[Note: Some details have been omitted or replaced by ‘xxxx’ for Internet distribution.]
Following are the direct translations of some written orders sent from SLORC Army units to Karen villages in Pa’an District of central Karen State, southeastern Burma. They include demands for villagers to do forced labour as porters, at Army camps and on the Pata - Daw Lan road, demands for food, extortion money, bullock carts and building materials, demands for villagers to provide their rice quotas to the Army and threats against those who fail to comply, and orders issued to villages by the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which is allied with SLORC) demanding supplies. Some are simply a summons for village elders to attend ‘meetings’ - these meetings at army camps are to dictate forced labour and extortion payment demands, and even though the Camp may be 3 to 5 miles away a 60-year old elder is expected to drop everything and walk there. As a result, many village elders fail to attend them, which only leads to further threats of ‘action’ against the elders and the village.
For background on the current situation in Pa’an District, see "Abuses and Relocations in Pa’an District" (KHRG #97-08, 1/8/97). For every order reproduced here, hundreds more are issued every week; these should be seen only as a small representative sampling. Most of these orders were handwritten, some typed, and carbon-copied if sent to more than one village. They were issued by local Army commanders and Law & Order Restoration Councils (LORCs), which are local-level SLORC administration at the Township, Village Tract and Village level. A village tract is a group of villages making up a subarea of the Township and used as a local administrative unit. While the Township LORC consists of SLORC officials under direct military control, the Village LORC members are appointed, often against their will, by the local military. They are responsible for providing forced labourers, money, materials, intelligence etc. as demanded by the military and the Township LORC, and they are the first to be arrested and tortured if they fail to do so; this is what is meant by the commonly appearing phrase "should you fail the responsibility will be yours".
Orders #18-25 concern the paddy quotas which all villagers are forced to sell to SLORC every year at only 20-25% of market price (paddy is unmilled rice; two to three baskets of paddy are required to get one basket of milled rice). These quotas, which are constantly increasing even in bad crop years, drive many farmers into starvation. Those who cannot pay quota must buy rice on the market to sell to the SLORC or face arrest; others have no rice left to seed their fields the next year and must take out a ‘loan’ of seed rice and other materials from SLORC, which they must pay back in paddy. When the quota increases again or the crop fails and they default on these loans, the Army confiscates their land.
Village names, people’s names and Army camp names have been replaced with ‘xxxx’ or ‘yyyy’ where necessary to protect villages from retaliation. Photocopies of the Burmese originals (with the same details blacked out) are available from KHRG upon approved request. We have attempted to accurately reproduce the visual page layout of each order, and underlining, etc. are as they appear in the order. ‘Stamp:’ gives the translation of the unit stamp affixed to many of the orders. Italic text in square brackets has been added by KHRG for clarification where necessary. Note that Burmese grammar is very different from English, and therefore some of the phraseology sounds awkward because we have tried to reproduce the wording as exactly as possible.
As in the originals, numeric dates are shown in dd/mm/yy format. Many orders call for ‘loh ah pay’, which we have translated literally as ‘voluntary labour’, though it is the term used by SLORC to call for forced labour. The term ‘wontan’ also appears frequently; it translates as ‘servant’, and is used by SLORC to refer to porters and other forced labourers. ‘Operation servants’ specifically means military porters. Some of the orders refer to ‘rotation’ or ‘permanent’ servants; this refers to the quota of porters and Army camp forced labourers which villages have to provide to every Army camp at all times, rotating the people every 3 to 7 days. The orders are almost all addressed to village elders, who are usually addressed with the correct honorific ‘U’; however, some orders refer to them as ‘Ko’, a common form of address for a young man, which is very disrespectful to a village elder. LIB = Light Infantry Battalion; IB = Infantry Battalion; LORC = Law & Order Restoration Council, SLORC’s local and regional administration.
Topic Summary
Army Camp / portering forced labour (Orders #1-10,12), forced labour on Pata - Daw Lan road (#11), arbitrary detention (#16), demands for bullock carts (#13), demands for money (#14,15,16), demands for rice (#14,17), paddy quota demands (#18-25), demands for Army camp building materials (#27), summons to meetings (#10,12,19,22,23,25, 27-37,40-46), DKBA orders demanding supplies/carts (#47-49).
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Order #1
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Date:
9/7/97
Column #2
To:
Chairman - U xxxx
xxxx
village tract
Subject: Send 20 servants quickly on rotation
Chairman U xxxx must collect 20 rotation servants from xxxx village tract as soon as you get this letter and take them to the Column Commander at xxxx before 4 o’clock. Come together with 7 days of supplies for the servants. The Column Commander wants to see U xxxx, so come together [with them]. If you fail it will be your responsibility, Chairman.
1) xxxx
[Sd.]
2) xxxx
(for)
Column Commander
3) xxxx
Column
#2
4) xxxx
xxxx
village
5) xxxx
LIB
#xxx
6) xxxx
Quickly collect the requested number from the villages.
[The 6 villages listed at the bottom of the order are those comprising this village tract. ‘Rotation servants’ means they will have to be replaced with new ones at the end of the 7-day shift.]
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Order #2
Stamp:
10-4-97
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
To:
Chairman
xxxx
village tract
Subject: Calling for operation servants [porters]
xxxx village tract was called to send 10 servants to xxxx monastery on April 10th ’97, but failed to send [them]. As soon as you receive this letter, the Chairman himself must send 10 servants to xxxx. (Second notification.)
[Sd.]
(for)
Battalion Commander
Frontline
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
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Order #3
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
9-4-97
Column #1
To:
Chairman
xxxx
village tract
Subject: Calling for operation servants
To release 10 servants from xxxx and xxxx, send 10 servants from xxxx village tract to xxxx monastery today for the use of Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion. If you fail, there will be severe punishment.
[Sd.]
(for)
Battalion Commander
Frontline
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
[The Battalion is currently holding 10 villagers as ‘permanent’ porters and wants them replaced with new ones; the villagers being held will not be released until their replacements arrive.]
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Order #4
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Date:
2/7/97
Column #2
To:
Chairman - U xxxx
xxxx
village tract
Chairman U xxxx must come and change 18 servants on the 9th and all must have their own supplies.
[Sd.]
LIB
#xxx, Column 2
Column
Commander
xxxx
village
[This is an order to bring replacements for 18 villagers being held for forced labour. Everyone must take their own food and any needed tools along with them.]
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Order #5
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx IB
19/5/97
Column 1
To: xxxx [village] upper quarter and lower quarter
Send 2 voluntary servants [‘loh ah pay wontan’] from your village to the camp before tomorrow evening (20/5/97), the headman must bring them himself.
[Sd.]
Lt.
xxxx
xxxx
Camp Commander
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Order #6
Stamp:
#xxx LIB
To:
Village Head 2-4-97
Company
xxxx
[village] lower quarter
Send 2 permanent servants to xxxx camp today, and the village head himself must
come along.
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Camp
[‘Permanent servants’ means ‘permanent porters’; each village is required to supply a certain number of people for this at all times, staying at the Army camp and rotating on shifts of 3 to 7 days duration.]
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Order #7
To: Chairman
xxxx Village Tract
Date:
16-3-97
Subject: Send voluntary labour
Regarding the above subject, send 10 voluntary servant labourers from xxxx village tract at 2 p.m. on 16-3-97 to xxxx village without fail. To repeat: absolutely without fail.
[Sd.]
Column
1
#xxx
Light Infantry Battalion
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Order #8
To: xxxx village 8-4-97
Dear gentlemen,
As soon as you receive this letter, send 4 voluntary servants from xxxx village today by 4 p.m., bring them yourselves to xxxx camp.
[Sd.]
xxxx
Camp
8-4-97
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Order #9
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
To: Village
Tract Chairperson
1-4-97
Company #1
xxxx
Village Tract
Send 20 male voluntary servants to xxxx camp today together with a village elder of xxxx village tract, when you receive this letter.
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Camp
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Order #10
Stamp:
10-4-97
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
To:
Chairman
xxxx
village tract
Subject: Calling for a meeting
1) To discuss issues of operation servants and security matters, come
to xxxx Army Camp at 10 o’clock on 11-4-97 without fail.
2) Should you fail, action will be taken.
[Sd.]
(for)
Battalion Commander
Frontline
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
[‘Operation servants’ means forced operations porters, and ‘security matters’ means village elders being forced to report opposition movements to the Army camp and villagers being forced to do sentry duty.]
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Order #11
To: Chairman
Date:
30-10-96
xxxx village
xxxx village tract
Subject: Doing repair and maintenance on Daw Lan - Pata road and bridge
1) Regarding the above subject, the gentleman’s [i.e. your]
village tract has not finished work on roads and bridges such as smoothing the road and
clearing the scrub along the road. Therefore, as soon as you receive this letter come to xxxx
Army Camp and report.
2) If you fail it will be your responsibility, sir.
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Army Camp
Frontline
LIB #xxx, Company #1
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Order #12
To: Chairman
xxxx [village] upper quarter
The Township LORC authorities will hold a meeting on April 30th at xxxx monastery, so come before 6:00 a.m.
[Note in different handwriting:] Come together with one servant.
[Sd.]
(for)
Column Commander
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Order #13
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion
To:
Chairman
Date:
7-5-97
Column #1
xxxx
village tract
Subject: Send 10 bullock carts
Ten bullock carts from your village tract must be sent to xxxx Camp at 5 p.m. today (7-5-97) without fail. If you fail you are warned that action will be taken.
[Sd.]
(for)
Column Commander
Frontline
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Column
#1
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Order #14
Dear village headperson,
When this letter is received, send 5 baskets of rice and 1,000 Kyats for village expenses in advance, before the full moon of Ta Baun [late March 1997].
Stamp:
[illegible] Village LORC
Hlaing Bwe Township
[Sd.]
[illegible]
Village Tract - Chairman
Village
Tract Law & Order Restoration Council
Hlaing
Bwe Township
Karen
State
[‘Village expenses’ just means taxes or extortion money for the military.]
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Order #15
To: Ko xxxx 23-3-97
Ko xxxx who brings this letter will take 4,500 Kyats from you for servants’ fees. It is very important, so find it quickly. Give it to him today, I notify you.
Stamp:
#xxx
Infantry Battalion
Column
#1 Headquarters
With Remembrance,
Sgt.
xxxx
Frontline
IB #xxx
(I’m
the Sergeant from the sniper troops, remember me?)
[Sd.]
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Order #16
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion
24/3/97
To: xxxx village
I write this letter to the Chairman or other person responsible for the village. The owner of the buffaloes has arrived at our Camp. When you receive this letter, he will have to wait until tonight. Send the value without fail. If [you] come, bring money together with you; for each buffalo it is 2,000 Kyats, bring money for 8 buffaloes and come tonight. If you fail to arrive tonight, we will send [the buffaloes] to the Column at xxxx Camp tomorrow early in the morning, so do not fail.
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Camp
[Apparently the SLORC column has captured and held 8 buffaloes, the owner has arrived at the camp to get them back but SLORC won’t release them without payment of 2,000 Kyats for each. They’ve detained the owner to make sure they get the money, and sent this message to the village head to send the money or face loss of the buffaloes and continued detention of their owner. If they’re sent to the column at xxxx Camp they’ll presumably be killed and eaten. This is a common means of extortion used by SLORC Army units.]
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Order #17
Stamp:
Date:
14-2-97
#xxx Infantry Battalion
To:
xxxx village leader
Company #2
xxxx
[village] lower quarter secretary
I write this letter to you, U xxxx. The subject is that xxxx village tract is requested to provide 40 baskets of paddy for our Company’s fund. The Secretary of the village will pay the money for 7 baskets of paddy at the rate of 230 Kyats [per basket].
The Secretary’s village [tract] must collect 7 baskets per village and send them to xxxx Army Camp before 16-2-97, we ask you please. (Without Fail.)
With
Respect,
Yours,
[Sd.
/ 14-2-97]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Army Camp
[The secretary of the village tract is being ordered to collect 7 baskets of paddy from each village and provide a total of 40 baskets to the Army camp, and the secretary has to find the money himself to pay the villagers for these baskets of paddy.]
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Order #18
Subject: Matters of buying paddy rice
1) xxxx village and xxxx village of Hlaing Bwe township, the mobile paddy purchasing group will come to each village for a week, so these villages must prepare and sell the full remainder of their paddy quotas.
2) Therefore, each village tract must prepare and urge the farmers to sell their quota paddy rice, as well as the remaining paddy rice to be sold to the mobile paddy purchasing group, within a week.
[Sd./
xx/2/97]
(for)
Chairman
(xxxx,
secretary)
Copies to: Myanmar Agricultural Products Trading, Hlaing
Bwe town
Office
copy
Chairman
[Note: in item 2, the ‘remaining’ paddy rice in addition to quota may refer to quota rice still owed from last year, interest on government loans to be paid in paddy, or additional rice to be given for some other reason.]
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Order #19
Stamp:
Township
Law & Order Restoration Council
Township Law & Order Restoration Council
Hlaing
Bwe Town - Karen State
Hlaing
Bwe town
Ref.
No. xxx / xxx / TLORC (HB)
Date:
1997 February xx
To: xxxx
Hlaing Bwe Township
Subject: Selling quota paddy rice to the mobile paddy-buying team
The villages are required to carry out their duty to sell 1,300 baskets of paddy to the Hlaing Bwe Township xxxx mobile paddy-buying team within a week.
[Added handwritten note:] The Village LORC Chairman himself must come to xxxx on xx-2-97 at 10 o’clock without fail.
[Sd.
/ 25-2-97]
Copies to: Office
(for)
Chairman
Chairman
(xxxx
- Secretary)
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Order #20
| xxxx [list of 8 villages xxxx making up this xxxx village tract] xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx |
210 + 30 = 120 + 15 = 80 145 + 15 = 135 + 15 = 125 + 15 = 355 + 35 = 125 + 25 = |
240 [baskets of paddy] 135 80 160 150 140 390 150 |
1295 |
1445 | |
| 1445 |
xxxx village tract, including 8 villages, quota paddy must be increased by 150 baskets. The increased paddy quota must be according to the plan of the xxxx village chairman.
[Sd.]
Frontline
#xxx IB, Column #1
[This order shows that the initial quota of 1,300 baskets demanded from the villagers (see Order #19 above) was suddenly increased to 1,445 baskets by the local Infantry Battalion. The village tract chairman was given orders to allocate the additional quota which must be given by each village of the tract. Note that xxxx quarter (the village quarter paying 80 baskets), which was already paying less than the others, has also been exempted from the increase. It is the only Burman village in the tract; all of the other villages are Karen.]
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Order #21
Stamp:
xxxx Village Law & Order Restoration Council
Hlaing
Bwe Township
xxxx [village] upper quarter and lower quarter
The matter of selling rice:
Regarding the matter mentioned above, send the rice to fulfil the remainder of the quota. Do not fail. If you fail the responsibility will be yours, gentlemen.
[Sd.]
xxxx
Village - Chairman
Law
& Order Restoration Council
Hlaing
Bwe Township, Karen State
============================================================
Order #22
To: Ko xxxx
The Battalion Commander is very angry with you.
Your village quota of paddy rice has to be given by your village. xxxx and yyyy village tracts have to sell [paddy] according to the Army plan. Therefore the Battalion Commander said you must not include the paddy quotas of xxxx and yyyy in the village quota lists. You yourself also come immediately and meet the Battalion Commander as soon as you receive this letter.
That is all. Your behaviour is not reasonable.
Place: xxxx
Stamp:
[Sd.]
Date: 5-3-97
#xxx
Infantry Battalion
(for)
Battalion Commander
Column
1 Headquarters
Frontline
IB #xxx, Column 1
[This order decrees that the two villages are not to be recorded as having paid their paddy quotas, and appears to indicate that the matter of collecting their paddy is now being taken up by the Army Battalion instead of the LORC, which means serious retaliation if the villages fail to pay. ‘Ko’ is a very disrespectful way to address a village elder.]
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Order #23
Stamp:
Village Law & Order Restoration Council
xxxx, Hlaing Bwe township
7-3-97
Secretary
xxxx
The matter of paddy rice selling and buying:
Regarding the above subject, come and meet me as soon as you get this letter to discuss the abovementioned issue.
Your absence is absolutely forbidden.
If you fail, it will be your responsibility alone, sir.
[Sd.]
Chairman
xxxx
Village Law & Order Restoration Council
Hlaing
Bwe township, Karen State
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Order #24
[The following is a blank form used to demand quota paddy rice from villagers.]
To: Mr./Mrs.
Village Tract
Subject: Notification to sell quota paddy rice
Regarding the above subject, Hlaing Bwe Township , village tract, field no. ( ), owner Mr./Mrs. is requested immediately to sell quota paddy rice to the state from your rice field of ( ) acres, ( ) baskets of paddy to the paddy purchasing group.
Date: 199 year, ( ) date.
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Order #25
Township
Law & Order Restoration Council
Hlaing
Bwe Town - Karen State
Ref.
No. 106 / 3-5 / TLORC (HB) / 1324
Date:
1997 April 8th
To: Chairman and Clerks
xxxx Quarter/Village Law &
Order Restoration Council
Hlaing Bwe Town
Subject: Calling for a monthly coordination meeting and ceremony for granting service charges for rainy season paddy loans
Hlaing Bwe Township Law & Order Restoration Council and Quarter/Village Law & Order Restoration Councils will hold a monthly coordination meeting and hold a ceremony for the granting of service charges for rainy season paddy loans at 10 o’clock on 11-4-97 at Hlaing Bwe Township Law & Order Restoration Council meeting hall. Therefore Quarter/Village Law & Order Restoration Council Chairmen and Clerks are invited to attend without fail (Without Fail).
Note: Bring along the chairmen of the village bank committee.
[Sd.]
Chairman
(Pa/2789,
Ngwe Htun Oo)
Copies to: Office
Chairman
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Order #26
Stamp:
23-4-97
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Subject:
Permission to cut wood
Company #1
1) The 4 schools of xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, and xxxx villages of xxxx village tract are allowed to cut down 200 logs from xxxx / xxxx forest for the school buildings.
2) It is recommended that xxxx village tract chairman U xxxx arrange to carry 200 logs with 200 bullock carts.
3) This permission is effective from April 25th ’97.
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
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Order #27
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
To:
Village Head
27-4-97
Company #1
xxxx
Village Tract
Subject: Calling for a meeting
xxxx village tract leaders must attend a meeting at 8 a.m. on 28-4-97 at xxxx camp. Therefore come and attend. When [you] attend the meeting, bring nyi [shaved bamboo ties].
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Camp
[The ‘nyi’ are for use in maintaining the Army camp.]
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Order #28
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
To:
Village Head
29-4-97
Company #1
xxxx
village
Subject: Calling for a meeting
TLORC members will hold a meeting with village leaders. Therefore xxxx village leader, go pa ka [temple lay helper] leaders, and local administrative leaders [eg. USDA, militia, firefighters] must come to xxxx village at 8 a.m. on 30-4-97.
Place of meeting: xxxx village
To be held on: 30-4-97
Time:
Morning
8 o’clock
[Sd.]
Camp
Commander
xxxx
Camp
============================================================
Order #29
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #1 Headquarters
To:
Chairperson
xxxx
lower [quarter] village leader and go pa ka group
Subject: To meet the Battalion Commander
Regarding the above subject, the Battalion Commander informs you to meet at xxxx upper quarter as soon as you receive this letter. Should you fail to come, the responsibility will be on you.
Place: xxxx upper quarter
[Sd.]
Date: 7-3-97
(for)
Battalion Commander
Frontline
IB #xxx, Column 1
============================================================
Order #30
To: U xxxx
As soon as you receive this letter, come and meet the Battalion Commander and do not fail. Should you fail it will be U xxxx’s responsibility.
Come before March 5th at 10:00 a.m.
Place: xxxx
Stamp:
[Sd.]
Date: 5-3-97
#xxx
Infantry Battalion
(for)
Battalion Commander
Column
1 Headquarters
Frontline
IB #xxx, Column 1
============================================================
Order #31
Stamp:
Frontline LIB #xxx
Column 1 / 20-6-97
To:
U xxxx
Chairman
xxxx village
To meet the Battalion Commander, come to xxxx village now.
[Sd.]
(for)
Battalion Commander
Intelligence
Officer
============================================================
Order #32
Stamp:
19/5/97
Frontline #xxx IB
Column 1
To: xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx [list of 8 villages]
All headmen, come to the camp on the morning of 20/5/97 to attend a meeting at xxxx camp.
[Sd.]
Lt.
xxxx
xxxx
Camp Commander
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Order #33
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx IB
Column 2
To: Mrs. Headperson
xxxx lower quarter & yyyy [villages]
- I write a letter
- When received, come together with the courier to xxxx immediately without fail.
[Sd.]
Capt.
xxxx