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KHRG: SPDC Orders Set 99-A, Part 1/
- Subject: KHRG: SPDC Orders Set 99-A, Part 1/
- From: win2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 05:02:00
Subject: KHRG: SPDC Orders Set 99-A, Part 1/5
SPDC ORDERS TO VILLAGES: SET 99-A
Pa'an, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Papun Districts
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
February 10, 1999 / KHRG #99-01
*** PART 1 OF 5; SEE OTHER POSTINGS FOR OTHER PARTS OF THIS REPORT ***
[Only part of the report is reproduced here for circulation on Burmanet.
For a more complete copy of the report, see the KHRG website at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/humanrights/khrg/archive/
Some details have been omitted or replaced by 'xxxx' for Internet
distribution.]
Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from
SPDC Army units and local authorities to Karen villages in Pa'an,
Toungoo, Dooplaya and Papun Districts of Karen State, southeastern
Burma. They include orders for villages to move, threats that villages
helping SPDC Army deserters or contacting resistance groups will be
severely punished, demands for villagers to do forced labour as porters,
messengers, road labourers, at Army camps and other forms of forced
labour, as well as demands for food, building materials, and extortion
money. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend 'meetings'
at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced
labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to
comply.
This report does not aim to provide a comprehensive picture of the human
rights situation in these areas, but to provide a reference containing
examples of several kinds of orders received by villages in several
different regions. More information on the human rights situation in each
District is available in other existing KHRG reports. Originals of these
orders were obtained by KHRG monitors in each region, with the
exception of Orders #P1, P15, P16, P19, P20, P69, and P74, which were
provided by the Karen Health Workers' Union of Pa'an District, and
Orders #D4, D5, and D6, which were provided by independent monitors
in Dooplaya District. For every order reproduced here, hundreds more
are issued every week; these should be seen only as a small representative
sampling. Most of these orders were handwritten, some typed, and
carbon-copied if sent to more than one village. They were issued by local
Army commanders and Peace & Development Councils (PDCs), which are
local-level SPDC administration at the Township, Village Tract and
Village level (before November 1997, under the State Law & Order
Restoration Council these were known as LORCs). A village tract is a
group of villages making up a subarea of the Township and used as a
local administrative unit. While the Township and often Village Tract
PDCs consist of SPDC officials under direct military control, the Village
PDC chairperson and members are appointed, often against their will, by
the local military. They are responsible for providing forced labourers,
money, materials, intelligence etc. as demanded by the military and the
higher-level PDCs, and they are the first to be arrested and tortured if
they fail to do so; this is what is meant by threatening phrases such as
"should you fail the responsibility will be yours" and "if you fail we will
take no responsibility for your village". Order #P39 below was sent
together with a chillie pepper, as an additional threat that if the village
headwoman does not obey the troops will kill livestock or loot food from
her village. Bullets or pieces of charcoal are occasionally sent with
orders
to express similar threats.
Orders in this report have been divided by District, and within that by
topic. For each District a short summary has been included to explain the
context in which the orders were issued. The orders were written in
Burmese except where noted otherwise (some of those from DKBA units
and those written by village heads were written in Karen). Village names,
people's names and Army camp names have been replaced with 'xxxx' or
'yyyy' where necessary to protect villages from retaliation. We have
attempted to accurately reproduce the visual page layout of each order,
and underlining, etc. are as they appear in the order. 'Stamp:' gives the
translation of the unit stamp affixed to many of the orders, while '[Sd.]'
denotes the usually illegible signature of the issuing official. Italic
text in
square brackets has been added by KHRG for clarification where
necessary. Note that Burmese grammar is very different from English,
and therefore some of the phraseology sounds awkward because we have
tried to reproduce the wording as exactly as possible.
As in the originals, numeric dates are shown in dd/mm/yy format. In
Burmese, numerals are usually written in parentheses; in the translations
these have been omitted in most cases where they would not be used in
English. Many orders call for 'loh ah pay', which we have translated
literally as 'voluntary labour', though it is the term used by the SPDC to
call for forced labour. The term 'wontan' also appears frequently; we
have translated this literally as 'servant', and it is used by the SPDC to
refer to porters and other forced labourers. Reference is made to
"servants' fees", also known as "porter fees"; these are the routine
extortion fees which villagers must pay to all Army battalions in their
area. Many orders contain phrases like "if you fail it is your
responsibility" or "we will not take any responsibility for your village";
these are threats that village elders will be arrested and detained under
torture or houses will be looted and/or burned for failure to comply with
the order. Some Battalions in the orders call themselves "Advance" or
"Frontline" battalions, indicating that they operate in conflict areas.
Many villages, townships and districts have both Karen and Burmese
names; the SPDC orders use the Burmese names, and where there are
none they frequently misspell the Karen names. For example, one
reference to a military camp at 'Htee Par Plaw' should probably read
'Htee Wah Blaw'. Baw Ga Li Gyi village (often shortened to Baw Ga Li)
is Kler Lah in Karen; Yay Tho Gyi is Kaw Thay Der; Toungoo is Taw Oo;
Than Daung is Daw Pa Kho; Nabu is T'Nay Hsah.
Copies of the Burmese originals of selected orders are included at the end
of the report. The translations of these orders are marked with an
asterisk
(*) to indicate this. The poor quality of many of the copies is due to the
poor quality of paper used by SPDC units and their use of carbon copies.
Copies of the full set of Burmese orders in this report are available (with
appropriate details blacked out) on approved request from KHRG.
Abbreviations
SPDC State Peace & Development Council, military junta ruling Burma
PDC Peace & Development Council, SPDC local-level administration
(e.g. Village PDC [VPDC], Village Tract PDC, Township PDC [TPDC])
SLORC State Law & Order Restoration Council, former name of the
SPDC until Nov. 1997
LORC Law & Order Restoration Council, SLORC local-level administration
(e.g. Village LORC [VLORC], Village Tract LORC, Township LORC
[TLORC])
KNU Karen National Union, main Karen opposition group
KNLA Karen National Liberation Army, army of the KNU
DKBA Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Karen group allied with SLORC/SPDC
IB Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers
fighting strength
LIB Light Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers
fighting strength
Na Pa Ka Abbreviation for SPDC's Western Military Command from Rakhine
State
Viss Unit of weight measure; one viss is 1.6 kilograms or 3.5 pounds
Pyi Volume of rice equal to 8 small condensed milk tins; about
2 kilograms / 4.4 pounds
Kyat Burmese currency; US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 300+ Kyat at
current market rate
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Table of Contents
Preface ........................................... 1
Abbreviations ..................................... 2
Table of Contents ................................. 3
Map ............................................... 4
Pa'an District .................................... 5
Forced Relocations and Dictates to Villages .... 7
Forced Labour .................................. 12
Extortion of Cash, Food and Materials .......... 21
Summons to 'Meetings' .......................... 30
Toungoo District .................................. 38
Restrictions on Villages ....................... 40
Forced Labour on Roads ......................... 41
Portering and Other Forced Labour ............. 44
Demands for 'Servant Fees' ..................... 61
Demands for Cash Compensation and Other Fees ... 74
Extortion of Food and Materials ................ 76
Order to Participate in an Army Volleyball Tournament .. 80
Summons to 'Meetings' .......................... 81
Dooplaya District ................................. 85
Threats to Those Supporting the Opposition ..... 86
Forced Labour .................................. 87
Extortion of Cash, Food and Materials .......... 89
Crop Quotas and Money-Spinning Schemes ......... 92
Summons to 'Meetings' .......................... 93
Papun District .................................... 95
Copies of Selected Original Orders in Burmese ..... 96
__________________________________________________________________
Pa'an District
Pa'an district forms much of the heartland of central Karen State, but
villagers here are finding it very hard to survive because of a steady
increase in extortion of cash and materials by all of the SPDC and DKBA
troops in the region. In the eastern part of the district, farmers seen in
their
fields by patrols are frequently grabbed as porters; to avoid this, people
who see patrols usually try to run, and then the soldiers shoot them. Many
of these troops are fighting the KNLA in the east of the district, and in
the
process they have started to order the forced relocation of villages. On
the
eastern side of the Dawna mountains, SPDC troops burned and destroyed
Meh Lah Ah, Meh Keh, Tha Pwih Hser, Po Ti Pwa and Noh Aw Pu
villages in September 1998, and looted and terrorised several other
villages until everyone in the area fled for the hills or for Thailand. In
southeastern Pa'an district they told the people of several villages that
they
were all to be forced to relocate as soon as the harvest was complete in
December 1998 or January 1999, and they are now enforcing this by
forcing most villagers to move into the centre of their villages. Many
Karen farmers have fields far from the central village and live near their
fields, or live in small sub-villages loosely connected with the larger
village 1 or 2 kilometres away, and these people are the target of such
orders. Once forced into the centre of the village, it is hard for many
people to properly tend their fields. Much of the 1998-99 rice harvest has
already been lost because of orders such as these and because people are
fleeing the increased extortion and forced portering.
The orders below were issued in eastern Pa'an District. Many of them call
for 'wontan' ('servants'), which usually means porters or Army camp
labour, or 'loh ah pay' (translated here as 'voluntary labour'); these are
SPDC's terms for forced labour. The villagers who go are used as porters,
messengers, road labourers, and doing Army camp labour such as sentry
duty, cleaning, and building and maintaining barracks, fences and booby-
traps. Since 1996 the SLORC/SPDC has been building a large network of
roads throughout central Pa'an District in order to consolidate military
control over the region. All of these roads have been built with forced
labour, and villagers continue to be ordered to maintain these roads, most
of which are destroyed every rainy season, to clear wide 'killing grounds'
along both sides of the roads to minimise the chance of landmines or
ambushes, and to stand sentry along the roads (see Orders #P6-P8).
Village heads are called to 'meetings' to 'discuss the matter of servants'
or
to 'discuss cooperation in security matters', but at these meetings the
Army
officer or local Peace & Development Council (PDC) officials simply
dictate forced labour assignments and threats for failure to comply.
Orders
#P17-P20 refer to porters or Army camp forced labourers who have run
away or gone home without permission; in this case, the village is charged
a fine in food or cash, and the village head is ordered to immediately
bring
replacements or turn in the villager(s) who fled.
Villagers who own bullock carts are also forced to take a cart and team to
haul supplies for SPDC troops (see Order #P22), and elephant owners are
ordered to work their elephants to haul logs for the SPDC with no
compensation (see Order #P23). Demands for rice, food and building
supplies continue to come from both the SPDC and the DKBA, while
extortion of money by both the SPDC and the DKBA is increasing so
much that it is a major factor causing people to flee their villages.
Order
#P39, which demands that a village headwoman send food to the local
Light Infantry Battalion, was sent with a chillie pepper enclosed; when
these are enclosed in orders (sometimes along with a bullet or piece of
charcoal) it is a direct threat that the troops will punish the village for
failure to obey, possibly by killing all the livestock.
In Pa'an District, villages must send forced labourers and must also pay
"servants' fees", money which is supposedly to pay for the hire of
labourers. However, this money only goes to the Army officers and
officials. The only time labourers are hired is when villagers pay others
to
go for forced labour in their place. Most villagers cannot afford to pay
any
of these fees anymore. Orders #P56-P59 summon village heads to
meetings to 'discuss' the paddy from their villages. These meetings are to
assign paddy quotas which villages must hand over to the Army for free or
for 10% of market price, even in bad crop years like this one.
In Order #P3, village heads are ordered to provide absurdly comprehensive
and detailed registration lists of everyone and everything in their
villages.
These lists are then used to assess paddy quotas, quotas for forced labour,
fees and extortion money, demands for carts, vehicles, and other
equipment, and to closely monitor the movement of villagers and the
arrival of anyone new in the village. People found to be unregistered are
usually arrested, accused of being 'insurgents', and detained under
torture.
The registration lists are also a major tool for intimidation, making the
villagers believe that the SPDC knows everything about them and making
them afraid to do anything out of the ordinary. Teachers are much less
likely to deviate from the strict SPDC curriculum when they know that
they and all their students are registered with the military, while monks,
abbots and Christian preachers are under similar pressure with regard to
their spiritual teachings. The intention is to make every civilian feel
intimidated and afraid at every moment.
Some of the orders below have been issued by the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army (DKBA), which operates extensively in Pa'an District.
Apart from their unit numbers, they are almost indistinguishable from
SPDC orders in their content (orders issued by DKBA have been clearly
indicated where this is not obvious). The DKBA orders forced labour,
extorts money and materials, and threatens villagers to relocate in the
same
way as the SPDC, though often using more direct language. In many
cases, such as the DKBA forced relocation order below (Order #P2), it is
most likely that the DKBA is simply enacting an order which originated
with the SPDC.
For more information on the current situation in Pa'an District, see
"Uncertainty, Fear and Flight" (KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98) and other
previous KHRG reports on the area.
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Forced Relocations and Dictates to Villages
Order #P1*
[This forced relocation order was also included in "Uncertainty, Fear and
Flight" (KHRG #98-08, 18/11/98).]
Stamp: Front Line Light Infantry Battalion No. (104)
[illegible] Pah Klu village
Ref. No. 104 / 02 / Oo 1
Date: 1998 August
To: Chairman
xxxx village
Subject: Order to vacate issued to the villages
1. Order has been issued to xxxx village to vacate the place and move
to Kwih Lay village or to any other place where the villagers have
relatives, at the latest by 10th September 1998.
2. After the date of issue of this order, it is warned that the Army will
go
around clearing the area and should any village or small huts in the paddy
fields be found still standing, they will all be dismantled and destroyed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
Front line Light Infantry Battalion #104
[Copies of this order were sent to several villages in the Pah Klu area.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Order #P2*
Date: 14-11-98
Ref. No. Ka/1-1161
To: Village Head
xxxx village
[blank] village tract
Subject: Notification regarding relocation to main part of the village
Regarding the above-mentioned subject, in the area of #3 Battalion of
#999 Brigade all villages must move into the main part of the village.
Severe action will be taken against those who fail to obey this order,
up to the death penalty.
Orders
1. Do not have contact with any insurgent or rebel at all.
2. Do not provide any insurgent or rebel with food or protection money at
all.
3. Do not live in any house or hut in the jungles, on the hills, in the
valleys or in the foothills at all.
4. Every house or hut far from the main part of the village must be moved
to the main village.
Note:
We will not be responsible for those who fail to comply with and obey
the above-mentioned orders within 30 days, between 20-11-98 and 20-12-98.
Signed: Major Than Done
Deputy Commander, #3 Battalion
#999 Brigade, DKBA
Nabu Military Zone, Northern Kawkareik
[Sd.]
Deputy Commander
#3 Battalion
#999 Brigade
DKBA
[This is a typewritten order sent to many villages with the village name
written in on each one. Nabu (Karen name T'Nay Hsah) is a large village
in the central plains of Pa'an District about 25 km north of Kawkareik
town. Many villages are affected by this order.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Order #P3
Stamp: Advance #2 Light Infantry Battalion
Advance #2 Light Infantry Battalion xxxx village
Column #2 Ref. No. 100/01/C-1
Date: October 7, 1998
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Village Peace and Development Council
Subject: To make the registration list
1. Regarding the above-mentioned subject, the following registration
lists
must be made accordingly by every village and must be finished on
October 14, 1998.
(a) To register chairperson, secretary and members of VPDC, and
village elders, by name, age, father's name, NIC Number and
address.
(b) To make a list of total number of houses in the village and
population (male/female).
(c) To make sure that every house has the list of family members in
hand and it must be placed where it is easy to check by the
authorities, and the chairperson or the secretary must sign and
stamp each family list.
(d) To register headmaster, teachers and students of each school by
name, age, father's name, educational status and address.
(e) To register the total number of monasteries and the abbot, monks
and novices of each monastery by name, age, years of
monkhood, father's name and Buddhist Monk ID Number.
(f) To register doctors, medics and nurses in each government
medical department by name, age, father's name, NIC Number,
Staff ID Number, address and educational status.
(g) To register medics who give medical treatment without official
permission of the Medical Department by name, age, father's
name, NIC Number and educational status.
(h) To register the makers of furniture and utensils (wood / bamboo)
by name, age, father's name, NIC Number, educational status
and address.
(i) To register motorcycle owners by name, age, father's name, NIC
Number and whether or not they have a motorcycle licence.
(j) To register number of houses by type (wooden house / bamboo
house).
(k) To register the owners of cattle by name, age, father's name, NIC
Number, address and number of cattle (male/female) they own.
(l) To register the owners of tractors (big / small) by name, age,
father's name and NIC Number.
(m) To register shopkeepers by name, age, father's name and NIC
Number.
(n) To register those who make a living as hired servants [i.e. those
who take money to do shifts of forced labour in the place of
other villagers] by name, age, father's name and NIC Number.
(o) To register vagabonds, tramps, infamous persons [those who are
blacklisted and frequently detained and interrogated due to
their perceived anti-government tendencies] and those who are
difficult to control by name, age, father's name and NIC
Number.
(p) To make sure to have a log book for visitors (in/out) at the village.
(q) To register the wives and children of KNU rebels and other
insurgents in the village by name, age, father's name,
educational status and NIC Number.
(r) To register the owners of paddy fields, farms [fields of non-rice
crops], land, or gardens by name, age, father's name, kind of
crop they cultivate and number of acres they own.
(s) To register ex-soldiers (pensioner, dismissed, AWOL) by name,
age, father's name and NIC Number. [This means specifically
Burmese Army soldiers.]
(t) To register people who run boat or motor-boat businesses by
name, age, father's name and NIC Number.
(u) To register those who trade in gold and silver, jewellery and other
precious stones, iron and other kinds of metals, and those who
do currency exchange by name, age, father's name and NIC
Number.
(v) To register all events (import/export) of business in woods,
including teak, other kinds of wood and furniture, and those
who run this business by name, age, father's name and NIC
Number.
(w) To register those who trade in forest products and those who
trade cattle, goats, and pigs by name, age, father's name and
NIC Number.
(x) To register drunkards, drug addicts, drug dealers and alcohol
sellers.
(y) To register authorisations and documents issued by the authorities
or Forestry Department for woods including teak in
monasteries and monastery compounds. [i.e. wood cannot be
cut to build houses or monasteries, nor taken from existing
buildings, without SPDC permission papers (except by the Army).]
2. This is to notify that it will be entirely your responsibility if the
authorities discover that you have failed to comply with the above-listed
orders.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
[The Burmese original of this handwritten order is 3 pages long. These
registration lists will be used, among other things, to assess extortion
demands and forced labour demands on the villagers, and to arrest any
unregistered visitors or strangers in the villages. These lists are a
great
source of intimidation to the villagers, and they are one of the main tools
used by the SPDC to prohibit the freedoms of association, livelihood, and
movement of civilians. VPDC = Village Peace and Development Council,
village-level SPDC administration; at the village level, these are usually
just village elders assigned against their will to make sure the villagers
comply with military orders. NIC = National Identification Card, which
all citizens of Burma are supposed to carry around with them; many rural
Karen villagers have no such card. 'Father's name' is commonly used to
identify people in Burma because surnames are not used.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Order #P4
Stamp:
Advance #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Column #x
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Village Peace and Development Council
Although you were informed to come to xxxx village on 7/10/98 after
making the list of families in Chairperson's village, you failed to comply.
To explain the reason of your failure come and .......... [The remainder
of
this order was torn off and lost.]
[This relates to the registration list demanded in Order #P3, and threatens
a village head for being tardy in providing the list.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Order #P5
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion 18-10-98
Column #2 xxxx [village]
To: U xxxx
Respectfully,
- Get better?
- A landmine went off at about 10 o'clock last night. Do you know where?
I'd like to know whether the victim of the landmine is human or animal.
- If you are sick and unable to come just send a letter or someone else.
Respectfully,
[Sd.]
Capt. xxxx
Column Commander
A[dvance] #xxx LIB / C[olumn] #2
[Villagers are usually held responsible by the SPDC for any landmines
which go off in their area. If it is an SPDC mine they are often fined for
'the cost of the landmine', while if it is a KNLA mine they are accused of
planting it.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Forced Labour
Order #P6*
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Military Control Command
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: To clear the scrub on both sides of Kawkareik-Aut Boh Deh car
road
To clear the scrub along both sides of the Kawkareik-Aut Boh Deh car
road, people from your village must come with their own machetes/hoes to
xxxx Camp on Sunday, October 25, 1998 / the 6th Waxing day of
Dasaungmon, 1360 Burmese Era, and if you fail, it will be entirely your
responsibility.
Place: Nabu [Sd. / Lt.]
Date: 24-10-98 (for) Battalion Commander
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
[This stretch of road is over 10 kilometres long. Villagers are forced to
clear the scrub along most roads used by the SPDC military in order to
decrease the chance of landmines or ambushes. They are also forced to
stand as sentries at fixed positions along these roads every night, and are
then held responsible for anything that happens. Aut Boh Deh is near
Nabu (T'Nay Hsah). The date on the Burmese calendar is written on this
order after the English date because many villagers do not know the
English calendar. See also Orders #P7 and P8.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Order #P7
To: Chairperson Stamp:
xxxx village #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Company #x
Date: 29-10-98
Subject: To come and see the Commander
To enquire about the progress of your village on the clearing of the Aut
Boh Deh car road, you are informed to come and see the Commander of
Headquarters Company of #xxx Light Infantry Battalion without fail.
If you haven't sent any voluntary labourers yet, send them as soon as
possible, and it will be entirely your responsibility if you fail to come
and
see the Commander.
[Sd. / Lt.]
Company Commander
Company #x
____________________________________________________________________________
_
Order #P9*
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Military Control Command xxxx village
Subject: Calling for general voluntary labour
1. You yourself or a representative from your village must lead 30 persons
bringing their own machetes/hoes with them to come to #xxx LIB HQ on
17/7/98 at 8 o'clock in the morning.
2. This is notification that it will be entirely your responsibility if
you fail
to comply.
Place: xxxx [Sd.]
Date: 14-7-98 Commander of Headquarters Company
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
____________________________________________________________________________
Order #P10
wwww |
xxxx |
yyyy | - 4 villages
zzzz |
For voluntary labour tomorrow on 11/11/98:
Report to Capt. xxxx of #xxx IB and go where he asks you to.
Then report to the operations unit on 12/11/98.
[This is a quickly scrawled order with no stamp or signature. Though the
nature of the labour is unspecified, it appears to involve many people and
is probably road labour or carrying rations.]
____________________________________________________________________________
_
- [END OF PART 1; SEE SUBSEQUENT POSTINGS FOR PARTS 2 THROUGH 5.] -