KHRG Report: Testimony by Male Port

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Subject: KHRG Report: Testimony by Male Porters



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      AN INDEPENDENT REPORT BY THE KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

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                  MALE_PORTER_TESTIMONIES
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                        February 17, 1993
Filename: feb17_93
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The following accounts were given by two men who escaped to Karen
territory after 3 months as porters for the SLORC Army ending in
January 1993.  Their stories prove that the SLORC is still rounding
up porters from city streets as well as remote villages, and that
Army treatment of civilians has not improved whatsoever since the
Manerplaw offensive of early 1992.

The names of these men have been changed and certain details of
their stories omitted to protect their families from retaliation by
SLORC.  Please use this information in any way which may help stop
such horrendous abuses of human life by the SLORC.


NAME:     Thein Myint          SEX: M     AGE: 43
ADDRESS:  Moulmein city        Burman Buddhist, Food Peddler
FAMILY:   Wife and two daughters aged 7 and 9

NAME:     Maung Hla            SEX: M     AGE: 40
ADDRESS:  Moulmein city        Burman Buddhist, Foodshop worker
FAMILY:   Wife and two children aged 14 and 10

THEIN MYINT:  I was arrested in October while selling food on a
boat, and Maung Hla was captured by soldiers in the marketplace. 
We had done nothing wrong, they just wanted us as porters.  We both
ended up on the same truck that took us to a small jail in
Moulmein.  They kept us there for three or four days together with
over 1,000 other men.

MAUNG HLA:  About 600 of those men went free when their relatives
came and paid the soldiers 3,000 or 4,000 Kyat.  Their families
knew they were in the jail because they'd called out to friends
from the truck as it was taking us there.  But I only had 12 Kyat,
and my family is very poor.  Poor people like us don't go free.

They took us to Pa'an by boat.  There were 11 boats, with about 200
porters on each boat - altogether I think about 3,000 porters.

THEIN MYINT:  Then they took us to one of their Army headquarters,
and made us work for 5 days there.  From there they gave us loads
of shells or rice to carry.  Both of us had to carry food for the
soldiers.  I had to carry two big tins of rice in a basket.  It
weighed about 30 viss [48 kg.]

>From then on we were always carrying things from one place to
another.  We had to carry shells and other things to the front
line, and carry the wounded back.  We had to work all the time
except a rest from about 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.  At 3 a.m. the soldiers
always woke us up.  We slept on the ground.  Some men had a rice
bag to sleep on, but most of us just had to wrap ourselves in our
longyis [Burmese sarongs] and suffer the cold.  The soldiers
guarded us, or we would have run away for sure.  Sometimes they
gave us a handful of rice and salt to eat, and sometimes with a few
yellow beans.  But sometimes we got no food all day.  They never
let us get water for ourselves.  We had to wait for the soldiers to
send us for some, or ask special permission.  They always guarded
us, even to go to the toilet.  There was never enough food or
water, and we never got to have a bath.  We all got skin diseases. 
I still have a rash all over my chest, and it itches badly.

We carried for them for three months.  When we were too weak to
carry they pushed, kicked, and beat us with guns or big sticks in
our sides, in the back or on the back of our necks.

MAUNG HLA:  I was beaten on the head and the back, kicked with
boots and beaten with a gun.  Both of us were punched in the face
until we were bleeding from the mouth, and then they pushed us on. 
One porter in our group was kicked so badly that he died from it
the next day.  Many got sick and were given no medicine so they
died.  The soldiers told us, "There's no medicine for porters." 
Along the way I saw over 100 porters killed or dead of sickness,
just in our group of 200.  The soldiers made me bury the bodies 11
times.

THEIN MYINT:  Every time someone died the Captain ordered two or
three of us to bury the body.  I had to help bury 2 dead porters. 
I saw 50 men die from beatings and abuse, but there must have been
more I didn't see.  And many more than that died of disease.  At
least 50 men who were too weak to carry anymore were kicked and
left behind in the forest, or kicked down the mountainside.  That
was in our group, and other groups were the same.  Many of the men
were left behind unconscious.  The soldiers often beat porters
unconscious.

MAUNG HLA:  They had medicine for themselves, but even some
soldiers died of disease.  There was also fighting near us
sometimes, and some porters got wounded.  Porters lost their legs
from landmines, or got hit by shrapnel or bullets.  The SLORC
troops didn't even try to treat any of them, just left them by the
way to die.  There were often shells coming in near us at the front
line, and we weren't allowed to hide.  We tried to dive on the
ground but the soldiers always forced us to get up and go on.  One
time at the front line I saw 30 wounded porters, and sometimes even
more than that are wounded.

Near the front the soldiers made us go first because they were
afraid of landmines.  This made us hate them even more - we wanted
to fight them, but we had no chance.  There were 200 of us in front
in our group, and 500 soldiers following.

Finally we escaped.  I pretended I was going to a stream and ran
away.

THEIN MYINT:  I said I was going to the forest to cut creepers to
help me carry a big pot, and ran away.  By the time we escaped,
over 100 of our original group of 200 were dead, and many had tried
to run away even though the soldiers shot at them.  We don't know
if they got away or not.  In the end, there were only seven of our
original group left and we heard that we were going to  be sent to
the fighting again, so we ran.  I got to a village, and a monk
there led me to Thailand.

After all this time, I have no idea how my family could be
surviving.  They probably think I'm dead by now.


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Karen Human Rights Group
Box 22
Mae Sot, Tak 63110
Thailand

(Email for the KHRG sent to strider@xxxxxxxxxxx will be forwarded
to them)