacher
FAMILY: Married, 3 children
ADDRESS: Huay Kaloke refugee camp INTERVIEWED: 19/3/98
[The following personal notes on the situation in Huay Kaloke were
written in English a week after the attack on the camp, by a human rights
monitor who has lived there for over 10 years. The English has been very
slightly corrected where necessary.]
19/3/98
The SPDC Army acted very wildly toward the sleeping children in the
refugee camp. On the night of March 10, 1998 at 11:00 at night, the Thai
soldiers allowed the SPDC Army to enter our Huay Kaloke refugee camp
to kill us and burn us together with our possessions. At 12 midnight they
[SPDC] started to shell with heavy weapons, M79 [grenades] and 2 1/2
inch [mortars]. The first shell hurt a teacher and a boy. Then they
shelled
nonstop with M79 and 2 1/2 inch. So many children were hurt by the
shells. Girls and boys were wounded. They had bad injuries. A pregnant
woman was shot and then burned to death in Section 2 behind camp leader
Mary On's house. Her daughter was hurt as well, by a shell fragment in
her hip. Her daughter is only 9 years old.
There were 4 members of a family who were terribly burned, and the
youngest daughter died 3 days later. They were in Section 4 [this family
tried to avoid the shelling by hiding down a shallow cement well and
pulling the lid overtop them, but they were all badly burned by the heat of
the houses burning all around them]. Another sleeping family was also
injured [by shell fragments] - the mother was hit in her left breast. Her
9
year old daughter was hit in the left side of her head. Her 7 year old son
was hit in his right shoulder and his left hand.
As for me, I have 3 children. My eldest son is 6, my second son is 5 and
my youngest son is 2. At 12 midnight when I heard the sound of the
mortars and saw the light [of the fire], I carried my youngest boy and
pulled along my eldest. My mother carried my second son. I had no idea
where to run to, so I went under our house. My brother told us to run to
the fields, but I didn't dare go because so many shells were falling in the
field. Then I saw my friend, Teacher T---, and his parents pass by my
house so I followed them. At that time my brother was in our house trying
to gather our clothing, food and blankets. He was hurrying to follow us,
but luckily while he was grabbing the bottle of my children's milk powder
in his frightened hands, he dropped the bottle. Just as he bent to pick up
the bottle a 2 1/2-inch shell exploded behind my house. That shell
wounded 6 people behind my house. I was about 5 minutes away from my
house by then. My brother wasn't too close to the shell, but he fell on
his
back. He felt numbness in his body, and he also felt all hot. He thought
he'd been hurt by a piece of the shell, but when he checked his body there
were no injuries. When he heard the cries of the injured people he jumped
down from the house and looked for them so he could carry them.
As for me and 2 of my children, we ran straight to the Thai village and
stayed in the yard of the Thai monastery until dawn. When I arrived at the
Thai village it was a quarter past 12. I looked back at my refugee camp
and saw many shells exploding over my camp. At 1 a.m. on March 11th,
my camp was burned down. So many houses were burned. At 1:15 a.m. I
still hadn't seen my mother and my second son, so I was very sad. About
50 shells were exploding in our camp. My mother ran to the Karen
monastery in our camp and then came to me in the Thai village by a
different way. At 2 a.m. I met my mother, my second son and my brother.
Then I found out that there was one pregnant woman who was shot and
wounded, she fell beside her house and then burned to death with her
house. Her name was Ma Pein. A seven year old boy named Pa Lah Ghay
was shot in his head and died in an NGO car on the way to the hospital. A
15 year old girl was burned and died later on March 14th. There were also
36 people who were injured:
# Name Sex Age Section Remarks
1 U Gyi M 60 2 \ married couple,
2 Daw Pyu F 58 2 / Pa'O nationality
3 Kyaw Swa M 55 4 \ 4 family members hid in well
4 Mu Kyu F 40 4 | to avoid shooting, all were
5 Shae Wah Paw F 18 4 / very seriously burned,
daughter Thweh Ghay Say Paw, 15,
died of burns on March 14,
Shae Wah Paw died weeks later
6 Naw Klih Hta F 8 2
7 Ah Nweh F 24 1 \ same
8 Ah Sein M 29 1 / family
9 Tha Sein Win M 62 1
10 Ner Kah Mway M 38 2
11 Ghay Hser M 24 4
12 Saw Alexander M 24 4
13 Paw Nay F 58 4
14 Ma Leh F 36 4
15 Keh Loh M 42 4
16 Ther Nu Htoo M 7 4
17 Aye Win F 29 4
18 Neh Thait M 40 1
19 Chit San Maung M 14 1 Suffered a broken thigh
20 Paw Htoo F 39 5
21 Ah Bu M 41 1
22 Lah May Paw F 13 2 \ same
23 Ma Su F 35 2 / family
24 Ma Khin Lay F 39 2 \
25 Shwe Lain M 50 2 | same family
26 Mu Naw F 54 2 /
27 Pa Lah Heh M 9 2
28 Char Lah Bu F 15 1
29 Naw Po F 42 4
30 Say Wah F 75 4
31 Bway Htoo F 38 1 \ Same family; Naw Elizabeth
32 Naw Elizabeth F 9 1 | was known as a very clever student, but
hit in
33 Lay Htoo M 7 1 / but hit in the head by a
shell fragment and now "not normal";
still in hospital
34 Naw December F 40 1 \ Same
35 Eh Tee Kaw M 17 1 / family
36 Lah Gyi M 40 1
[The injured listed as #3, 4, 5, and 20 were burn victims; most of the
others were first wounded by shell fragments and bullets, then many of
them were subsequently burned.]
On March 11th between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. the Thai soldiers beat 6 people
in the field near the camp:
# Name Sex Age Section Remarks
1 T--- M 48 5 Kicked
2 P--- M 50 5 Punched in the back of his neck
3 P--- M 50 5 Punched in the back of his neck,
kicked in the back
4 M--- M 40 6 Slapped in the face
5 A--- F 70 6 Booted in her back
6 T--- M 40 5 Beaten on the back of his neck
The Thai soldiers didn't say anything to them, just beat them and told them
to sit in the field.
My feeling: Now we have to be afraid of the SPDC Army and the Thai
Army as well. The Thai soldiers are not kind to us, because the Thai
Government wants to drive us back to forced labour, portering and hunger
in Burma. I believe we need a safer place for refugees. We need a place
between Mae Ramat and Tak, near Thai Karen villages [in the hills east of
Huay Kaloke further inside Thailand; these hills are fairly sparsely
populated by small Karen villages]. It is a big land filled with plenty of
water and bamboo. Then we need a UN Army to provide security for us
because we cannot trust the Thais. I have many Thai soldier friends, and
they've told me that they really won't protect us. They don't want to kill
the SPDC Army. They are not brave in battle, they are only cruel to
refugee people. I have been in Thailand for 14 years, and I know very well
about the Thai spirit. They love only money. If we can pay money to
them then they pretend to care for us, but when they finish spending the
money they no longer pretend to care. Their faces and mouths show their
hearts.
___________________________________________________________________________
#H2.
NAME: "Saw Lah Po" SEX: M AGE: 25 Sgaw Karen Christian
FAMILY: Married, 1 child aged 2 1/2 months INTERVIEWED: 15/3/98
ADDRESS: Wangka village, Myawaddy township; now in Huay Kaloke refugee camp
["Saw Lah Po"'s house is in Section 1, right on the eastern edge of the
camp where the main attack force entered. This side of the camp faces
Thailand, not Burma; the attackers were brought by truck all the way
around the camp to the Thai side to launch their attack.]
Q: What happened that night?
A: It was March 10th at 12:30 [at night; actually March 11th] when they
came into the camp. We heard the noise of a car but we could not see
exactly. First I saw dogs barking. Then the soldiers arrived on the other
bank of the stream but they didn't start to shoot yet; they were lining up
and they were setting up their mortar. When I saw them, we started to run
and then they saw us and they fired their guns. They fired guns first and
then shells of big weapons started to land. Then the soldiers separated
themselves into two groups in front of my house. There were more than
ten soldiers in each group. They started to burn the houses as soon as
they
entered the camp. I told my family, "Don't take anything, we will run!" I
ran with my wife and my child. My wife couldn't put her slippers on [she
didn't have time] and neither could my mother-in-law. I couldn't carry
anything, not even my blankets. They fired a lot with guns and then they
fired big weapons. A shell landed near the hospital just in front of us,
so
we turned left. We ran into the streambed and we stayed there. We dared
not come back so we stayed until the shooting stopped. Then we came
back.
Q: Do you think they were DKBA?
A: We dared not look. We ran so we don't know, but I think the Burmese
and the DKBA were mixed together.
Q: Did you see Thai soldiers?
A: This time we didn't see them, they didn't come here. That night they
didn't come to our side of the camp.
Q: Did you see anyone killed or injured?
A: In section two one pregnant woman was hit by a shell so she couldn't
move, and then she burned to death in the fire. Her name was Ma Pein,
we called her Daw Pein, she lived in section two. She was over 30 years
old. She had one child. Now the child stays with his father. She was
dead
but her husband didn't know if she was dead or alive. The fire burned her
so badly he couldn't recognise her, but when he saw her sarong he knew
that it was his wife. In section 2, two people died - the other was a
child,
he was wounded in the head. He died in the hospital, so we didn't see.
His name was Pa Lah Ghay. I don't know exactly how old he was, maybe
three or four years old [sic: he was 7, and he died en route to hospital].
My mother was also wounded. She was wounded in the back by a shell. It
was in section 2. I think it was not a 79 [M79 grenade] that hit her, it
was
a shell from a mortar, a 2 1/2 inch shell. They fired the mortar from near
the mango tree. Now she is in the hospital but she can talk, she is not in
a
coma. She won't stay too long in the hospital. She will come back and
stay here. My mother's name is Paw Nay. She is in her fifties.
Q: Where do you live now?
A: Now I live in the field [the open field in the middle of the camp]
because the camp leaders told us to live in the field. At night time we
sleep here but we are afraid. The Thai soldiers don't stay anywhere near
where we are staying. We have to look out for ourselves, and if we see
anything strange we have to get ready to run. We dare not stay here.
Q: If the Thai soldiers say that you have to move to Beh Klaw or to
Burma what will you do?
A: If I must go to Burma I won't go, I dare not go. I also dare not go to
Beh Klaw now, the situation there is not good.
___________________________________________________________________________
- [END OF PART 3; SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 4 THROUGH 7] -