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ILO: FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA-34



[ILO COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA, SLICE
34]


98

Ethnicity:          Karen
Age/sex:            27, male
Family situation:   Single. Six brothers and sisters
Education:          4th Standard
Occupation:         Lead mine worker
                    (relocated in 1996 to Lo Kha Lu, near      
                    Mawchi)

The witness left Myanmar early in 1998. Relocation. Upon an
order given by an army officer to the village head, in June
1996 all Plo Ba village moved to a relocation site called Lo
Kha Lu, also in Mawchi township, at a half-day's walking
distance. Plo Ba village was all Karen, about 50 families. At
the same time 12 all-Karen villages were relocated to Lo Kha
Lu, where over 150 families now lived. Witness did not know
the reason for relocation. No one was allowed to stay in Plo
Ba village, they had to destroy their houses themselves. One
or two families refused to go and were moved to a different
place, all were prohibited from going back. At Lo Kha Lu they
had three weeks to build a new village themselves, having
carried everything they could themselves from the old village.
Lo Kha Lu was at the bottom of a hill, an army post on top of
the hill. He worked at the lead mine in Mawchi from 1994 until
his relocation and continued thereafter. After relocation to
Lo Kha Lu (June 1996), witness worked as a porter three times:
twice upon an order received through the village head (for
three weeks in August 1996 and for one month only two weeks
later). About 150 people had to go each time, including women
and boys of about 13 years old; they were not told beforehand 
for how long, were neither promised nor paid anything, fed one
hankaw (soldier's rice carrier, equivalent to four condensed
milk tins) of rice for three days and some fish paste and were
not allowed to take vegetables from the forest. The third
time, in November 1997, he was seized directly by soldiers in
Lo Kha Lu village, together with around 100 other people, and
forced to carry rice to Buko. He fell sick after a week and
could not carry the load anymore; he was given no medicine,
but hit with a rifle in his chest, beaten and left on the way;
he walked back for two days coughing blood and still has a
pain in the chest and cannot work (shows a small scar; he also
shows an accidental gunshot scar sustained in 1995 when
staying with his female cousin at her request when she was
visited at night time by soldiers.) He also saw that when 100
people were seized as porters in November 1997 in Lo Kha Lu,
some refused and were hit and kicked, punched in the face by
the soldiers, he saw their swollen faces, bleeding. He saw
nothing happen to women. In the old village (Plo Ba), before
1996, people had to do portering, including his family, but
for short-distance, for instance carrying food rations for
one day, once or twice a month. Starting December 1997, many
villagers were ordered through their head to work on improving
the old road from Mawchi to Toungoo. His family was allotted
one mile to fill up holes with stones and widen the road by
half a metre on either side. They had to bring all the
equipment and food from home. Since their allotted stretch was
close to their village, he went and did the whole work with
his elder sister in ten days, walking every morning and
evening two hours from and to the village. They were not paid
anything. In addition, from his village, 15 people at a time
were required at all times at the camp, plus people from other
villages, altogether about 60 people at a time. Since
relocation (as well as before, in Plo Ba), his family had to
send a worker about three times per month for four days to the
camp. He worked there for the last time in November 1997, upon
the village head's instruction (before he was seized as a
porter). For two days he dug a bunker; the next two days he
started making a fence, which someone else had to finish after
him. Furthermore, every Saturday, upon an order from an army
officer through the village head, one person per family had to
work a half-day to clear the bush around the village and do
sanitation. Finally, at least twice a month for half a day, he
had to do "emergency" work like carrying food rations or fetch
water for the army. Overall, in the last few months of 1997,
he had to work five days a week for the army and had only two
days a week to work for his family. (Moreover, his sister also
had to do forced labour on the road.) In his family, there was
only one elder sister and their mother besides him; the other
brothers and sisters had left. The father had died. The sister
worked in the garden, but the mother could not work because of
a stomach problem. At the mine, he received 150 kyat a day for
pushing a trolley, but when he did forced labour, he was not
paid. He was never paid for forced labour neither at the
road building work nor elsewhere.  
                      ______________________

99
 
Ethnicity:          Karenni (Padaung)
Age/sex:            67, male
Family situation:   Eight (him, wife, four sons and
                    three daughters)
Occupation:         Tractor driver (previously in
                    government service)

The witness left Myanmar on 30 April 1997. He had to do forced
labour and portering. He had to pay money if he could not
go. The forced labour he had to do included digging ground and
breaking rocks; he had to provide his own tools. Each family
was given a quota of labour to complete. The worst time was in
1992 to 1994 when the Loikaw-Aungban railway was being
constructed. At this time someone from each family had to go
for the whole week, hundreds of people. They had to take their
own food and tools, and even had to make their own
arrangements for transport to the work site. Anyone who was
not able to go had to pay money. He did this work himself, and
his two eldest sons also did it (sometimes in turn, sometimes
at the same time). The had to work for up to 10 days at a time
to complete the assignment which was given to them, which was
very tiring. They were not able to earn a living at this time,
and ometimes had to sell property to make ends meet. Since the
work site was very far away, they had to sleep there. The
orders came from the Ward LORC, who were ordered by the
Township LORC. He was never beaten while doing this work
(because he was older, and other villagers would help him to
fulfil his quota), but other civilians were hit and kicked and
some received injuries. They were hit by the soldiers if they
were working too slowly or talking too much. There were also
prisoners doing the work (in shackles), and they would be
violently beaten. He saw many prisoners with serious injuries
from beatings, and also many prisoners who had died (usually
from being hit with spades by the soldiers guarding them). One
evening, he saw six prisoners killed in this way within two
hours. He has also done portering twice, the first time in
1974, the second time in 1978. On the second occasion he was a
porter for three months in a major military operation; four of
his relatives died portering in this operation. The treatment
was very bad and the porters did not receive enough food and
water. One of his sons was also taken as a porter recently,
but they paid 1,000 kyat to have him released. Since 1987 or
1988 people in his area have been forced to do work at army
camps (digging trenches and bunkers, building fences), and
cleaning pagodas. He never did this work himself, but he saw
others do it. People were forced to stand guard around
electricity pylons to prevent rebels from sabotaging them.
People also had to carry firewood and water to an army camp on
top of a hill, because the soldiers were too lazy to go down
the hill to the stream to wash. The people also had to do
forced labour in rice fields belonging to the soldiers. In
Demawso and Loikaw he knows people who had their farm land
confiscated by the army and who were then forced to work on
the land without pay. They would be told by the army how much
harvest they wanted, and if the villagers did not manage to
produce enough from the army land, they would have to make up
the shortfall themselves. This is very common. Half of his own
land was confiscated (three acres of peanut plantations) in
1995; he was also previously forced to work in the army's rice
fields, but it was not so much in the towns, whereas in the
villages people had to do much more work for the army.
Villagers also had to build and maintain all army camps, and
provide for the needs of the soldiers; if a senior officer
came to the camp, the villagers would have to provide food to
entertain him. There was a hill called Sin Taung ('Elephant
Hill') near Demawso. The Christians had put a cross on top of
the hill, and as an act of provocation, the army forced the
Buddhist villagers to build a pagoda next to it. The villagers
had to do everything for the army. Owners of bullock carts,
horse carts, tractors, boats etc. have to be on permanent
standby at the army camp (by rotation) in case the soldiers
needed them. In one case he knows of, a bullock cart driver
was sent to a village four miles away to buy one packet of
cigarettes for an officer. Another time, an officer called a
bullock cart to come and take a love letter to a girl in
another village. This kind of thing was common. When the
Student Sport Festival was held in Loikaw, people were forced
to 'donate' all the materials such as bricks and wood and were
then forced to build all the necessary infrastructure. 

He was a member of the NLD. The authorities forced him to
resign in January 1996, but despite this, one night soldiers
came to his home to arrest him. At that time he was not there,
and so he escaped arrest and decided to flee. His family is
still in Myanmar (except for three sons who had already fled
six years ago). The situation is very oppressive; the
authorities take any opportunity to oppress the people. The
people, even government servants, are forced to work half a
day almost every Saturday doing jobs in Loikaw. He himself has
been arrested three times. The first time, in 1964, he spent
six months in Taunggyi prison. The second time, in 1983, he
was sentenced to six months, but only spent 15 days in Loikaw
prison, and was released after paying 10,000 kyat. The third
time was in May 1995. He was kept in a tiny cell, usually for
solitary confinement, with nine people for 45 days. The cell
was almost totally dark, with the only light from a five watt
bulb. They were given two bottles of dirty water each day for
drinking. Some of the others had been there for four months,
and all of them had been tortured. He was released when the
authorities could find no evidence against him. Finally, one
of his neighbours, a Karen, was returning from Toungoo with
10,000 kyat and some gold when he was taken as a porter. They
put him on a military truck, then accused him of being a
rebel, and shot him. The soldiers stole all his possessions.
He was told this by two eye-witnesses.
                      ______________________

100
 
Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            36, male
Family situation:   Married with one son and one daughter
Occupation:         Farmer
                 (whole village relocated by force to          
           Shadaw on 7 June 1996)

(The witness gave his testimony in the presence of witnesses
101, 102, 103 and 104.)

The witness had to do forced labour before and after his
relocation. He left Myanmar in February 1997 after escaping
from prison. Before relocation he was a porter on one occasion
in 1990, during the dry season, just after New Year. He was 27
then. He received the order from the village head. He had to
carry rice rations in a mountainous region near Shadaw for
three days. The distance covered was a total of 22 miles. He
went to a military camp in the mountains (average size, one
company). There were about 34 porters, including five people
from his village, for 60 soldiers. There were no women, but
children (13 to 15 years) and one old person (60). The day
began at 4 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. The porters had to start
before dawn and were not allowed to use electric torches. They
were allowed a few minutes rest. The first night he slept in
the forest and the following two nights he slept in villages.
He did not see any fighting. He was not personally ill
treated, but he saw other people beaten or struck with sticks,
rifles or kicked because they could not carry the load they
had been given. It was possible to pay a substitute. The
amount necessary was around 300 to 400 kyat. The whole village
was relocated on 7 June 1996. Apart from a little rice, he
could not take anything with him. He went to a site near a
military camp at Shadaw. He had to build a shelter for his
family as there was nothing on the site. He did not see anyone
ill- treated. The authorities suspected him of belonging to
the rebels. He was arrested a few days after his arrival. He
was kept in prison for six months. He was tortured, mainly
through his hands being tied to the ceiling and his feet bound
for long periods of time. During the month when he was not in
prison, he had to do various types of work for the military.
All the families were subject to forced labour. They could not
do anything else. After relocation, he had to build fencing
and cut wood. He had to work on four occasions, once a week
during the month when he was not in prison. The village head
gave him his work assignment. The day normally started at 6
a.m. and finished at 4 p.m. About 30 to 60 people were working
with him, including five to ten women who had to do the same
work. He was not paid. It was not possible to refuse. In the
event of refusal, the authorities deprived them of the small
amount of rice which was distributed.
                      ______________________

101

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            23, male
Family situation:   Married with no children
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village forcibly relocated to Shadaw in   
                    June 1996)

(The witness gave his testimony in the presence of witnesses
100, 102, 103 and 104.)

The witness had to work for the army before and after his
relocation. He left Myanmar in October 1997. Before
relocation, he had to do portering on four occasions. The
village head transmitted the order to work. The first time, he 
was 15 years old. On that occasion, he had to work during the
rainy season near the river Salween. The portering lasted 20
days. There were 40 porters, three from his village, for 250
soldiers. There were no women, but young men of 15 to 16
years. The oldest might have been 50. He had to carry cooking
pots. He did not see any fighting. He was once kicked because
he was not going fast enough. Same routine and treatment the
other times he was a porter, aged 15, 16 and 17. The
assignments lasted: three days (the second); six days (the
third); and 15 days (the fourth). After relocation he also had
to do forced labour, the same type of work as witness 100. The
work just never ended. He had to work two or three times a
month. He was allowed to go home in his free time to fetch
food. There were two battalions of 500 men each at Shadaw (LIB
350 and LIB 428). 
                      ______________________


102

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            33, male
Family situation:   Widowed with one son (his wife died at     
                    Shadaw a few days after giving birth, due  
                    to lack of necessary medical care)
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village had 103 families about 1,000      
                    people; the village was forcibly           
                    relocated to Shadaw in May 1996)

(The witness gave his testimony in the presence of witnesses
100, 101, 103 and 104.)

The witness's village was burned by the army so that the
inhabitants could not go back. He carried out forced labour
before and after relocation. He left Myanmar in August 1996.
Before relocation, he was a porter on one occasion in 1993
during the rainy season. The assignment lasted two days. There
were 30 porters for 70 soldiers, including two children (13
years old) and four people over 60. All the porters were men.
The day began at 9 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. He had to carry
ammunition and rice rations for the army from his village to
another village. He received very little food and had to sleep
in the forest. He was not paid. He was not personally
subjected to ill treatment. However his friend was beaten with
a stick because, exhausted, he dropped the load he had been
given. After relocation, he had to do forced labour for the
military. The village head transmitted the work order to him.
Same nature as witness 100. The work demanded by the military
just never ended. During the one-and-a-half months he stayed
at the relocation site, he had to work for the military three
times. The military provided food intermittently. The rations
were in any case inadequate. He was not allowed to go home. He
was not paid. He could not refuse. It was always possible to
pay a substitute or bribe someone to be exempted. He did not
do so and did not know how much would have to be paid. The
military had seized all his animals (buffalos, one cow, four
pigs, ten chickens). He went back to his village for a few
days before coming to Thailand. 
                       ____________________

103

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            30, male
Family situation:   Married with three sons
Occupation:         Farmer
                    State (village had 37 families and was two 
                    miles from the relocation site at Shadaw;  
                    it was forcibly relocated there in June    
                    1996)

(The witness gave his testimony in the presence of witnesses
100, 101, 102 and 104.)

The witness's village was relocated to Shadaw in June 1996. In
August 1997, he left Shadaw to live in the Soh Paw hills six
miles away. There he farmed rice and vegetables, but was
forced to move by the army, so came to Thailand at the end of
1997. He had to do forced labour before and after his
relocation. Before relocation, he had to work on road building
(carrying rocks) and had to carry out various types of work
for the military: cutting bamboo, building shelters for
relocated people, cleaning the camps. As the relocation site
was near his village, he helped in the preparatory work. He
did that work for three years, ten times a month, six times a
year. He saw men, women, children (ten years) and older people
(over 50 years) working. After relocation, he had to do the
same work as witness 100. In addition, he had to build
shelters for people who had been relocated and help repair the
road to Loikaw. He had to work three times a month, a total of
12 times in the year. The remaining time, he worked as a day
labourer on farms near the camp (the owners were Karenni and
Shan). He was paid in kyat and rice. He was arrested once
because he refused to work. He spent a night and two days in
prison. He was beaten. He saw many other people beaten (30 to
50 people). Soldiers appropriated all his animals without
compensation, arguing that the animals were wild and so they
could take them. 
                       ____________________

104
 
Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            70, male
Family situation:   Married with two daughters and five sons
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village had 50 houses and a population of 
                    1,000; it was forcibly relocated to Shadaw 
                    in June 1996)

(Witness gave his testimony in the presence of witnesses 100,
101, 102 and 103.)

The witness left Myanmar in October/November 1996. He had to 
do the same type of work as witness 100 at the Shadaw
relocation site. The month he stayed at the relocation site,
he worked about three times for the military. Three to four
hundred people were doing the same work as him. He did not see
any women or children working. He was able to go back to his
village several times to fetch food. On one occasion he was
arrested by a soldier who threatened him. They tied his hands
behind his back. He had to stay like that for a day and a
night. Then he escaped. He saw many other people subjected to
ill treatment.
                       ____________________


105

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            22, male 
Family situation:   Married (in Thailand) with one daughter
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village had 15 families and a population  
                    of 200)

The witness left Myanmar in June 1996, when his village was
ordered to relocate to Shadaw. Before relocation of his
village, he was a porter twice in 1991 and 1992. He could not
forget the experience (which clearly traumatized him). The
first time, the assignment lasted 14 days while the second was
extended to two-and-a-half months. In his group there were 20
and 50 porters respectively for 300 and 2,000 soldiers (he
could not remember the exact number of porters each time).
Women had to do portering on the first day of the second
occasion that he was recruited. He himself had to carry
cooking utensils and ammunition. The second time, he was used
as a human shield for the army in a battle. He was not paid.
He was beaten twice because, too exhausted, he could not keep
up with the column. After relocation, he left Myanmar because
he did not want to go to the relocation site to which his
village had been ordered to move. He had heard that people
were subjected to ill treatment and that you could only do
what the army ordered you to. However, he could not stay in
his village. He knew that if anyone refused to move, the whole
village would have been executed as a reprisal. A written
order was transmitted to the village head to that effect. He
saw it and read it. The document was signed by a staff officer
of the Loikaw command. The document also stated the place of
relocation, the fact that all the villages in the Shadaw area
were to be transferred to the relocation site and the deadline
(7 June 1996). He saw people who had been arrested by the army
because they were hiding in the jungle in order to avoid being
relocated. A man who escaped after being arrested by the army
told him that he had been beaten and struck while his hands
were tied behind him, because he did not want to go to the
relocation site. 
                       ____________________

106

Ethnicity:          Karenni
Age/sex:            35, male
Family situation:   Married with three sons and three          
                    daughters
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village had 105 families and a population 
                    of over 500; village was forcibly          
                    relocated to Shadaw in June 1996)

The witness left Myanmar in June 1996. Before the relocation
of his village, he had been a porter, and had worked on the
roads and the railway. He was a porter four times. The first
time ten years ago (aged 12) and the last time about five
years ago. He had to carry food and munitions, during the dry
season (three times) and the rainy season (once). Only men
were porters. However, he saw children of about ten years old
accompanying the group and having to carry various things. The
assignments lasted two, three and seven days. He had to sleep
in the forest. The military only intermittently provided one
meal a day. The ration was totally inadequate. He did not see
any fighting. He was not personally beaten, but saw his friend
beaten because he could not keep up with the group. He worked
on the road between Shadaw and the river Salween (about ten
miles). He worked there for a day about eight years ago
(1992). The village head informed him of the work to be done.
More than 1,000 people from various villages worked with him,
including women (about twenty), children (about ten aged
seven) and older people (about thirty aged over 60). The day
began at 7 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. He had to clear the route.
He had to bring his own food. He was not paid. He was not
subjected to ill treatment. He did not see any ill treatment,
either. He had to carry logs six years ago, for the railway
near Shadaw. He did not know which railway. The village head
informed him of the work that had to be done. About fifty
other people had to do the same. He was never paid, even
though he was promised that he would be compensated. After
relocation he left his village because he did not want to go
to the relocation site. The village head showed him the order
from the military stating that the whole village was to be
transferred to the Shadaw site by 7 June 1996. He saw the
document three days before the deadline. As he could not read,
the village head told him what it said. He did not want to
move to the relocation site because he was afraid that he
would not be able to provide for his family's needs. In
addition, he had been told that people who were relocated were
forced to work for the military without pay.
                       ____________________

107                 

Age/sex:            41, male
Ethnicity:          Karenni
Family situation:   Married with three daughters and three     
                    sons
Occupation:         Farmer
                    (village had 105 families and a population 
                    of over 500; it was forcibly relocated to  
                    Shadaw in June 1996)

The witness left Myanmar in June 1996, after a few days at the
Shadaw relocation site. Before the relocation of his village,
he was a porter for the army three times. The first time when
he was 15. The last time, two years before his departure. That
was during the rainy season. Only men were porters, including
children (about eight years old) and older people (over 70
years). On leaving his village, he had to go to Shan State.
There were more than 80 porters for 500 soldiers. He was not
able, however, to see all the porters. He had to carry
munitions. The days began at 6 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. He was
allowed only one meal a day, a handful of rice. He had to
sleep in the forest. He was not paid. He was beaten and kicked
because he was too weak to carry the load he had been given.
He also had to work for a military camp at Shadaw three years
ago, seven or eight times. The village head told him about the
work to be done. He mainly had to do road repairs, work on
bunkers, cut bamboo and carry rocks. About 500 to 600 people
were working with him each time, including women (about 20)
and children (about twenty as young as seven years of age).
They did the same work. The day began at 6 a.m. and ended at 5
p.m. He was not paid. He could not refuse and could not pay
for a substitute. He was beaten several times because the
soldiers thought he was not working properly. He also saw
several other people beaten. However, he did not know why they
were beaten. The village head told him that he must leave with
the rest of the village. He did not personally see the
relocation order. He left the relocation site after a few days
because he did not even have a shelter where his family could
stay. He had not been able to bring anything with him. The few
days he stayed at the relocation site he was not forced to do
any work. 
                       ____________________

[END OF SLICE 34]