PHOTO SET 2005-A: A Short Story in Pictures: Village Destruction, Displacement and Survival in Nyaunglebin District

Photo #1-4: On November 19 th 2004 a KHRG researcher encountered Saw P---, age 75, along a path in the forest in Shwegyin (Hsaw Tee) township, Nyaunglebin district.  He said he was searching for his family because when an SPDC Army column approached their village they fled and became separated.  Families usually flee approaching columns in this region because SPDC troops usually detain villagers as porters or suspected rebels, so family separation is often a problem. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

Photos #1-7, 1-8, 1-9, 1-10, 1-11, 1-12: Several days after the burning of Klaw Lu village (see above), the SPDC column was still in the area so the villagers remained hidden, cooking rice only at night so smoke from cookfires would not give them away.  Photos 1-7 and 1-8 show some of the children settling in for the night.  Photo 1-9 shows 60-year-old Pi K--- and her husband.  They have no children and were unable to carry rice themselves while fleeing, so they had no food and had to share that of others.  In photo 1-10, a Christian pastor who was visiting the area when the villages were invaded gathers the Christian villagers in the forest for a worship service.  Naw P---, 46 ( photo 1-11), fell sick in the forest and was cared for by other villagers.  Naw D---, age 75 ( photo 1-12), is blind; when the villagers fled one of her sons (shown here) carried her while the other carried food.  All of these photos were taken on November 20 th and 21 st 2004, within three days of the arrival of the SPDC column in the area. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

Photos #1-17, 1-18, 1-19: On November 22 nd 2004, villagers from K'Hee Day returned by night to retrieve some of the paddy they had harvested but not stored properly yet when they fled on November 18.  Going back by day would be too dangerous because SPDC troops were still in their village, but they managed to retrieve and winnow this paddy from their field huts and take it back to their shelters in the forest.  Large quantities of paddy still remained in the field huts, however, more than the villagers could retrieve. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

Photo #1-22: On November 23 rd 2004, villagers from L---, in the same area of Shwegyin township as the villages already burned, hurry to harvest as much paddy as they can.  They were afraid that the LIB #589 column would come to destroy their village and fields any day.  Even so their children remained in school, only coming into the fields to help with the harvest after school ended each day. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

Photo #1-27: On returning to the ruins of their houses in Khaw Hta in early December 2004 (see photos 1-23 through 1-26), the villagers found these three landmines and two ammunition clips for MA1 assault rifles (standard Burma Army equipment), apparently left behind accidentally by SPDC soldiers.  SPDC columns often landmine villages after burning them, to prevent villagers being able to return. [Photo: KHRG researcher]

Photos #1-33, 1-34, 1-35, 1-36, 1-37, 1-38, 1-39, 1-40: SPDC columns appear to have deliberately timed their attack on hill villages in Shwegyin township to interfere with the rice harvest, because they not only burned villages but systematically sought out and destroyed paddy storage barns hidden in the forest and farmfield huts with their piles of harvested paddy, then stayed around the villages to prevent villagers from returning to complete their harvest.  Photo 1-33 shows the farmfield hut of Pa T--- from Khaw Hta, burned along with the paddy ( photo 1-34) he had already harvested.  The remains of B---'s paddy storage barn, with his paddy still smouldering, are shown in photo 1-35, while photo 1-36 shows the burned patch of ground where his farmfield hut used to be; in the foreground he has piled the only paddy he could salvage from the ashes.  Both were burned by a combined column of LIB #587, LIB #589 and IB #57.  Saw P--- lost 70 baskets of newly harvested paddy and all of his farming implements when LIB #350 burned his field hut ( photos 1-37 and 1-38).  The burned ground in photo 1-39 used to be the farmfield hut of a Yah Aw villager.  Photo 1-40 provides a closeup view of Pa D---'s partial paddy harvest, now little more than a mound of charred and blackened grains.  All of these photos were taken between December 6 th and 15 th 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]

Photos #1-44, 1-45, 1-46, 1-47,1-48, 1-49, 1-50, 1-51: Despite the efforts of SPDC columns to destroy the food supplies, in December 2004 displaced villagers from the Khaw Hta / Yah Aw area in Shwegyin township were already risking encounters with SPDC patrols by returning to salvage what they could of their paddy.  Photo 1-44 shows a Khaw Hta villager's partly-completed harvest, already threshed into the grain (left) and the straw (right) but left behind when she fled the SPDC column.  Others had already returned to see what they could retrieve; in photo 1-45, villager T--- sifts through his uncle's burned paddy storage barn to see how much grain he can salvage.  Photo 1-46 shows K--- looking at all he could salvage from his burned paddy, only enough to survive on for a few weeks.  Photo 1-47 shows the farmfield hut of Saw K---; SPDC soldiers set it alight but it didn't burn, leaving much of the harvested paddy intact.  Photo 1-48 shows Saw N---, 28, returning to the forest with a basket of paddy he managed to salvage from his hut.  In photos 1-49 through 1-51, children play among the paddy they have safely brought back to the forest after helping their parents recover it.  Photo 1-51 is a foot-operated pounder used to dehusk the paddy; this one of bamboo and wood was quickly built by Yah Aw villagers displaced in the forest.  All of these photos were taken between December 6 th and 15 th 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]