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The reports in this section are from the Free Burma Rangers and other individuals who, in the face of continuing deadly assaults against the Karen minority people by the Burmese Army, risk their lives to offer humanitarian assistance and inform the world of this ongoing horror. They enter Burma in the cloak of darkness and travel from village to village on foot, often in the cloak of darkness. Recently, they have been able to send photos from attack scenes via satellite telephone.
(Photo: Burma Army soldiers in distance force villagers to porter the materials used to attack their villages): Army unit 15 is attacking with seven battalions and their troop strength is between 1,200-1,300 soldiers. The Burma Army captured a 26-year-old civilian earlier this year and forced him to be a porter and work for the soldiers, carrying ammunition, food and other military supplies. Recent reports from the jungle: Last night, while we were stopped in a village, a new group of 150 displaced people walked in at dusk. They were tired, on edge and many babies were crying. They had just crossed a Burma Army controlled road and were now at the end of their food supply. They had been walking for 2 weeks as they tried to escape the Burma Army. It was heart-rending to hear the children cry and see the faces of these people, some of whom looked bewildered to be here. I thought of my own children and it made me feel pain. I watched as one group detached from the main group and headed up a nearby hill evidently thinking that this was were they needed to go. When they were told that the place prepared for them was on another hill, I could see their disappointment. Some seemed to be near their breaking point and the children sensing th IDP= Internally Displaced Persons who are on the run from the Read the moving account In Her Words by an American woman who participated in one of these missions. Special message from a relief team leader (FBR), Toungoo District, Northern Karen I want to write what is on my heart, what I have seen with my eyes and felt with my hands. We try our best to be objective when we send our reports from here in the field and we also want to make sure the human element is apparent. Bad things are being done to fellow human beings now and oppression and attacks continue. In spite of this, these people still try to survive and hold on to faith, love and hope. The Burma Army continues its campaign of oppression in this area; attacking villages, murdering people, forcing people to carry loads and labor for them, and building roads. Because of attacks by the Burma Army, Toungoo District has over 20,000 IDPs. PHOTO: These landmines were discovered on a trail used by IDPs in Southern Karenni State. They were placed by the Burma Army in order to terrorize Karenni IDPs and block their return to their home areas. These mines are anti-personnel mines and are copies of the US M-14 anti-personnel mine. They are the same size as the US made M-14 landmine and are now being used extensively by the Burma Army. An estimated 1,000 landmines have been placed by the SPDC and KNSO in the area South of Mawchi to the Karen border. While our team was in Toungoo District in January 2005, we heard that 440 villagers were in hiding following an attack by the Burma Army on 26 December 2004. We had brought with us medical supplies, clothes, educational and school supplies, bibles and hymnals for people who asked for them, toys for children and clothes. It was night when our team walked into the place where the villagers-now IDPs- were hiding, and the first thing we noticed was about 50 people standing in a small clearing under the night sky. Some had candles, some had lit pine pitch and were holding them up so they could see. When we walked in there was silence at first and then when we said "Na La Gwey" ("Good Night"), they suddenly surged forward smiling, laughing, and grabbing our hands. They kept saying "Da Blu, Da Blu" ("Thank you, Thank you"), and "Thank you for coming". It was wonderful to be so loved and welcomed but at the same time I felt sad and worried. Did they think we could save them? Did they think we were the beginning of a good change in Burma? We could not save them and as for change , we can only hope that we are a small part of that positive change. I felt compassion and a love for these people. I wanted to help them, protect them, and make sure they could go home. In reality all we could do was love them, remind them they were not forgotten, give them temporary relief and tell their story. We could shine a light, however small into their situation. That night the team went and visited with some of the IDPs sleeping close to us. Photo: Relief team members operate on the victim of a Burma Army attack None had real shelter; most of the families just lay on the ground sharing blankets. Some slept under trees with a lean-to of leaves over them. The scene looked very desperate and pathetic. Fathers and mothers had been stripped of their ability to take care of their children in a safe home. The elderly sat around small fires, trying to stay warm. The next morning we set up a medical and dental clinic and distributed relief supplies and clothes. I began to take pictures and as soon as I did, parents came up and thrust their children up to me . They wanted me to take their pictures and they had a real urgency about them. It was as if their children would not count if their picture was not taken. I kept taking pictures. The team treated patients and conducted surgery on one man who had been badly beaten by the Burma Army. As the day went on the IDPs became happier and happier and we all began to feel a closer relationship. Everyone sleeping together and eating together meant there were no barriers, physical or mental. We talked with two villagers who had lost their legs to Burma Army landmines and to a 13 year old boy, who had been shot in the arm by the Burma Army when he was 5 years old. His arm was still badly scarred. We talked with the father of one of the two men the Burma Army had captured and killed when they attacked the village in December 2004. We also met the sister of the other man taken at the same time. She said she misses her brother but heard that he is dead and is very sad. She is married to a man who has two bullet wounds from an earlier SPDC attack that left two of his friends dead. He smiled at me and said, "I am a farmer, this is our land, we have to try". One of the things that struck me most was the positive attitude of the people and their resiliency. They smiled, joked and tried to give us food they had been saving. The local medics were also amazing. This was a group of five young Karen women who traveled with us while we were in Toungoo District. They were all in their early twenties, pretty and full of energy. We had to walk over many mountains (the mountains in Toungoo District go over 8,000' and valleys down to 1,000') and these ladies did this in rubber slippers. It was cold every night and they all huddled together in one group, sharing blankets and living no better than the IDPs. While moving, we were often very close to SPDC outposts and patrols and one morning I asked the nurses if they were afraid of the Burma Army. "Yes, we are very afraid", they answered. "But we want to help our people, we want to help our Karen Nation, so we try". They smiled and said they were happy to have this chance to serve. We were inspired by these women and their presence brought a real peace to the IDPs Everywhere we went it was the same, the local people were full of energy and hope and believed that one day change would come. In the mean time they would work hard, pray and hope people in the outside world would come and help. But they told me, "We do not put our faith in the world or other nations, we have our faith in God...so we have hope". Enroute to this IDP hiding place we stopped at many other hiding places as well as villages that had been rebuilt after attacks by the Burma army. We provided relief to as many as we could and treated a total of 3,844 patients. In spite of the close presence of the Burma Army, every village and IDP site were full of people who had not given up. They kept their belongings packed every day and were ready to flee at a moments notice, but they had hope and have not given up on their homeland. Thank you to all of you who pray and help. You are real answers to our prayers and the prayers of the people here. We always tell them that there are many who love them and enable us to help. Thank you and God bless you, A Free Burma Ranger Photo: Remnants of a village home burned by the Burmese Army. The following is an update on the Burma Army attacks in Mergui- Tavoy on Situation Report: Burma Army attacks in Southern Karen State and Southern Karenni State, September 28, 2004.
The Burma Army is concentrating on clearing all Karenni refugees out of southern Karenni State and is burning rice barns, chasing civilians out of their villages and laying landmines around the abandoned villages. The Burma Army has crossed over to the Karen State side of the border and chased the villagers of Ka Lae Lo, Lay Wa, Say Ba Ti and Marmee from their villages. They burned down 2 rice barns at Ka Lae Lo village and planted a landmine on the main trail out of Ka Lae Lo about 500 meters from the village. On January 7 at 11.45 (Burma Time), a 17-year-old boy stepped on a landmine (Burma Army mine MM2 or the same type Chinese manufacture), outside of Ka Lae Lo village and lost his leg from the knee down. (Photo above) A FBR team who was nearby interviewing the villagers whose rice barns were burned along with another KNU medic responded and applied first aid. An emergency amputation was conducted and the boy was stabilized and then carried for 4 days to a mobile clinic. He is alive and is recovering. On Jan 8, the same FBR team witnessed the Burma Army burn down a villagers rice barn (Yu Hae Daw Ko village farm), across the river in Karenni State. Karenni villagers fleeing the attacks of the Burma army reported that 3 persons had died of starvation inside Karenni State and that many more were trapped in the jungle north of the Mawchi- Toungoo road. An unknown number of Karenni IDPs have fled to Toungoo District of the Karen state. On 26 December 2003, the Burma Army ordered all Karenni villagers north and south of the Mawchi road to relocate to Mahntahlayn near Pasaung (on the west bank of the Salween river), or be shot on site. On 29 December the Burma army began to force these villagers out of their villages. The largest concentration of IDPs who have fled these attacks are in the northern Muthraw district, where 995 Karenni IDPS and 678 Karen IDPs are in hiding together. Rice is running out and although there is a relief team providing emergency medical assistance, medicine will run out in 2 weeks if there is no resupply. Karenni have reported that the Burma Army is building a new road from Mawchi south east to Htee Lay Kee in #1 township of #2 district to serve the new Wolfram mine there. The Burma Army has forced the villagers of #2 and # 3 townships of District 2 Karenni to relocate along the Mawchi- Toungoo road and to porter for the Burma Army as well as to build a new army camp 1 mile west of Mawchi at Kaw Ku. This started on December 10, 2003. Also starting on this same date, 80 Karenni women and 40 Karenni men have been forced to carry supplies for the Burma Army from Mawchi to the Karen- Karenni border. The Karenni also report that the Burma Army has also brought 1,000 new Murder and Human Rights Violations in Muthraw, Toungoo and Thaton Districts by the Burma Army, SPDC. This report covers the murder of one civilian by the Burma Army and the Burma Army's continuing abuse of villagers in these two districts. 12 Dec- Major Mg Lin, Commander of Burma Army LIB No. (36) based in Three-Mountain Camp, sent for the village headmen of several villages and instructed the villagers to build a long ditch along side with the motor road linking between Pha Poung and Kuu Saek. The villagers were also instructed to build military installations for the soldiers from this unit. The commander also told the villagers that he could pay 1000.00 kyat (Burmese currency) for one hundred thatching for roofing (the real worth of one hundred thatching is 2000.00 kyat). The thatching is to be used for the roofing of the military buildings. The villagers were also ordered to bring all the thatch from their villages to the army base. 23 Dec- Troops from LIB No. (534) led by Captain Hla Win of the Burma Army entered Ka Law Hta village, Mae Ka Law village track and forcibly took the following items from the villagers: 1. 47 chickens Human Rights Violations in Toungoo District Karen State: Name of villagers and value of properties Name of Villagers value of properties Muthraw District: |
Some of the patients at The Kwai River Christian Hospital (KRCH) near the Burma border in Thailand are the victims of violence in neighboring Burma (Myanmar).
According to escaped porters, Burma Army MOC 15 captured 800 civilians and took 1,000 prisoners and forced them all to porter. 
ple were displaced and now the total number of IDPs in Nyaunglebin, Toungoo and Muthraw Districts is now over 15,000.
is began to cry. But, in less than 5 minutes they had arrived on top of the hill on which they were to stay and the place prepared for them. They put down their loads and began to gather firewood. We are trying to help in some small way and are impressed by the KNU’s (Pro-democracy Karen resistance) ability to organize help and work with the local villages to give help on short notice. They moved out of their local office (bamboo huts) and let as many of the new arrivals who could fit, stay inside. The rest of the families are sleeping around fires in the jungle. Some of the team slept with the people to encourage them. 
Army 
photographs we have been sending, I wanted to add this message. 
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January 7, 2004; Treating IDPs. A relief team medic treats one of the over 1,000 IDPS now in hiding near the Karen-Karenni border.
January 7, 2004; Landmine victim. A 17-year-old Karen village boy stepped on a landmine planted by the Burma Army on a trail near a Northern Karen State village at 11.45am January 7, 2004. A FBR team treating IDPs in the area was able to go to the scene and save the boy's life. His right leg was blown off under the knee and his left arm sustained severe damage He has been transported by foot to the nearest clinic three days away where he will receive further treatment.