People displaced from the Mae Tha Wor area of Karen State by fighting are too scared to return home because they fear being interrogated by the Burma Army, which has set up camps in the area.
A resident of Htee Kha Lo Thaw Village in Mae Tha Wor, who did not want top be named, said that the Burma Army interrogated him when he returned to his home to find out what had been happening after he had taken refuge in Myaing Gyi Ngu for two months.
He said: “I went back to my village to see whether the paddy crops were ruined or not. When I returned there, I was arrested and interrogated. [The Burma Army] inspected my phone. I faced the same situation even when I returned with credentials from the BGF [Border Guard Forces]. The photos in my phone were deleted, we are afraid to go back. The Sayadaw [chief monk] also didn’t let us to go back so I am staying in Myaing Gyi Ngu with my family.”
At present many internally displaced people (IDPs) from the Mae Tha Wor area are sheltering in Myaing Gyi Ngu.
Some are living in in tents in the grounds of Myaing Gyi Ngu Kyauk Sar Tite Community Hall, while others are staying with friends or relatives in the 22 wards of Myaing Gyi Ngu because there is insufficient accommodation, water or toilets in the camps set up for the IDPs.
Social organisations, the Karen State Government, the Union Government, donors and an aid group organised by the Sayadaw of Myaing Gyi Ngu have been providing assistance to the IDPs.
Previously, until last month, the Burma Army was fighting against the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (Splinter DKBA) in the Mae Tha Wor area. Now, a joint team from the Burma Army and the Border Guard Force (BGF) are clearing mines from the area.
According to the BGF they have not interrogated any returning IDPs and whether they decide to return or not largely depends on what the Sayadaw of Myaing Gyi Ngu tells them to do.
According to lists collected by aid workers there are 2,357 IDPs sheltering at two IDP camps at Kyauk Sar Tite Community Hall and Phayargone Myat Pan Wutt Hmone Community Hall in Myaing Gyi Ngu, there are another 3,027 IDPs staying in Myaing Gyi Ngu’s 22 ward groups.
Some IDPs are also sheltering in other villages in the Mae Tha Wor area. Of those still in the Mae Tha Wor area 925 are sheltering in Binu Village, 399 are in Naw Ta Village and 614 are in Htee Thay Khee Village.
Reporting by Ka Saw Wah for KIC News
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
