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KHRG Photo Gallery 2006: The Northern Offensive
1. The Northern Offensive (part 1)
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| Area shaded in yellow shows the area of the SPDC offensive against northern Karen villages. Click on the image to see a larger map. |
Since late 2005 the SPDC has carried out a continuous offensive against Karen villages throughout northern Karen State, with the aim of depopulating the Karen hills where the Army has never been able to control or exploit the villagers. Everyone living in these hills is to be moved to Army-controlled relocation sites in lower-lying areas, or killed.
Until the mid-1990s, Burmese military strategy was to attack and destroy the Karen armed resistance. This failed, so in the mid-1990s the Army shifted the target of its attacks to the civilian population, in the hope that depopulating areas where resistance forces were active would undermine and eradicate the armed resistance. However, it was unable to capture most of the civilian population or bring it under control, leading it to progressively intensify its attacks against villagers, their homes and their crops. In response, northern Karen hill villagers became more mobile, successfully evading SPDC forces while staying close to their farm fields. As the years passed, the Army increasingly came to view the villagers as the enemy, because it was the evasion tactics and noncompliance of the villagers that was undermining the Army's power much more than the much-reduced guerrilla force of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). By 2002, the Army was actively avoiding any encounter with the KNLA and staying well clear of known KNLA positions in order to more effectively attack the real enemy, the villagers. Crop fields and food supplies became major targets for destruction by SPDC forces.
In January 2004 the SPDC reached an informal 'gentleman's agreement' ceasefire with the KNLA. Instead of withdrawing troops, however, the regime sent in more troops, encroached into remote areas, stockpiled rations and supplies and used villagers as forced labour to build new camps in areas the Army had never been able to effectively control, all without fear of ambush by the KNLA. These preparations allowed the Army in 2005 to launch its fiercest campaign against the villagers since 1997.
The first signs of the offensive came in February-March 2005, when SPDC forces in Toungoo district sent patrols into the remote hills to flush out the villagers and destroy their food supplies. In July 2005, the SPDC imposed a blockade against all non-military traffic along the road from Toungoo (in the plains of Burma's heartland) eastward into the Karen hills of Toungoo district, with the apparent intent of starving villagers out of the hills (see KHRG Photo Gallery 2005, Section 1). In November 2005, when the annual rice harvest was about to begin, SPDC Army columns in southeastern Toungoo district and in northern Nyaunglebin district began systematically burning and destroying hill villages, food supplies and crop fields. Villagers throughout these two areas began fleeing to the forests to escape the SPDC columns rather than move to SPDC-controlled sites along vehicle roads, where they knew they would be given nothing, stripped of their land and used for forced labour. By December, some villagers who had been prevented from harvesting their crops ran out of food, but were unable to return to their villages because SPDC forces were still in the area so they began heading towards Thailand in the hope of gaining entry to refugee camps there. Most villagers, however, held out in their home areas. KNLA forces tried to stay clear of the SPDC columns to uphold the ceasefire, but were attacked whenever SPDC forces stumbled upon them. Eventually KNLA forces began fighting harassing actions to protect displaced villagers from advancing SPDC columns, and the ceasefire progressively became meaningless.
 Throughout December 2005 and January 2006 the SPDC attacks spread to dozens more villages in eastern Toungoo district and northern Nyaunglebin district, displacing thousands more people. In February 2006, SPDC troops began destroying villagers' working huts in their rice fields in Shwegyin township of southern Nyaunglebin district. This was followed in March by new attacks against all hill villages in central and southern Nyaunglebin district, further expanding the offensive. In May, the SPDC sent seven fresh battalions into northern Papun district, an area which had not yet been affected, and launched attacks against dozens of villages there.
Attacks are normally carried out by SPDC columns of 200-300 troops which move from village to village. First the village is shelled with mortars from a distance. As the troops advance on the village, any villagers seen in their fields or the forest are gunned down without question. The troops enter the village firing their weapons into the houses. At this point most of the villagers have fled, but any who remain are killed. The houses are then looted and torched, while the troops kill all the livestock and destroy any food supplies. Before leaving, landmines are laid in front of any buildings still standing. The column searches for and destroys hidden rice caches in the surrounding forests, and tramples or landmines the rice fields outside the village. They search out the hiding places of the displaced, and if they find any they shoot the villagers and burn the shelters.
Normally such SPDC offensives end with the coming of the rains in June, but this offensive continued throughout the rainy season apparently on orders from the top levels of the SPDC. Villagers in hiding near their fields hoped to return to tend their crops after the troops withdrew, but in most areas this did not happen. As the rains continued, making roads and pathways impassable, the SPDC columns became less mobile. They attacked fewer villages but continued shelling villages and the hiding sites of the displaced with mortar fire, and focused their efforts on building more permanent outposts among the hills which would facilitate a continued offensive in the upcoming dry season. These outposts made it impossible for many villagers to return to their crops. The rains ended in October 2006, but the offensive troops in the northern Karen districts were not withdrawn. Instead, Army camps throughout the northern districts were resupplied and troops patrolled the rice fields in November to keep villagers away from harvesting their crops. Then in early 2007 new battalions and divisions were sent in to intensify the attacks on villages and the hiding sites of the displaced. Since then, villages already attacked earlier in the offensive have been attacked a second or even third time. Villagers living under SPDC control along the vehicle road traversing Nyaunglebin and Papun districts are being forced to expand the SPDC Army bases at Mu Theh and Baw Hser Koh (Pwa Ghaw) for the arrival of larger forces, and clear adjacent ground for the creation of large forced relocation sites which local SPDC authorities are referring to as 'new towns'. The situation of the villagers in hiding in the hills, now estimated to number around 30,000 in these hill areas alone, is increasingly difficult, and there are fears that many more will be displaced and may have to flee toward the Thai border because they were unable to harvest enough rice at the end of 2006.
 All of the information above has been reported in greater detail in KHRG reports which have monitored the offensive since its beginning, all of which are available on our web site. The early stages of the offensive were also documented with photos in KHRG Photo Gallery 2005. The images below begin where Photo Gallery 2005 ended, showing the progress of the offensive from late 2005 to the beginning of 2007. They are presented chronologically and are divided into five consecutive sections due to the large number of photos. These five subsections are followed by a subsection on Convict Porters in the Northern Offensive, which explains and documents the SPDC's forced recruitment of convicts throughout Burma to support its attacks on villages in this particular offensive.
All photos are by KHRG except where specifically noted otherwise.
Due to the large number of photos in this first section of the gallery, it has been divided into several web pages to speed internet access. When finished viewing this page, click on the link at the bottom of the page to proceed to the next part.
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Villagers from Bu Sah Kee, Bu Kee, Klay Kee, Tha Aye Kee and Ha Htoh Per villages in southern Toungoo district gather to receive some relief rice supplies from the Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD) in September 2005. Beginning in late July 2005 the SPDC blockaded the road up from the plains into the region to all non-military traffic in a deliberate effort to starve villagers out of the hills down to SPDC-controlled territory, and issued orders that these villagers, whose villages are located on and near the Kler Lah - Bu Sah Kee road, were no longer allowed to buy rice supplies from Kaw Thay Der as in the past (see map). This caused everyone in the area to suffer severe shortages of rice and other basic commodities. See also the section on Movement Restrictions in KHRG Photo Gallery 2005. [Photo: KHRG] |
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Villagers from Yeh Mu Plaw village tract in central Papun district take a rest during the three day hike to the Salween River to buy salt from Thailand. As hill villagers, they cannot go to Papun town, which would be much closer, for fear that the SPDC will arrest them and force them to relocate out of the hills. [Photo: KHRG] |
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The ruins of Hee Daw Khaw village in southeastern Toungoo district five days after it was burned to the ground by SPDC Infantry Battalion #75 on November 28th 2005, forcing villagers throughout the area to move into hiding in the forests.
Photo 1-7 below shows an SPDC-made copy of the American M14 landmine which was found afterward planted right in front of the steps of the village church, one of the only buildings not to be burned.
For more information and photos see also Section 1 of KHRG Photo Gallery 2005 and Recent Attacks on Villages in Southeastern Toungoo District (KHRG #2006-B3, March 2006). [Photos: KHRG] |
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Villagers from Hee Daw Khaw, Kho Kee and Klay Kee set out on the difficult and dangerous journey to the border with Thailand in December 2005 after SPDC troops attacked their villages, destroyed their food supplies and occupied the area. Most of the villagers tried to stay close to their home villages and fields in hiding in the forest, but some had no food supplies at all and decided to try to escape as refugees to Thailand. See also photos above. [Photo: KHRG; ignore the incorrect date stamped on the photo] |
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KNLA soldiers stand guard while groups of displaced villagers cross the SPDC military road from Pwa Ghaw to Saw Htah (see map) in late November 2005 and in February 2006. Villagers dare not cross this road without KNLA escort for fear of being sighted and shot at by SPDC patrols. When the SPDC Army is particularly active in the area, crossings can only occur at night. Villagers fleeing Toungoo district toward the Thai border have no option but to cross this road. [Photos: KHRG] |
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On November 29th 2005 after a brief armed skirmish with KNLA troops near Tha Pyay Nyunt, a column of SPDC Light Infantry Battalion #599 led by deputy battalion commander Aung Kyi Soe came to Dter Gkweh Lay Soh village in northern Mone township, Nyaunglebin district and punished them for the KNLA attack by burning 14 of the 21 houses in the village. The villagers had nothing to do with the fighting and there were no KNLA soldiers present. According to 45 year old villager Saw M---, "When the Burmese soldiers arrived in the village they didn't say anything, except that they had to burn down the houses according to their orders from above. They burned down the houses but not all the houses. They burned down 14 houses, and we were able to save some of our possessions but some we couldn't." The soldiers left while the houses were still burning, and Naw N--- (photo 1-12 above) threw enough water on her house to stop the fire before it was completely consumed by fire. |
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Other houses were burned entirely, and people who were outside the village working their fields had all their belongings burned along with their houses. After the troops left, the villagers began building the basic shelters seen here in the photos, with roofs of reed mats or nylon tarps, on the ruins of their burned houses. Photos 1-13 and 1-14 show Naw G---, cooking water on the ruins of her burned house and standing in front of the makeshift shelter where she and her extended family live now. In photo 1-15, one of the village grandmothers rakes through the ashes of her house to see if any small belongings might still be there. These photos were taken in mid-December 2005. In photo 1-16, teenaged Naw L--- sits in the shelter her family built on top of the ashes of their house. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Five year old Naw H--- (left, seen here with her father in their house in northern Papun district) suffers from splenomegaly (enlarged spleen, which can be caused by malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis A or B or chronic infection), but her family can get no medicine for her because the SPDC blockades medicines from being brought from the plains into the Papun hills. A few days after this photo was taken, a prayer service was held on December 11th 2005 (right) in the house of Saw Jack, a young child in a neighbouring village who suffers from the same ailment. Three days later Saw Jack died. Many children and adults in these villages suffer from splenomegaly and hepatomegaly (swollen liver, which can be caused by hepatitis A or B) because of insufficient treatment for treatable illnesses. [Photos: KHRG] |
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In January 2006, a soldier of KNLA 2nd Brigade Battalion #5 (above left) removes a landmine from a path to a villager's rice field east of Than Daung Gyi in Than Daung township, northern Toungoo district. SPDC battalions #39 and #603 had been planting landmines throughout this area to force villagers off their fields so they can no longer survive in the hills beyond SPDC control. In the second photo above he shows five landmines, all SPDC-made copies of the American M14 mine, which he had already removed from this pathway alone.
Saw T--- (left) lives in the area and says one villager has already been killed and another maimed by these mines. The photo shows him standing in front of an abandoned hillside rice field, now a common feature in the region because many villagers don't dare plant a field for fear of the mines. Other villagers in the area told KHRG the SPDC has also mined all the pathways to Than Daung Gyi town, making it impossible for villagers to go to market to buy rice and other needed commodities.
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These mines are not targeted at Karen soldiers, but at making it impossible for villagers to live in the hills beyond direct SPDC control. A--- (right) is a deserter from one of the SPDC units operating in Than Daung township. After escaping in January 2006, he confirmed to KHRG that his unit deployed landmines targeted at villagers throughout the area. For more information on the use of landmines to isolate hill villagers in Than Daung township see Without Respite: Renewed attacks on villages and internal displacement in Toungoo district (KHRG #2006-02, June 2006). [Photos: KHRG]
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Villagers from K'Ter Kee village in northeastern Toungoo district living in hiding in forest shelters in February 2006. SPDC troops were active destroying villages in their area, so they took all their belongings into the forest in case the troops came to destroy their village. [Photos: KHRG]
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In early March 2006 a KHRG researcher joined this group of over 100 Karen villagers from Klay Kee, Bu Kee, Hee Daw Khaw, Tha Aye Kee, Kho Kee, and Yuh Koh Thoo villages in southeastern Toungoo District for part of their two-week journey from their home villages to the Burma-Thai border to become refugees. All of their villages have been destroyed by SPDC columns since November 2005. After living in hiding for several months, this group of villagers decided they would not be able to return to work their fields and rebuild their villages because SPDC troops remain in the area, so they chose to make the difficult and dangerous journey through Papun district, where SPDC columns are also destroying villages, and on to Thailand. |
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Families carried their smallest children and whatever clothing and rice they were able to save from their villages. Children over 5 or 6 had to walk themselves, sometimes carrying their baby siblings (photo 1-30, right). |
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This made progress slow and the group frequently had to rest, but always stayed together for safety. |
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Meals were a community effort, with some finding wood while others cooked, and those with food sharing with those without (photo 1-34). When passing near SPDC camps or columns the group had to cook at night for fear the soldiers might see their smoke (photo 1-35). In photo 1-36, a baby is fed by its mother while the father and grandmother look on anxiously; malaria, diarrhoea and other illnesses are constant threats while in the jungle, particularly to infants. |
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At night temperatures dropped as low as 10 degrees celsius but the villagers had to sleep on the ground with little for warmth (photo 1-38); some nights they were lucky to find rice field huts so some of the children could sleep under a roof (photo 1-39). |
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When they reached the T--- stream in Papun district (photo 1-40, left) many took the opportunity to wash themselves, which they had been unable to do for a week - an unacceptable condition to these people used to bathing at least once a day.
On their arrival near the border after about two weeks (photos 1-41 and 1-42 below), they heard from other refugees that "the way to the refugee camp is blocked", meaning that if they tried to cross the Salween River they would be arrested by Thai authorities before they could trek the day's walk through the forest to the camp, and summarily deported back across the river. They were therefore stuck living under the trees in an area of Papun District where they are very vulnerable to SPDC attack. Later they joined other displaced villagers at Ee Thu Hta, a site along the Salween whose population quickly rose to over 1,000, but where attack by SPDC troops based nearby is still a daily possibility. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Seventy-five year old Naw Ma Shin fled her village in Toungoo district after SPDC troops shot dead her husband and son and fled to Ee Thu Hta at the Thai border, where she is seen in this August 2006 photo. At the camp for internally displaced villagers, she is cared for by her niece (right). [Photo: KHRG] |
| Many displaced villagers from Toungoo district whose villages and crops had been destroyed by SPDC troops fled to the Thai border, arriving at this site along the Salween River where they set up shelters or stayed underneath the houses of others. Unable to cross the Salween into Thailand for fear of forced repatriation, they were still vulnerable to attack by nearby SPDC battalions. These photos were taken in March 2006. [Photos: KHRG] |
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Naw E---, 30, and her children had to flee Tee Kay Der village in Lu Thaw township of Papun district in March 2006 because SPDC columns were patrolling the area to forcibly relocate villagers, and is seen here sheltering in another village. Photo 1-48 below shows some of the terraced irrigated rice fields of her home village, now abandoned because villagers dare not work them if SPDC troops are in the area. [Photos: KHRG]
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The village school of Kay Pu village in Lu Thaw township, Papun district, which local villagers were rebuilding when this photo was taken in April 2006 after their former school had been burned by an SPDC column. [Photo: KHRG] |
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The volleyball ground in T'Nay Po Klah village, northern Papun district. In 2005 displaced villagers from T'Nay Po Klah had returned to this site, built 15 houses, and named it T'Nay Po Klah once again. A KHRG researcher adds, "Even though the IDPs were tortured and oppressed by the SPDC, they co-operated and helped each other in building this volleyball ground so that the villagers can play in it. It was also good for health." When these photos were taken on April 4th, however, the new village lay abandoned because SPDC columns were once again patrolling the area. [Photo: KHRG] |
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Destroyed and abandoned houses in Bu Kee village, southeastern Toungoo district (see map), including the village school (photo 1-52), after villagers fled to escape SPDC patrols destroying villages in the area. Some fled toward Thailand, but those with any food chose to remain near their village in houses they built higher in the hills (photo 1-53). Meanwhile, a group of villagers from Tha Aye Kee further north passed through the Bu Kee area on the way to the Thai border after their village had also been destroyed (photo 1-54). These photos were taken in April 2006. [Photos: KHRG] |
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These villagers live in Sho Ser area of eastern Toungoo district, very close to the heavily militarised Toungoo - Mawchi road (see map) where it crosses from Karen State into Karenni (Kayah State). Despite living very close to several SPDC Army camps, they try to carry on their way of life while constantly having to monitor and evade the SPDC troops. Photo 1-55 above shows a group of huts hidden high in the hills, built by local villagers to evade SPDC forces. In April 2006, when these photos were taken, it was time to burn off their hill fields in preparation for planting when the rains come in June. This is a highly risky activity, because if SPDC troops see the smoke they may come to capture or kill the villagers, but it is necessary for survival. In photo 1-56 (above right), a group of farmers holds a prayer service before going to burn off their fields. |
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The fields shown above and left are just the other side of the mountain from the SPDC road, but the villagers still burned them off because in the words of the local KHRG researcher, "These are very brave villagers." |
A few weeks later, people of three local villages gathered to sow the rice seed (below). Capture carries grave risks; when the man in photo 1-60 (right) was captured by local SPDC forces in 2005, he was tortured so seriously that he is now blind and deaf. [Photos: KHRG]
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A group of Karen villagers displaced in eastern Than Daung township of Toungoo district waits for the 'go' signal as they prepare to cross the Toungoo - Mawchi road to head further south in April 2006. The road is dotted with SPDC Army camps and heavily patrolled, and the roadsides are landmined. Civilians and Karen soldiers alike are extremely nervous about crossing this road, which is often done by night. In photo 1-64 below, a KNLA soldier takes up his position while the villagers begin to cross. [Photos: KHRG]
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A house in Ber Kah Lay Ko village, eastern Than Daung township of Toungoo district, seen here in April 2006. SPDC soldiers set fire to this house but it only partially burned. All of the villagers have fled into the hills. [Photo: KHRG]
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| K--- village in eastern Than Daung township of Toungoo district in April 2006. SPDC soldiers burned many of the houses and smashed the walls of the village church (right), but after the column withdrew the villagers were able to return from the hills and perform enough repairs that the day this photo was taken they were preparing to conduct worship services in their church again. The portico still shows some evidence of the damage. |
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Four months after their homes were burned, the owners of the houses shown to the left and right had returned and started to rebuild. With the SPDC still determined to flush all villagers out of this region, however, it is unlikely that this peace will last for long. [Photos: KHRG]
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The Karen New Year pole shown above, with strings of fishbones hanging from it for prosperity, was erected in front of their church by Haw Lu Der villagers in eastern Than Daung township of Toungoo district (see map) to celebrate the New Year in December 2005. Two days later an SPDC column approached to destroy their village and they had to flee. When this photo was taken in April 2006, the pole still stood and the villagers had not yet returned.
The other photos show them in late April, when they had just had to move yet again to evade an SPDC column and were staying on the forest floor together with displaced villagers from nearby Sho Ko village. [Photos: KHRG; disregard the incorrect dates burned on the photos] |
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Temporary houses built in fallow hill rice fields by villagers living around Bu Sah Kee in southeastern Toungoo district. They moved from their villages up into the hill fields to evade SPDC forces who are taking people as forced labour in villages along the Kler Lah - Bu Sah Kee road. [Photo: KHRG]
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On April 21st 2006 a column led by Column Commander Soe Myint of SPDC Light Infantry Division #66, Light Infantry Battalion #10, began destroying villages east of the Day Loh river in Than Daung township of northern Toungoo district. On April 21st they burned Thay Yah Yuh village. On April 23rd the Light Infantry Battalion #10 column camped at Kaw Mee Koh village, and burned the village the following day. The villagers had already fled into the surrounding forest. These photos were taken on April 26th , when the villagers of Kaw Mee Koh returned to see what they could salvage from the burned ruins of their homes.
Photo 1-79 (below right) shows a cardamom plantation in the forest outside the village which was also burned by the SPDC column. Many villagers in Toungoo district grow cardamom as a cash crop because it can be hidden from marauding SPDC troops, but if found the troops destroy it so the villagers will have no way to survive (continues with photos below). [Photos: KHRG] |
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The villagers of Thay Yah Yuh also fled when the SPDC column burned their village on April 21st (see preceding photos). These photos show them a few days later in the nearby forest, where they were busy building shelters on a hillside. As evidenced by the happy faces in some of the photos, the situation had not destroyed their spirits or their sense of community. |
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In photo 1-88 below, two families share a meal; in these circumstances, those who were able to bring food share with those whose food was lost.
Shelters are also built for the sick (photo 1-89, below right). |
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In photo 1-90 below, one of the villagers returned to his paddy storage barn only to learn that the SPDC column had found it and dumped all of his rice on the ground so it would be destroyed by insects. SPDC columns systematically seek out these storage barns, which are hidden in the forest, and burn or dump out the paddy so the villagers will have no food. In this photo, the owner has managed to arrive in time to salvage some of his paddy which has not yet been destroyed by scooping it into a basket. |
Photo 1-91 below shows 19 year old N---, a convict porter who was being forced to carry supplies for the SPDC column that burned Thay Yah Yuh and Kaw Mee Koh villages. He escaped, and when this photo was taken on April 29th he had joined the displaced villagers in hiding in the forest. He was extremely thin from lack of food, and his shoulders and back were scarred by the heavy bamboo basket he had been forced to carry (for more on convict porters in the offensive, see Section 1A below). [All photos: KHRG] |
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Oo Per village in Than Daung township of eastern Toungoo district (above) and a village near Wa Soe, just southeast of Oo Per (right), lie abandoned in April 2006 after their villagers fled into the forests due to SPDC military activity in the area (see map). |
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The villagers of Pwee Kee, further north in Than Daung township, had to leave their old village and build a new temporary village in 2006 (shown to the left) to evade SPDC troops, but say that they often have to flee this site as well whenever SPDC columns come near.
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Many of the villagers in this area say they are now always on the move, often forced to stay in deep jungle in rudimentary shelters like those shown in photos 1-96 and 1-97.
They divide up their food supplies and belongings between several hiding places hidden in the forest so they will not be taken or destroyed by SPDC troops; photo 1-98 (below right) shows some bamboo a villager has cut at a small site he has cleared to build a hidden food storage shed. |
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On April 13th, SPDC Light Infantry Division #66 troops at P'Nah Ko Soe camp near Wa Soe village began setting fire to villagers' hillside rice fields and cardamom plantations around the Wa Soe area. This would destroy the cardamom bushes, and though it was not rice growing season it would render the rice fields unusable for the year by preventing a proper burnoff later in the season (for explanation, see Hunger Wielded as a Weapon in Thaton District, KHRG #2006-B11, September 2006). This was therefore a calculated move to destroy local villagers' ability to produce food in order to force them to move down out of the hills to SPDC-controlled sites along the road.
Photos 1-99 and 1-100 show the smoke rising off the burning fields while the villagers watched. After dark that night, local villagers combined with KNLA soldiers worked through the night to contain and put out the fires to prevent them consuming all of their fields and field huts. In photo 1-101, some villagers take a rest from this work, their clothes and faces blackened by the soot. |
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With SPDC columns roaming their home areas and destroying their homes, fields and hidden shelters without respite for over six months, many villagers felt they could no longer survive in these conditions and decided to set out southward into Tantabin township or as far as the Thai border. |
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Carrying whatever rice, clothing, cookpots and utensils they could, and carrying the smallest children in their baskets, this particular group started their difficult journey through the mountains in mid-April 2006. The trip requires crossing several SPDC-patrolled vehicle roads, which is extremely dangerous due to the risk of landmines along the roadsides and SPDC snipers with orders to shoot villagers on sight.
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To get across the Toungoo-Mawchi road and enter Tantabin township, the group had to gather near the road until KNLA soldiers could scout the area and give the signal that it was all clear to cross (see photo 1-108 below). The KHRG researcher who took these photos noted that there was an SPDC Light Infantry Division #66 camp just five minutes' walk down the road from here, "so the villagers had to wait for the KNLA near the side of the road, nervous and afraid. During this time they felt on the line between life and death." The signal to cross came, and photo 1-109 shows the group of villagers rushing to cross the road: "they had to go quickly and in silence to get across." They were lucky and no patrol sighted them, so they were able to continue their journey. From here it could still take up to two weeks to reach the Thai border, with at least one more road to cross. [All photos: KHRG] |
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A group of 280 villagers from northern Toungoo district heads southward into Papun district in late March to early April 2006 in the hope of reaching a refugee camp in Thailand. Their villages were destroyed by SPDC columns, and when those columns remained in their home areas many people ran out of food and could not return to their villages so they decided to head for the border.
This group was being escorted by a few KNLA soldiers for security. It included infants and small children, the elderly, the sick wrapped in blankets (left), and also disabled people like the landmine amputee shown in photo 1-111 above. |
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Apart from carrying whatever food and clothing they could, children had to carry and care for their smaller siblings while their parents carried heavier loads. |
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As shown in photos 1-117 and 1-118 below, cooking was a communal affair but there is nothing to eat with the rice except a few chillies or soup boiled from jungle leaves. [All photos: KHRG] |
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During her flight to the Thai border in April 2006 with a group of other people from her village, this schoolgirl from Toungoo district fell seriously ill and had to be carried through the hills of Papun district. This photo was taken during a rest stop while she was being carried several days' walk to the nearest clinic in a KNU-controlled area. The group soon set off again through the fields (photo 1-120). [Photos: KHRG]
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1-121
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Villagers from Toungoo district travel through Papun district on their way toward the Thai border in April 2006. Their villages had been destroyed by the SPDC, and they tried to survive in the nearby hills for several months. Their food ran out with no sign that the SPDC forces were about to withdraw, however, so this group decided to try to flee to the Thai border with whatever food and belongings they still had to become refugees.
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1-122
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1-123
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The group in photos 1-121 through 1-125 is from Tantabin township of southern Toungoo district, while the group in photo 1-126 (below left) is from further north in eastern Than Daung township, where they said 26 of their villages had already been destroyed by the SPDC since November 2005.
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1-124
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1-125
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Among this group were Naw A---, her two children and her husband (photo 1-127 below), seen here during a rest stop. They told KHRG that when SPDC troops shelled and then raided their village they fled in panic and their third child was left behind. Since fleeing they have had no news of what happened to their child. Now their elder surviving daughter seen in the photo is so ill she cannot sit up. [Photos: KHRG]
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1-126
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1-127 |
1-128
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1-129 |
A group of villagers hurries to cross the Kyauk Kyi - Saw Htah military access road in Papun district in April 2006 together with a group of medics and KNLA soldiers for security. Any civilians seen on this road are shot on sight by SPDC forces. [Photos: KHRG] |
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