Burma Army Killed 11 hiding Karen villagers

A troop from Burma Army's Infantry Battalion 101 led by lieutenant Aung Kyaw Than has killed 11 Karen villagers who have hinging in the jungle on September 27, 1999 in Ta Nyat Po Kee, in Eastern Mergui Township, Mergui district, Tenasserim Division, southern Burma.

On 27 September, a troops of Burma Army's Infantry Battalion 101 led by lieutenant Aung Kyaw Than has arrived to a tip of a stream called Ta Nyat Po Kee in the east of Mergui town where villagers have fled and hiding from Burma Army forced relocation since 1997. That troop has shot dead on sight and captured and shot dead afterwards 11 Karen villagers.

The victims were,

(1) Saw Tu Lu, 17 yr, son of Saw Htee from Ta Hpo Kee village
(2) Saw Lai, 15 yr., son of Saw Htee from Ta Hpo Kee village
(3) Saw Ye M'cho, son of Saw Htee from Ta Hpo Kee village
(4) Naw Eh Hso, 1 yr., daughter of Saw Ye M'cho from Ta Hpo Kee village
(5) Saw Maung Than, 28 yr., son of Saw Ma To from Nga Ya Aye village
(6) Naw Mu Ko, 2 yr., daughter of Saw Maung Than, from Nga Ya Aye villaege
(7) Saw Hse, 52 yr., son of Saw Ler from Ta Hpo Kee village
(8) Naw Mwai, 50 yr., daughter of Saw Dah La from Nga Ya Aye village
(9) Naw Ku La, 18 yr., daughter of Saw Kle from Ta Hpo Kee village
(10) Saw Ta Hse Yer, 5 yr., son of Saw Ba Na from Nga Ya Aye village
(11) Naw Mai Doh from Ta Hpo Kee village

Burma Army forcibly relocated those villagers to Da Lain Htat village relocation site in 1997. In relocation site villagers have to do what the military forced them to do, have to pay money in various form demanded by the troops, several kinds of extortion money, they did not want to live at the relocation site. In the summer of 1998, some villagers secretly shifted back to their own village gradually.

Villagers who found after relocated treated as the enemy, shot on sight, burned down everything has found, especially paddy fields and rice that could support the villagers. This form of action is knows as Burma Army Scorched-earth tactics that target the population to eliminate the resistance group. Villagers who has found outside relocation sites suspected of insurgency and treated as the enemy.

Burma Army is the arm force of Burma or Myanmar who forced ruled the country since 1962 to now and committed massive human rights abuses against the minorities and its civilians and the suppression of democracy movement in the country.