HURFOM, Palaw: According to HURFOM reporters, the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 556 has been using rumors of KNU activity in Palaw Township, Margue Distirct, to arrest, threaten, and extort money from the residents of various villages throughout Palaw Township. The majority of the reports that HURFOM received centered around the village of Pawkataw, where a string of violent arrests commenced two weeks ago during a Christian church service.
One Pawkataw villager said, “On October 18, 2009, the LIB No. 556, led by Lieutenant colonel Min Htet Kyaw, entered Pawkataw village after clashing [with the KNU] near that village. The troops arrested the people they saw in the streets and beat them, after that they called to the residents who were praying in church to come out, and they beat them too, and arrested them. At that time, the village headman lost consciousness, and preacher bled from the head. They arrested all people [from the church] and took them back to Khelmar village, and later to Palaw town.
Daw Sein Yee, 52, a Pawkataw villager and the relative of a woman who had been arrested by LIB no. 556 told HURFOM’s reporter, “On the way back to Khelmar [where the battalion is based] village, they ran across 7 people on their way – 2 of Burman-Indians and 5 Burmans. They [the troops] interrogated them and beat them. The troops released the women and children that accompanied the group of 7 men, 3 mothers and 2 children, midway back to Khelmar village. But they arrested the men and took them first back to Khelmar, and then to Palaw Township.”
Daw Sein Yee added, “When they arrived at Palaw town, they asked the residents questions about [KNU] fighting near their village [Palaw town]. Because the town residents didn’t know exactly which [KNU} group, or who the group was led by, the LIB no. 556’s Lieutenant Colonel commanded his troops to beat these people [from Palaw town] up too, but at the end of the day all of the people that had been arrested were released. A villager named Saw Kyaw Lay got a very bad injury from being beaten by the troops. He had to go to Palaw hospital for his injury.”
HURFOM’s reporters learned that the LIB no. 556 troops intimidated the Pawkataw village headman, the headman’s secretary and a villager named U Paw. The troops reportedly informed the three that if the LIB. No 556 encounters them [the headman and his cohorts] near Pawkataw a second time, they will be killed. The headman, his secretary, and U Paw have since departed from Pawkataw village.
According to HURFOM’s reporter, when LIB No. 556 entered the Pawkataw village, they also extorted money from a few villagers, aside from their arrests at the Christian church. According to interviews, the troops extorted 300,000 kyat from a villager named Daw cherry; a ring [a piece of jewelry] and 100,000 kyat from a villager named Naw Mu Sey; and food and other goods from a villager named Ma Thu Nay Chel. The troops also reportedly took roughly 150,000 kyat worth of housing materials and 100,000 kyat in cash from a villager named Naw Kar Htuu; the troops stole housing materials from a villager named Saw Phee Shwe; finally, the troops also stole 200,000 kyat worth of housing materials and 120,000 kyat in cash from a villager named Naw Dar Shi. Pawkataw villagers informed HURFOM’s reporter that after collecting the housing materials, money, and other goods they had extorted, the troops intimated that any further rumor of KNU activity near Pawkataw village would result in the villagers’ deaths.
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