These photos were taken and collected by KHRG since the publication of Photo Set 2001-A in September 2001.  The photos in this set were taken in Toungoo, Nyaunglebin, Papun, Thaton, Pa’an and Dooplaya Districts.  The photos have been divided into separate headings: ‘Forced Labour’'Attacks on Villages & Village Destruction''Detention and Torture''Shootings and Killings''Flight and Displacement''Landmines''Soldiers''Children', and 'Food'.  Brief descriptions of the topics covered under each heading are provided at the beginning of each section.  

This photo set contains more than 500 photos and their descriptions which document the human rights situation in Karen areas of Burma.  These photos were taken and collected by KHRG since the publication of Photo Set 2001-A in September 2001.  The photos in this set were taken in Toungoo, Nyaunglebin, Papun, Thaton, Pa’an and Dooplaya Districts.  The photos have been divided into separate headings: ‘Forced Labour’'Attacks on Villages & Village Destruction''Detention and Torture''Shootings and Killings''Flight and Displacement''Landmines''Soldiers''Children', and 'Food'.  Brief descriptions of the topics covered under each heading are provided at the beginning of each section.  More detailed information on the abuses and the regions is available in KHRG documentary reports, several of which are referenced in the text below.  Of important note is that many of the abuses documented in this photo set occurred after Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in May 2002 and international attention increasingly began to focus on an imminent agreement between the SPDC and the National League for Democracy.  These photos graphically demonstrate that while the international community discusses the ‘progress’ in Rangoon, gross human rights abuses continue to be committed by SPDC forces in the countryside.  The numerous forced labour photos in this set have been taken since the SPDC claimed that it had put an end to forced labour, most of them since the International Labour Organisation’s High Level Team released its report criticising the regime's continued use of forced labour and its inadequate attempts to halt the practice.

Almost all of the images in this photo set were taken by KHRG human rights researchers in the field, as noted in the photo captions.  Photos taken by other researchers are credited to those who provided them.  The photos contained in the set have been chosen as a sampling, and are intended to show as many aspects of the situation as possible.  Details of some of the people and places have been deliberately omitted from the photo descriptions or replaced by ‘xxxx’‘yyyy’‘aaaa’‘bbbb’, etc. where necessary to protect the villagers involved.  Some of the faces have also been blocked out for the same reasons.  While looking at the photos, please remember that they were taken under difficult and often dangerous circumstances with low budget equipment, and quality is as incoming.

The photos are not numbered sequentially, but according to the main section in which they appear; for example, photos related primarily to Forced Labour are numbered A1, A2, etc., and those related to Attacks on Villages and Village Destruction are numbered B1, B2, etc.  Photos which are relevant to more than one section are displayed more than once.  For example, a photo of children doing forced labour will appear in both the Forced Labour section and the Children section, but will bear the same number in both places; as a result, the sequence of numbered photos may appear something like A1, A2, C47, A3, A4, D12, D13, A5, etc. 

Copies of the photo prints or digital copies scanned at higher resolution can be obtained upon approval from KHRG, by specifying the photo set and photo numbers and paying the costs involved.  Organisations may download the images from the KHRG web site or use the prints for publication on a not-for-profit basis, provided they are properly credited; any publication for commercial purposes requires permission of the copyright holders.  This can be obtained by contacting KHRG.

This photo set attempts to give a visual impression of the situation in many different areas, and is intended for use together with KHRG's more detailed regional reports.  For a more comprehensive picture of the human rights situation in each area, see the reports referenced in the summaries and photo captions below.

V. Flight and Displacement 

Villagers are fleeing SPDC-controlled villages, relocation sites and villages destroyed by the SPDC in increasing numbers because of the deteriorating conditions described in the other sections of this report.  Most villagers only leave their villages when they have no other option.  Subsistence farmers with strong ties to the land, Karen villagers find it almost unbearable to be far from their land.  They usually begin by fleeing into the surrounding forests or their field huts.  When SPDC patrols hunting them get too close they flee farther into the forest but usually within reach of their fields so that they can still work them.  They try to plant rice in small parts of their fields, usually spread out to avoid detection.  Until the crops are harvestable the villages make secret trips back to rice storage barns hidden in the forest to get rice and seed grain.  To supplement their diet they forage for vegetables and roots in the forest.  Some villagers are able take some of their chickens with them when they flee, but pigs and cattle are rare.  Most villagers must flee with with their children and whatever they have on their backs.  After fleeing like this several times there is little opportunity, or incentive, to raise chickens or livestock which are expensive and must usually be left behind.

Internally displaced villagers live in small groups of a few families so that the chance of detection is reduced.  They must always be ready to flee again so they listen for the news of the movements of SPDC columns from other displaced villagers and KNLA units.  Whenever SPDC columns come near they must flee again farther into the hills.  Despite these precautions, villagers are still caught in their fields or on paths and shot on sight (see the photos in the "Shootings and Killings" section).  The villagers also must fear the landmines which are laid by all sides.  The SPDC deliberately mines the paths, fields and abandoned villages of displaced villagers to make it impossible for them to live in the area.  KNLA units lay landmines to restrict the movements of SPDC columns, and DKBA units do the same against the KNLA.  Many of the victims of the landmines laid by the SPDC, DKBA and KNLA are villagers, especially the internally displaced, who often bleed to death before they can be carried to medical help (see the photos in the "Landmines" section).

Although the risks are high, most villagers would prefer to remain near their fields, or at least on some land where they may be able to grow a crop, rather than fleeing across the border into Thailand.  The internally displaced villagers would rather hold on to the hope of one day being able to go home and live in their own villages.  The smaller number that do make the long and dangerous trip to Thailand usually only do so after all hope of growing a crop or having enough food to survive until they can grow a crop has completely gone.  Several hundred thousand villagers live a very precarious existence in Karen State alone.  Much of the population in the mountains of Toungoo District in the north chooses to live in hiding in the forest rather than live in the SPDC-controlled  'peace villages' or relocation sites. where they must serve as forced labour for the SPDC's spreading road network and as porters (see "Peace Villages and Hiding VIllages", KHRG #2000-05, 15/10/00).  Slightly further south, the SPDC has systematically destroyed more than 200 villages since 1997 in the hills of Nyaunglebin and northern Papun districts.  This has forced more than 50,000 people to flee into the forests where they still remain in hiding (see "Flight, Hunger and Survival", KHRG #2001-03, 22/10/01).

In Dooplaya District of southern Karen State, SPDC battalions began in February 2002 a campaign of village relocations and destructions which is still ongoing.  When the relocation orders were received many villagers opted to flee into the forest or to Thailand. Some villagers who did not go to the relocation sites by the specified deadlines have been shot on sight.  In one case in late April, Infantry Battalion #78 discovered a group of villagers attempting to flee to Thailand and massacred ten of them, leaving nine others wounded.  Six of the ten dead were children; eight were women and girls. (see Photos #D4-D7 and KHRG Information Update #2002-U5, 25/9/02). 

The photos in the sections below come from Toungoo, Nyaunglebin, Papun, Thaton, Pa'an, and Dooplaya Districts.  Many of the photos come from Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts where the most extensive displacement is currently taking place.  The photos are divided into 4 subsections: Life on the RunFoodHealth, and Education.  Life on the Run illustrates the flight of people from their villages to escape the SPDC columns and their struggle to survive in hiding in the forests.  Food documents the struggle of the internally displaced to get enough food to survive.  Health shows the almost complete lack of health care and the struggle to survive with only traditional medicines.  Education documents the loss of access to education due to displacement and the efforts of the villagers to continue teaching their children even while they are on the run in the forest.

1) Life on the Run

2) Food

The photos below also show some of the struggles the internally displaced villagers must face in getting enough food to survive.  Their struggle is made all the more difficult by the SPDC's operations to destroy their crops and their food caches.  The lives of internally displaced villagers are constantly at risk whether they are planting a small crop in a hill field, hiking to an SPDC-controlled village to buy rice to carry back into the hills, or retrieving a basket of rice from a hidden rice storage barn.  Depending on their luck, some villagers are able to survive this way for months or years, but eventually most of them find themselves driven into starvation and they have little choice but to flee to another area or head toward the border with Thailand.  In the captions below, paddy is the term used to refer to rice off the stalk which has not yet been husked.  Villagers dry the paddy and store it in paddy barns before pounding small amounts of it to husk it in preparation for cooking. 

3) Health

The photos below also show some of the difficulties the internally displaced must face protecting themselves from illness and seeking medical attention in a situation where there is an almost complete lack of modern medicines or outside medical help.  The SPDC prohibits the transport of any medicines into the mountains on the grounds that the medicines 'could end up with the resistance.'  There have been many cases of traders and villagers who have been executed after being caught trying to carry medicines into the hills.  While many villagers have been killed by the SPDC's soldiers, many more are dying from treatable illness such as malaria, dysentery, diarrhoea and infections.  This is especially so among the children and the elderly.  For additional photos related to the difficulty of obtaining medical treatment for villagers who have been shot, tortured or have stepped on landmines, see also the "Shootings and Killings" and "Landmines" sections.

4) Education

SPDC columns sent to destroy villages usually target the school and other community buildings first.  The children of the displaced villagers lose any access to whatever education they previously had.  Their parents often lament this fact when speaking to KHRG researchers in the field.  The value that these people place on education becomes very clear when you come upon a group of villagers in the forest, living on the ground in lean-to shelters of leaves with almost nothing to eat and on the run from SPDC troops, yet with a rudimentary blackboard set up between the trees and one of the villagers teaching the children to read and write.

 

Thu, 19 Dec 2002

ဖးအါထီၣ်တၢ်ဂ့ၢ်ဘၣ်ထွဲတဖၣ်

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