ILO: FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA-35

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

[ILO COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA, SLICE
35]

108

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            40, male
Family situation:   Married with two daughters and one son
Occupation:         Farmer
                    State (village had 35 families and a       
                    population of over 200; forcibly relocated 
                    with all his family to Shadaw in July      
                    1996)

The witness left Myanmar in July 1996. Before his village was
relocated, he was a porter for the army on innumerable
occasions. The first time was ten years ago. The second three
years ago. The assignments lasted from one to ten days. He had
to sleep in the forest. The village head transmitted the
orders of the military to him. Only the men were porters,
including children aged about 15 and older people (over 60).
The number of porters depended on the number of soldiers. For
100 soldiers, 40 porters were required. For 200 soldiers, 80
porters were required. He had to carry munitions. The day
began at 6 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. He was only allowed one
meal a day. The ration was always inadequate. He was not paid.
He saw one battle seven years ago near his village against the
KNPP. During the battle, the porters had to stay with the
soldiers. No porter was killed. He had not personally been
subjected to ill treatment. However, other porters had been
beaten. He had seen one porter who had tried to escape being
caught by the soldiers. He was tied to a tree and had to stay
like that all night after being beaten and kicked. He had been
moved to the relocation site in July 1996. The village head
had told him of the relocation order and the deadline. Anyone
who stayed in the village would be shot on sight. He stayed at
the relocation site for about thirty days. He was forced to
work about five days during that time. The village head told
him what work he had to do. He mainly had to cut wood and
bamboo and build fences. He had to work for whole days at a
time. Between 20 and 60 people, including women, children
(eight years of age) and older people (over 70 years of age)
were working at the same time as him doing the same jobs. He
was not paid. He could pay a substitute to do the work in his
place. He did not do so because he did not have the money. If
workers did not find a substitute or did not pay a bribe, they
were generally punished by being imprisoned for three days and
then forced to work. He was not beaten personally but he saw
two people who were beaten because their work did not satisfy
the soldiers. The rest of the time, he had no work. He was
able to go back home twice to fetch food.
                       ____________________

109

Ethnicity:          Shan
Age/sex:            34, male
Family situation:   Nine (him, mother, two sisters, wife and   
                    four children)
Education:          6th Standard
Occupation:         Collected and sold firewood, etc.
                    (Shwenyaung had about 6,000 households,    
                    400 in his ward)

The villagers in his Shwenyaung had to do a lot of forced
labour and portering. If someone did not go for portering when
ordered, they would be arrested and forced to pay a fine of
3,000 kyat. If they did not have this much money, as was often
the case, property to that value would be taken. If an
important person visited, the people would be forced to clean
up the village. The first forced labour he did was
constructing a railway line from Shwenyaung to Yatsauk
(Lawksawk) in 1992/3. This work started in 1991, but the
preliminary clearing work, etc. was done by rural villagers,
and only when larger numbers of workers were required did the
army start to use urban dwellers such as people from
Shwenyaung. The order was given to the Ward LORC (YaWaTa) by
the army, and the Ward LORC (YaWaTa) ordered one person from
each household to work without fail. Those households who
could not send anyone had to pay 150 kyat. He saw hundreds of
people working on the railway line. Shwenyaung was split into
groups, and one person from each household in the group would
have to do forced labour one day per week, with people from
different groups working on different days, by rotation. The
workers would have to take their own food, and would not be
able to return from the work site until late at night. This
work went on for a year, but he only did it himself for two
months, after which he paid money so he wouldn't have to go,
as it was affecting his income. He was only able to afford to
pay this money for a month, after which he neither did forced
labour, nor paid money. He was in constant trouble because of
this, and was called to see the authorities several times, but
managed to avoid arrest. The authorities threatened that if
someone didn't do forced labour, or pay their fine, they would
be arrested and locked up. He saw both women and men doing the
work, ranging in age from 13/14 to 60/70. The workers were not
beaten, but one person was forced to go from each household,
regardless of the situation, so this is why women, children
and old people had to go (about half the workers were women).
The work he had to do was building an embankment, digging and
levelling the ground, and breaking rocks. The workers were
collected and taken to the work site in trucks, but they had
to find their own way home, late at night. If workers were
sick, they did not receive any treatment. If they did not
complete their work assignment in time, they would have to
come back the next day. He didn't see anyone beaten when doing
forced labour, but he himself was beaten during portering. The
next type of forced labour he did was also constructing a
railway, this time from Shwenyaung to Namhsam. This was in
1995 or 1996. The work was the same as before, and was
arranged in the same way. He did this work himself for the
first two weeks, then sent his 13-year-old son for the
following two weeks. After that he paid 150 kyat per time to
avoid going. He paid this money for three months, then could
not afford to any more. Then he neither paid nor worked, and
was constantly in trouble. The railway line still was not
finished. The next forced labouring he did was portering. He
started on 17 November 1997. The order again came from army to
the Ward LORC (YaWaTa). The order required 40 porters from
Shwenyaung, and the residents had to come to the LORC office
and draw lots. Five porters were required from his ward (he
was one of those chosen). It was possible for those chosen to
be porters to pay 3,000 kyat to be exempted; officials would
then use some of this money to hire a substitute. He did not
have money so he had to go. The lottery to choose porters took
place at 8 a.m., and those who were chosen were detained in a
military-owned movie house; this was where all the porters
were collected from the different wards, a total of about 60
people. He had to send his wife to bring some personal items
from their house. They were not informed of the period that
they would be away. At 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. they were moved from
the movie house and taken by truck to a military camp in
Loikaw, and kept in the lock-up there. They spent one night in
the lock-up and were then sent by truck at about 7 a.m. to the
Shadaw area. They spent one night there, then at 6 a.m. the
next morning they were taken to the Salween river. They
crossed the river with motor boats. Once on the other side of
the Salween, the porters were given their loads (rice,
ammunition, and other supplies); he had to carry rice. At this
time two porters threw down their loads and ran away. The
soldiers shot at them, but did not hit them. The soldiers and
porters walked for the rest of the day, then slept in the open
beside a stream that night. They continued walking the next
morning and arrived at Meh Te in Kayah State (a village which
has been relocated and burned). At this point one porter was
unable to continue as he was delirious from a sore leg and
shoulder pain. Three or four soldiers began kicking him and
beating him with rifle butts, until his face was badly injured
and blood was coming out of his mouth. A soldier with two
stripes then pointed his gun at the porter and was about to
shoot him when the commanding officer intervened. The porter
was forced to continue, but was given a military backpack to
carry instead of his load. That night at around 8 p.m. they
arrived at Kyauk Tat Kwe army camp (battalion 261). The
porters then had to cook (for the army as well as for
themselves, but separately). The porters were given one
condensed milk tin of rice to cook between two people. They
were not given any curry or salt or anything with the rice.
That night it rained. The porters had to sleep on the ground
under the house where the soldiers stayed. They left at 6 a.m.
the next morning. On the way, some of the porters who were
about 60 were beaten by the soldiers because they could not
keep up. At 6 p.m. they arrived at the top of 3222 Hill (named
after the elevation), and slept the night. The next day they
left again at 6 a.m., and went to Sin Taung ("Elephant Hill").
They had to walk the whole day to get there, and they stayed
one night. The next day at 6 a.m. they went to Tin Shu Hill,
and arrived at about 1 p.m. On the way, one man was tired and
could not continue. The soldiers beat and kicked him, and
burned him with cigarettes. Then he was tied up and thrown by
the side of the path (he later heard that someone had been
sent to get him, but he does not know for sure whether this
happened). At Tin Shu Hill they stayed two nights (rested for
one day). Then they set off back to 3222 Hill, carrying a
soldier who had a bullet wound. On the way back they stopped
at Daw Taket (a supply base) and picked up some rice to take
back to Tin Shu Hill. They stopped for the night at about 10
p.m. at a village known as Thit Set ('Saw Mill'). The next
morning they left at 6 a.m. and went to Tin Shu Hill, via Sin
Taung. They stayed one night at Sin Taung (where one porter
managed to run away). The next day they got back to Tin Shu
Hill and rested there for a few days. After this rest they set
off with heavy loads for another hill (he does not remember
the name). On the way he began suffering from malaria, and was
beaten with a rifle butt by a soldier because he could not
keep up. They did not reach their destination that night, and
had to sleep the night next to a river. He was very sick, and
was given two tablets, but they did nothing, and he thinks
they were just painkillers. He thought that he would probably
die if he had to continue, so that night at 2 a.m. he went to
go to the toilet, and ran away. They came looking for him with
flashlights, but he hid behind trees when the flashlight beams
came near him. He walked for three days to get to the border.
His family has no idea what has happened to him.
                       ____________________


110

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            33, male
Family situation:   Him, wife and four children
Education:          4th Standard
Occupation:         Worked as a Government servant for the
                    township (doing various work)

The witness worked in Loikaw for the government until 1986. He
was unable to support himself and left to work in the mines
at Mawchi digging lead. He was unable to support himself here
either, because whenever the workers had a day off they were
likely to be taken away for portering by soldiers, so then
they would miss work for the period they were portering and
lose income. Because of this he went back to Loikaw. At this
time the authorities only controlled the area around Loikaw,
but the rest of the area was controlled by the Karenni
opposition, and he found it easier to earn money in the
Karenni-controlled area, regularly bringing money back to his
family. Because he moved between Loikaw and the opposition
controlled areas, he was accused (falsely) of working with the
opposition and was arrested in 1992. He was released from
prison in March 1997, and then was on probation and had to
register weekly with the authorities. He was unable to support
himself, and also missed a registration because of illness,
and so fled. He arrived in Thailand one day before the
interview. When he was working for the authorities at a
hospital in Loikaw (while working as a government employee
before 1986) he had to do work one day a week on his day off
doing forced labour. All government employees had to do this,
and were paid six-and-a-half kyat for the day (in 1980), but
would have to pay a fine of 60 kyat if they did not go. He had
to do this one-day-a-week work for several years. His wife,
who was also a government employee, had to do this work as
well. The situation for government employees was better,
because they had to work once a week, but were not forced to
complete a given amount of work. If the villagers or
townspeople did not finish their work, they would have to
continue working until they did. When villagers arrived to do
forced labour, they had to report to the army and sign their
names against the name of their village; if they didn't finish
their work assignment, they would be beaten and could not
return to their villages until they had finished. The
treatment by the soldiers was also more harsh for the 
villagers. He was beaten himself while doing forced labour.
There was a gunshot, and the soldiers thought one of the
villagers had shot at them. The rounded up the villagers and
started beating them; they mistook him for a villager, and so
he was beaten as well. He was released when he said he was a
Government employee. He did not know what happened to the
villagers after this. Later, he had to work on the
construction of the Aungban-Loikaw railway. The other
townspeople also had to do this work. They were given the
order by the Ward LORC, with each household or group of
houses having to do a given assignment of work (for rural
communities, each village was given a certain work
assignment). He saw thousands of people at a time doing work.
As well as building the railway, he also had to do other work,
such as building a motor road, and clearing ground for the
Student Sport Festival - every year it was something
different. When he worked at the hospital in Loikaw he saw
patients who told him they had received their injuries from
being beaten by soldiers while doing forced labour.
                       ____________________


111
 
Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            26, male
Family situation:   Parents, 14 children (of which he is the
                    youngest)
Education:          6th Standard
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village had 100 households)

The witness left Myanmar at the end of 1997. He first did
forced labour in August 1996. Previously the area had not been
under Government control, which is why he had not done forced
labour before. When the army came in, anyone who did not do
what they ordered was accused of being a rebel and was shot.
The village was given three days in August 1996 to relocate
to the centre of another village two miles away called Tee Po
Klo. Whatever belongings could not be carried to the
relocation site in this time had to be abandoned. At the
relocation site the villagers had to stay with friends or
family until they could build their own shelter. They were
forced to build a fence around the relocation site; there were
only two exits, and these were guarded. The villagers were
allowed to leave the relocation site during the day to do
cultivation, but had to come back at night, and could not take
food out with them when they left (in case they gave it to
rebels). In order to leave the relocation site for the
day they had to buy a pass for ten to 15 kyat per day. At the
relocation site he and the other villagers had to do forced
labour such as work at the army camp, clearing ground, forced
cultivation, cutting trees in the jungle. Whenever the army
needed people they would just be taken from the relocation
site. The army conducted investigations to find out which of
the villagers were rebels. His name came up and soldiers from
battalion 429 came to arrest him. They blindfolded him and
tied his hands to a rope tied around his neck; they also tied
his feet together. They took him away with 11 other people and
tortured him in various ways. Five of the group died during
torture. The torture included having a plastic bag put over
their head, chilli powder up the nose, hot water was poured
into their nostrils, being hit and beaten, and being cut with
knives. The torture lasted for three days and two nights; they
were interrogated during the torture. The seven remaining were
sent to Loikaw prison, where they were kept in a small dark
cell, and they were interrogated again by military
intelligence. During the interrogation he would be asked if he
was a rebel, then punched when he said "no". They finally
decided he was not a rebel, and moved him to the lock-up at
the camp of battalion 530 in Loikaw. The situation there was
very bad, with not enough food or water, and bad treatment.
His family did not know where he was. He thought that if he
continued to stay there he would die, and if he tried to
escape he would probably die in the attempt, so he decided he
had nothing to lose and would try to escape. He punched the
soldier who brought him his food, and ran away with one other
person. He was shot at but was not hit, and after six days
made it to Thailand; the other person was rearrested. He had
to be admitted to hospital with internal injuries because of
being kicked during torture. He also has a problem with his
leg. 
                       ____________________


112
 
Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            25, male
Family situation:   Twelve (mother, father, himself, 11
                    younger siblings)
Education:          8th Standard
Occupation:         Farmer

The witness came to Thailand in June 1993 because he could not
continue to do forced labour and portering; his family is 
still in Myanmar (he fled directly after his final portering
trip). He had done portering eight times, the first time in
May 1990 (he was the only member of his family who did
portering). He was scared that he would have to work for up to
six months, so on six of the eight occasions he ran away (the
other two times he was released). The first time he was forced
to work in a saw-mill, but he ran away after a week. The
second time he had to porter for two months in Pwe Pu Laung,
after which time he ran away. The third and fourth times he
ran away after one month of portering. The fifth time he was a
porter for one month, to Hti Hta, and after three weeks ran
away. The sixth time was also portering to Hti Hta, and he ran
away after one month. The seventh time was close to the Thai
border in Kayah State with LIB 18, and he was released after
two months. The eighth time was again near the Thai border,
near BP9 (Thai Border Patrol Police checkpoint 9); he was
released after two months. When portering, he usually carried
artillery shells, but also sometimes water, rice, and other
ammunition. He portered at the front line, on military
operations, and between (non front line) army camps. Sometimes
the porters were ordered by the army from the village/ward
head, and sometimes the soldiers captured porters directly,
especially at markets or movie theatres. The work was the same
regardless of which method was used. For him, the most common
method was via the village head. Normally, one person from a
small village, or one person from each section in a larger
village would have to go for portering at a time; who went
would be determined by the village head, and if the person he
chose was unable to go, they would have to pay 3,000 to 4,000
kyat. If the soldiers found they did not have enough porters
after this, they would come and take them directly. The times
he went portering, there were usually about 50 porters
(sometimes from as far away as Shan State). Porters were
punched and kicked by the soldiers, and hit with rifle butts
when they could not do the work. This never happened to him
because he was able to do the work. Some porters were as young
as 13, and some were old. Women were not normally taken as
porters, but one time when he was portering near Shadaw, he
saw four women taken as porters, because the soldiers could
not find enough men. They were forced to carry four 84 mm
artillery shells each (about 16 viss, or 25 kg). After one
day they were released. The food for porters was not
sufficient, consisting of a small amount of rice. Porters were
not given water, but had to grab some whenever they passed a
stream. Porters had to sleep on the ground with no blankets.
The worst experience he had while portering was while carrying
artillery shells on his last portering trip. A battle broke
out with Karenni rebels, including mortar fire; some porters
were killed. The worst treatment he saw of porters was when a
porter became sick with diarrhoea and lost strength. The
porter was not treated and was forced to continue and died. In
another case, a porter ran away, and the soldiers grabbed
another porter who seemed about to follow him, then shot him
in front of the other porters as a warning for them not to try
to run away. He had also done forced labour, as had other
members of his family; aside from portering, at least once a
month some member of his family had to do some form of forced
labour. When he was in Demawso he and others were forced to
collect bamboo, bamboo shoots and other things, starting in
1990. He often had to do this once a week. Forced labour
included work on the Aungban-Loikaw railway. They had to build
an embankment across rice fields, 16 feet wide at the top, 18
feet wide at the base, and eight feet high. This work was from
1992 to 1993, with each family being give a certain quota to
complete (about ten feet of embankment to the above
specifications, which would take a family between one week and
one month). The railway was completed now. No-one was paid for
this work; people who could not go were required to pay 1,200
kyat. The orders to do this work came from the SLORC, via the
VLORC. A meeting would be called to explain to the village
heads what had to be done, and the village head would then
instruct his villagers accordingly. He had to work on the
railway three times (for three weeks, five days and three days
respectively). The soldiers at the work-site didn't treat him
badly, but he saw them beat other workers and threaten them at
gunpoint if they were not working to the soldiers'
satisfaction. After the embankment was built, it had to be
covered with rock chippings, then the sleepers and railway
track would be laid. There were also prison labourers doing
this work, and he heard that the treatment they received from
the soldiers was much worse. The amount of various forms of
forced labour increased to about once a week per household, in
addition to portering. It became impossible to do this much
forced labour and still earn a living. 
                       ____________________


113
 
Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            48, male
Family situation:   Ten (him, wife, four daughters and four    
                    sons)
Occupation:         Village head, and Chairman of a grouping
                    between the VLORC and TLORC levels; before 
                    this he had a position within the BSPP     
                    (Burma Socialist Program Party), and       
                    before this he was a leader of the youth   
                    wing.
                    Kayah State

The witness did forced labour for the SLORC many times:
portering, cutting bamboo, working at the army camp ... all
sorts of things. Even though as a village head he was
responsible for arranging for his villagers to do forced
labour, he also had to do the labour on behalf of his own
household. The first type of forced labour he did was
portering for the military, carrying rice from Po Kyaw to
Shadaw, a distance of about 15 miles. This was about ten years
ago (though he had previously been a porter in 1971/72). Since
then he has done portering a total of about ten times. Because
he was the village head he would only have to go on short
portering trip of around three days; the longest trip he went
on was ten days. When he was portering he had to carry rice,
ammunition and other supplies. The treatment of porters by the
soldiers was bad; the soldiers were rude and sometimes beat
porters. He was never beaten himself, but one time some of his
villagers ran away during portering, so because he was the
village head he was arrested. He was beaten which resulted in
some damage to his chest; he was only released when the
escaped porters were replaced. His chest wound was made worse
by having to carry heavy loads while portering, sometimes up
to 60 kg. He still has some trouble with his chest. He has
seen other porters with serious injuries from beatings, such
as broken noses and blood coming from the mouth. Porters would
be beaten if they could not keep up, or if the soldiers
thought they were going to run away. He saw some porters
killed by the soldiers when they were unable to continue. The
bodies were then left by the side of the path. In the case of
his village (which was quite large, about 100 houses), orders
for porters were sent from the military to the village head
(in writing), and the village head had to arrange which
villagers went. Because these orders came so often, the
villagers could not take it and would often run away. It was
thus sometimes difficult to find people to go, so sometimes he
had to go himself. One time he went himself and had to carry
supplies to Shadaw. When he arrived he was released, but then
arrested again by some other soldiers. He was released only
when a local VLORC Chairman, who was his friend, complained to
the military. The written orders did not contain threats, but
verbal threats that the village would be burned down and the
village head arrested if an order was not carried out were
often made. Porters would only be released when replacements
arrived, usually after about ten days, but often as long as
two months or more when it was difficult to find replacements.
Porters were not paid, but as village head he would arrange
for a collection of a little money from the villagers to give
to the families of porters so that they could survive. Women
were not normally taken as porters, but occasionally, when the
soldiers could not get enough men, they would take women, even
nursing mothers. Villagers also had to do forced labour at the
army camp (he did not do this work himself, but had to arrange
for villagers to go). They had to build fences, dig trenches,
etc. There has been an army camp in the Shadaw area for many
years, and this work has been going on for a long time. The
order for this would come from the TLORC, and if workers did
not arrive, the army would come directly to the village and
grab people. The villagers were also required to provide
thatch and other building materials. Sometimes as many as 20
people at a time were required, with the requirement to
provide labour rotating among the villages in the area. Women
were also required to do this work. He does not know of any
case of physical abuse of women during forced labour/
portering, but verbal abuse was common. Other forced labour
his village had to do included cutting bamboo and making 
thatch for use renovating the army camp (one to two times a
year). The army camp was ten miles away, so when villagers had
to work there they had to sleep one or two nights at the army
camp. All the villagers also had to do forced labour on the
Aungban-Loikaw railway. Each village was given an assignment
to construct a given length of embankment. Most of the
villages in the whole of Kayah State were involved. His
village first had to go in 1992. Once in 1991 or 1992, 100
people from his village (one from each house) had to go to
work for a few days building a road from Shadaw to the Salween
River. He came to Thailand with his family after his village
was given seven days to relocate to Shadaw on 1 June 1996;
about 100 families came at the same time, from various
villages. After the order came, he discussed it with the
village, but they did not want to relocate. He wrote a letter
to the authorities in Shadaw explaining the reasons why the
villagers did not want to be relocated, viz. health problems,
lack of shelter at the relocation site, the lack of education
for relocated villagers, food shortages at the relocation
site, and the difficulty for old people of making the trip.
These arguments were not accepted, and the authorities said
that the village would be burned, so some villagers relocated
to Shadaw, but many others fled. The villagers had to walk 12
miles to the relocation site, so they were unable to take all
their possessions. The village was then burned and the animals
and remaining possessions were stolen by the army. "Not even
one dog was left". 
                       ____________________

[END OF SLICE 35]