KHRG #98-09 Part 3 of 5 (Dooplaya)

[khrg@xxxxxxxxx]

                    DOOPLAYA UNDER THE SPDC

          Further Developments in the SPDC Occupation 
                 of South-Central Karen State

     An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
            November 23, 1998     /     KHRG #98-09

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

[Some details omitted or replaced by 'xxxx' for Internet distribution.]  


                     Extortion and Looting

"When they came in the hot season last year, they came with a 
bulldozer.  They told the villagers how much food they had eaten in town 
and the cost of the fuel [for the bulldozer] and demanded that we pay for 
it.  The Saw Hta villagers had to pay 100,000 [Kyat].  There are over 200 
houses in Saw Hta village, and they came to collect taxes whenever they 
wanted.  They taxed us once a month, but sometimes we had to pay twice 
a month.  I have little money so I was only taxed 500 Kyats.  Richer 
villagers had to pay 2 to 4 thousand Kyats [each time].  I suffered from 
having to porter and from paying the taxes of 500 Kyats.  Each house 
had to pay that much.  Those villagers who couldn't give 500 Kyats were 
ordered to give 300 Kyats and those who couldn't afford that had to 
spend a day and night in the stocks in the police jail.  Some villagers 
went to do daily labour which paid 400 Kyats and then gave that to the 
Burmese."  - "Ko Sein Aung" (M, 21), Saw Hta village, central Dooplaya 
(Interview #1, 9/98)


In all areas of Dooplaya where the SPDC exerts direct control, systematic 
extortion and occasional looting are taking place.  The main exception is 
the eastern 'hump', where as mentioned above the presence of the DKBA 
keeps the SPDC troops out of most villages.  Even there, when SPDC 
patrols do pass through a village the villagers say that they loot their 
livestock.  In central and southern Dooplaya, villages where SPDC troops 
are based such as Saw Hta and Taung Zone have a constant problem with 
troops looting their livestock, fruits and vegetables.  


"We told them there's an old military camp there, why don't you prepare 
it and stay there?  But they said they didn't want to stay there.  They 
stayed in the village, mostly in the houses of women who have children.  
Their commander came to sleep in my house one time.  The village 
chairman's house is very big, but they didn't stay there.  [They like to 
use the women and children as shields against attack.] ? They didn't 
bring their own rice.  They also stole our fruit and vegetables that grow 
near our houses, like corn, cucumbers and many kinds of fruit.  They 
stole our chickens at night when we couldn't see.  If we went to tell their

commander, he said, 'If you see them, just tell them not to do it'.  When 
they rotated their troops, they took all the chickens and sold them in Saw 
Hta village.  If they're sleeping in Po Hsi Mu, they go to Meh T'Leh to 
steal.  Whenever they're patrolling they look to see who has a lot of 
chickens.  They sleep two nights in the village, then they leave for two or

three days and then come back again."  - "Naw Ghay Wah" (F, 31), 
schoolteacher describing the situation in xxxx village, near Saw Hta 
(Interview #4, 9/98)


When SLORC/SPDC troops first arrived in the region they did a lot of 
looting and also demanded large one-time sums of money from villagers in 
some places.  As the occupation continues, the extortion of money, food 
and building materials is becoming more systematic.  For example, in Saw 
Hta village of central Dooplaya the villagers are graded by relative
wealth; 
the wealthier villagers are forced to pay two to four thousand Kyat per 
family per month in extortion, while the poorer farmers are forced to pay 
500 Kyat per month.  In both cases, the amount is calculated to be all the 
money the family could possibly procure in a month, though it often turns 
out to be more than they can get.  In Saw Hta those who can't pay 500 
Kyats are ordered to pay 300, and if they can't even do that then they are 
taken to spend a day and night with their legs in stocks at the local
police 
jail.


"?according to the agreement of the xxxx village tract headmen and 
small village leaders, yyyy village is assessed (two thousand) for 
servants' fees.  Therefore, [you] are informed to come and pay this 
money at xxxx village."  - Text of written SPDC order to a village in 
southern Dooplaya, May 1998 (Order #4)

"[You] are informed to send (30) logs, (6) inches in diameter and (8) 
feet in length, for repairs to the camp, to xxxx camp before 25-1-98.  If 
[you] fail to send [them], it will be the gentleman's [i.e. your] 
responsibility alone."  - Text of written SPDC order to a village in 
southern Dooplaya, January 1998 (Order #5)


SPDC units also stop traders moving goods or livestock and villagers who 
are transporting rice and extort either money or part of their load in
order 
to allow them to pass.  When many Dta La Ku villagers were fleeing Kwih 
Kler area to go south to Kwih Lat Der, a group of SPDC troops knew they 
were moving and set up a roadblock each morning to collect 500 Kyats 
from each cart before allowing it to pass.  There have also been several 
reports of traders being stopped, whether or not they have already paid the

required 'taxes', and either the trader or his goods being held captive
until a 
ransom in money, livestock or goods has been paid.


"There were 1 Corporal and 12 soldiers.  They collected taxes from the 
villagers who were carrying rice by ox-cart, 500 Kyats from each ox-
cart.  Whether we carried one basket or 5 baskets of rice in the ox-cart, 
we had to pay 500 Kyats.  If we didn't give the money to the Burmese at 
Meh Tharaw Hta, they wouldn't allow us to go.  After I gave them 
money, 500 Kyats, they allowed me to go.  They collected money from 
the villagers as though they were begging for food."  - "Saw Htoo Po" 
(M, 25), Meh T'Ler village, central Dooplaya (Interview #3, 9/98)

"In Kyaikdon there was a 100-year-old pagoda called Oorey Pagoda.  
The Burmese know that the old pagodas have many valuable objects 
inside, so they destroy these pagodas to steal the valuables.  After that, 
the Burmese soldiers order the villagers to build a new pagoda but don't 
give them any building supplies.  The Burmese soldiers already reported 
that they've destroyed the old Oorey Pagoda and that they've built a new 
pagoda in its place.  That is what they did.  Don't ever think that they 
will help the people."  - "Saw Day Htoo" (M, 40), Kwih K'Baw village, 
central Dooplaya, describing what he saw on his July-September 1998 
visit to central Dooplaya (Interview #5, 9/98)


                         Forced Labour

"They ordered the Kwih Kler villagers to go to their camp every day, 
their camp was there.  They forced 2 villagers to do sentry duty around 
their camp.  Even though the villagers had a lot of work to do they 
forced them to help them.  They only called men to help, but if there 
were no men in the house a woman had to go.  The women were forced 
to clean their camp.  The women also had to clean [wipe and polish] the 
gate that was in the fence surrounding the camp.  The men were forced 
to clear and dig out mud from the bunkers.  A sentry forced me to enter 
the camp.  I went with my friend from Htee Hta Baw village. ? The 
Burmese forced us to enter the camp and to dig mud for the Signal 
Corps.  We also had to dig out the mud in the bunkers.  When I was 
digging I got a cold with a bad cough and chest pain.  My body was in a 
lot of pain and I had to take penicillin. ? I also had to do sentry duty 
twice for one day and a night each time.  They didn't give me food and I 
had to sleep at the camp in the evening.  I could see my house from their 
camp but they still forced us to sleep on the ground at the gate of their 
camp, they didn't allow us to enter the camp.  We slept at night but 
sometimes they forced some of us to follow them in the night. ? In the 
morning we went back to the village to eat and then we went back to 
their camp to work until evening.  Then my friend came to replace us 
and we went back."  - "Saw Htoo Po" (M, 25), Meh T'Ler village, central 
Dooplaya (Interview #3, 9/98)


Villagers throughout central and southern Dooplaya face a steady stream 
of demands by SPDC troops for various kinds of forced labour.  One of 
the most common is forced labour related to roads.  Villagers from Kwih 
Kler say they have already been forced to cut down many of their coconut 
trees to clear a path for what is supposed to be a new road from Saw Hta to

Kwih Kler and Lay Po Hta, possibly to replace the rough existing road.  
Forced labour building this road could begin as early as November or 
December 1998, now that the rains are over.  In mid-February 1998 two 
convoys totalling 50-70 trucks loaded with convicts from prisons 
throughout Burma were brought to Kyaikdon and Saw Hta to do forced 
labour on roads, and this could happen again in the coming dry season; 
this would lighten the load on the villagers, but they would still most
likely 
be called for forced labour.  The road from Kyaikdon and Po Yay eastward 
through the hills to Kyo G'Lee and then northward to Wah Lay, which was 
being built with bulldozers by Frontline Engineers #904 Battalion, was 
reportedly finished in April/May 1998.  However, the SPDC troops are 
reportedly too afraid to use it because of their fear of ambush by the 
KNLA troops who occupy the remote hills along part of the route, and by 
now the road has probably been at least partly destroyed by the rains.


"They haven't built the roads yet but they've already cleared the bushes 
and coconut trees to make way for the road [around Kwih Kler]."  - 
"Saw Meh Doh" (M, 44), Dta La Ku elder from xxxx village, southern 
Dooplaya (Interview #7, 9/98)


At the moment most of the road labour throughout Dooplaya involves 
clearing roadsides and maintaining roads that now exist.  Villagers in Meh 
T'Lah of central Dooplaya have to work on a fence several kilometres long 
along the sides of the road near their village which is supposed to protect

the road from being landmined by the KNLA.  At least 100 villagers at a 
time have to work building this fence.  In the far south of Dooplaya
several 
villages were forced to relocate earlier in 1998 to sites near the Ye-
Thanbyuzayat road, which is the main north-south coastal road.  They 
were then used together with villagers who already lived there for steady 
rotations of forced labour maintaining and upgrading the road.  Work on 
this road appears to be done for the moment, but the villagers still have
to 
do other kinds of forced labour and will probably be called back to repair 
the road once again after it is damaged by the next rainy season in 1999.


"They forced the villagers to build a fence that goes further than from 
here to Kwih Kler!  [7 or 8 hours' walk away, about 20 km.]  The 
villagers must weave bamboo to make the fence along both sides of the 
road.  About one hundred people were building the fence every day."  - 
"Pu Bway Doh" (M, 82), Dta La Ku villager from Meh T'Lah village 
(Interview #8, 9/98)

"They just rebuilt the car road which leads to Sa Keh, it goes from Saw 
Hta to Kyaikdon.  There is also a car road from Kyaikdon to [Kya In] 
Seik Gyi but it's not as well built as the roads you see around here - it 
looks more like an oxcart track.  The villagers had to work on it.  When 
the Burmese first came, they came with a bulldozer to dig the mud for 
the construction of the road because the villagers weren't able to make 
the road correctly, but then they took the bulldozer away and the 
villagers had to do the work.  The bulldozer hasn't come again since last 
year.  There is also a road that connects Saw Hta, Kwih Lat Der and 
Htee Hta Baw which was built back when everyone was living there 
[before the SLORC/SPDC occupation, when the area was controlled by 
the KNU].  Now they are working on this old road using machetes and 
mattocks [large hoes; this is being done as forced labour by the 
villagers]."  - "Saw Day Htoo" (M, 40), Kwih K'Baw village, central 
Dooplaya, describing what he saw on his July-September 1998 visit to 
central Dooplaya (Interview #5, 9/98)


Villagers throughout central and southern Dooplaya are used almost 
constantly for forced labour as porters, and in eastern Dooplaya the troops

go to the villages to look for porters whenever their troops rotate, which
is 
every few months.  Most villages in central and southern Dooplaya are 
under standing written orders to provide a certain number of 'permanent 
porters' on a rotating basis; the number is usually 3 to 10 per village 
depending on village size, and the people must take along their own food 
for shifts of 3 to 5 days.  During this time they are used as porters as
well 
as messengers and sentries.  Not only must the villages provide these 
'permanent porters', but the troops also round up porters or catch people
in 
their fields whenever they need additional porters, for example to carry 
their rations from supply drop-off points.  Demands are occasionally made 
for large numbers of people, for example one person per household, when 
an operations column is heading on a journey of several days' distance, 
such as the trip from Saw Hta to Htee Hta Baw, which is over 60 
kilometres in a straight line.


"You the headperson are informed to send 5 permanent servants with 
their own rice to arrive today for the use of Frontline #xxx Light 
Infantry Battalion, Column 2, and prepare to rotate the servants every 5 
days."  - Text of written SPDC order to a village in western Dooplaya, 
July 1998 (Order #2)

"(I)f the Burmese soldiers went on patrol, they forced the village 
headman to collect 3 or 4 villagers to carry their things.  They don't call

them porters, they call them 'servants' [wontan].  The village headman 
has to find the people to do it and rotate the people every time.  They 
have to carry bullets and rice.  They have to go for three days at a time."
 
- "Naw Ghay Wah" (F, 31), schoolteacher describing the situation in xxxx 
village, near Saw Hta (Interview #4, 9/98)

"In the evening at 8:30 p.m., when the villagers were watching a movie, 
they entered the place where we were watching the video.  They told the 
men to be porters.  We didn't dare flee.  They collected 10 to 20 villagers

to porter from each village, over 200 villagers at a time altogether.  The 
villagers came from Dta Ray Kee, Tee Wah Klay, Meh K'Dtee, Taw 
T'Naw Kee, Lay Po Kee, Kyaw Kee, Tee Meh Baw, Kaser Po Kler, Meh 
Tha Ler, Kwih Kler, Dta Nay Pya and Po Hsi Mu villages. ? We had to 
follow a few soldiers.  I had to carry rice and there were G3 bullets 
together with the rice, it weighed about 18 viss [29 kg / 64 pounds].  
Sometimes I had to carry their bags and pots.  We had to carry things to 
Kyun Chaung [southern Dooplaya] and Ler Theh Wee.  We walked for 5 
days on the way to Kyun Chaung.  They only rested at 6 or 7 p.m., 
sometimes 10 p.m.  They started going at 6 a.m. ? Some porters had to 
carry big shells.  My shoulders were bruised, as were the shoulders of all 
the porters.  Some porters were crying.  A villager named Po Thu Daw, 
who was over 45 years old, was crying.  The youngest porter was 16 or 
17 years old.  I was a porter for 18 days, then I fled from them at Kyun 
Chaung.  4 or 5 porters from Saw Hta village are left with them and the 
rest of us fled."  - "Ko Sein Aung" (M, 21), Saw Hta village, central 
Dooplaya (Interview #1, 9/98)

"They demand porters once a week.  People who can't go must pay 
1,000 Kyats, and those who can go must go.  All of my friends below 
here, near the car road which is about 9 miles [14.5 km] from my place, 
have to porter. ? They have to carry rice and the chickens that the 
soldiers steal during the night.  They also steal goats and pigs and never 
pay for them.  The villagers don't say anything because they're afraid 
and they think that giving the Burmese what they want is better than 
being persecuted and killed.  They steal the rice from the villagers' 
farmfield huts which are far from the village and they eat that together 
with all the chickens."  - "Saw Win Than" (M, 50), xxxx village, southern 
Dooplaya (Interview #2, 4/98)

"When their column went to the front line, they always forced 6 porters 
[from his village] to follow them.  We were 60 people in all.  They forced 
all the men to go.  As for the old people who couldn't walk, someone 
would have to go in their place, usually their son.  If there were no men 
in a family, the family had to pay 300 Kyats. ? The Burmese forced 
groups of 6 from each village to go one after another, 2 days each time.  
For example, after they forced the Kwih Kler village group to go, it was 
the turn of another group from another village.  They rotated groups 
from each village in this way.  If they didn't have enough people, we had 
to go again [twice in a row].  Each person had to carry twelve 60 mm 
mortar shells."  - "Saw Htoo Po" (M, 25), Meh T'Ler village, central 
Dooplaya (Interview #3, 9/98)

"A porter from Meh T'Kreh fled but the Burmese captured him again 
and beat him.  The Burmese beat him many times and kicked him until 
he fell down.  When I saw that, I took great pity on him.  The Burmese 
beat him with a bamboo stick and he shouted very loudly.  The stick was 
as thick as a big toe - some that they use are as thick as knife handles.  
The bamboo was already dry, and the Burmese beat his back, boan, 
boan!  His back became so swollen that we couldn't stand to look at 
him.  He wasn't able to carry anything so the Burmese left him on the 
path.  He was able to return to the village as we were not far from the 
village.  Three porters from Saw Hta were sick with malaria and they 
were left behind also."  - "Ko Sein Aung" (M, 21), Saw Hta village, 
central Dooplaya (Interview #1, 9/98)


In addition to portering on foot, villagers in some areas have to go with 
their oxcarts to haul SPDC supplies, and in central Dooplaya the few 
villagers who own motor vehicles are forced to use them for the same 
purpose.  In March 1998, one such car was blown up by a landmine while 
hauling SPDC supplies, killing a child and wounding the parents (see 
below under 'Landmines').


"#12 Military Operations Command Headquarters requires cart porters 
urgently.  Therefore, [send] 1 cart with 1 team of bullocks together with 
enough rations from each of your villages to arrive at the Village Peace 
and Development Council office together at 4 o'clock this evening 
without fail, you are informed. ? If there is failure and those from the 
Army camp come to arrest you, it will not be our responsibility."  - Text 
of written SPDC order to a village in western Dooplaya, June 1998 (Order 
#3)


Villagers must also do rotating shifts of forced labour in SPDC camps at 
Saw Hta, Kwih Kler, Meh Za Lee and other sites throughout Dooplaya.  
Often the women are forced to cook and clean while the men are used to 
build and maintain barracks, bunkers and booby-traps.  The men must also 
act as messengers and guides, and spend their nights around the perimeter 
of the camp as unarmed sentries.  One villager from Meh T'Ler in central 
Dooplaya even reported being forced to spend day after day weaving 
baskets for the forced porters to use when carrying ammunition for the 
troops.  He stated that neither he nor the others knew how to weave 
baskets, but the troops called in some other villagers to teach them.


"(T)he villagers have to do many kinds of forced labour.  Every day, two 
or three people from each village have to go and stay in the Burmese 
camp and do whatever the Burmese soldiers ask them to do, such as 
standing sentry, portering, and other things.  The Saw Hta villagers 
have to do forced labour every day.  One person from each family has to 
go.  If there are no men in the family then a woman must go.  Children 
aged 16 and above must go.  They [Burmese soldiers] don't care about 
old age.  The old people must go also."  - "Saw Day Htoo" (M, 40), Kwih 
K'Baw village, central Dooplaya (Interview #5, 9/98)

"To build xxxx camp, you are informed to come with (26) voluntary 
labourers with one bowl of rice each, to xxxx monastery on the 2nd at 8 
o'clock without fail."  - Text of a written SPDC order to a village in 
southern Dooplaya, June 1998 (Order #1)

"They forced me to weave baskets.  They didn't teach me how to weave 
but they still forced me to weave.  They found villagers who could weave 
and they taught us.  We had to weave until evening and then we went to 
sleep.  In the morning the sentry beat the hollow log, Tone! Tone! Tone! 
and we had to go and weave again.  We had to cut the cane nicely, if it 
wasn't nice they didn't like it.  The baskets were used to carry 
ammunition [by porters].  We also had to repair their fence if it was 
broken.  Sometimes we had to use bamboo spikes to make booby traps.  
We had to whittle the bamboo all day and then dig a hole in the earth."  
- "Saw Htoo Po" (M, 25), Meh T'Ler village, central Dooplaya (Interview 
#3, 9/98)


Some forced labour has also been demanded for building pagodas, both by 
the DKBA at Tha Der Ko and by the SPDC in other parts of northern and 
central Dooplaya.  Villagers have also reported having to do forced labour 
growing crops for SPDC troops in the southern and western parts of the 
district.


"They are building pagodas everywhere.  The soldiers order the villagers 
to build the pagodas.  The Christians have to go sometimes too, 
whenever they are told to.  Do not say that the soldiers will help you.  
Even when your back is wounded from carrying sand the soldiers will 
continue to watch over you with guns."  - "Saw Day Htoo" (M, 40), Kwih 
K'Baw village, central Dooplaya, describing what he saw on his July-
September 1998 visit to central Dooplaya (Interview #5, 9/98)

"Each of these villages had to provide 100 baskets of paddy seed and 
sow it for the Burmese.  They had to plough, sow, harvest and pound the 
paddy, they had to do everything.  All of the rice that is produced from 
the 100 baskets of seed must be given to the Burmese soldiers.  They 
don't have time to do their own work so they couldn't tolerate staying 
there.  That is happening in Kru Tu Kee, Lay Tai and Kler Ta Gu, in 
Kawkareik township."  - "Pa Bway Htoo" (M, 44), Dta La Ku elder on the 
Burma-Thai border (Interview #6, 9/98)

"The people who live under the authority of the Burmese must do forced 
labour for them and must also go as porters.  Those who live with the 
Burmese sometimes have to carry things from Kyaikdon down to Kalay 
Kee and to [Kya In] Seik Gyi.  Sometimes they have to carry things from 
Kyaikdon up to Kwih Kler, Kwih Lat Der, and Htee Hta Baw.  [Htee Hta 
Baw is several days' walk south of Kyaikdon, towards Three Pagodas 
Pass.]  The villagers who don't live close to the enemy are living in the 
jungle, on the mountains and at the source of the rivers.  The people 
who are living in the jungle do not show themselves because they don't 
want to work for the SPDC."  - "Saw Day Htoo" (M, 40), Kwih K'Baw 
village, central Dooplaya (Interview #5, 9/98)

"When they were forcing you to porter, did they say anything to you?"
"Yes, they said to us, 'Nga Lo Ma Tha!' ['I fucked your mother and you 
are the child!'], 'Kway Ma Tha!' ['Son of a bitch!'], and 'You are a lazy 
porter and if I kick you, you'll go flying!'"  - "Ko Sein Aung" (M, 21), 
Saw Hta village, central Dooplaya (Interview #1, 9/98)


   - [END OF PART 3: SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 4 THROUGH 5] -