According to a 174-page report titled Growing up under Militarisation: Abuse and agency of children in Karen State, released on April 30 by Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), an estimated 15,000 Karen children are among the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living makeshift in the malaria-ridden jungles of eastern Burma.

Forced labor—children building a road in Nyaunglebin district in Pegu division. (Photo: KHRG)

The report recorded more then 160 interviews with children and their families between 2006 and March 2008, and it draws on the personal testimonies of villagers living in Karen State.

Among KHRG’s testimonies of abuse at the hands of the Burmese army, one young girl was quoted as saying: “The SPDC shot dead my daddy when he tried to run away. … My mom carried my sister and some things and I carried my grandmother on my back. It was very heavy for me … I saw her eyes were very big and then I was afraid she had already died. …I carried her until we found a better place for her.”

At a press conference in Bangkok on April 30, KHRG also highlighted the deteriorating situation regarding children’s rights in Karen State and distributed copies of the report, DVDs with recent footage of displaced children in Karen State and digital copies of photographs.

Rebecca Dun, the program director of KHRG, told The Irrawaddy on Friday: “It is very difficult for children to study in the jungle. They practice writing on the ground or on the cliff faces. There are no educational aids.”

The displaced children don’t receive sufficient medicine or nutritious food when they feel ill, she said. Also, the Burmese army burns down Karen villagers’ houses and farms and forces villagers to work as porters—a form of slave labor.

Meanwhile, a Karen labor advocacy group, the Federation of Trade Unions Kawthoolei (FTUK) also released a statement on Thursday saying that Karen villagers are facing human rights violations such as forced labor, forced relocation and land confiscation.

FTUK said the offensive launched by the Burmese army was not only against Karen rebels, but also Karen villagers, including women and children.

Since the current Burmese military offensive in northern Karen State began in February 2006, more than 370 villagers, including children, have been killed and more than 30,000 people have been displaced. Of those, more than 5,000 villagers have fled to the Thai-Burmese border area, according to relief groups.

The latest wave of IDPs—more than 2,000 Karen villagers from Mon and Kyauk Gyi townships in eastern Burma’s Pegu Division—began fleeing to the jungle in early April 2008 following attacks by the Burmese army’s light infantry battalions 247 and 276, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP), a Karen relief group.

The Burmese army has constructed over 60 new military camps in northern Karen State since the beginning of its dry-season offensive in 2006 and has completed a new road through Papun District, according to the another relief team, the Free Burma Rangers.