Villages Under the SPDC

"They designate it as a 'white' area. Even though they call it a white area they do whatever they want to do when they come so the villagers don't know what to do." - "Pa Taw Thu" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #152, 12/00)

SPDC control over Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts is limited to a few areas; the villages in the plains east of the Sittaung River in Nyaunglebin District, the area of Papun town, the villages along the lower Yunzalin River and the Papun - Ka Ma Maung road in Papun District, and the relocation sites along the lower Bilin River in Dweh Loh township of Papun District. Outside that the Army has many camps, but does not firmly control the hills between those camps. The SPDC has created a system for classifying villages; 'black' being resistance controlled, 'brown' being not fully controlled by either side, and 'white' being under full SPDC control. 'White' areas are supposed to have little or no resistance activity, but the reality in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts is that even 'white' area villages have some contact with the resistance and there is military activity in the surrounding hills. The SPDC often refers to 'white' area villages as 'Nyein Chan Yay' ('Peace') villages, and sometimes tells village elders in 'brown' areas that their villages are to be 'Peace' villages. This is supposed to mean that the village will not be relocated or destroyed as long as all of the demands of the Army and SPDC authorities are met.

"They call it a 'white area'. This means they can control everything. It means there are no more enemies. The SPDC say they do not have any more enemies. It is the area they can control so they call it a 'white area'. They can force the people there [to do things] as they please. The village heads can't take a rest and do their own work. The Ya Ya Ka or Ya Wa Ta [Village Peace and Development Council, or Village Law & Order Restoration Council (the latter is the pre-1997 name)] often calls the village heads to come." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"They call it a 'white' area but they oppress the villagers. Whether we live in a 'white' area or a 'black' area they still force us to work for them. They hurt the villagers and oppress them." - "Saw Eh Muh" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #154, 12/00)

A general characteristic of villages under SPDC control is that there are one or more Army camps in or near the village. The villagers are called upon to provide forced labour, food, materials and money, and troops visit the village on a regular basis. The population consists of people originally from the village who have lived under SPDC control for some time, and those from the surrounding areas who have been forced to move there. Many of the people in SPDC-controlled villages have been through repeated forced relocations within the past 20 years. The relocations generally follow the same pattern. SPDC battalions issue orders to the surrounding villages to move closer to the Army camps, to major villages or to new sites along roads. This is to be better able to control the villagers as well as to provide pools of forced labour. Some of the villagers flee into the forest rather than go to the relocation site. Those who go as ordered are almost immediately forced to go as porters for the soldiers and to perform other forms of labour. In some cases the villagers are ordered to fence the relocation sites, and their access to their fields is either restricted or completely prohibited, at least at first. The relocated villagers eventually begin fleeing secretly back into the jungle near their old villages as they run out of food and the forced labour becomes too much for them. Local officers often see the relocated villagers starving and do not want to deal with the situation, so they turn a blind eye to their escape. If the villagers are lucky, they manage to re-establish some form of their home village without being hunted down by the Army, and in some cases the the Army begins to treat them as de facto villages and once again begins issuing orders to them. Eventually a higher commander may decide that the area is still not resistance-free and that these villages are supporting the resistance, so they will be ordered to be relocated again and the process starts all over again. When this happens, even the relocation sites and 'Peace' villages can find themselves suddenly ordered to move.

'Peace' villages are also regularly threatened with burning, shelling or forced relocation if they fail to comply with demands for forced labour and money, so there is no security in living in a 'Peace' village. Villagers throughout the region now avoid building anything but simple and poor-looking houses, partly because of this insecurity and partly because 'nice' houses are the first targets for looting and extortion by SPDC troops. As the SPDC expands its network of camps and roads throughout the region, it can be expected that villagers will be allowed to re-establish villages which are near the roads and camps, provided they are useful to the Army as forced labour and as a source of food, money and materials.

"They ordered us to move to B—, N—, P—, and T—. It was four years ago. Later, some families came back to stay. They didn't give them permission, but they just came back to stay. But if there is more activity they will not allow people to stay in the village. They order them to stay along the road." - "Saw Thay Po" (M, 31), villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #186, 4/00)

"I haven't decided to go back and stay in my village again, but some people went back to build their huts to come back and stay in. They are temporary. Even though they built their houses, they don't know what will happen." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

The Role of the Village Head

"None of the villagers want to be the village head if that is possible, but the villagers like us and need us to do it. They help us and we do this work. If it weren't like this we wouldn't want to do the work. The villagers, village mothers and village fathers selected us. … For me, I don't like to do this job. The villagers elected us so we have to look after the villagers for everything. We have to face the [SPDC] leaders, like the soldiers who are very cruel, and when the other people dare not see them we have to go. When the orders arrive they don't arrive for the villagers, they arrive for the village head." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

The position of village head is perhaps the most difficult. Traditionally the village head is a respected individual in the village who is elected by the other villagers to be their leader. The village head can remain in that position for years. Villagers often distinguish between the KNU village head and the SPDC village head; these can be but are not usually the same person. The KNU village head is responsible for dealing with the KNU, while the SPDC village head is the one who has to face the SPDC soldiers. Dealing with the SPDC can be difficult, and the village head is the first one singled out for abuse when demands are not met or if fighting occurs in the area. Moreover, village heads often have to pay the SPDC's demands out of their own money or livestock if the villagers cannot meet the demands in time. For these reasons many villages have worked out a system whereby the villagers rotate being the village head every month or two. Many of the village heads are now women, particularly elderly women, because the soldiers are less likely to physically abuse a woman than a man or accuse her of being a rebel. Respect for one's mother is very strong in Burmese culture, and SPDC officers tend to be ashamed to behave too badly with village headwomen who remind them of their mothers; many village headwomen have become adept at exploiting this to lessen the demands placed on their villagers. However, officers who are not pleased with a village head often order that they be replaced with someone else, and the villagers have no choice but to comply. Answering the demands of the soldiers as well as handling administration of the village leaves very little time for the village heads to work their own fields. The village head also receives no salary, despite the SPDC's claims of paying them. The villagers support the village head by providing the head and his or her family with rice and other food as a form of 'salary'.

"I have been faced with many problems because I am the village leader. We have to deal with the upper leaders [the township leaders and the military] which is sometimes good but sometimes there is a lot of trouble. It is because we can't pay the taxes or we don't have enough porters to give them. If we don't have enough they say many things to us and we have to suffer what they say. In addition to this we don't have enough time for our own work and our families have problems and complain to us. … Sometimes we have to suffer from the sticks they hit us with. … I don't get a salary but I get many sticks. The villagers understand us and love us. They look after us and help us with rice and paddy. Like the last time when my brother and I didn't have any rice the village leaders, village mothers and fathers [village elders] and the villagers looked after us and we had rice. We didn't have time to work [for ourselves] and sometimes we are hungry and sometimes we starve. Because of this the villagers arrange it for us and we get good luck. About the government giving us a salary, even if we went and asked them to give us a salary maybe they couldn't give it to us." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"The KNU elected me. The villagers were in agreement about me. I can't ask to leave. In the beginning I worked only temporarily, but later I couldn't leave." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01); he is both the KNU and the SPDC village head.

"We only dare to be the village head for a month at a time. Two people take turns at being the village head each time. It was our turn to be the village heads and we couldn't argue, we had to take our turn as village heads. The villagers chose us to be the village heads. Everybody has to do it, two people at a time." - "Saw Pa Aye" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #18, 4/01)

"I have been the village head for two years. … I don't know yet. I don't want to be the village head but the villagers chose me to be the village head. It is not that I wanted to be it. I asked to be allowed to resign because I can't run up and down anymore, but they don't let me go. I was not chosen by the SPDC government." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"In the present situation, if a man is the village head and the soldiers are not satisfied with something then he will be tortured. They torture the men so the women have to do it. Women are a little weaker so they [the soldiers] don't do anything to them. If they are not satisfied they bother us a little bit. They haven't punched or beaten us [the village headwomen] yet. We change the head once a year." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

"The villagers thought I should be the village head so they elected me. That is why I can't do anything. We are of the Karen nationality and we have to love each other and stay united. The villagers believed that I should be the village head so they elected me and I have to do it. The villagers accept me because I can speak Burmese to the SPDC and the soldiers are happy with that. The villagers are united, but when they have to do so much forced work, they are tired. When they can't do it, they sometimes find and hire other people. The civilians are very miserable. … They don't give me a single Kyat. They have never given me any Kyat. I am not lying about this. Go and ask. I dare to speak about this. Go and ask all the people living along the Baw Kyo Draw.

A: That isn't true. When they come to my home I have to cook and feed them chicken [which he has bought or raised himself]." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

It is the village head who must directly confront the soldiers when they come to demand workers, rice or chickens. Order documents from the SPDC Army or authorities are always addressed to the village head, also called the 'Village Peace and Development Council Chairperson', and most of them contain phrases such as "Do not fail [to comply]. If you fail it will be the Elder's [your] responsibility." He or she must decide which people have to go for forced labour each time, or how a demand is to be divided among the villagers - a difficult task which can lead to bitterness. The SPDC considers the village head to be responsible for the villagers, so it is he or she who is the one blamed when demands are not met, money is not paid, or workers are not provided. The village head is often beaten on the spot, or if the soldiers deem it more serious, taken back to the Army camp and tortured. The torture can sometimes be very severe and village heads have been executed. Village heads are required to report regularly on all activities of their villagers and any resistance activities in the area, and whenever KNLA activity occurs in the area the village heads are accused of providing support. Occasionally village heads are forced to flee the village when they feel that the soldiers will kill them the next time.

"The villagers do not dare to become village headman. When the situation was bad, they did it for 15 days or one month at a time. All the villagers have been the village head. The Burmese try to force us to choose a village head, but none of the villagers dare become village head now. Right now, a villager who becomes the village head must worry that they will have to face demands for 'loh ah pay', 'htain chaw' [porters kept in the camps to carry things whenever it is necessary], and also the Burmese guerrillas [Sa Thon Lon] who are killing the villagers."- "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

"'Loh ah pay' is during the time when the [Army] trucks come and we have to go and clear the road. If your villagers are not united [everyone working], it is the village head's fault and he has to pay money. So if they told us to finish within a certain amount of time and we couldn't, we had to hurry. If we didn't hurry, the SPDC thought that we wouldn't work for them because we had contact with and were supporting Kaw Thoo Lei [KNU/KNLA]. If that happened they tied us up and beat us. We couldn't suffer that, so we had to go and do 'loh ah pay' for them." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"Sometimes I don't even have rice to eat. They order me to go and change the porters. They write two letters to me every day. I dare not sleep in my own house. The heart of a Burmese is the same as the Burmese themselves. If they kill, then we must die. If they slap my head and my face, I must suffer. I have become afraid of them." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

Village heads are called as often as several times a week to go to the Army camp to receive orders, and they also receive written orders almost every day, delivered by villagers doing forced labour as messengers. Some of the villages receive orders from more than one camp at a time, making it difficult for the village head to answer all the demands at once. In some areas the demands of the DKBA and the Sa Thon Lon must also be met. Once the village head receives an order he or she must decide whether to comply immediately or try to put it off. Putting if off allows the village head to buy some time to assemble whatever it is that has been demanded, but it also usually results in another order being sent. If this one is also ignored, the soldiers may come and the village head is punished. At other times the village head is summoned to the Army camp to talk with the commander there. This also usually leads to punishment. The head is also usually instructed to accompany the people sent for forced labour and supervise their work, and is held directly accountable if the work is not to the satisfaction of the officers.

In many villages the village head is forced into debt to cover porter fees or other fees for the villagers. The villagers understand the village head's difficult position, but they are struggling to feed their families so they will try to avoid the labour and demands whenever possible. Some village heads have informed their villagers that the Army has demanded workers and that if the villagers don't want to go then they can flee, but the soldiers will come and capture someone.

"The Burmese do not live around all of them. The villagers live on the side of the road. It is the enemy's area. The other villages are a little farther away. Even the farther villages are considered Nyein Chan Yay villages [by the SPDC] and the soldiers can control them and hold their hands. These villages have a village head and the village head must go to them when the Burmese demand it. If the Burmese order the village head to come and the first time he doesn't come, they will order him a second time. If he still doesn't come, the soldiers will go to the village and call the village head and all the villagers [at this point the village head is often beaten and the villagers taken for forced labour anyway]. They go and call the villagers to work, they force them. The villagers in the plains area are ordered to work by letter. In the letter they say, 'Village head, you must come up.' If they write that you have to come on the date they give. Even if you are afraid you must go. If they do not go the Burmese go to them." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"He demanded five people to go and porter in the jungle but I didn't send any at all. … After three days, he [the officer] came and threatened to kick me. I told him that I was sick and he said, 'Is the whole village sick and about to die? The whole village? Everyone will die?' He was very cruel." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"They write orders to the villagers to come and repair the road and cut the scrub, but they never come themselves. Usually they order the village head to go to them [to receive orders]." - "Naw May Wah" (F, 40+), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #204, 7/00)

"The village head can't rest. Today he arranges for me [to go and work]. On the next day he must arrange for another person. That is why he can't take a rest. He must go and arrange like this and if he gets a new person he must go again to the SPDC. He must go and come back like this and cannot take a rest. He must arrange the villagers and send them [take them to the Burmese]. After changing the people he must come back alone." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"The Ko Per Baw [DKBA] elected me. Nobody dared to do it because the people are afraid the Burmese would torture them. Everybody is afraid of them. … I am really suffering. When the Burmese come they eat chickens and pigs. They demand to eat chicken. When we don't have them we have to look for them until we are able to get them. They are always coming to ask if their enemy [the KNLA] is far or close. We have to tell them truthfully. If we don't tell them truthfully, they will kill us. … We are working in difficulty because of the Burmese. We have to look for many things. The Burmese are often demanding things. When the Burmese are not demanding the Ko Per Baw are demanding." - "Htun Htun" (M, 42), village head from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #213, 3/01

"They demand them but they don't get enough because the villagers can't do it. Sometimes the villagers know the situation early because the Burmese wrote an order to the village head and demanded 'loh ah pay'. The soldiers demand 70 or 80 people. Some people have just gone and recently come back, but then they have to go again. The village head looks and doesn't want to force them to go. So the village head says to the villagers, 'Do as you like. If you don't go, the Burmese will come and capture you.' Some people flee early, and the people who are left are all captured." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

The villages are still visited by KNLA units in search of food and by KNU officials doing community organising, and their demands have to be met as well. Although the KNU is fairer in its demands and does not abuse the villagers, the villages don't have much food, money or other things anymore and it is up to the village head to decide how to answer the KNLA's demands. Village heads in SPDC-controlled villages are under standing orders to report any KNU/KNLA activity in or near their villages. If a village head reports that a KNLA column came and demanded rice from his village, he is punished for supporting the KNLA; but if he doesn't report it, he is punished for withholding information. Village heads explain to the SPDC soldiers that because they live at the frontline they have no choice but to deal with the KNU/KNLA as well. This sometimes has an effect on the soldiers but is often simply ignored. Whenever fighting occurs or SPDC troops step on landmines the local village heads are blamed for helping the KNLA in the attack, giving intelligence to the KNLA, and withholding intelligence from the SPDC. Some SPDC units even tell the village head to tell the KNLA not to shoot at their soldiers. Whenever SPDC soldiers desert, all village heads in the area are accused of harbouring them. In some areas this is complicated more by the presence of the DKBA, which also punishes the village heads for contact with the KNU or casualties from engagements with the KNLA. Worst of all are the Sa Thon Lon execution squads, who have already shown their willingness to execute village heads for even the slightest contact with the KNU. The village heads are forced to walk a thin line between their support for the KNU, the welfare of their villagers and the demands of the SPDC, DKBA and Sa Thon Lon.

"If we see the KNLA, we tell them [the SPDC] that we saw them. When we didn't see them we told them so, but then they got angry. They said, 'You saw them but you are not telling us. You are the same kind of people as the KNLA.' I told them, 'I am not the same kind of people. I am a farmer and a villager. I do not have a gun.' They told me, 'That's not true. You hide them and feed them rice.' I answered them by saying, 'When I feed them rice it is the same as when I feed you rice. You ask for rice and I have to give it. They also have guns and I have to give them rice because I am afraid of them. As for you, you come and demand food and even if you don't ask for something you grab, destroy and burn. We can't do anything - just suffer. If you burn our things we can only watch the fire. If you destroy things, we just have to look on. We don't dare to complain to you and we can't complain to you.' … We stay here in fear. We can't do anything because we are just villagers. When the Burmese come to threaten us, the only thing we can do is suffer. For example, if I am a villager, and the village head asks me to porter for three days, then I have to go. Some of my friends are not well. If no new porter comes to relieve me after many days, I flee. When I flee, they [SPDC] see me and fine me. So the villager suffers and also has to pay a fine to the Burmese. Sometimes they can't do it because they have to feed their own families." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

"The villagers elected me to be the village head on the SPDC side. It used to be a man but the Burmese beat him and he fled. He doesn't dare to be village head anymore. They haven't beaten me but they shout at me a lot. They even planned to shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, chambered a bullet but didn't shoot me. They said to me, 'You are the village head. If the Ko Per Thu ['black headbands'; villager slang for the KNLA] come and you don't tell us, we will do to you as we want.' I had to show them the Ko Per Thu's place. They accused me like that. As for me, how can I show them because I have never seen their place? I told them that I don't know where their place is and I couldn't show them. I just saw them travelling up and down. They said the KNLA had better not shoot them when if they did, they would burn all the villages." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"It was because we couldn't stop loving our people [the KNU]. If they came back, we hid them and they [the SPDC] say we give them food, taxes and rice. … When the Guerrilla Retaliation Group [the Sa Thon Lon] came up they hit my head with a coconut. Another time I had to go up to P— village and I had to stay in the stocks [mediaeval-style leg stocks]. I have been tied up with a rope because we gave first priority to our nation [to the Karen]. They complain to us many times that we have contact with them [the KNU]." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"It was because we didn't send a message and we had hidden the rebel people. We hid the KNU. They blamed us when a bullock cart was burned. They blamed us because the incident happened near our village. We didn't send a message when they came in the village and destroyed the bullock cart. They said our Karen people love each other and were hiding each other and not providing information." - "Saw Kee Aye" (M, 39), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #23, 4/01); he was detained and badly beaten in April 2001 because of this incident

"I would like to tell a little more about when Division #11 came. They had seen that I was a village head and had contact with the KNU. I told them that we have to step on both sides of the boat. These are the words of the elders. Now we are stepping on both sides of the boat, but now there are three sides [before there was only the SPDC and the KNU, but now there is also the DKBA] so it is difficult to step on them all. We have to endure whatever they say because we are civilians. … When they [the SPDC soldiers] come to the frontline we have to prohibit the KNU from shooting them, but we can't prohibit it. The KNU are their enemies and the SPDC comes to fight so the KNU will fight them." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"I try to live a good life, but they took my buffaloes and accused me of contacting the KNU. We live at the frontline so we have to contact them [the KNU]. We can't stay here without contacting them, but when we contact them they [the SPDC] see it as our fault and make trouble." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"They said that if the Kaw Thoo Lei shoot them it is because of the village head and villagers. They told us to tell the Kaw Thoo Lei not to shoot at them. We do not dare because they [KNLA] have guns and bamboo sticks. We are just villagers, so all we do is tell them [SPDC] if we saw any soldiers come. If we didn't see anyone, that's that, but they [SPDC] won't believe us anyway. If we didn't see anyone, they tell us that we saw them. But if we never saw anything, we can't tell them we did. … They also told me this; they told me that if the [KNLA] people shot them near B— village, they would consider it my fault. They said that they would lay responsibility on the village head. I told them, 'There's nothing I can do if we don't see people coming to shoot you. If we see them but can't tell you, we can't do anything. And since you shoot your enemies when you see them, we dare not tell you. You are making life terrible for us, we can't suffer like this.' We can't suffer but we have to suffer. Suffer and then die." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

"They call the village a Nyein Chan Yay ['Peace'] village. When they come to this area they say they have arrived in a Nyein Chan Yay area so there should never be the sounds of gunfire, bamboo or bombs. If they hear that sound, they will take action on the village head and they are going to relocate the village and burn down the huts. When they arrive in this place they demand to eat chickens and pigs. As for us, we have to try to keep our place running well. We are afraid and we have to work for them." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

One aspect of the SPDC's pacification programme is the labelling of villages under SPDC control as Nyein Chan Yay or 'Peace' villages. The Nyein Chan Yay villages began when village elders struck individual deals with local commanders that the villagers would comply with SPDC demands for food, goods and labour as well as provide information concerning the resistance groups in return for not having their villages burned down or relocated. Nyein Chan Yay villages first sprung up in Toungoo District, but by 1999 villagers in Mone township of Nyaunglebin District and in Lu Thaw and Dweh Loh townships of Papun District were referring to their villages as Nyein Chan Yay villages. Now local SPDC commanders no longer seek such agreements, they simply impose the label on a village and order it to cease all contact with resistance groups, provide regular intelligence, and comply with all SPDC demands, or be burned and forced to relocate. Villagers have told KHRG that the Nyein Chan Yay villages are considered as 'white' villages by the SPDC. 'White' areas are an older SLORC/SPDC designation, meaning areas under their control where there is little or no opposition activity ['brown' areas are contested and 'black' areas are under resistance control]. This is wishful thinking on the part of the regime since KNLA units still do operate around these villages. The Nyein Chan Yay villages do not have any affiliation with the various SPDC-named 'Peace' groups organised from surrendered KNLA and KNU members which have appeared in Karen areas over the past four years. The labelling of villages as Nyein Chan Yay seems to be limited to those villages in the area of the Southern Regional Command, which encompasses Toungoo, Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts.

"As they say, these things shouldn't be occurring but they have their enemies. That is why the Nyein Chan Yay agreement came about. At that time, they [the KNLA soldiers] planted landmines between Papun and Klaw Htaw village. The SPDC came up to the area to operate. The people [KNLA] went to plant landmines near their camps. Some of the [SPDC] soldiers were injured by the landmines. They also ordered the villagers to go and send messages and information. They forced them to cut wood and bamboo to fence their camp. Our villagers were also hurt there [near the SPDC camps] by landmines. At that time, they [SPDC] saw and knew that there were problems in the Nyein Chan Yay area. So they took action. They ordered the village elders and the village chairperson to come. The chairperson's name is Saw T—. When the chairperson went, he [the SPDC interrogator] told him that he must know who came to plant the landmines and shoot their guns. The chairperson told him, 'They didn't come to me when they shot or planted landmines. Just as you didn't come to me when you went after them. So I don't know and I am not able to know.' But the soldiers told him, 'You must know about it.' The village head didn't know so he told them he didn't know. He told them truthfully and honestly. … They wanted the village head to accept their accusations, so they took one action. They put him into a dark room in the munitions dump. They say it is a munitions dump but when you go in it feels very cold and dark. You can't see anything. They put him in there for four hours and then took him out and interrogated him about the event again. They said, 'You must know about this. If you don't, you have to sign this [written statement]. Today and in the future, bombs better not explode and guerrilla fighting better not occur. If anything does occur, we will take action. That is why you must write your signature.' The village head told him that he wouldn't dare sign it. They told him that he must but he was afraid to sign it. But he signed it when he [the SPDC officer] forced him and looked angrily at him. He [the village head] was worried that they might hurt him, so he signed it. After he signed it, he thought that if the SPDC went up, their enemy [KNLA] would attack them. So he dared not come back. If he came back, he would have problems because he signed it. So he stayed in Papun for three or four days, nearly a week. … Later, the SPDC government needed the civilians to do 'loh ah pay' and work as messengers and porters. They demanded this and told the village head, 'Right now, you have to go back and tell your villagers to come and bring people for 'loh ah pay' and portering.' The village head responded, 'I dare not go back. I signed it and if I go back and your enemy does something, I will suffer. So I dare not go back.' He was supposed to get porters and 'loh ah pay' workers. Then the Burmese commander changed to a different one [the battalion rotated out and a new one came] and that one went to see the village head. He told the village head that the first commander asked him to sign the statement but he didn't do it sincerely. The commander said, 'Right now, there is a new one [commander] and the other left and it is not your fault. Go back and arrange 'loh ah pay' and porters for me.' When this other commander told him this, he came back and he arranged it. Before he came back, the civilians also dared not move."- "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

"They classify it as a 'white' area because this is a Nyein Chan Yay area. It is a Nyein Chan Yay area but sometimes they don't care. They are torturing a lot. It is no different from the 'black' area. Sometimes the soldiers come often and sometimes rarely. The unit which has come [now] stays not so far away. They are the military unit in this area. They stay here and sometimes become brutal. Sometimes they do things like this and sometimes they do stronger than this. They are always doing it. There is no time when they don't." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

Nyein Chan Yay status only benefits the villagers in that they are less likely to have their villages relocated or burned down. The villagers are still subject to demands for food, thatch, bamboo and wood. They must also go as porters, messengers, guides, and do loh ah pay at Army camps and on the roads. Villagers are threatened that if they are seen outside the Nyein Chan Yay area they will be shot on sight and they have been. They are also told that their villages will be burned and the villagers killed if fighting occurs or landmines explode near their villages. Despite being labelled as 'Peace' villages, these villages are constantly faced with threats of violence from the SPDC soldiers.

"We are staying in the mountains. They come to us and tell us to do Nyein Chan Yay with them [to become a 'peace village', agree to cooperate with the military in exchange for not being forcibly relocated or having their houses burned]. Then they ordered us to work as porters. Moreover, they forced us to do it. Sometimes, we couldn't go and we dared not go but we had to. They called porters and people for 'loh ah pay' and 'set tha' [forced labour as messengers]." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

"Even the people who work together with them have to flee - the Karen villagers who are staying in Nyein Chan Yay ['peace'] villages. We were staying in many groups in the jungle. The villagers from the Nyein Chan Yay places, like K'Neh Khaw Hta and Klaw Hta, were also fleeing to our area because they were taking the people from those villages to be porters. They have to pay money even though they can't pay, and they have to carry as porters even though they can't carry, so they fled from their villages. They are all fleeing, because they have to pay 2,500 or 3,000 Kyat every month for each household, and the Burmese are using them like slaves." - "Saw Dee Wah" (M, 28), refugee from T— village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #64, 6/99)

Villages in the Plains of Nyaunglebin District

"There were a lot of villages which they forced to move. We live in separate places [separate relocation sites]. They can't go back to stay in their villages yet and they also don't allow them to go back and work for food to eat. But for our villagers, we can go back and work." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

The plains of the Sittaung River have long been under some form of control of successive Burmese regimes. The Burmese Army has, however, never really been able to solidify its control of the area. KNLA soldiers regularly come down into the plains and are able to penetrate as far as the river itself. The SPDC even built a new road from Mone to Na Than Gwin because the old one ran along the base of the mountains and was too vulnerable to KNLA attack. Villages here are much bigger than those in the hills to the east and there are also Burman and mixed Burman/Karen villages as well as Muslim and Shan villagers. Few people fled this area before the late 1990's because the area is relatively fertile and prosperous and the villagers preferred to stay in their villages. In 1997 new heavier restrictions were placed on the villagers, heavy taxes and crop quotas were demanded, extortion increased and demands for forced labour became more frequent. Added to this was the appearance in late 1998 of the Sa Thon Lon execution squads which began hunting down and killing villagers with the slightest past or present connections to the KNU. New waves of relocations also occurred from 1997 through 1999 which resulted in many of the villages in the plains relocated to areas near SPDC Army camps. The living conditions in these relocation sites were such that the villagers began fleeing from them.

In 1999 KHRG documented the forced relocation of 16 villages in the area [see "Death Squads and Displacement" (KHRG #99-04, 25/5/99)], and most of these villages still lie abandoned. [Photos of some of these abandoned villages and of Lu Ah relocation site can be seen in KHRG Photo Set 2001-A under 'Forced Relocation and Restrictions']. However, due to the unsustainability of life at relocation sites such as Yan Myo Aung and Lu Ah, many of the villagers there have escaped and returned to stay in farmfield huts near their villages. The SPDC officers seem to have turned a blind eye to some of this, causing some villagers to rebuild simple huts in and around their old villages. Some of the villages in the northern part of Mone township were allowed by the SPDC to return to their villages in 2000, but they are still under the constant threat of being relocated again. They have also not rebuilt their houses as before but have built smaller ones or temporary huts in case they are ordered to move again.

"The Burmese don't allow them to stay in their village, but now they are coming back [they have secretly come back and are staying in their field huts]. They have had to relocate two or three times. When they relocated the first time they came back, then they had to relocate again. It was two or three years ago already. Now they have come back to stay in their village. They have just built small huts. They said the Burmese allowed them to come back, but it is not a sure thing. They just came back to build temporary huts. If they force the villagers to move again then they will move again. They don't dare to come back and build nice houses yet." - "Saw Ler Wah" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #5, 6/01)

"Yes, they allowed it. I just came back to stay. I moved back and told them that when I stayed there [in the relocation site] I couldn't work and get food to eat. So I came back to stay in my own village where we have our own places and we can work to eat." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

The activities of the Sa Thon Lon appear to have decreased, with villagers reporting that they are killing less often [see the 'Sa Thon Lon' section above]. The DKBA, however, appear to have expanded their presence and have become yet one more group which the villagers have to satisfy. The demands for forced labour, extortion money, food and taxes have not lessened. Even villagers who are still in their villages are tightly restricted in their travel, and even in which of their fields they can work. Village heads reported to KHRG that many of the villagers have insufficient food and that some have been surviving on thin rice porridge despite the fertile fields in the plains around them. The SPDC has also apparently been able to instill in many of the villagers that same sense of fear which is prevalent in central Burma. Villagers told of people being informed upon and one villager said that they must now always look around before speaking to see who might be listening. A KHRG field researcher who travelled to the area commented that the villagers don't even trust their cousins or other relatives. This is unusual in Karen villages, where informers to the SPDC are far less common than in the Burman villages and towns of central Burma.

"I think about them alone and I dare not tell. In my heart they are useless. If they are going to rule like this there will be no improvement. … I want to report a lot of things but I dare not say them. Sometimes when we talk we have to look around before we talk." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

"The villagers from the lower places, like Twa Ni Gone, do not trust each other. When we went to them they didn't let their friends know about it. They are afraid someone will report them to the SPDC. Their cousins and relatives do not trust each other. It was a problem for me. I had to go in the nighttime and I also had to be afraid of vipers. I wore slippers, nobody wears jungle boots there." - "Saw Ler Wah" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #5, 6/01)

Relocation Sites

"They kept us in the fields at H——and K——. There were 138 families from our village. They had already built little huts for us, and they had built a fence around the place. … Every day we had to submit an exact family registration. They didn't give us food to eat, we had to find it ourselves. The place flooded, and our rice, pots and other things were destroyed. … When we stayed there we had no way to plant any crops, that's why we came back to stay in our own village. All of us came back. They forced us to give them 80,000 Kyat so that we could come back, and we paid them and then came back." - "Pu Taw Lah" (M, 68), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #27, 7/99)

Areas which the SPDC does not feel are under its complete control are usually subjected to periodic relocations until firm control is established. The villages relocated are those which are too far away from Army camps to be effectively controlled or which are believed to be assisting the resistance. Villages which have never been under SPDC control before are only notified of the relocation when the soldiers arrive in the villages, burn them down and leave notes in the ruins that the villagers should come to one of the relocation sites. Villagers notified in this way do not usually go but flee into hiding in the surrounding forest. Most of the villagers in western Dweh Loh township were relocated in this fashion. The SPDC then sends out patrols to capture the villagers and bring them in. The villages under some form of SPDC control are sent orders telling them to move to a particular relocation site, usually a larger village or a site along a vehicle road, and setting a deadline. On or shortly after this date the soldiers come to make sure the village is abandoned. Villagers who don't move fast enough and whose houses are not yet fully disassembled have seen their houses burned by the soldiers. Villagers in Mone township did not report much violence during their forced relocation moves but they were shouted at to keep them moving. Some villages have been able to avoid having their villages moved by paying large bribes to the local military. Yay Leh village in Mone township has been paying large bribes to the soldiers for four years now to remain in their village while all the other villages around them have been relocated. This is too expensive for most villages and sometimes the Army relocates the village anyway despite having already been paid off.

KHRG has compiled a list of 42 villages in Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts which have been relocated since 1998-99. This list is not complete and only contains those villages which have been reported to KHRG in interviews and field reports. Many more villages have been relocated and the relocations are continuing in some areas. Some of these villages may have been allowed to return, but most are still in the relocation sites. The list can be seen in Appendix B.

"In the past before the SPDC came and destroyed the things in the village, we just worked our hill fields and betelnut plantations so that we could live. Since March 28^th 2000, the SPDC came to our P— village and didn't allow us to stay in the village. If they see somebody, they shoot. If they do not shoot, they catch them. If they see families, they capture them and drive them [to relocation areas]. For example, if the SPDC troops are from Pway Pwah then they drive the villagers to Pway Pwah. If the soldiers are from Wa Mu, then they drive the villagers to Wa Mu. If they are from Meh Way, they drive the villagers to Meh Way. They don't let us stay in our villages anymore. Right now, the people who remain don't know what to do."- "Saw Mi Taw" (M, 41), internally displaced villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #138, 9/00)

"I thought that I would live there [outside the village] and work because I couldn't do anything when I saw their letter [the order telling them they must move to the relocation site]. We saw that they wrote a letter and left it there. They said for us to come down and live together in the place they have arranged. 'If you live there, you can't flee anymore,' they said. All the villagers thought together but couldn't do anything. We thought about it together but we couldn't do anything. We couldn't live there anymore. Even though it is hard for us to live, we had to try to live. … No, I'm not happy to stay here. It is not my place. I am happy to stay in my own place. My own place is at my village. I have my own work to do and I have a field to work. I live in xxxx, but it is the other people's place. I have no place to work. They don't give me any job to do." - "Saw Nuh Po" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #143, 9/00); interviewed after he had been captured by the SPDC soldiers and forced to go to a relocation site.

"Why don't know exactly why they don't have to move. We heard that they went and met with the officer and fed him [paid him a bribe] so they didn't need to move. I heard they fed him duck and chicken and money. They asked the leader from our village [the village headman] to go and see them, but he ran away and none of us dared to go and see their faces so we had to move. We didn't need to feed them." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

"First the battle occurred on the other side of K— village, so they [SPDC] shot dead a village headman, and then they asked for money. At the time they demanded 200,000 Kyat and 30 baskets of rice, then they forced us to move. They gave us a deadline of 10 days to move. Then they came and forced us to the new place. … First they forced us to relocate to N—, but the villagers didn't like staying there. That's why the villagers went to stay at K— beside N— [a.k.a. M— village]. They [SPDC] said that we could stay there if we paid them money. We had to pay them 50,000 Kyat, and then we stayed there in a field beside the car road. They forced us to build small huts. 150 families from K— village moved there. … They didn't feed us. The water wasn't clean. We had to drink dirty water. There was very little water there. We dug a well, but it didn't produce any water. The villagers faced problems with hunger and sickness. They didn't give medicine, we had to cure ourselves." - "Saw Law Po" (M, 35), internally displaced villager from K— village, Mone township (Interview #26, 7/99)

Villages are not always relocated for control, it is also used as a punishment for not providing workers for forced labour, not meeting demands for money, food or materials, or if fighting occurs near the village. A village head in Mone township was told that his village was to be relocated under Article 17/1, and that if they failed to move as ordered the villagers would be killed. Article 17/1 of present Burmese law prohibits contact with 'unlawful' organisations, but it is imposed upon individuals and does not authorise forcible relocation of villages as a punishment. Another village in Dweh Loh township was told that it was being relocated to be near a school which the SPDC was building as a development project. The school wasn't built. A village head from Bu Tho township was told by the SPDC that the villages had to be relocated so that the Army could go into the area and attack the KNU.

"They came and told us that it was by Law 17/1, that we had contact with rebels [Article 17/1 prohibits contact with 'unlawful' organisations, but does not authorise forcible relocation of villages as punishment]. That's why they forced us to relocate. We had to move everything within 10 days. We had to move within the prescribed time, by military order. If we didn't move, they ordered that we be 'cleared' [killed]. They allowed us to take whatever we could to Kyauk Kyi, and whatever we couldn't take with us, they took for themselves." - "Pu Taw Lah" (M, 68), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #27, 7/99)

"They were going to force us to B--- again. They said, 'If we leave you villagers like this, it is the same as if we were feeding Kaw Thoo Lei. Kaw Thoo Lei is eating rice and gaining strength.' They told the village head this. They have never called a meeting with all of us. They just called the village head, and then the village head repeated it to us. They told us, 'In your village, live well. If you can't live well and then we can't eat, we will pour sand over you.' If they can't eat, they will destroy our village." - "Naw Ghay Paw" (F, 40), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #185, 4/00)

"They said that if the KNU shot at them, we must relocate. But that has never occurred so they haven't forced us yet. They said that they would burn down the village and shoot dead all the villagers. That was Battalion #356." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"They say that they will build a school as a development project so they need to drive the villagers together. But up to now, nothing has changed so people don't listen to them anymore and have fled." - "Toe Hlaing" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #139, 9/00)

"They said that once we stayed gathered together [in relocation sites], they would go to shoot the Nga Pway [KNU/KNLA] and the Nga Pway would run. They said it before we left. They said we must come to stay gathered together because if we stayed like this [spread out in separate villages] they couldn't shoot the Nga Pway." - "Pu Ler Ku" (M, 60), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #221, 4/01)

The years 1997-99 saw large-scale relocations in Mone, Kyauk Kyi and Shwegyin townships of Nyaunglebin Districts. Interviews conducted by KHRG in Mone township indicate that many of these villagers have been allowed to return to their villages. Villagers in the southern part of the township who relocated to Yan Myo Aung and Lu Ah relocation sites, have not yet been allowed to permanently return to their villages. They have been allowed to go back and farm their fields and even to stay in their field huts for limited amounts of time as long as they have passes to do so. KHRG has been unable to obtain information from Kyauk Kyi and Shwegyin townships, but it is likely that some of the relocated villages in these two townships have also been allowed to return to their villages [For more information on these relocations see also "Death Squads and Displacement: Systematic Executions, Village Destruction and the Flight of Villagers in Nyaunglebin District" (KHRG #99-04, 24/5/99)].

"On the 6^th of April two years ago [1999] we had to relocate and they took us to a new place at Kwek Thit ['New Section']. It was near Y—. They made Kwet Thit beside Y—. It is in the flat fields beside the car road. Y— and here are one hour apart by bullock cart. If we walk it is half an hour. Five villages had to move there; N—, B—, A—, K— and A—. They are from our village tract. They all went to the same place. … We went there in April [1999] and came back in January [2000]. It was 10 months in all." - - "Saw Per Per" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #24, 4/01)

"We had to relocate two times already since I was born. The first time was in 1974 and the second time was in '99. We had to go and stay between the H—— and N—— flat fields. Not all our villagers have come back yet. Some went to stay in T——, some went to stay in M—— and some went to K——. The houses are not full like before. There used to be more than 200 houses, now we only have 74 houses." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"We had to move because the big nationality [the Burmese] came and forced us to move so we had to go. They were the Burmese Army, not the Ko Per Baw [DKBA]. They forced us to move to xxxx. If we had to walk it, it is a three hour walk. … They are H—, B—, T— and T—. They moved at the same time as us. We went to stay in the same place [they all stay at xxxx but in separate places around it]. There are over 200 houses." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

Many of the villages in eastern Dweh Loh township, southern Lu Thaw township and Bu Tho township were relocated to bigger villages with Army camps and even to Papun town in 1997. The villagers remained in those sites for up to three years and then slowly escaped and filtered back to areas around their home villages, living in hiding as IDPs. Some managed to re-establish small villages in some form and began to fall once more under the control of nearby Army camps, so the Army began treating them as villages again and making demands on them. In Bu Tho township, some of these 'new' villages have now been ordered to move to bigger villages near the Yunzalin River and the Ka Ma Maung-Papun car road simply because they are not marked on the SPDC's maps. Because they weren't marked on the maps the SPDC reasoned that they must be 'rebel' villages. One village moved on its own accord after being repeatedly threatened with relocation. The final straw was an effort by the DKBA to get the villagers to sign a document declaring themselves responsible for any trucks destroyed by ambushes or landmines along the road. They didn't want to sign the document and chose to move instead.

"I don't know if they do that now, but in the past they drove people. They drove the villagers from K— to go and stay with us at xxxx. They [the SPDC] didn't take care of them. They didn't feed the villagers. There was no medicine. The villagers had to work themselves. It was difficult for the villagers from K— to do flat fields. They went back and worked their own fields secretly." - "Saw Peh Yah" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #211, 3/01)

"We have been suffering a lot for many years. We stay at P—, but 3 years ago the Burmese forced us down to B—. B— is a one hour walk away. We went down to stay at B—h and we couldn't suffer it. We stayed there for two years, then we came back to stay in our village over a year ago, and now we have come here. They didn't allow us to go back [to their village], but we went secretly." - "Naw Ghay Paw" (F, 40), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #185, 4/00)

"The other villagers are coming to stay in our village. They forced them to come and stay there. They can't move. Those villagers are living very poorly. … M—, P—, T—, T—, P—, and L— [villages]. The Burmese forced them to come and stay in our village. Some are already going back. They came to stay over one, maybe two years ago. Some have gone back to stay in their own villages, and some never left them, because they couldn't suffer it [life in a relocation village]. They go back to stay there secretly, then if they hear that the Burmese are coming, they flee. They don't face the Burmese." - "Naw Wah Wah" (F, 41), refugee for B— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #182, 4/00)

"It was below, at xxxx [village]. In the beginning the Ko Per Baw wanted to relocate us. Then the Burmese also wanted to relocate us, so we couldn't stay. The Burmese said, 'This village is Ywa Bone, Ywa Shaung ['hiding village', a village not under SPDC control]. This village has not been here for a long time and it is not on the map. You villagers are staying as Ywa Bone, Ywa Shaung. We are going to drive you out to xxxx [village].' Later, the Ko Per Baw said, 'The landmines are always damaging the trucks. You must sign [an agreement that the trucks wouldn't hit any landmines, making the villagers responsible for any that do]. If you don't sign, we are going to drive all of you out to the main road.' We didn't know if they would drive us to the main road or to the lower place. That is why we gathered and decided that we would move to xxxx village. The monk also helped us. He said, 'You will move, but they [the DKBA and SPDC] are going to drive you to the main road. Never mind, I will speak with them and help you. Come and move to xxxx village.' We moved to xxxx. It is on the map." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

"They told us we couldn't stay in the village and had to go to stay in xxxx [village]. They gave us one week. We had to move everything within one week. We could carry all our belongings. They asked us to build our houses. They said to stay there when we finished building the houses. They didn't come to watch us, they stayed in their place. … They just said that if we stayed there [in our home village], it was not on the map and illegal. We had to go back and stay in xxxx [village] because it is on the map and legal they said. Where we stayed was a Nga Pway [slang for the KNU/KNLA] place, they said." - "Pu Ler Ku" (M, 60), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #221, 4/01)

Villages in western Dweh Loh township were forcibly moved to relocation sites at Meh Way, Wa Mu, Meh Thu, Kwih T'Ma, Ku Thu Hta, Ma Lay Ler and Meh Thu in 1998, 1999 and 2000. While many of the villagers have gone to the sites, many more have fled into the jungle. Villagers have had to build their own houses at the sites with no assistance provided by the SPDC. After the houses are built the villagers are immediately put to work by the soldiers. Food is not usually provided, though some villagers said that they were given one sack of rice and 1,000 Kyat at first but never given anything after that. The villagers must then try to make a field if there is land available, or work for daily wages to get enough money to buy food. The demands for forced labour are usually so heavy that many of the villagers don't have time to do either of these things. In existing villages as well as relocation sites, the soldiers have forced the villagers to build fences around the perimeter and allow only two to three gates. This is not so much for the defence of the village as it is to restrict the movement of the villagers, and so that a few soldiers can block the gates while the rest of the patrol sweeps the village to catch forced labourers. At the time of writing this report, many of the western Dweh Loh villagers had fled into the hills or to Thailand but some were still in the relocation sites. The villagers have not been allowed to return to their villages and those who have are hunted down by the SPDC's soldiers.

A: T—, N—, K—, N— [villages]. They drove them all to there, to W—. When they arrived they had to build houses and the enemy forced them to work. They don't have time to work anything else. The SPDC doesn't feed them. They have to hire themselves out day by day and they eat very poorly. They don't have places to plant rice or do work. … They don't have time. They [the SPDC] don't allow us to go. They closed us in with a fence. When they need 'loh ah pay', porters or messengers they force us and then close the gate. There are only two gates, one way to enter and one way to get out. They arrest the people at their houses. They call the people down and force them to work. They are forcing the villagers to work until they don't have time to work their flat fields. They have always done this, until now." - "Saw Tha Wah" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #146, 9/00)

"[T]hey don't feed them. Some people who have entered there are given one sack of rice and 1,000 Kyat. They are just given that one time. After that they are never given anything again. We work and we have our own food. It is enough for us to eat, but there are some people who don't have enough food. We are not free to work for food anymore. We can't work freely like before. We have to search for food ourselves. They just give it to us once and then that's it." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

"There was no help. After they drove the people we had to build houses for the soldiers, we had to make fences for them, and we had to go for 'loh ah pay' [general forced labour] and 'set tha' [messenger forced labour]. People couldn't work their hill fields anymore. This year no one got any paddy." - "Saw Thi Oo" (M, 60), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #157, 12/00)

"This was in January this year [2001]. The villagers from Meh Thu Kee and Ler Wa Ko have all gone to the refugee camp, to xxxx refugee camp. Last year they stayed in the jungle. The villages in Meh Way village tract such as Ka Hser Ghee Tee, Wa Law Kloh, Noh Bo Law, Wa Tho Law, Day Law Pu, Kloh Kee and Toh Kyaw Kee have been driven by the SPDC to below Meh Way in the plains fields. They have built many houses close together. It was three years ago. They have all built their houses there. … For 'loh ah pay' now they are forcing every village to fence around their villages. This started on November 3^rd or 4^th [2000]. The villagers have finished fencing it now. The villages which had to make fences are Wa Mu, Poh Kheh Hta, Nya Hsa Ghaw Hta, Kwih T'Ma, Ma Lay Ler and Kay Kaw. They haven't fenced Pway Pwa village yet. They also haven't fenced the villages to the south of Wa Mu. … Kwih T'Ma has three gates; the way from Nya Hsa Ghaw Hta and Wa Mu is one gate, to Ma Lay Ler is another gate and the third gate is for fetching water from the Bu Loh Kloh. In Poh Kheh Hta, Ma Lay Ler and Khwih T'Ma it is all the same. There are three gates at Poh Kheh Hta and two gates at Ma Lay Ler. One gate is for fetching water. … They don't guard the gates because there is no camp there. They planned to make the fences because when they need people from the village [for forced labour] they can capture them easily. Sometimes they come very quickly into the village, close the gates and capture the villagers. The always come to capture people. They come to capture people when they need people to carry things." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"We were forced to build a fence around our village. I have no idea what their plan was but it may be that it could block the Nga Pway [KNLA] if they come. They ordered us to make only four entrances, but we keep more than four. We must try to be clever. It is difficult for us [to do our work] if we do everything as they order." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"Starting last year and during this year the soldiers don't allow the people to go. They are conducting military operations sometimes. They give the villagers an opportunity when they are making the hill fields. The villagers can go and cut [their fields] and sleep in their field huts but when it is harvest time, the soldiers do it another way. They tell the villagers, 'If you go to your hill field, get a letter of recommendation [a pass].'" - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

Even in SPDC-controlled villages, restrictions are placed on the villagers with the supposed intention of making it difficult for them to contact the resistance forces. The methods and extent of these restrictions varies between villages and areas, primarily depending on the local Army officers. The restrictions often change when one unit rotates out and another one moves in. Villagers are sometimes allowed by one battalion to go to plant their fields, but when they rotate out and the next battalion comes they are suddenly forbidden to go to their fields and the crops are destroyed by animals and insects.

"They don't ask the villagers to move. The villagers stay in M—. The enemy entered the village and ordered the villagers not to go outside the village. The enemy stays around the village so the villagers don't dare to go outside the village. It was at the time when the transplanting should have almost been finished, but they didn't allow the villagers to work until September [the delay throws the growing cycle off which will result in a much reduced harvest]. They allow the people to work at that time but it is too late for people to work their fields. That is why the villagers face a big problem. The villagers cannot suffer but they must suffer like this." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"[T]his year they allow us to plant, but last year, 1999, we planted, and they wouldn't allow us to work on our fields so it was useless. They said, 'If we see that you are working in your fields, we will shoot all of you dead. We told you already not to work on them again.' We had already cut and burned the fields, we just needed to clear a few things and plant, but they told us not to work on them anymore."- "Saw Shwe Pa" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #73, 3/00)

Karen villagers have their main house in the village, but during the growing season they spend more of their time living in their farmfield hut, a smaller and simpler house in their fields which may be an hour or more's walk from the village. The field work is all done by hand so it is labour intensive and time-consuming, requiring their almost constant presence.

However, most SPDC units restrict the amount of time they can spend in their fields by issuing passes for only short time periods and/or restricting the amount of food they can take with them. Some villagers can get passes for up to 3 or 5 days, but others are only allowed to stay outside the village overnight, or from dawn to dusk. This makes it very difficult, especially for those with fields far from the village. Even the process of repeatedly getting passes for each family member can be time-consuming and expensive. Making things worse, the Army frequently stops allowing the villagers to go to their fields at all for periods of days or weeks. Villages are limited in the amount of time which they can spend in their fields. Depending on the place, the situation and the Army

unit villagers are sometimes allowed to sleep in their field huts for up to a week, sometimes allowed to sleep there only for a day, sometimes not allowed to sleep there and in some areas they are not allowed to go to their fields at all. This has a direct impact on the crops. During their absence, weeds can overtake the crop or animals come and eat or trample it. Some villagers have said that they were allowed to go and plant their crop, but when harvest time came they were forbidden to go to their fields. The number of people who can go to the fields at one time is also sometimes restricted. In order to limit the time the villagers can spend in the fields, and supposedly to prevent them taking food to the resistance forces, some Army units only allow farmers to take small amounts of food when they leave the village. Villagers complain that in some cases the Army allows them a pass to stay in their fields for 5 days but only allows them to take one day's food along. If the villagers are caught at their field huts with more food than allowed, even if it is food they had stored at the hut, they are usually arrested and accused of supplying food to the resistance.

"They allow us to work on our own fields, but if they see people in the field huts, they don't like it very much. They misunderstand us and threaten us. We can go to the fields at 7 a.m. and come back before 5 p.m. They limit the time. They don't allow us to sleep in the field huts. We also can't take rice to the fields. We can just go to work and come back to eat at home." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"They only allow the one person who has to tend the cattle and buffaloes to sleep there. They don't allow many people go and sleep. They don't allow the people who don't have cattle or buffaloes to sleep in the field huts. They said that if we take a lot of rice then we are taking it for the KNU and if we go to sleep in the field huts, we are going to give information to the KNU. They said like that." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"They have hill fields. Every house has a hill field which they cut. After they have finished cutting, burning and planting the enemy doesn't allow them to go outside the village when it is time to cut the brush [they have to cut the weeds away from around the growing paddy halfway through the growing season]. The enemy allows them to go outside the village after the paddy is all covered with scrub and the paddy is destroyed." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"Because they force us to work. We can't work our flat or hill fields. Some people work their flat fields or hill fields for food, but at the same time they have to carry things [as porters] so when they go back and look at their fields, the pigs have eaten it all. The pigs and buffaloes eat it. We are not free to sleep in the fields to guard our huts and fields from the pigs and buffaloes. They don't let us sleep there. We also don't dare to guard [the fields] because the soldiers are around the fields. If they see us they will shoot us. We have to work for them. We have had to work for them for a whole month now." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

For villagers in SPDC-controlled villages of Dweh Loh township the situation just became much worse. In late August and early September 2001, at least 3 village tracts were issued orders that no one is allowed to leave the villages for the three months from September to November 2001, not even to go to their fields. They were told to bring their livestock into the village and that they would not be allowed to go out for any reason. These three months comprise the end of the growing season and the harvest season, so if this order is enforced the entire rice harvest will be wiped out. There are at least 30 villages in these three village tracts (Ka Dtaing Dtee, Tee Tha Blu Hta and Ku Thu Hta) populated by well over 5,000 people. These are the only 3 village tracts which KHRG has definite information about thus far, but the order may be even more widespread than that. People from the area interviewed by KHRG just before this report went to print in October 2001 stated that everyone still in the villages is expecting starvation to set in within months. The local SPDC Battalions which issued the order stated that the purpose is to mount an all-out operation against the KNLA, but it is more probable that they simply want to wipe out the harvest in order to undermine the KNLA, and if the villagers starve in the process then they will simply be considered as 'collateral damage'.

Stamp:

#x Tactical Command To:

Military Operations Control Group Chairperson

Kalay Town xxxx [village]

Subject: To carry the hill paddy to the village

The villagers who have planted paddy in the hillfields must carry it to your villages by the deadline of 15-12-2000 to your villages ['to your villages' is stated twice].

After that date, if [we] see any paddy in the hillfields [we] will use it as Army rations, you are informed.

[Sd.] 2/12/2000

Stamp: Control Supervisor

#x Tactical Command

Military Operations Control Group

Translation of an order sent by an SPDC military command to a village in Papun District.

"Starting on August 31^st [2001] they stopped allowing the civilians to go outside the village. They did it in two village tracts, Ka Dtaing Dtee and Tee Tha Blu Hta. There are twelve villages in each of those village tracts and more than 3,960 people. It is Infantry Battalion #51 that prohibited it. They don't allow people to go outside the village. They ordered the people to bring their cows and buffaloes into the village and look after them inside the village. Children under 12 years old can go outside the village, but they don't allow people older than 12 to go outside. … When I came here people could no longer go to their hill fields or flat fields. It is nearly harvest time, but we can't harvest our paddy anymore. I don't know what I will do. I can't eat anymore. All the paddy will be destroyed. … They [the soldiers] say they have a three-month plan to cut the strength of the Kawthoolei [slang for the KNU/KNLA]. If they can't cut the strength of the Kawthoolei, then they are going to relocate all of the people living in the Baw Kyo Valley [the lower Yunzalin River valley], starting from the top and working their way to the bottom. They are going to drive the people to Baw Kyo Leh [village] where they have their big Army camp." "Saw Eh Kaw" (M, 34), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #240, 10/01)

"They started to do it on September 9^th [2001]. They prohibited the villagers from going outside the village. They don't allow the villagers to go to their hill fields and flat fields. We have to stay in the village. They don't allow us to go to work. When people go outside the village, the soldiers say they are going to contact the Nga Pway ['Ringworm'; slang for KNU/KNLA]. … People have to stay like that because they ordered it. If people don't stay [inside the village] and they see us in the forest, they will torture and kill us. So people are afraid and have to stay. … If they make a prohibition like this all of us are going to starve. They said it would be for four months, until December. It is only in Ku Thu Hta village tract. … We can't go to the hill fields so all the paddy will be destroyed. We are going to starve. When everything is destroyed there is no way for us to live. We will have to go to buy rice in K—. It is difficult to find money. We have to find vegetables and go to sell them. Then we can get money and we can go to buy rice. There is no other way for us." "Saw Mu Htoo" (M, 26), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #239, 10/01)

Whenever villagers want to leave their villages to go anywhere they must get a letter of recommendation. These letters are passes usually written and stamped by the village head but also sometimes by the military. The passes have written on them how many people are allowed to go, to where, and for how long. When villagers are stopped on the paths or in the fields the soldiers demand to see their passes. Villagers who can produce a valid pass are allowed to go, though even the pass will not protect them if the patrol needs porters or if they look 'suspicious'. Those who have no passes are arrested and beaten, then either taken as porters or detained until the village head can vouch for them and pay the ransom for their freedom. If no one comes on their behalf, they may be executed. Village heads usually charge a small fee of 10-15 Kyat for these passes. The money is then used to help cover the costs of chickens and other things which are stolen or demanded by the soldiers.

"From the Burmese [SPDC-appointed] village head. The villagers from Wa Mu have to go and get it from them. One letter is 10 Kyat. At K— we get the letter from the K— village head. The Burmese seal it. If it is M— village, M— village tract, then they have their own seal. The soldiers say, 'If you don't get one, when we go up and operate and go around the mountains and see villagers with no letter of recommendation, then you will not be good people. You will have to suffer whatever I do to you.' … One letter is 10 Kyat and the village head takes it because the village head doesn't have time. The village head says, 'I write the letter and ask you for 10 Kyat. It is because sometimes when the Burmese come they ask for poultry. I don't want to collect it from you. I will gather the money and when we need to use it, we will use it. If they demand 1 viss of chicken, I will take that money and buy 1 viss of chicken.'" - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"We are not free to do our own work. They force us to do their work, so we have to do it. We can't do our own work. We are not free to look after our buffaloes. We have to work in fear of them. It is like we live in the bushes. If the soldiers are around us we do not dare to go anywhere. We have to sneak. We can't go and work like before when we looked after our buffaloes. We are afraid to meet with the soldiers. If they meet us in the village they smile at us, but if they meet us in the forest, they do whatever they want to do. We have to be afraid of them. There was one time when I went to carry cane [for making baskets] and I met them. They questioned me a lot. They asked us things but nobody could speak Burmese. They ordered us to lay down our cane and asked, 'Can anyone speak Burmese?' We answered that none of us could speak Burmese. They asked us, 'Where are you coming from?' They asked me, 'Where do you live and why are you coming here?' I told them that I had come to the forest to cut some cane. They told me, 'If you come here you have to make a pass. If you don't get a pass you can't come here. If you don't get a pass there are some Nga Pway ['Ringworm'; derogatory term for the KNU/KNLA], so we will mistake you for them and shoot you.' If the soldiers come I don't know. Since then I have never gone there again. We had thought we would cut the cane to sell to buy salt and fishpaste to eat. They force us to work and they don't feed us so we have to cut cane in order to buy salt and fishpaste." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

Restrictions are also placed on batteries and medicine. The SPDC soldiers accuse the villagers of providing medicine to the KNU and so have forbidden the villagers to carry medicine. In some areas this has extended to the selling of medicine even for personal use. This order has severely limited the villagers' access to medicine. Many are forced to rely on traditional herbal medicines as a substitute. Sometimes medicine can be bought on the black market but it is risky. Batteries are also forbidden because the SPDC believes the villagers will provide these to the KNU who will use them in their walkie-talkies and the detonators of their landmines. The penalty for carrying either of these can be death. Villagers are also given specific orders that if for any reason they are outside the village at night they must use a firebrand for light, not a flashlight. The SPDC soldiers tell them that anyone seen holding a flashlight will be assumed to be a Karen soldier and will be shot on sight.

"Last year they killed one villager from H---. S--- killed him. I never heard about it for medicine but that time was because of batteries [the villager was carrying batteries]. … People can buy them [medicines] but they buy them secretly with an understanding between themselves. We don't dare to do it openly. If you say it is for yourself they allow it, but they don't allow it to be sold. If people are sick we can send them to the hospital. They are doing this in the wrong way." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"Batteries and medicine are forbidden. When the [Sa Thon Lon] guerrilla retaliation group came they ordered that it was a death sentence if villagers used these things. We have not been able to use batteries up to now. They are worried about our siblings [the KNU] who stay above [in the mountains] - that they will use them for their landmines [KNLA landmines often have battery powered detonators]. We don't know what the Burmese plan is. If we use torchlights we need batteries. But they forbid us to use batteries so we can't use batteries. They don't give us the right." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

Forced Labour

"They called the villagers to do 'loh ah pay'. They forced them to cut down the forest, dig out the roots and stumps of trees, and then burn or carry away the branches. They usually called 18, 19, or 20 villagers from each village, big or small. They called them once or twice a month, for 3 or 4 days each time. … When harvest time came, the people were called from Section 4 of T— village, in K— village tract, for 'loh ah pay' [forced labour harvesting the Army's crop]. … Aung Gyi gave very strong orders. He said, 'Don't pity them, look after them, think of them as your siblings or love the villagers. You are a soldier and you have to force them like a soldier.' Because of this, I ordered and forced the villagers to work." - "Saw Tha Ku" (M, 21), Private from Infantry Battalion #xx, Papun District (Interview #225, 3/00)

"Now we have to go and do 'loh ah pay'. We have many kinds of 'loh ah pay'. 'Loh ah pay' as porters, 'loh ah pay' to cut the brush along the road, 'loh ah pay' to build their camp and 'loh ah pay' to carry their food and rations. There are many kinds of 'loh ah pay'. You cannot count the amount of 'loh ah pay'." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

Forced labour is constantly demanded from the villages under SPDC control despite the regime's claims to be putting a stop to the practice [see 'Restrictions on Forced Labour' below]. The rugged hills of the region have very little infrastructure and there are no large-scale road or railway projects using thousands of people for forced labour at a time, but forced labour is nonetheless an everpresent burden in every village under the SPDC's control. A village head in an SPDC-controlled village must send villagers for labour at the local Army camp building barracks, digging trenches, fetching water and doing other work around the camp. The villagers go for this work on a rotating schedule. Many villages have two or more camps nearby and the village head may have to send people to work at more than one of the camps. He must also send villagers to stand as unarmed sentries at Army camps and along any nearby roads. The few roads which exist in the area are dirt and need a great deal of maintenance, which the villagers are forced to perform. They must also regularly clear scrub along both sides of the road in order to protect the Army from ambush. If the local Army unit has a farm or a money-making project like a brick kiln or logging, the village head must send people to work on those too. In addition to this, the village head is ordered to provide porters whenever the Army needs them, so he must find villagers who are not already working at the camp or doing sentry duty to go. Much of the portering is also done on a rotating basis. An Army column may pass through the village and demand yet more villagers to go with it as operations porters. While these forms of labour are not as visible or headline-grabbing as the building of a railway, the work goes on every day, it is just as difficult, and collectively involves the labour of thousands of villagers.

"They are forcing them, the same as in our village. It is no different. They wrote the same letters to us and the other villages. They ordered them to do 'loh ah pay' too. If they write one letter to M—, they also write one to T— and another to K—. They demand things from all the villages at the same time." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"The villagers are called to go and work on the road for 'loh ah pay', 'ta won kyay' ['obligation'] and many kinds of work. We also have to go for 'wontan' [servants, which often means porters]. If we can't supply replacement villagers, they don't allow the workers to return to the village." - "Saw Kloh" (M, 56), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #188, 5/00)

"It starts from Noh Paw Tee, then to Poh Ma Heh, Tee Theh Lay, Tee Law Thay Hta, Noh Ghay, Wah Tho Klah, Hsa Law Dteh, Baw Tho Hta, Tee Tha Blu Hta, Taw Meh Hta, Bpo Leh, Bpo Khay, Bler Per, then down to K'Pee Kee, Pway Taw Ru, Tee Hsaw Meh, Noh Lah, Pah Loh, Taw Thu Klah. They all have to go. They can't take a rest." - "Pi San Nweh" (F, 53), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #193, 6/00); talking about the villages in her area which have to go for forced labour

"I don't know all the villages near Ka Ma Maung, but all the villages on both sides of the road have to go. The villages of Wah Tho Koh and Maw Law Kloh always have to go. Even the villages near Ka Ma Maung have to stand sentry along the road. I know that the villages of Baw Kyo Leh, Taw Thu Klah, Pah Loh, Poh Mine Hay, Tee Theh Lay, Tee Law Thay Hta, K'Pee Kee, Pway Taw Ru, Tee Tha Blu Hta, Wah Tho Klah, Hsa Law Dteh, Taw Meh Hta, Bpoh Leh, Bpoh Khay and Bler Per always have to go. Of the villages above I know that Th'Wa Ko Law and Th'Wa Hu Law have to go. On the road from the east I know that Taw Thu Klah, Pa Loh and Meh Ku Hta have to do it. If they don't they will be moved." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00); giving a list of villages near the Papun - Ka Ma Maung road which have to go for forced labour.

"This is 'loh ah pay' and every village has to go for it. The Army unit that camps in the fields [outside his village] often demand 'loh ah pay', and the Baw Bi Doh [Sa Thon Lon] also often order us to go on the west side of the car road. The DKBA also order us to work for them, so we don't have any time left to do our own work." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 25), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #7, 2/00)

"The next unit was #38 [IB]. The name of #38's commander is Maung Maung Aye. They ordered us to carry loads twice. Each time they demanded 20 people, 40 people in all. They also demanded 20 people for 'loh ah pay'. That is 60 people in all. Two people also had to go for 'set tha' each day. I don't remember the dates for the other things, but the 'set tha' is regular." - "Pu Ler Ku" (M, 60), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #221, 4/01); 'set tha' is rotating forced labour as messengers and errand-runners

Both women and men go for forced labour. Men usually do most of the labour, but sometimes the men have already gone for some other form of forced labour, or the men are too afraid to confront the soldiers because they are more likely to be physically abused or accused of being 'rebels' than the women. Women going for a shift of forced labour must decide whether to leave their small children behind or carry them along; even women who show up for work breastfeeding infants are not exempted. Women are at risk of sexual abuse while labouring for the soldiers, especially while portering. Children as young as 10 or 11 and people as old as 60 are also sometimes forced to work. The children often have to go if their parents are not able to go due to illness or because they have to work in the fields. Some SPDC officers complain when children are sent, more because they cannot do a full workload than out of any sympathy for the children - and even though they complain, they still keep the children until replacements are sent or the shift ends. Allowances are not always made for widows or the elderly, but village heads try to arrange for them to be exempted. The number of villagers in a village is also not always taken into account when the local Army commander demands workers, resulting in some smaller villages having a high percentage of their villagers away working at any one time. One villager in Dweh Loh township told KHRG how in his village of 16 houses, 16 people had to go as sentries on the road every day. The result was that there were not even enough people to rotate the sentries, much less go for any other work which they might be ordered to do.

"They have to go to do 'loh ah pay' a lot. When the Burmese don't see any men, they order the women to do it. They also force the old people and children, they are all workers. Some people are 40, 50, and 60 years old and they must go. I saw a man named P—. His children are all grown up and he has grandchildren. He went to porter and his back was bruised. He is Shan. As for the Karen villagers, the Burmese don't call the people who are old and sick, but the people who can go and are healthy, they all must go. Children as young as 12 or 13 years must go. The people who go as porters must take along their own rice. The people who go to porter at the front line do not have enough to eat. They have to ration their food to survive. The Burmese don't give a salary." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

"They ordered the village head and the village head ordered the villagers to do it. Even the 10 year old children all went to work because some of their parents weren't free, so they asked their 10 year old children to go and work. The old people go sometimes and sometimes not. The women also go. They force everyone to do 'loh ah pay'." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

"We had to do sentry duty during the last dry season. They didn't say how many days each person had to be a sentry. We only have a few houses and the [sentry] huts that they have for us along the road are the same number as the houses in the village. In all there are 16 houses in K— and N— villages. There are 8 huts and one hut is for two people so that is 16 people. We don't even have enough people to rotate the sentries. We have to stand sentry full time until the [Army] trucks are finished coming up [this is almost the entire dry season]." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"When we went to do 'loh ah pay' to cut and sweep the road, they forced us to guard it when they were carrying their rations. Our village is small but they demanded 6 people. We didn't have time to rest. There are only 10 or 20 families in my village. They demanded 6 people for 2 days by rotation, so we didn't have any time to rest. … For example, if right now one of their columns came to call us, after they left another unit would come to call for someone the next morning. The other one [her husband] hasn't come back yet, so that's why his wife is alone in the house. So his wife has to go." - "Naw Ghay Paw" (F, 40), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #185, 4/00)

"The children don't need to go but the adults do. The oldest people may be 50 or 60 years old. The youngest person is about 20 years old. The women also have to go. The men and women go together. In some houses if there are no men, then the women have to go. One person from each house has to go. If 30 people from K— village have to go, then 30 people have to go. They don't like it if less than 30 people go." - "Po Lah" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #12, 4/01)

The conditions of work vary depending on the type of work and on the unit demanding it. For rotation work at Army camps and portering, the villagers are kept for the length of the shift or the journey, or however long the unit wants them. Workers on rotation are usually not released until their replacements are sent, and officers often send written orders to villages complaining that the current shift of workers have been there much too long already and should be replaced immediately. For road work, each village is assigned a section of road and given a deadline to complete the work, usually either repairing the road or clearing the scrub on the roadsides. In this situation the soldiers do not usually oversee the work, but they check it after the deadline and if it has not been completed to their satisfaction the village is ordered to do it again and/or punished in some way. Food, tools and building materials are never provided and the villagers must bring their own. Salaries are also never paid to the workers. Villagers who get sick or become injured while working are never given compensation or medicine. They must find their own medicine, even though the transporting and selling of medicine is forbidden in most areas of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts. Sometimes the villagers must sleep at the work sites. Portering may involve the villagers being away from the village for weeks or even months. Often when one project is finished, the SPDC finds something else for the villagers to do. This leaves very little time for the villagers to do their own work.

"Sometimes they demanded leaves, thatch and bamboo, and we had to go and build things and fence their garden. All of the people in the village had to do that, no one could avoid it. People had to go in turns. We all took turns, but we only had 3 days before our turn would come up again. People had to hurry to finish their own work [for their own living]. If the wife went to work for them, the husband had to do the work for the family, and if the husband went to work for the Ko Per Baw [DKBA] or the Burmese, the wife had to hurry to get their family's work done. People always did things like this to earn their living. We spent less time working for ourselves than working for them. Overall, we could only work for ourselves one third of the time. Sometimes our turn came up to guard at the sentry huts [along the road], and it was usually the men who went for that." - "Naw Say Muh" (F, 54), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #203, 7/00)

"When they finished fencing the villages the SPDC found more work to do. They forced the villagers to cut the brush along the road and to clear the road. They forced the people to make small bridges. The villagers can't take a rest." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"Last month they demanded 52 people for 'loh ah pay'. The villagers dare not go because sometimes they take the villagers to go with them for a long time, so we had to hire people. The villagers are afraid of the soldiers and dare not go. They say only three days, but it wasn't only three days, it was all month." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village tract head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"Every village, all the villagers have to go. The whole village tract. The old people and the young people have to go. The older people are 50 or 55 years old. The youngest people were about 16 years old. They don't let the people younger than 16 years old work. They said they can't work and they are useless if they work." - "Saw Per Per" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #24, 4/01)

"Q: They said they don't order people to go for 'loh ah pay' or portering anymore. Is that true?
A: Maybe they will comb their hair in front of the people and the other leaders like that, but here we have suffered it and there are many villagers who have had to carry loads in the mountains and many people have died along the way." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was formed in 1917 to improve and protect labour standards, and since the creation of the United Nations it has operated as an agency of the UN system. Unlike most UN agencies, its membership includes trade union organisations and employers' organisations as well as governments. In 1955 the Burmese U Nu government signed ILO Convention 29 which bans the use of forced labour. Despite signing the convention, the use of forced labour in the country only became more widespread and systematic, and Burmese regimes have come under pressure by the ILO since 1964 to put a stop to forced labour in the country. Nothing has ever been done to stop it. The pressure gradually increased until by the mid-1990's the ILO was singling the Burmese regime out for severe criticism. In 1997 the ILO appointed a Commission of Inquiry which held hearings, interviewed over 300 witnesses in Burma's neighbouring countries (the Commission was refused entry to Burma itself) and studied over 10,000 pages of documentary evidence. In 1998 the Commission reported that forced labour is widespread and systematic throughout Burma and is operated by both the civilian and military authorities. The SPDC was given until May 1^st 1999 to take steps to put an end to forced labour and to punish those exacting it. The SPDC claimed to have issued Order 1/99 on May 14^th 1999 banning some types of forced labour throughout the country, but evidence indicated otherwise and the SPDC was told to put a stop to it or face the consequences. With no progress being made, in June 2000 the ILO voted to take measures in accordance with Article 33 of its Constitution, which had never been applied to any country in the ILO's 84-year history. Following a six month grace period in which it was determined that nothing had changed, in November the ILO enacted Article 33 stopping all technical cooperation with the Burmese regime and asking its member nations, unions and employers' organisations to review their relations with the SPDC to ensure that nothing they were doing would contribute to the continuation of forced labour. As they had done in 1999, the SPDC waited until the last moment and then claimed to be doing something about it in order to undermine the ILO action. This time the SPDC claimed that the Home Ministry had issued 'Supplementary Order to Order 1/99' on October 27^th 2000, and that this order imposes a broader ban on forced labour and prescribes punishment for anyone demanding it. This order was followed on November 1^st by another similar, but in some ways stronger, order issued by Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, Secretary-1 of the SPDC. The SPDC claims that all township, village tract and village heads in the country have been told about the order, and that if anyone demands forced labour from them they can complain to the appropriate authorities and that person will be arrested.

"I heard about it. I heard that they couldn't force the villagers, but they still forced them secretly. They still force them secretly and the leaders who stay there [in the Army camps] know about it. … It [the order] didn't leave the town. They let the towns know, but they are still forcing people in our place. … Our village head said, 'The letters they [the SPDC] are distributing are coming. Don't worry. Don't worry that the Burmese will force us.' But they are still forcing us to work secretly and the leaders in the town do not know about it." - "Nyi Nyi" (M, 27), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #237, 8/01)

As this report goes to print, an ILO High Level Team has just completed a trip of several weeks travelling throughout Burma to assess whether the SPDC has circulated the orders banning forced labour as claimed, and whether there have been any serious attempts to enforce these orders. According to information gathered by KHRG there has been some circulation of the orders, but most of it only occurred in August and September 2001 just before the visit of the High Level Team. Despite any circulation of the orders, villagers report that there has been no decrease in forced labour, and the SPDC has admitted that not a single person has yet been prosecuted for demanding forced labour. Interviews compiled by KHRG for this report from Nyaunglebin and Papun districts between November 2000 and October 2001 indicate that not only is forced labour still being demanded from the villagers, but that the villagers have no one to complain to about it. Some villagers have said that they were told there would be no more forced labour, but that it still continued. When asked whether forced labour had decreased in his area, one village head from Mone Township said that the SPDC may be 'combing its hair' in front of the world, but in his tract they are still portering for the SPDC Army.

"They do not go to complain to the higher leaders. They dare not go and complain. They stay in xxxx village and they dare not go anywhere. They dare not go because if the Burmese know that they are going to complain it will not be good for us. If they hear and know about it, they are going to kill us. Only this. The villagers are afraid and the village heads are also afraid. No one goes to complain. They dare not go to complain." - "Nyi Nyi" (M, 27), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #237, 8/01)

"No, they don't dare to go and complain about it. It is not near Rangoon. Meh Way is just a Karen village where Karen people live. The Burmese came and drove the people together at Meh Way. So even the village heads are just as afraid of the Burmese as the villagers. … They can't say anything. Even if they did speak, they wouldn't win. They complain but the officers don't listen to them. They are the frontline units and most of the people are afraid of the frontline units. … If they went and complained and said, 'You said you are not going to call for porters anymore,' then they [the soldiers] would say, 'Now we are not calling for porters, we are just asking you for loh ah pay.' The meaning [of loh ah pay] is to help, so the things the villagers help with is carrying loads the same as before.." - "Saw Nay Lay" (M, 51), Centre for Internally Displaced Karen Persons township leader, Dweh Loh township (Interview #238, 8/01)

"The Burmese who force us to work said that it is the Operations Commander who orders the work so we have to work. After that the soldiers went to report the names [of the people who went to work]. We couldn't stay without working. If we don't work we would have to move and if we move to another place the soldiers will take action and put us in jail [for not being registered to live there]." - "Mya Sein" (M, 21), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #209, 12/00)

"Q: Did they say there were to be no porters or 'set tha' [messenger labour]?

A: In the past they said there was to be no more, but they are demanding it again." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

The SPDC is also trying to play with words to both trick the villagers and to make its use of forced labour sound better internationally. Under successive Burmese military regimes the state-controlled media has tried to present the labour of villagers as being voluntary and done out of love for the country. There is a Pali term used traditionally for voluntary labour contributed by villagers to gain Buddhist merit, 'loh ah pay'; it normally applies to villagers getting together to maintain the temple or clear the path to the next village. However, SPDC authorities use the term loh ah pay when demanding labour at Army camps and other forms of short-term forced labour, so this is what it has come to mean to the villagers. Heavier or more long-term labour such as portering or road-building are never called loh ah pay by the villagers, but soldiers have now begun telling villagers that portering is now to be called 'loh ah pay' as well. This difference may sound subtle to an outsider, but it greatly angers many villagers in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts, who have complained to KHRG that they have shown up for a short shift of 'loh ah pay' only to find themselves taken as porters. Portering is dangerous and can last weeks or months so villagers usually try to pay to avoid it, whereas they are less afraid of loh ah pay. By summoning the villagers for loh ah pay the villagers are less likely to try to get out of it and the SPDC can try to claim that the work is contributed voluntarily. The villagers resent being tricked in this way and have said that this 'loh ah pay' is synonymous with 'portering'. One villager from Lu Thaw township told KHRG that a meeting was held in late 2000 at which Karen State Peace and Development Council Chairman (and commander of the Southeast Command) Major General Thiha Thura Sit Maung said that there were to be no more porters, that porters would only have to carry light rations for the soldiers, and that the practice was henceforth to be called 'loh ah pay' and not 'portering'. According to a KHRG researcher from Papun District the terminology was changed in November 2000 - at the same time that the ILO enacted Article 33 and the SPDC claims to have banned forced labour.

"Some of the Karen village heads spoke about it. They said that the units which have come to the frontline have been ordered by Khin Nyunt to not use forced labour anymore. … They [the village heads] haven't received any orders. They just heard about it from people gossiping. … Some of the village heads asked them [the soldiers], 'Why if the people [SPDC] don't call for porters anymore, are you still calling for it?' They [the soldiers] said that instead of porters, they should call it loh ah pay." - "Saw Nay Lay" (M, 51), Centre for Internally Displaced Karen Persons township leader, Dweh Loh township (Interview #238, 8/01)

"I heard the villagers come back and speak about it. Sit Maung, the State Chairman [Major General Thiha Thura Sit Maung, the Southeast Command commander and the Karen State PDC Chairman until his death in February 2001], said there are to be no more porters. Only for carrying and delivering the small rations for them. They don't call it portering. We have to carry for free. That is 'loh ah pay'. They don't call porters now but if they do, we must pay." - "Maung Than" (M, 40), village headman from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #205, 8/00)

"They always force us to do 'loh ah pay'. They force the villagers to go and carry things for them as porters. Before they called it portering, but now they said they don't call it portering, they call it 'loh ah pay'. 'Loh ah pay' is portering because you have to carry things the same way. Sometimes they have to carry things for three or four days. They call it 'loh ah pay' but it isn't. They renamed it. They said that if they call it portering it is rude. They changed the name in November [2000]. …
Q: After they changed the name to 'loh ah pay' what did they force the villagers to do?
A: The soldiers forced them to carry food, rice and beans.
Q: So they don't have porters anymore?
A: They do but they call it 'loh ah pay'." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"Q: They demand porters but call it 'loh ah pay', is it different from portering?
A: It is the same. If they demand porters and say it is portering, the villagers dare not go. That is why they trick us. They think, 'If we arrest porters for a long time, and call them porters, the civilians know about it and are afraid to come. They dare not come.' So they call it 'loh ah pay'. They called it 'four day loh ah pay'. But we had to go more than four days and it became long term portering. They trick us in this way." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

"They said that when we carry loads they won't allow us to call it 'wontan' ['servant'] or portering, we must call it 'loh ah pay'. They said it doesn't look good if we call it 'wontan' or porter." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

'I will still use forced labour …'

They have a meeting every four months and all the battalion commanders go. There are ten battalion commanders, the Division Commander and the three operations commanders. During the four-monthly meeting, the Division Commander talks about everything. In January 2001, at the time when every battalion commander went for the four-monthly meeting, the Division Commander said, 'We aren't allowed to use forced labour any more, and I have already sent the radio message about it.'

Our battalion commander was not at the meeting. I stay near the battalion commander. I heard the battalion commander and the operations commander talking to each other. They were talking as friends. 'Younger brother [the operations commander is senior in rank and is addressing the battalion commander], the Division Commander said we can't call for wontan or porters anymore. He only threatened us. They just talk to each other. Why doesn't he try it himself. He stays in the town. We are the people who really have to work. So if we have to carry [the loads themselves], can he come and carry also?' They were talking to each other. I was sitting down beside them in case they needed boiled water [for tea]. If they did, I had to bring the boiled water. If they needed rice, I had to bring them rice. If they needed curry, I had to bring them curry. I had to work for them like that. I lived in the office so I know everything they said. He [the operations commander] said, 'About this, I will still use forced labour in my area.' For carrying loads, for example, I can only carry one load. We can't carry two loads, so there is one load left. Where can you get the people to carry it? So we just take villagers. Okay, there is no other way. [The Battalion Commander said:] 'Come on. If anything happens, let it happen. If they arrest me, then they can arrest me.' It doesn't mean that they [the commanders] aren't afraid [of being arrested]. Even if they are afraid there is no other way, so they just solve the problem themselves.

Q: How many people did the Operations Commander tell?

A: The Headquarters Company Commander, the Battalion Commander and the three operations people [the Operations Commander's staff]. They didn't speak about it anymore. They didn't let them [the rank and file soldiers] know. They didn't let any of the lower people know.

Q: Were they still using forced labour when you left [he deserted in March 2001]?

A: Yes, until I left. We forced the villagers to cut the grass and dig bunkers at our T— camp. We called them and forced them to do that. They had to dig the bunkers and they are still digging them now.

Q: Did they take any action against the people who are still using forced labour?

A: There was no action.

["Tin Lwin" (M, 20), Lance Corporal who deserted in Nyaunglebin District in March 2001 (Int. #236, 8/01)]

Another cosmetic change which has been occurring is who gives the orders for forced labour. In the past it was usually the Army which dictated its demands for porters and Army camp labour directly to the villages, while the Township civilian authorities dictated many of the demands for forced labour on infrastructure projects. In many areas this has also been subtly changing, with many Army units channeling their demands for porters and Army camp labour through the local civilian authorities at the Township and village tract levels. For example, an Army Battalion notifies the Township or Village Tract Peace and Development Council (PDC) that it wants 50 people for forced labour, and the PDC must divide that number of people between the villages under it, issuing the orders to each village in turn. Alternatively, the PDC pays to hire people to fill at least part of the demand, and then bills the villages under it for their share of the hiring cost. This process makes the villages see the demands for forced labour as coming from the civilian authorities rather than the Army. In some areas the authorities avoid issuing written orders demanding forced labour directly, choosing instead to call village heads to meetings and dictate the demands orally so that there will be no documentary evidence - though in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts a great deal of forced labour is still demanded using written orders. There have also been cases in the two districts of the DKBA issuing orders demanding forced labour on behalf of the SPDC's Army units.

The SPDC is also bringing in a great deal of convict porters to supplement the use of villagers as porters, particularly because most villagers will do anything to avoid frontline portering. Based on cases studied by KHRG, it appears that the regime is even arresting innocent people in the towns and cities and convicting them on vague charges with no evidence simply to turn 'civilian labour' into 'convict labour' (see below under 'Porters').

Regarding the alleged distribution and implementation of the SPDC's orders banning forced labour, most village heads from SPDC-controlled villages in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts who have been interviewed by KHRG say they have either never seen the orders, or have seen them but without any evidence of their being implemented.

"I don't know whether it comes from Rangoon or Moulmein. I know that the people said the leader came and distributed the order so the Burmese can't force the villagers to work. But they still force the villagers to work secretly and say to the village head that they do not force people to be porters or to do loh ah pay. They use their brains like that. … As for me, I thought the Burmese could no longer force us, we were very happy because we had had to carry very terribly. We thought that if they couldn't force us we were very happy. But they are still forcing us secretly. So what can we do? We must go." - "Nyi Nyi" (M, 27), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #237, 8/01); he was blinded in one eye by a landmine while portering for the SPDC in June 2001

"They captured porters there. They called it Army 'wontan' ['servants'], but it was portering. They called one villager from each house to carry rations. Some villagers didn't come because they didn't have enough food, they had to work and weren't free to go. They arrested the villagers who were hiding [from forced labour; in this context 'arrested' means captured them and forced them to go]. When they didn't arrest them, they fined them. Some villagers couldn't go, so they forced them to pay 1,000 Kyat per day. They called both men and women." - "Saw Tha Ku" (M, 21), Private from Infantry Battalion #xx, Papun District (Interview #225, 3/00)

The SPDC's Army requires thousands of porters to keep its expanding web of camps supplied and to carry supplies for the operational columns. The porters are usually demanded by written order and given by the village head on a rotational basis. Sometimes the villagers are required to stay at the camp for a certain number of days and remain on standby in case the local Army unit needs to go anywhere. At any given time, most Army camps have a few people from each village in their area carrying for their patrols or on standby at the camp. Other times the porters are requested for a specific purpose, such as the monthly or bimonthly rations deliveries to camps. At certain times the Army will send up large shipments of rations and other supplies for all the camps in an area. The supplies are usually brought up by truck or boat to bigger Army camps at places like Ka Dtaing Dtee, Toh Thay Pu and Meh Way in Papun District and to Ko Sghaw and Ma La Daw in Nyaunglebin District. From these bigger camps along the roads, the supplies are then carried up into the hills by villagers taken from the villages and relocation sites. Villages suddenly receive written orders to send one person from every household for one or two days of carrying. During the rainy season the roads, most of which are dirt, become impassable and villagers are forced in addition to porter supplies where trucks would go in dry season. These are large-scale resupply operations and as many as a hundred or more villagers are demanded at a time. Many of the bigger camps are also relocation sites which have a large pool of labour which can be used. The resupply can last for many days and usually requires that all the villagers, including women and children as young as eight, go in order to finish the work as soon as possible.

"When we went to carry the rice sacks in the dry season when the [rations] boats came, we slept there. We carried the rice sacks to the storehouse in their camp. It is about three furlongs from the river to the camp. Every village had to carry for that. They demanded 18 people but we sent only five or six. If it took a long time - two or three days - we had to rotate new people in. It was this dry season and it took nearly one month." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"The other villages also have to go as porters. They demand one porter from T— village, three porters from B— village, three porters from D— and T— village, three porters from M—, one porter from N— ... I know only of these. They went together with us. Since the Burmese arrived, everyone has to carry. I know this and I've also seen it with my own eyes. T—, T—, B—, P— [villagers], they all have to carry. We see it ourselves. Sometimes, after we've fled we arrive among them [people from other villages] and they tell us, 'Right, we have to do this. We can't stay and we have to go and carry in fear.' Even when we carried they [the soldiers] sometimes accused us of being KNU spies. That is why if we couldn't carry, we fled if no one came to relieve us."- "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

"They forced them again on the 2^nd of September [2000]. Seventy people had to carry loads to D—. It took two days. On September 3^rd[2000], [Infantry Battalion] #xx was going to rotate out [of the area] and they demanded porters. They demanded the villagers from Koh Thee Hta, Khaw Tee Ko, Tee Na Day, Meh T'Ru Kee, Wa Wee Lay, Wa Kha Hta, Meh Wa Hta, Meh Kyo, Meh Pu Kee, Meh Pu Hta and Poh Loh Hta. It was over 100 people. They forced the soldiers to carry their things to Na Gyi." - "Saw Maung Soe" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #147, 9/00)

"They don't pay the people who must carry the rice. We have to carry the rice from Mu Paw Hta. It has been ten days already and they still have rice [to carry]. They divided it up into loads for each person to carry. We had only a few people so we tried to carry it quickly so it would be finished. If we carried it only one or two trips a day it would never be finished. Every older person [adults and older teenagers] who could carry all had to go and carry it. The youngest ones, like Naw P— [a young girl], she could carry one or two bowls [1.6-3.2 kg / 3.4-6.8 lb] so she also had to go and carry it. … . It was bad for the children but they had to try twice a day until they arrived at the storehouse. We still have to carry tomorrow and the day after. A lot of people aren't free to carry it because they are already tired from carrying it so many times. The villagers have to work their fields and look after their buffaloes. They can only carry it one or two times because if we work too much for them we don't have time to work for ourselves anymore. But we try to finish their work." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

"They demand them from the village head. They don't write a letter, they demand with their mouths. If we can't give them as many people as they need, they come and summon them themselves [the soldiers come and capture the needed number of villagers]. Sometimes they demand five people or six people and sometimes they demand ten people. We have only 15 houses in the village, so when they demand 10 porters, it is difficult to find that many. When we couldn't find enough people they captured them themselves." - "Naw Say Paw" (F, 46), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #195, 6/00)

"There are many different types of 'loh ah pay' there. Sometimes the soldiers go to stay at Doh Koh Wah, but now they are not there. The last time was in October 2000. They stayed there for a month and a half. From our village they demanded 50 'loh ah pay' [people]. One time they demanded up to 80 'loh ah pay' from xxxx village. The women and children also went. They had to carry food up from Wa Mu camp to Doh Koh Wah. Some of the women had children who hadn't stopped nursing yet. The soldiers say it is your duty and you have to do it. It is a big problem and a great pity for them. They had to carry rice, milk, sugar and beans. Some males went but the women went also. For some women, their husbands and children had to go to work, so the wives had to worry as one person had to go from each house. They have to go by rotation. Sometimes 70 or 80 and sometimes 50. They can't stay in the village without going. If the villagers don't go they are fined and food is demanded from them for the soldiers to eat. Problems are also made for them. They threaten many things so the villagers are afraid and have to go." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

Stamp:

Peace and Development Council Date: 4-4-2001

xxxx Village Tract

[To:] Head

xxxx village

To transport the sacks of rice from the rations godown at xxxx Army camp hill send five loh ah pay people to the Army camp on 5-4-2001 to arrive at 7 o'clock in the morning, you are informed.

Note: Do not fail.

[Sd.] 5-4-2001

Stamp:

(for) Chairperson

Village Peace and Development Council

xxxx Village Tract, Papun Township

Translation of an order sent to a village in Papun District by their local PDC authority.

"Sometimes they forced us to go Papun and then come back. We went to carry rations for them and to buy things. Their trucks brought food for them, but they forced us to go and buy cheroots for them. For small things they just demanded one or two people to carry for them, but to carry to K— a lot of people had to go, about 20 or 30. If that many didn't go, they came into the village and captured both men and women. They brought rice in their trucks and after it arrived at K— [a.k.a. K—], we had to carry it to K—." - "Saw Doh" (M, 30), refugee from K— village, Bu Tho township (Interview #218, 4/00)

Portering usually lasts for a day or two but can last for as long as ten, during which the villagers must bring their own food. The village heads send the villagers to go as porters by rotation but in some areas, and especially in the smaller villages, it is so frequent that it is not long before a person's turn comes around again. Often a village head can't get anyone to go for the next rotation, so the Army holds on to the people it already has for weeks. KHRG often obtains orders written by officers complaining to the effect that 'the present servants have been here much too long already, send their replacements immediately'. When the soldiers need to move a lot of things at once, such as resupplying the camps with rations, entire villages have to go. Men usually go for portering, but demands placed on the small villages are so heavy that women, children and the elderly also go. Women are less likely to by physically beaten or accused of being 'rebels' while portering, but if the shift of portering lasts more than a day they face the serious risk of rape. They are also forced to decide whether to take their children with them, making the journey much more difficult, or leave them at home where they may go hungry. One headwoman from Dweh Loh township told an Army unit demanding women porters that she would only give them men. She got away with it, but usually the Army takes whomever they can get. Children as young as 7 years old are also sometimes taken as porters. Some units do not take children because they are too small to carry the heavy loads. An SPDC soldier who deserted in Papun District told KHRG of seeing a young girl forced to carry a basket full of rice. He tried to help the girl by carrying her load, but his Sergeant punished him for it by forcing him to carry an even heavier load of ammunition.

"They send the food between December and January. They send the food to Kaw Boke and then to Ka Hee Kyo. The villagers must carry the food from Ka Hee Kyo to Kyauk Nyat. The soldiers send trucks to Ka Hee Kyo and the villagers must carry it from there. For example, Nu Thu Hta village has to carry 30 sacks of rice [1,500 kg / 3,300 lb]. To finish it quickly, the villagers will need more people to carry the rice. If there are four or five people in a house, the villagers call them all together and go like that. Male and female, they all go. Children who are seven or eight years old and can carry half a basket [of rice; 12.5 kg / 27.5 lb], they all go. They went together so the rice carrying would finish quickly for their families and the village. When they finished carrying the 30 sacks of rice their duty was finished. Another village, Toh Wee Der, was the same. Another one or two villages also must work the same to carry things so they will finish quickly." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"There was a small girl. She was the same age as my cousin. They were forcibly ordering her to carry things. I pitied that girl, but I also had to carry a backpack. I said to her, 'Sister, give it to me. I will carry it for you.' Then one of the Saya [NCO's] told me, 'Hey kaung [this pronoun is usually only used when talking to animals] what are you doing?' I said, 'No, don't do an injustice. This girl has to climb the mountain. You have put a lot of rice in her basket, that is why I am helping her and carrying for her.' He took me and said to me, 'If you want to carry, come.' He ordered me to carry 2,000 bullets for the MA [MA is a series of assault rifles and machine guns made in Burma to Chinese designs; 7.62mm bullets]. I couldn't carry it. When I couldn't carry it, a officer came and asked, 'What is happening?' I said, 'Bo Gyi [Captain] think about it, they forced a small girl to carry a rice sack so I helped and carried it for her. For that, he [the Sergeant] ordered me to carry these 2,000 bullets. I can't carry it.' The officer said, 'The order was from the Army. It was only one order. You must do the order.' I carried it a little bit further and threw it away. It fell down the side of the mountain into the valley. The officer ordered me to go and pick it up. Then he ordered another porter to carry it." - "Thein Htay" (M, 26), Private from Light Infantry Battalion #xxx, Papun District (Interview #227, 11/00)

"The units that were here before didn't do that but Division #xx [Light Infantry Division #xx], which just came, asked me to give them women porters. I haven't given them any. I told them that women from xxxx never go to porter. They said that the women from xxxx came so why can't ours. I told them that I wouldn't give them women. I will give men only." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

Village heads are also sometimes ordered to provide bullock carts to Army camps on a rotating basis. The bullock carts and their drivers must remain at the camp on standby for immediate use whenever required by the Army. There is very little motor transport in the area and bullock carts are used to carry heavy equipment, building materials or heavy weapons. The bullock carts are also used to carry bamboo and lumber for the soldiers as a part of their logging operations. Bullock carts can also be commandeered at any time from the villagers without compensation. The bullocks are not fed by the soldiers and are worked so hard that the owners are not able to properly care for them. Boats and their drivers are also commandeered by the soldiers to carry rations and supplies up the rivers. This is especially so on the Bilin River, where the road is impassable throughout the May-October rainy season.

Stamp: #xxx Light Infantry Battalion

#xxx Light Infantry Battalion xxxx [town]

Battalion Office Letter No: 2001 / x / Yay x

Date: Year 2001, May 2^nd

To:

Chairpersons

xxxx Village Tract - xxxx Village, xxxx Village

Subject: : Informing [you] to arrange ( 2 ) bullock cart porters

For the use of #xxx Light Infantry Battalion for administrative matters, [we] need two bullock carts for ~~every day~~ 1 day, so start arranging and sending ( 2 ) bullock cart porters from the Elder's village tract to the Battalion on (4-5-2001) to arrive at (0500) hours, you are informed.

[Sd.]

(for) Battalion Commander

Translation of an order sent to a village in Nyaunglebin District. The order was typed with blanks left which have been filled in by hand. The term used for porters is 'kyaw'; literally, the phrase is 'bullock cart porters', meaning bullock carts, teams and drivers for forced labour.

"As for the bullock carts, they never get to rest. They have to go with the soldiers three days a week. Sometimes they have to go and carry the rations to L—. Sometimes the bullock carts have to stay at the camp and the villagers come and change the carts every three days because they need their carts and bullocks to work. The soldiers don't take care of the bullocks or feed them. They have to tie them with bamboo. The villagers have to come to bring straw and bran because the grass there is dried and dead. They [the soldiers] don't take care of the bullocks along the bank of the river." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"They brought it halfway by boat and carry it the rest of the way on the road. They don't pay for the boat. It was a villager's boat but the soldiers put gasoline in it. The drivers are Burmese traders. They [the soldiers] use about six boats a day. There are two boats which can't go up because they no longer work. The drivers can't drive those boats anymore." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

A much more arduous and feared form of portering is going as 'operations porters' with the Army's mobile columns. Operations portering involves carrying supplies for the soldiers as they conduct an operation in an area. An operation may be a simple patrol lasting a few days to a sweep of an area involving hundreds of soldiers and lasting months. Villagers are especially afraid of being taken for this form of portering, and even villagers who normally stay in the village and face the soldiers flee if they know the soldiers are coming for operations porters. If the demand is made in advance by written order they try to find itinerant labourers from the plains who are willing to be hired to go in their place, even if they have to sell their livestock to pay the price. If this proves impossible, money cannot usually be paid to get out of it. The villagers are taken for weeks and sometimes months at a time. The food provided by the soldiers is never enough and the porters are rarely allowed to rest. When the soldiers stop at camps along the way, the porters are ordered to fetch water, gather firewood and perform other menial tasks for the soldiers. Villagers are beaten or kicked more often while doing this type of portering due to their inability to carry the heavy loads for such a long time without adequate rest or food. Villagers who cannot keep up due to exhaustion or illness are often beaten and left behind on the trail, where they sometimes die.

"Some villagers say, 'We can't carry our loads. When we climb the mountains, they tell us to walk very quickly. They drive us to go. We don't have enough rice to eat. They don't feed us enough.' The SPDC said, 'You are industrious when the Kaw Thoo Lei [KNLA] ask you to do work but if we ask you anything, you are lazy. You eat a lot. You can't carry your loads.' Then when the people complain to them, they kick them and step on them." - "Pi San Nweh" (F, 53), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #193, 6/00)

"If the SPDC hurts them we don't usually see it, but the villagers come back to us and tell us. Some people weren't able to carry but they had to continue anyway. Some had so much pain in their bodies or their backs or shoulders. I have to ask them to go, but when they come back and tell me that they can't bear it, I don't dare to ask them to go. But I have to ask." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

"There were 2 soldiers behind every porter. All of us had to carry the same things, like bullets, shells, cookpots, and their clothing and blankets. Everyone was exhausted because of the heavy loads. But you have to carry it or they beat and kick you. Pa K— [one of the porters] was sick and wanted to switch the load to his other shoulder but he couldn't, so he asked a soldier to help him for a moment and they punched him in the back." - "Maung Htun Shwe" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #124, 9/99)

"At first I thought I wouldn't try to escape, but the soldiers treated us very badly. On the way they beat, punched and shouted at us. Sometimes they fed us when they ate, but sometimes they didn't. They forced us to work, and even when we gathered firewood for them they weren't satisfied. They told us that we're too stupid to understand, and that we're old. Sometimes they punched us with their fists." - "U Nyunt Shwe" (M, 51), escaped porter from K— village, Pegu Division (Interview #231, 9/99)

The treatment of porters depends very much on the commander of the unit the porters are attached to. More humane commanders may look after the porters by giving them food and not physically abusing the porters, but most simply don't care what happens to the porters as long as loads are delivered at the right place at the right time. Food is sometimes given to the porters but usually the villagers must bring their own. Porters are commonly told they will only be gone for one or two days, but it lasts for much longer and the two or three day supply of rice they brought with them soon runs out. One villager who portered for the Army told KHRG that when the soldiers ran out of their own rice they took it from the porters. Other Army units demand rice from the villages and then give it to the porters. When the porters are fed it is usually not much and of poor quality. Porters sometimes have to resort to begging for food from the villages they pass through along the way. The water given is also dirty and porters are not usually allowed to stop at streams along the way. Porters are only given rests when the soldiers want to rest. Stopping along the way to take a rest usually results in a porter being shouted at and beaten. At night the porters are allowed to sleep, although they are usually kept in one place and guarded to make sure they do not try to escape.

"They force us to carry their loads. We have to go and carry their loads but they don't give us any rice to eat. When the SPDC have no more rice, what do they do? They take it from the porters. The porters get no rice to eat and have to suffer and go hungry. They have to go and get food from villagers' houses." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"They also demand rice. The chairperson collects it. We have to give one bowl [1.56 kg / 3.4 lb], two bowls [3.12 kg / 6.8 lb], 4 milk tins [781 grams / 1.7 lb] or 5 milk tins [975 grams / 2.2 lb] of rice. The SPDC demands it. It is the porters' rice [the rice the soldiers will give to the porters]. They don't pay us money [to porter]. They give five bowls of rice to each porter. Each of the houses has to give rice. They only demand rice, nothing else." - "Saw Lah Thaw" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #158, 2/01)

"They didn't feed us good food. It looked like the food people feed puppies, piglets, calves and small buffaloes. They fed us twice each day but it was not enough. They gave us their food, but it wasn't the same food as the soldiers. We didn't need to bring it from our house each time. In the past we had to bring our own. The water wasn't clean. It was very dirty and we could catch diseases." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"They could take a rest when it was time to eat. You can't take a rest when you want. If you take a rest when you want, the soldiers scold and shout. The older people are kicked, beaten and punched, but the children are scolded and shouted at." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"They didn't give us water, and you can't ask to drink the water in their canteens. We couldn't carry our own water because we had to carry all of their things, and the loads were so big that we had no space to carry anything for ourselves. I only had the clothes I was wearing, and it was wet all day and night and insects bit me all the time. … The loads were very heavy and we lost our strength, so some got sick. When I came back I could not walk." - "Maung Htun Shwe" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #124, 9/99)

"They fed us a little rice. The whole day they fed us only one time. It was not enough and I got only a little to eat. I couldn't carry the load but I couldn't stop. When we have to go in an emergency like this [when the soldiers just show up in the village and demand porters rather than requesting them in a written order] we don't bring food. When we have to go and sleep on the way for two or three nights, we bring and carry our own food. For one day we don't bring it." - "Aung Myint Win" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #200, 6/00)

The loads which the porters are forced to carry vary, but can include rations for the soldiers, cookpots, medicine, and ammunition, such as bullets and mortar rounds. The weight of the loads is usually between 16 and 35 kilograms (35-80 pounds). The soldiers often add rice, fruit, vegetables, chickens, clothing, utensils, or whatever else they loot from villages along the way to the loads. When soldiers get tired of carrying their own personal backpacks they often add them to a porter's already heavy load, or change into sandals and make a porter carry their boots. This makes it easier for the soldiers to keep going without a rest, and the porters can only rest when the soldiers want to. The baskets that the porters' loads are carried in are made of bamboo or cane and usually have shoulder straps made of shaved bamboo or rough burlap. Many villagers arrive back with painful bruises, abrasions and festering open wounds from where the straps have rubbed their shoulders raw or the bottom of their baskets have rubbed against their lower backs.

"Sometimes I've had to carry ammunition and other times rice and food and also medicine. Sometimes it is the soldiers' belongings, but occasionally they also take belongings from the villagers and put it together with their own. The weight varies. Sometimes they force you to carry a load and you aren't able to carry it or even hold it up. When I carried, it was over 20 viss [32 kg / 70 lb]. They demand workers from the village head. Sometimes they come themselves and demand them from the village head, and other times they write a letter to the village head. We had to go for up to 10 days." - "Saw Shwe" (M, 36) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #191, 5/00)

"The children who are 13 years old are forced to carry one big tin of rice [12.5 kg / 27.6 lb] and they cried. Some older people who went also helped and shared the load with them. If they hadn't done that the children couldn't have carried it." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"They forced me to carry #7 shells [rocket-propelled grenades for the RPG 7 launcher]. Each person had to carry eight rounds, rice pots, food and everything else they had put in. We couldn't carry it but we had to. It was 20 or 30 viss [32-48 kg/ 72-108 lb; more likely the lower figure] which we had to carry." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

"They were sick when they came back, but it was not caused by beatings. It was because of carrying heavy loads and being tired. When they went, they couldn't sleep well. And they couldn't get enough food or quality food. They had to carry about 20 viss [32 kg / 70 lb] or more. The baskets are not small and they are full. When the soldiers saw pumpkins, they added them to the loads. They also climbed to get the villagers' coconuts and put them inside the baskets. When they saw the villagers' rice, they took it and put it into the baskets and had it carried. The porters also carried bullets. They each even had to carry one of the soldiers' bags. The porters had to carry the soldiers' big backpacks and the soldiers walked with only their guns." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

Although the loads are heavy, villagers are usually berated, kicked or beaten if they cannot carry them and keep up. Illness, exhaustion brought on from carrying the heavy loads without adequate food or rest, or the wounds created by the baskets themselves are not taken into account by the soldiers. The treatment of operations porters is often much worse than short-term porters, with beatings becoming more frequent as the journey gets longer and the porters get weaker. Army units are under orders to arrive at a certain place by a certain time, and low-ranking NCOs and Privates know that they will be beaten, given extra work or otherwise abused if they don't arrive on time. The officers shout at, berate and beat the soldiers under them for being too slow, and the soldiers pass on the same treatment to the porters for fear of being punished themselves. They are often encouraged in this by the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO's) who want to please the officers by arriving on time. Conversely, any show of sympathy for the porters is seen as a sign of weakness or suspect loyalty.

"For example, you are the battalion commander and I am a soldier. You climb the mountain and carry nothing. For me, I have to carry my things and I have to control the wontan ['servants', i.e. porters] also. The porters are carrying their loads and walking; mot, mot, mot, mot. I am also carrying my load and climbing; mot, mot, mot, mot. Then the battalion commander, who is carrying nothing, arrives before us. When we arrive later, he scolds us, swears at us and hits us. In the end, we don't want him to scold us, swear at us or hit us anymore, so we hit and pound the porters. This is why people do it. The main thing is that they [the officers] order us to do it so we have to do it." - "Tin Lwin" (M, 20), Lance Corporal who deserted in Nyaunglebin District in March 2001 (Interview #236, 8/01)

"Two villagers couldn't carry. The first one is H--. He is 48 years old. The second one is P—, 35 years old. They couldn't carry nor could they climb the mountain, they had difficulty breathing and were sweating. When they put down their loads, the SPDC shot at their backs and bottoms. When they fell down, they [SPDC soldiers] forced them to stand up, grabbed their heads and slapped their faces. The porters had to suffer like this. When the SPDC returned to the village, they fined the villagers. They gathered the village elders and fined the village 20 viss [32 kg / 72 lb] of pork." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"We had some porters who couldn't continue to carry their loads because they were in extreme pain or exhausted. They [the Burmese soldiers] threw some people to the ground and pushed their heads with the butts of their guns. Sometimes people had trouble climbing mountains so the soldiers beat them, kicked them and injured their legs and then just left them there. Three or four porters were left along the way because they couldn't carry. I don't know what became of them. … When I was tired and needed to rest they would say, 'Aren't you a man? Can't you carry? If not, we will beat your rear-end with our guns and sticks.' So I was afraid of getting beaten, and I continued to climb. Sometimes we climbed on all fours and my shoulders were so weak. If we saw water along the way, they would say, 'Don't drink, just go.'" - "Maung Zaw Oo" (M, 27), escaped porter from P— village, Pegu Division (Interview #230, 3/99)

Many villagers arrive back to their villages completely exhausted from their ordeal. Their shoulders and backs are cut and bruised from carrying the heavy baskets, and the lack of sleep and food leaves them weak and prone to illness. Porters who get sick are not usually given medicine by the soldiers but have to just continue on. The alternative is to be left behind to fend for themselves in the forest. One porter told KHRG that when the soldiers did give medicine to the porters with him, it was noted down, probably with the intention of demanding reimbursement from their village later. Some have been left behind to die when they become too sick or exhausted to carry their loads any longer. Some villagers have come back so exhausted and/or ill that they are unable to work for days afterward. One villager who was ill was beaten and left on the side of the trail. He made it back to his village but before he had fully recovered his turn came up to porter again. He told KHRG that he hadn't yet decided whether to go as ordered or to flee the village.

"Sometimes I saw them kick and step on porters if they couldn't climb with the baskets. They pulled them and grabbed at their heads - people from our village. One man died when he went to porter and contracted a disease. He came back and died at home - Thay Nyoh Pa was 50 years old. But the villagers still have to porter. We are not free." - "Saw Shwe" (M, 36) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #191, 5/00)

"They released us when they arrived at their place. No one fled. We could come back but we had to be afraid of their friends [soldiers from other units] on the way back. I can't say what would have happened if we had met them [they may have been taken as porters again or accused of being KNLA because they were walking in the jungle far from their village]. When we arrived back at the village one of my friends couldn't walk. It was because he'd had to porter. His friends who portered with him in the same group helped him. If they hadn't helped him he couldn't have done it. Now he is home and looking for the bark of trees and bamboo [to make traditional herbal medicines]. Everyone came back but they were very tired." - "Aung Myint Win" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #200, 6/00)

"I saw some people get sick. I don't know if the soldiers looked after them or not. There were some people who couldn't walk anymore and they fell down in pain. The soldiers didn't give them medicine. They order the porters to work the whole day and don't give them any food to eat." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

"[T]hey didn't release us. Even if they gave us medicine, they wrote it down. Po H— from B— came back sick. He hasn't recovered yet. He can't get any medicine." - "Saw Shwe" (M, 36) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #191, 5/00)

"When the SPDC arrived in M— they called him and forced him to carry a load. He had to climb the mountains so he began coughing again and had no energy. He fell down and became unconscious. The SPDC kicked him and slapped him and then he fell down again beside the road. The SPDC threw stones at him. He didn't know how many times they threw stones at him because he was unconscious. When he became unconscious, the SPDC walked on and didn't give him any medicine. He slept there for a while and when he woke up he went back home. When he came home he went and found medicine in a shop and also drank spirit water [water which has been blessed by a monk and believed by the villagers to have healing properties]. He felt better after he bought the medicine, but he isn't fully healed yet. Tonight, on xxxx 2001, the people told him to go to M— to carry loads for the SPDC. He doesn't know if he will be able to go yet or not." field report from KHRG field researcher (Field Report #22, 5/01)

Porters are usually forced to walk at intervals between a few soldiers while on the paths. One reason for this is to make sure the porters do not try to flee. Porters are often shot at if they try to run away. One villager heard a Sergeant tell one of his soldiers to be sure to chamber a bullet so he would be able to shoot a porter whom he suspected was about to flee. Another reason for placing the porters between soldiers is that the soldiers hope the KNLA will not ambush them if they see that they may hit the porters. Porters are sometimes forced to walk in front of the soldiers to act as human minesweepers. Porters have died and lost legs from landmines intended for the SPDC soldiers. Some areas are so heavily landmined or booby-trapped that there is nowhere to run during ambushes as the side of the trails could be mined or booby-trapped. The porters are caught in the middle and some have been cut down in the crossfire of ambushes. Wounded porters have been left behind by the soldiers, but sometimes they are given treatment by the medics and some have even been sent to hospitals where at least part of their costs were covered.

"They guarded us. They guarded us so we couldn't run away. Mostly they were soldiers [privates] but their sergeants or officers directed them." - "Saw Peh Yah" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #211, 3/01)

"I have one friend who wanted to flee. … They [SPDC] knew that this person might possibly flee so the Burmese SPDC told him, 'If you go to take a shit, you have to do it in front of me.' A Sergeant who has three chevrons said, 'Chamber a bullet. If he flees, shoot him dead.' … We got sesame oil cake to eat because when they [SPDC] got beans as rations they sold them. That is why when they don't have enough to eat, they demand food from the village heads. So if they demand sesame oil that is what we eat, and if they get pork, then we eat pork. … They don't give us payment. I don't know. They give it by air [in words only]. If they gave 100 Kyat to us, we would porter for more than three days. We would carry and show them the way. How much do they have to carry? But they don't give us anything, so we agreed with each other and the village head that we would carry and change workers every three days. If they gave us 100 Kyat per month, we would carry for them. We would even wash their new clothes." - "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

"The soldiers went group by group. There were two companies of soldiers. There were about 20 soldiers in each company so there were almost 50 soldiers in the two companies. Each group controlled their own porters. They kept one soldier between three or four porters." - "Aung Myint Win" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #200, 6/00)

"We met some people who had set off a landmine. They [the Burmese] forced porters to go ahead of them in case there were landmines. Even when they ordered us to go into the forest to get bamboo we had to do it [despite knowing that most of the mines are just off the pathways in the forest]." - "Maung Htun Shwe" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #124, 9/99)

"When my villagers went to porter a battle occurred between T— and L— and one of my villagers was injured. The people called him H—. He is 36 years old. He wasn't injured from a landmine. He was injured in the fighting by a piece of shrapnel from a big shell. We also don't know whether it was from the SPDC or the KNU. His right eye is blind. He was still alive and went to get treatment at the Mingaladon Military Hospital [in Rangoon]." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"[S]ome people died because they forced them to go and they stepped on landmines. After they died their wives and children couldn't work and had nothing to eat. … U N—. He was 35 years old. He was the Burmese village head [SPDC-appointed village chairman] for K—, and he said that he dared not go. He asked his villagers to go and they told him, 'We dare not go.' But the Burmese told him that the village head has to go if his villagers dare not do it, so he went and then stepped on a landmine and died." - "Saw Doh" (M, 30), refugee from K— village, Bu Tho township (Interview #218, 4/00)

Villagers occasionally flee from short-term portering, but the units that take them are locally based and usually demand immediate replacement porters from the same village, or that the person who fled be sent back for another full shift as punishment. They also come back to the villages and demand fines because the villagers ran away. The villager is usually fined for the amount in 'porter fees' which would be the normal bribe to avoid the number of days of portering which he missed; for example, if a porter doing a 5-day shift flees after 2 days and the normal bribe to avoid forced labour is 500 Kyat per day, then he will have to pay 1,500 Kyat to the soldiers when they come. Demands for chicken or pork are also sometimes tacked on to the monetary fine. Sometimes the entire fine is paid in chicken or pork. Fines must be paid on the spot when the soldiers come. If the fine isn't paid, the person who fled may have his house burned down by the soldiers or be taken away for more forced labour. Soldiers have also threatened to shoot villagers who flee if they see them again. Villagers fleeing from long-term portering are shot at if they try to flee, and some who have been recaptured have even been executed by the soldiers as a deterrent to prevent the other porters from fleeing.

"For example, if they had to go for five days but before the five days they fled back. If there were two days remaining to work, the soldiers counted it as how much per day. If one day was 500 Kyat, then two days is 1,000 Kyat. You must send the money to them [the soldiers]. If they ask for 1,000 Kyat and 2 viss [3.2 kg / 7.2 lb] of pork, you must send the 2 viss of pork also." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"When the people fled they were fined. For a person who fled for three days, they would demand three viss [4.8 kg / 10.5 lb] of chicken. One viss of chicken is worth 700 Kyat. One viss per day. If they didn't receive a replacement porter, they would come to the village to fine us or to burn down his house [the house of the person who fled]. … They also fine us if they demand porters and one person flees. If the person flees after one day of work, they will fine us for 10 days. We can't send replacement porters - we have to send money for 10 days. I can't do everything for the village and if they come I will not suffer it - I will flee. I can't suffer it so I will try to avoid them." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

"One of my friends named Ko T— is staying with his in-laws. He went to porter for the Burmese. They said that it was 'loh ah pay' but he had to carry a log measuring about four handspans [91 cm or 36 inches] around and 12 cubits [5.5 m or 18 ft] long. They forced him to carry it for one or two days. He couldn't do it anymore so he fled. After he fled, the SPDC said, "If we see M—, enough [he will be killed]." We don't know what they are going to do with him. He doesn't dare encounter them. He came back to call his wife secretly and ran to stay in the jungle." - "Saw Maw Ray Heh" (M, 40), internally displaced villager from M— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #151, 11/00)

There are not enough people in the area to supply the Army's needs for porters, so it is also using other means to fill its requirements. Itinerant workers from central Burma are hired by the Township Peace and Development Councils to go as operations porters with the Army's mobile columns. The money to hire these porters is demanded as a 'tax' from the villagers in the township. Villagers have told KHRG that if they do not pay they will have to go themselves. KHRG has also interviewed civilians from central Burma who have been forced to porter for SPDC units in Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts after being approached and offered work by labour agents, then sold to the Army and taken to the hills without pay. Another way the Army gets enough porters is to surround teashops or cinemas, douse the lights and put all the men on trucks to be sent to the Army's frontline units. Porters who have been taken by the Army in this way have come from as far away as Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta.

"I took the train from Rangoon to Toungoo, and when I got off the train, I met a porter broker [someone who provides forced porters to the authorities for a price]. His name was Kyaw Tint and he was about 35 years old. He'd lost one of his legs and said he had resigned from the military. He asked me, 'Young brother, where are you going?' I said, 'I am looking for a job.' He asked me, 'What skills do you have?' I said, 'I can do anything'. He asked me, 'Will you come to work in a brokers' sales center? You will get 300 Kyat per day, plus food. What do you think?' I said, 'If I can make 300 Kyat per day plus food, I will follow you.' … He took me to Nyaunglebin. When I got to Nyaunglebin, Zayat Kyi, he didn't send me to a brokers' sales center. He sent me to the Zayat Kyi police station. When I arrived in the police station there were many people, the same as me. The porter broker sold us for 4,500 Kyat each. The police gave money to the porter broker, and then he gave money to us - 1,000 Kyat each. He said it was 'part payment in advance.' I spent one night in the police station. When the total reached 15 people, they sent us in a group by truck. … While we were staying there, we had to porter, dig trenches, cut bamboo and forage for food. They told us, 'You won't need to stay here much longer. We'll rotate out after 15 days.' But we stayed there longer than 15 days. After 20 days, I heard the soldiers talking to each other and saying that they were going to be there for 3 months. None of the porters could suffer that. … Many porters had fled, some along the path and some after we'd arrived at the camp. If they recaptured them, they punished them. The soldiers threatened us, they said, 'If you run to escape, you will find that we have laid landmines and punji-sticks [sharpened bamboo spikes concealed in shallow holes to mangle and infect the foot and lower leg of anyone who steps on them] around the camp. Even if you make it to the path, you will be killed by the Nga Pway [derogatory slang for KNLA].'" - "Ko San Aung" (M, 19), escaped porter from H— town, Rangoon Division (Interview #232, 9/99)

"I went to visit my Aunt in Pyu [central Pegu Division, west of the Sittaung River]. When I got off the train, the soldiers asked for my nationality card [National Identity Card, which he didn't have] and then arrested me. They arrested 3 others together with me. … The soldiers arrested us and asked us if we would join the Army. We said we wouldn't join. Then they sent us to the porter broker's house. … Yes, they took me. They even take people who are 10 years old to be soldiers." "Ko Zaw Thein" (M, 15), escaped porter from P— village, Pegu Division (Interview #233, 9/99)

The SPDC has used prison convicts as porters for military operations for many years. The use of convict labour by the SPDC has increased rapidly in the past 2 to 3 years because the Army is steadily expanding and needs more and more porters with each passing month to keep it supplied. The villagers can no longer meet the demand in many areas, particularly hill areas of Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts where most people have fled their villages. Another reason for the growing use of convict porters is that the SPDC is under heavy international pressure to end forced labour, and convict labour is looked upon more favourably than civilian forced labour, in both human rights circles and the ILO Forced Labour convention. This has led to a disturbing new trend in which the SPDC seems to be arresting people solely to convict them and send them off to the Army as porters. Many people have been arrested on vague or trivial charges such as 'hiding in the dark' (a form of conspiracy charge which can be applied to anyone out at night, or even in broad daylight), possession of illegal lottery tickets or failure to pay their crop quotas, while others have been convicted on theft or drug charges despite the lack of any evidence whatsoever. The SPDC courts issue quick convictions and send the new convicts to prison, where they spend only a few days before being whisked off to the Army's convict porter camps and sent into the hills. More recently KHRG has encountered escaped 'convict porters' from several areas who did not even know they were convicts; they say they were grabbed by soldiers, forced to change clothes and sent to the hills. Some did not even realise the clothes they had been forced to change into were convict uniforms (white or blue shirt and sarong of very coarse cotton). This appears to indicate that in order to cover its use of forced labour the SPDC is sending innocent civilians to the frontline as 'convicts' hoping that the international community will look the other way.

The treatment of convict porters is especially brutal. The loads which the convicts are forced to carry are often twice the weight of what a villager would have to carry. Many convicts have said that they needed assistance even standing up with the loads on their backs and that they were unable to stand upright. Convicts are beaten for not being able to carry the heavy loads, sometimes to death. They are often fed little more than rice and a thin broth made from beans. Medicine is almost never given to the convicts. Work doesn't stop for them when they reach an Army camp. They are expected to dig trenches, fetch water, fence the camp and do other work until they are taken out with the mobile columns once again. Despite being told in advance that they will be released or have their sentences reduced after portering for the Army for a few months, the convicts quickly realise that they will be worked to death unless they escape, even if this means being kept well beyond the end of their sentences. [For more information see 'Convict Porters: The Brutal Abuse of Prisoners on Burma's Frontlines' (KHRG 2000-06, 20-12-2000)].

"[W]e saw some prisoners [convicts from the prisons] who couldn't carry and were beaten. We saw them get beaten. The people who beat them were a Lance Corporal with one chevron and a Sergeant with three chevrons. They beat them as if they were cattle or buffaloes. They shouted and one of them said, 'Let them die.' That is why when we saw it we just passed by without looking at them. I asked some prisoners [why they were forced to porter] and they said they stole bread and sold it and also stole kerosene and sold it. That is why they were imprisoned and were forced to go up the mountain and porter." - "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

"We have to cut and clear [the brush] around the car road, stand sentry, clear the landmines and fence the road. We also have to cut down teak trees. They don't give us any Kyat for that work, we have to cut the trees for free. Many villages have to send people to go and work for them for free. Tee Hsaw Meh, Tee Theh Lay, Poh Mine Hay, Tee Tha Blu Hta, Kyaw Law Day, Wah Tho Klah, Baw Tho Hta. Every village has to go. If they don't go, the villagers won't be able to stay in their village. If we don't go and work, they will come and oppress and beat us. We cannot suffer that so we just have to follow them and do what they say." - "Pa Thu" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #194, 6/00)

The SPDC has built, or is currently building, as many as four military access roads across the area during the last four years; a road from Ma La Daw in Mone township to Bu Sah Kee in Toungoo District, a road from Shwegyin to Ko Sghaw, a road from Papun to Kyauk Nyat on the Salween River and a road from Pwa Ghaw to Ler Mu Plaw. There are also rumours of plans to build one or more new roads (Ko Sghaw to Meh Way, Kyauk Kyi to Pa Saung in Karenni State and Ler Mu Plaw to Bu Sah Kee) and upgrade some of the existing roads (the Bilin to Papun road). Many of the newer roads have been built without civilian forced labour. This is partly because the SPDC wants the roads built quickly to gain control of the region, but also because all the villagers have fled along the routes of the new roads. The exceptions are the roads from Ma La Daw in northern Nyaunglebin District up to Bu Sah Kee village in southeastern Toungoo District, and the road from Papun up to Kyauk Nyat in Papun District. Both of these have been partially built by villager labour. People as old as 60 and children as young as 14 are reportedly working on the Bu Sah Kee road. If the road from Bilin to Papun is upgraded then it will likely involve the use of villager forced labour from the relocation sites along the route.

"[T]hey are building a car road from Kyauk Kyi Kaw to Saw Thay Der. They started forcing us to do it on the 10^th of April [1999]. They have forced Burman and Mon villagers from other villages, and Karen villagers who stay around S— and L—. They are forcing old people and women. They don't consider the elderly as being too old. They use people who are 50 or 60 years old as their slaves, and the children who are 14 or 15 all have to work as well. They said that they are building the road for development and strength. They say that the aim of building the road is for civilian use, but it is not useful for civilians. It will only benefit their own people." - "Pu Taw Lah" (M, 68), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #27, 7/99)

"They are building a car road up from Shwegyin and Ko Sghaw. They started to build it in Shwegyin, and it comes up from there. They started it months ago, when the rain had finished. Right now the road already reaches Ko Sghaw, and they will continue it to Meh Way. The Burmese said themselves that they would, so it might be true. They said they would do it quickly because their trucks must be able to use it within 2 months. So far they've used bulldozers but they've also forced civilians to work on it. They were only using two bulldozers. They can now use the road in the dry season, but they have no hope of using it in the rainy season." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

None of the roads in the area are all-weather roads and must be repaired after every rainy season, usually by civilian labour. To repair the road from Papun to Ka Ma Maung, the villagers have been ordered to dig pits to get stones which they must then use to fill the potholes. Each village along the road has been given a stretch of the road which it must repair. The villagers have also been ordered to dig drainage ditches along the side of the road and to fence its entire 100-kilometre length on both sides. The Na Than Gwin-Mone car road must also be repaired after every rainy season. In 2000 parts of it were destroyed when the Sittaung River flooded. Villagers had to dig dirt and carry it by bullock cart to rebuild the areas which were washed away. During work on the road when it was first built in 1999, a villager estimated that at least 10,000 villagers had been assembled to work on sections of the road to get it finished within a week. The villagers were told by soldiers who walked around with sticks that they didn't care about anything as long as the road was finished on time. The roads which the villagers spend so much time and energy working on are almost exclusively used by the Army and the DKBA.

A villager from Dweh Loh township told KHRG that at one point when he was working on the Ka Ma Maung-Papun road the soldiers guarding them ordered the villagers to move back a fair distance from the road. The soldiers then took the villagers' machetes and mattocks and began working on the road while other soldiers took photographs. After taking the photos, the soldiers stopped working and took up their places again while the villagers went back to work. Villagers from other regions have reported similar incidents. The SPDC has been trying to claim lately that the Burmese Army is actively helping the villagers and that together they are developing the country. This puts some doubt into the veracity of those claims and any photographic evidence which the SPDC produces to support it.

"All of the villages along the road have to go and work. The villages which have to go include: Tee Law Thay Hta, Tee Theh Lay, Hsa Law Dteh, Wah Tho Klah, Tee Tha Blu Hta, Taw Meh Hta, Bpo Khay, Bpo Leh, Bler Per, Th'Waw Ko Law, Ta Ku Law, Noh Pa Doh, Ma Htaw, Ku Seik, Khaw Klah, and Tha Ma Kyu Law. The other villages also have to work. These are on the main road - it's so hot near the road. Ma Htaw, Ku Seik, Nga Ain Su, Way Mone, Way Sah, Dta Ko Der, then to Papun. In the lower areas, K'Pee Kee, K'Dter Dtee, Noh Paw Tee, Pway Taw Ru, and Noh Lah. From the east, they demand people from Meh Pu Hta, Meh Nyo Hta, Oo Thaw Hta, and Toh Mu. They also have to work and can't take a rest. They have to porter, sentry and everything." - "Saw Shwe" (M, 36) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #191, 5/00)

"They order people to put the little stones in the road [gravel for filling in holes in the road]. When the rains come all the stones are gone [they wash away]. Then they order us to dig again. They order the porters who bring things to dig [for the gravel]. The soldiers will force them until they die." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

"They force us to dig rocks. Four and a half holes by each family. The holes are ten feet wide around and one foot deep. No one can not give rocks to them. They are waiting and watching at the end of the month [to see who has fulfilled their quota]. For one hole it takes two men working for three days. We have to show the soldiers when they come to see. The problems we have are that it is difficult to get rocks and we have to break the rocks. We just burn and work like that. Everybody is working like that. … They said they will try to finish the car road during the hot season [March-May 2001] so they ordered the villagers in L— to give them rocks this month [December 2000]. I don't know about the other villages. The villagers said that they can make a car road but just a few people can use it. The road belongs to the Army camp. It doesn't belong to us." - "Mya Sein" (M, 21), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #209, 12/00)

A: They have ordered that a lot lately. The villagers can't rest. They force the villagers to pick stones [to fill holes], cut the brush along the road and to dig ditches beside the car road. … When they force us to work in the daytime, the soldiers go along the road. If they see people taking a rest, they say, 'Hey, Maung Kyaw [uncle], work quickly. What are you doing?' It is like this every time. We start working in the morning and take a rest at 12 p.m. for one hour and come back home to eat. [Infantry Battalion] #38 does this." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

"It is a car road. The people start [cutting] in one place and where they stop another village starts again [each village has a set stretch of the road which they must clear]. People who stay in one place have to clear that place and the villagers who stay in another place have to clear that place. … The enemy will repair the road and they demand that the people carry stones. They [the villagers] lay the stones on the road. One house has to carry stones from three holes. We got the information that the soldiers demanded three holes from each village. The hole must be 10 feet around and 3 feet deep and the villagers must dig three. The soldiers said they would give a prize but the villagers haven't seen a prize. They didn't give a prize. Lately the soldiers have started to demand this from every village. It was last January [2001] that they began demanding this. … Almost all the villages must go. Starting from Papun they are the villages along the road; Papun Meh T'Ru, Ta Gone Tine, Way Maw, Way San and Ku Seik until the road ends. On the mountain side of the road the villagers also have to work. They are Noh Law Hsu, Tee Ber Ka Hta, Day Law Pu, Klaw Day, T'Rih Per Koh, and Baw Hta. They ordered the villagers to carry stones. The villagers must carry the stone and fill the holes to repair the road. Lately we haven't received any news, but we think they must still be building it. The soldiers said that the villagers should build it. At the moment I think that they can't build it because the situation is that the people can't get enough stone." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"We stay close to the [Na Than Gwin-Mone] car road now. Before we stayed very far from the car road, but then they ordered us to move to the west side of the car road. We had to rebuild that road last year in 1999, and we had to finish the whole road within a week. We had to work in the hot season, and both humans and animals were sick and suffering. People had to work with bullock carts to dig up and carry the dirt. We divided into groups to work on different parts because they forced us to finish it in a week. We were afraid, so we worked both day and night to finish it and we were very exhausted because it is a very big car road. … The village headman told us that if all of us didn't work on it together we would be late [for the one-week deadline], and this time we couldn't be late. So every family that had people who could work had to all go and work together. The Burmese wanted only the mother of each family to stay home to cook and look after the small children. If a family had 3 or 4 people, then 2 or 3 people went. Every villager who could work had to go, and a lot of people got sick because it was very cold at night and very hot during the day. They divided the road into sections for each village to finish within the same week. They didn't pay us, and we had to take our own food, cookpots and baskets. We had to sleep there among the bushes. They guarded us sometimes, but they knew that our Karen people [KNLA] couldn't come to help us, so they did whatever they liked and only guarded us when they felt like it. There must have been ten thousand villagers there, and only 2 or 3 of them to guard us. We didn't dare go near them. In the daytime they went around with a stick and were very fierce to us. They said they didn't care about anything as long as the road was finished on time." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 43), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #8, 2/00)

"Then just one or two days ago they started forcing us to cut and clear along the road and to fix any parts of the road that aren't good. Wherever there were potholes, we had to dig earth and fill the hole with stones and dirt. They didn't give us anything, it is just free labour. After we'd finished the work, they came in trucks and said they would take photos of the workers. Then the soldiers who were there standing sentry came and told the villagers to go a fair distance away, and they took our machetes and mattocks and cut the scrub while the others took photos. It was as if it were them working on the road. They forced us to go well out of the way, so it would look like it wasn't villagers who were doing the work. … Then after taking the photos they stopped doing it, and the villagers had to come back and take their places and continue working." - "Saw K'Paw Sghee" (M, 40+), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #166, 6/99)

Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion

Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion xxxx Town

Column #x Headquarters Letter No: xxx / 2000 / Oo x

Date: Year 2000, November 2^nd

To:

Chairperson

xxxx village

Subject: To quickly repair the car road

Regarding the above matter, the Elders from each Village Tract have to take responsibility to eliminate potholes along part of the vehicle road. [You] Must carry stones from the (left/right) sides of the road and fill them, and there must be no water [puddles] left on the road. [You] Must carry this out and finish tomorrow evening, you are informed.

[Sd.]

(for) Battalion Commander

Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion

Translation of a typed and carbon copied order sent to villages in Nyaunglebin District with the name of the village written in by hand.

Villages are also forced to build fences along both sides of roads used by the Army, and receive regular orders to cut and clear all scrub within 20 to 100 metres of both sides of the roads. This is to make it difficult for resistance forces to cross the road or landmine it, and also to provide a clear field of fire in case the SPDC convoys are ambushed. Each village along the roads is given a section of the road which they must clear and fence. The villages along the Papun-Ka Ma Maung car road are required to send people to cut the bush away from the sides of the road to a distance of 20 to 30 metres (50 to 100 feet) on both sides. The villages along the lesser-used Bilin-Papun road are also required to cut the brush along that road. Villagers must bring their own tools and food and are sometimes forced to sleep one or two nights at the work site if their village is far from the road. If the work is not to the satisfaction of the soldiers, the villagers are accused of helping the KNU and are forced to cut it again. In some areas one or more of the SPDC, KNLA and DKBA have planted landmines on or around the roads, and some villagers have been wounded or killed by these while doing forced labour.

"I have to arrange people in eight groups, each group responsible for one furlong [200 metres / 220 yards] of road. The SPDC soldiers guard them as they work. Each furlong must be swept, the area around the road must be cut and weeded and the stones must be picked up. They don't give us payment for this work and we have to carry our own rice. If we don't take our own rations we have to suffer from hunger and thirst. If we come back to get more rice, they [SPDC] take action as if we were keeping contact with Kaw Thoo Lei. That is why we can't do it. One village head has to go to them every day and take care of them and send food. The road goes from Ka Ma Maung to Papun. The SPDC use it to send rations, so they force the villagers to provide security." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"Villagers also had to cut and clear [foliage] to make a car road. The car road comes from Bilin and each village has to cut one 'der' [mile] of road." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00); talking about work along the Bilin-Papun car road.

"They have to sleep there for one night and the next morning they have to go and cut it again. We used to cut the brush away from the road for 50 feet, but now we have to cut 100 feet. We have to cut it well. If we don't cut it well, we have to cut it twice. That is why I told the villagers, 'Go. We can't do anything. Cut it well or later you will have to go again. You have work in your fields to do now, so if you have to go two times, you won't be able to do your own work.' … They give nothing to the villagers. We have to take our own knives and axes and even food. They don't give us anything."- "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

We Have to Go Because We are Afraid of Them

"They force us to go and cut the scrub along the road and then build a fence of bamboo and install it along the main road. They wanted both sides fenced - the east and the west sides. They think that the Kaw Thoo Lei [slang for the KNLA] can't come and make trouble like planting landmines if there is a fence. That is why they force us to fence it for them. Only the men were going, but sometimes they were not enough so the women had to go too. Some women went who had small children. They sometimes even asked their daughters to go and work. Then after our shift, we change. We have to go because we are afraid of them. They have weapons. We have to go whether we are free to go or not. That is why they call it 'loh ah pay' - we always have to go for free. We have to go even if we aren't able to do our own work because of it. We have to work more on their jobs than ours. … They don't give us the tools. We have to bring our own things. If we need a knife or a mattock, we have to provide them ourselves. They don't give food to us either. We have to bring our own food. We carried sesame oil cakes and rice for three days. We had to sleep there for three days. There were no good places to sleep. We slept at the side of the main road, on the ground. … They come to patrol and check up on us sometimes at night. They force us to fence the road and if there are any problems they will ask the villagers to pay for it. Moreover, they will accuse us of being spies of the KNU. That is why we don't have an easy life. That is why we survive as we can, in fear."

[- "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)]

"We had to be afraid because when we worked and cleared the car road, sometimes we dared not do it too quickly. We had to work slowly. There are landmines and we are frightened. Some people didn't know about this and they stepped on landmines and lost hands or legs. So some people dare not go and they pay money. If it is really 'loh ah pay', they demand 500 Kyat per day." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

The most dangerous work on the road involves sweeping it for landmines before Army convoys come up with the rations for the soldiers. Villagers are ordered to literally sweep the roads to uncover any mines which may have been laid on them. The villagers are also at risk of stepping on one of these mines. Another method the SPDC uses is to demand bullock carts and force the villagers to load them up with cut wood or a log and then drive them up and down the road multiple times. The idea is that if there is a landmine, the weight of the bullock cart will set it off, possibly killing both the bullocks and the driver. One villager told KHRG that he had heard of villagers being required to pull the cart themselves. This is supposed to accomplish two purposes: clearing the road of mines, and 'punishing' the villagers for allowing the KNLA to operate in their area. The villagers are ordered to do this whenever an Army supply convoy is due to come up the road.

"The SPDC demanded a bullock cart when they were sending rations by truck. They asked for one bullock cart each from P—, T— and K— villages. These carts had to go to T— [the SPDC Army camp], get loaded up with cut wood and then were driven along the car road. If a landmine exploded, it would damage the bullock cart rather than one of their trucks." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"In the morning we had to put a log on a bullock cart and drive the bullock cart up and down the car road 10 times. I heard that they forced the humans to pull the bullock cart, but not here. After that we had to sweep the road [to better see if any mines had been placed in the road]. If one tree leaf fell down, we had to pick it up. We had to sweep every morning and every evening." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"When they were going to come up [with a supply convoy], they demanded that we go to sweep and guard the road. Both men and women had to go for that. … We had to go and sleep there for 3 days, and after that other people replaced us. They ordered us to sweep the road before the trucks came." - "Saw Doh" (M, 30), refugee from K--- village, Bu Tho township (Interview #218, 4/00)

To: Stamp:

xxxx village #xx Infantry Battalion

Chairperson #x Company Date: 17-2-2001

Subject: The Strategic Operations Command Commander demands people to cut the

bushes on the left/right sides of the road.

Chairperson, lead 50 people, each with their machetes, and come to report information to the 29 Miles / 6 Furlongs place [on the road] at 12 o'clock and 30 minutes in the afternoon [12:30 p.m.]. You are informed.

[Sd.] aaaa

Strategic Operations Command Group

"The villagers have to always stand sentry. They can't come back. They had to stand sentry when the trucks came up, for a month. There are 16 houses in my village including the widows and orphans. From these 16 houses the Burmese forced me to put sentries in eight huts along the road. Two people have to be sentries in each hut and 8 times 2 is 16 people. I didn't have any villagers to rotate with, all the people had to go. If they wanted to come back and visit, they had to rotate with people from their own house." - "Naw Say Paw" (F, 46), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #195, 6/00)

The roads are very important to the SPDC, both as arteries for the supply of its military units and as barriers to both the movement of villagers and the KNLA. To protect the roads and also to detect villagers or the KNLA trying to cross them, the SPDC has forced villages near the roads to build huts along the roads and to post villagers as sentries in those huts day and night. On the Ka Ma Maung-Papun car road for example, huts have been built every few hundred metres along its length. The villagers who stand sentry have to bring their own rice, knives and anything else they might need. Each of the huts has a hollow piece of bamboo which the sentries must knock at certain times to sound the 'all clear' or to sound an alarm. Soldiers occasionally patrol the road and if they catch any of the sentries asleep or do not hear the knocking of the bamboo at the specified time, the villagers are fined in money or chicken. However, the main punishments occur if anything happens along the road. Villages are fined as much as 500,000 Kyat if gunfire occurs near the road or if a vehicle is damaged or destroyed by a landmine or ambush on the road. Officers often threaten to burn and relocate villages or kill villagers if anything happens along their stretch of the road. Even reporting everything they see does not save the villagers, because if anything happens they are still automatically charged with facilitating it. One village headwoman interviewed by KHRG said that she had been told that if the KNLA came, her villagers should attack them with their machetes. Responding to this ludicrous idea, she told the soldiers that if she or her villagers saw the KNLA they would run, because the KNLA has guns.

"They demand us to work as sentries all the time but we don't always go. We pretend that we never heard the order. Once while the villagers were watching the road, the people [KNLA] fired one shot at the Burmese soldiers. They [SPDC] said it was because the villagers were working on the road and providing intelligence [to the KNLA]. On the night that this occurred, the SPDC soldiers interrogated and hurt one person with a knife. It was P— from B—. He is over 40 years old and married. He was very afraid and won't dare to go again. They beat him on his back. Some people who are working as sentries get sick with fever and headaches but they continue until their number of days is done. After that they come back and switch with others. But all the villagers have been sick." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

"They threatened us about our sentry work saying, "If the Kaw Thoo Lei people [KNU/KNLA] come and plant a landmine when you come to stand sentry along the road, you must tell me. Don't sleep when you stand sentry at night. If you sleep and the people come to plant landmines, and a landmine explodes, I will kill you." We have to sweep the road. Sometimes we wake up at 4 a.m. and have to sweep the road." - "Pi San Nweh" (F, 53), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #193, 6/00)

They also fine the villages 500,000 Kyat if there is gunfire on the road or if a landmine explodes and a car is damaged. All the villages which are close to the road are fined like this - we can't stay without paying them. A long time ago we had to pay when the KNU destroyed one of their [SPDC] cars. They blame any problems on the villagers who are posted in the sentry huts. The villagers guard the road in the night time - one hut per furlong [200 m / 220 yd]. Each sentry hut has one piece of hollow bamboo. If the sound from the bamboo is heard from Taung Thon Lon [the SPDC army camp], it is sounded by all the sentries along the road. The sentries cannot sleep. Two or three SPDC soldiers travel along the road and if they catch any villagers sleeping, they fine them money or chicken - one viss of chicken, worth 800 Kyat, per person." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

Stamp: 5-1-2001

Frontline #x Infantry Battalion

Column #x

To:

Chairperson

xxxx (yyyy Village)

Subject: Calling for 3 sentry huts and 6 adult people from yyyy village

Regarding the above subject matter, build 3 sentry huts on the left and right sides of the vehicle road. Then 2 people for each sentry hut, 6 people [altogether], must bring along rice and cookpots and stand sentry. The 6 people for the 3 sentry huts are to bring along clothing, blankets, and mosquito nets and come to arrive tomorrow on the 6^th at (0900) hours, you are informed.

[Sd.]

(for) Column Commander

Frontline IB #x

Translation of an order for road sentries sent to a village in Papun District in January 2001.

"They [the soldiers] said the Nga Pway ['Ringworms'; derogatory slang used by the SPDC to refer to the KNU and KNLA] would come to spy and shoot at them and to plant landmines, so they force us to do sentry duty. They don't give us any guns, there is nothing with us. We have to bring our own rice and machetes. They said that if the Nga Pway come that we should cut them with our machetes. Do we dare to cut them? I told the soldiers that if I saw the people [the KNLA] come, I would run and follow the other villagers. I wouldn't cut them with a machete. I dare not cut them. They [the KNLA] have guns. We have machetes. We dare not cut them." - "Naw Say Paw" (F, 46), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #195, 6/00)

"What did they ask us to do?! They forced us to cut, dig, clean, guard, and fence the car road. And if they had loads to carry they forced us to carry them, and ordered us to do everything for them. We had to work on the car road. We had to cut bamboo and trees for them, and they ordered us to get leaves for their roofs. They demanded small trees for making their fences also. We could give them some, but we didn't have leaves so we had to buy them for them. And if we couldn't buy leaves they demanded money from us instead. For 100 [shingles of] leaves they demanded 1,000 Kyat. They made the roofs of their bunkers, offices, and maybe some [of the money] was sent to their families who live in town. Because I saw a lot of leaves kept in their office and underneath when a village head asked me to go [to their camp] with him, and we thought 'What are they going to do with those?'" - "Naw K'Paw" (F, 45), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #184, 4/00)

Village heads receive demands from the Army camps for the villagers to perform various types of forced labour at the Army camps. The villagers are ordered to repair the roofs of barracks, build new barracks, dig wells and cut the brush around the camp. All of the wood and bamboo used for the construction of Army barracks, bunkers and fences is cut for the soldiers by the villagers. The defensive works of the camps are also sometimes built by the villagers. Villagers have told KHRG about digging trenches and bunkers as well as fencing the camps and filling pits they have dug with punji stakes they were ordered to cut. One villager told KHRG how a person was injured while doing this work when he stepped on a landmine which the soldiers said they had already cleared. No compensation was given and the village head ended up having to take up a collection around the village to pay for the man's medicine. Villagers are also ordered to do more menial tasks such as collecting firewood, fetching water and doing the soldiers' laundry.

"We have to do things near our village at a place called Y— camp. We have to do 'loh ah pay', build their camp and fence their camp. Sometimes we have to dig trenches for them. After that they demand thatch and bamboo. Sometimes they call work 'loh ah pay' and they tell us to go and dig trenches near the airport in Papun. They do agriculture there, sugar cane plantations. We have to go and bring our own food with us. They limit the shifts to one week for each one of us. But when we don't have time to go then we have to hire someone to go for us. This costs 500 Kyat per day." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

"They never gave payment for this work. They force us to do 'loh ah pay' when they need it. They are always looking for new work for us, things to repair. Do they need the roof of the hut repaired, or the well? If they do, they write a letter and order us to work. If they need thatch they demand thatch. If they need wood, we have to go and cut wood or bamboo. When they order it, we have to go and do it." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"In the year 2000, the people went to work as messengers and cut around the Y— camp and one person was injured. He was hurt by a landmine. They [SPDC] said that they had already cleared that area and there would be no problems. Then the villagers were afraid of the soldiers and went to cut [the brush around the camp]. One villager went and stepped on a landmine. Even now, the conditions of his family are not going smoothly. His name is Pa T—. He has a wife and children. When the landmine exploded, he was injured around his leg but it was not too bad. It became swollen. The area between his sole and his ankle swelled up and he couldn't work. … When that villager got injured, the village heads looked at him and pitied him because he was going to work as a messenger and it was for the benefit of the people. When he got injured the people in the village sent him to the hospital. When he went there, the SPDC said they didn't have enough medicine. So he had to buy it. He also had to buy food and everything else. He was injured and couldn't do anything. It was a problem for him. The village head took pity on him. He [the injured villager] was working for the people so the village head collected money from the villagers and went to pay for the medical fees and other things that he needed. There was nothing from the enemy [SPDC]." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

Men, women, the elderly and children all go for this work. The work is usually easier than portering so many times the women and children do this work instead of the portering. It also allows the men time to work in their fields. The labour is performed in rotating shifts varying from one to ten days. Villagers are sometimes required to sleep at the camps during this period, and are not allowed to return home until their replacements arrive for the next shift. The number of villagers who go at any one time depends on the number requested and on the size of the village. The villagers must bring their own tools. Food is not provided so the villagers must bring their own. There is never any payment for the work.

"We don't have time to work because they are forcing us to go and do 'loh ah pay' and 'set tha'. The SPDC enters our village very often and demands ten or more people [each time]. We have only 40 or 50 villagers. Two or three of their units are demanding people from us and we can't do it [each unit demands about ten people so 20 to 30 or more people must go out of the 40 or 50 households]. Sometimes 10 people have to go for 'loh ah pay' and sometimes more than 10 people. For 'set tha' one person has to go each day, every day. If we don't go they will make a problem for us." - "Saw Pah Baw" (M, 32), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #201, 6/00)

Date: 22-2-2001

[To:] xxxx Village

VPDC U aaaa

Subject: The matter of sending loh ah pay

Regarding the above subject, in accordance with the directive of the Frontline #xxx Sa Ka Ka Mu [Military Operations Commander], to repair xxxx [Army] Camp, the Elder's village is to deliver and hand over one loh ah pay person to xxxx Army Camp today at 2 o'clock. Do not fail. If [you] fail, it will be the Elder's responsibility.

With food for 5 days.

[Sd.]

Stamp: Village Head

xxxx Village (x)

xxxx Village Tract

Kyauk Kyi Township

Translation of an order sent to a village in Nyaunglebin District by the Village Tract authorities.

"They always demand 'loh ah pay' and porters. For 'loh ah pay' the villagers have to go at least three times a month. Every village. Many people have to go from the big villages and fewer people go from the smaller villages. For Kwih T'Ma they sometimes demand up to 50 people, male and female, for 'loh ah pay'. From other villages 25 to 30 people have to go. They demand it at least three times a month." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"Once each day. Every day. The whole village. Other [villages] had to go also, but N— had to work for 'loh ah pay' the most. It was mostly women and children. A few men were involved, but the men were busy [working on the family fields]. The eldest people were about 50 or 60 years old. Children were involved too, around 12 years old." - "Naw Hser Mo" (F, 35), refugee from N— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #183, 4/00)

"They didn't give us money, they just set a deadline like "you have to finish it within two days". If we could finish within the deadline, we could go back and work on our fields. But if we couldn't finish, they called us again to finish it. Sometimes they demand 50 or 60 people but we only have 35 houses, so how can we find 50 or 60 people?" - "Saw Doh" (M, 30), refugee from K— village, Bu Tho township (Interview #218, 4/00)

Set tha or 'messengers' are used as runners to take the orders written by SPDC officers and NCO's to the various villages in the area. They also perform menial jobs around the camps when there are no letters to send. Most villages have to send two or three people each day for set tha, or on a rotating schedule every two or three days. Another form of work is called 'htain chaw' or 'sitting porters'. Villagers also go to do this on a rotating schedule. They must remain at the camps on standby to go with the soldiers immediately whenever they are needed. While they are on standby they are also tasked with finding firewood, fetching water and cooking for the soldiers. Sometimes they do not have to go portering, but just perform labour around the Army camps.

"They tell us to do many kinds. Each day, they demand two 'set tha' ['messengers'] from the large villages and one 'set tha' from the small ones. The 'set tha' have to go for three or five days. They demand them from Tee Law Thay Hta, Noh Ghaw, Baw Tho Hta, Pway Taw Ru, K'Pee Kee, Wah Thoh Klah, Hsaw Law Day, Tee Tha Blu Hta, Bpoh Leh, Bpoh Khay and Bler Per." - "Saw Hla Dah" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #207, 9/00)

"The people who the soldiers don't order to go to the frontline [they stay behind at the camp] are forced to fetch water and cook rice. They also can't take a rest." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

Stamp: 30-3-2001

Peace and Development Council To:

Papun Township (aaaa)

xxxx Village

Informing [you] that now [I] have already met with Major bbbb about the matter of servants. [You] Must give, so I am dividing the duty among the villages. [I] Will allocate duty quotas to Elder Sister's xxxx village, yyyy [village], zzzz [village] and wwww [village], totalling 4 villages for one month of 30 days.

(1) xxxx [village] 6 days From 2-4-2001 to 8-4-2001 year

(2) yyyy 9 days From 8-4-2001 to 17-4-2001 year

(3) zzzz 9 days From 17-4-2001 to 26-4-2001 year

(4) wwww 6 days From 26-4-2001 to 2-5-2001 year

For these days, you can hire people if you want / if the people want to go, go. When your dates are finished, contact yyyy [village] and arrange to rotate.

[Sd.] cccc

U cccc

Chairperson

yyyy Village Tract

Stamp: Chairperson

Village Peace and Development Council

yyyy Village/ Pa Pun Township

Translation of an order setting out the schedule of rotating forced labour workers in a village tract in Papun District. In this case the villagers are given the option of hiring other people to go in their place.

"They demand Htain Chaw ['sitting porters'; villagers to stay at the camp for use whenever required] and send them for duty at K— camp. It is about a 7 or 8 mile walk, but I am just estimating, because there are the mountains. … They demand one porter each time. Each porter has to take the duty for 15 days. The people who don't go have to pay 1,500 Kyat for 15 days. … They have to cut bamboo and wood, and to porter. When the soldiers go for sentry duty [on patrol], they have to porter. And when the soldiers aren't out on sentry duty, they have to cook rice, and cut bamboo and wood." - "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

"The other way they force us to work is by demanding logs from us, so our villagers have to go and cut down trees for them. Then people who have bullock carts have to carry the logs to their [the SPDC's] sawmill. After they saw the wood into planks, they take it away on trucks, so we don't know if they sell it or what they do with it. They don't give us any money for it, we just have to work for them for free. They sent a letter saying they would use it to build a school, but they didn't build a school with the wood we gave them. I think they sold it." - "Saw K'Paw Sghee" (M, 40+), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #166, 6/99)

SPDC Army officers often set up profit-making projects for their own benefit, and use local villagers and their own soldiers as free labour on these projects. Projects in the frontline areas always use nearby villagers as the main source of labour. Some soldiers are kept at the camps to guard and oversee the villagers who work on the projects. Many units have farms where they grow rice and vegetables with which to supplement the diet of the soldiers and their families. The land used for the farms is seized from the villagers and often includes the best land in the village. The villagers are forced to plough, plant, tend the crops and harvest them, and sometimes even to provide the seed. Some of the produce is used to feed the soldiers, but much of it is actually sold for a profit by the officers. At Ka Dtaing Dtee south of Papun the villagers had to plant, water and harvest beans for the soldiers. When some of the beans died before harvesting, the villagers had to compensate the soldiers by giving some of their own beans. Some of the agriculture projects are not very well thought out; a villager from Dweh Loh township described to KHRG how in his village they were forced to dig a well that wouldn't fill with water, but they had to keep digging until it did. They were then forced to plant vegetables deep in the jungle where the soil was poor. When the plants failed to grow, the villagers had to pay for them. In Way Maw village in Bu Tho township, the SPDC confiscated three of the villagers' fields at ploughing time. The villagers were forced to sign their names to a transfer deed handing over their land, and then pay the soldiers 25 Kyat for the processing cost. The fields may be used to supplement the soldiers' diet but more likely the produce will be sold by the officers for a profit. Burmese law previously introduced by dictator Ne Win specifies that all land belongs to the State, and the Army officers often make vague reference to this when arbitrarily seizing villagers' land for their own benefit. The Army also has betelnut, coconut, tea and rubber plantations. The villagers have to provide the saplings and plant the crops for the soldiers. These are all cash crops, so the produce will likely be sold by the officers for their own personal profit. Although the private soldiers oversee much of the work, they never receive any of the profits from it.

"Last dry season they did some farming. The villagers had to go and dig a well. It wouldn't fill with water but we had to dig it until it filled. They forced us to plant things deep in the jungle where the soil is not good for agriculture. We had to do that and use our time. We also had to give them bean seeds and other seeds. When the plants didn't grow, we had to make up for it. We had to give them money. It was not only my village. N— and many other villages also had to do this. We had to give them one box of seed and right now a box of round bean seeds is 1,000 or 2,000 Kyat." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"In the rainy season the people had to plough their fields, but the SPDC told them that they were also going to do it. The SPDC confiscated all the fields from the villagers who stayed near that area. They didn't ask for the fields from the owners. [The SPDC said] All the places belong to them. They owners dared not and could not say anything. The Burmese said, 'I will take this field. Do you agree?' We can't say that we do not agree so the villagers agreed. When the villagers agreed they had to sign their names and pay 25 Kyat. They took three flat fields that way. It was at Way Maw. They did this in other places to but we do not have the exact information. The fields belonged to different people in the same village. … The Burmese demand seed from the villagers. The villagers have to give the seed and sow it; [for example] 50 betelnut trees and 50 rubber trees. They grow betelnut trees, coconut trees and tea bushes. The enemy demands those trees. The villagers go and send the trees and have to plant them." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

Translation of an order demanding coconut tree seedlings for an Army plantation in Papun District.

SPDC officers have also been logging the forests in Papun District, using the Ka Ma Maung-Papun road to send the cut wood and timber down to Pa'an to sell it. The villagers are forced to fell the trees and then pull the logs to the sawmills using their elephants or bullock carts. Privately owned sawmills in the area are then forced to process the wood for free or at the expense of local villagers. The soldiers sometimes promise to pay for it but the money usually never arrives. The villagers in the Ka Dtaing Dtee-Noh Paw Tee area have said that they have had to go and cut down teak and ironwood trees for the SPDC. SPDC deserters have told KHRG that they have never seen the villagers paid for this work. The orders given to the villages usually specify that the wood is for their camp, but when the trucks come up from Ka Ma Maung in the dry season with the rations, the wood is carried back down on them. Bamboo is also cut and sold in the same way.

"I saw them transport wood - teak and ironwood. They get it from T— forest. It is about three furlongs from K— and five furlongs from T— and B—. They do the logging during the whole dry and rainy seasons. The villagers have to go and cut, clear and weed the road for them. Sometimes they force us to go and saw the logs or pull the logs for them." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"We have to cut 30 or 40 trees each time and the width of the trees must be over 3 hta [handspans; 69 cm / 2 feet 3 inches]. Sometimes they use them for their camp buildings. Sometimes they force us and say it is for their camp, but in the dry season, when they have a truck, they carried the trees down to the plains [to sell]. Bamboo is the same. Even now, they force us to go and cut bamboo. When we went they said it was for their camp, but the next morning when we went to see them, the truck had already gone down and we couldn't see any logs or bamboo." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

"I have seen that they are working with the Ko Per Baw [the DKBA]. They are carrying logs and taking rations to the soldiers. They are carrying teak. They used to take ironwood, but now there isn't much ironwood near the road [it has all been cut down]. There is a lot of teak so they cut the teak. There was only a little bit of ironwood, so it took them only one or two days and then it was gone. … Sometimes they cut it down themselves and sometimes they force the villagers to do it. My villagers haven't gone to cut the trees, but I heard they give payment. I heard from some people from P— who said that they would get payment, but we haven't seen any Kyat yet. It is like they are forcing us for free. I also had to go carry their logs one time. We had to go and carry them by bullock cart. My villagers went to carry it. The soldiers said they would give payment, but when my villagers finished carrying it they received nothing. … They will sell them in Pa'an. In the past they brought a machine [a type of tractor] and used it to carry logs. Now I don't see the sawmills anymore. I have heard people say sometimes that they are still doing the logging, but I don't go very often. The people who went [to the logging area] said they still carry the logs sometimes." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"While I was portering for them they ordered us to cut down teak trees, then they sold them in town. We had to pull the trees like elephants. The SPDC Army forced us to work like slaves and animals, and if we complained to them they abused, scolded, and threatened to shoot or torture us." - "Saw Maw Lah" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #173, 9/99)

"When P— [a DKBA officer] came to stay here, they forced the villagers. They ordered them to help. The people had to go and carry for them. After they carried they had to come back. They never gave payment." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

The DKBA presence is somewhat limited in the area, but they also demand labour from the villagers near their camps. Villagers have reported making charcoal, cutting trees and bamboo and building a pagoda for the DKBA. In Kyauk Kyi township of Nyaunglebin District, the villagers are forced to use their bullock carts to transport bricks and sand for the DKBA to Klaw Maw where they are constructing a pagoda with civilian labour. The DKBA claims that the villagers do projects like this willingly because it is for their Buddhist religion, however Christians are also forced to work on the project, and Buddhists interviewed by KHRG did not feel they were doing it willingly. Loh ah pay work for the DKBA near Klaw Maw pagoda in Kyauk Kyi township is unpaid and the villagers must bring their own rice. Five or six villagers are usually requested to work twice a month for three days at a time. Villagers who don't work are threatened and scolded by the DKBA. Villagers have also been used by the DKBA in this area to porter shells and other supplies to the frontline. The DKBA demands 'porter fees' from villages wanting to avoid portering. A villager from Kyauk Kyi township told KHRG that he never saw them use the money to hire anyone, implying that it goes into their pockets.

"The DKBA are forcing us to make charcoal. The villagers who stay close to them also must use their bullock carts to help them [to haul wood for charcoal]. They are making the charcoal for themselves, but they are forcing the villagers to do it. The villagers go to cut the firewood and bring it back to put in a big firepit. There are about 10 firepits. The villagers have to do it for 4 or 5 days at a time. Sometimes 4 or 5 villagers go, and sometimes 7 or 8 villagers go to do it for them. They don't limit the time the villagers have to go. Sometimes 4 or 5 villagers go for 2 or 3 days, then sometimes 5 days at a time, sometimes they continue forcing them to do it, there is no limit to the time. They force men and women to go. Sometimes they scold us, but when I stayed there, they didn't beat us and cause pain. … They have a camp there; it is their main camp. It is about 3 miles from K—. They force the villagers to do 'loh ah pay' there whenever they need them. Sometimes they call 2 times a month. Each time they call 5 or 6 villagers to go for 3 days at a time. They have to go and sleep there, and they also have to take their own food. They forced us to carry bricks and sand, and sometimes to make firewood. We carried bricks to make a pagoda at Klaw Maw. They have finished making the body of the pagoda, but they are still working on the base. … They force us to do work at their camp and they call it Htain Chaw ['sitting porters']. It means to go and cook rice for them. In addition, when they are going to the frontline, they force us to carry shells. The villagers have to go by rotation. Each villager has to go for one day and night. If villagers don't go, they have to pay 300 Kyat for one day and night to the DKBA. I don't know what they do with this money, maybe they spend it. I have never seen them use it to hire another person." - "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

The DKBA has a much larger presence in Papun District and the variety and amount of labour demanded is correspondingly greater. Villagers are ordered to act as porters, perform labour around the DKBA camps, build houses for DKBA soldiers and their families and cut wood and bamboo. The DKBA is also involved in forcing the villagers to work on the stretches of the roads under their control in the same way as the SPDC. Treatment of workers by the DKBA varies, with some commanders treating the villagers well while others have been reported by the villagers as being worse than the SPDC. One villager told KHRG that the DKBA bought the villagers snacks, milk and sugar after forcing them to carry supplies to Kaw Boke. Villagers are also used on the DKBA's profit making projects. Villagers in eastern Dweh Loh township are forced to cut down and process trees for the DKBA, which are then taken down the road and sold in Khaw Taw (Myaing Gyi Ngu) or Pa'an. A villager told KHRG that the wood was sold to pay off debts which the DKBA members had incurred with each other through gambling and drinking. Another villager said that the DKBA was forcing people to work for them on the orders of the Burmese. This is true in some instances, such as road clearance, but much of the work probably originates with the DKBA. One villager from the Baw Kyo Leh area noted that he had had to work more for the DKBA than the SPDC.

Stamp:

Peace and Development Council

xxxx Village Tract

To:

Village Head

xxxx village Date: 3-2-2001

Subject: The matter of calling for loh ah pay

Regarding the above subject, for the use of the DKBA from xxxx send without fail (without fail) five male loh ah pay servants to the DKBA office on 4-2-2001 to arrive at 6 o'clock in the morning, you are informed.

Note:

If you fail it is the responsibility of the village head.

[Sd.]

Stamp:

(for) Chairperson

Village Peace and Development Council

xxxx Village Tract, Papun Township

Translation of an order sent by a village tract head on behalf of the DKBA to a village in Papun District.

"The Burmese force them [DKBA] to force us. They contact each other. The Ko Per Baw force us to work and we don't even have free time to rest. We have to carry firewood, do 'loh ah pay', build their houses, and cut bamboo. We don't have time to find food. … Pah Loh, Baw Kyo Leh, Taw Thu Klah, Noh Paw Tee, Taw Kloh Kee - the villagers from Meh Baw Kee and Poh Gha also came to work together there. They force all the villages near their camp. They dictate the number of villagers who must come from each village. We have to go regularly. It never stops for us. We even have to work for their wives and children. There are many children in the [DKBA] camp at B—, and we have to work for them. The Burmese force us one step, then they [DKBA] force us one step further." - "Naw Wah Wah" (F, 41), refugee from B— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #182, 4/00)

"The Ko Per Baw fired guns in the village because they were demanding bullock carts, and demanding people to haul trees for them. They traded in logs, but they also have a lot of debts. They have debts from playing cards and drinking too much. They build up these debts to each other, and then they oppress the village to pay for it. If they heard us saying this on the tape, they would slit our throats!" - "Naw May Wah" (F, 40+), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #204, 7/00)

"The Ko Per Baw [DKBA] forced us to clear an area for the car road. Just one or two weeks ago, the villagers had to go and do that. We had to cut and clear a strip about the width of one felled tree from the road, 30 plah [15 metres / 45 feet]. It took one day or sometimes two, but we could come home and sleep at night and then go again in the morning. The road runs from K'Dter Dtee and goes to Papun. They [DKBA] are going to use it to transport rations for themselves. They transport them by bullock cart or truck during the entire dry season. The Ko Per Baw also use the road for logging transport. They get logs from the teak forest at K—. Teak and ironwood. They sell it in Ka Ma Maung [town]. They force us to clear the road and cut teak wood during the whole dry season. We had to wait by the road for them [to act as sentries]. Twelve men from K— had to go in rotation for three days at a time. One time when we went to work with them, there were over ten men from our village and 20 altogether, including P— and K— villagers." - "Saw Eh Ywa" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #187, 5/00)

"For 'set tha' [forced labour as messengers and for ad hoc camp labour] we have to give 4,000 Kyat every month [to avoid the labour]. It's become a problem for the villagers. They can do day labour to get 100 Kyat per day just to buy 8 milk-tins [1.563 kg / 3.4 lb] of rice for themselves, but that's not enough because they can't stay in the village without paying the Burmese. They have to give. … The villagers want to provide a good life for their children, but they can't unless they have paid off the Burmese first. If we don't pay them we can't stay here, they will drive us out. If we have only one Kyat we have to give it to the Burmese, then if we have two Kyat we have to give it all to them too. So we can't earn anything to eat from our work, and we have to go hungry." - "Saw Myo" (M, 44), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #168, 7/99)

Most of the villagers cannot afford to take the time off from their fields to perform all the forced labour that is demanded of them. There is also a very real fear of being abused by the soldiers, falling ill from exhaustion, or being wounded or killed by landmines or firefights. For most forms of forced labour a fee can be paid to get out of having to go. The 'fee' to avoid short-term portering, set tha, or Army camp labour usually amounts to 300 to 500 Kyat per person per day. The officers pretend that this money is to be used to hire replacements, but in reality it is just pocketed while other people who cannot pay are forced to do the labour. Combining all the types of forced labour demanded simultaneously by several Army camps, most village families have to pay anywhere from 1,000 to over 5,000 Kyat per month in 'porter fees' and other forced labour fees. Once the soldiers get used to receiving money instead of workers they expect it, and start demanding people as well as money - resulting in the villagers paying weekly or monthly 'fees' to avoid a particular form of forced labour, while still having to send people to do that labour. Meanwhile, the soldiers get their labour, and also make a lot of money for 'not' getting it.

"They have to pay money. Some people can't go when it is their turn. The Burmese need emergency porters and write an order that you must come and if you don't come how much it will cost each day. They write it themselves. They wrote in their order that if someone doesn't come for a day, they have to pay 500 Kyat. The village head has to bring the money to them. He also has to report how many people didn't come and what their problems were. The soldiers don't hire anyone with that money. They spend it all. When the work isn't finished yet, they continue demanding villagers." - "Saw Maung Sein" (M, 40), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #4, 2/01)

"They dare not go. They have seen the SPDC demand 'loh ah pay' in the past and later they used them as porters. The portering has become longer. The civilians are afraid, so later they hired people with money. There was one event in the past. In 1998 the soldiers demanded porters. The people dared to go because the soldiers called it 'loh ah pay'. Some people thought it was 'loh ah pay' so they asked their children and wives to go ['loh ah pay' usually consists of making fences or doing work around the Army camps rather than the more arduous and dangerous portering]. When the villagers arrived there the SPDC changed it to long-term portering and they had to go. When they got to M— village a battle occurred and one village woman was shot and died. That is why the civilians are afraid and dare not go. They pay money. Really, if they speak with us truly like we have to go for 'loh ah pay' for three days or a month, then the people would go. If they gave us a reason people would go. But they don't tell us the truth. 'Loh ah pay' has become portering for 10 days or a month. Sometimes people have died. That is why the villagers try to find money." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

"If the villagers can't go the soldiers order them to pay money. They demand 500 Kyat for one porter for one day. If it is for three days, the people have to pay 1,500 Kyat. They demand it from everybody. We have to pay. If we don't pay, they come themselves and capture us [to go as porters]. I don't know what they do with the money. They just eat it [a slang term meaning to pocket the money themselves]. Maybe they eat it with their soldiers [share it around to the other soldiers; this does happen but usually only among the officers] or they take it to their families, I don't know. They just take it to their families. When they come to the village they torture the villagers and the villagers have to pay them money. If the villagers don't have money they have to sell their things. The villagers suffer because of them." - "Pa Taw Thu" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #152, 12/00)

"Q: What do they do to people if they can't go?
A: The soldiers fine them. They order the people to pay money. If they demand 500 Kyat, the villagers have to pay and they demand 1,000 Kyat the villagers also have to pay it. They [the soldiers] just use it themselves. They don't report it [to their superiors]. They just work for money." - "Saw Eh Muh" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #154, 12/00)

"We didn't hear that they force the children to work, but if they are capturing porters, they take everyone and then the parents have to pay money for their children to be released. That is what we heard people say. I heard that some people have to pay 4,000 or 5,000, even 10,000 Kyat. The people who cannot pay are forced to porter for long distances. Some who are very young have parents who go to pay for them, but some who are older have no one to pay for them so they have to go." - "Saw Lay Pa" (M, 39), refugee from T— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #66, 1/00)

"Later we heard that when these troops go back home they have a lot of money with them, so I wondered what money is that? It must be the money that we gave them when they demanded money for 'loh ah pay', because where else would they get it? They just keep it." - "Naw Lay Mo" (F, xx), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #117, 7/99)

Instead of giving money to the Army, many villagers try to hire people to go for forced labour in their place, or give it to the village head and he tries to find people to hire. In villages in or near the plains this is often possible because there are impoverished itinerant labourers passing through who are willing to hire themselves out for this type of work. Some have made almost a profession of it, and are quite adept at dealing with the soldiers and paying them off to avoid physical abuse and lighten their loads during the labour. In the remoter hill villages it is much harder to find anyone, but the poorest villagers may be willing. Smaller villages often send the required money to the village tract or township seat, where it can be used to hire people to fill their quota. In many cases the Army sends its demands for people to the township or village tract, which then divides the number of people required between the villages under it, usually based on village size. Many village tracts and townships have developed a system of hiring people to fill the demands they receive from the Army, then billing the villages in money for their allotted quota of people. Before long, the villages cannot keep up the payments and fall behind, and when the Army puts pressure on the village tract leaders they have little option but to point out the 'delinquent' villages, which are then stormed by the troops to gather forced labourers or forced to relocate.

"The villagers have to find people and hire them themselves. In the past through 1999 we could pay the soldiers money. This year we can't pay them money. We pay the other villagers. Some villagers have had to go many times because other villagers are sick and so to help each other they find and pay each other to go. It is 500 Kyat for one day. Usually they go for three days, so 1,500 Kyat. If we can't find villagers from this village we find them in the other villages."- "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"If they cannot go anymore then they have to change with another villager. They have to pay the person who replaces them. If they have to pay 500 Kyat then they pay and if they have to pay 600 Kyat then they pay. They pay the money to the people who replace them. For example: the enemy stays in Meh Ku Hta and I stay in Meh Ku Kee. If I cannot go I have to find a person in Meh Ku Kee to replace me. The village head has to arrange it and he will ask me for 500 Kyat for that person. I have to give for how many days [the person will go for]. If one day is 500 Kyat then three days is 1,500 Kyat. If it is less than 500 Kyat per day then no one is willing to go." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"If we don't go ourselves, we have to pay money. We are free if we pay the money. We have to give 1,000 Kyat each time. They said this is for three days, but sometimes it is for longer than three days and we have to pay more. If they are gone for longer than three days and the villagers haven't come back, then their friends have to go and pay more money. The money is for the people who go to porter. When they recently demanded them [porters] at night, we gave it through the Ya Ya Ka [Village Peace and Development Council]. The Ya Ya Ka holds the money. Then they said they hired them [the porters]." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

"The people who stay in the plains of Bu Tho township face big problems and the people who stay near the road are in even more trouble. The soldiers order people to carry things up and down [the road]. In January the enemy ordered the people to carry the rations when the trucks arrived. If the people don't go they have to give 500 Kyat. The enemy thinks 500 Kyat is expensive so they tell the villagers that if they don't like to carry rations up and down, they can clean the roadside [cut the brush along the sides of the road instead of paying the porter fees]. The distance is 50 feet on both sides." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

The villages in the plains along the Sittaung River are under firmer SPDC control than the villages in Papun District so they are subject to another fee, the township porter fees. The Township Peace and Development Council (PDC) authorities send orders to the village tract leaders demanding an amount of money which the Village Tract Peace and Development Council must raise to hire porters. The village tract head then asks for the money from each of the villages in his village tract based on the number of households in the village. One village head told KHRG that in his tract of five villages, each village must pay 750,000 Kyat per year for these porters. The villagers don't have to go for this type of portering, unless they can't pay. The Township PDC uses the money to hire porters from other parts of Burma to go instead. The township officials are usually very corrupt so the fees are inflated and much of the money ends up in their pockets. Township porters are used for longer-term military operations by the Army. Paying these fees does not release the villagers from short-term portering or working at Army camps. Within the last year KHRG has conducted numerous interviews with convict porters and civilians from throughout Burma who have been forced to porter without pay in Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts, but none who were hired for this work. This and other evidence suggests that the Township porter fees are ending up in the pockets of Township authorities and military officers rather than being used to hire any porters.

"The SPDC demands it regularly. People have to pay each month. They demand 'loh ah pay', porters and food so people have to give it to them every month. It is not the same each month. Sometimes they demand a lot and we have to pay 1,000 Kyat [per person] and sometimes we have to pay 500 or 600 Kyat. It is for the township porters. If two or three groups go together we have to pay 1,000 or over 1,000 Kyat. … We pay for porters once a year to the township [Township Peace and Development Council]. We give them 750,000 Kyat for one year. … If they demand four people we have to send four people and if they ask for five people we have to send them five people. We have to give every month. The porters for the township are the big porters [long-term operations porters]. We have to send them to Ler Doh [Kyauk Kyi]. There are many groups so maybe they will then be sent on to the mobile columns, I don't know. They ask and we send. I don't know where they send the people." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"We have to hire people for 3,000 Kyat for one person. That is for five days. The others are 15,000 Kyat for Pyi Thu Sit 'wontan' [People's Army (SPDC militia) 'servants'] each month, 15,000 for the K— [an Army camp] 'loh ah pay' and 15,000 for the township operations servants. We have to pay those regularly every month." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

The stronger control which the SPDC has over the plains also means that the villagers must pay more in fees for forced labour and to more groups than just the Army. Villagers here must also pay for servants for the Pyi Thu Sit or 'People's Militia' (units of villagers conscripted and trained by the Army with the villagers forced to pay the costs). The village head from the area quoted above told KHRG that combining fees to avoid portering and 'loh ah pay', militia forced labour fees and township porter fees, each village in his area must come up with 60,000 Kyat every month. This is in addition to other demands and extortion money, and it is important to remember that these are primarily subsistence farming villages with very little cash floating around. Some villages in both the plains and the hills must pay fees to nearby DKBA units as well.

"We have to give them from 10,000 to 52,000 Kyat every month. It is for porters, for the militia and for 'loh ah pay'. They ordered us to carry as porters to M— or to S— [villages]. 'Loh ah pay' and portering are not the same in S— [village]. When they came the last time we had to give 400 Kyat for each person. They added it all up and demanded 45,000 Kyat for one month [from his village]." - "Saw Per Per" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #24, 4/01)

"There are taxes for supporting the Pyi Thu Sit [the People's Militia] servants, support for the township operations porters and K— 'loh ah pay' ['loh ah pay' at K— Army camp]. … Sometimes if we cannot give it we subtract something from the fees. We decrease their fees like that." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

Finding the money to pay the fees is becoming increasingly difficult for the villagers. Most of the villagers in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts are subsistence farmers with very little money. There is very little paying work available, although some villagers are able to make small amounts of money doing day labour in other people's fields. Some people work as petty traders carrying goods on their backs to sell to other villages or to the displaced villagers in the hills, though anyone carrying goods into the hills runs the risk of being arrested and accused of supplying the resistance. Some villagers are able to grow cash crops like betelnut, coconuts and various fruits, which they sell to pay the fees. The soldiers often steal the fruit and betelnut, making it difficult for the villagers to grow enough to make much of a profit. Other villagers hunt game in the forests like deer or trap animals like eel and turtles to sell. In some areas villagers are even panning for gold to be able to pay the fees. Villagers are often forced to sell whatever jewellery, possessions and livestock they have to pay the fees. The need to find money forces the villagers to take yet more time away from their fields.

"The villagers who can't go or dare not go must pay porter fees. If a person doesn't go he must hire another person for 2,500 or 3,000 Kyat. People also have to do sentry duty by rotation. After everyone has gone once, they start the rotation again. If a person doesn't go for his turn, he has to hire someone else. If they can't pay to hire anyone, they have to find a way. If they have gold or silver, they must sell it. If they don't have anything they must ask someone to go, and then pan for gold. When the person comes back, the fee must be paid. … They can pan for gold at the Weh Loh River. There is no other way to make money. They tried to find another way by making fruit plantations and growing coconuts, but the Burmese climbed up and took all the fruit and coconuts, so they couldn't sell any. … They are also given a chance to work hill fields at B—. They can only do it on a day by day basis; they can only go and sleep there for a night or at most 3 nights. They have to take food for 3 days and when that is gone, they have to come back. The Burmese don't allow them to take more [food with them] than that. The Burmese give passes to allow them to go. During the paddy growing time the villagers have serious problems, because the pigs and buffaloes eat all the rice." - "Pu Taw Lay" (M, 56), internally displaced villager from M— village, Shwegyin township (Interview #80, 3/00)

Stamp: Date: 29-4-2001

Village Peace and Development Council

xxxx Tract - Kyauk Kyi Township

U aaaa

Village Head

Informing [you] - Come today to pay the money for the quota Township servants' fee to the tract Chairperson at xxxx, you are informed. [We] Must go to the Township [office] on the morning of the 30^th.

Come to pay today.

[Sd.] bbbb

Stamp: Chairperson

Village Tract Peace and Development Council

xxxx Village Tract - Kyauk Kyi Township

Translation of an order sent to a village head in Nyaunglebin District demanding that he pay his village's portion of the monthly township porter fees.

"Not everyone can give but they try. Turtles and eels are expensive and the villagers can sell them and the money they get they give for the taxes. Sometimes we have to give the tax twice because we have to pay for the 10^th month [October] in the 9^th month [September], and we have to pay for the 11^th month [November] in the 10^th month [they must pay taxes one month in advance so sometimes the authorities conveniently 'forget' and make them pay twice]. We cannot pay it regularly. If the villagers cannot give they have to borrow from each other. They have to pay it back time after time. If we pay it back we pay it 10,000 Kyat by 10,000 Kyat." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"If we had rice, we sold it and gave the money to them. If people shot a wild cock in the forest, they came back to sell it and gave them the money. If people could sell a fowl, they sold it and gave them the money, and then had nothing to eat." - "Naw Hser Mo" (F, 35), refugee from N— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #183, 4/00)

"We stay under the control of the military and the villagers have to face not having enough food, because of the military oppression. Since we were children, we saw our parents and grandparents always go to be sentries, porters and do 'loh ah pay'. When we have time to go and work the fields, we dare not spend the night in the fields. We have to go from our house each day, so the fields have become closer year by year. … The people are becoming exhausted. In addition, the SPDC are forcing us to come and work for them more and more. To work as a sentry or a porter is not right. It has been like this since we were children, under the Ma Sa La [Burmese acronym for the Burma Socialist Programme Party, Ne Win's regime], Na Wa Ta [SLORC], and Na Ah Pa [SPDC] times. 'Loh ah pay' and portering are becoming our jobs by tradition. It is becoming worse. The villagers are poor and have to work day to day to feed themselves." - "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

The effect of continuous forced labour on the villagers is disastrous. Villagers are becoming poorer, they are unable to properly work their own fields and they are facing starvation. Villages which were once prosperous in the fertile plains along the Sittaung River are now becoming poorer and poorer with some of the villagers even having to resort to eating rice porridge. In the Bilin and Yunzalin River valleys of Papun District, where the villages are smaller, poorer and the land less fertile, villagers are choosing to live on the run in the mountains where they can at least try to grow some food. Villagers in both areas are increasingly choosing to flee to Thailand because they can no longer endure the constant work and the lack of food that results from it. In the SPDC-controlled villages of both the plains and the river valleys, the villagers are faced with two possibilities: go to do the work, or pay money to avoid it. Whether they spend most of their time doing forced labour or trying to make enough money to avoid it, they end up without enough time to work their own fields and support their families.

"[T]he basic problem comes from the SPDC because they force people to work for them. They [the villagers] have to work for them for one or two days but then have no time to do their own work and can't plant big enough fields. They force every village the same." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"We don't have enough free time to do our own work. For every day we can work for ourselves, there are three or four days for them. Each month we only have a few days to work for ourselves because we work so much on their things." - "Saw Eh Ywa" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #187, 5/00)

"Not all of the villagers have enough to eat. Some stay and work at home and they are not doing well. Most of them are not doing well. They have to go and porter for the Burmese and work for 'loh ah pay'. They have to go and work on the road for them, but one person has only one set of hands. When the people are called to many places, they can't do it all. They don't have enough food to feed themselves. Right now, they aren't free to work. I look at them with pity but I have to ask them to do things. I am concerned for them, but I can't do anything. I feel bad for them but I can't do anything. … When some porters fled back home, they [SPDC] came to me and demanded to eat 15 viss [24.5 kg / 54 lb] of pork. All because three porters fled. They fled because they had to go for so long. They knew their wives and children didn't have food to eat back at home. When they went to porter they only had one bowl of rice left in the house. It made them worry while they were portering so they fled after having been gone for so many days. They were fined but they had nothing to pay with, so they were in debt to us. The whole village had to help them. This was near the end of May. I don't know the date exactly because I am not educated and couldn't write it down. They still can't repay their debt." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

Most villagers try to find some middle way, going for some forced labour and paying to avoid some of it, while always trying to keep at least one family member working in the fields. This system requires every family member to work, forcing children out of school and elderly family members to go for forced labour. For small families or single parents, striking this balance is impossible. Village heads often plead with the Army to exempt the households of widows and orphans from certain forms of forced labour, with varying degrees of success. Even families with enough people find that they can only work fields much smaller than what they would normally plant. Smaller fields mean less food after the harvest. This often forces the villagers to try to find more odd jobs to have enough money to buy food, which lessens even further the time they have to work the fields. There is not much money or work and eventually the villagers run out of money. Another result of the constant work is exhaustion, which makes the villagers more susceptible to disease and less able to work their fields even when they have the time. Villagers from Dweh Loh spoke to KHRG of being weak already and of becoming weaker and thinner. With no money left and not enough time to do all the forced labour demanded of them and still survive, people have little choice but to flee to the hills. In the end the forced labour works against the SPDC because it drives villagers to flee their villages, and a declining population has less food and labour to hand over to the Army. Many of the recent arrivals to the refugee camps in Thailand cite the constant forced labour as their main reason for fleeing their villages.

"They are forcing us to carry loads for them, do 'loh ah pay' and send information. When they force us it becomes a problem for us. In the end, our lives become thirsty. We have to work for them, so we have little time to do our own work. When we have no free time, we become thinner and thinner. That is why we have less and less. None of the families have enough food because they are forcing us to do so much. … About 10 families have run. Aye! Because of the weakness, because the SPDC are forcing us so much and they cannot suffer it. But many are fleeing to places up above here [higher in the hills]. Aye! They are always fleeing. Just a few are still living here. The villagers have a plan. If they cannot continue to suffer they will go up [into the hills], but right now they can't go and are still suffering very slowly." - "Saw Kloh" (M, 56), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #188, 5/00)

"We couldn't find any money. We could only sell our livestock or our paddy, and after doing that we only had 10 or 20 baskets of paddy left to eat [for the whole year]. Even if you harvested 50 or 60 baskets of paddy, you had to sell most of it to repay your debts, so you only had 10 or 20 baskets left and you would finish it all before the next rainy season arrived - so we'd accumulate more debts, even when we were still working to produce food." - "Naw Say Muh" (F, 54), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #203, 7/00)

"We also do not have enough to feed us because the Burmese demand it [food] from us. If we didn't pay, they were cruel to us. They threatened us with guns and bamboo sticks so we had to pay. It was not good for us if we didn't. Because of all the 'loh ah pay' and 'set tha', the villagers don't have time to work their own fields. Some of the fields are covered in grass. Others had time to plant only half of their paddy. That is why we suffer from these weaknesses - we have to do so much work for the SPDC." - "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"Every problem and trouble is important, but the most important is food. If we have food it will be a little better for our lives. Now we are not free to work because we have to work for them [the soldiers] also. We are not free to plan and work for ourselves. We have to work one day for them and one day for ourselves." - "Saw Nuh Po" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #143, 9/00)

"This year we didn't get enough rice or paddy because we couldn't work. It was because of the SPDC. They are forcing us to be busy so we couldn't work to make our flat field each year. We have to work for them. … We can't work anymore. We just carry and sell things and buy rice from them [traders from the plains]. Last year the rice was very expensive, one sack [50 kg / 110 lb] was 7,000 [Kyat]. They don't allow this so we carry it secretly." - "Saw Peh Yah" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #211, 3/01)

Killings, Arrests and Torture

"For two or three days after they captured us they burned us with fire, poked us with knives and scraped us with knives. They burned me with fire when they first captured me. They hit me on my body wherever they wanted. When they kicked me they aimed at my groin and stomped on me. The other people were also hit and kicked in the buttocks. They burned my head and my hair smelled from the fire. They poked me [with a knife] in the chest. They poked me with the tip of the knife and I had a small wound. Before they released us two groups of them hit us 50 times each." - "Po Lah" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #12, 4/01)

Villagers living in SPDC controlled villages and relocation sites, while living in areas under SPDC 'government' control and theoretically under the rule of law, find that they are subject to arbitrary arrest, torture and extrajudicial killing. Much of the violence is directed against the village heads, as they are the people who most often deal with the SPDC soldiers. Village heads are easier targets than the villagers, because many of them feel a responsibility to their villagers that prevents them from fleeing the village. Torturing the village head sets an 'example' for the villagers and makes them feel guilty for not supporting him or her enough in meeting SPDC demands. Another reason for directing it more against the village heads is that it may keep the villagers from running, because they are less likely to run if they are not the ones being directly abused. Villagers, however, are still arrested, tortured and executed. This is especially so if they are caught outside the village without a pass.

"They shot dead Pa Myint Kyo two years ago. He was about 26 or 27 years old. He was married and his wife still stays here. He had no children. His wife was pregnant when he died and she had a miscarriage. I think it was the same unit as the Burmese battalion that has just returned to the area now, IB #xx. They also shot and killed one child about 15 years old. His name was Pa Bee Dah. He had only three siblings and no mother or father. They stayed with their grandfather. He ran when he saw the Burmese and they shot him dead when he was running." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"The soldiers shot two men and they were wounded. They shot them this year. They were villagers and the soldiers shot them when they were coming back from work. They had gone to fence their sugar cane field and were coming back in the evening to eat. The soldiers saw these two men coming while they were also returning. The soldiers called out to them and shot at them at the same time. If they had just called out and not shot, the men would have stopped. They called and shot at the same time so the men were afraid and fled. They fled and both of them were injured. S— is 43 years old and married and Saw B— is 25 years old and also married. They are still staying in the village. … It was IB #xx. Their commander is M—. … We sent them to K— hospital. They are not healed yet, but they have come back because they don't have any more money. They couldn't pay the medical fees if they stayed there. The SPDC didn't help with any medicine. They gave 10,000 Kyat for both of them. They are being treated with traditional medicine [herbal medicines], but they can't walk." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

Villagers living under some form of SPDC control are not usually shot on sight as the IDP villagers are, but are more often arrested and executed, usually after being tortured first. The soldiers in Papun District do occasionally shoot villagers on sight if the villagers run from them from 'Peace' villages. Executions usually take place after the villager has been accused of helping the KNU or KNLA, usually with only circumstantial evidence or no evidence at all. In early 2001 a villager from Mone township was arrested by SPDC solders and accused of going to hide his gun. Despite his denial and the pleas of his mother that he was only putting away his rice after coming back from the fields, he was taken away and tortured. His mother was punched for her efforts on his behalf, and later he was taken out into a bean field and executed. The soldiers buried him while he was still alive and villagers nearby watched helplessly as he struggled against the mud on top of him. Villagers have also been killed because their relatives have joined the resistance. In western Nyaunglebin District this is usually handled by the 'Short Pants' Sa Thon Lon execution squads, but in most areas it is regular SPDC battalions which carry out the killing. Most of the executions are done by gunshot or stabbing, but sometimes the person is beaten to death or dies under various forms of torture.

"The next day I asked my nephew to go and listen [for news]. After he arrived there he wrote me a note and said those people had already killed my son. People said they pulled him somewhere and killed him. But he hadn't died. Some Burmese women who went to grow beans said that he didn't die easily. They killed him and buried him, but because he wasn't dead yet he tried to struggle in the ground with a lot of mud on him. After people came back and told us that we went. We went there after that and we asked the Burmese [the SPDC] and they said they didn't know. … I just suffer and have to live this hard life. He was the one who could work for food. After he died it is difficult to work and get food to eat. We don't have any possessions so we just work a little by little and eat like that. When he was alive he did everything. When he was alive we had to pay for the sentries and porters, but we could go and borrow money from here and there. Now everything has run out. Now my grandchild has come back to stay with me. He also goes to work to get food." - "Naw Paw Eh" (F, 50), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #16, 4/01)

"Here in xxxx village tract in N— village they arrested Saw Mu Rih. He had been working in T— and was coming back down. They captured him on the xxxx road and beat him. After that they just killed him. They didn't say why they captured him. They don't give us any answers. They just beat him until he was dead. They killed him at K—. He hadn't done anything. He was working a flat field. He couldn't speak Burmese very well. They interrogated him but because he couldn't answer them they killed him." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"I saw them kill Kyaw Naw Ku when I went to porter for #xxx [LIB]. Their Battalion Commander is A—. I had gone to porter for one of their companies. They didn't beat us, but they did beat him. He was a villager they met in a field. They kicked him, stepped on him and tied him up and forced him into the water. They had accused him of going and buying alcohol from the Kaw Thoo Lei [slang for the KNU/KNLA]. It was last year." - "Aung Myint Win" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #200, 6/00)

"It was LIB #xxx that did it. I don't know the name of their commander but the soldiers say they are from this battalion. The commander gave the order to kill the villagers. They killed U K—. He had done nothing. He had a wife named Naw D— and six children aged 4 to 16 years old. They also killed Htoo Saw. The people called him Aye Myint Mo. He was a villager. He was 37 years old. He was married with three children. They are 7 to 15 years old. The third one killed was Pa Yaw Kya. He was 45 years old. He had a wife and a 4 year old child. The other one was Kaw Lah Po. He was 25 and single. He made a living by collecting the sap from toddy palm trees and selling it. … Some of their children [children is used here loosely meaning both younger relatives as well as children] work with the resistance [KNU]. They killed Htoo Saw because they said that his nephew works for the resistance, and Pa Yaw Kya because his wife's son works for the resistance. Kaw Lah Po wasn't related to the resistance but he was arrested with the others so they also killed him. …They arrested them and took them back with them that same night. They didn't do anything else in the village. They went back to kill them near K— village. They arrested them on the 8^th of January [2000] and on the 9^th the soldiers killed them. The village head went to vouch for them but he didn't get there in time. Even if he had been there in time, he wouldn't have been able to vouch for them. They said it was because their children are soldiers so they killed them." - "Maung Gyi" (M, 33), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #134, 8/00)

"There were four people shooting at me and they hit me once. It hit me in the back side of my arm and it was broken. I was broken like that and I couldn't work or do anything. I had to stay in the jungle for five days. Flies laid eggs and there were larvae in the wound. It had a bad smell and the people came and took me back. After they took me back I told them to treat me but they didn't treat me, they just left me like that. I suffered like that and later I slowly came up here." - "Saw Ghu" (M, 33), internally displaced villager from T— village, Hsaw Tee township (Interview #112, 4/01); he was shot while fleeing after being told he was to be executed.

SPDC soldiers have fired into villages without warning. This is sometimes done when the villagers have not paid all their fees or given what was demanded of them. Villages are also fired on when it is thought they are helping the KNU in some way. A notable incident occurred in Dweh Loh township in 1999 when the soldiers opened fire at close range on what they thought was the wedding of a KNLA officer. When they left, five villagers were dead and two more were wounded. The wedding, however, was the marriage of two villagers. The KNLA officer's wedding had taken place in another village a month previously.

"My husband told me that he was going to prepare his hill fields after our children's wedding was over, because it would be difficult to finish before the wedding. But the wedding hadn't finished yet when the Burmese came late that night. We heard noises outside, and my oldest daughter told me that she was going to sleep because she thought the noise was only buffaloes. But when she went outside, she called back to me that it wasn't buffaloes but men carrying guns. We had no idea what to do. As soon as she called back to us they started shooting at us from both behind and in front. They shot so many bullets, and we couldn't do anything. … Five villagers were dead, and my niece's husband was wounded by a gunshot in his neck. My 9-year-old nephew was also wounded. But the other five were killed, each with two or more shots, because they were shooting from close range. Even if you'd never shot a gun before you could shoot people dead from that close. They hate our people that much, even though we have never done anything to their people." - "Naw Kler Paw" (F, 48), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #160, 6/99)

The Sa Thon Lon, which used to be responsible for many of the killings in Nyaunglebin District, has not been as active in the past year. Villagers have told KHRG that though the Sa Thon Lon have been killing fewer people recently, they still do torture and execute people occasionally. The decrease in numbers has probably occurred because most everyone on their 'hit list' has already either been killed or fled the area. The DKBA in Papun District and Nyaunglebin District has not been accused of many killings in the past few years, although they also still kill villagers on occasion, usually for allegedly supporting the KNU or in retaliation for the death of a DKBA soldier.

"They killed four people; Saw Lay Heh, Saw K'Bweh, Maung Nyut Po and Saw Po Keh. I don't remember the date but it was during the month when people throw water, Taw Tha Lin [Buddhist lunar month roughly corresponding to October 1998]. I haven't had time to think about what they were accused of. The soldiers [Sa Thon Lon] just captured them and killed them immediately. So we didn't have time to think about it. They shot three of them dead, but one of them they couldn't shoot because the gun jammed, so people said they just stabbed him and killed him with a knife. They killed them beside T—. They were all T— villagers." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

"They arrested and killed Pa Twee Maung, also called Saw Cha Lay, at Kyun Gyi. He had lived in Sweh Dtee and then he moved to stay at Thay Pyu. He was coming back to work and they arrested him at Kyun Gyi on December 27^th 1999. They broke a bottle and cut him with the pieces of the bottle until he died. They did this the whole night, then killed him. They cut him with the bottle and then stabbed him to kill him. I saw it. I saw him after he was killed. They killed him near the bank of the lake and left the body. I don't remember the number of the unit, because we were afraid and avoided them. They suspected that he was a person from the KNU, so they killed him." - "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

"My father went to find his cattle and he was somewhere near some Karen soldiers, but he didn't know that. The Guerrilla unit [Sa Thon Lon] was coming down. They met the Karen soldiers and fought, then afterwards they saw my father, captured him and killed him. He was 67 years old. They killed him brutally - they stabbed him in the side and then they pushed him down on his face and twisted his head to break his neck, like this. They killed him last year in March [1999]. He had never joined the resistance. He was a communion server in church. He died on the other side of the river near our house, beyond some fields. They killed him there in the heat of the day. After he was dead I went to see his body. They had tied his arms behind his back tightly, and there was a very big hole from a stab wound in his left side and two dagger wounds on his neck. He was wearing short pants and a sarong tied around his waist, and when we saw him his body was all covered in mud. After that we didn't dare stay there, because they would try to find his relatives and kill them all." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 25), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #7, 2/00)

Villagers and village heads can be arrested under almost any pretext. Village heads are commonly arrested and taken to Army camps for not meeting the demands of the soldiers or for not providing the soldiers with information on the movements of the resistance groups. While at the camps they are often tortured. Usually it is done to teach the village head 'a lesson' so that he or she will comply the next time. It is for this reason that the village head position is often rotated among the villagers or given to a woman. Rotating the position keeps the abuse from constantly being directed at one person. Female village heads are less likely to be abused than the men.

"We were the village heads. We were the village heads for them to hit, so they hit us. They said it was my fault because I hadn't searched to find out any information. We were the leaders so we should have tried to get information. I didn't look for it so I got hit. … It was May 19^th [2000]. The soldiers hit me because they saw some people coming down, KNU. They hit me with an ironwood branch. It was almost dry but still a little green. They hit me with the first stick in front of the K— village head. After it broke they ordered some people to cut a second stick to hit me with. That one was green. It was bigger around than a wrist and about as long as an arm. It was about 2 � or 3 cubits long [114.3-137.16 cms. / 3'9"-4.5']. They hit me on the car road at the sentry hut at H——. It was because I was the village head and they questioned me. They ordered me to lie on my stomach. They then hit me on my backbone, my buttocks and also on my calves." - "Saw Pa Aye" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #18, 4/01)

"It was because they couldn't demand enough porters from me. They demanded five porters but I couldn't find them, so they dried me in the sun. They put me out in the sun from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They almost beat me but they didn't." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"It was because the people [KNLA] came to shoot them. They [the KNLA] shelled them so the soldiers then came to call us and immediately put us in cells. They ordered me but I wasn't at home. I was in the jungle. When I came back I went to meet them. When I went they immediately put me in the cell. They didn't do anything else." - "Pa Tray" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #222, 4/01)

"They demanded money and said they would release us. If we didn't give them money they wouldn't release us. At first they were going to kill us, but the village head vouched for us so they weren't going to kill us anymore. They released us and demanded money. My family had to pay it for me." - "Po Lah" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #12, 4/01)

Villagers are also arrested for being out of their villages without passes or for suspected contact with the resistance. Beatings are common after arrest. Villagers are punched, kicked and hit with a variety of objects; rifle butts, lengths of bamboo, firewood or the sticks used as whips by bullock cart drivers. After being arrested and taken to the Army camp, villagers are kept in jail cells, goat or pig pens, or cages in pits in the ground, depending on the facilities at the camp where they are held. A common punishment is to lock the villagers in mediaeval-style leg stocks for prolonged periods of time. They are sometimes left in the stocks outside in the sun and rain for days or even weeks. After being in the stocks villagers usually have cuts and bruises on their ankles, and if it has been more than a week they have great difficulty walking and may suffer permanent aftereffects.

"They took a very big garden, fenced it and guarded us. We couldn't go out so we had to urinate and shit there, so all of us smelled of urine and shit. There were a lot of people in there. It was everyone who could not fulfill their [paddy] quotas. We didn't have to work for them. We just stayed there. We'd had to bring our own paddy, because they didn't feed us. We had to cook it in the garden." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 25), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #7, 2/00)

"When they put me in a cell, at first I did not understand what their reason was for capturing us. [H]e said, 'I am arresting you now because of the faults you have committed. You have reported me to outside people [KNU] and told them that I abused you, tortured people and raped women once or twice, so I am arresting you.' … They put six of us in a six-hole leg stock, each with one leg in, and the seventh was tied up by his arms and legs so he couldn't go to the toilet or do anything. … We couldn't lie down or sit up and had to stay like that through the pain and discomfort. This lasted for eight days. … During those 8 days, when he [the officer] wasn't around we dealt with the private soldiers, who were friendly with us and sometimes untied us. When we went to the toilet they followed us, and when we came back they would say, 'The commander isn't around, so take a rest and relax for a while.' … Der! We heard him [the commander] say, 'My name has been declared as having raped and abused a woman.' The woman was Naw H—. She is single and over 20 years old. I have heard about him raping others but he has never told us, so I can't guess. … [H]e [the Burmese commander] told us to pay 60,000 Kyat anyway. He claimed the money was also to show him respect after he was dishonoured by reports of his rape and abuse of women. He said we had to honour him [with the money] because the reports tarnished his authority and reputation and that of the entire Burmese army." - "Saw Tha Doh Wah" (M, 51), village elder from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #121, 9/99)

"[T]hey hit P— with a piece of bamboo until it broke. It was a big piece of bamboo, as big around as a wrist. It was already old but still fresh. He was hit until the bamboo broke in two. They hit P— two times with a carbine. When we arrived above N— village they punched him on the temple one time and kicked him in the back with their jungle boots twice. They hit Saw W— the same as me, but less. They punched him and hit him with the butt of their guns. They hit one of the chairmen beside his eye and poked him in the back of the neck with a gun barrel three times. When we reached T— they kicked him and stomped on him once. His hands were bound behind him so when they kicked him he fell down on his face and they stomped on him. I saw him, but I dared not look." - "Pa Noh Day" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #15, 4/01)

"[W]e saw them hit him at A—. The Burmese also punched me because I tried to tell them that he didn't do evil things. They punched me and I fell down because there was too much pain in my chest. When I went to follow him later, my chest still hurt. The Burmese hit my breast and my breast was in too much pain. They hit me just one time because I went to them. Maybe they would say that I didn't respect them." - "Naw Paw Eh" (F, 50), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #16, 4/01); her son had been arrested under suspicion of being KNLA and hiding his gun, though he was just a village farmer. He was later executed.

"They arrested me when I was coming home and it was already night. When I came back I didn't know they were staying near my house. They called me and ordered me to lay face down and they tied my wrists behind my back and stomped on me. They tied me with a bicycle chain. He took me to near my Auntie's house because a bullock cart was there and when he saw the stick for the bullock [a long stick used like a whip] he immediately beat me. He kicked my face too. When he saw I had used a fire he hit me with a gun [villagers are forbidden to use torchlights so they sometimes use fire torches]. They kicked me and I fell down. They tied me and ordered me to walk but I couldn't walk." - "Saw Thay Myo" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #21, 4/01)

Sometimes the abuse stops with the beatings, but it can continue with other forms of torture. Soldiers sometimes place plastic bags over the heads of villagers to partially suffocate them, but more commonly they use nylon bags or pieces of nylon for this purpose. This is more convenient than plastic because it can be left covering the victim's face during interrogation. The victim can suck a small amount of air through the nylon until the soldiers pour water over it, making it temporarily air-tight and suffocating the person until the water runs off and air can pass through the nylon again. One villager from Dweh Loh township who suffered this told KHRG he was held down and punched in the sides while they poured water over the cloth covering his mouth. He repeatedly passed out, but was revived and the torture repeated. Another form of torture is to scrape a person with a knife and then rub salt into the wounds or to poke the person with a knife until they bleed. A few villagers have told of being burned with fire, one of whom spoke of having petrol poured over his chest which was then lit. One village head told KHRG the SPDC officer told his soldiers as though instructing them, "I must show you what we do to the village head." He then wrapped the man's head in nylon and told them, "Later if you can't question and get results from the village head, you must do like this. I will show you." Questions are asked in between bouts of torture. Giving honest answers is not good enough, particularly if one doesn't know anything; the victim must give the answer the interrogator wants to hear. This is especially the case when they are questioned about having guns or walkie-talkies. Villagers often end up lying and 'admitting' that they have a gun or walkie-talkie so the torture will stop, only to be executed for 'confessing'. In cases like this, however, the soldiers usually know the person is completely innocent and release him after torture. Release often comes after the intervention of the village head and the paying of a substantial bribe. Villagers have had to pay as much as 200,000 Kyat to secure the release of an arrested villager. In many cases it is clear that soldiers have arrested and tortured villagers knowing they are totally innocent, simply to extract a large ransom.

"I had to send information [to the SPDC camp] and along the way we met them [SPDC soldiers]. We tried to give them [the soldiers] money but they didn't like it. Pu L— and I talked together and thought there was no need to worry about the way from here to W— [village]. He [the SPDC officer] asked me about the information [about the activities of the KNU or KNLA around his village] and I told him a little bit. He didn't continue asking me anything. He stood and looked at one of his soldiers and said, 'You don't know and you don't understand. I must show you what we do to the village head.' He then wrapped my whole face, head and neck [in a nylon bag]. He told his soldiers how to do things like this because they don't really know what to do or understand. He said, 'Later if you can't question and get results from the village head, you must do like this. I will show you.' Then he ordered me to lie down and he wrapped me. He wrapped my head and didn't ask anything else. I could breathe a little bit, but if he had wrapped my face for a long time, I couldn't have felt anything. The nylon bag was very thick. When they took it off, I had to try to breathe because I was tired. He asked me, 'Do you feel tired?' I would have died if it lasted a long time. When he wrapped my head, it was torture. He didn't have any unusual questions for me. There was no need to wrap me when I didn't answer. I think they might go and do this [kind of torture] to others." - "Maung Than" (M, 40), village headman from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #205, 8/00)

"They took me and put me in a goat pen. They didn't give me food or water the whole day. They also didn't release me to go home. I had to stay in the goat pen for a while. After a while they got rice to eat, but I didn't get any. After they ate they took me to the river. They took me half way and then they covered my face. After covering my face we went down to the river. When we got there they ordered me to sit down. They then took a one gallon drum and tied me to it and forced me to lie down. They poured water into my mouth and held my nose closed, so I had to drink the water. … It was very bad. After they poured the water in my mouth, they woke me up [he had lost consciousness]. I felt half-dead and half-alive. Three of them then stepped on my stomach and the water came out. That is when I regained consciousness and woke up. When I had regained consciousness they questioned me. I told them I hadn't seen their [the KNU's] place. Then they said, 'You are a relative of the Nga Pway ['Ringworm'; derogatory SPDC slang for the KNU/KNLA]. You must find two guns for us. If you can't find them we will kill you.' I couldn't tell them anything so they did it to me again, time after time. They forced me to lie down again and poured water in my mouth and nose two, three, four or ten times. I don't remember because I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness they poured petrol on my chest and lit it. I squirmed around, but I couldn't do anything. When I regained consciousness, I smelled bad." - "Saw Plaw Poh" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #181, 2/00)

"When I slept they were talking slowly. I thought they were going to kill me. I guessed it. I was thinking and afraid. He [the commander or intelligence officer] told one of the sentries, 'Watch this man, he will flee and escape. He will take your gun.' I didn't dare do that. I told the sentry I would go to shit. He told me to go. I was afraid they would do something to me when I arrived at K—. I was worried because there were many of my friends but they took only me [he was the only one the soldiers took of the five people arrested]. I wasn't sure what they would do to me because I don't believe the Burmese. Then I ran and ran. The sentry lit two torchlights and I ran quickly because I thought they were following me. I ran and fell down in the mud when I arrived at the car road. It is the old car road from below T—, the cars haven't come on it for many years. I fell three or four times. When I stood up I was confused about the way. I couldn't find the path." - "Saw Lah Thaw" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #158, 2/01)

"I came down to carry and sell goods. There was a wedding celebration so I visited it and sold some goods. The soldiers came to me in the village and called me. The commander called me and told me to send them [to show the soldiers the way]. I sent them along the road but they didn't like it. He asked me to send them another way through the bushes. He didn't like it when I went through the dark bushes and he didn't like it when I went through the fields. He scolded me but I kept going. When we arrived at the village I told him, 'Thu Ko [officer], I can't do it. I sent you on the way to N—. Please release me.' He didn't release me and said, 'Nga lo ma ['I fuck your mother'], you can't help us.' Then he punched me one time. He then took a long piece of bamboo and hit me one time on my head. That bamboo was over one armspan long with a hole at the top and the other end was broken. He hit me with his right hand. His Thra [Karen term used for Non-Commissioned Officers] called me and when I went to him he punched me. The first one who beat me was the commander. I don't know his name, the people call him 'Pa Pay Kaw' ['The Neck Mover'] because he is always moving his neck when he goes among the people. His NCO beat me two times and the commander beat and punched me one time in the front. It was with the right hand, the same one he used to hit me with the bamboo. The NCO with two chevrons [corporal] also beat me with his right hand. They didn't kick me. … They arrested me on the 5^th [February 2001] in the afternoon at about 1 p.m. … An NCO who was carrying a #7 [launcher for RPG 7 rocket-propelled grenades] punched my nose and it bled. Then I told them, 'If I die or live, I am without hope.' I told them, 'I will run. I am a villager. If you torture me seriously, I can't endure it. I will run. If I don't run I will die, so it is hopeless. If I die or live, I am without hope.' I took my bag and ran away in front of them. When I ran they were behind me and shouted at me but I didn't care. They shot at my back with their guns. They shot at me many times and I was hit in my buttock. I didn't fall down. I kept running and bleeding from my nose and buttock. They shot at me until they finished own or two magazines. When they thought I had escaped they fired two small mortar shells." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

"I saw them take and tie up four other men. They said they had captured the Nga Pway ['Ringworms', SPDC slang for KNU/KNLA]. They were all villagers from B—. … Because a battle had occurred. The KNU and SPDC had met and shot at each other, then the soldiers said that they could arrest the Nga Pway. They said it was the villagers' fault [that the battle had occurred]. They tortured many people including these four men. They are H—, P—, P— and M—. The soldiers said the people [the KNLA] had gone very close to their camp and shot at them. It was near their work place [probably a battalion farm or other money-generation project]. They said that the villagers welcomed the KNU and fed the KNU like their relatives. … They kicked, punched and slapped their faces. They tied them like that for one day. … They released them when they met the village headman." - "Saw Pah Baw" (M, 32), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #201, 6/00)

"[H]e pulled me up into the tree [they had a rope slung over a branch and pulled him off the ground] so I was hanging by my neck, and I struggled and struggled until they let up on the rope. They kept doing it like they were going to kill me, because he wanted the answers. They hoisted me up like that two or three times. They touched me with the barrels of their guns and beat me with their gun butts a lot, and they flipped my body upside down and rightside up again and again. They kept poking the front of my body with a knife until it almost bled. Blood was coming out of my nose and mouth, and one of them took an empty milk tin and caught my blood in it, until the milk tin was full. Then they took a plastic sheet and tied it tightly around my neck, and they pulled the edges up around my head so it was like a container. Then they poured boiled water and cold water into it time and time again, until the water came up over my mouth and nose and I couldn't breathe, and then I struggled and struggled, and I ruined one or two plastic sheets. I was still tied up at that time, and I struggled a lot. I tried to pull it between my knees, and I bit it with my teeth, and I tried to kick up to it with my foot, and it broke and the water spilled out. Then they stopped for a while, and he said, 'We did that because you weren't being honest with us. Now we've stopped, so tell us the truth. If you don't tell us we'll do it again, and this time we'll keep doing it until we kill you.'" - "Saw Eh K'Lu" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #163, 6/99)

Falsely Accused

"At first when they captured me they asked me, 'Where do you live?' I told them that I lived in M— and that I had gone to walk to the Bu Loh Kloh [the Bilin River]. They looked at me and didn't believe me so they ordered me to follow them and said they would release me when we arrived at W—. When we arrived at W— the Battalion Commander's group [his staff] met three people from M— and they immediately accused me of being the joint-secretary [of a resistance group]. I told them I wasn't. Soon after that they [the soldiers] bound me and went to interrogate me in another person's house. They tied me, wrapped my head [in a nylon cloth or bag] and forced me to drink water. Two of them stood on me, two of them punched my sides and one of them squeezed my neck while another one poured water into my nose. After that torture they asked me how many friends I have [meaning KNU friends]. I answered them that I have no friends, I am just a villager. I was doing nothing. They still didn't believe me and tortured me. Some of them punched me, some of them squeezed my neck and one of them poured water into my nose. After that they asked me, 'Where are your gun and your walkie-talkie.' They said I must have them. They ordered me to go and find them. I told them I had nothing. I couldn't find a gun because I am a villager. Then they unwrapped my head and ordered me to tell them [information]. I told them I couldn't tell them anything. 'You wrapped my head and I couldn't breathe.' Then they ordered me to tell them again, but I didn't tell them anything, so they wrapped my head again and two of them stood on me and two of them punched my sides. They poured water on my head and my head was wet. One of them poured water in my nose. Then I asked them, 'If I told you I had those things and then I couldn't find them for you what would you do to me?' They said that there was no way I couldn't find them. "You must have them."

Then I lied to them and said, 'Yes, I have them.' I couldn't endure this anymore. Then they took me and I went near U K—-'s field and they searched for the gun there. They couldn't find anything. Then they told me, 'You said there is a gun here but now we have come and we don't see anything, so you have lied to us.' Then I said to them, 'I just told you I don't have a gun, but you didn't believe me. Now you are going to torture me again.' Then they wrapped my head in nylon again, made me drink water and punched me. U K— saw me when they were torturing me. I told them, 'If you don't believe me go and ask U K—.' Then they went to call U K— and ask him. U K— told them there was nothing there. I didn't know how to speak to them so I lied to them.

Then they took me down and asked me about H—. They said, 'You live in M--, you must know H--.' I told them I didn't know H—. I just knew that H— was one of the volunteer village heads [a KNU village head]. They said that H— was over 40 years old. 'I mean H—, the one who works together with you. The people who work together with you are H—, S—, N—, and P—. All these people work

together with you.' I told them that I didn't work together with anybody. They said, 'Don't lie to me. You are the Secretary of the organisation.' Then I told them I was not the Secretary of any organisation. So they said, 'You live in M—, you must know H—. Do you know his hill field? You must know it.' So they pushed my head down into the water and forced me to drink water. They said, 'We don't like you to answer that you don't know. H—-'s hut is there beside the river. He goes up to the river to carry water from the river.' Then they said, 'If H— is there when we go what are we going to do to you?' I said, 'If you see H— when you go there then kill me.' Then they went to H—-'s house and didn't see H—. They didn't believe me so I told them that H— had already fled since the time that #63 [IB] came, because he was just a villager. Then they accused me again, 'You reported me to the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation, shortwave Burmese language news] and the BBC announced it on the radio. Didn't you hear about that?' They said that the BBC announcement had talked about #63 coming and harming people. The said, 'You are the one who reported us.' I told them it wasn't true but they still tortured me. …

They went to see H— but they didn't see H— so they wrapped his wife's head in nylon and asked her, 'Where does your husband keep his gun?' Because she was a woman and pregnant she couldn't bear it and said that her husband kept his guns over here and over there. But the SPDC couldn't find them. They asked her, 'Where is your husband?' She answered that he had already fled. They didn't believe her and ordered her to search for her husband. Then they wrapped her head and poured water in her nose until she could no longer bear it. She went to show them at P—-'s hut. Then they asked me, 'Whose hut is it?' I answered them that this was the hut and hill field of people from K—. After that they came directly back to the person's house in W—. They also took K—-'s wife when they went. Her name is M—. They punched me when I spoke up for her. I told them they were abusing her even though she hadn't done anything. She has a little baby and doesn't go anywhere, so she doesn't know anything. They said, 'It is not your business.' And they punched me one time.

When they took me with them they wrapped my head and I couldn't breathe very well. After we arrived there they didn't ask me any questions and didn't do anything to me. … There were villagers around my village who were tortured before me and there were some people who were tortured at the same time as me. The soldiers spoke like they are going to torture people like this in every village. They spoke like that."

["Pa Taw Thu" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #152, 12/00)]

"I am a farmer. On the morning of May 10^th 1999, my wife packed some rice for me and I took the rice packet to my field to plough the field and take care of our cow. When I was already far from the village, the Burmese saw me and called me over. I was afraid, so I went as they asked. When I got to them, they didn't ask me anything, but immediately punched me on my chin. Then he still didn't say anything, and I looked at his face. He punched me once in my ribs, it hurt a lot and I fell down. Then he looked down on me and said, 'Don't you know that people aren't allowed to look me in the face?' … Then they searched my basket and saw my rice pack and chili paste. They accused me that I was taking it to the KNLA. I told them that I was going to my flat paddy-field and that I was taking it for myself, but they said I was lying to them and that they already knew from before that I was in contact with the KNLA. They punched and beat me. I can't count the number of times they beat, punched and kicked me. When I regained consciousness I heard the commander say, 'This man is not useful, kill him.' I was still laying on the ground, and I heard a sound like thunder in my head and I lost consciousness again. At the time, I didn't know where my heart was going. The Burmese soldiers thought that I was dead and left me there. At 5 p.m., I regained consciousness again. I heard my wife crying, and many people were sitting near me. Later when I got better, I saw 4 knife wounds on my body, head, neck, ribs and back." - "Saw Htay Mu" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #6, 6/99); describing an encounter with a Sa Thon Lon execution squad

"They accused me of having a gun and walkie-talkie and questioned me about my gun and walkie-talkie. I told them I am just a villager, I didn't have a gun or walkie-talkie. So they pushed me down into the water and scraped me with a knife and hit me hard. Even though I didn't have a gun I had to tell them I did have a gun. I couldn't endure it anymore so I had to say I had a gun. They then pushed me down into the water again four times and then released me. They kept me for four days. … My body was full of wounds. I didn't dare to look at it anymore. Even they [the soldiers] didn't dare to look at it anymore. When they sent me to the Ko Per Baw [DKBA] I didn't have any clothes. There were wounds on my back and on my chest. When I arrived there [to the DKBA's place] one of the officers [DKBA officers] gave me a shirt to wear and told me, 'If you arrive back home, send my shirt back.' When I took off the shirt before I went home he saw a lot of wounds on my body and maybe he thought it didn't look good, so he gave me one shirt and said, 'Wear it when you go back.' There were also wounds on my ankles because they put me in the stocks." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

Some of the abuse has become almost routine, and villagers are punched or hit for almost anything. Many Karens in the area can't speak Burmese or have only a very basic knowledge of it, but people are routinely slapped or kicked for not understanding the soldiers when they request something. Threats of abuse or death are also used. Villagers are commonly threatened with having their whole village burned and all the inhabitants killed if fighting occurs or a landmine explodes near their village. The near and distant relatives of known KNU or KNLA people are regularly harassed by both the SPDC and DKBA, particularly after there have been any engagements with the KNLA. Soldiers have also been known to fire their weapons when they come to demand porters or when they are drunk, simply to intimidate the villagers. Villagers are also poked with guns and threatened whenever the soldiers come to steal chickens and pigs, or when the soldiers want information.

"The soldiers said that if the people [KNLA] shot at them close to the villages, they would shoot [at the villagers]. Right now the people haven't shot at them yet. They said if the people shoot at them close to a village then they will not keep any of the villages nearby [they will burn and relocate them]. They are going to shoot everyone. I heard them say that but they haven't done it yet. It is a worry for the future." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

"They also come to the village and order me to collect 5 or 10 porters for them, and they only give me 5 minutes to do it. If it takes me longer than 5 minutes, they start firing their guns in the village. They've done this to me twice since I have been village head. The first time they fired off a pistol, and the second time it was a carbine [M1 rifle]. The first time was because they couldn't get anyone for 'loh ah pay', and the second time was because the people they demanded didn't come quickly enough. The first time, people were holding the Ka Daw Pway festival [a Buddhist festival] so they didn't come right away, so he fired off his pistol until the leaves of the trees were falling. He fired more than 10 times. It was the time when the Buddhist people were worshipping and offering their Ka Daw Pway, and all the women became afraid and almost threw away their Ka Daw Pway and ran. The Burmese didn't care about that, they just said, 'We want to eat your rice, not see your face.' That was Company Commander Bo N—." - "Mugha Thein Gyi" (F, 40+), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #165, 6/99)

"Sometimes when they force people to get this or that, the people don't understand their language. The soldiers then slap or kick them one or two times. … When they entered in the past, they immediately poked people with their guns and called all the families down [out of their houses]. Some of them captured the poultry and ate it all. They called and gathered the villagers and asked a lot of questions. They questioned many people to get many answers. Some villagers were afraid and answered incorrectly. Sometimes, after they questioned other villagers, they came to question you again. … They always question us a lot. When we can't answer they always say that we are contacting the Nga Pway. Sometimes we can't think and answer them when they speak like that. They said that if we lie to them they are going to kill us. We don't lie. We tell them the truth, but they don't believe us." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

"[T]he unit which has come up now has said that if they know that any of their enemies have come to our village or near our village, they will treat it as the villagers' fault because the villagers didn't tell them. If the KNU comes to our village we have to let them know at once. We can't be late." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

Rape carries a terrible stigma in Burmese culture and the SPDC has always reacted strongly when accused of rape in international fora. Whether for this reason or others, rape by SPDC soldiers appears to have become less prevalent since the mid-1990's. One woman interviewed for this report said that when she was portering, the officer in charge of the unit told her to make sure the older women slept among the younger ones to take care of them because "some of his soldiers were very terrible". The Sa Thon Lon units, however, do have a reputation for rape of young women and forced marriages, though KHRG has received fewer reports of these since 1999. Sexual abuse is also sometimes reported by children, as in the case reported to KHRG of a boy in Papun District who was molested by a soldier while doing forced labour.

"Recently there was a Baw Bi Doh [Sa Thon Lon] soldier who harassed a woman whom he liked, but people couldn't convince her to flee the village. He asked the village head to propose for him, and he said that if she didn't agree then all the villagers and the village head might be killed, and the whole village might be burned down. The woman didn't like him, so he was trying to force her to marry him. People told the woman to go and stay among the DKBA in order to avoid him. The DKBA welcomed her to stay with them, but they also liked her, so she couldn't do anything. She had to marry a DKBA soldier. If the Burmese [Baw Bi Doh] soldier knew about it, he would not have let it happen. … He was a Baw Bi Doh commander, his name is Bo T—. He is about 30 years old. He said he is single, but we didn't know if he already had a wife in his own village." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 25), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #7, 2/00)

"They raped women, and we heard that there was a young woman who did not love him [a Sa Thon Lon officer], but he ordered the villagers to give her to him and said that if they didn't give her then they would all be killed. That happened at the time when Bo S— was there, and during that time Bo S— also got a very young Karen woman for himself, even though he is not well built or handsome and he has short legs. At that time I think he was about 30 years old." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 43), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #8, 2/00)

"On June 3^rd 1999, Special Authority Guerrilla [Sa Thon Lon] commander Bo S— raped Naw M—, age 18, daughter of Saw Y— and Naw H—, from P— village. On June 5^th, he raped Naw M--, daughter of Saw H— and Naw M—, from M— village. On June 12^th 1999, he raped Naw K—, age 14, daughter of Saw H— and Naw M—, from T— village. He then threatened that if news of this rape spread, he would kill all of the villagers." field report from KHRG field researcher (Field Report #9, 8/99)

"They didn't allow them to rest. A soldier ordered one child to masturbate his penis. … Whether he dared to touch it or not, the soldier had power over him so he had to masturbate it. He couldn't make him ejaculate, but still he had to keep doing it until noontime. … He was a boy, 14 years old." - "Saw Thay Po" (M, 31), refugee from P--- village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #186, 4/00)

Extortion, Looting and Destruction of Property

"They eat the chickens and pigs, steal the goats and eat a lot. They don't give payment, they steal. Some demanded things to eat. When they can't demand, they point at the women with their guns. They are from #xx [LID #xx]. The villagers dare not say anything. They will do something if the villagers speak. Even when the villagers say nothing they point at the women with their guns." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

For many of the SPDC's officers, service in the rural areas, especially if there is no fighting, is a way of getting rich quickly. A one-year assignment in a fertile area can easily turn a profit of 5 or 10 million Kyat for a Company or Battalion Commander. This is done in several ways: using villagers and soldiers as forced labour on personal money-making projects like brick-baking, logging or fishponds; 'deducting' at least half the salaries of their soldiers and selling rations on the market; demanding forced labour and then collecting 'fees' to avoid it; arresting and ransoming village heads and villagers; and finally, through direct extortion, theft and looting. Whenever battles occur, landmines explode or trucks are destroyed, the soldiers blame the villagers and large sums of money are demanded as 'compensation'. These demands are in the hundreds of thousands of Kyat and are usually imposed on several villages at once, accompanied by threats to relocate the villages. The villagers are also blamed when the SPDC loses a gun due to fighting or desertion and have been forced to pay as much as 100,000 to 300,000 Kyat for it. Officers frequently demand that the villagers provide them with guns so they can prove to their superiors that they have fought the KNLA and killed a 'rebel' and thus secure a promotion or other such reward. Most villages cannot obtain a gun and try to pay money instead; one officer who demanded a gun in Papun District ended up taking 30,000 Kyat instead when the villagers couldn't find him a gun. A villager from Nyaunglebin District told KHRG that the soldiers demanded 150,000 Kyat for the cost of bullets they had used in a recent engagement with the KNLA. If the money wasn't paid, the soldiers threatened to block all the paths in and out of the village and relocate it. The villagers paid, but were later forced to pay another 300,000 Kyat to avoid having their village relocated. The demands are not always for money. Villages are also forced to provide chicken, pork or other things as 'fines', usually after their people have fled forced labour or the SPDC has heard of KNU activity in the area of the village.

"Yes, they shot their guns at them. The SPDC retaliated very strongly against the villagers and the village head. We have to have unity in the village. If they demand money, we give them money. If they demand food, we have to give them food. We make it easy by cooperating like that. Each time they demand 10,000 or more Kyat. If the Karen soldiers shoot at the SPDC soldiers and capture a gun, they [SPDC] demand that we give them the gun's price. For a gun, they would demand 100,000 Kyat or even 300,000 Kyat. We had to pay the gun fee one time. Karen soldiers shot them on the main road and they [SPDC] fined us over 100,000 Kyat. At that time, our Kaw Thoo Lei people fought them along the main road and captured a carbine [M1 rifle]. They [SPDC] demanded 300,000 Kyat from K— and P—. We didn't pay it and they told us, 'If you don't give us the money, you can't stay. You will have to relocate your village.'"- "Pati Htay Htoo" (M, 35), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #189, 5/00)

"They threatened us. They said that if one landmine exploded and damaged a truck, we must give compensation for the cost of the truck. If their soldiers demand a lot of money from us, then we must suffer. There is only this way. If anything happens when we are on road sentry duty, they would burn our village. They would fine us. They said that if we couldn't compensate them then they would put us in prison." - "Naw Say Paw" (F, 46), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #195, 6/00)

"They said that they had given an order that if the KNU soldiers came and shot and destroyed a truck, we must pay for it. Also our village would be burned and the village head killed. The village would also be relocated. The bridges can't be destroyed. If the bridges are destroyed they will fine us. The trucks can't be destroyed. If the trucks are destroyed they will fine us. The main road can't have any holes. If the main road has a hole we must fill it up with dirt." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"There are some people who can pay and some who can't pay. Sometimes it is too difficult to pay. Like if the people [the KNLA] come back and shoot and the soldiers have to shoot back, they have to use their bullets so they fine the villagers for the cost of the bullets. We already had to pay once 150,000 Kyat. It was from the whole village. … If we can't pay they will block the paths and we won't be able to go up and down and they will order us to move our village. The people are afraid of them. During the rainy season, in the fifth or sixth month [May or June 2000] we had to pay one time again. That time it was 150,000 Kyat. The soldiers went together with the Ko Per Baw [DKBA] and the Guerrillas [Sa Thon Lon] and went to shoot [at the KNLA]. We had to pay for the price of the bullets and other things. In order to come back and stay in our village we also had to pay money [to be allowed to move back from the relocation site]. They demanded 300,000 for that. We haven't paid for all of it yet. There is still about 1,000 left to pay." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"They accused us when their truck was burned. We don't know who burned the truck. We didn't see the logic, but they said because we stay in the village, if the [KNLA] people come then they must come past us so we should know. They hit both sides of my face, tied me up and put me in the stocks." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"They said, 'If a battle occurs on the road while you are guarding, we won't leave your village in peace. If they attack us while you villagers are guarding the road, you villagers will have to pay us.' If a battle occurs before they've finished carrying their rations, we must pay for it if their truck is destroyed. They said, 'If it happens on the road, you must pay. If you can't pay, you can't stay in your village." - "Naw Ghay Paw" (F, 40), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #185, 4/00)

"The villagers went to carry loads for the KNU recently and the SPDC knew about it. They said that we hadn't let them know that we were carrying for the KNU. They fined us two viss [32 kg / 7.2 lb] of pork from each villager who went. For the two people from my village we had to pay four viss [6.4 kg / 14.4 lb]. One of their sergeants demanded to eat one viss [1.6 kg / 3.6 lb] from me, so we had to give five viss [8 kg / 18 lb] in all. One viss is 500 Kyat, so in all it was 2,500 Kyat. For chicken it is 1,000 Kyat per viss." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

Another way in which money is extorted is to arrest villagers, accuse them of helping the KNU and then threaten to kill them unless the village pays a large sum of money. Among those interviewed by KHRG for this report, one villager who was arrested in late 2000 in Papun District had to buy his life with 85,000 Kyat. Another villager in Papun District paid 200,000 Kyat to have his father released because they said they wouldn't release him otherwise, but after taking the money they killed his father anyway. An incident occurred in 2001 in Nyaunglebin District when KNLA soldiers tried to stop a pair of bullock carts being used by the SPDC. One bullock cart was burned and another captured along with teams of bullocks. The SPDC summoned all the village heads, arrested them and accused them of assisting the KNLA. The village heads were then put in the stocks and the soldiers threatened to kill them unless the villagers compensated the soldiers with a bullock cart and two pairs of bullocks. The villagers were forced to pay.

"There are about 100 people there, just one battalion. They said that they have to come and operate here for eight months. It has now been nearly eight months. They got a lot of money and a lot of guns when they came and operated. From me alone they got 85,000 Kyat. I had to buy my life with 85,000 Kyat. If I hadn't paid it they wouldn't have let me go. … I am just a villager, but they accused me of being Nga Pway [KNLA] and were going to kill me if I didn't pay them. They came and tortured me and accused me of being Nga Pway and demanded that the villagers redeem me. They just come and work to get money." - "Pa Taw Thu" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #152, 12/00)

"They captured me on November 7^th [2000]. They captured me on the path when I was going to the hill field beside M— village. After they captured me they accused me of being Nga Pway and asked for a gun and a walkie-talkie. I told them I had nothing. They told me it wasn't true. Then they tortured me. They wrapped my head [with a nylon cloth or bag], made me drink water and slapped my face and tied my hands behind me for one day and one night. My hands are painful because they tied me for a day and a night. After that they put me in the stocks. If they don't get a gun they must get something so they demanded money. When they demanded money people came and gave the soldiers 30,000 Kyat. After the soldiers got the money they released me. It was 30,000 Kyat and one gold watch. " - "Maung Aye Kyi" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #153, 12/00)

"On September 6^th 1999 Commander M— of Infantry Battalion #xx and Commander S— of Infantry Battalion #xx combined their troops and arrived at B— village at 2 p.m. and arrested my father, M—, in his house. At that time my father was sleeping and they woke him, then tied him immediately. They tied his hands behind his back and tied his neck, then punched him and beat him with a gun. After that they pulled him to the road. The next morning the village head went to see DKBA commander K— of Brigade #xxx. He demanded 200,000 Kyat for the release of my father. He said that if the village head didn't pay the money he wouldn't release him. … [T]hey sold their cattle and buffaloes and paid money to the village head to hand to K—. After the village head paid him 200,000 Kyat, he didn't say anything, nor did he release M—. … The SPDC Army can get money very easily. They arrest a villager and then demand money, and if people don't pay them they threaten many different things. So the villagers worry about it, and they have to do what they ask, but they never release anyone. They just kill them all. The SPDC group that came and arrested my father got 200,000 [Kyat] and killed him anyway." - "Saw Min Htoo" (M, 27), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #172, 9/99)

"Sometimes they order the villagers to go on our own [carrying Army supplies] and none of them come with us. So if Karen soldiers are waiting for us and take all our things, then later they [SPDC] order us to pay them money. They said that we had to pay for their rations that the KNU soldiers had taken. We've had to pay twice already, and it was a lot of money the time that people portered from Papun. I think it was over 20,000 or 30,000 Kyat, but I don't recall exactly. There are just 30 or 35 houses in the village, and every house has to pay. Whenever people [meaning opposition forces] take their things, they order us to pay them back. Once when they ordered us to carry rice for them, when they arrived at another camp they checked it and their weight of rice was not the same as before. Some of their rice had been damaged when insects attacked it, and they ordered us to come back and replace it with our own rice. It wasn't just my village, but different villagers who went to carry for them had to replace it with their own rice. They accused us of eating it." - "Saw Doh" (M, 30), refugee from K— village, Bu Tho township (Interview #218, 4/00)

"[I]t was our siblings [the KNLA ] who came back and they took two bullock carts. The KNLA told them to stop, but they didn't stop and continued to drive the bullock carts. The soldiers shot at them so they left the bullock carts and ran away. The soldiers [SPDC] aren't happy about this. … [B]ecause they left the bullock carts and ran away when the soldiers tried to stop them, the soldiers [KNLA] burned one bullock cart and took the four bullocks and the other cart. … The people who burned the mill in the lower place and who burned the truck was them [the KNLA] but we don't like to tell about them. They said the people [the KNU] burned the truck in the L— area and that the people burned the bullock cart also in the L— area. … We had to find and replace the bullock cart which was lost and give two bullocks. … In all it was one bullock cart and four bullocks. … The next day they said, 'It is because you accepted the people like that so we are taking our revenge by making you replace this.'" - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

Whenever an Army unit leaves after visiting a village, some of the villagers will probably be missing chickens, pigs and other belongings. Some officers seem to have better control over their soldiers than others, but in general looting is a regular occurrence. Many officers make the situation worse by stealing and selling the rations meant for their troops, leaving them little option but to steal to eat. Deserters from the SPDC Army have on many occasions told KHRG that they knew it was wrong to steal the villagers' livestock and even that it made them ashamed, but that they had no choice because they were starving. The situation has also worsened since the SPDC leadership found it could no longer feed its expanding Army, so in 1998 it cut back on rations to most units and ordered them to grow their own food or take it from the villages. The chickens and pigs are sometimes stolen at night, but are also stolen at gunpoint while the officers look on. Sometimes this is done even after the villagers have already arranged a meal for the soldiers. Villagers interviewed by KHRG have said there is nothing they can say about it to the soldiers even if they dared to. Villagers who have tried to speak to the officers have only been given empty promises of punishment or reimbursement, or been told that the villager should talk to the soldiers.

"When we went and entered villages, they shot the villagers' poultry. Sometimes the people [KNLA] shot at them near a village and then when the SPDC got to the village, they glared at the villagers and shot the women's chickens. The women shouted at them but it did no good. If the women shouted, they pointed their guns at them or pulled them and beat them. They were beaten with a pole. … When they entered the village, sometimes when they couldn't get the villagers' chickens and pigs, they shot at the villagers' hands and feet to frighten them. I saw them burn one village and threaten all the villagers. It was D— village. They also burned down three paddy barns." - "Saw Shwe" (M, 36) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #191, 5/00), describing what he saw when portering with SPDC columns

"They shoot and eat poultry and steal the villagers' pigs. We've seen this with our own eyes. They don't give any payment. The people who steal like that never pay for anything. If the commander is no good, the soldiers are not good either. … I think that it is because of the commander that the soldiers steal. The commanders don't scold them or say anything to them. Sometimes the village head says, 'Commander, your soldiers are stealing things', but he doesn't care. Some of the Commander's friends [soldiers] were shooting chickens right in front of him and he said nothing to them. I guess they are all the same." - "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

"They shoot the chickens and eat them. I can't count how many. The cost must be in the tens of thousands of Kyat. One viss [1.6 kg / 3.6 lb] of chicken is 1,000 Kyat and one viss of pork is 500 Kyat." - "Saw Ra Doh", (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #199, 6/00)

"They eat the rice and everything. Also the animals such as piglets and chickens. We arrange some for their arrival, but the soldiers come and eat even more behind the backs of their commanders. Sometimes we civilians see it but we don't dare tell. We don't know what they will do to us if we tell them." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

"They do it every time. Yesterday they caught many of the people's chickens. They caught over 10 chickens. I don't know who owned them, they ate chickens belonging to all the people in the village. They ate them really. … They took the people's belongings. They went in the people's houses and took them. The owners complained to them so the soldiers beat on the sides of the houses and pointed with their guns. The people dared not say anything. They threw the villagers' chickens around and the owners couldn't say anything. … They took them freely and pointed at people with guns. You must stay quietly and don't complain to them. You don't say anything about the price. We dare not ask them. If you ask them they won't give it to you. They will show us their guns if we ask them." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

"Sometimes they called us to go in an emergency and to enter and clear a village. They asked us to kill the chickens and pigs. As a group we did this, but I never did it alone. I killed one pig in P— village. There all the soldiers stole chickens. They also beat to death one cat. The old sergeant beat the cat." - "Saw Tha Ku" (M, 21), Private from Infantry Battalion #xx, Papun District (Interview #225, 3/00)

"They come at least once or twice a day to find food in the village. One camp is in T—, and the other is in K— [K—. There are two camps and our village is between them. They come to our village to find chicken, pigs and things. They don't buy them, they just shoot them and eat them. They demand some from the village head, but if he doesn't give them, they just steal them. When the village head is forced to give them, we have to pay for them." - "Naw K'Paw" (F, 45), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #184, 4/00)

Apart from livestock, soldiers also go up into villagers' houses and take pots, plates, spoons, blankets and clothing. The villagers' only form of 'savings' in a monetary sense usually exists in small items of gold jewellery they have bought and passed down through the family, and the soldiers are quick to steal these, sometimes even pulling earrings out of women's ears. While taking his things, the soldiers told one village head that they were taking them because they were the belongings of the 'Ringworms' (KNU/KNLA). Nothing is ever paid in compensation for the valuables looted by the soldiers. Some of what is taken is used by the soldiers who are poor themselves or sent to their families, and the rest is sold for their own personal profit. Villagers are often amazed at the lack of shame of soldiers who steal their spoons and try to sell them in the next village, or steal women's clothing to send to their wives.

"They took pots, plates and many things from the villagers. They didn't pay anything. They took these things and said that they belonged to the Nga Pway [derogatory slang for the KNU/KNLA]. They spoke like that. When the villagers fled, the soldiers said they were all Nga Pway, but they were villagers. They said we were Nga Pway and had lied to them. They said, 'This house is a Nga Pway house. They come down here.' They took all the pots, plates, sarongs, clothes and blankets. They left nothing. They also took all the rice." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

Villagers who are growing fruit trees or betelnut trees have seen their fruit and betelnut stolen by the soldiers. Villagers say that the soldiers sometimes don't even bother to climb the trees but just cut the branches down to get the fruit, destroying the tree in the process. Rice storage barns are also sometimes looted. A villager from Nyaunglebin spoke of seeing 300 baskets of paddy (rice still in the husk) looted from her village then loaded onto a truck and taken away. The paddy was probably taken away to be sold elsewhere.

"During March 1999 they went to loot paddy from another village and they asked us to go and carry that paddy for them. Sa Ka #xx, Battalion #xxx, asked us to do this. It was in the S— area. There were 3 paddy barns, one belonged to N—, whom the Burmese shot dead recently. There were 300 baskets of paddy. They asked us to carry it and keep it under the monastery. We thought that they would donate it to the monks, but they didn't donate it. Later their trucks arrived and they carried it to Ler Doh [a.k.a. Kyauk Kyi]." - "Saw Shwe Pa" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #73, 3/00)

"They also eat people's coconuts and dogfruit. They don't ask for those kinds of things from the owners, they just eat them when they see them, as they like. They often cut the branches off the dogfruit trees just to get the fruit." - "Pu Kyaw" (M, 55), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #116, 7/99)

"They have come to take people's rice to eat. I know of one time. They took rice from four or five houses in the village. They also took my rice, 5� baskets [138.5 kg / 302.5 lb]. They didn't ask, they just came in and took it. They took it by force. We were in the house but we dared not say anything." - "Saw Pa Aye" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #18, 4/01)

Villagers have had their fields and plantations destroyed by the soldiers and are never compensated for it. A villager in Papun District watched as the soldiers destroyed his banana plantation so they could build a storehouse for their rice. The soldiers denied doing it when he spoke to them about it. Another villager told KHRG that the coconut trees planted by the villagers along the car road had been cut down by the soldiers to widen the car road. Again no compensation was given. The villagers count on these crops to be able to sell them to have enough money to buy rice and to pay all the fees demanded of them.

"On September 22^nd 2000, Infantry Battalion #xxx under K— came and cut them down because they wanted to build a godown [a small warehouse] to store rice for their soldiers. They cut it all down. They carried the leaves and roofed the godown with them so it would be dry. They built a new godown and ordered the people to cut off the leaves [of his banana trees] for them. They didn't pay. They also cut some from the plantation themselves. … The plantation was about three acres. I could sell one or two thousand bananas because they had a good price. I can't do anything now because they cut them all down. They also ate all of my betelnut and also our chillies. They pulled up the [chillie] bushes that I had planted last year and ate all of the chillies. I haven't eaten any. … They took all of the things from my hut. They left only the roof. I repaired my garden and they broke it again. After we finished cutting [the bamboo] and tying it together, they untied it and took it all to build their hut. We tied it again and they destroyed it and took it again. We couldn't do it again. When I went to them and spoke to them, they said, 'Let's see, we live in your garden and we destroy nothing.' They took all the planks off of my house. Nothing was left, just the bare ground [when interviewed he was going back secretly to his village to tend his crops, and the SPDC soldiers had dismantled his old house]. They told me they destroyed nothing. That time when I went to carry cane, they told me, 'We have looked after your hut responsibly. Look at it.' They had destroyed it all. There was no fruit left. I just started growing them again. There was nothing left. They never pay for anything. If it is possible we have to pay them." - "Aung Baw" (M, 50) villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #148, 10/00)

"The villagers have planted their coconut trees near the side of the road. If they [the SPDC] enlarge the road for cars [it is presently a dry season dirt road and the SPDC may be starting to improve it] they will have to cut down all the coconut trees there. They have already cut down over 50 coconut trees. The SPDC didn't give any compensation for this. … They started to build it in June [2000] and it isn't finished yet." - "Saw Tha Wah" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #146, 9/00)

Demands for Food and Money

"The SPDC, if possible, I don't want to see their faces at all. They eat. They demand things to eat. When they can't demand, they point at us with guns. When they can't demand they steal. When they can't steal they are angry. The villagers are afraid and have to feed them." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

"They demand that we help them. Sometimes they demand to eat chicken, fruit, coconuts, sticky-rice, and pork, and we have to give it all to them. They demand thatch, money, and rice, and we have to give it all. We can't do it, but we must. If the villagers don't give it to them, they have their weapons and they come to threaten us, so we must give." - "Naw Wah Wah" (F, 41), refugee from B— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #182, 4/00)

Demands for food and money are almost constant. Village heads receive demands for chickens, pigs, rice, bamboo, thatch and even things like mosquito nets. Money is demanded as spending money for the soldiers, to facilitate 'development' projects, for festivals which may or may not happen, to pay the costs of entertaining visiting Army officers, or under any number of real or imaginary guises. A village head in Nyaunglebin District explained to KHRG that if the demands are not met the letters come again, the second time in red ink. He also mentioned that in addition to the formal demand orders there are also more informal handwritten orders. The handwritten letters usually consist of requests for pork for the officers' dinner or other items which cannot be demanded officially. In some areas these demands come from the SPDC soldiers, the Sa Thon Lon soldiers and the DKBA all at the same time, making it very difficult to comply with all of them.

"There are three groups that demand to eat [to be paid money]; the Ko Per Baw demands to eat, the Guerrillas demand to eat and the columns also demand to eat. We don't need to pay every month. We have to pay when they ask." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"They send orders to the villages. They order curries and we have to send them. Here at E— camp we have to give them five curries each month, every month. They demand it from all the villages in the tract. If we cannot give it to them their letters arrive in red ink, not blue. Even if there are not regular orders there are still other orders [some orders are typed and official while others are hand written on notebook paper]. Like the last time when they had to buy mosquito nets, we had to pay for them. We have to give them everything they need." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

Soldiers demand chicken, pork, rice, fruit, vegetables, cheroots, alcohol, chillies, fishpaste, salt and even cooking oil and seasoning crystals. Sometimes the village head receives a written order to send pork or chicken to the local Army camp. Other times it is for a cooked curry. In some areas there is actually something of a system where the villages take turns sending curries to the Army camp. If the villagers no longer have chickens or pigs the village head must find it and give it to the soldiers, even if it means going to another village and buying it. A village headwoman from Papun District told KHRG how she had to search for a chicken in the night, with her husband following her and carrying their crying baby, because the soldiers had demanded it. Some of the things demanded are later sold by the soldiers for their own profit. A villager in Papun District saw the soldiers come and demand three big tins of rice [37.5 kg / 81 lb] which they then took and sold by the bowl [1.7 kg / 3.4 lb] elsewhere. Salaries were increased for the soldiers in April 2000 but at least one villager who knew about the salary increase said that it resulted in no change in their stealing and demands. A villager in Papun District reported to KHRG that the soldiers came and demanded rice from her village because they ran out of rice after selling off all of their rationed rice.

"The villagers had to give it to them for free. They demanded to eat our rice for free too. And salt and fishpaste. They demanded everything - even cooking oil and chili paste. There was nothing that they didn't demand." - "Saw Tee Maung" (M, xx), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #133, 5/00)

"In October or November 1999, the guerrillas [Sa Thon Lon] forced the villagers to kill a pig. It was about 20 viss [32kg/70lb]. They ate some and told the villagers to sell the rest. They only wanted to eat a little, but they forced the villagers to kill a whole pig. The villagers wanted to give chickens and ducks to them, but they wouldn't allow it. They demanded a pig, so the villagers had to give a pig. They are like this." - "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

"Sometimes they came around and demanded rice because they had sold all of their rations, and then if they were out of rice before their next ration shipment they collected it from the villagers. … We didn't know or see whomever they sold them to. … Maybe if the villagers knew the answer, the villagers with money could have bought some of it. Then maybe it would have been a bit easier when they ordered us to feed them, because it was very expensive to buy rice from outside and sometimes they sell theirs for a little bit less." - "Naw Say Muh" (F, 54), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #203, 7/00)

"They came and demanded some and I gave them three chickens. One was 50 tha [816 grams / 1.8 lb]. The other one was 30 tha [490 grams / 1.2 lb] and the third was over one viss [1.6 kg / 3.6 lb], because it was a cock. One viss of chicken is worth 1,000 Kyat. They haven't stolen any pigs. When Division #44 came they immediately ordered me to give them one pig. They took 10 viss [16 kg / 36 lb] of pork and paid only 250 Kyat per viss. In the village, the villagers sell one viss for 500 Kyat. It makes trouble because the rest of the villagers have to pay some money to the owner of the lost pork [to compensate him/her]. If we don't pay them, they don't have food and they can't breed animals for selling. They breed one or two pigs and had to give those, so we had to give it [monetary compensation] back to them." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"They came and demanded three big tins of rice [37.5 kg / 81 lb]. They called the porters and forced them to carry it and then they sold it. They sold it by the bowl [1.7 kg / 3.4 lbs]. One bowl is 100 Kyat. They gave us one Kyat for each big tin." - "Aung Myint Win" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #200, 6/00); one Kyat is nothing, a purely token payment

"We can't say why they have to take and eat things from the village. They have recently said, 'This year our salaries have been increased. A soldier who got 600 Kyat before, will now receive 3,000 Kyat [per month] and a soldier who got 1,000 Kyat will now get 10,000 Kyat.' They said their salary had been increased but there has been no change, they are still demanding things from us to eat." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"Even if we don't have food to eat, when they come we must feed them. They are the soldiers of the government and the villagers are poor, but they still demand things from the villagers. We can't do anything. The villagers can't ask for food from them, we must buy it when we have money. If you don't have money they never give you anything for free. They sell it very expensively. They sell it at the same price as other people sell it. They never lower the price by any Kyat." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

"He comes and demands chickens, and we have to find them for him. One time the chickens in our village were dying of a disease so we didn't have any, but even then we had to try our best to find one until it was already night time. I am a village head but I have children, and my baby was crying. My husband had to follow me carrying my baby, and my baby was crying a lot but I couldn't do anything about it, and I couldn't find a chicken but I had to keep looking until I found one." - "Mugha Thein Gyi" (F, 40+), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #165, 6/99)

"The village head says they always ask for things to eat. When the soldiers come they cook curry and ask people to catch birds and chickens and the villagers have to cook them until the oil flows [an expression meaning to put a lot of oil in the curry]. If the oil doesn't flow then they are going to throw it away. We have to be afraid of them." - "Saw Pa Aye" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #18, 4/01)

Stamp:

Frontline #x Light Infantry Battalion 26-11-2000

Column x To:

Daw aaaa (Chairperson)

By the time you receive this letter, Mother's village will have obtained 30-weight [30 viss] of pork and 3 sacks of rice for the Column. Bring to yyyy camp 30 viss of pork, whether this is one or two pigs, to arrive today. Bring the pigs alive. If it is already dark, carry a firebrand, you are informed. If [you] fail, it will be Mother Head's responsibility, you are informed.

[Unsigned]

(for) Column Commander

LIB x, Military Operations Command

The villagers are also ordered to provide the soldiers with wood, thatch and bamboo. The soldiers use some of it to build their houses and sell the rest. The logs must be cut and delivered to Army camps using elephants or bullock carts; sometimes the villagers are additionally forced to have the logs sawn into planks first at sawmills. The villagers have to go into the forest and cut the bamboo themselves, then deliver it to the camp. To make thatch they must gather dry leaves and cut small bamboo in the forest, split the bamboo into sticks and shave the rest of it into ties, then make a bamboo frame and tie the leaves onto it, ending with a thatch 'shingle' about a metre long. Army camps routinely demand 500 or 1,000 of these shingles at a time and allow the villagers only a day or two to deliver them. These shingles are easy for the soldiers to sell in the town markets for 20 Kyat or more apiece, but the villagers are never paid for them. In one village in Papun District this year, SPDC soldiers ordered each household to buy 30 shingles of thatch which had been made in another village. The village head said that although no one wanted it they had to sell it for the soldiers.

"[L]ast month the Ko Per Baw demanded thatch and the people had to give it. They demanded 100 shingles of thatch from each village. They also demanded it from M—. They went up to N— and T— and arrived at M—. They demanded but the people didn't give it to them. They also demanded it from here but we didn't give it to them. What are we going to do? The villagers are not free. They also have to build their own houses. If we give it to them, we will also have to go and carry it to them. It makes work difficult. So they demand it, but we don't give it. They haven't said anything yet, nor have they made any problems yet. We went to tell them [that the villagers don't have time to make the thatch] and they said there was no need [to make it]." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

"Now they have asked us to sell 30 shingles of thatch to each person [the soldiers either made the shingles or more likely had another village make them and then ordered the villagers to buy them]. It was this month. We couldn't sell the thatch they sent." - "Pa Tray" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #222, 4/01)

"They ordered us to cut bamboo for them. Our village had to cut 1,000 pieces of bamboo for them. The village head said each house had to give 100 bamboo so we had to cut it for them. It wasn't possible to not cut it for them. There are not many houses, only 10 houses. The village head had to go and send the bamboo to them. We drifted them down by raft on the Wah Law Kloh. After the villagers cut it for them, they demanded that people cut trees for them of 10 armspans. After we cut them they ordered us to find an elephant so we found an elephant and we had to pay the wages for the elephant. We couldn't pay so we had to pull the logs together and after one or two days we still hadn't reached their camp." - "Saw Ghu" (M, 33), internally displaced villager from T— villager, Shwegyin township (Interview #112, 4/01)

The village heads also receive demands for money for various reasons. The local battalions often demand money for building projects which is in excess of what will be needed. The leftover money then goes into the pockets of the officers. Sometimes the full budget for the project has been given by the State, but the officers and local authorities still use the project as an excuse to demand money from the local villages. Even when villagers are ordered to provided all the materials and labour for such projects they are still forced to donate money for the 'costs'. Money is demanded to build schools, monastic halls and government buildings, some of which are never built. A village head in Nyaunglebin District reported having to pay 37,733 Kyat for the building of a government office. Other times the soldiers ask for 'donations' to various things such as 'Battalion funds', 'development funds' and so on. Officers demand money for religious festivals, then offer it to the temple in the name of the Army. Village heads often try to ignore or argue against at least some of the demands because their villagers simply cannot pay them. Sometimes the Army relents, but if the officers insist and start making threats the villagers have no option but to comply or flee the village.

"Htun Aung called a meeting and when we went they collected money for making a hall [at the monastery]. They demanded 15,000 Kyat when we went the first time. We came back to stay and then they demanded 18,000 Kyat from us again. I don't remember the date. It was during Thadin Kyut [Burmese lunar month; September 28^th - October 26^th 2000]. The next time was also in Thadin Kyut. In all it was 36,000 [33,000] Kyat from M— village alone. They built the hall in M—." - "Pu Ler Ku" (M, 60), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #221, 4/01)

"Sometimes they ask for donations. Sometimes we lose the donation paper, so we don't send it heh, heh, heh, heh [laughing]. If we have to pay a little we send money to them for the least costly one [on the list]." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"The SPDC sometimes orders me to go to meetings. I go but nothing improves. Before, they [the soldiers] said they didn't need people to be 'set tha' [forced labour 'messengers'], but now they are calling for 'set tha' and demanding money for the visiting soldiers [units which are temporarily assigned to the area for operations]. We have to pay for them for six months. It has only been one month and they are demanding it again, a letter reached me just now." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

"They also demand wood and bamboo. They demanded coconuts and mosquito nets also. One mosquito net is 1,500 Kyat and they demanded four mosquito nets. Sometimes they demand pocket money of 10,000 Kyat and sometimes we have to donate 30,000 Kyat. For the building of the government office we had to give 37,733 Kyat. It is in Mone [Army] camp." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

"When they demand money we pay them. There is no way to earn money. The only way is if we have things I can sell them to you and if you have things you can sell them to me. We don't have a way for [commercial] trade. The SPDC soldiers stay nearby and have closed all the ways for trade. If you work on something they demand taxes. For example, if you are cutting bamboo or trees, they demand 3,000 or 4,000 [Kyat] for each ton. They demand it as they need it [not at a government set official tax rate]. When they demand what they need you must pay them. They don't like it if you don't pay them." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

Crop Quotas

"Now, under the control of the SPDC, all of the farmers, porters, and wage labourers want to destroy things, because they can't survive on what they can earn. Their character is being destroyed. They lie to each other, and have no sympathy for each other anymore." - "U Nyunt Shwe" (M, 51), escaped porter from K— village, Pegu Division (Interview #231, 9/99)

In Papun District, where SPDC control is relatively weak, most taxes and quotas are demanded by the military because the control of the Papun Township Peace and Development Council does not extend very far beyond Papun town. When the military collects rice quotas, some units pay a fraction of market value while others pay nothing at all. A village headwoman from the area told KHRG that in 2000 the military were demanding five baskets of paddy [rice in the husk] from each acre of flat irrigated field and one basket from each acre of hill field. One basket of paddy weighs approximately 20 kilograms (44 lb), and when milled produces about � basket of rice, which weighs 16.5 kilograms (36 lb). She estimated that they could harvest 40 or 50 baskets of good paddy from an acre of flat field. In a different township of the same district the quota was 5 baskets of paddy from each acre of hill field. This particular demand ran into a problem when the villagers couldn't specify how many acres they had and then the SPDC also couldn't figure it out (acreage is difficult to measure on steep and undulating hillsides, and villagers normally measure their field by the number of baskets of seed planted). The result in this particular case was that the crop quota was suddenly rescinded.

"This year they demanded it but I haven't seen anyone pay it yet. They demanded five baskets of paddy for each acre. For a hill field, they demand one basket for each hill field. From each field, we can harvest 40 or 50 baskets of good paddy." - "Pi San Nweh" (F, 53), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #193, 6/00)

"Right now they are doing things step by step. We don't know how many kinds of things they will be doing in the future. Now they are doing things in the Nyein Chan Yay [SPDC-controlled] area. We had to pay five baskets of paddy from each acre of hill field. Then the village head went to tell them, 'We hill villagers don't understand about field acres. There is no one to measure it for us. We don't have enough knowledge so we can't do it by acreage [villagers normally measure hill fields in terms of baskets of seed planted]. Go and see what they are doing in the big field. Some are doing two, three or four pieces [fields]. So we can't give it to you by acre.' The SPDC also couldn't figure it out so they stopped this policy. Later they ordered us to give paddy to them when we go to the Village Tract. 100 baskets are 10,000 Kyat, so one basket of paddy is 100 Kyat." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

Villages under firm SPDC control become subject to the regime's system of taxes and crop quotas. This is especially so in the plains along the Sittaung River where the control is strongest. The villagers have to deal with two parallel sets of taxes and crop quotas: the 'official' quotas decreed by the SPDC and implemented by the township and other civilian authorities, and the informal and sometimes random quotas demanded by Army units. Throughout Burma the 'official' quotas have been increasing year by year despite crop failures. The informal quotas demanded by the Army have also been increasing, because of Army expansion and the SPDC's 1998 order cutting back on rations and calling for Army units to get more of their food from the villagers.

"When we left the paddy wasn't ripe yet, but they had already ordered them to give paddy to the government. You can't stay there without giving it. Even if you don't have food to eat, you must first fulfill your obligations [pay your quota]. The Army troops gave orders like, 'You have to give, if you can't give you have to sell your house and all of your belongings, then buy paddy to fulfill it.' In previous years, the people who weren't able to pay it were put in a cell. You had to go and work for them until they had fulfilled their plan [reached their paddy collection target] and released you. Other villagers in that area had to face the same problems and they cannot escape." - "Saw Daniel" (M, 43), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #8, 2/00)

"We heard their soldiers speaking about it, but we didn't go and see. The soldiers said, 'We have to feed ourselves in the future from the Village Tract. The support [for rations] won't come again. We have to stand up and try for ourselves, so in accordance with the gathering of donations, we ask you to buy paddy for us. One Village Tract has to buy 100 baskets of paddy.' … They say that it is for the soldiers' families who are staying behind [in the rear area camps]. But we don't know how they are really going to use it [often some of the rice is given to the soldiers while the rest is sold by the officers for a personal profit]." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

In the Sittaung River plains the SPDC has much firmer control, and rice quotas are demanded by both the Township Peace and Development Councils (under the official SPDC scheme) and by the military. In Kyauk Kyi township villagers have told KHRG that the quota in 2000 was 12 baskets of paddy per acre of flatland irrigated field and that the SPDC pays 270 Kyat per basket. The ordinary price at the market however was 600 Kyat. During that same time the quota at one village in Mone township was 15 baskets per acre of paddy. According to villagers from west of the Sittaung River, similar quotas of 12-15 baskets per acre apply there. The price given by the SPDC in 1999 in that area was 300 Kyat per basket, although the market price was 600 Kyat. Not only have the prices paid by the SPDC for quota rice fallen, but corruption is rampant among the paddy collection officials and they often steal more than half of the money which is supposed to go to the farmers. Villagers who are unable to give the required quota are forced to buy paddy to make up the difference. Natural disasters, such as the floods that hit the plains in 1999, are not taken into account. A villager who tried to explain to the authorities that all of his paddy had died due to the flooding was told that even if his family didn't have food to eat they had to fulfill the quota. Failure to pay usually means being put in a lockup cell until enough paddy can be purchased to cover the debt. Quotas are demanded for other crops too. The mung bean quota has to be sold to the SPDC at 2,000 Kyat per basket before the rest of the crop can be sold on the open market for 4,000 Kyat per basket. The quota is one basket of beans per acre. People who don't sell to the SPDC first are arrested and have all of their beans confiscated. A KHRG researcher who visited the area said some people are hiding their beans in their haystacks and going out to sell them at night. One villager told KHRG that in addition to the Township PDC and the Army, Military Intelligence also demands 300 baskets of beans a year.

"They have to pay 12 baskets of paddy per acre planted. They have to send it to Shwegyin, to M---. The Burmese give 270 Kyat for one basket of paddy. The ordinary [market] price is 600 Kyat for one basket of paddy." - "Saw Mu Wah" (M, 40), refugee from K— village, Kyauk Kyi township (Interview #9, 4/00)

"They just wrote order letters, and the village head had to give those letters to the villagers who are working fields according to their registration list. Everyone has to pay them, if you don't pay they'll arrest you and lock you up in a cell. For each acre of land it is 15 baskets of paddy each year, so if you work 10 acres you have to give them 150 baskets. For example, my father-in-law has to give 150 baskets for his fields. But all of our paddy was flooded out, so we didn't have anything to give and we didn't even have enough to eat each day. There was flooding for a whole month, and all of our paddy drowned under the water. We explained to them, but they refused to understand us and just told us to pay. …Last year I had two bulls, but I was staying in the lockup cell [for nonpayment of quota] and my wife was at home alone, and I was worried for her so I sold one of my bulls to buy my release. Then we didn't have any more belongings and we had nothing to eat, and we couldn't figure out any way to survive so we fled here. … They put me in the cell until I had paid my full quota. I stayed about 10 days, but it wasn't just me. All the villagers who couldn't pay had to stay until we paid our quota. They came to call us from the village. There were 20 or 30 soldiers. They didn't tie our hands, but they took all of us back with them." - "Saw Plaw Doh" (M, 25), refugee from G— village, Mone township (Interview #7, 2/00)

"When the villagers are working the Burmese demand things to eat. They demand mung beans. They have decreed that the people have to sell the beans to them. If the people don't sell to them they don't allow the people to sell to anyone else. Mung beans are very expensive there. When the people buy them on the black market, one basket is 4,000 Kyat but the SPDC pays only 2,000 Kyat. If people don't sell to them they are arrested. … They arrest them and confiscate their beans. I saw some villagers who were hiding them in their haystacks and going to sell them at night." - "Saw Ler Wah" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher from Nyaunglebin District (Interview #5, 6/01)

"[W]e have to give depending on their quota, 12 or 15 baskets of rice for each acre. They buy it from us at their quota price - 30,000 Kyat for 100 baskets of paddy. The market price is nearly 60,000 Kyat [for the same quantity]. On top of that, they also take the stones out of the paddy and then give us nothing [the paddy collection officials say the farmer's paddy has stones and things in it, decrease the payment and pocket the difference]." - "U Nyunt Shwe" (M, 51), escaped porter from K— village, Pegu Division (Interview #231, 9/99)

"From these fields they just ask us to fulfill our duty [pay a 'tax', these are usually arbitrary and not official government taxes]. For our duty we have to give 13 baskets [of paddy] from each acre. If the harvest is good we can get 80 baskets per acre. Intelligence demands 300 baskets of beans each year. If people sell the beans outside [on the black market] they can get 4,000 Kyat per basket, but they only pay 3,000 Kyat. They said they would pay that price but they haven't paid yet. People have already given them the beans. They demand this from all the villages. They ask for it from the village tract and all the villages in the village tract must give." - "Saw Bo Lweh" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #10, 4/01)

"We can't cut wood for building a house as we like. We have to go through them and feed them first. If we don't feed them they arrest us. They don't even allow the carpenters to work freely. We are growing paddy but we can only sell it if they allow us to sell it. If they don't allow us to sell it we can't sell it. They specify the price for the paddy the villagers sell to them. The villagers can't sell to anyone else until they have sold to the SPDC. The beans are the same. They ask, 'How many acres of beans did you grow?' If you planted one acre, you have to give one basket. The government has set it at three baskets. After the villagers have sold them their obligation amount, the villagers can sell to other people. We can sell it outside [to others before paying their quota] but if they see us they arrest us." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

"This year the government is paying us 350 Kyat [per basket of paddy]. This year if we sell it outside we get only 200 Kyat so this year the Burmese lose." - "Saw Per Per" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #24, 4/01)

Stamp:

Peace and Development Council

Papun Township

yyyy Village Paying the advance money for agriculture costs

Regarding the above matter, for 2 acres of fields and 70 baskets of paddy, advance money of 7,000 Kyat, seven thousand kyat, has been transferred to xxxx village as noted below.

Stamp: Chairperson

Peace and Development Council

yyyy village, Papun township [Sd.]

(the one transferring [the money]) (the recipient of the transfer)

Name: U aaaa Name: U bbbb

NIC No.: xxxx/xxxxxx NIC No.: [blank]

Address: yyyy village Address: yyyy village

Date: 6-7-2000 Date: 6-7-2000

Translation of an order sent to a village in Papun District. This order means that the local PDC authorities have given the village 7,000 Kyat in advance for a paddy quota of 70 baskets from 2 acres which they will have to pay at harvest. This would only be for one or two farmers, not the whole village. NIC is National Identity Card, which everyone is supposed to have but many non-Burman farmers do not.

There is also a system in firmly SPDC-controlled areas of 'paddy loans' whereby a farmer can borrow money to plant his field but then must pay it all back in paddy at harvest time. At first this may sound like a benevolent form of assistance, but in reality it just locks the farmers into a cycle of debt. Many farmers are forced to use this system because they have had to pay so much in rice quotas, extortion and forced labour that they do not have enough seed for planting or money to hire buffaloes for ploughing. By taking the loan they commit themselves to paying it back in paddy at harvest time, plus their quota, which will leave them even less than the previous year. This forces them into a debt which will probably spiral higher each year. If at any time the crop fails or is small, they risk losing their land to the SPDC and being locked up.

"We have to pay, they demand one basket [of paddy] from each acre. If we do five acres we have to give five baskets. That obligation they call Ma Taung Ngway ['money advance'] and each person has to go and give them paddy. If they take 50 Kyat they have to go and give back 50 Kyat and if they take 100 Kyat they have to give back 100 Kyat. They borrow it at Mone. It is like they borrow the rice and give the rice back. They go and sell it back." - "Saw Pa Aye" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #18, 4/01)

"The SPDC asks the people to go and sell it as a duty. Some people are able to go and sell and some people can't go and sell it. They give the people money first, they call it Ma Taung Ngway [the SPDC lets the villagers borrow money to use to prepare and plant their fields which can be paid back after the harvest]. The people go and pay it back. Some people are not able to go and pay. The people who take the money have to go and pay it all back. If the people borrow 100 Kyat they have to give back 100 Kyat. If people take 50 Kyat they have to pay back 50 Kyat." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

Food Shortages

"When we stayed and worked there and produced paddy, it became theirs [the SPDC's]. They came to rule over us with guns and weapons, so we had nothing to eat and faced starvation. We were the losers. We were always busy and exhausted, but we got nothing. So we had nothing more to lose, and we fled down here and thought that this would be the best for us. It is very good for us to stay here, because we don't need to waste our energy growing paddy just for it to be eaten by the SPDC. If they can't take our paddy we are very happy, so we enjoy staying here." - "Pu Tha Ker" (M, 56), refugee from L— village, Lu Thaw township, talking about his new life in a refugee camp in Thailand (Interview #50, 4/00)

Food shortages are not limited to the villagers hiding in the mountains. Many villagers living in what should be stable villages under government control with no fighting, where they should be able to get enough food from farming, are instead experiencing food shortages. Many villagers, especially those who had been in the relocation sites, described to KHRG widespread malnutrition and hunger. Even the villagers from the fertile Sittaung River plains, where there is extensive irrigated rice cultivation, speak of having to survive on rice porridge. The shortage of food is caused by a combination of factors. Chief among them is forced labour, which keeps people away from their fields when they need to be there. Along with this, the forced labour fees and other extortion money demanded by the Army forces farmers to seek paying work as the only way of obtaining cash, which also takes them away from their fields. When work can't be found or people quickly need money to avoid forced labour, they have to sell their livestock, which takes away another source of food. The Army's regular demands for rice and other food also take a serious toll on the villagers' food supplies.

"When they came to my village, they demanded rice. When they demanded it, we couldn't live without giving it. They demanded it from every house. They came many times, and sometimes demanded one big tin of rice from each house. Many people didn't even have rice to eat. They had to borrow from their friends. After the Burmese left, they worked to pay it back. If they couldn't pay it back, they had to work for their friends because there was a lot of work to do. Some villagers are working in the morning just to eat in the evening [just getting enough to survive each day]. Each of us only worked with one hand [they could only devote part of their time to their fields due to forced labour], that's why we prepared a whole field but could only grow half a field. Mothers worked alongside their small children and got only half a field." - "Naw Ghay Paw" (F, 40), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #185, 4/00)

"It is because the SPDC is operating and we can't work our hill fields or flat fields. They are also forcing us to work. We don't have time to rest. We only have time to go and work for them until it is finished. We can't do our own work and also the paddy harvest was no good. We planted the paddy late and the paddy became diseased. They [the SPDC] also stopped the water and there was no water [to irrigate the flat fields]. We don't have enough food because of this." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

"The villages which are not close to the big town always have to suffer being forced and used as slaves for the SPDC soldiers. They don't have enough time to work for themselves. They can't work for the SPDC soldiers anymore. The villagers have had to suffer for so many months and years that they can't tell about it all when we ask them. The soldiers are always forcing them so they don't have enough food to eat. When I went, I saw that the villagers from all the villages were eating boiled rice soup [a last resort to stretch the rice supply]. They don't have time to cut the grass [the weeds in their fields] or work their fields because the SPDC are forcing them a lot. The SPDC soldiers are demanding 15 baskets of paddy [375 kg / 825 lb] for one acre of flat field and 15 or 20 baskets of paddy [375 500 kg / 825 1,100 lb] for one acre of hill field. They have to give it to the SPDC soldiers. It is not easy for them to stay if they don't give it. The SPDC columns which patrol around the villages burn the paddy barns and field huts if they see them. The soldiers say they belong to the KNU and burn them." - field report from KHRG field researcher (Field Report #16, 7/00)

Restrictions on the movement of villagers (see the 'Restrictions' section) make it very difficult for villagers to grow a full crop, and sometimes prevent them from harvesting any crop at all. For subsistence farmers, the complete failure of a crop means starvation. Villagers forced to move to relocation sites are under even tighter restrictions, and face the added difficulty of being even further from their fields. In some relocation sites even this permission is denied. The land around the sites is often not available as it is usually being farmed by the village where the relocation site is located. Paying work in those fields may be available, if the relocated villagers are allowed enough time away from forced labour, but the local farmers themselves usually do not have enough money to pay for much help. In many cases they have also lost fields because the Army has confiscated them for an Army camp or a relocation site.

"We have no land to cultivate and no money to pay, so we have to endure their forced labour and have no time to work for ourselves. We had to stop working on our own fields. If this situation continues, the villagers may starve. Now we have to eat boiled rice soup and roots because we have no time to work our fields, and then insects come and destroy our paddy." - "Saw Maw Lah" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #173, 9/99)

In at least 3 village tracts of Dweh Loh township it appears that the entire 2001 rice harvest is to be wiped out in the name of undermining the local KNLA. As described above in the 'Restrictions' section, villagers throughout Ka Dtaing Dtee, Tee Tha Blu Hta and Ku Thu Hta village tracts, and maybe others as well, were issued orders prohibiting them from leaving their villages between September and November 2001. They are not even allowed to go to their fields, and as this period includes the latter part of the growing season and the rice harvest, the entire crop will be lost and starvation is likely to begin within a few months. The order covers at least 5,000 people from 30 or more SPDC-controlled villages, and may be even more widespread than that.

"We can't go to the hill fields so all the paddy will be destroyed. We are going to starve. When everything is destroyed there is no way for us to live. We will have to go to buy rice in K—. It is difficult to find money. We have to find vegetables and go to sell them. Then we can get money and we can go to buy rice. There is no other way for us." - "Saw Mu Htoo" (M, 26), villager from B— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #239, 10/01)

"When I came here people could no longer go to their hill fields or flat fields. It is nearly harvest time, but we can't harvest our paddy anymore. I don't know what I will do. I can't eat anymore. All the paddy will be destroyed." - "Saw Eh Kaw" (M, 34), village head from H— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #240, 10/01)

The crop quotas also contribute to starvation because they force villagers into an inescapable cycle of debt. Villagers must pay these quotas or face imprisonment, and pleas of crop failures or flooding fall on deaf ears. Given the precarious nature of subsistence farming in the face of forced labour and other SPDC demands, once a farmer has to borrow to pay his quota one year, he will probably never be able to recover from the debt, which will only grow year by year. The looting of the villages and constant demands by the Army camps for food and rice further deplete whatever food supplies the villagers may have. The only way to get food once the supply runs out is to buy it, but the forced labour fees, extortion money and demands leave the villagers with very little money. Eventually many find they have sold all of their livestock, they are deeply in debt on their rice quota, they have no more money to avoid forced labour and they have no seed to plant. Despite all their efforts, they have little choice but to flee their village or face arrest or starvation.

"This year nobody has enough rice or paddy. They have to go and carry some from town. One big tin of rice costs 2,000 Kyat. Sometimes it's easy to go but sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes the Burmese give permission, and sometimes they don't. If the Burmese do not give permission for people to go and get rice, people starve." - "Maung Htun Shwe" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #124, 9/99)

"This year they don't have enough food. They do nothing. They sell their precious things to buy rice. For example: if they have a cow or buffalo they sell it and buy rice. It will be a big problem for them to stay in the future. They have asked for advice from the village leaders to escape, but they cannot escape. They cannot escape because the enemies stay around them. That is why it will be a big problem for them to stay living there in the future. They sell the cattle and buffaloes they have to buy rice and food. They borrow rice from people who have more rice. We think it will be a big problem for their lives in the coming year." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"We have to buy sacks of rice to eat. There are now villagers who have to borrow food to eat from other people. There are villagers who don't have any Kyat to buy food to eat. It is very terrible. … This year nobody has enough paddy. We can't even buy sacks of rice to eat. Nobody has money and we don't have any way to get money." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)

"This year three families [from her village] have gone to stay there [at refugee camps in Thailand]. They had to work only for the Burmese and they didn't have time to do their own work. They are poor. When they had to work and carry loads for the Burmese, they didn't have food to eat and it would be better if they went there [to the refugee camps]. They couldn't suffer being forced anymore so they left." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

Health, Education and Development

"They said they were going to use it for civilians, to send food. In our view there is nothing in this for the civilians. We have to buy everything. For example, if something is worth one Kyat, we have to pay two Kyat. We don't have enough to eat but we have to buy from them. The road is for sending food. Every year we have to go and clear it. They say that they use it to send food to the Burmese and the villagers. But we know it is not for us." - "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

Very little development work goes on in Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts. Projects that are begun, like the roads, are almost all for the benefit of the military. There are almost no clinics or hospitals in the area besides those in the major towns like Shwegyin and Papun. The few clinics which have been built in some larger villages have used forced labour and materials extorted from the villagers, then end up lying empty with no doctors or medics. A few schools have been built but support for them by the SPDC is limited, and at the same time the SPDC has been forcing the villagers to close their own small schools because they are not state-approved. In the case of one village in Dweh Loh township, the building of a school as a development project was used as the pretense for relocating villages. In another village the building of a school was used to extort money out of the surrounding villages, with the excess money undoubtedly going into the pockets of the local officers. The villagers had to pay for the workers and the building materials but much more money was demanded than necessary. Most villagers and village heads say that they have never been called to a meeting concerning the development and improvement of their villages.

"They use the car road to carry rations. When they went to the villages further up, they even used it to carry a lot of the villagers' paddy back down [paddy which has been stolen or taken as a tax from the villagers and will likely be sold by the officers for a profit]. They transport logs, paddy and cane back down. They don't buy any of that, they just take it. For two tons of logs, they gave me only 15,000 Kyat. I had to buy the fuel for the machine [the saw at the sawmill] and everything and it was not enough. The sawmill owner also didn't get any payment. They took out ironwood, teak and Kya Ghaw [a kind of tree]. They do this every year. Last year we had to transport it to K— for them." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"Don't think that they are going to give some benefit to us. They are going to make the villagers poor. They don't open ways for villagers to work, if possible they close them. They are only going to oppress us. They are eating, taking, stealing things and hurting us. They didn't build a school." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

"They are very cruel. They say to us, 'Right now there are Kaw Thoo Lei near here. If there were none, we could make a school and a clinic and help the villagers improve the economy and work peacefully.' They say that, but what they do is very different from their words." - "Pi San Nweh" (F, 53), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #193, 6/00)

"On August 8^th 2000 in the W— area Colonel K— of Na Ba Ha #x [Tactical Operations Command #x1], Sa Ka Ka #xx [Military Operations Command #xx], called together the village heads and chairmen from K—, P—, W—, N—, M—villages and made plans to build a school at W—. The school will have two floors. They planned how much wood each village would have to contribute. The villagers haven't given it though because they can't get the wood, so the soldiers are demanding money from each house and each village. There are 30 houses in M— village and each house has to pay 600 Kyat. So that one village has to pay 18,000 Kyat. In K— village, there are 134 households. Each house has to pay 1,500 Kyat. Therefore it will cost them 210,000 Kyat [actually 201,000 Kyat]. In N— village, there are 20 houses and each one has to pay 1,000 Kyat. So they pay 20,000 Kyat. As for P—, their 40 houses have to pay 700 Kyat each. It will cost them 28,000 Kyat. … They demanded the money and then forced the civilians to cut down the trees for them. The villagers also have to saw the logs [into planks for building]. It's mostly ironwood but there is some Kyaw and Th'Waw [two types of wood]. They have already cut down over 100 trees [the villagers are paying for the wood as well as cutting it down and providing it]." - "Saw Tha Wah" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #146, 9/00)

"They told us about schools and clinics. They told us to stay. If they build a hospital at K—, they will say it is a good thing, but the civilians will have to do everything [to pay for and build it]. They don't pay the workers. The villagers have to collect the money and pay the carpenters. They [the SPDC] just use their name. Everything that they have done for the school here they have used their name [but not their money or labour]." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

"Their health situation is also very bad. There is no clinic. The SPDC doesn't allow them to buy or sell medicine. When the SPDC see people carrying and selling medicine, they capture and kill them [after accusing them of supplying the medicine to the KNU/KNLA]. The villagers in that area have to die from lack of medicine. The diseases there are diarrhoea, malaria, headache and fever." - field report from KHRG field researcher (Field Report #16, 7/00)

"There is no school in our village. It's because of the SPDC. They think that if we build schools, we will become educated. If we are educated, they know that that they cannot oppress us. They can't step on us. That is why they do not allow us to build a school." - "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

The health situation does not necessarily improve once villages come under the control of the SPDC. There are hospitals in the bigger towns like Papun and Mone but they are expensive and the patients must buy all their own medicine. Very few clinics exist in Nyaunglebin and Papun Districts and the ones that do rarely have much medicine and only a few medics and no doctor. The medics in some of the Army camps may treat villagers at times, but for a fee. Occasionally KNLA medics come to the villages and treat the villagers but this is rare. Some villagers have also gone into the hills to look for treatment of illnesses or wounds from KNLA medics after being unable to get treatment from the SPDC.

"The KNU come and look after the villagers who are seriously ill and have to go far away to the hospital. The KNU asked us to get one nurse to help the village. The SPDC came and said that the nurse made contact with Nga Pway and the KNU so they arrested the nurse. She doesn't dare to come and stay in the village. She went back to her village in Bassein [in the Irrawaddy Delta]. So we don't have a nurse in T— village. The sick people can't get medicine. But some people come to sell Ever Light [a Burmese patent medicine]. We eat tree leaves, bamboo and ginger leaves [these are used to make traditional herbal medicines]." - "Naw Eh Kri Mu" (F, 34), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #196, 6/00)

"The villagers have to stand with their own energy. When you go to the hospital, they write the name of the medicine for you on paper. Then you have to take it to the medicine shop. You show that paper and they give you the medicine. … We civilians can't deal with this. We are just civilians and we have to listen to whatever the doctors say, whether they have medicine or not. If they don't inject us, they ask us to go and buy it. The female doctors [nurses] take care of the patients if there is medicine. However we have to buy all the medicine from there [the medicine shop]. There was one person who went to the hospital in June or July [2000]. He was very seriously ill. He bought 40 big medicines [intravenous drip bags such as D5W or NSS] and paracetamol. He had to stay there for over two weeks. He was sick twice. He spent 120,000 Kyat there. We don't understand why there was no medicine in the hospital. They asked him to buy it from outside." - "Saw Tha Htwe" (M, 36), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #206, 9/00)

A: Don't think that they will give you medicine. They don't even look back when they finish shooting [to see if the person is dead or just wounded]." - "Htaw Say" (M, 43), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #210, 2/01)

"Aye! Don't say that they are going to give medicine. If possible, when we go to them, we have to buy needles, drip tubes and plasters." - "Saw Kaw Kwee" (M, 23), villager from xxxx village, Lu Thaw township (Interview #212, 3/01)

"There is no clinic. We just go here and there to get treatment. Sometimes we go to the Burmese and sometimes we go to the Karen [KNU], to the people who know a little bit about medicine." - "Saw Pa Aye" (M, xx), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #18, 4/01)

"There is no clinic. In our village we have a primary midwife. We don't have the opportunity to get enough medicine. We have only a few things we can use." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

Medicine can sometimes be bought from the soldiers, who sell the medicines supplied to their units for a profit. In the shops in bigger villages, especially near the Sittaung River and around Papun town, medicine is easier to obtain. Much of the medicines available are Burmese patent medicines of the kind which make claims to cure everything from toothache and dyspepsia to paralysis, but which have questionable effectiveness. Better quality injected medicine or tablets from Thailand or China are very expensive and scarce. In some areas the SPDC doesn't allow medicine to be sold because they think the villagers will give it to the KNLA. The villagers then have to buy it secretly. The transportation of medicine is forbidden, and villagers caught carrying it for whatever reason are arrested and can be executed - even if the amount being carried is so little that it is clearly for personal use. The problem is further complicated by the villagers' lack of knowledge of modern medicines, so even when they do manage to buy something it is often the wrong one. They generally have a misplaced belief that only injections are really good medicine and will buy a random 'injection' or IV drip set rather than a more appropriate course of tablets. Most villagers now have no such choice, however, and are forced to rely on traditional medicines made from leaves, roots and tree bark.

"When the villagers see people who are carrying and selling medicine they buy a little bit. There is no market where you can buy things, only people who carry and sell things. They are the villagers from K—. They dare to come on the path because they don't have to pass any Army camps." - "Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher from Papun District (Interview #3, 2/01)

"They don't have medicine. If the villagers are sick they find a plant. To buy medicine is very expensive in Burma, so they can't buy medicine. They don't even have enough money to buy rice. They always have to work for their enemies and have no time for themselves so they don't have enough money or rice. They have to sell their precious things to buy rice. We saw one person who had to sell his wife's earrings and rings to buy food but it was not enough to buy rice." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"[S]ome people got sick. They got fevers and diarrhoea because of the bad water. They bought medicine to treat themselves. If we couldn't heal them that way, we treated them with leaves and our traditional medicines." - "Naw Hser Mo" (F, 35), refugee from N— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #183, 4/00)

"The SPDC is at that place and there is medicine there so we can buy it and get injections. If we can't buy it or we dare not buy it, the DKBA can buy it for us. They [the SPDC] don't allow us to buy it. It is because if the civilians buy medicine they are afraid we will go and give it to the KNU. We can't say we will treat ourselves." - "Saw Nyi Nyi" (M, 37), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #13, 4/01)

Access to education is severely limited in Papun and Nyaunglebin Districts. There are a few SPDC schools in the plains of Nyaunglebin District and in the bigger villages under SPDC control in Papun District. Most of them are primary schools which only reach 4^th Standard (Grade 4). There is an SPDC high school in Papun. All of the SPDC schools teach a Burman-centric curriculum based on the SPDC's versions of history and geography, with the teaching of Karen or other languages strictly forbidden. Karen children attending SPDC schools grow up illiterate in their own language unless taught by their parents. Most of the schools in the area receive at best only partial help from the SPDC. Some schools have been built by the SPDC as 'development' projects, usually with money, labour and materials all extorted from the local villagers, but teachers and teaching materials have never been provided. Teachers sent out to the area by the SPDC are usually Burmans from the city who try to escape back to the cities at the first opportunity. Some of them only stay a few months, then return to the provincial town and bribe their superiors to continue paying their salary without them having to return to the village school; they tell the parents of their students that they are going for a meeting, and never return. For those who do remain, the SPDC pays only part of their salaries. The villagers must pay the rest, provide them with food, and buy all required materials for the school. They must also hire their own additional teachers because the SPDC never sends enough for the number of students.

"Yes, three standards [grades]. It was an SPDC government school before, a primary school, but they didn't give us a teacher. They have called one 'loke tha' [a villager to be the teacher] for our village now. They give payment to the 'loke tha' but it is not full [he doesn't get his full salary; it is probably pocketed along the way]. The villagers have to give payment to one teacher. Now we have two teachers here." - "Naw Lah K'Paw Mu" (F, 48), village headwoman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #198, 6/00)

"There is no school. We send the students to M--. The students travel to M— and stay there. They don't learn the Karen language. They only learn the Burmese language. I think that next year I will build a school. We must find a teacher. They [the SPDC] will allow it." - "Pa Tray" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #222, 4/01)

"The government [SPDC] made that school. We have to pay for the children to go to school. We have to buy the books. We have to pay everything. There are three or four teachers and the government pays for two teachers. The villagers discussed it and hired the other two teachers. The government doesn't pay them enough." - "Po Lah" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #12, 4/01)

"They set up one government school in the K— area in the western part of H—. The school has 8 standards [grades]. We have six teachers but the six people couldn't work so we had to find more teachers to help them." - "Saw Ber Kaw" (M, 40), village tract head from xxxx village, Mone township (Interview #17, 4/01)

Villagers talk of having had schools before but after years of displacement and instability the schools are gone. Many of these schools were KNU schools which were closed once the SPDC took over the area. In order to provide some education to their children, villagers build their own schools, hire their own teachers and buy their own teaching materials. Occasionally they receive help in this from the KNU, but more often it is done completely on their own. Since the beginning of 2000 the SPDC Army has ordered some of these schools to close because they are not 'state-approved', but others have been left alone. In smaller villages, one or two volunteers spend part of their time teaching the children to read and write, even if the teachers themselves only have a 2^nd or 3^rd Standard education. Despite these attempts to provide education for the children, many children are still unable to go to school because their families need them to work in the fields or fill quotas for forced labour. In the face of all of the demands placed on them by the SPDC, many families would starve without the help of the children. This is especially true in the relocation sites, where the SPDC never provides any access to schooling anyway.

"In the past when we had fewer problems, we had a school. But right now with all these things occurring, it is not easy to keep one. … In the past, we had a school in every village. We even had schools in small villages like Bpo Leh, Bler Per, Bpo Khay, and Taw Meh Hta. They [SPDC] haven't set up a school for us because they think that maybe the villagers will become educated. They think that if we have a school, the children will be more educated and will fight back. The children can't study now. They have to stay with dead ears." - "Saw Than Htoo" (M, 51), village head from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #190, 5/00)

"The KNU want to come and build a school for us. We also want it. They will help us with education. If we build the school the SPDC may come and ask us, 'Did you build the school yourselves or did the KNU come and help you?' If we tell them that the KNU helped, it looks like we asked for help and that we are their spies. We don't have anything like this in our hearts. We don't want anything. We want our civilians to build it themselves. If we can build it and they [KNU] help us, we will be happy. If we have a school and they [SPDC] come to ask us about it and we answer that we built this school ourselves, we worry that they will say, 'If you built this school yourselves, right now, how many houses are in the village?' If we have only a few houses, they will assume the KNU helped us. 'If you built it yourselves, how much were the expenses for the school and the teacher?' That is why, with only a few people in the village, they will think that the KNU came and encouraged us. So we can't build a school. This is the reason. Many children want to study but they can't." - "Kyaw Po" (M, 45), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #192, 6/00)

"We have a school. It has four standards [four grades]. The students can study now and the SPDC hasn't made any problems yet, but they don't support the school, the villagers do it themselves. They [the villagers] get the books from inside Burma." - "Aung Myint Win" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #200, 6/00)

"There are about 80 houses including the widows and widowers. There is also a school and we teach students at the monastery. We have a teacher. The SPDC don't pay for him, the villagers take care of it. We found the teacher ourselves. There are four standards [grades] in the school and the students are able to study. The SPDC doesn't make trouble for them, but they never help. We always buy the books ourselves. We went to buy them in K— and they haven't said anything. They don't say anything about the students' supplies." - "Mya Aung" (M, 32), village headman from xxxx village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #202, 6/00)

"There is a school in the monastery. They teach in the monastery. The villagers made the school and looked for a teacher. … [T]he villagers try to look for a teacher in the village for their children's education. I saw only one teacher and 27 students. There are two standards [grades]. They teach in a hall and not in the monastery buildings." - "Saw Po Hla" (M, 43), KNU township official, Bu Tho Township (Interview #219, 2/01)

"I send only one to school. The others are not doing any education. They are working for food. I can't send them to school because the Burmese are forcing us to work, and in addition to that we need to get enough food for our bellies. We couldn't send them to school." - "Naw Wah Wah" (F, 41), refugee from B— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #182, 4/00)

"It is time for my children to go to school, but there we couldn't send them to school because we had to carry all the time and we had to ask our children to take care of each other. I sent my eldest son to the monastery [for education], but then I told him, 'Son, I can't send you to the monastery anymore. Cut the weeds. Your mother and father have to carry [as forced labour porters], so nobody has time to cut the weeds [in the ricefield].'" - "Naw Ghay Paw" (F, 40), refugee from P— village, Dweh Loh township (Interview #185, 4/00)

"The villagers and the KNU pay. Everybody agreed. The SPDC doesn't pay. It is a KNU school. They have to go and get the books from P—. Support for the teacher depends on the students. If there is one student [in a family], he gives three baskets of paddy and if there are two students, then five baskets of paddy. There are over 20 students. The students' parents also give 100 Kyat per house." - "Zaw Min" (M, 26), village head from xxxx village, Bu Tho township (Interview #220, 4/01)