Gaylo village, located in No.2 district in Karenni state, is silent and eerie because nobody is around. Like Gaylo village, other villages in Karenni state have suffered for over 60 years due to armed conflict between the Burmese Army and the Karenni Army.
The Burmese Army has been after the villagers for allegedly helping the rebels. The army has used villagers as porters, threatening them, and destroyed paddy farms and houses. Villagers have had to flee from their village because of the sufferance.
"Gaylo village was the biggest in the area but does not exist anymore. The village was destroyed. There were about 80 families in the big village in No. 2 district. The enemy often comes to the village and people suffer so we have to flee. And the village is gone," Naw Thar Khu, a school teacher in Gaylo village, said.
Naw Thar Khu, (62), worked as a school teacher in No. 2 district for 40 years. She also fled because of the armed conflict between Karenni Army and the Burmese Army.
A total of 240 villagers including school teacher Naw Thar Khu arrived on the Thai-Burma border on December 2009.
Besides Gaylo village, it's learnt that a total of over 500 villagers including children from Kapwaydoh, Kwarkhee, Htukahtoo, Kaw Bawhtar, Gay Gaw Pel, Kapwedoh, Gaylo, Buukho, Thipago, Phapho, Hteetha Kalo, Narmaku, Salawlo, Nanphe, Pagau, Yutakar, Wapala, Katoe Kae, Lelaw Htee and Mawchee villages arrived on the Thai-Burma refugee camps in Mae Hongsong province, Thailand.
Villagers are suffering from the oppression unleashed by the Burmese Army and there is no existence of Gaylo village. Only 20 families remain in Deepo and Gay Gaw Pel villages. Earlier it had about 60 families. There are only seven families in Kapwedoh village, which had about 30 families in the past. The remaining families may flee soon. Some villagers fled to Loi Kaw, Khemaphyu, and Karen areas. Some fled to the villages of their relatives.
"There is an information gap now. In the past, if a Burmese Army column entered Gaylo village, we received information about it from Kapwedoh village and villagers had time to flee. Now it's difficult to get information immediately," Saw Khe Roh, an intelligence officer from battalion No. 1 of the Karenni Army, said.
There are 4,500 IDPs in No. 2 district in Karenni state. A Karenni relief organization and an international NGO say that there are over 50,000 IDPs in Karenni state.
"This kind of situation prevails not only in No. 2 district but has also happened in No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 districts under the junta’s administration. Everybody has been suffering," U Phe Bu, Director of the Karenni Social Welfare and Development Committee, said.
According to the 25th anniversary report of an organization based on the Thai-Burma border published on January 2010, not only people in Karenni state have suffered from army attacks and have become IDPs but other ethnic people have also suffered in eastern parts of Burma as in Karen, Shan, Mon, Pagu and Taninsarri division.
"Because of Burmese Army’s expansion in ethnic areas over 25 years, over a million people have fled from their homes and become IDPs; Villages were destroyed or relocated; farms were forcibly confiscated; people were forced to construct army camps in ethnic areas; and natural resources were consumed by the army. Therefore, people are scared, says the 25th anniversary special report.
It is not clear whether UNHCR will accept 240 Gaylo villagers, including the school teacher Naw Thar Khu, who arrived in the refugee camps in Mae Hongsong province.
The refugee committee and UNHCR have no authority to accept new comers as refugees. It depends on the royal Thai Army and Ministry of Interior of Thailand.
