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Forced labour in Myanmar (Burma)
Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
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Appendix VII (cont.)
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Summaries of testimony |
206-246 |
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
206 |
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Age/sex: |
65, male | |
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Family situation: |
Seven (him, wife, three daughters, two sons) | |
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Occupation: |
Hill cultivation (dry rice farmer) | |
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From: |
Methali, Kya In Seik Gyi township, Kayin State (village had 15) households | |
The witness came to the Mon refugee camp in early 1997. His village was relocated during the rice harvest last year to Taungzun village. This was when he came to the refugee camp. Five or six other families fled from the village at the same time. The soldiers gave the village five days to relocate. He did forced labour for the army constructing the road to Three Pagodas Pass. This work started early last year, and the work was continuing when he left. He first did road construction in 1996. At that time the work was close to his village, and the villagers could return to the village to sleep. Because his village was so small, there was no system of rotating labourers. Sometimes one person from each household had to go, sometimes all workers in the whole village had to go. So sometimes he was the only person from his family doing the work, sometimes he worked together with his son. The work they had to do was cutting down trees, building an embankment, and collecting rocks to put on the embankment. They were forced to work from first light to dusk without a break. They had to eat before they started, and again after they finished. If people were tired and could not work the soldiers demanded that they do the same as everyone else, and beat them, slapped them on the face, or kicked them with army boots. One of his sons who also did forced labour was never beaten; the other son was in the KNU and so never did forced labour. He himself was also beaten by the soldiers. He also had to do portering over the last three years. In the beginning portering was arranged through the village head, but later the soldiers just used to come to the village and round people up. He could not count how many times he had done portering. Sometimes it was six times a month if it was just short trips (one or two days). If they had to go to a village a little far away, it could be two weeks. He had to carry loads of 10 viss (about 16 kg), and sometimes up to 20 viss (32 kg) of artillery shells or three tins of rice. There was no problem for porters if they could keep up, but if they were slow they would be beaten. When he was slow, the soldiers would shout at him, saying he was useless, and then kick him. Sometimes this would happen 4 or 5 times a day. He saw other porters beaten unconscious or with heads split open. Sometimes porters who were too sick or weak to continue would be killed and then thrown from the side of the mountain. He saw this happen twice. Some porters were so sick or weak when they were released from portering that they could not even return to the village. Villagers would have to collect them from the side of the road where they had been left, bring them back to the village and nurse them back to health. Twice when he returned to the village after portering he was so weak he could not work, and other villagers had to look after him. Some soldiers were better natured than others. Sometimes the soldiers even wanted to give him water, but they could not because they themselves would be beaten if they were seen doing this. The last time he did portering was for two weeks in April 1997. On this occasion he had to carry six large artillery shells. It was very heavy, but the soldiers told him he was lucky because his load was so light. One day, early in the morning, the SLORC soldiers came to his house and accused him of having a son who was a KNU soldier. One of his sons had in fact been in the KNU, but had already left. The son had got married and lived in Mi Hki village (close to Three Pagodas Pass). In fact his son had been arrested by the SLORC, and had recently escaped, but at the time he did not know this. The soldiers then beat him with a bamboo stick and shouted 'stupid ringworm' ['ringworm' is a slang term used by Tatmadaw soldiers to refer to KNU soldiers]. The soldiers then accused him of being in the KNU and of hiding a weapon, and demanded to know where it was. They hit him many times on the back of the head, shoulders and back, until he was unconscious. His son was now in the refugee camp. After his son escaped he came to his house, but he told his son not to stay there because it was dangerous, so he went to the camp. Before his son escaped, he was tortured, and they cut his ears (but not completely off), and cut part of his lips off.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
207 |
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Age/sex: |
50, male | |
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Family situation: |
Seven (him, his mother, his wife, four children) | |
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Occupation: |
Hill cultivation (he was also the village head) | |
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From: |
Hti Pa Taw Hta, Kya In Seik Gyi township, Kayin State (village had 20 households) | |
The witness left his village in September 1997, because he heard it was unsafe for him, so he went and stayed in Kyunchaung village before fleeing to Thailand in January 1998. A friend of his who was a village head in another village warned him that the authorities were asking questions about him, which is why he left his village. The first time Burmese soldiers came to his village they told him to show them the way to Bo Deh village. The second time, he sent one of his villagers instead. At other times, the soldiers did not come to the village to take porters, they just sent an order demanding a certain number of villagers. Usually they asked for two or three porters, but they once demanded ten porters, which was impossible for the village to provide, since the villagers ran away to avoid portering. This was in the 1997 hot season. Porters were badly treated, and one villager was badly beaten. It was up to him as village head to rotate those porters after three days or whenever possible. The third time they came to his village, in April 1997, he was not there. The soldiers arrested all his family and started looking for him. When he arrived home they tied him up, and released his family. They told his family to go back to their house and stay in the house. Then the soldiers took him to a cow shed and tortured him, demanding to know where he kept guns. They punched him in the face and chest and hit him with the barrel of a gun. The leader of the group of soldiers, a captain, accused him of being a rebel. The village secretary came and spoke to the captain, explaining that the village head was simply a farmer, and was not a rebel, but the captain refused to listen and warned the secretary that if he was not careful he would be in trouble too. The soldiers continued to torture him and he suffered a serious cut to the head and internal injuries. The torture included rolling an iron bar repeatedly up and down his shins, putting bullets between each of his fingers and then squeezing them together. They also repeatedly held his head under water in the stream. This torture continued from noon until evening. The next day at noon they began to torture him again. They repeatedly asked him if he had a gun and where it was. They took him to the stream again, put his head under water so his ears filled with water, and then banged their hands together over his ears. Because of this he was now partially deaf. They continued torturing him until he was unconscious, then tied him up and left him in the stream with his head on a tree branch. When he regained consciousness he found himself like this, and saw the soldiers on the bank of the stream waiting for him to recover. On the third day they took him with another man who had also been tortured to Grupadi village. They arrived in the evening and then another column of troops arrived and the commander of that column took the two of them so that they would not be able to run away. At this point he told the other man that they should try to run away, otherwise they would be killed. They were tied up at night to a paddy barn, but when the soldier who was guarding them fell asleep, he managed to untie his hands, and they ran away.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
208 |
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Age/sex: |
54, male | |
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Family situation: |
12 (him, wife, ten children of which two still live at home) | |
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Occupation: |
Village head | |
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From: |
Thi Paw Way, Kya In Seik Gyi township, Kayin State (village had 47 households and was established only ten years ago; before this he was in Kya In Seik Gyi town) | |
The army came in March 1997 and took all the chickens and other animals from the village. The villagers were scared and so said nothing. Also in March 1997 they were ordered to build an army camp at Ya Kra, five miles away. The camp was for Brigade 44. His village had to provide two porters and one bullock cart all the time for the construction; these were rotated every three days (they would be released only when their replacements arrived). Other villages in the area were also forced to construct the camp, a total of about 40 people at a time. It took about two months to complete the construction. Because he was the village head, he had to go there almost constantly to supervise his villagers and check on their work. The soldiers were rude to the workers, and swore at them, but they were not beaten. The treatment was much worse during portering. Portering began in March 1997. The village was ordered to provide two people permanently for portering. If these people were not sent, the army would come and arrest people. Also, there were usually two KNU soldiers staying in his village. The soldiers came and made this accusation, but initially he denied it. Then they punched him hard in the kidneys twice. They said that if the two KNU soldiers did not give themselves up, they would kill all the villagers and burn down the village. The soldiers who said this were from LIB 2. The two KNU soldiers had families in the village, and so they gave themselves up. They were not killed, and were in fact released after about 10 days. After this Brigade 44 was replaced by Brigade 22, in April 1997. Later, in September, they forced the village to relocate within 15 days to Bo Deh village, one-and-a-half miles away. The commander said that if the villagers didn't want to go there, he didn't care, as long as they went away. The villagers were told that anyone seen in the village after this time would be shot. After this, the villagers were allowed to return to their old village during the day, but they had to be back in Bo Deh between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. They did not have to pay money to leave the relocation site during the day. It was Brigade 22 who ordered the village to relocate. After the relocation, Brigade 22 was replaced by LIB 545; they were really bad and very violent. Soldiers from LIB 545 would steal the pigs and chickens from the villagers, and if the villagers complained, they would punch and hit them. The village had to provide three porters for LIB 545, but some villagers didn't dare to go, and paid 1,300 kyat for a three-day period to avoid going. He didn't personally ever go portering, but his son-in-law went about 10 times. The other villagers did a similar amount of portering to his son-in-law. Treatment during portering was very bad. Porters were punched and had wounds caused by the cane baskets they carried their loads in. He saw porters with their backs split open from the baskets. Portering was continuing in September (when he left). There was a particularly bad incident which happened before the village relocated. Some soldiers came and arrested four villagers (two of the names are U Kyaw Ku and Ngwe Tu). It was a Sunday, and they arrested them after church. The soldiers then held a meeting of the villagers inside the church. The reason they arrested the people was that they had received information that these people had guns. This was not true. Inside the church, they tied the four villagers' hands behind their backs, then beat them up in front of the other villagers. They were kicked, punched and beaten with sticks and a looped rope. Two were injured very seriously. One was unable to open his eyes and the other had chest wounds. The villagers were particularly upset by the fact that the soldiers deliberately chose to do this in a church. Since he was the village head, he tried to offer himself for arrest in place of the four villagers, as a guarantee, but the soldiers refused and threatened to arrest him also. The whole village was then forced by the soldiers to stand in the hot sun, even the children. After this, the four villagers were taken away. One was so badly injured he could not walk, and two other villagers had to carry him. As the village head, he also went along (making a total of seven villagers). They were taken to a nearby army camp where they spent the night. No medical treatment was provided for the injured villagers, except some ointment which did nothing. (One of the villagers, when he was finally released had to be admitted to hospital because of serious injuries). They were all very scared. The next day they were taken to another army camp about six miles away, and they were all beaten by the soldiers on the way. He was hit on the head with a pistol and slapped across the face. Once at the second army camp, they were left tied up for three or four days. They were given rice and fish paste, and had to sleep with their hands tied behind their backs. After this they were released, and one of the villagers had to be sent to the hospital. There were other cases of the army torturing villagers. One person in a nearby village was suspected of having a gun and was hung upside down from a tree and then beaten so that he spun around. Another person was tied up in the river for four days (with his head kept out of the water). A friend of his from another village was put in a hole in the ground because he was accused (wrongly) of having contact with rebels. He was kept in the hole, which was covered over with mud, for four days, but was given food and water. All these cases involved Brigade 44. He left for Thailand in September 1997, when the village was relocated. At least 50 other people came with him.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
209 |
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Age/sex: |
39, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with two sons | |
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Occupation: |
Rice farmer | |
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From: |
Paw Ner Mu, Kya Inn Seik Gyi township, Kayin State (village had 100 households) | |
The witness left Paw Ner Mu village in June 1997, and stayed in other villages in the area until he came to Thailand in August 1997. He did forced labour and portering. The soldiers came in March 1997 and arrested about 40 villagers, lined them up and started interrogating them. They took ten (including him), who they suspected of being rebels to a nearby village, and interrogated and tortured them all night. The ten were split up and three soldiers beat up each person and interrogated them. They were not all in the same place in the village, they were split up, so he did not see what happened to the others, but he later found out it was the same as what happened to him. He was hit and punched the whole night by the soldiers, even though he kept saying he was not a rebel. At one point they put a gun in his face, between his eyes, and told him they were going to shoot him, but did not. During the beating his shoulder was injured, and he was unable to use his arm afterwards for a month. Seven of them were then sent to another camp, and he and two others were kept at that village. He told the captain that he was just a farmer, was not a rebel, and did not have a gun. Finally, the captain released him and gave him a pass to return to his village. At this time Brigade 44 was posted at an army camp nearby, called Ya Kra. These soldiers did not believe that he was not a rebel, and started making accusations. He told them to ask the village head, and if they wanted to kill him, then kill him, but that he did not have any information to give them about rebels. They were angry with the way that he talked to them, and arrested him and put him in a small (three metre diameter, four metre deep) underground cell for two days and two nights, with only a little light. They gave him a small amount of rice and water. After this they took him out of the cell and kept him in the army camp for one week. He could move around the camp, but was not allowed to leave. Finally his pregnant wife came to the camp and offered to guarantee that he would not leave the village. They were allowed to return to the village, but he could not go outside his house (he was not under guard, but if he had been found outside his house, he would have been in trouble). Three or four days later, Brigade 44 left and was replaced by Brigade 22 (in April). He does not know when Brigade 22 left, but in May he noticed some soldiers who were from Battalion 549. A few months later, LIB 545 arrived. When LIB 545 arrived, the situation became really bad. He needed to obtain a pass from the soldiers to work in his fields. Even though he had this pass, he was seen by some soldiers, who hit him with the butt of a rifle and arrested him, then used him as a porter. He ran away after the first day, and the soldiers shouted after him but did not shoot him. He went back to his village, but a week later (in May/June) the village head called him to go portering. He was given the option of paying 2,000 kyat for the three days portering so he would not have to go, but he did not pay the money. He had to work as a porter on that occasion for 11 days. For these 11 days he had to carry artillery shells or rifle ammunition which was so heavy he could hardly carry it and could not walk properly. There were seven other porters with him from his village. They had to walk for the whole day, only stopping occasionally. He did not know the names of the places they went through. They were fed only a handful of rice per day, sometimes with salt and fish paste. They slept in the jungle or in villages they passed through. The porters had to do exactly what they were told. If they talked, the soldiers would beat them. He was also kicked because he could not walk quickly with his load. When they went through villages, the soldiers would steal things from the villages, and this would be put into the porters' baskets, even though they were already too heavy. After 11 days, the village head sent replacement porters and they were released. Within a week of returning to his village, he was called for portering again, and so he decided to leave.
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Ethnicity: |
Burman |
210 |
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Age/sex: |
23, male | |
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Family situation: |
Single, parents and five brothers | |
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Occupation: |
Rickshaw driver | |
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From: |
Myaukma, Uttah township, Bago Division (a military camp was located four kilometres from the village) | |
The witness left Myanmar five years ago because he was no longer able to do his own work because of the work that had to be done for the military. Ten days a month were reserved for the work required by the military. He returned to Myanmar in June 1997. Three days after arriving home, he was arrested by the military to work on the construction of the airport at Indagaw. He stayed for three days. Fifty people, men and women, worked with him. He then returned home and was arrested once again and incarcerated in a prison camp near Bago. He stayed there for ten days before escaping and getting back to Thailand. He did not know what led to his arrest. He felt the situation had worsened since he first left in 1993. Before leaving, he had to work as a porter and on railway construction. In neither case was he paid. He could not refuse for fear of being arrested and suffering reprisals from the military. He worked as a porter on three or four occasions in 1991 and 1992. Each assignment lasted a day and a half. Five or six other porters from his village went with him out of a total of around 300 to 400 porters on significant military offensives. It was the village head who recruited the porters, though the military could requisition them directly depending on the needs for military operations along the border with Thailand. The porters had to carry munitions and received only a ration of rice morning and night. When there was fighting against the Karen National Union (KNU), the porters had to stay with the soldiers and were often used as human shields. Two of his friends had been killed. No medical treatment was provided for the porters who had been wounded or were ill. He was beaten for not being able to keep up. It was possible to pay a replacement to do this work, the cost being 1,500 kyat per portering duty. He paid on two occasions. As regards railway construction, he had to work there twice a month, on each occasion for five days. He first did this in 1990 and he last did it just before leaving in 1993. This was on the railway between Yangon and Bago, eight miles from his village. This railway was in operation and was used both by the military and civilians. One person per family had to work on it. The order from the military was passed on by the village head. He did this work on a rota basis with his father and his brother. Men and women were requisitioned to do this work, although when he was working there were only around thirty men aged between 15 and 56 from various villages. He had to sleep on site and take his own food. He had to prepare the ground: digging, levelling ground, transporting and laying rails. A section of the track was assigned to each group, which had the obligation to complete it. The work was supervised by the military. The day began at 5 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. with no possibility of a break. He was not physically ill-treated.
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Ethnicity: |
Mon |
211 |
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Age/sex: |
64, female | |
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Family situation: |
Married with three sons and three daughters | |
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Occupation: |
Trader | |
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From: |
Anin, Thanbyuzayat township, Mon State (village had 1,000 households and a population of around 9,000 people) | |
The witness had to leave her village in 1995 because her husband was in conflict with the local authorities. She first settled in the village of Natkyizin, Tanintharyi Division. She stayed there until 1995, when she went into exile in Thailand. She personally did not perform forced labour (her husband was village head), but she saw it being done by others. Her business was situated near the railway track between Ye and Dawei (Tavoy). She had seen men and women (including children between the ages of six and 14) working on this railway. They were not paid and had to sleep on the ground. The work was supervised by the military. Moreover, she had witnessed deaths caused by malaria and the bad working conditions.
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Ethnicity: |
Burman |
212 |
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Age/sex |
35, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with one child | |
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Occupation: |
Day labourer | |
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From: |
Unspecified village, Thanbyuzayat township, Mon State (village-tract had 3,000 households) | |
The witness had to leave Myanmar in 1996 because he no longer had the means to survive. He had inherited an eight acre rubber plantation from his family. This was confiscated by the military in 1990, to build a military camp. For the next six years, he had to do a great deal of work for the military: portering, railway, military camp work. He had to pay 50 kyat portering charges every month. Moreover, the military requisitioned porters twice a month on average for their military operations against the Mon forces and the Karen National Union (KNU). He acted as a porter on two occasions, the last time in 1994. On the other occasions, he had managed to escape before being taken for portering. On the two occasions when he did work as a porter, the military had apprehended him directly. Three hundred porters were with him on the first occasion, 500 on the second. There were only men in his group. He witnessed many engagements with the Mon forces and the KNU. He saw many porters wounded or ill, but they received no medical treatment or medicines. The last time he worked on the building of the railway was in 1992 for four months. Two to three hundred men and women worked with him, aged between eight and 70. He was not paid and had to bring his own food. He also had to sleep near the work site, without shelter. He was subjected to ill-treatment and abuse, as were several other workers whose work did not satisfy the military. In 1993, the military demanded the sum of 3,000 kyat from him as a tax for the railway which each household had to pay. In addition, each household in his village-tract had to pay 500 kyat not to have to perform various types of work at the military camp. Since 1992, he had paid on three occasions. However, his father-in-law had done work for the military camp in 1992.
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Ethnicity: |
Rakhine |
213 |
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Age/sex: |
24, male | |
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Family situation: |
Married with no children | |
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Occupation: |
Student | |
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From: |
Mahamuni, Kyauktaw township, Rakhine State | |
The witness had to leave Myanmar in 1996 because he could no longer provide for the needs of his family. He had around seven days a month left to attend do his own work, with the rest of his time being taken up with the various types of work exacted by the military. He worked for the military camp near his village and on the building of roads and pagodas. The military camp belonged to LIB 376. He worked on the construction of the road leading to the camp and the building of barracks. He had not done portering for military operations. So far as road work was concerned, he worked on the building of the road between Kyauktaw and Paletwa between 1991 and 1995. It was the village head who passed on the orders from the military. This was mainly preparatory, ground-levelling work. He had to work two days a week on this road. One hundred other people worked with him on this section of road, including men and women aged between 13 and 50. They had to sleep near the road and bring their own food. This work forced him to miss school. The work was supervised by the military. He also worked on the building and renovation of pagodas between 1991 and 1995. He had to do this work twice a month for one day on each occasion. Three hundred people worked with him, including men and women aged between 13 and 50. The orders were also passed on by the village head and the work was supervised by the military. He was subjected to ill-treatment by the military when they believed he was not working fast enough.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
214 |
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Age/sex: |
32, male | |
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Family situation: |
Single with no children; five siblings, father deceased | |
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Occupation: |
Trader | |
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From: |
Wakema town, Ayeyarwady Division | |
The witness had to leave Myanmar in July 1996 because he could no longer survive. Among other things, the military forced him to sell his goods at far below market prices. He also had to work on road construction. He did not have to do portering, as he managed to escape each time the military attempted to requisition him. He worked on two occasions in 1995 - for two months each time - on the building of a road between Pantanaw and Einme. It was the village head who passed on to him the orders given by the military. As the road was some fifteen hours from his home, to get to the site he had to walk part of the way and travel the rest by boat. Two to three hundred people worked with him on this section of road, including men and women from different villages. Women were sometimes accompanied by their young infants. When the men could not do this work, the women replaced them. Each family had to provide one worker on the basis of a pre-arranged rota. The work consisted of levelling ground. He was not paid. It was possible to pay the soldiers so that they would engage a substitute in one's place. However, the money paid to the soldiers was seldom used for this purpose and the workload consequently increased proportionately for the remaining workers. The cost of hiring a replacement was 3,000 kyat for each 15-day assignment. His family paid it several times. If the soldiers thought the work was not going fast enough, the workers were punished, mainly by being kept in the sun with their feet in chains. He also saw beatings inflicted by the soldiers.
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Age/sex: |
37, male |
215 |
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Family situation: |
Single | |
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Ethnicity: |
Karen | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer and day labourer | |
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From: |
Kawkareik town, Kayin State (later lived in Yangon) | |
The witness left Myanmar in 1996. He was a former soldier who left the army in 1983 after six years of service, following a conflict with his superior. He personally recruited the necessary porters to conduct military offensives during that period. When the porters tried to escape, his orders were to shoot them, which he did on several occasions. He subsequently lived at Yangon, where he had to do community work every Saturday. It was his ward head who informed him of the work to be done.
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Ethnicity: |
Burman |
216 |
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Age/sex: |
37, male | |
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From: |
Thapancho, Pyay (Prome) township, Bago Division | |
The witness joined the army in 1979. He personally recruited porters. He found the work difficult because he very often knew the people he had to requisition for this work. He left the army after shooting at his superior officer following an argument. As a result, he was imprisoned for three years and was freed in July 1984. He subsequently acted as a porter for the military on one occasion in the cold season of 1986. He was requisitioned with 50 others while travelling on a train between Mawlamyine (Moulmein) and Bilin. He had to transport ammunition and shells for the military offensive, together with food and wounded soldiers. He was not paid. The rice rations were distributed morning and evening. There were no shelters to sleep in. He was sent to the front line after the first week. After that, he had to cross very high mountains and go to another front line near Mawhpoklo in Kayin State. He had to dig trenches and build huts for the military. He stayed there for three months. He had to check the state of the mines laid by the military each day. No medical treatment was given to sick or wounded porters. There were no medicines available either. Finally, he decided to leave Myanmar in June 1988.
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Ethnicity: |
Burman |
217 |
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Age/sex: |
32, male | |
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Family situation: |
Single, no children | |
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Occupation: |
Surveyor and trader | |
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From: |
Maletto, Ma-u-bin township, Ayeyarwady Division (village had 4,000 families) | |
The witness did not have to work for the military when he was a civil service surveyor. He was required to do such labour once he had resigned his functions. He had to work on the building of a road and a canal. The 15 foot-deep canal linked Ma-u-bin to Twantay over a distance of 16 miles. He knew this canal well since he worked on the plans as a surveyor. He worked on its construction on two occasions, the first time for three months, the second for one-and-a-half months. The work consisted, on the first occasion, of digging the tunnel and, on the second, of repairing what had collapsed during the rainy season. In the years 1993 to 1994, he worked on several occasions on the building of the road between Ma-u-bin and Twantay and the one linking Ma-u-bin and Yangon. He had to work on it at all times of the year. These were important roads, four cars wide. As the terrain on which these roads were built was lower than sea level, embankment work was needed. The work began at 6 a.m. in the morning and ended after sunset. He said 5,000 people had worked on it in 1991 to 1992 and 10,000 in 1993 to 1994, including both men and women aged between 13 and 60. The women were often accompanied by their young infants. They were not paid and had to sleep near the road. The working conditions were bad and several people died as a result of complications ensuing from hunger, malaria or other infectious diseases. If the workers fell behind, they were beaten. He had not personally been beaten. The roads were now finished, but were not really useful and could only be used in the dry season. It was possible to pay to be exempted from working, the sum being 3,000 kyat for the canal and 5,000 kyat for the roads. He paid on one occasion for the canal and twice for the roads. From 1994 to 1996, he was a trader. However, he was forced to clean at Mandalay palace and to do general cleaning work every Saturday in that city. One person per family was requisitioned in this respect. He decided to leave Myanmar in June 1996.
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Ethnicity: |
Burman |
218 |
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Age/sex: |
25, male | |
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Occupation: |
Student | |
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From: |
Mawlamyine (Moulmein) town, Mon State | |
The witness left Myanmar in 1987. He returned home following the 1988 uprising. After his return to Myanmar he was arrested by members of IB 208 while travelling with others. He was taken to the Kya In Seik Gyi military camp where he stayed for three days. He subsequently had to carry shells, food and clothing for the soldiers in a military operation against the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF). Fifteen other porters were with him. Nine were killed by the military because they were not able to carry the load allotted to them. He went back to the camp. He was requisitioned to do portering on a second military operation. One hundred porters accompanied the soldiers this time. He managed to escape. All these events took place over a period of one month.
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Ethnicity: |
Burman |
219 |
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Age/sex: |
24, male | |
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Family situation: |
Single | |
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Occupation: |
Farmer (rice paddies); his brother is looking after his land | |
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From: |
Kawet Yekanchaung, Dedaye township, Ayeyarwady Division | |
The witness left Myanmar because he could no longer manage to survive, particularly because he had to sell his produce to the Government at well below market prices. On four occasions in 1994 and 1995, he had to work on the building of a canal between Pyapon and Dedaye. It was the village head who passed on the orders, which came from the military. The 700 families in his village each had to provide one member to perform this work. He worked in rotation with his brother. His brother had worked there eight times. Ninety-three villages worked on this canal. Each village was assigned a section, which it had to complete. Three hundred and fifty people worked at the same time as him, including both men and women, the youngest of whom were ten years old. Some women were accompanied by their young infants. Each assignment lasted a fortnight. The work consisted of digging the ground and levelling the terrain. He was not paid and he had to sleep near the site. He also had to take his own food. It was possible to pay for a substitute, the price being 1,500 kyat. He paid on two occasions. The workers were frequently maltreated without reason. He saw workers left in the sun, with their feet immobilized in stocks for two to three days. He had never personally been ill-treated.
|
Ethnicity: |
Mon |
220 to 228 |
|
Age/sex: |
220: 63, male; 221: 63, female; 222: 23, male; 223: 40, male; 224: 30, male; 225: 44, male; 226: 14, male; 227: 30, male; 228: 19, male | |
|
Occupation: |
Witness 220 was a village head, witness 221 was a monk | |
|
From: |
Anin village, Thanbyuzayat township, Mon State (except witness 228 who was from Chabone village, Yebyu township, Tanintharyi Division) | |
Witness 220 and his wife, witness 221, came to Thailand over two years ago. Before that they stayed for about three years in Ye Bu (but often went back to Anin village). They left because they could not afford to pay porter fees and contributions to the SLORC and the People's Militia (Pyithu Sit), to whom the Government provided weapons, while the villagers had to provide food and accommodation. Before they left for Ye Bu (five or six years ago), there were 700 households in A Anin village. From their extended family, all five households had moved. From the extended family of witness 223, six households had left the same village. When he and his wife, after two years' stay in Thailand, returned briefly to the village at the beginning of this year, only some houses remained. Witness 228 testified that his village of about 70 houses, Chabone, was relocated last year, whereupon most inhabitants came to Thailand. Witness 220 was a member of the Local Council of Anin village for four years before the SLORC was set up on 18 September 1988 and became village head one-and-a-half years later. Two to three years after the SLORC was set up on 18 September 1988, forced labour, which had before been limited to portering, expanded in Anin village, taking the following forms: building barracks for soldiers; later, building the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway; building the road from Thanbyuzayat to Anin; portering; sentry duty to watch the railway; whatever the soldiers wanted around the village (roofing for the police station, digging trenches, cleaning up the village, barracks, and police station, repairing barracks, and during the rainy season, collecting leaves for roofing). The organizational setup of forced labour was as follows. For portering: since 1990 people were always rounded up, i.e., the soldiers arrested them themselves. In earlier cases as well as for all other kinds of work or service, the military sent a letter to the village head, stating for example that they were going to take 40 or 50 people to some other site for this or that purpose. The number of people depended on the job to be done. To choose the people who had to go, there were about 40 sub-leaders in the village, in charge of 20 houses each. When the village head received the order, he told them to provide people (sometimes in rotation). For building barracks the order came from IB 31, for building the railway and guarding it, from IB 104. As for threats of what would happen if people did not turn up, they would not be included in the letter, but conveyed orally when handing over the letter, indicating that work had to be performed according to rules and, if the order was disobeyed, the village head would be arrested, as well as the villagers. For those who could not go, 2,500 kyat had to be paid per household per stint (not per day). For building new military barracks, the work lasted about one month; for repairing old ones, seven days. Since the site was close to the village, people could return home at night. They had to work from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., bringing their own food and feeding the soldiers. From the age of 12 upwards, men and women worked, up to 50 or 60 years old. Children and old people worked when they were the only persons free in the household. Soldiers did not beat people building the barracks, but shouted at them and scared them. The Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway construction started around 1993 (and was still going on). About 700 people from Anin village worked on this, separated in two groups of 350 people taking turns of 14 days each working on the project. The workers were selected through the approximately 40 sub-leaders, each of which was in charge of about 20 households and had to bring 20 people with him; if he could not, he had to pay a fine of 2,500 kyat per person for two weeks, collect the money from the household concerned and give it to the soldiers. It was a six-hour train ride to the work site near Kalot village. Normally, the workers slept in the jungle and built themselves small shelters and also had to cook themselves. The work assignment was by segment of the track to be build, and people had to work each day until they finished their quota. The military gave orders directly to the sub-leaders for the work to be done by each group; if they did not comply, they would be punished. Women, children from age 12, and people up to 50 or 60 years also had to work. For Anin villagers, there was normally no ill-treatment, but villagers from other places who disobeyed orders were beaten by soldiers. Every day, eight people from the village had to be on sentry duty to watch the railway. Finally, with regard to portering, this practice existed even before 1988 but increased after the SLORC was set up. Up to 1990, porters were either rounded up directly by the soldiers or the village head was ordered to find them. For portering they could call up any number of people, as required, at least 40 people at one time. When fighting was heavy at the border, they took everybody. Troops kept marching to the border or close to it, and on average once a month (sometimes twice a month or once in two months) they took porters for 20 to 30 days (some people for one to two months, some for only ten days). Some porters never came back, they died or escaped, so nobody wanted to go, and when the military ordered the village head to find 100 porters or pay money instead, the men ran away, only women and children stayed. Around 1990, the village head told the military he did not want to be responsible for collecting porters anymore, and he asked them to arrange for it themselves. Subsequently, whenever the villagers were informed that forces were coming, they went into hiding. Witness 225 was rounded up for portering with about 200 other people, including three from their village, in 1990/91. The military took him for one month to Kalama mountain. They had to carry peas, rice, other food: about 80 kg between two porters. When a porter was tired, the soldiers would kick him with their boots. In some situations, such as when a porter was sick and could not carry his load anymore, they would shoot him dead. Witness 225 saw almost ten out of about 200 people shot dead. About 15 to 20 people were kicked, and some seriously injured. Normally, the soldiers did not care for those who could not move, they just shot them. The porters sustained wounds from the heavy loads, normally on the shoulders. Witness 225 was sick, coughed blood. The porters never got medical treatment, normally treated themselves. They were not allowed to smoke, were given only raw rice and some banana leaves and were not allowed to cook. Witness 225 was sent to Kawkareik (with about 1,000 people on a ship) when he was released. Witness 222 did portering around 1993/94 for IB 109, carrying supplies (in his case about 40 kg of rice) to Nat Ein Taung near the gas pipeline project. He was sent by the village for portering, because it was his turn, with about seven or eight others from the village. On the whole, there were about 7,000 people. But those who could afford to pay 1,000 kyat were released, some paid, so finally 300 went. He was away for about ten days from the village, it took them six days to Nat Ein Taung. On the way, there was fighting, two porters were wounded, and soldiers shot them dead because they could not carry their loads anymore. One soldier was in charge of five porters (in case they ran away, etc.), some escaped and were shot at. He did not see this personally. If a porter managed to run away, the soldier was punished. He saw one officer punching, hitting a soldier with a gun because a porter escaped. From Nat Ein Taung, he had to carry the soldiers' household goods back. On the way back, he saw about 15 dead bodies, mainly porters, some killed from gun shots, beatings, etc. When fighting was on, the soldiers ordered the porters to lie down. Witness 222 was never beaten, but some porters were who could not carry their loads well. He did, however, see some old people who could not carry their loads being relieved of weight. The porters were given a small amount of rice and fish paste to eat. Witness 226, who left Myanmar three years ago when he was 11 years old, had not done any forced labour.
|
Ethnicity: |
Burman |
229 |
|
Age/sex: |
30, female | |
|
Family: |
Mother and three sisters | |
|
Occupation: |
Food seller | |
|
From: |
Ye town, Mon State | |
The witness came to Thailand in 1997 because it was difficult to survive in Burma. In Ye town, men were very scared, many men went to Thailand. The Myanmar authorities asked her family to supply forced labour, one member of the family had to go, and since all the members of the household were female and could not go, they had to pay money instead; in the middle of 1996, they had to pay 3,000 kyat. One of her relatives worked from 1995 until the end of 1996 for Government engineers as a labour contractor for work on the railway line at Koe Mine village (nine miles from Ye). The contractor got paid for hiring people to do a fixed amount of work. He had to go around the area to find about 100 people, to whom he paid around 180 kyat a day. He had to collect the workers and take them back. Sometimes, those paid voluntary workers worked alongside other people doing forced labour (although normally, they worked on different sections), and sometimes the soldiers took away some of the contractor's workers for portering. In Ye town (and the rest of the township), each household had to supply one member for work along the railway line; normally, the contractor was employing skilled workers for engineering work, building bridges, while the forced labourers were doing rough work. There were also prisoners used for digging and breaking rocks. There were many forced labourers working on the railway construction site in rotation. Each town and village was allocated a quota of the work; if it had a bigger population and was closer to the railway, this could be completed in five days, if not, maybe in 10 days. The frequency depended on the place where one lived. In the middle of Ye town, people were well connected and went only twice in eight months; a little further from downtown, people were poorer and went more often, about four times in eight months. Until now, her family had to pay around 80 to 90 kyat monthly; a bit further from downtown, the rate was 90 kyat. People in town were arrested for portering and were afraid to open their doors. If one could afford to pay 5,000 to 10,000 kyat, one could pay to be exempted (in Ye). Those far from Ye could not. In her family, they had one car; sometimes this was requisitioned, with driver, for three to four days by the military, who promised to supply petrol, but never gave it. When people were taken for portering, those who could escape came back fast, others were away for three to six months. Portering started long ago. All ethnic groups in Ye were treated the same, but around the edge of the town, villages were mostly Mon and Karen. Some of her relatives had to go as porters and suffered hardship, they were not treated like soldiers and were ill fed. One younger cousin who had been selected for portering in a "lottery", had been a porter for three months. He was then able to find a replacement at some village. When the porters were tired, they were beaten, sometimes deprived of rice. In fighting, they lacked training and could be wounded; also, those who were sick and could not carry their loads anymore were shot. Her cousin was beaten, but did not sustain injuries.
|
Religion: |
Muslim |
230 |
|
Age/sex: |
45, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with four children | |
|
Occupation: |
Seller of cold drinks | |
|
From: |
Mawlamyine (Moulmein) town, Mon State | |
The witness had personal experience of forced labour only from before he left the country following the 1988 events. His family members who stayed behind had to go once a week for a whole day's work at Mawlamyine (Moulmein) airport, clearing the ground, cutting the grass. If they could not go, they had to pay 300 kyat. The order came from the district authorities through the village head. Alternatively, they sometimes had to do road maintenance, filling holes, cutting grass on a small road in town, once a week about three times a month, sometimes for half a day, sometimes a full day. They normally paid 300 kyat and did not go. They also had to pay "porter fees", 300 kyat at least twice a month. Sometimes, when a visitor came and registered in their home, they were charged 50 kyat, and also occasionally for a big event, the military collected money. He showed a receipt dated 27 June 1990 for 10,000 kyat for the repair of roads, clearing, reconstruction (to be paid by business owners, not in lieu of labour).
|
Religion: |
Buddhist |
231 |
|
Age/sex: |
36, male | |
|
Family: |
Married with one child | |
|
From: |
Kyaukphyu town, Rakhine State | |
The witness first left Myanmar ten years ago. When he went back to Kyaukphyu for three months in 1995, he did forced labour on the road from Minbu (Magway Division) to Taunggok (Rakhine State) through Ann, a four-year project started in 1993. The work had been allotted in quota by area and 600 to 700 people from the area around Kyaukphyu worked there. By order of the District LORC, every household had to send a worker. During the three months that he went back he lived with his parents, and the family was called up four times for ten days' work each tie. He went alone for the family, three times working ten days; the other time he was exempted from ten days' work by paying 150 kyat a day (1,500 kyat) to the village head. He had to walk four hours to the construction site, bringing his own food for ten days, and stayed there the whole period, working from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a lunch break, and sleeping in the open. There were soldiers as guards, but no beatings, only at some other sites. He did no other forced labour in those three months, and there were no "porter fees" in Rakhine State. A majority of the Rakhines had joined the army and left them alone, did not oppress them.
|
Ethnicity: |
Burman |
232 |
|
Age/sex: |
31, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with two children | |
|
From: |
Kaw Tot, near Ye Town, Mon State (he originally came from Yangon) (village had about 2,000 households) | |
The witness first left Myanmar in 1991 but went back for about a month in November 1997. In Kaw Tot village, his wife and her three married sisters stayed with their children (and husbands) all together as one big household (thus reducing the forced labour burden). The head of the village wanted to separate them into different households; in November 1997, he came and asked some family members to do forced labour for cutting bushes along the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway for one day. They paid money to be exempted at the rate of 150 to 200 kyat for one day, paying only once for the whole household. They also had to give "porter fees", 700 kyat per month, directly to the military. They were charged four times 700 kyat for one month because the military would not accept their being counted as a single household.
|
From: |
Taungpone, Ye township, Mon State (village had 4,000 households) |
233 |
|
Ethnicity: |
Mon | |
|
Age/sex: |
34, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with one child | |
The witness came to Thailand almost ten years ago and often tried to go back but could not go; because of a shortage of men, he would be taken to a forced labour site. His wife, who went back six months ago (she keeps going and coming) had done forced labour in the last six months. Women had to clear the bush near a bridge twice a month for a whole day to prevent an ambush by insurgents. Men were sent to Dawei (Tavoy), for the gas pipeline and/or railway projects. He knew this because fifty days ago, his wife phoned him not to come for the moment, since they were taking the men for about one month. Some women had to fill rocks for the railway; his wife, too, had to go twice a month, either clearing the bush or filling rock. Since the husband was not there, she had to go (or pay). One also had to pay porter fees, monthly, at a rate depending on one's wealth; an ordinary worker paid 700 kyat a month, someone owning land or a cow, 1,500 kyat.
|
Ethnicity: |
Mon (both) |
234 and 235 |
|
Age/sex: |
35 and 25, both male | |
|
Family situation: |
Both single | |
|
Occupation: |
Both workers on railway construction | |
|
From: |
Ye town, Mon State (witness 234); Sakaya, Ye township, Mon State (witness 235) | |
Both witnesses were hired through an acquaintance working as a contractor, to work as manual workers (sometimes driving a vehicle) on the construction of the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway, which started in 1992. They both paid 1,000 kyat to the person in charge at the railways (not the contractor) to get the job, and were promised a pay of 100 kyat a day as Government employees, but were never paid. After six months of work on the railway without being paid (in 1995 to 1996) they left, together with four others in the same situation. While working on the railway they saw forced labour on the construction site. As for forced labour done by themselves, in 1995 and 1996 they were told by the local LORC to go and dig drainage trenches in Ye town without pay, on average once a week or three times a month, for one or two days, especially in the dry season; they had to work from 7.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. If there was rain, they stopped. Altogether there were about 600 people from many different places. Witness 234 once was a porter, before getting the job at the railway construction, he does not remember when, for about 15 days. Soldiers arrested him on a visit to Mawlamyine (Moulmein) town and sent him by truck to Three Pagodas Pass. They arrested so many people, about 10 to 15 trucks full. They were not tied, but guarded. He then had to carry two packs of bullets, each weighing about 20 kg. He was unpaid and given sometimes a little rice, sometimes no food at all. He saw others who could not carry very heavy loads being beaten, but not killed; some were injured in the back from the beatings. He did not see anybody left on the road side. After 15 days, he was released at Three Pagodas Pass and it took him six days to return home. Afterwards, when employed on the railway construction site, both witnesses had to pay porter fees, around 600 kyat a month each.
|
Ethnicity: |
Burman |
236 |
|
Age/sex: |
44, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Married with five children | |
|
Occupation: |
Making fishing nets | |
|
From: |
Setse, Thanbyuzayat township, Mon State (village had about 1,000 households) | |
The witness came to Thailand in 1993 because he had to do forced labour and pay porter fees he could not afford anymore. He had no time to work for his family. By order of the local authorities, he had to go once or twice a week clearing bush or doing sentry duty, together with 80 to 100 people from the village. Soldiers guarded them and would just shout at them, not beat them. If one did not want to go, the soldiers would find the person; if one could not go, one had to pay a fine, between 300 and 500 kyat, depending on the distance of the work site from the village. Four or five days a month, all year round, one person per household also had to go and do repair work on the Thanbyuzayat-Setse road. About 80 to 100 people at a time had to go, organised by eight to 10 sub-leaders responsible for 10 households. The forced labour rotated, the next time it would fall on another village/area. Government workers were not taken. Other people who did not want to go had to pay a fine, in 1990 to 1993 the rate for one day was 300 to 500 kyat. He was also charged porter fees, a regular rate of 200 kyat per month plus 300 to 400 kyat for "emergency portering" at least once, sometimes twice a month. He actually went portering once, arrested by soldiers from IB 26 around 1985 to 1986 to carry heavy bullets to Three Pagodas Pass for two months; then he escaped. He was beaten because with his heavy load, he could not go very fast when told to run because of fighting. He was not paid and provided only some rice to eat. He saw porters being killed by soldiers, including one man who could not walk fast and also was wounded in the shoulder. The soldiers tied him up with a longyi, tied his neck, kicked him with their boots, and strangled him to death with the longyi. He also saw two porters carrying a battery, who wanted to take a rest, being told by a soldier from IB 26 "you better rest for the rest of your lives", and pushed from a cliff. He had seen about 60 porters die out of 108 who were there initially. When people could not carry their loads anymore, they were kicked with boots and died. All 60 porters were killed by Government soldiers, none by enemy fire. Therefore, he always paid porter fees after this as he did not want to go portering, and finally came to Thailand. After he left, his family had to work on the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway construction. They had to go only once a year for 20 days (from their village).
|
Ethnicity: |
Burman |
237 |
|
Age/sex: |
35, male | |
|
Family: |
Married with two children | |
|
Occupation: |
Driver of a small boat (rented from someone else) for transporting 25 to 30 people | |
|
From: |
Kawthaung town, Tanintharyi Division | |
The witness left Myanmar five years ago because the authorities requisitioned his boat, to transport them for free, so he had not enough money to pay the boat owner his fee of 150 baht a day. He was thus called up regularly twice a month for a whole day and had to pay the petrol and go with them. In addition to this, he had to go another three or four times a month for so-called emergencies. He normally had to carry to the sea all kinds of authorities, the police, immigration authorities, soldiers with bullets. For "emergencies", he had to carry sometimes food or people to some islands close to Kawthaung, or wait; an "emergency" thus occurred normally because the military, police or immigration authorities, all of which had the authority to requisition him with the boat, wanted to go to some island, without giving a reason. It was never for taking people to hospital or otherwise assisting people in danger. In addition, every Saturday one person from each household had to go for "donated labour", clearing the town, drainage trenches, etc. If one did not go, one had to pay 200 kyat. Normally, he paid rather than sending someone from his family. In his area, no "porter fees" were levied. One only paid a fire fighters' fee of 50 kyat per month. The money went to the fire fighters office, although they got a salary already and there was no fire.
|
Ethnicity: |
Mon |
238 |
|
Age/sex: |
20, male | |
|
Family situation: |
Parents and four siblings | |
|
Education: |
7th Standard | |
|
From: |
Zathabyin, Hpa-an township, Kayin State | |
The witness left Myanmar four years ago because of portering and other forced labour. At about age 15, when in 6th Standard (in middle school), he was arrested on a visit to Kyondo, near Kawkareik. At a police checkpoint, he was taken from a bus on which he travelled with only three other persons (the driver, his assistant and a former soldier) and put in a small jail behind the checkpoint. The military had ordered the police to get some men for portering and keep them until they came to get them. He was the first put in, then the police went to search another car and fetch someone, and at that time he escaped. There were no regular monthly "porter fees" to be paid by his family, only "emergency" porter fees on an irregular basis. When the authorities called up porters, one had to pay about 1,000 kyat to avoid going; this occurred about once a month in his household. All households had to contribute labour, one household had to do one trench, it took normally five days, once every three to four months. The order came from the local authorities. One could go home in the evenings. In 1997 (when he went back for two months to his village), he worked twice for 15 days carrying stones, filling the ground for building a bridge from their village to the road from Zathabyin to Mawlamyine (Moulmein). One member from every household had to go.
|
Ethnicity: |
Both Mon |
239 and 240 |
|
Age/sex: |
Witness 239: 26, female; witness 240: 18, female | |
|
Family situation: |
Now both married; before in the village, witness 239 was in a household with her two very old parents and four siblings; witness 240 was in a household with her grandmother, mother and her younger brother | |
|
Education: |
Witness 239: 4th Standard; witness 240: 7th Standard | |
|
Occupation: |
Witness 239: catching and selling fish | |
|
From: |
Zathabyin, Hpa-an township, Kayin State | |
Both witnesses had done forced labour themselves, witness 239 since age 13. Witness 239 left Myanmar about one year ago; witness 240 left two years ago. Witness 240 stated that, for building the road from Zathabyin to Hpa-an, every family had to provide a person for four to six days about three times in every two months. It turned out four days if one was in a big group, six days if one had been allotted a big share of the work; that depended on the village head. Witness 240 went twice. The other times they were called up her family paid money instead of going: 1,000 to 2,000 kyat for four to six days. When she went, she stayed on the work site if it was far from the village; once she slept there, the other time she came back in the evenings. They had to bring their own food and working tools. Witness 239 confirmed this. She had done that work countless times since she was 13 years old, because her family could not afford to pay, and her parents were very old. Sometimes she had to go twice in one month. Witness 240 stated that there were soldiers who normally came and gave instructions to finish the work; when they walked away, the workers relaxed. There was no sexual harassment. Witness 239 indicated that, when a military leader from Hpa-an came, they had to clean the road, etc. one day before. This happened about twice or three times a month, for a full day (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Witness 240 added that she too normally went herself for this type of work (while her family tended to pay instead of sending her to the road building work). Porter fees had to be given normally once a month, sometimes, for "emergency portering", a second time. The rate depended on wealth, for witness 239's family it was about 300 kyat, for witness 240's about 600 kyat.
|
Ethnicity: |
Burman |
241 |
|
Age/sex: |
24, female | |
|
Family situation: |
Six (lived with her parents) | |
|
Occupation: |
Fishing | |
|
From: |
Myeik (Mergui) town, Tanintharyi Division | |
The witness left Myanmar in January 1997. Her younger brother was arrested in 1994/95 on the way from a village near Myeik (Mergui) to the town. He was taken to Netaye Taung with two people from the village. The younger brother fell sick while portering, and the two others reported the soldiers left him sick in the jungle. They escaped later, looked for him, and found him already dead. She herself had done no forced labour. In her family, others had to go very often. Normally, her younger brother who died went at least three times a month, sometimes for a whole month, to far away places, from age 16 on. He was the only man in the family, apart from their very old father.
|
Ethnicity: |
Karen |
242 |
|
Age/sex: |
21, female | |
|
Family situation: |
Five (her, parents and two sisters) | |
|
From: |
Hpa-an town, Kayin State (lived since 1979 in KNU-controlled areas of Kayin State) | |
(This is a summary of the testimony provided by "Wa Wa" at the Commission's Second Session in Geneva.)
In her capacity as Women's and Children's Officer of the FTUB, she interviewed refugees who had done forced labour. She did interviews for three months, starting in April 1996. The people she interviewed had done road construction (Nabu to Dawlan, Nabu to Kawkareik and Nabu to Kyondo). Nabu was a Muslim village, and was relocated when the army moved in during 1995. Some of the villagers had to travel far from their villages to do this forced labour, and had to stay at the work sites. Women and children as young as 10 or 12 also had to do this work, as well as people who were 50 or 60 years old. The villagers could only rest for one hour during the day. The villagers had to provide their own food, firewood and cooking equipment. Some villagers died from illness. Some were beaten by the soldiers. One old man (over 60) died of exhaustion. One girl was killed in a work accident (landslide); her family received no compensation. If a villager could not go for forced labour, they had to hire a replacement which could cost between 200 kyat and 1,000 kyat. Villagers she interviewed also talked about having to do portering. People she interviewed said that they were forced to sign a blank piece of paper by the army, and then they had their land confiscated without compensation. None of the villagers had cars; the roads were for military use. Orders for forced labour and portering were given by the army through the village head.
|
From: |
Yangon |
243 |
|
Ethnicity: |
Karen | |
|
Sex: |
Male | |
(This is a summary of the testimony provided by "Min Lwin" at the Commission's Second Session in Geneva.)
The witness left Yangon in 1982, and went to work in a cement factory in Thayet in central Burma. He left the cement factory during the uprising in 1988, and went to the KNU-controlled area near the Thai border. There he worked in the mechanical maintenance department of the KNU. While in that area, he talked to people who had escaped from being porters for the SLORC. They told him they had had to carry loads of between 20 and 45 kg. They had to go with the soldiers to the front line during offensives. During fighting they had to keep the soldiers supplied with ammunition. They also had to dig trenches and fetch water for the soldiers. These porters had been arrested in cinemas or rounded up from the road. Porters were beaten if they were slow. After working with the KNU, he worked for the FTUB as secretary of the human rights and workers' rights department. He prepared human rights documentation. He interviewed many refugees (70 or 80) about their reasons for leaving Myanmar. The last people he interviewed was on 24 October 1997. Most of the people left because of forced labour and confiscation of their property by the army. Forced labour included work constructing roads and working in army-owned plantations. There was also forced logging work (Lahu people from the region near Mong Hsat in Shan State did this). People from Hmawbyi in Yangon Division had done work on a road in Hmawbyi township. Other people had done forced work on irrigation projects in Yangon Division. He interviewed a prisoner who had to work at the Kalaymyo power station, and at a quarry in Kabaw. People from Kayin State had told him about forced labour at brick kilns owned by the army (battalions 547, 548 and 549), and on army plantations. They had also done work constructing roads between Hpa-an, Myawady and Mawlamyine (Moulmein), as well as constructing army camps. If the work site was far from their village, people had to sleep there. No shelter was provided. If a person could not go, they had to hire someone to go in their place. People from Ayeyarwady Division also told him they had to do forced labour building a fish farm, and constructing a bridge in Myaungmya. He also interviewed people who had done forced labour at a quarry near Kyaukkyi (Bago Division). He had also acted as interpreter for an interview with people who had done forced labour on the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway construction. Orders were usually given to the village head by the army. In large villages, the village head was appointed by the military, in small villages the villagers chose themselves. In the villages where the villagers chose their own village head, the position was usually rotated between villagers. This was because the village head was responsible for what went on in the village, and so was often punished by the soldiers. Because of this, no one wanted to be village head so it rotated. Often women were chosen because the villagers thought that the soldiers would treat them less harshly. The position often rotated as often as every two weeks. People who had done forced labour also told him about punishments given by the soldiers during forced labour. Many people were beaten for not working hard, and one woman who was pregnant was punished by being told to do repeated forward rolls on the ground. As a result, she miscarried.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
244 |
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Age/sex: |
14, female | |
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Education: |
None | |
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Family situation: |
Seven (her, parents, two older sisters and two younger brothers) | |
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Occupation: |
Parents were farmers | |
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From: |
Naw Khee, Kawkareik township, Kayin State (village had 40 households) | |
(This is a summary of the testimony provided by "Naw Mu" at the Commission's Second Session in Geneva.)
The witness first did forced labour when she was ten or 11 years old. She was the only person in her family who was available to do forced labour, so she had to go. The villagers were told by the village head to provide one worker from each household. Her mother was sick, and her father and older sister were away from the village working. The first place she worked was T'Nay Cha (Nabu), which was a half-day walk from her village. She went with other people from her village. She had to build an embankment for a road from T'Nay Cha (Nabu) to Kawkareik. They had to work from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a one-hour break at noon. The work was very hard, and they were not allowed to rest by the soldiers. They had to go for three days at a time, and sleep at the work site. No payment, food or shelter was provided. If they made mistakes during the work, they would be beaten by the soldiers. She was never beaten. There were other children the same age as her at the work site, and also old people. Some people were very old. She had to do this work several times. At other times, other members of her family did it. The family had to provide a worker three times a month. The work continued over a period of two years, after which the family fled to Thailand. The family also had to do forced labour constructing an army camp at T'Nay Cha (Nabu). She herself did this work. They also had to provide bamboo for the camp construction, which her father cut for her. Her father also had to work as a porter.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
245 |
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Sex: |
Male | |
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Education: |
6th Standard | |
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From: |
Mawlamyine (Moulmein) town, Mon State (he later moved with his family to Kanbauk in Yebyu township, Tanintharyi Division) | |
(This is a summary of the testimony provided by "Mr. Po" at the Commission's Second Session in Geneva.)
The witness left Kanbauk after getting married, and went to Nat Ein Taung (on the Thai border). This was then under the control of the KNU. Then the Myanmar army attacked the area so he had to leave. He went to Tat Lei Ya village (in Thailand), near Nat Ein Taung. In 1995 he went back to Myanmar, to a town called Thuka (about one hour from the border near Nat Ein Taung). He opened a shop in Thuka, and traded in supplies from Myanmar and Thailand. Sometimes he travelled to other places in Burma to buy supplies for his shop. One such place was Taungthonlon (Three Mountains) near Dawei (Tavoy). In February 1997 he went on such a trip, to Kalet Kyi village. He arrived at Kalet Kyi on the evening of 8 February. He stayed at a friend's house. At about 6 a.m. the next day, Burmese soldiers came to the house. They aimed their guns at the house, and ordered all the men in the house to come down. The four men in the house at the time went down. From there, a total of about 30 men from the village were taken at gunpoint by the soldiers to an army camp near Hti Law Pei stream, which took about 30 minutes. The soldiers were from battalion 104 (company 4) under Lieutenant Aung Pai Oo. One person tried to run away, but was caught and badly beaten by the soldiers. After stopping for a short time at the camp, the porters were given their loads and then they continued. Lieutenant Aung Pai Oo said that if any of the porters tried to escape they would be shot. He had to carry 45 kg of rice, on his back with a strap around his head. He knew how heavy it was, because he was a trader in rice, and was used to carrying rice. He had also worked previously as a harbour worker in Kanbauk, and was used to carrying heavy loads. They carried the loads back to Kalet Kyi village. When they got back to Kalet Kyi village, there was a fight with the KNU. The porters were put in the middle of the soldiers, and were told that if anyone tried to run away, they would be shot. The battle lasted about 15 minutes. They then withdrew through Hti Law Pei to Kane Po Kye. They stayed the night in Kane Po Kye, and the porters were allowed to eat. They were given some rice about the size of a fist, and some small fish. The porters were given no shelter, and had to sleep in the open. It was cold and foggy that night. The next day at about 6 a.m., without breakfast, they continued down the stream, heading for a village called Myitta and Kanadaw village. They stopped on the way to eat lunch. The porters were given a plastic bag of cold rice, about the size of a fist. They stopped on the way at about 7 p.m., and slept the night among some bamboo trees. It was cold and foggy again. The next night, at about 3 a.m., they arrived in Myitta. Eleven porters were put in a small bunker so they would not escape (on the fourth day a porter had escaped), and the soldiers slept on top. It was so crowded they could not sleep. After eating the next morning, they were taken by truck to Heinda mine in the Taungthonlon area. After picking up supplies, they continued by truck to Paung Daw Gyi power station. The next day they walked to Paung Daw village. He again had to carry rice. They arrived at Paung Daw in the evening. They slept the night in a betel nut plantation. The next morning they went on to Pya Tha Chaung by foot. On the way, one of the porters injured his knee on a tree root, and could not continue so he was released. After this the man's load was distributed. Mr. Po now had to carry cooking pots. This load was more heavy, because the cooking pots were full of rice (but it became lighter as the rice was eaten). They arrived at Pya Tha Chaung at 3 p.m., and they took more porters: a young man, four old men over 60, and 25 women. There was a fight at Pya Tha Chaung that afternoon with the KNU. During the fight the porters were in the middle of the soldiers, "prostrate with fear". That evening they slept in a cow-shed on the outskirts of the village. He had to cook for the soldiers and porters that evening. Because he cooked the porters got a little more to eat that night. The next day they went back into the village, and around noon there was another fight, again with the KNU. The fight didn't last very long. The porters were put in the middle of the soldiers again, and were warned they would be shot if they tried to escape. Then from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. there was a big fight. It was bad because it was open ground with no cover. That night they slept among bamboo trees. The next day at 5.30 a.m. they went to another village, and arrived about 7 p.m. They slept in the open, with no shelter at all. That night he had to cook, and it took until about 11 p.m., because he had to go away from the soldiers to cook (another two porters and a soldier went with him), because the soldiers were afraid that if the KNU saw the smoke they would attack. About 9 p.m., the other two porters ran away. The next day they walked to another Karen village. The following day they left, and walked for three days and nights with no sleep. On the third day at about 4 p.m. they arrived on the other side of Hti Hta stream from Hti Hta camp (a KNU camp). From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. there was a big fight, and they occupied Hti Hta camp. He stayed at Hti Hta for ten days as a cook. After that he went to a camp on Hti Hta mountain for six days. He had to cook and carry water up the mountain to the camp. If he left the camp at 6 a.m. to fetch water, it would take him until 3 p.m. to be able to return. On the seventh day the camp ran out of food, so the Captain ordered six people (including him) to go and look for food. He managed to run away with four other porters, and travelled for 12 days in the jungle, living off jungle food. On the twelfth day they met some other escaped porters and then they travelled together. The next day they reached Htee Hpo Lay village where they met some soldiers from battalion 401. The soldiers asked who they were running away from, and then arrested them. It was 25 March. He knows this because he asked a soldier who had a watch what the date was. The next day some soldiers with injuries arrived and they had to carry them to Myitta village in a blanket strung over a pole. There were four porters left and they carried two wounded soldiers between them. In Myitta village he ran away and hid at a friend's house. He managed to get a document from the Captain of battalion 25, after the Myitta village head arranged it, saying he had finished his portering assignment. He then returned to Thuka, which was controlled by the KNU, but his family was not there. They had gone to Thailand. While he was a porter, he saw soldiers beat the porters many times, but he was never beaten. One porter was seriously wounded by shrapnel in the big battle at Pya Tha Chaung. He saw porters beaten to death, and others died from exhaustion. The youngest porter he saw was 13, and the oldest 67 or 68.
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Ethnicity: |
Karen |
246 |
|
Sex: |
Male | |
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From: |
Yangon | |
(This is a summary of the testimony of "Ka Hsaw Wa" given by video conference at the Commission's Second Session.)
The witness left Yangon in 1988, after the student uprising in which he participated. At that time, he had just completed high school. He went to KNU-controlled areas near the Thai border. For six or seven months, he lived in a KNU-controlled area in Kyaukkyi township (Bago Division), designated by the KNU as the No. 3 Brigade area. He had to hide. Having lived in Yangon up to then and had not seen or experienced forced labour at that time. While travelling, he talked to many villagers about their situation and learned that many of them were trying to move from military-controlled areas because they had to work for the army all the time. They would need to cut firewood, build roads and railways and work for military camps. He personally saw villagers working for a military camp. Some villagers were also hiding because they would otherwise be called for porter duties for the military. Men, women and children were taken as porters. Children were also used to do work for soldiers such as carrying messages for them. As early as 1988, he saw written orders to perform forced labour. The orders would specify the number of persons required, the work to be carried out and the duration of the assignment. Sometimes the orders were accompanied by charcoal and bullets, the former meaning that the village would be burnt down if the order was not respected and the latter representing a death threat. He started to work for Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) at the beginning of 1992. He then gathered reports of all forms of forced labour concerning, inter alia, portering, railway and road. Villagers wold also have to work for military camps. KHRG's representatives interviewed hundreds of porters who explained the various forms of portering and the vary bad conditions in which the work had to be done. They would be shot if they tried to escape. Porters were neither paid nor fed. Neither was there a medical examination performed to ensure they were fit for the job. He personally saw villagers performing portering in 1992. Porters to whom he talked came from several places, including Yangon, Shan State and Kayah State. The porters would have to carry supplies, ammunition and food. In fights, porters could be used as human shields or mine sweepers. After the fall of Manerplaw, he went to Mae Sot (Thailand) in early 1995. He left KHRG and started to work on the establishment of EarthRights International organization, the main function of which was to gather information concerning the pipeline being built in Tanintharyi Division. Between April 1995 and May 1996, he made four long trips into the area to see people. Otherwise, he would make many short trips per month to the areas close to the border. His last long trip was in May 1996 to get plaintiffs out for his organization's lawsuit before United States federal district court. He interviewed more than 200 people out of which 100 had something to say about the pipeline. He observed that a lot of the portering going on in that area was closely associated with soldiers guarding the pipeline. He believed that the pipeline security was the reason why there was an increased military presence in this area. He interviewed villagers from Migyaunglaung and Eindayaza, who told him about having to work on the Ye-Dawei (Tavoy) railway. People had to work for 15 days and then went back to their village for 15 days. Villagers from Natkyizin had to pay pipeline fees ranging from 500 to 1,000 kyat which was requested and collected by the military. In addition, he talked to villagers from Migyaunglaung and Heinzebok Island who had to perform work for the military.