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Forced labour in Myanmar (Burma)
Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
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Appendix VII (cont.)
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Summaries of testimony |
151-180 |
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
151 |
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Age/sex: |
41, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with four children | |
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From: |
Naung Da Bwe, Kawkareik township, Kayin State | |
The witness had been in Thailand since early 1997 with his entire family. He fled because of forced labour and abusive treatment by the military. He did both portering and forced labour. All kinds of work were required by the military, from cutting and transporting bamboo and wood, to cultivation of crops: as many different kinds of work as you could imagine. Because of these ongoing tasks "... we had nothing to eat ourselves and were forced to leave". Each house had to send someone once or twice a week, for one to seven days. Sometimes two separate orders came at the same time, so more than one person from the household had to go, or pay someone else to go: from 200 to 500 kyat per time. Normally, someone would go, unless they were sick and then they had to pay. Women and children were included. Orders were transmitted from the military to instruct the village head that so much wood was needed, that such and such had to be built or done. Then the village head would divide the work among the villagers. "Whenever one work assignment was finished another came. It was unending." This was the same for all the villages in the area. The authorities would not always require every household to send someone at the same time. Who went was determined by rotation. If the required number was not sent, then the army would come to the village to arrest the people. When they came they would take and kill animals and sometimes shoot people. He saw three people killed in this way on porter recruitment visits by the soldiers. They would accuse them of being rebels even if they were not. If porters could not carry the loads or keep up they would be punched, kicked and beaten. He had not seen porters killed, but had heard stories. Mostly men were used as porters, rarely women. Porters were treated much worse than other forced labourers. With forced labour, there were fewer problems since the army was just there to guard and was not on manoeuvre. For portering, the food given was very meagre, only a handful or a small bowl of rice, just enough so that the porters did not die. No food was provided during other forced labour. People brought their own food and tools. Other types of work included constructing army camps, digging trenches, cutting bamboo, building roads, working on rubber or sugar plantations. He personally did all this work except for that in the sugar plantation. The rubber plantation work was especially extensive. The army brought the seedlings and the workers did all the rest: planting, cultivation, staking the trees, harvesting. The rubber was sent to battalion headquarters for the 549, 547, 548 battalion units. These were located in the village of Nabu. He had to do forced labour for all three of these army camps on demand. They were all within two miles of the village. The military had completely controlled the area for only one year. That was when the camps were placed there and when extensive forced labour assignments started. In 1996, when he first arrived the first thing the military ordered was to clear the jungle area for the camps. Then they started ordering the road building work. He did this for one year before leaving. The road was a two-lane all-weather road with a broken rock surface. He did portering many times, usually carrying things between the camps. He also did portering before the camps were set up and before the other forced labour assignments began. He was at the front line several times. During the battles some porters were injured and some ran away. The wounded porters would be treated. During offensives, porters would be used with soldiers on "point" duty in advance of the main body of troops for scouting. Porters sometimes were sent in front of the troops to clear mines. Sometimes one or two porters a week were injured or killed this way. Portering lasted from a few days to as much as a month. It was done on a rotation basis two or three times a year. Other forced labour took place two or three times a week, for one or two days, but sometimes five days at a time if work sites were further away. Villagers had to do on average more than two weeks per month of forced labour.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
152 |
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Age/sex: |
36, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with four children | |
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Occupation: |
Labourer | |
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From: |
Treh Wa, Bilin township, Mon State (village had 50 households) | |
The witness left Myanmar a year ago but returned in early 1998. He left Myanmar again in mid-February 1998. He was arrested and subjected to torture by LIB 96 one year and three months ago, just before he originally left. They accused him of being a KNU soldier. He was beaten, tortured with the flame of a kerosene lamp, and had water poured down his nostrils. There had been an army camp in the area of his village since 1988, so portering for them was frequent: several times each month for four or five years, for about three to ten days each time, at least. One time it lasted three months. It became pretty continuous. During the three-month assignment he carried rice at the front line. He was grabbed by the soldiers as he was walking along the road from his village and forced to do this work. The other times he either was arrested in a similar way or it was done by order through the village head. The three-month stint was three or four years ago. He was picked up in Thaton and sent to Bilin by truck and then had to walk to the front line in Papun district. He was given no water (porters had to find their own) and very little rice: one handful each day, with one spoon of yellow pea curry. The porters had no strength because of the strenuous work and so little food. So many were beaten and killed by the soldiers. Ten porters were beaten to death by the soldiers during the three month period. If porters were too slow they were kicked or beaten. He himself was beaten. Women were not used as porters at front line, but were used for shorter distances in village areas. He did not see any porters injured or killed in the fighting. He carried two backpacks filled with rice, one on his back and one over a shoulder. It was possible to pay 600 kyat for three days to avoid the work. No medicine was given if porters were sick. He last had to work as a porter one year ago. Other forms of forced labour included digging trenches and building fences at the army compound, only one hour's walk away. He did both forced labour and portering sequentially. There was also a nearby DKBA camp set up one year ago and they had forced labour demands in addition to the rest. For the DKBA there was work at the camp on fences, clearing brush and digging trenches as well as road building. Overall, in one month on average, there would be ten days required work at the army camp, 15 days required work at the DKBA camp, plus portering thrown in. So there were no more than five days a month left to do his own work to earn a living. He was a farmer working for others. He had to cut wood to sell in order to get more income. Even with that he could not make ends meet anymore. That is why he came here to Thailand. The level of forced labour is greater now than ever because there are two army bases to serve. Back in 1989 the village began working on the Mawlamyine (Moulmein) to Yangon road. The village was assigned to complete a 1,000 foot-long section of the road with a width of two-arm spans. The village head gave out the assignments on a rotating basis. His last forced labour project was doing fencing work at the DKBA base. Just before leaving he paid 4,000 kyat to be released from a second arrest by the army. On that occasion he had money from selling sheets of roofing thatch.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
153 |
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Age/sex: |
28, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with one seven-month old daughter | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer | |
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From: |
Tichara, Myawady township, Kayin State (village had more than 300 families) | |
The witness left Myanmar in early January 1998 because he was no longer able to provide for his family, on account of the time required for the work which had to be done for the military and the taxes which had to be paid. He had to do portering and road building. In both cases, the village head passed on the order from the military, although the military sometimes came directly to the houses or to public places to seize the porters. He was not paid and received no form of compensation for this work. He acted as a porter on one single occasion for a week in the rainy season. The other times he managed to escape. The portering had to be done in a mountainous region of the Kayin State. The porters were male, aged between 14 and 60. They were not paid. It was however possible to hire a replacement. The sum for this varied according to the number of days to be worked, but was between 500 and 1,000 kyat. It was also possible to pay the village head to be exempted. He had never paid and hence did not know the sum that had to be paid. They had to carry ammunition and march all day. There was never enough food. In the beginning each porter got one tin of rice. After a few days, three porters had to share one. They had to sleep in the jungle, without shelter. No one could take care of his family in his absence. During this period, his wife gave birth to their daughter. He was not personally ill-treated. Friends had however been beaten with a stick for not going quickly enough and for being too tired to carry the load allotted to them. He had to carry food to the military who lived in the camp in the mountains one to three times a month over the last two years. It was about an hour's walk to the camp. He did this work with other men in rotation. The number involved could vary, but might even exceed 100. He also had to work on the road between his village and Meh Pleh. This was a road for cars. The work site was three hours' walk from his house. He had to work there several times over the last year, even though the building of the road began three years before. This road had to be repaired after each rainy season. More than 20 people from his village worked at the same time as he did. However, he could not say the total number of men or women who worked on the road. The day began at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. with a one-hour break at noon. He had to bring his own food, but could go home at night. It was possible to pay a substitute. He did not know the amount, as he did not have enough money to hire one. It was also possible to pay the village head so as not to have to go: the price was 100 kyat per day. Over the last year, he also had to put up fences along the road and stand guard against the KNU. To do this, he had to go along the road each morning with a plough to check whether mines or other explosives had been laid. A mine exploded last year, killing a worker and two soldiers. He also mentioned that he had to pay between 200 and 300 kyat per month since his return to his village in 1995. He did not know why these taxes were levied. To pay them, he had to sell land and take work as a day labourer.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
154 |
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Age/sex: |
44, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with four children (all came with him) | |
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From: |
Minzan, Hpa-an township, Kayin State (village had 500 households) | |
The witness and his family had been in Thailand for the past six years. In January 1998 he went back to his village to see what the current situation was like. He stayed there for 20 days and then returned to Thailand. He found that the situation was not good. The military was in firm control of the area now. Before he left, he was a rice farmer. He had to give a percentage of his crop to the army, and another percentage to the land owner, leaving him with very little. "It was difficult to survive on what was left." He could not afford to go on portering or forced labour assignments, so to avoid them he would sleep in the jungle. That strategy worked to avoid being arrested by the troops directly. But he could not avoid it when orders came down from the village head. He was a porter on four occasions, three times through orders, and one time through direct arrest. He ran away in each case before the assignment was completed. So they lasted only four or five days for three of the times. The fourth time was for one month and five days. Four people had already died of overwork and starvation and he was certain he too would die if he stayed. So he evaded the guards and escaped and went back home. When porters became weak and could not keep up they were beaten. Sometimes after being beaten porters could not walk at all and were left at the side of the road to die. It always happened if porters slowed down, they were beaten. No medicine was given if they were sick. Food was in very small amounts. Porters cooked their own food. Soldiers did their own too. It came to about half a condensed milk tin of rice per day plus some yellow pea curry. The rice was rough and broken. Also, sometimes there was some poor quality fish paste. There were 500 houses in the village and portering was done by rotation, whenever the soldiers came through. They called five, ten or 15 people about once or twice a month. If there was no man in the house that household had to pay 600 kyat. Now it was up to 2,000 kyat as more people refused to go and it was harder to find substitutes. Only men did portering. Women were used only for short distance work. There was a lot of portering then. Now the villagers just had to pay porter fees once a month. There was little actual portering work. There was, however, lots of other forced labour, so the total amount of time spent on forced work was about the same. Since the portering was more oppressive he thought that, to some extent, there had been some improvement. It used to be that forced labour was mostly working at the army camp, cleaning, planting, renovating buildings, doing agricultural work for the army. Road building was now the biggest task along with army camp work. There was forced agriculture work for the LIB 202 rubber plantation. They had to do all the planting and cultivation and harvesting. The rubber produced was sent to the 22 Division. The Hpa-an to Shwegun road was the main road they were working on. It was three miles from the village. When he went back to visit in January 1998, he had to spend three of the 20 days doing forced labour on the road. Before the army would come to the village to get people, now it was all done through the village head. He gave the assignments out to each house. The village was given a certain length of the road to complete. There were no soldiers at the work site but they checked on the work. If workers did not complete the work on time, they got trouble from the soldiers. The village head had to report on who was not working properly. There were no beatings, only threats of beatings. Workers had to bring their own food and tools. No pay of course. They had to pay money themselves if they were sick and could not go. Some forced labourers died at the work site as a result of accidents. When the village head complained he was told that it was because they were not good workers that caused the problem so there was no compensation. It cost 300 kyat a day if you could not go. Old people, children, everyone had to go. If workers were old enough to carry things, around eight or nine years old, they went. The army did not care if children were sent, since the assignment had to be completed. It just took a child longer than an adult (often other villagers felt sorry for young children, and helped them to complete their assignment). A minimum of one person per household was requested. He considered that it was much harder to make a living now. Farmers were having to sell what they needed to eat just to survive. Forced labour was the root of the problem. Every day spent on forced assignments was a day lost to feed the family. Portering was currently limited. Four people were assigned at all times from the village on a rotating basis as servant porters at the camp: getting water, doing the cooking, carrying messages. Before villagers had to do guard duty too. Not now. During guard duty they were fined a certain number of chickens if they were caught sleeping. Now the army was also collecting a new tax for school construction and repairs. They levied the tax based on income: 7,000 kyat for the rich down to 1,500 kyat for the poor. But it was impossible to pay this additional tax too. The villagers had to sell their belongings, so it was impossible to stay anymore. They had no choice but to leave.
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Religion: |
Muslim |
155 |
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Age/sex: |
38, female | |
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Family situation: |
Married with six children | |
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Occupation: |
Agricultural day labourers | |
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From: |
Yebu, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (before village had 1,000 households, now the majority have left) | |
The witness left Myanmar with her family in late 1997 because of the amount of forced labour for the military (including portering), sometimes up to 20 days in a month. As day labourers, if they went to do forced labour one day, they had nothing to eat the next. The soldiers treated Muslims, Karen and hill people badly, but Muslims even worse than the others, making it very difficult for Muslims to stay in the villages. They were subjected to harder forced labour and had less food, so they fled from the villages into the towns. In her village, there used to be 200 Muslim households, now only 15 or 16 were left. Normally, the soldiers ordered the required number of porters through the village head, but if the village did not send them, or not quickly enough, they fetched them themselves. At that time, if the villagers went with the soldiers immediately, it was okay, but otherwise the soldiers would chase the villagers and beat them In her family, portering was always done by men. Her husband thus had to carry ammunition and food for the army. For many years, the practice had been to be required to do portering once a month, normally for some five days, but often for a week or ten days and sometimes over a long time, for two months or more. Sometimes, for a very short distance, it could take only one day (e.g. to the nearest army camp), but then they would take two or three people from the same household, making it more difficult. Sometimes they would instruct porters to pack up food for so many days (e.g., 15 days) for the porters to eat. Strong people who could do the work were usually okay. If porters were tired, unable to do the work, they would be beaten and kicked and sometimes shot dead. Some of her friends from other villages were killed in this way. On one or two occasions, her husband was beaten on the back with a bamboo cane, opening the skin; she saw it, and it has happened a lot to other people. Working as a porter, a villager would only be fed a small amount and would be expected to do heavy work. They would beat and kick the porters and sometimes leave them on the roadside. She had seen a lot of injuries done to porters from beatings and kickings all over the body that had to be treated medically. When there was fighting, as in the Kayin State, the soldiers put the porters in front so they would die and the soldiers stayed alive. It had happened to her husband. Even at other times, when the soldiers expected an attack on the army camp, she had been used as a human shield. They called the whole village, with the infants, to be placed in front of the army camp. Villagers had died this way, even from her own village about 20 people: Muslim, Karen, hill people, some in the last few months before she left, some over the last year. With regard to camp building and servicing, three military camps were in the region, Yebu, Nabu and Painkyone, (with smaller outposts around them). They had been there for at least 20 years, but not always in the same location. If any camp moved to a new location, people had to build the new camp: men, women, children, everybody. In the case of Nabu, the people from Nabu village, about 1,000 families also had to move themselves two or three years ago to make a place for the army camp. Nobody lived there anymore. Some moved to Kawkareik and other places, or nearby into the hills. At Yebu there was a big camp, she did not remember it moving, but little outposts around it where the soldiers went on patrol had changed location. When they were building a camp, people from far away villages also had to come and do forced labour, but for the routine servicing, she only had to go to Yebu camp, not Nabu or Painkyone. For camp service, written orders were given to the village head, but if there was a problem with compliance, the soldiers would come and beat people. They did not always call up one person from each house in the whole village, sometimes, for example, if they wanted five people, it rotated among households. It was one person from the household, they did not care whether her husband was away (e.g. working far from the house as a day labourer, or serving as a porter). In his absence, and if she had no money to pay them off, they would not accept no for an answer, she had to go. Her eldest son having left long ago, her second child, a daughter, also had to do forced labour; sometimes even young children had to go. In the camp, men also had to do portering, and men and women alike fetched water, were on standby for messenger service, cooked rice for the soldiers and did any kind of work needed. When the soldiers changed (i.e., a different army unit moved into the camp) it meant more work, new things. They also had to cut and split bamboo and make things from it. Sometimes, men would be sent deep into the forest to fetch trees, cut them and deliver the logs to the soldiers. Often, there was much more of this than needed in the camp, and the soldiers had it transported elsewhere, she does not know whether it was for use elsewhere or sale. The witness also had to do all kinds of forced cultivation. The villagers had to do all the work and deliver the harvest to the soldiers for sale. They also had to provide chickens and meat asked for by the soldiers. If someone did not, the soldiers would put him in the lock-up and kill and eat his cattle. She, her husband and children had all worked on the Nabu to Painkyone road. After she left, people in her family still had to do it: one person per family, even children 12 and 13 years old. She knew of ten-year-olds who had done forced labour. If nobody from a house went, they had to pay a fine, but nobody had money to pay, so a child had to go; if not, the soldiers came to the house and beat people and swore. Villagers quite far from the road also had to do the work. From her village, they would take one person per household, but not always all at the same time, maybe 50 at a time, by rotation depending on how many were needed. This road running from Nabu through the Yebu area was close enough for her to go home at night, others had to make their own arrangements, building shelters or sleeping in the open air. The treatment was different from portering, which was much worse, since porters could only rest when the soldiers rested, and the soldiers did not care whether porters were tired, hot, cold, hungry, and gave only a small amount of food. Here, the villagers could arrange themselves for eating, sleeping, and could rest, provided they did the work. They were assigned a particular stretch of road, normally without a deadline, but sometimes a given amount of work had to be finished within five days. The money/fine to be paid for not providing forced labour was about 100 kyat per day. If the work was farther away, one had to pay for three days: 300 kyat. Other times the sum may have been only 60 to 70 kyat. The amount also depended on how hard the labour was, for portering one must pay more, both because it was often longer, up to two moths, and because it was harder work, so maybe 200 to 300 kyat per day was paid for portering. If there were three villages, the soldiers would go to the first village and, if the villagers could pay, take the money. Likewise in the second. Only if they came to a village that could not pay did they take the workers. They much preferred money over workers, but if they really needed workers, they would get them. Even if people payed, someone had to do the forced labour.
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Religion: |
Muslim |
156 |
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Age/sex: |
12, male | |
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Family situation: |
Family of eight (mother and seven siblings) | |
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Education: |
None | |
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From: |
Yebu, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State | |
The witness had done forced labour for the soldiers since he was ten years old. He left Myanmar in mid-1997. With regard to forced labour, he worked on road building. To build the road, they had to cut bamboo and trees. He had to cut the scrubs, and dig and carry mud every day in the dry season from 7 a.m. to noon, when they ate the rice they brought. Then again from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. It was hard work, he was very tired. Sometimes at 11 a.m. the children would hide in the bushes. The soldiers did not see them, but other forced labourers did and asked them to come back. Among the adults, there were about five children, sometimes two to three, sometimes ten. He himself had to go, because he had no father. If his mother could not go, he had to. Also, sometimes villagers with money hired him to go instead of them, paying him 30 kyat a day. Most of the time he went for his own family. If the soldiers told them to build ten arm-spans of road, they had to finish it. The soldiers yelled at him but never hurt him. Once he saw the commander beat the village head because she could not find enough people for forced labour. He tied her with a rope and beat her with a bamboo cane on the back; other soldiers cried because they pitied her. His father died when portering in a battle, from a shell, when he was still a baby. He heard that soldiers were beating porters who could not do the work. He saw that some people had wounds on their skull and shoulders.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
157 |
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Age/sex: |
48, male | |
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Family situation: |
Family of nine (wife and seven children) | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer | |
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From: |
Bee Lay Noh, Bilin township, Mon State originally 500 families in village, now only 100 left) | |
The witness came to Thailand four years ago: stayed three years, then went back to Myanmar for a few months in the rainy season to pick up someone and came back in August 1996. He went back another time and came back to Thailand once more in October 1997. Four years ago he had to cut trees and bamboo to make the road from Bilin to Papun. He had to work 15 days, then had one day's rest, and again had to work 15 days. Then, not having enough food, he could not do the work anymore and fled. Three hundred people a day, one person from each house had to build the road at the same time. The military had given the order to the village head, and the villagers had to stay quiet, although the soldiers yelled at them. He saw two women, two girls, and five men killed all in one day four years ago because they were tired and took a rest during work. The soldiers yelled at them, they talked back and the soldiers got angry and killed them. They beat them on their heads, raped the two girls and killed them, stabbing them with a knife. The road building continued when he went back in October 1997. When he first went back to Myanmar and his village to fetch someone in the rainy season of 1996, he did no forced labour, but saw other people fencing the military camp, dig bunkers and trenches. In 1997, he, like others, had to do forced labour ten days a month, one person from each household, cutting and carrying trees, bamboo. The road was not finished, the camp was completely finished now but they still had to make bamboo spike booby-traps. Men who could not carry bamboo were killed by the SLORC/DKBA troops, women were hurt and kicked and beaten with guns. He once saw an old man who told the soldiers and DKBA that he was very tired and could not go again, so the soldiers replied that he was willing to work for the KNU but not for them, slapped his face, punched and kicked him and killed him with a knife. On a day when all the villagers were in the forest cutting bamboo, the soldiers drank alcohol and forced a woman to come to the camp. The woman said she was very tired and asked to rest on the way. The soldiers said they had no time, hit and beat her with a bamboo cane. In the evening he went to her house but she was not at home. A monk in the monastery said she was killed by a SLORC soldier. Another day, he saw the soldiers beat a woman twice with a gun on the head and she died. She and other villagers had to split bamboo and she wanted to take a rest, sit down. So a DKBA officer said the one who wants to take a rest must die and the soldiers beat the woman's head while she was sitting and the second blow killed her. In September 1997, the soldiers burnt down several small villages in Bilin township and forced the villagers to relocate to different places. His village, Be Lay Noh, was a big village with a big army camp, so small villages around Be Lay Noh were relocated to that place. Later, the camp commander ordered villagers to go back to their villages and they had to build new houses, since the old ones had been burnt down by soldiers. The villagers also had to cut bamboo poles, build houses for DKBA and SLORC families and build fences around them. He fled with his family, and 60 families from his village and many from other Karen villages, altogether 300 families were staying in the same refugee camp, because they did not have enough food. One year ago, DKBA and SLORC soldiers took all their paddy, they had to go and get some once a day, begging for their own paddy; the soldiers gave them only once a day three small tins for the family. They tried to go further away from the village to sow secretly some paddy in the mountains, where the soldiers would not find it, but the pigs came and ate it all.
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Ethnicity/religion: |
Karen, Christian |
158 |
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Age/sex: |
55, male | |
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Family situation: |
Eleven (him, wife and nine children) | |
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Occupation: |
Former village-tract head | |
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From: |
Bee T'Ka, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State | |
The witness came to Thailand in 1996. He went back to his village in January 1998 and returned to Thailand in February. Out of 300 families in the village, only 50 Buddhist ones were left now; all the Christian ones had left. Four years ago, SLORC and DKBA troops started driving villagers away, some of whom then came back after a few months. This happened several times but two years ago, the soldiers would not allow them back, so some of the villagers also sold their houses and never went back. He went to Thailand after having been arrested for allegedly possessing hidden weapons. Before he became village-tract head ten years ago, he did four portering trips of between two and five days each. But his children and other people had done portering for one month in a row. Sometimes the soldiers called porters just for three days, but in the end they had to go for a month. When he went back in January 1998, villagers had to go portering every month, usually for five days. If they could not go, they had to pay 450 kyat per day. The villagers had to do road construction work, going on foot to the work site, working and sleeping there for a week until another shift came. This meant they had no time to do their own work. His children worked about three years ago on the roads in Dawlan and Natkyun, as well as the road between Ah Pou and Taun Zun, for about four days a month. The authorities ordered the village head to find forced labourers and if he could not find enough, soldiers came and captured people in the village. During forced labour he saw the soldiers only yell at the labourers, not kill them. But when soldiers came to the village, the villagers ran away, and the soldiers shot at them. The witness described several killings of villagers running away or suspected of siding with the KNU. When he was village-tract head, each family had on average to do forced labour three or four days a month. Now, people had to do forced labour every day in dry season, albeit not always the same person, nor the same family. Money exaction was now a major problem. If the KNU asked the villagers to pay 10,000 kyat per year, both the SLORC/SPDC and the DKBA asked each for the same, so most of the villagers wanted to come to Thailand (but could not). When the witness went back to his village in January, he saw that between Tichara and Tiwablaw, and between Meh Pleh and Kyokyo the SLORC/SPDC soldiers burnt down hundreds of farm houses and the rice straw in the fields. The cattle had no fodder to eat and also perished from landmines planted everywhere. One had to hire people now to show the way through the mines.
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Ethnicity/religion: |
Karen, Christian |
159 |
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Age/sex: |
48, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with five children | |
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Occupation: |
Day labourer (before relocation) | |
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From: |
Mye Yeh, Kyaukkyi township, Bago Division (village had 57 families; relocated four years ago to Yan Myo Aung village along with 650 families from eight villages) | |
The witness arrived in Thailand in early January 1998. Four years ago, following an ambush by KNU soldiers in the forest near Mye Yeh village when 14 SLORC soldiers were shot, the SLORC troops destroyed three wells and coconut, mango and lemon trees in the village and rounded up all men, women and children from the village as well as two neighbouring villages (Ter Paw and Po Thaung Su), tied them up and kept them in the sun, preparing their guns to shoot them. After a soldier convinced the commander of the villagers' innocence, they were not shot but made to walk to the relocation place, four hours away. With regard to forced labour, starting two years before relocation, the villagers had to work on road construction every day throughout dry and wet seasons. One person per family, man, woman or child, had to go and carry stones. He himself worked six days, then his wife one day, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a break to eat rice once a day but no time to rest. While he was working on the road, his wife earned money getting vegetables from the forest and selling them. When his time came to do portering while he worked on road construction, he borrowed money to pay instead of going as a porter. After relocation, he had to do road construction work only in the dry season, and only for a few days a month, because the work was shared among many villages, in rotation. When the villagers arrived at the relocation place, they had to do sentry duty every day and night beside the road. His quota was three days and nights in a row per month, in a group of three people split between three watches. Between February and November 1997, he had to cut fast growing grass/weeds once every two weeks while on sentry duty next to the relocation place. Seven times, he did carrying work for the soldiers: before relocation, five times for three days each time; and after relocation, two times, while on sentry duty. Throughout the last six years, he was called up as a porter once a month, but he paid instead of going; to be exempt from portering three days a month, he had to pay 200 kyat a day. Everybody had to do forced labour and go for portering, or pay. Some people who could not pay went portering; his wife had a small baby, and he was afraid to be killed while portering, so he paid. Khin Maung Win (from his village) died while portering in January 1997, leaving a young widow with a baby. He had not wanted to go, but was rounded up by the soldiers. One of his fellow porters came back and said that he had died with a soldier, stepping on a land mine. Also in January 1997 four people from Yan Myo Aung village were lost while portering, so the other villagers guessed they died. After relocation, at one time, one person from each family in the village had to go to the forest and cut many kinds of trees and bamboo, for one and a half months. Then villagers from two other villages, Lay Way Gyi and Ner Gu had to go and plant chillies. Later, water flooded the planted chillies and destroyed the crop, whereupon the SLORC soldiers went to the villagers who had planted the chillies and asked for 150,000 kyat from each of the two villages (300,000 kyat total). While doing portering, soldiers kicked him a few times. Once soldiers forced him to carry 20 shells, which he could not, so several soldiers kicked him on the chest so that he fell down, punched him in the face, until a sergeant-major came and ordered ten shells to be taken off his load, so he carried ten to the next village. Once he saw that a boy captured by the soldiers while looking after the cattle was kicked and bled from the mouth but he doesn't know why he was kicked. On road construction soldiers just yelled at people but did not hurt anyone. The last time he did forced labour was in November 1997, carrying shells for five days. After that he always ran away (like all the villagers) when SLORC soldiers approached the village. Since relocation, when not doing forced labour, he lived from catching fish and frogs, eating some, selling some. He came to Thailand because there was no rice left in the house and he had no chance to work for his own family.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
160 |
|
Sex: |
Male | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with one daughter | |
|
Occupation: |
Farmer (worked on his father's land) | |
|
From: |
Noh Hay Hta, Papun township, Kayin State (village had about 40 families; there was a military camp about three miles away) | |
The witness left Myanmar in February 1997 because he was no longer able to provide for the needs of his family, on account of the work he had to do for the military. No one could take care of his harvests when he was away. Five days a month remained in which he could attend to his own work and crops. He had to do portering twice a month for ten years. The duration varied, but was never less than five days. Sometimes trips could last as long as a month, if there were military operations. All the families in his village had to provide one male person for this kind of work. His brothers had to do portering too. The order to act as a porter came from the military, but was passed on by the village head. He did not see any written order. He had to transport ammunition for mortars (three inch mortar shells), food and cooking utensils. There were around 40 to 50 porters for 150 soldiers. He was not paid and did not receive enough food. He had been caught up in a battle with the KNU. The porters had to stay near the soldiers. He was subjected to ill-treatment: he was kicked for being too tired to keep up. He was threatened that he would be killed. He saw two porters who had died because they were no longer able to carry the load allotted to them. There were no medicines available when there was illness. He also had to do sentry duty by the road between Papun and Kamamaung. His post was some three miles from his home. He had to stand guard twice a month, each assignment lasting five days. He performed this work in 1996 and until he left in February 1997. All the villagers had to perform this work. His three brothers were also forced to do it. In fact, only the very aged, including his father, were exempted. About 400 people, including men, women and children, worked at the same time as him. He had to sleep near the road on these days. For this, he had to put up a shelter. He also had to erect a fence along this road, to serve as a defence against the Karen National Union (KNU). Moreover, the villagers had to "clear" the road each morning, which consisted of checking that explosives had not been laid. If they missed a mine and an army vehicle blew up when it hit it, the villagers had to pay a million kyat in reprisal. Each villager and each village was therefore assigned a section of road to be checked. He was not paid and had to bring his own food. On one occasion in 1997, after the rainy season, he had to repair a bridge while he was on sentry duty. The women of his village were not ill-treated by the military. He had, however, heard of women in other villages being raped, including a woman from Po Gay who was raped by five soldiers. He also had to construct barracks for the army in 1997. The assignment lasted ten days and was three hours' walking distance from his home (nine miles). Each day, 30 people worked together (the total for the month being 300). These people came from three different villages, including his own. The orders were given by the military. The equipment and materials (particularly the bamboo) necessary for building these installations were provided and transported by the workers, who received no compensation for this. It was possible to pay another person to do the work, at a rate of 150 kyat per day. It was also possible to pay bribes, though he did not personally do so. It was not possible to refuse, and he knew people who had been arrested for refusing to carry out this work. With regard to taxation, he had to give the Government five baskets of rice out of every 100 harvested. As regards sugar cane, five bundles had to be given out of every 100. All the villagers had to pay these sums. The village head had to collect the taxes. The witness was not a member of any political group. He would go back to Myanmar if conditions changed. He feared he would be executed if he returned (DKBA was in his village).
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Religion: |
Muslim |
161 |
|
Age/sex: |
30, female | |
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Family situation: |
Married with one daughter | |
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Education: |
3rd Standard | |
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Occupation: |
Itinerant trader | |
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From: |
Mon Naing, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had 340 families) | |
The witness left Myanmar in early January 1998 on account of the forced labour for the military. She personally had to do portering and sentry duty by a road. Her husband was also requisitioned for portering and had to work on the building of the road. He had on average ten to 15 days a month to do his own work. The forced labour was done in rotation, one member per family. Generally, she shared forced labour with her husband. She had to work as a porter on several occasions. In 1997, she had been requisitioned on 12 occasions in all, including four times in the dry season. She had worked as a porter eight times before. Each time, the assignments lasted at least 15 days. During the two months preceding her departure, she was asked to go from her village to the Mawhpokay military camp, which was near the border. This was a journey of some eight days. The total length of this assignment was 15 to 17 days. On the trip there, she had to climb a mountain for five days and spend three days going back down. One hundred and twenty soldiers took part in this trip. It was the village head who organized the work required by the military. Sometimes, the soldiers arrested the people they needed directly. One member per family had to act as a porter when required. Her husband, niece, sister and brother had also had to do portering. It was generally her husband who had performed the portering over the last 15 years. Both men and women could be requisitioned to do portering for the military. Sometimes, there were as many as 30 to 40 women. The men were generally placed at the head of the column and the women at the rear. She had to transport mortar shells (five) and food (rice). She was not paid and did not get enough food. She was not personally ill-treated, but several of her female friends had been kicked when they could no longer carry the very heavy loads allotted to them. The soldiers took advantage of the night to touch them and threatened them with their weapons if they cried out. She had been touched on one occasion. Four men had died from exhaustion during portering. It was possible to pay to be replaced, but she had not done this since she did not have the necessary money. She did not know if it was possible to pay bribes. Any refusal could lead to arrest. She knew some people who had been arrested for this reason. She had also had to stand guard near the Mon Naing to Nyamaraw road (14 miles) during the last eight years on one occasion each month. Each assignment lasted five days. One person per family had to do this work, which was performed solely by women. She worked alongside around 130 other women. She had to sleep near the road with four other women in a shelter. She had to "clear" the road so that the military could move around it safely. She also had to keep the military informed of all the movements and all information concerning the KNU. She was not paid and had to provide her own food. When she was away performing this work, her husband also often had to be away portering for the military and working on the road. Her husband had to work on this 10 days per month, four months a year, over the last three years. This was the same road she had to stand guard over. The road was mainly used by the military for moving troops, equipment and rations. She considered that the Muslims received the same treatment as the other villagers as far as forced labour was concerned. However, some fifteen Muslims who had tried to return to their village around three months ago (they were still in her village) were said to have been arrested and transferred to a Buddhist monastery where they had been forced to worship sacred objects of Buddhism. If they refused, they were beaten by members of the DKBA. Finally, a tax on harvests had to be paid to the government. Out of every 100 baskets of rice, five had to be given to the government. Out of every 100 bundles of vegetables, seven had to go to the government. She did not think the Muslims had to pay more than the members of other groups (Buddhists or Christians) in her village.
|
Ethnicity: |
Karen |
162 |
|
Age/sex: |
48, female | |
|
Education: |
10th Standard | |
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Occupation: |
Head of a village section | |
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From: |
Bee T'Ka village, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had around 200 families and was divided into eight sections; each section had 20 to 30 families) | |
The witness left Myanmar in early February 1998 because she had finished her period as section head and no longer wished to be in contact with the military. The soldiers knew her. If she had stayed, the soldiers might have come to her house. She had done her work against her will, but could see no other alternative since she could have been arrested or beaten if the military found her work unsatisfactory. Villagers took on the role of section head on a rota basis. She had been section head for a month and had helped her successor for six months. Women are often appointed section heads or village heads because they are generally less badly treated by the military than men who take on the same functions. She did not dare return for fear of being arrested. At the request of the military, she had to organize the villagers' work on the building of the road between Hpa-an and Dawlan. The order received from the military was a written one. One member per family had to contribute to this work. She had to organize the work of 150 people, including 90 women, over six days. The villagers were neither paid nor fed. They were generally reluctant to work, but ended up complying and in the end seemed happy to work together. A person who refused to perform the allotted work could face sanctions administered by the military. In cases where a family could not contribute to the work, it had to pay. She then used the money collected in this way to buy food for the other villagers who were working. It was also possible to pay a substitute. She also organized portering, which had to be done once a month. The work was performed in accordance with a written order from the military. Each time, eight to 12 villagers from her section were designated. The villagers could pay her money directly if they were unable to go, or they could engage a substitute. There were two types of portering. The first consisted of carrying materials, equipment or food from one camp to another. The second was required during military operations. Women generally did the former type, while the latter was reserved for the men. Women's portering work lasted one day on average, whereas the men's portering depended on the scale of the military operation. The porters were not paid, but were too frightened to refuse to go and do the portering demanded. In the case of an unjustified refusal, the military threatened to relocate them or burn down their village. Further to this, she had also once a year for three years had to organize the construction of two military camps which were close to her village (three miles away). The villagers also had to provide the necessary materials (mainly wood), for which they received no compensation. They were not paid. She had to organize the collection of food for the military. Twice a month, the villagers had to provide pigs, chickens and vegetables for the military, who paid less than half the market price for them (70 kyat a bundle instead of 150 kyat). Finally, at the request of the military, she had to convince the members of the KNU living in her village when she was section head to leave that organization. She did not do this of her own free will, but was expressly required by the military to do it.
|
Ethnicity: |
Karen |
163 |
|
Age/sex: |
37, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Wife and two children | |
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From: |
Klaw Ka Hti, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State | |
The witness left Myanmar early in 1997. Villagers were required to do portering for the military, and forced labour in the form of logging operations, sentry duty, working as messengers, doing construction work in the army camp, road building and minesweeping. The work was arranged through orders to village heads with rotating assignments for one person from each household. Sometimes, however, the soldiers directly rounded up people for portering. He witnessed beatings of forced labourers, including his uncle being beaten unconscious. He also saw porters being tied to prevent their escape. Most of his experience with forced labour came from when he was living with his wife's family just after getting married, in 1996 and 1997, before his departure to Thailand. People from all the villages in the area were forced to do logging operations. They were not paid for the work, and had to bring their own food. Logs were cut down and then transported to the sawmill at nearby Paw Po Hta. There the logs were cut into lumber (previously, logs were sent to Hlaingbwe). He did work carrying the logs after they had been cut down. Orders were issued for this work indicating how many labourers were needed. The villagers were told that if they did not go when ordered, the village would suffer One penalty was that soldiers would come to the village, search the houses, and plant false evidence of incriminating activity, such as weapons, then come back later, accuse the person of rebel activity, then ransack and steal belongings and ask for payment of fines. Soldiers kept a close watch on the workers during forced labour. There were no problems if they did what was required. But they were beaten if they complained. His uncle and cousin were beaten in this way. His uncle was beaten unconscious and left on the ground. No one could help or they would be beaten too. On one occasion he was shot at by soldiers, and a friend who was with him was wounded, when they returned to the village to get food during a time when the area was in dispute and subject to fighting between the Government and KNU forces. This shooting took place four to five years ago, when SLORC first took control of the area. Villagers who went to the Thai border were accused of being rebels when they returned, even if they only went for medical treatment. For forced labour one labourer was required from each house once or twice a month. The length of time varied depending on when the job was completed, usually about two or three days each time. Overall, orders for this labour were received by the village three or four times a month with the work done by the villagers on rotation. Villagers were also required to do portering for the military. This included carrying goods, doing sentry duty on the roads, and serving as messengers. Sentries were used for guarding the roads when convoys of military equipment came through. He did not do portering himself since he was new to the village. His brother-in-law served as a porter many times, including two years ago. He was given only one meal in two days. He ran away after two days. Soldiers would arrest and take as many porters as they could catch, though sometimes this was done through orders to the village head too. Villagers (including women) were used to sweep the roads for mines. They used brooms and sticks. He did not see anyone hurt by mine explosions in this way himself. Forced labour also was used for road building on the road from Klaw Ka Hti to Paw Maw Hta, but not for the past two years.
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Ethnicity: |
Pa-o |
164 |
|
Age/sex: |
30, male | |
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Family situation: |
Wife and five children | |
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Occupation: |
Farm labourer | |
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From: |
Ti Lone, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had 1,000 households) | |
The witness returned to his village in mid-1997 for a six-month period after being in Thailand since 1988. He did forced labour and portering many times in the past (pre-1988) but not on his recent return visit since he did not register with the authorities. From what he saw, there was not much forced labour taking place now, apart from portering. The soldiers did come in and take porters from time to time, so the villagers had to hide when this happened. Also, some portering was still done on a rotation basis. Before 1988 he did portering for the army, doing whatever had to be done, usually carrying rice and supplies. He went one time in 1987 for seven days. They travelled on foot for the whole day, slept and repeated the process the next day. Soldiers were very abusive and would swear at them and beat them if they had trouble carrying their load. Last year when he was back in his village, he paid once to not have to do portering. The situation was very bad during the six months he was back. He had work but still could not get sufficient food, since half of everything he earned had to be given to the military as porter fees. The village was divided into sections for regular once-a-month portering work. A certain number would be called from each section to serve military's needs. He paid to avoid this, because even though he was not personally liable (he had not registered), he had to contribute to the porter fees paid by the household he was living with.
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Religion: |
Muslim |
165 |
|
Age/sex: |
43, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with seven children | |
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Occupation: |
Farm labourer | |
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From: |
Nabu, Kawkareik township, Kayin State (village had about 300 to 400 households) | |
The witness arrived in Thailand in May 1997. He left because could not stand the trouble and oppression of the SLORC any longer. His village was relocated in December 1996. He performed wide variety of forced labour and portering assignments on an extensive and continuous basis, especially in 1996 after a military camp was built near the village. In August 1996, he witnessed a woman who was doing road building work being beaten to death by soldiers when she could not do the work. In the six months before relocation, 28 of 31 days per month were spent on portering and forced labour. In June 1996, he had to do road building work on the Nabu to Kyondo road. This work was done by the villagers in rotating shifts throughout the year. Also, a new camp was built in 1996 before the village was moved using forced labour. A third type of labour that was required was portering. All these types of labour were taking place one after the other on a continuous basis. The village was not given the order to relocate until all this forced labour was done. For six months they were doing the three kinds of forced labour: road building, army camp work and portering, one after the other with almost no rest or time off for their own work. There was, at most, one day's rest from time to time. People died from exhaustion and inadequate food. All adults had to go, not just one person per house: women and children as young as 13 were required to go. They even put him and some women in stocks. Orders for this work would come through the village head. But if they had a problem filling quotas then the soldiers would come directly to the village and arrest people. With regard to roads, about 200 to 300 people at one time, from several villages, would work on the road for 15 days at a time. They could return to the village to sleep. The work of the group ended only when the designated assignment was completed. They were told what to do and by what time it had to be done. Road work involved digging earth for the embankment, clearing trees and roots, and breaking stones for surfacing. He himself went on four different assignments of 15 days each during the six months before relocation. There was six months of continuous work on this road before the relocation using people from his village. When he returned from this assignment there was portering or army camp work to do. With regard to army camp work, there were three army groups: Infantry Battalions 541, 548 and 549. They built three encampments in Nabu village. They were built right on villagers' land that was appropriated for this purpose. The villagers had to clear the land, destroy the houses, then build the camp buildings. They cut timber and carried it to the site. It took one year to build the three encampments from the time they started the clearing of the ground. The buildings were constructed of cement and wooden posts. This was also done in rotations of 15 days. When the building was finished there were other types of work they had to do in the camp. It was an endless process of forced labour. The situation was so bad that when the relocation came it was almost a relief, because it gave the villagers a chance to escape. Women and children were also involved in the army camp work. The soldiers cursed the Muslims and beat them if they worked slowly. He also did portering three times for ten days each in 1996. He had to porter way up into the Dawna mountains in Kayin State, to very high elevations. Sometimes the soldiers would make the porters go through the night, without sleep. For portering half the time orders would go through the village head, the other half the time they would just come and round up porters by arresting them where they could find them. He was arrested three times: he ran away twice and finished the portering assignment once. The first two times he portered, he escaped. His load was of rice and ammunition, and artillery shells weighing 20 viss (33 kg). Soldiers would swear at the labourers and beat them as you would a buffalo or a cow. They would shoot at them if they tried to flee. Beatings were about the same in forced labour as for portering, but the treatment was worse in portering because food was not available. Sometimes porters would be starving and be only given rice soup. In contrast, labourers brought their own food to forced labour sites. All porters received was two meals, morning and evening: a total of one condensed milk-tin portion of rice, no salt, curry or fish paste. They picked leaves from the forest to eat with the rice and worked all day without breaks, sometimes through the night too. If you fell sick there was no treatment or medicine. Porters were left by the side of the road if they were too sick to continue. He never saw a porter shot by the soldiers, but has heard about this happening. Normally, there were no women porters taken. The youngest boy working as a porter that he saw was about 13 years old. Men of up to 70 were also taken. Sometimes women were called if the soldiers could not get men. He did not see any cases of sexual abuse of women. There were, however, other kinds of physical abuse. During army camp work villagers had to provide their own food and everything that was needed by the soldiers, including food for the soldiers. If the villagers did not give what was requested there was trouble. If they could not provide animals they had to give money instead. The village was relocated in December 1996. When that happened he went to other Karen villages and stayed there until he could escape to Thailand. Between January and May 1997, he was in hiding in various villages, so he did not perform forced labour. The witness added that everyone was subject to forced labour, not just Muslims. But the oppression of Muslims was even worse than the treatment of Karens. In September 1997, he received the news that the Mosque in Nabu had been destroyed by soldiers now living there after relocation. At the time of relocation another site was selected for the villagers to move to. But there was no water there and it was a bad area, so no one went. The villagers knew they could not survive there. "They had no compassion for us" he said.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
166 |
|
Age/sex: |
34, female | |
|
Family situation: |
Eight (her, husband and six children) | |
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From: |
Meh The, Hpa-an township, Kayin State | |
The witness testified in the presence of witness 167. She had been in Thailand for two months (since early 1998). She and witness 167 arrived together. She served as village head with another woman. They received written orders for a wide variety of forced labour assignments and portering, including repeat orders that included bullet and chilli threats (twice). In addition to forced labour, the village had to provide two thirds of all food and money to the army as tax. It was thus impossible to survive in the village. The population was disappearing into towns or Thailand. People could not stand extensive forced labour and did not have enough food to survive because they had to give too much to the Government. They were allowed to keep only one third of everything, which was not enough to survive. With regard to her functions as head woman, she was chosen as village head jointly with another woman, since men dared not hold the job. They knew that they would be beaten or killed. Women had it a bit easier. So the women did the job in turns and hers came up. Two served at a time for 15 days among those who had the ability to handle the job. Two women were used because a single woman would not dare to deal with the soldiers alone. The garrison was not in the village so there was a trip to be made. The women feared the soldiers and the journey if they had to go alone. She served three times as village head, and had to arrange assignments of forced labour duties. She also had to arrange for chickens and other food that soldiers demanded. Written orders for work assignments were sent to her by messenger. Sometimes, she had to go and meet with the soldiers at the army camp. The number of workers needed was set out in the orders. Other times porters were arrested directly. Sentry duty for three days at a time was continuous and done on rotation. Work in the army camp consisted of cutting bamboo, making a fence and making bamboo cords for tying thatch. Porters were used on a regular basis of five days at a time by rotation. She did portering herself many times, usually for one or two days, and only for short distances. Her husband and the men did it for longer periods and longer distances. She did portering when not serving as village head. There were also emergency porters called to work as the soldiers moved from village to village. New porters were picked up as the troops advanced. Women were replaced first, then children and old men who were also used for porters. Anyone who could carry a single military backpack could be used as a porter. Thirteen or fourteen year olds were the youngest she was aware of. She carried ammunition: six shells of about 25 kg total. If the orders were not followed and the required number of workers not sent, then the village was fined a certain number of bottles of alcohol or a certain number of chickens. A second order usually was sent, this time with a bullet, chilli or a piece of charcoal as a warning. The bullet means the recipient will be shot. The charcoal means a funeral or burning the village. She did not know what the chilli meant exactly but it was not good. She got this type of warning letter twice. The first time was to get more porters because the proper number had not been sent. The second time was because some of the work was not done properly. The first time the second warning order was written in red ink and had a bullet and charcoal. The second time it had a bullet, charcoal and a chilli. She did not have any penalties against her as village head. But others serving as village heads were locked up in the army camp and their legs put in stocks for one day or more. The village had to deliver a ransom of chickens or pigs to free them. On one occasion the military camp had fired a shell at the village and injured one person because they thought the KNLA was in the village. If a villager could not go as a porter they had to pay 500 kyat to the soldiers to hire a substitute. Because of extensive forced labour and payments, the villagers could not deal with life anymore. Many had left for the hills and more were expected to follow. Already, because the village was so small, the people had to do forced labour very frequently. The village needed to provide 20 people at a time, so nearly every day more people had to be sent. People were spending one day on forced labour and one day off. Usually, for each family, one person ended up doing the forced labour and the others worked the farms. But then the villagers also had to give two thirds of all food and money to the army in addition, so there was no way to make ends meet.
|
Ethnicity: |
Karen |
167 |
|
Age/sex: |
18, female | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with one child | |
|
From: |
Meh The, Hpa-an township, Kayin State | |
The witness gave her testimony in the presence of witness 167. She witness did not do forced labour herself because she dared not go. Her husband always went. He portered and did forced labour and cut bamboo for the army camp. He did forced labour about five to eight days every month. Once it was for one whole month. Once he was kicked because he had diarrhoea or dysentery and had to go to the toilet several times. Her husband did not do road building, but some other people in the village had to. Her mother and father used to do the forced labour requirement for her family when she lived with them. Her husband went as a porter six times between the age of 16 and 18.
|
Ethnicity: |
Karen |
168 |
|
Age/sex: |
48, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Widower with four children | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer | |
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From: |
Tee Pa Doh Hta, Bilin township, Mon State (village had 217 households) | |
The witness came to Thailand in August/September 1997 because Burmese army actions made life insecure in his village. When soldiers met villagers in the countryside and thought they would flee from them, they tied them up and threatened to kill them. To leave the village and work on their fields they needed a pass for a specified number of days; if the soldiers suspected a villager, even if that villager had a pass to work on his fields, they could do anything to him. The witness did forced labour from 1983, when military operations started in his region, up to 1987, when it had become daily routine, taking up over half his time year round, including winter and summer, dry season and the rainy season. During the rainy season carts and cars could not pass and villagers had to carry supplies for the military. He had no time to work for his own living, because he constantly had to do work for the military here and there. The worst forced labour was portering. The load assigned was more than one could carry, and in addition, one had to carry one's own food. Normally, portering was for five days by rotation, but if a replacement did not arrive, it could go on for a month. Also, if another group of soldiers arrived, one could again be asked to go, and there remained no time to work for one's living. He did portering many times; at least twice a year it was for over a month. His longest spells were for two months 15 days when he came to Tah Kwa Law Soe (mountain peak) in 1989, and three months 20 days in the Twi Pah Wee Cho (Sleeping Dog Mountain) operation in 1991. In that operation there were 400 to 500 porters, some of them called up through the village heads, including 30 porters from his village of 217 families, while others has been rounded up by the soldiers. He had to carry twelve 81 mm shells, each weighing 2 viss (altogether 39 kg). The last time he did portering was in August 1997 for seven days. After that, he left the village. His eldest son also had to do portering, over 20 times in the five to six years from the age of age 20 until he left, but not for as many days as himself, only seven, eight or ten days a time. Porters who could not keep up were killed by soldiers with a rock. During the 1991 Twi Pah Wee Cho operation he was too weak and could not carry any more, so they punched him once, then hit him with a rifle butt on the chest (shows scar), he was bleeding, they also hit him with a rifle butt on the side and the head (shows two scars). They nearly killed him, then sent him back to Meh Myeh (a military post). During the same operation, he saw soldiers kill two porters who were too weak to go on. One died after receiving three kicks in the stomach and more than 10 hits with a rifle butt, the other was killed with a rock. Porters were not paid but during this operation they were given food, albeit only a small amount, one cover of a soldiers' hankaw. In addition, last Summer, he and other villagers had to build an army camp, making bunkers, sheds, trenches. They also had to cut bamboo and fence the whole village and the whole camp, with two fences for the village, three for the camp. Then, for the camp, land mines and bamboo booby traps were installed between the fence girdles. They had to do this forced labour not only for their village but also for two smaller villages, bringing their own food. It was hard work, not so different from portering. He had to work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; when in other villages for a few days' work, he had to stay there the corresponding number of days. He had to work on fences three times a year, not less than 20 days, sometimes a month. If he finished in one place, they needed him elsewhere and sent him there. Every household had to supply one person for this work, failing which one had to give one viss (1.6 kg) of chicken and 100 kyat per day. If it was for four days, one had to give four viss of chicken, but 1,000 kyat: the compensation was proportional to the number of days of absence only for the chicken part, it was more than proportionate for the monetary part. If one could not give chicken, one had to give 250 kyat per viss of chicken. He had to give compensation two or three times, including once when he stayed home because his youngest daughter was sick with fever; that was no excuse. Furthermore, from October to June, each household had to supply someone for 24 hours, three times a month, to watch and clear the road. For his family, the witness usually sent his younger son, from about the age of ten, to do that job. He would not let his eldest son go, because whenever the soldiers saw someone of age 15 to 16 who could carry things they would take him as a porter, even if he was on sentry duty. On that job, his son could not sleep at night and had to sweep the road for land mines twice a day, early morning and late evening. It was dangerous work. Once in 1995, a land mine went off and a person doing sentry duty lost his leg and died from bleeding without treatment. Sometimes, if the soldiers were ambushed, if someone fired at them, they punished the person standing watch, who had to give the soldiers a penalty of pork curry. If a car was damaged and soldiers were hurt, the whole village had to pay for the damage. Once, all nine villages along the road from Yoh Kla to Kyo Wine, some 940 households, had to pay 500 kyat per household for damage to a car.
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Religion: |
Muslim |
169 |
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Age/sex: |
30, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with three children | |
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Occupation: |
Muslim Pastor | |
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From: |
Mon Naing, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (moved to Pata village in February 1997) | |
The witness came to Thailand in September 1997 because he had to physically perform forced labour or pay instead amounts of money beyond what he could afford as a pastor with a monthly revenue of 1,000 kyat. After coming back from "emergency" portering in February 1997, the witness moved to another village, Pata, where the situation was not quite as bad as in Mon Naing but also bad, so after a few months he left the country with his family. More precisely, the witness was required from 1992 to 1997 to perform forced labour in various forms: portering, including "emergency" portering, "voluntary work", sentry duty. In order to avoid portering, the witness had to give "porters fees". If he found a friend who would go in his place, he could pay him 80 kyat a day. If he did not find anybody, he had to pay 200 kyat per day to the authorities. As he was a pastor, his relatives and community did the "regular portering" for him. But for "emergency" portering, he was grabbed by soldiers on 30 January 1997 and had to go until he was freed on 27 February when he came as a porter through his village and relatives paid 2,000 kyat to an officer for his release. The soldiers would just grab anybody, calling it an "emergency". He was grabbed in the compound of his mosque by sergeant major Ngwe Zan from IB 28 (Battalion Commander Thura Po Sein, Company Commander Aung Moe) who called him "teacher" and grabbed him. He had to carry a load of over 20 viss (over 32 kg) of small bullets, rice and yellow beans from his village by the riverside across a 5,000 foot mountain. Women had to carry over 10 viss (16 kg). He was in a group of 400 to 500 porters, including 180 women from a group of four villages forced to carry supplies to front line troops. When soldiers arrested them, all the men's hands were tied, and they remained tied all the time, sleeping, carrying, going to the toilet. They were fed just one condensed milk tin full of rice for eight people per meal. He saw 16 porters beaten to death. Some were beaten to death because they could not carry goods any more and took a rest. Someone drinking water from a stream was kicked and died. Another person was dizzy, sat down and was beaten to death. One beaten to death was his friend Soba, a Muslim from Kawkareik town. He also saw others who could continue carrying their loads being beaten but they did not die. Usually the soldiers beat the people when tired, he himself was beaten just because he looked the other way. Women were placed between the soldiers, and some of them were raped, including five Muslim women from his village who told him the next day, asking in vain for help. They were asked to sleep among the soldiers. It happened almost every night to all kinds of women, including Muslim, Karen, whoever was there. In his village, everyone had to go portering, and many were beaten or injured. Three were injured, including his cousin who had his leg amputated after stepping on a land mine while portering. Two villagers had broken ribs and two others broken collar bones as porters because they were beaten when sitting to rest. He himself had problems with his back as a consequence of carrying a heavy load when on the way back in February 1997, he with another porter had to carry an injured soldier. In 1983/84, his elder brother and his brother-in-law were killed while portering. When the corpses were brought back seven days later, his brother had his throat slit and his brother-in-law three bayonet wounds in the chest. Other porters who brought back the news told him that the soldiers had killed them. In addition, three times a month, his village (with 80 households left) had to supply ten persons to do sentry duty round the clock for five days in a row. One could find a substitute for 30 to 50 kyat a day, or pay 70 kyat per day to the authorities instead of going. He did sentry duty himself or sent his wife, even though she had a six month old baby which she took with her. Sometimes his mother went. When on sentry duty, villagers had to pull a log with a cart over the road to see whether there were any mines on the road. Finally, for "voluntary work" the daily amount to be paid to officials was 200 kyat; like for portering, if one did not go or send somebody one had to pay this money. The difference was that the duration was fixed, if it was someone's turn, they went for 15 days, while for porterage if it was someone's turn, it depended on how long they needed porters for. When it was his turn to do "voluntary work" his relatives and community replaced him, as for the regular portering.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
170 |
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Age/sex: |
26, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married | |
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Education: |
3rd year college | |
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Occupation: |
Soldier (rank of sergeant, in the support company of an infantry battalion) | |
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From: |
Insein township, Yangon Division | |
The witness joined the army in 1995 because he had to earn a living and had no other choice. He deserted and came to Thailand in August 1997 because, as a Karen, he could no longer see his people being forced to work and oppressed by the Government. Being in the army, he could protect his relatives, but not other people. There was partiality even in the army between Karen and Burmese. When it came to officer training, Burmese students were chosen to attend, Karen only if they paid a lot of money. While in the army, he saw people being forced to work, three or four times when he served in Lashio town, and even in Yangon, as well as in Hpa-an, Manerplaw and Kawkareik. Forms of work included portering, minesweeping, road work and bridge building. When the witness served in Lashio, his battalion (number given to the Commission) had to supply civilians to do portering and work on roads. Other battalions informed them of their manpower needs; other battalions had to catch as many people as possible, and his battalion had to supply and transport these to the troops which needed them. From Lashio he thus witnessed three times groups of 170, 80 and 90 people respectively being sent to Kunlon and Kutkai, both on the Chinese border in northern Shan State, to carry ammunition and supplies for the soldiers. Those who could go no further were forced to build roads. Some had to go for one week, others for one month. Some were shot while trying to escape. In Kutkai, when a landslide stopped the troops' advance to the front line, there were bulldozers available, but the officers did not use them, because they wanted to sell the fuel on the black market, so they used the people instead to clear the road. One person fell into a stream and died. Even in Yangon he saw forced labour since he was small, and it was still going on. He saw people forced to level the ground for a construction for the military, some were bitten by snakes and not given compensation. They would catch three, four truck loads of people at a time, from tea houses. He had seen it happen. One day while on leave, he went to his place, in uniform, and heard that his friend (name given to Commission) was picked up by soldiers while drinking tea in a tea house. He knew the driver, found his friend in Insein prison and was able to get him out by convincing the officers that he was his brother. People rounded up in this way had to work for three to four months and were never paid. Moreover, provision had been made in the budget of the responsible department for supplying the porters with food, but the officers supplied them with only half and kept the rest for themselves. Some of the people rounded up were used for building Than Lwin bridge in Yangon, others were taken to other cities, sometimes to the front line. When it came to his own friends having to do this kind of work, they generally managed to pay money to escape somehow. Every two to three months the authorities came to collect 300 kyat "porter fees" from each house in the less central areas of Yangon, including Insein, Kaway Chaung, Thamine, Kyutgon, all of which are mostly Karen residential quarters. But 300 kyat would be sufficient to escape portering only when they came and asked for the money on a regular basis. When someone was rounded up for portering, the parents had to pay 4,000 to 5,000 kyat to get him out.
In Hpa-an town, just before he came to Thailand in June 1997, he saw people being rounded up in a place near a jetty. His department was asked to supply six trucks but could supply only five. A truck would accommodate normally around 50 people, they put 80 people in a truck. From there these people were taken to places like Nabu, Wawle, Kawkareik, Thingannyinaung, and from these places they had to carry food and other supplies further as porters, for two to three months. Some people could not tell where they were, ran away, never came back to their village. In Hpa-an, he has seen soldiers beating porters (he did not see this in Lashio).
In June 1997, the witness drove porters to a military camp close to Manerplaw, the former KNU headquarters, where the porters were given iron rods and ordered to walk ahead as minesweepers. He stayed behind while the minesweepers were in front: five people at a time over the width of the road and five behind them in between. When they saw a mine, they shouted back. He did not see anybody injured, but they found eight or nine land mines; experts took them out. He heard that in other groups, land mines killed many people. His comrades coming back in April 1997 from Hill 962, a place called Ta Lay on a hill, told him that eight porters were injured from stepping on a land mine. Those seriously injured were shot dead by soldiers, who did not want to care about medical treatment.
He saw the personal file of a soldier (name provided to the Commission) who had been demoted from lance-corporal to private, and asked him about the reasons. During an operation on the front line, a 25 to 26 year old lieutenant had villagers rounded up to the camp and asked whether they had seen any KNU soldiers. When they replied "no", the lieutenant asked an 80-year old lady in the crowd to tell him the truth, then hit her with a rifle butt on the forehead, asked her again and slapped her in the face. The lance-corporal tried to dissuade the lieutenant, who told him to mind his own business and kicked the lady, already lying on the ground, with his military boot on the chest. When the lance-corporal begged him not to do this, the lieutenant challenged him to a fight, and since the lance-corporal kept quiet he picked up the lady by the collar, she was crying, he spat on her face. The lance-corporal knew he could not stop the lieutenant anymore and hit him with a rifle butt on the temple. So the lance-corporal was demoted and put in the lock-up for three months.
At camp 1/450 [Company 1 of battalion 450] near Kawkareik, in the beginning of 1997 villagers were asked to cut down trees and toddy palms and carry the logs to a construction site, instead of levelling the ground with bulldozers. Over 100 people were used for this for two to three months. They were kept in place at night, so that they could not escape. Finally, parallel to his army duties, he, along with other soldiers, was often asked to plant trees and dig wells, allegedly for the development of military discipline. It meant they had to put in extra hours at night, almost 20 days a month. Instead of working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. they had to go from about 6 a.m. to 3 a.m., slept for three to four hours. This was quite common, happened everywhere. For example, the officers would plant teak or whatever they wanted to get, keep two thirds of the profits for themselves and one third for buying provisions for the army. He himself received nothing.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
171 |
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Age/sex: |
46, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with three children | |
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Education: |
4th Standard | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer (he had a plot of land and his father-in-law, who lives in another village, secretly looks after it) | |
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From: |
Meh The, Hpa-an township, Kayin State (village had some 30 households, but was destroyed recently by the military in order to prevent Karen National Union (KNU) members taking refuge there) | |
The witness left Myanmar in early 1998. He had to act as a porter, perform sentry duty near a road, and build a military camp. He was left on average with 15 days a month to do his own work. He had to do portering around 70 times over the last 26 years. He acted as a porter for the first time at the age of 20 (1977) and last did so two months ago. It was difficult to estimate how many times a month. The military requisitioned porters as and when they needed them. The military's orders were generally passed on by the village head, although the soldiers did sometimes arrest porters directly. The orders were given in writing, though he did not see them personally. One person per family had to do the work, on the basis of a rota between four families. It was impossible to refuse. It was however possible to engage a substitute - at a price of 500 kyat per day for substantial trips. He engaged a substitute on one occasion. He would never have dared offer the military a bribe to be exempted. The distances to travel varied: from four to five days up to one month. Portering could be required both in the rainy and the dry seasons. The assignments had to be carried out in Mon and Kayin States. He had to sleep with the soldiers. On several occasions, he had to march all night, without a moment's break. The women also had to do the same. His wife had to go to the front line on one occasion. The last time he acted as a porter, 60 other porters were with him, including both men and women. The women carried food, cooking pans and munitions. The men carried mostly munitions. He was caught up in battles against the KNU on five occasions. In these cases, the porters (male and female) had to stay with the soldier so as to provide them with ammunition. He was not paid and did not always receive a sufficient portion of food. Sometimes, he only received one meal in two days. Like the other porters, he had to be content with water to drink. When the porters, exhausted and starving, were no longer able to carry their loads, they were beaten and kicked. He had never personally been beaten, but he saw several porters being beaten. The porters were not given medical treatment or medicine when they were ill. He did not witness any ill-treatment of women, but he had heard that, in other villages, some had been maltreated or sexually abused. He also had to do sentry duty near the road between Thaton and Hpa-an (a road which also went to the military camp). That road was about three miles from his village. He could be required to do this once or twice a month. It was the village head who organized the work extorted by the military. Each assignment lasted three days. One hundred and fifty women and men worked at the same time as him, including three from his village, on the section assigned to them. The work consisted of defending the road against the KNU. To do this, he had to stay on the road day and night. He was not paid and had to bring his own food. He feared being arrested, beaten or even killed by the military if he refused to do the work. The road was under construction. Moreover, he once worked on its construction in 1996 with other villagers and soldiers for three days. His wife also worked on it on four occasions. The road was mainly intended for the military. Finally, on one single occasion he worked for a day, about a year and three months ago, on building the Pwo military camp situated one-and-a-half miles from his village. He had to erect barracks and put up bamboo and fences. The material had to be provided by the villagers, who received no compensation for this. The villagers worked in rotating shifts, as the building of the camp lasted ten days in all. 60 people from different villages worked at the same time as him. He was not paid and had to bring his own food. He was not a member of any political organization.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
172 |
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Age/sex: |
50, female | |
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Family situation: |
Widow with two daughters and one son | |
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Occupation: |
Trader; sold snacks in the village | |
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From: |
Pway Taw Roo village, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had 20 families) | |
The witness left Myanmar in mid-1997 because she no longer had enough time to take care of her own work on account of the work demanded by the military. Since her husband's death, she had personally had to do portering, sentry duty by a road and construction of a military camp. She did not personally do work for the military before her husband's death. It was the village head who organized the work. She was not paid and could not refuse to work for fear of being arrested. If the village head failed to fulfil his role, the military could requisition people directly. She personally had to do portering for the military on three occasions in the year preceding her departure. Each family had to provide one member to perform this work. She had to transport munitions for a day from her village to Painkyone. Some hundred persons worked at the same time as her, about twenty from her village, including a majority of women. She had to take her own food. Her sister looked after her children while she was away. She had personally been physically maltreated and was beaten and kicked when she was tired. She also saw many women, most of them elderly, beaten and ill-treated by the soldiers. On one occasion, she saw a woman severely beaten for having put down her basket, when tired, to go to the toilet. She did sentry duty by the road between her village and Painkyone-Hlaingbwe-Hpa-an on three occasions over a month. On the other occasions when she had been conscripted by the military for this kind of work, she had engaged a substitute, for which she had to pay 30 kyat each time. Each assignment lasted a whole day, and night. Twenty people - exclusively women - had to work at the same time on a given section of the road. Two people did sentry duty together, sharing the same shelter and covering around 150 to 200 feet of road. She also worked twice two years ago on the construction of a military camp (camp 709), which was situated three miles from her village. Each assignment lasted a day. She had to cut wood and bamboo in the forest near the camp, carry them to the site and work on the building of the camp. Fifty people, including ten women, worked with her on the first occasion and 30, including eight women, on the second. She had not been physically abused on these occasions, though the soldiers shouted at the workers. Female village heads had, however, been subjected to ill-treatment for not managing to organize the work. They were tied up and left out in the blazing sun for half a day. They were released around 2 p.m. They were also threatened with a gun, shots being fired close to their ears. Her husband had to do forced labour at least ten times in the twenty years preceding his death. He had to act as a porter on two occasions, the first assignment lasting two days, the second five days.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
173 |
|
Age/sex: |
40, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with two daughters | |
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Education: |
2nd Standard | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer; had two plots of land near the village | |
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From: |
Bee T'Ka, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had 130 families) | |
The witness had to leave Myanmar in mid-1997 as the military suspected him of belonging to the KNU. He would like to return to his village if the situation changed. He took on the functions of section leader in April and May of 1997. The section leader was chosen by the village head, who was himself elected by the villagers. As section leader, he had to organize the work exacted by the military and by the Karen National Union (KNU). He had to do this four times for the latter organization. He had to organize the following work for the military: portering, road building, sentry duty by a road and military camp building. He risked paying a fine if he could not organize the work required. Those selected ran the risk of being arrested if they refused to do the work. He had to organize teams of porters on five occasions. He had to find the number of porters required by the military. Each family had to provide one person to perform the work. He also organized labour for the military for the construction and guarding of roads and the building of a military camp. He organized work on three occasions for the road between Hpa-an and Dawlan, each assignment lasting respectively five, two to three, and four days and requiring 117, 107 and 37 workers. As regards sentry duty, he had to find four workers on five occasions for assignments lasting three days each time. For the military camp, he had to organize work on three occasions, having to recruit 50, 35 and 70 workers respectively for assignments lasting one day. On all these occasions, he worked with the people selected. Prior to assuming his functions as section leader, he personally had to act as a porter at least twice a month. The assignments lasted between five and 15 days. The number of porters depended on the number of soldiers. Men and women were recruited. Both had to carry munitions, though the men had the heavier loads to carry. He had to go to the front line on three occasions. Men and women porters had to stay during the fighting. He had not personally witnessed sexual abuse of women, but had been told that women had been raped by soldiers. A woman who worked with him told him she had been raped by five soldiers. A complaint was lodged with the commander, who had condemned the episode and ordered that such actions should not be repeated. However, it would seem that the order was not respected. On two occasions when he was section leader he accompanied the porters. Portering was done in mountain areas. He had to act as a porter between his village and three others nearby (his village was near the mountains, and there was a military camp near his house). One hundred and ten porters worked with him, including ten from his village, for 250 soldiers. Only men did this kind of work. He had to carry ammunition for mortars. Each assignment lasted five days. The porters were regularly maltreated, being beaten and kicked as soon as they could not keep up. He was not paid. Prior to taking up his functions as section leader, he had to take part on ten occasions in the building of three military camps in 1996 and 1997: five times he worked on the camp at Nabu, twice on the Naungbo camp and three times on the camp at Taun Zun. He had to work with villagers from various villages. They had to provide the necessary materials and were not paid either for the materials provided or for the work done. He also had to take his own food. It was always possible to pay a substitute: for road building and sentry duty (500 kyat), for portering (1,000 to 1,200 kyat) and for the military camp work (100 kyat). It was not possible to give bribes to gain exemption. Finally, since his departure his wife had to work for the military. He did not know exactly how many times she had to do portering personally, but he knew that she was required to do this twice a month. He had to pay a rice tax, which was paid to government officials. Under this tax, established by the law, he had to pay four or five per cent of his harvests, depending on their quality.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
174 |
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Age/sex: |
72, female | |
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Family situation: |
Married with four daughters and two sons | |
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Occupation: |
Her husband was a farmer and had his own land | |
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From: |
Painkyone, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had 200 families) | |
The witness lived in Myanmar but arrived in Thailand in early January 1998 to visit her daughters. She wanted to go back to Myanmar to fetch all her family to settle in Thailand. She considered it was difficult to survive in Myanmar in view of the work exacted by the military. Moreover, the military had tortured her niece with a bayonet as they suspected her of being a member of, or helping or cooperating with, the Karen National Union (KNU). She personally had to work for the military, performing the following tasks: portering, road building and sentry duty, and building a military camp. Her husband also had to perform the same kinds of work. She estimated that she had around ten days per month left for her own work, while her husband had to devote at least 50 per cent of his time to the work exacted by the military. She had to do portering for the military at least twenty times over the last 28 years. The orders were generally given by the village head, but the military also sometimes arrested the people they needed. She had personally been directly requisitioned by the military five times. Each assignment lasted between one and four days. She was not paid and had to take her own food. She went to the front line with other women on one occasion. She last acted as a porter two months before her departure. On that occasion, the military requisitioned her directly without going through the village head. Though she pleaded advanced years, they replied that, if she did not want to do the work personally, she would have to find someone to replace her. Finding no one, she had to carry food to a mountain near the front line, in the vicinity of the Lerpu military camp. She had to walk for a whole day, covering about 15 miles. There were around 100 porters for 50 soldiers - mainly women, as the men managed to escape. She did not see women being ill-treated, in contrast with the men, who were regularly beaten and kicked violently. She heard stories of sexual abuse of women, but did not witness any, nor was she personally subjected to it. Her husband had to act as a porter for the military many more times than she. He had to act as a porter on military operations and for the military camps. He last worked as a porter in 1996 on a military operation lasting five days. Portering assignments for military operations could vary between five days and one month. Some days before her departure, her husband had to carry material for a military camp for a day. She also had to work on four occasions on the building and repair of the road running through her village (four miles long). In each case, the work lasted a day. The last time she did this was the day before she left. It was the village head who informed her of the work to be done. Five people from her village worked with her. The road, including a bridge, was used by the military and civilians. She was not paid. As many women as men took part in this road building and repair work. Her husband had worked on it more than forty times over the last twenty years, each assignment lasting one day. She had to do sentry duty beside this road at least twenty times over the last six years. Each assignment was for three nights. She shared a tent with two other people; only one had to stay awake during the period of sentry duty. She could return home during the day. She had to do sentry duty by the road three days before leaving for Thailand. Men and women had to perform this work. Her husband had also done sentry duty at least ten times a year over the last six years. She was not subjected to ill-treatment or harassment. She had heard of gang rapes carried out by soldiers. Finally, she took part in the building and repair of the Painkyone military camp, which was located in her village about two miles from her home. She was last required to do this work over a five-day period three weeks before her departure. In the evening, she could return home. She worked with 30 other people from her village. Each family had to provide one person on the basis of a pre-arranged rota. The workers had to provide the necessary materials. They were not paid either for the material provided nor for the hours of work done. It was possible to engage a substitute, though she had not done so as she did not have the money to pay for one. Her husband had also worked at this camp on many occasions. She also had to pay a tax on the rice harvests equivalent to four per cent of the harvest, since her lands were not particularly fertile. The taxes were paid to Government representatives, not to the military.
|
Ethnicity/religion: |
Karen, Buddhist |
175 |
|
Age/sex: |
36, female | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with three children | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer | |
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From: |
Meh The, Hpa-an township, Kayin State | |
The witness fled to Thailand in early January 1998 with her family when their village of 36 houses was relocated. The order had come several times but the villagers had ignored it and stayed. The first order was given by the authorities to the head of the village before the harvest, in Tazaungmon month (around November), and people did not care. Then twice they came to the village and asked the villagers to move by force. The villagers left the village, but later came back. The fourth and last time, the DKBA fired mortar shells into the village, one house was burnt; fortunately, nobody was hurt, as many were working in the fields. They were asked to go to Htee Nu, where before there had been a monastery, no village (nor a military camp), two to three hours' walk from her village. She did not know whether others moved there, because her family left, fleeing to Thailand with nothing but 2,000 kyat; even the clothes they were wearing at the time of the interview were given to them by other people. With regard to forced labour, there were so many kinds: road construction, portering, or camp building. For instance, she might have to go to work in a military camp, then, as soon as she arrived home, be called to serve as a porter. One was never sure. There were many battalions in the area, some would catch people for portering, others for other work. Some months, she did not have a single day for her own work, nor her husband for his. Both were called up for the whole month, engaged in different work, portering, road construction, building a military camp. In the rainy season there was more forced labour than in dry season (when military operations started and they were forced to move from their village). To refuse to do forced labour, she would have had to hire a substitute (which she never did). Two years ago, the witness saw the acting village head, a lady of over 60 years old (name given to the Commission), being beaten. She was asked to tell the villagers to go for messenger service and nobody listened or turned up, so Government soldiers came into the village and beat her. She suffered a cut on the head from a blow with a bamboo stick, leaving a big scar. She was tied up the whole night, then beaten. After her release, the soldiers asked for a pig. She didn't know the name or rank of the soldiers involved. The company commander was Bo Hla Phine. Some time later, the same acting village head, when asked to look for forced labourers, was too frightened to go to the camp, so they wrote to her three or four times, and also included a bullet in the letter. At last she went and was put in a pit the whole night. The next day she was released, they asked her for a cow which she could not provide, so she took a pig to the camp commander. With regard to road construction, the witness worked for the past three to four years on the road between Lay Kay and Ta Paw, which was there long ago and never used before. Now the work was finished and the road, about four metres wide, was used by military trucks and cars. She had never seen a bullock cart on the road. The order had come through the village head that one person from each family had to go, for one or two days at a time, depending on the work. They were given no food, nor money, nor tools, which had to be taken from home. They had to work till sunset and could go home for the night. Each household had to go three or four times per month. She had also done portering herself four times. Two years ago the first time, for two days. She was rounded up while sleeping at home. Early in the morning the military woke her up, gave her a basket to carry, about 13 to 14 viss (about 22 kg). The load was too heavy for her and she cried while carrying it. Her husband was not at home, he was in the fields. She had to carry the basket to a place near Shwegun. There were many porters, mainly women. Men were beaten, when accused of leading the soldiers in the wrong direction (while portering). They were hit on the head, suffered a lot. The same year (1996) she had to do portering four times in all, three times rounded up, once called up through the village head. The second and third time, she had to go for three days, the last time two days. Her husband had portered only once. He was very scared of the Burmese and ran away whenever soldiers were around. When rounded up for portering, he managed to escape after four days, because he could no longer carry his load. He was not tied up, nor beaten. If someone had money, they could hire a substitute when called up by the village head. When rounded up, he had no choice but to go. In any case, no one in the village had money. When Ta Line Kayin camp (Commander: DKBA officer Bo Than Tun) was set up two years ago, two hours' walk away from her village, the military gave orders through the village head for one person from each household to contribute labour. If orders were followed, it was one person per household, if not, everybody was rounded up. They had to go there until the camp was finished, it took months, beginning at the start of the rainy season. Other villages also had to contribute labour, sometimes ten, 20, 30 people would be there. She herself had to cut and split bamboo, make fences and bamboo booby traps, cut trees, make roofing, clear bushes, help carry trees to a place from which soldiers would take the logs away. Her husband was not well, so she had to go, do everything. She was not paid, had to bring her own food, but could go home at night. Her 17-year-old son also had done forced labour, cutting trees for the military camp last year, not at the same time as herself. Sometimes people tried to run away. She saw people being beaten and ill treated. Usually two persons from the village had to go at the same time for a full day to the camp, to be on standby for messenger service; other villages, altogether over five, also had to supply messengers. Her eldest child had done messenger service (not at the same time as herself). Moreover, villagers had to perform sentry duty. The order for this came through the village head. One person had to be on the road for five days, sweeping the road, for example before and after military trucks passed. Last year she went three times for five days each, always without pay, having to bring her own food and sleeping on the site, under a bush, while soldiers guarded the villagers. The soldiers did not hurt them. She heard about sexual abuse, but was not sure. Two years ago, her mother (who lived with them) went once for the family, and her son once. In addition to providing labour, when soldiers asked for whatever they wanted in the village (a cow, a pig), the villagers had to supply it, arranging among themselves. Also, any amount of rice the soldiers asked for had to be given. Money also had to be paid. In 1977 the soldiers asked for 3,000 kyat from the whole village.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
176 |
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Age/sex: |
30, female | |
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Family situation: |
Married with three children (household of seven members) | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer | |
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From: |
Pa Nya Plee, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State | |
The witness came to Thailand in May 1997 with her family because she had seen and heard that people were attacked and killed by soldiers, she had to do forced labour, including portering, even while pregnant, and they were constantly in fear. They had no time for their work, since most of the time they had to work for the military. When they came to Thailand, they had nothing at home, not even a tin of paddy, and it was the same thing with her father and mother. In November/December 1996, while she was six months pregnant, she was rounded up and had to carry 18 to 20 viss (30 to 32 kg) of ammunition and food for the military for 28 days. She had been sleeping at home alone at night. All the other villagers had run away, but she thought that, since she was pregnant, nothing would happen to her. She was called out of the house at gun point by soldiers of LIB 10 and had to go to a place called Gat Te, a DKBA village where people returning from the Thai border were placed. She had to cross Dawna mountain ridge; it took her three days to go home. There were over 100 people portering, carrying big baskets, including two women and five men from her village. They had been told the journey would take five days, and the head of the village had been called and asked to bring food rations for five days, which they had to carry. After five days, and for the remaining weeks, they were given a little rice twice a day, sometimes spoiled rice, boiled with chopped banana stems, served in a banana leaf. The cooking was done by a porter. One mad person was carrying rice and eating rice all the time, but she did not see him being beaten. She saw an old man beaten by soldiers because he could not carry his load anymore, they tried to beat him not on the road but somewhere else; when they came back, she saw him bleeding from nose and mouth, and he had bruises on his head and back; he had to carry his load again the next day in the morning. She saw many people beaten as they went on, from time to time. One man, about 60 years old, carrying a heavy rucksack with ammunition, was prodded with a sharp bamboo spike while walking, and he had blisters all over. She doubted he survived. One man who could no longer carry his load was put in a bag by the soldiers and thrown from a mountain cliff. He was not in her group, but she saw it. The porters were tied in pairs day and night, men and women all mixed, ten in a group; when going to the toilet, two had to go, and soldiers followed with a gun. One 13 to 14 year old girl (name given to the Commission) from a neighbouring village, who had been taken as a porter, was taken from the group one evening and raped by a high-placed officer (name and rank given to the Commission), who threatened her that, if she told anyone, her village would be burnt. She was crying throughout the journey after she was raped; she was released at the same time as the witness. When the witness was single (over eight years ago), she had to go portering many many times, sometimes called up through the village head, sometimes rounded up by soldiers, for five, ten, 15 days; the longest period then was for 20 days. Before portering, she was quite fit and well-rounded, afterwards all skin and bones. Since she married, two of her younger brothers did portering many times. While portering in 1996, one of her brothers was hit by a soldier with a rifle butt because he complained he could not carry his load anymore; afterwards, he suffered a long time from a chest problem.
With regard to road construction, starting two years ago, and all year round, her two brothers did forced labour in rotation on the road from Painkyone camp to Hlaingbwe. The order came to the head of village. One person per household had to go; if they asked for ten people, one person each from ten households would go for ten days at a time (the village had 30 households). Every month one person from each household went for ten days, working full time from morning to noon and again after lunch until sunset, unpaid and bringing their own food rations. In 1996, also, other villagers had to cut down trees and her younger brother had to carry logs from the forest to the road for transportation by truck to the cities. The order had come through the village head, and a lot of people from her own and other villages went and had to stay there for ten days without pay and living on the food rations they had to bring themselves. Since she married some eight years ago she had to do road sentry duty once every month for five days, sometimes seven days, at a time. She took turns with one brother. When on duty, she took her two children along; they both caught asthma. They had to sleep beside the road even in the rainy season. She had to sweep along the road with branches to clear mines. All along the road people had to do this. In 1996, one of her aunts was killed when sweeping along the road in the morning. A land mine exploded and both her legs were blow off; another lady lost one leg in the same mine blast. She was not present, she saw it afterwards. Soldiers also asked bullock cart drivers to pull a log up and down the road so they would be the first to be killed. While on sentry duty, she once saw a bullock cart passing on the road blown up by an exploding mine, the driver and both bullocks were killed. Until she fled the country, she or her brother had to go twice a month in a group of five people for five or seven days every morning to Painkyone military camp, two hours' walk from the village, to report whether they had seen any military activity. In 1996, her brothers had to make fences around Painkyone military camp, dig trenches, do repair work on the camp. The order came through the head. Her brothers had to go for two full months until the work was finished; they usually went and came back every day. If one did not want to go for forced labour, one could give money, either to hire a person or give it to the authorities. For portering, one had to give over 1,000 kyat either way. For other forced labour, most people went themselves, having no money. She also went herself, as she had no money. Every year, the soldiers collected from each village a quota of rice, animals, anything they asked for, plus twice a month 100 to 200 kyat from each household. In 1995, the military asked for rice. If, in their view, a farmer could produce 30 sacks of rice, they would take ten; if he actually had less, then he still had to make up the quota.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
177 |
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Age/sex: |
45, female | |
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Family situation: |
Widow with five children | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer | |
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From: |
Htihpokape, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State (village had about 40 households) | |
The witness left Myanmar four years ago. She went back for a whole year in 1996 and left again in February 1997. She did forced labour "quite often" in 1996, almost the same as earlier (although she was excused from several forms of forced labour imposed on other villagers). She never was paid for any labour. The villagers had to do portering; the military informed the village head of their needs, usually indicating the number of people required. If their requirements were not fulfilled, they rounded up the people themselves. In 1996, there was no rounding up, but the villagers had to go. In 1996, the villagers were also asked to do road sentry duty. She herself did road sentry at Plakyaw, three miles from her village (near the road from Hlaingbwe to Painkyone); after a day, they were asked to go to Hpagat for one night. She went only once for two days, "to keep watch over what happens". They went in pairs, there were many along the road. In the morning, she had to sweep the road with branches, for mines. She never saw a mine explode. In 1996, the villagers also were ordered through the village head to supply labour for these purposes. She herself being too old and not well enough, her household (consisting of herself and her youngest son) was excused. She had to pay 100 kyat per month to the soldiers. In 1996, people in Htihpokape were ordered through the village head to carry logs for telephone line poles. From Htihpokape, a small village (of about 40 households), five people had to go, from other villages more. She had to do it two or three times a month for one day. The logs were first carried to a river, then some were carried out again by two or three people, others, bigger ones, were pulled out of the river with a chain by many people. She herself took part in pulling out the logs. Once, four to five soldiers came into the village, told the village head one log was crooked, not good for a pole, and fined the villagers one pig. On another occasion, the villagers were asked to carry logs and bamboo from their place to Painkyone camp, about three hours' distance. Finally, the villagers also had to clear the ground for rubber and teak plantations for the military. They had to bring their own provisions. She did not go to the rubber/teak plantations herself.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
178 and 179 |
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Age/sex: |
21 and 17, both male | |
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Family situation: |
Both single, parents' families of seven and six respectively | |
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Education: |
4th Standard (witness 178); 9th Standard (witness 179) | |
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From: |
Bee T'Ka, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State | |
The witnesses left Myanmar in July 1997. Witness 178 came to Thailand a first time in 1992, witness 179 in 1997. In 1997 both went back to Bee T'Ka and, on the way, they were rounded up on 9 June 1997, in Lubaw (between Bee T'Ka and the Thai border) for portering. Witness 178 specified that they were stopped by soldiers from IB 33 on the road their hands were tied and they were taken for questioning to an officer, who accused them of being KNU agents or soldiers. They denied this and were not believed. The next day they were questioned separately, then tied up more closely, both beaten up (name of officer who beat them given to the Commission) and even asked to dig a hole (as for burial). They were blindfolded with plastic bags, had water poured on their heads so they could not breathe, were tortured for many hours, sometimes losing consciousness. One witness coughed blood, had internal injuries, chest problems. From about 11 June 1997, they were used as porters. First they had to carry pots (with rice) weighing together over 40 viss (over 65 kg) on a yoke from Lubaw for two days to Thay Mo Hpa. At first, they were 11 porters (all men), later a village head of some of the others came and paid money for the release of some of the porters, seven stayed. After two days, they returned to Lubaw, and from there they were taken to Kyawko. Altogether, they did seven days of portering, over hilly ground. They were fed two meals of jackfruit mixed with rice, which they had to cook for all the porters. At night, they were surrounded by soldiers. After seven days, when they could not get enough food, they were asked to go to villages and beg for food for all the group of about 40 people (porters and soldiers). The two of them were guarded by four or five soldiers. They were asked to beg for food from house to house, then come back with the supplies. The soldiers went into the house while the porters waited outside; whatever they found, they took in the kitchen and store room, especially rice. The officers had promised them that they would be released upon reaching Kyawko village, but upon arrival, they were told witness 178 still had to go to Ser Gaw village, where one of his relations lived, and bring back different food stuffs, oil, noodles, ajinomoto (monosodium glutamate), while witness 179 stayed in Kyawko camp. After witness 178 got all the rations and went back (two hours later) to Kyawko camp, he asked to be released, but the company commander (name given to Commission) again refused, and they were asked to carry planks from a stream up to the hill. After witness 178 complained and begged the commander to release them, the commander called the person keeping their watches and personal belongings, and they were both released, went to Ser Gaw and came back to Thailand. With regard to other forms of forced labour, witness 197 said that from 1995 he studied in Hlaingbwe and did no forced labour, the 1997 portering was the first time. But he was arrested and tortured in 1996, he doesn't know why, by the military. For about nine days, he was kept under the sun, at night in a lock-up, his legs in the stocks. His family had to do forced labour over the same period (1995 to 1997), messenger service, supplying firewood and rice rations. There was no road building, no portering, but they had to pay porters' fees (money to be excused from serving), he doesn't know the amount. For messenger service, every day two villagers were asked to go three miles to a camp to help soldiers with whatever they wanted, like sending a letter, or whatever the camp commander needed. Witness 179 wished to add that in Hlaingbwe, if more than four or five students were in a group, the group would be broken up. He often heard shouts and screams from the prison, and saw prisoners wearing white robes breaking rocks. In Bee T'Ka, in the beginning of 1997, he saw an incident where nine people were called to be checked; one said he was a Government servant, and when unable to produce an identity card, he was killed on the spot. Five ran away to the river and tried to swim, one was caught. Later people saw a dead body, tied to a donkey and dragged along the shore.
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Ethnicity/religion: |
Karen, Christian |
180 |
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Age/sex: |
32, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with three children | |
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Education: |
6th Standard | |
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Occupation: |
Farm labourer | |
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From: |
Bee T'Ka, Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State | |
The witness and his family came to Thailand in April 1996 because they were accused of having contacts with the KNU, had to do forced labour, and faced a lot of hardship. He was a village head for about a year. There were ten sections in the village, which was divided by a river: on the eastern bank lived mostly Buddhists, on the western, Christians. The village head received orders for forced labour from the commanders of the military camp in the Bee T'Ka monastery area. Every day, the village head had to supply forced labour; as soon as he received the orders, he would first go to the chiefs of the 10 sections to find the number of people required. Usually, the order came in the morning, to be complied with within the same day. If forced labour had to be supplied over a longer or indefinite time span, there would be only one order at the start of the period. Sometimes, the order came with a bullet in the envelope, plus a piece of charcoal. Between rainy season 1995 and April 1996, the village head received four orders with both a bullet and a piece of charcoal, usually when he could not find the number of people required. A letter with a bullet and a piece of charcoal would set the deadline the evening of the same day. During his duties, villagers were directly rounded up four times by the military for forced labour, without the authority of the village head. Once, an order given in writing to the village head was brought by the messenger at too short notice, for 20 porters to be provided within two hours, so the village head could not comply, and after two hours, the military came inside the village and rounded up many people; at last, the village head asked them to release the surplus, which they did. The 20 had to serve three days. As for the other three times, the military sometimes came to the village without warning because they wanted to go to some place and wanted nobody to know, so they just came to the village and grabbed the number of people they wanted (as porters). Some of the villagers could not bear this situation any more and ran away from the village, so the military would fine the other villagers. When one family ran away, the remaining villagers had to pay 40,000 kyat, plus 40 viss (65 kg) of pork. On the day of taking up his functions, he received an order from the military camp command to supply 80 people a day for one month to carry food and supplies from Paw Yebu camp to Taun Zun, Naungbo and other camps, as well as to Bee T'Ka. People who did not want to go had to hire someone else as a substitute, which cost 100 kyat a day. From each of the ten sections in the village, two people had to be every day at the military camp (at the monastery) on standby for portering. These 20 people had to stay with the soldiers for one week and could not come back until they were replaced. To be exempt from this service for three days, people had to pay the military 600 kyat, and for a week, 1,300 kyat. Most could not pay, so they went. All work was unpaid, and people had to bring their own rice. If the army had a confrontation with the KNU, some people would run away, and the military would fine the village for every person escaping; the last time this happened, the village head had to give 4,000 kyat for one person escaping from a war zone as a porter while fighting was going on. About two or three times a month, 30 or 40 villagers would be required in addition as porters by a battalion while patrolling the area; they would stay with the battalion as long as it was on the move, three or four days, sometimes one or two days. The village head also had to supply porters for longer trips. Once in the dry season, 30 people were required for a week. Sometimes porters were tied and beaten because they were accused, without evidence, of being linked to the KNU army; porters were also beaten for being slow. While he was a village head, he saw about 13 people seriously injured. They were put in stocks and still had the marks of iron rods on their skins. One person was beaten on his back until blood ran out of his nose and mouth. He fled to Thailand since and had to take medicine now. Over the same period, nobody from the village was killed, and no woman molested. In the latter part of 1995, a new road was built from Bee T'Ka to Paw Yebu. An order was sent to the village head for one person per family to come and work on the road every day until the road was completed. The work lasted two weeks, was unpaid, workers had to bring their own food and tools and work the whole day, under the supervision of soldiers. After that, construction of another road, about four miles long, from Paw Yebu camp to Taun Zun was undertaken. The road was still under construction in April 1996. Again, one person from each household had to work on the site all the time. If there were only women or old persons in the household, it would depend on the village head, who might try to make arrangement to help that household. To be exempted from the work, one had to give 200 kyat per day. In addition to the 20 villagers on standby for portering, two people had to go every day from the village to be messengers for the military for one day. The order came through the village head, who would usually ask women to be messengers. Also, in January - February 1996, the military obtained information that two guns were not far from the village and asked the village head to lead them there. When he refused, they arrested six women and five men to guide them; they had to go in front, followed by the village head, with soldiers behind, for about two hours. In the hot season, an order was sent to him of for one person per family to come to the military camp at the monastery, to bring bamboo with them, fence the monastery, prepare booby-traps, and dig trenches. The work went on for about four days until completed.