On April 23, 1999, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution deploring the "continuing violations of the rights of children, in particular through the lack of conformity of the existing legal framework with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, through conscription of children into forced labor programs, through their military and sexual exploitation and through discrimination against children belonging to ethnic and religious minority groups." There is little reason to believe that the situation has changed since then. According to UNICEF, out of the 1.3 million children born in Myanmar every year, 92,500 die before their first birthday and 1:3 children under 5 are malnourished and almost half of all children get no education. While national laws to protect children are in place, little is done to enforce them, and exploitative and dangerous forms of child labor had been widely reported, including work on infrastructure development projects, in military support operations, as child soldiers, and in the sex industry. The military government continues to prioritize strengthening the military over improving the education system and there are dramatic differences between the quality of education received by civilian children and the children of the military.

Burma became a part to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on August 15, 1991 after acceding to the Convention on July 16, 1991. The SPDC promulgated its new Child Law on July 14, 1993 in order to "implement the rights of the child recognized in the Convention." Chapter V, section 8 of the Child Law states that "the state recognized that every child has the right to survival, development, protection and care, and to achieve active participation with the community." SPDC’s Child Law was seen as a positive sign internationally and it temporarily improved SPDC ‘s image for the world community; but the continuing violations of the rights of children show how little the SPDC government actually values this law. The actual treatment of children in Burma is contrary to the objectives and stated purpose of the Convention and the law.

According to a report updated in 2000 by the United States Department of Labor, the SPDC’s apparent lack of commitment to primary education and widespread poverty are contributing factors to child labor in Burma. Despite a compulsory education law, less than half of the children in Burma enroll in school and only 25-35% of those students complete the 5-year primary school course and according to the World Bank the government only spends 28 cents a year per child on public schools. UNICEF estimates of the 3/4 of children enrolled in primary school only one in four teenagers continues to High School. At the regional UNESCO conference in 2000 Burma and Pakistan came under direct attack from prioritizing military expenditure over education. Of the national budget, 40.1 percent is used for the military forces while less than 1% is for education. Of this 1%, only 7.7% is used for civilian education.

In addition, thousands of children are forced to drop out or interrupt their education because of such things as forced labor requirements, the burning of villages by the military, and the extra-judicial killing or arbitrary arrest of their parents. Children who have been forcibly relocated, along with the rest of their villages, are often forced to work and help support their families rather than attend school. In addition many schools have been closed or destroyed, and the children often do not speak the language used by the schools at relocation sites. Orphaned and poor boys living in youth centers are reportedly educated only to the primary school level.

For many children who follow their parents to Thailand this can mean the end of their education and the beginning of their working life. According to children interviewed by HRDU in the Mae Sot area, although they desired to attend school and there existed some limited opportunities, they were forced to work for their families’ survival instead. The fact that many of their parents place a low value on education contributed to the problem. According to children collecting recyclables in Mae Sot, there are between 40-60 such children, all males, between the ages of 9-16 doing this type of work. They earned between 40 and 60 baht a day and the job is sometimes passed down from an older sibling when he becomes old enough to find a new type of work. Such children are generally treated as a nuisance by the community and they have a fear of the police and arrest, particularly if they are working at night.

In 2000, the Thai police announced that their crackdown against illegal immigrants would include Burmese children begging on Bangkok streets. Pol Gen Sant Sarutanon, deputy national police chief, said the crackdown would focus on some 350,000 Burmese children under 13 who were roaming Bangkok streets as beggars. A police investigation of more than 10 Burmese children arrested at Ratchaprasong intersection indicated there were many networks controlling the young beggars.

The following information comes from a report done by the Asian Research Center for Migration in 1997-1998, entitled " Migrant Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances in Thailand" This report focused on 3 types of migrant children; child laborers; child sex-workers and street children. Burmese children are the majority of migrant children in Thailand and the overall level of children coming to Thailand is on the rise. There are several reasons why Burmese children come to Thailand; because their families bring them; to avoid such things as forced labor, government extortion or loss of liberty; for economic reasons; because they are lured or trafficked; or for social reasons, such as they know someone in Thailand or have heard good reports back from people known to them who have migrated to Thailand.

The Health Situation of children from Burma

As of March 24, 2000 it was announced that Japan had donated dollars 5.5 million for a UNICEF program to improve health care services for mothers and children in Burma, this was an increase of 3.8 million dollars over their donation for the project last year. UNICEF deputy director for the East Asia and the Pacific, Carroll Long said that with the new grant, 319 townships in Burma would receive essential drugs and basic medical equipment, to be distributed to township hospitals and rural clinics with the help of the government.

Children under five may be found in prison with their mothers for 3 reasons; they have no relatives to care for them, their mothers have requested that they stay together; or they are born there. However, all children must leave at the age of 5 and they are placed in social services if there are no relatives to care for them. Political prisoners are not allowed to have their children stay with them unless they are born in prison and men are never allowed to keep their children with them.

Because children live under the same conditions as prisoners, they do not have access to adequate health care and nutritious food. They get rice gruel in the morning and two other meals a day of boiled rice and a watery soup made with a little fish paste and unwashed vegetables and chili. They must share this food with their mothers and are not given any additional food by the prison authorities. Women in prison are given 7-8 cups of water a day for washing and this must also be shared with the children. In addition to this, no special provisions are made for their education or recreational needs. They have no books, toys or play area and because they have to stay with their mothers at all times, their movements are restricted and they can rarely go outdoors or out of the multiple occupancy cells. They are not given immunizations and because there is rarely medicine in the prison clinic, the prisoners must rely on family members or other prisoners for medicine if the children get sick. T.B. is a common problem in prison and also affects children. Because their mothers are not tested for H.I.V., the number of children with this condition is unknown. In addition, women giving birth in prison do not receive adequate pre-natal care and during birth they are only assisted by a midwife who is a fellow prisoner. A high number of children die during childbirth due to complications.

According to one female political prisoner, there were approximately 50 children staying in Insein prison from 1992-1995. Of these, 15 were born in prison, mostly to long-term prisoners. There are three prison labor camps in Burma that have women prisoners; Pyinmana-Yezin, HtoneBon, and Mandalay-Pathein Gyi. Mothers have to work long days and have quotas to fill; if they don’t they are beaten. For this reason, some women choose to tie their children to trees so they aren’t bothered while they are working. Many children die in the labor camps due to the heat, no health care, and no medicine for treatable conditions such as diarrhea.

There is little comprehensive data available on the situation of child labor inside Burma. However, it is visible by simply touring the country that child labor is commonplace across Burma and children are often seen working in various sectors of the economy. Many children from Burma enjoy no childhood at all; they are simply put straight to work. There are no mechanisms to protect child laborers, to enforce laws for the minimum labor age, or to give compensation for injuries that result from the often dangerous working conditions in which children work.

The skyrocketing costs of living often render working people in Burma incapable of providing their children with an education, and thus a future. A single working family member is no longer able to secure enough food for the whole family, which forces other family members, including school-aged children, into the work place.

There are two types of migrant child laborers, those who are temporary or short-term and stay from a few weeks to a few months. For example, Burmese children working for 2-3 months during school vacations have been found in Kanchanaburi and Tak provinces on the Thai-Burma borders. The second type are long-term and work the border provinces and large cities, such as Bangkok. Overall, Burmese child migrant workers, including Mon, Karen, Tai Yai and other ethnic groups are more than half of all child migrant workers in Thailand. It has been found that some Burmese Mon children have come to Thailand under the cover of being novice monks, and some Mon children have been ordained as novice monks at the Mon temple in Kanchanaburi province, after which they move on to another Mon temple and then disrobe to become workers.

All working children are subjective to potentially abusive and exploitative conditions. This is exacerbated by the fact that most migrant children workers are separated from their families and therefore have no support system. They are at risk for physical abuse, including sexual abuse by their employers and others, wage exploitation, long working hours and few or no days off, and lack of health care and educational opportunities. Some children never receive any education and very few go beyond the primary level. In addition, because of their illegal status, they have no protection from the authorities if they are being exploited or abused, in fact in some cases they have to pay bribes along with adult workers to the Thai police to prevent deportation.

Street children are children who spend the majority of their time on the street, whether they staying with their families or not. Some may stay with parents of relatives at night and spend their days on the street while their families are working, some have families that live on the street and some have no family and are living on the street independently. The number of migrant street children is on the rise and their reasons for being on the street differ from Thai street children. Thai street children are usually escaping family problems while migrant children are there out of economic necessity. A new phenomenon is children who come to Thailand with the intention to become beggars. They live in mentally and physically unhealthy environments and can easily be taken advantage of by adults.

There are two groups of children who beg for a living, independent beggars and those who are part of beggar gangs. Children who are independent beggars are usually older and have had experience begging. They can be found near shopping malls, overpasses, markets and tourist spots but move around frequently. Some stay with other children and live in places such as bus stations, parks or under bridges. Children who are part of beggar gangs are usually under the control of another person, it could be a relative or broker and some children are trafficked for this purpose. Children in beggar gangs have little control over their situation and are often threatened or beaten if they do not collect enough money.

Burmese children; including a large number of ethnic minority children, mostly from Shan and Kachin States, are the largest percentage of child migrant prostitutes in Thailand. In the north they enter Thailand through Mai Sai, Mae Sot and Khunyuam districts. In the west they come in through Three Pagodas Pass in Kanchanaburi Province and Ranong Province. Some are trafficked through agents for the purpose of entering the sex trade, others have come to Thailand either by themselves or with their families to work, and enter sex work either through economic necessity or are forced into it. Even those children who are aware they will enter the sex industry are rarely aware of the circumstances they will be working under. Child prostitutes who come to work in Thailand through agents have to pay agents’ fees and transportations costs. Many children are sold to the owner of an establishment that sells sex, Burmese children are sold for between 10,000-25,000 baht, this then becomes their debt which they have to work off. Commercial sex establishments which employ migrant children are located in border provinces, near the border, in big cities that attract tourists, and in Bangkok.

The AMRC reported that children had 1-3 customers per day in middle class commercial sex establishments and 3-10 customers per day in lower class commercial sex establishments. During holidays or festivals there were more customers than during normal working days. Wages for virgin children started at 3,000-15,000 baht per service and decreased to 100-1,2000 baht per service as the number of customers they had served increased. The children never received these amounts in full, some only receiving half, a quarter or no money at all. In addition to deducting money to pay of the debt of the purchase price, the owner of the sex establishments also charge for room and board, clothes and similar costs, sometimes at a price higher than the actual cost and deduct for interest payments.

Both agents and owners of commercial sex establishments use physical beatings and abuse to control migrant sex workers. In some cases if children refused to give service they have been raped by the customers. In addition children have been raped by agents, owners and sometimes police while in custody. In addition to the physical abuse, owners often don’t let children outside the place that they work without and escort in order to prevent them from fleeing or being arrested.

One new development in child prostitution, reported by sociologist David Kyle, at a U. N. conference on migration in Bangkok, is that trafficked girls are increasingly virgins who are in demand, partially because of the belief that there is reduced risk of their having HIV. According to a report by the Women’s League of Burma, doctors at a clinic in Mae Sot, reported to that the increased demand for virgins had led an increased number of families to sell their daughters into brothels for short periods of time until the "value of their virginity" expired, at which point they return to their families. Contributing to this problem is tacit approval from the Thai and Burmese officials and sometimes their complicity in the trafficking of women and children. Often they are bribed by brothel owners to ignore the importation of young girls. The virgin girls are rarely aware of the kind of work they will be doing in Thailand and if they are they are not aware of the working conditions. Young female virgins and children often service foreign customers who are rarely caught or prosecuted and Thai and Burmese police also frequently have been accused of taking bribes to let pedophiles go free. The recent Asian financial crisis forced more young women and children into prostitution and encouraged more foreign pedophiles to come into the region. Young girls are often held against their will after being sold into prostitution and do not receive adequate food or health care and live in physically insecure situations where they fear bodily harm from both their employers and customers. They are not adequately educated about sexually transmitted diseases and if a girl is no longer profitable because of pregnancy or disease she can be turned out on the street. Customers who pay more for a virgin or young girl are rarely willing to use a condom. For more information on the situation of child prostitutes see the interview of Cho-cho-san at the end of this chapter.

Children living in areas of armed conflict are subjected to numerous hardships that mar their entire lives. Children have witnessed the killing of parents or neighbors. Children have had parents killed or abducted either by security forces or by armed groups. Children have witnessed bomb explosions, military operations by the army and security forces, and attacked by armed groups.

The civil war in Burma affects civilians more than combatants. The majority of civilians killed or wounded in time of war are children. Children are the first victims of any war. Children are most vulnerable to injury and death. Sometimes they are specially targeted as a way of terrorizing their community. They are used as soldiers, sexually abused, tortured and exploited. Their opportunity to grow up in an environment that nurtures and promotes their development is taken away from them. They miss out on education, their health and nutrition suffer. The list goes on.

Children need special protection because they are vulnerable- both because of the direct harm they sustain and the opportunities lost- and because children have a crucial role in peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. Children also need to be recognized as potential actors in their own right.

In 2000, government and military authorities continued to use forced and abusive forms of child labor. In many cases when the authorities demand forced labor from families or villages children are sent, either to free their parents so they can perform needed income generating work or to ease the burden for the family or village. For this reason, children work alongside adult forced laborers and on the same type of jobs. Children have been used as forced labor on infrastructure development projects, income generating projects for the military and support for military activities. This includes work such as portering, road construction, sanitation and building maintenance work for the soldiers, working in dams, building construction, acting as messengers and doing various chores for the military. There are also reports that children have been used as minesweepers and human shields and that they have been forcibly drafted by the military.

According to 2001 Karen Human Rights group report, many children between the ages of 13-19 are enlisted, and some as young as 9. In some cases, children were taken from their parents under the guise of wanting to give them educational opportunities, but they were then placed in military schools after which they were expected to join the SPDC. Children are given the same basic training as other soldiers, but if they are not strong enough to carry their own guns or backpacks they can be kept in battalion camps for months or years. If they are too young to be sent out on operations, under the age of 12 or 13, they can be used a forced labor on projects such as digging roads, taking care of animals or cutting grass and bushes. Child soldiers are often beaten by other soldiers or their commanders. The following testimonial comes from a KHRG interview with a former child solder:

"They also have children as young as 10 or 12 years old. They really need the manpower at the frontline of the battlefield so they arrest children. Some are too young so they keep them to take care of goats, cows and chickens [at the camps]. They also have children that they send to school. It is because they need higher numbers of soldiers that they are arresting like that…The 10 and 11 year olds have to attend the training. If the couldn’t follow to the frontline and couldn’t carry their backpack and gun, they were ordered to go to the rear area and raise goats for one or two years." – Soe Tint (M,18), Lance Corporal from LIB #504, Papun District (KHRG Interview #6, Abuse under Orders report. 3/2001). See the end of this chapter for an interview on life as a child soldier.

At the end of August 2000, LIBs 403,404 and 405, based in Thaya-Chawn Township, Tenasserim Division, started making lists of orphan children 7 to 8 years old in the township villages. The reason they gave was that they wanted to educate the children. However, it was strongly suspected that the SPDC planned to put these children in with military cadets. As a result of this SPDC action, many orphan children ran to the border and other places. (Source: THRF)

The SPDC is recruiting child soldiers from Arakan state, particularly from among the tribal people such as Chakmas, Mro, and Saak (Thet). The child soldiers are being given education and military training in Akyab (Sittwe) while their parents are given financial support. These child soldiers, all of them under the age of 18, are called Yay Nyunt Lu Ngay (The Brave Blossom youth). Soon after the completion of their training they can be sent to the frontline to combat insurgents. Similar information about the recruitment and use of child soldiers has been reported in other parts of the country. (Source: ARNO)

On March 16, four Burmese army deserters, one of whom was a thirteen year old boy, were handed over to the Burmese authorities by the Indian authorities. The soldiers, who were arrested on February 17 by Mizoram police on the India-Burma border, said that they left the army due to little salary and injustice done to them in the army. The four army deserters told the police investigation team in Champhai that their monthly salary of 450 kyat (US $1) for a soldier with Private rank was too little to survive. They said that their officers treated them badly and occasionally beat them. One of the soldiers showed his fresh injuries to the police team, which he got due to beating by his officers. The four soldiers deserted their army outpost in Rid village of Chin State of Burma on February 17. The local police arrested them the same day near a border village in Champhai district of Mizoram State of India. According to police sources, Mizoram State’s Director General of Police Mr. M.Tumsanga and Champhai Superintendent of Police Mr. K. Amonan crossed the border to Rid village on February 19 to discuss the fate of the deserters with their Burmese counterparts. The soldiers, (Pvt Tun Linn Naung, 13, Pvt Win Kyaw, 18, Pvt Than Thun, 25, and Pvt Soe Aye, 20) from LIB No. 266 deserted along with three G-3 assault rifles and ammunition. The decision to deport them was made by the Central Government in New Delhi. " The Government of India has appealed to the Myanmar army to be lenient on them. But it is up to the Myanmar authorities to deal with them," said Mr. Tumsanga when asked about the personal safety of the deserters once they were in the hands of Burmese authorities. (Source: Mizzima News Group)

On June 29, 2000, The Nation reported that according to a senior Thai security source the UWSA has bought young hill-tribe boys from Mae Hong Son’s Pai and Pang Mapha districts in order to train them to join their drug-running activities. Many parents agreed to sell their children although they knew they would be working in the UWSA’s narcotics smuggling ring. (Source: The Nation)

To flee from one’s home is to experience a deep sense of loss, and the decision to flee is not taken lightly. Those who make this decision do so because they are in danger of being killed, tortured, forcibly recruited, raped, abducted or staved, among other reasons. They leave behind them assets and property, relatives, friends, familiar surroundings and established social networks. Although the decision to leave is normally taken by adults, even the youngest children recognize what is happening and can sense their parents’ uncertainty and fear.

During flight from the dangers of conflict, families and children continue to be exposed to multiple physical dangers. They are threatened by sudden attacks, shelling, snipers and landmines, and must often walk from days without only limited quantities of water and food. Under such circumstances, children become acutely undernourished and prone to illness, and they are the first to die. Girls in flight are even more vulnerable that usual to sexual abuses. Children forced to flee on their own to ensure their survival are also at heightened risk. Children are often separated from parents in the chaos of conflict, escape and displacement. Parents or other care-givers are the major source of a child’s emotional and physical security and for this reason family separation can have a devastating social and psychological impact. Unaccompanied children are especially vulnerable and at risk of neglect, violence, military recruitment, sexual assaults and other abuses.

More than half of the refugee population are children, and they are especially vulnerable. They are vulnerable not only as refugees, but also as children who, in the majority of cases, are dependent upon their mothers who, as women refugees, are themselves vulnerable. This vulnerability leaves children open to violence, to disruption of vulnerability and social structures and to shortage of basic resources which affects physical and psycho-social development. Unaccompanied refugee children are in an especially difficult position, without even a nominal caregiver to ensure survival.

In the aftermath of the January 2000 attack on Ratchaburi Hospital by 10 guerrillas, the Thai military stepped up border security and pushed all ethnic Burmese troops on Thai soil back into Burma. Unfortunately as a result, a number of ethnic children were left behind when their parents went back to Burma. In Ratchaburi’s Suan Phung district, fourteen children, aged between seven and 13, took refuge at Ban Thahin School and were being given food and shelter by their teachers who were also border police. At the nearby Tako Pidthong School, 41 ethnic children were in the same situation. Associate Professor Dr. Thongkhoon Hongphan, a deputy permanent secretary to the Education Ministry, appealed for help from the private sector because the ministry’s budget to support these children was falling far short of the actual need. Displaced ethnic children are not a phenomenon known to these schools alone and are present in almost every border province in increasing numbers. In Ratchaburi alone, the population of displaced ethnic children is about 1,000.

On March 27, 2000, 3 relocated Shan woman, including a 15 year old girl named Naang Ong, were shot dead after they had been captured, interrogated, and raped by troops from Company No.3 of LIB514 led by Capt. Than Myint at a place 2-1/2 miles south of Kae-See town, Kae-See township, Shan State. The women were captured on March 26 and were shot dead the next day after the troops had gang-raped the women. (See chapter on woman). (Source: SHRF)

In May 2000, four Burmese security forces in Maungdaw township of Arakan state grabbed minor Rohingya boys and sexually assaulted them several times. As a result, one of the boys died of excessive bleeding. (Source: RSO)

On July 10, 2000, Ma Nu (14), an eighth grade student, from Akyab (Sittwe), the provincial capital of Arakan state, was gang raped by 10 SPDC armed policemen and soldiers belonging to battalion No. 20, while she was on her way back from her uncle’s funeral. Witnesses to the rape could do nothing to help the victim because they were afraid of the well-armed troops. One of the eye-witness ran to her home to inform her parents and her mother and older brother rushed to the site of the incident. When they arrived the rapists were gone and the victim was lying unconscious and bleeding excessively. Her parents didn’t dare to report the incident because they were afraid of reprisals and the girl received medical treatment at her home. (Source: ARNO)

On August 12, 2000, a unit of troops from Loikaw based IB 261 gang raped a 12 year-old girl living in Mingalar Ward, Loikaw City, Karenni State. After the incident, the young girl was brought to central hospital for medical treatment and was still receiving medical care there as of the end of August 2000. (Source: KNAHR)

On January 22, 2000, a patrol of 50-60 SPDC troops from IB246, led by Capt. Aung Moe, traveling with 14 civilian porters, came to a rice farm at Nawng Hai, about 3 miles from Kun-Hing town, where a man, Lung Ti, 40, and his 2 children were threshing rice. The troops arrested the villagers and then tied them up. They were separated, interrogated, beaten and tortured. Lung Ti and Zaai Lu, M, 11, were beaten to death during interrogation, but Naang Ser, F, 18, was repeatedly raped before eventually also being beaten to death. (Source: SHRF)

On May 9 2000, a Burmese patrol from LIB 377, under the command of Operational Commanding Headquarters' No.1 Tactical command # 9, met a Karen family while patrolling the surrounding area of their Tactical Command Headquarters. Spotting the family 500 yards from the headquarter as the family was heading to work on their rice field, the troops accused the family of attempting to supply food to the rebels and killed all of them on the spot. The family was from the village of Kataungni where the No.1 Tactical command had set up its headquarter in the east of Tavoy Township. The victims were:

(1) Saw Wah Htoo, 25 years: Son of Saw Sanet
(2) Naw Spider, 20 years: Wife of Saw Wah Htoo, who was 4 months pregnant.
(3) Saw John, 3 years: son of Saw Wah Htoo.
(4) Saw Joy, 2 years: son of Saw Wah Htoo.

They were shot to death and abandoned on the footpath to their plantation. Though knowing that the family was killed and abandoned on the path, their relatives from the Kataungni village were afraid to retrieve the bodies because of the Burmese soldiers. (Source: TIR)

On July 15, 2000, a one year old child was shot to death when a troop of 30 ‘Pyi Thu Sit’ (SPDC’s people militia) from Le Thit village tract, Mergui District, Tenasserim Division, headed by Khin Maung Tint, entered the compound of Saw Hpo Nu and shot at his house. His wife was in the house. After entering the house and learning that Saw Hpo Nu was not there, they told Saw Hpo Nu’s wife that her husband was a rebel informer shot Saw Nu’s son, age 1, to death. (Source: TIR)

On July 20 2000, SPDC troops (battalion unidentified ) entered Toe Thoo Khee village, Shwe Gyin Township, Karen State and shot at villagers. They killed 4 villagers, including the small baby of Naw Nelly Paw, aged 19, who was also killed. (Source: KAWU)

On November 11, 2000, troops from SPDC tactical command (1) LIB 340, led by company (1) commander Win Myint, without reason shot to death Maw-hta villager, Saw Pah Kyaw, 15, son of Saw Too Loo, while he was carrying cardamon seeds. The troops were in the area of Kay-kor, Doh-kho-wah, Maw-hta and Mar-lay-ler, Pa-pun District, Karen State. (Source: KIC)

There was a girl I met who came to Thailand; it was not because she was angry with her parents or for her own enjoyment. She was an orphan and had nothing to eat. She was sold into prostitution in Mae Sot, although the kind of job she wanted was washing dishes, cooking and domestic help.

But cute girls without breasts and young unmarried 13 years old girls are part of prostitution circles. These cute girls are "Par-Kin-Paunt". (Par-Kin-Paunt is a Burmese term which literally means "first opening" or "deflowering" and refers to virgin girls who are new to prostitution and who are free from HIV/AIDS) These young unmarried girls are very valuable. This Karen girl, at the age of 13, heard the word "Par-Kin-Paunt" for first time when she was sold to a brothel. The following are her personal experiences as she related them:

After "Par-Kin-Paunt", she was taken to a brothel in Mae-Sot. When she arrived at the brothel, she was forced to persuade guests. She had to wear very short skirts without underwear and sit where everybody could see her. The head prostitutes taught her how to sit a particular way and if she sat the wrong way she was punished and beaten. When a guest wanted to sleep with one of the girls, they pointed to the number card they wore on their shirts and the girls had no choice but to comply. It was the same for this girl. One day she had to go with a guest that paid to bring her outside the brothel.

[After] she was bleeding from her vagina, mouth and nose and she had no place to go. She was arrested after a police officer saw her walking down a road and stopped her. The head prostitutes from her brothel heard the news that she had been arrested and came to get her.

After Cho Cho San escaped from Darling prostitute house a man helped her get a job in Bangkok. She decided that she would do any job but prostitution. While working in Bangkok she was married, at the age of 14. When she was five months pregnant, her husband left her and married another girl. Cho Cho San felt very depressed and without hope. One day, when Thai police arrested Burmese migrant workers, she was arrested by police and police sent her to Mae Sot, and thus she was in Mae Sot again. Even though she feared for her life and livelihood, she swore she would never return to the life of prostitution. During her life as a prostitute others had looked down on her because she has no parents.

Cho Cho San told me that in the brothel that there were other girls that were very young like her. When some medics came to check her health, they found that she had Syphilis. Even though it couldn’t kill her, she was very afraid. She also talked about one of her friends who had a sexually transmitted disease and about how she had asked the head prostitutes permission to leave Darling prostitute house.

Cho Cho San fears the prostitute community. She told me about her experience of returning to Mae Sot while pregnant.

So Cho-Cho- San had a daughter. The girl begging in front of the Mae-Sot market public toilet, sleeping at night on fish and meat selling tables, this was Cho-Cho-San who had just finished giving birth 3 days prior. Then, when her daughter was 3 months old, a 50-year-old Thai man who works as night security for the Mae-sot market, and who allowed her to sleep in the market, raped her. She had only needed a place to sleep, but she was raped. Although many beggars from Burma heard him raping her, no one was able to stop it or say anything. Now Cho-Cho-San is 15 years old. She told me that " I will work for my daughter as much as I can and my daughter must not have the same life as me". She said, "when my daughter grows up, I won’t allow her to know that I was a prostitute and I won’t let other people speak about me badly to my daughter." So she is begging all day all night in the rain and in the sun. She told me when she gets a little bit of money that she will go back to Myawaddy ( in Pa-an District, Karen State – across the border from Mae Sot ) and she will work in a garden. ( plantation ) Cho-Cho-San is now staying with a group of women in safety. We don’t how many children prostitute from Burma, like Cho-Cho-San, are now on the Thai-Burma borders.

Q: How many siblings do you have?
A: There is only my younger sister and myself. My parents work in the hill fields. My mother and sister are still alive, but my father is dead.

Q: How many years did you study?
A: I studied 5 standards [grades]. I studied at the Hinthada monastery until the fourth standard. When I was a novice, the teachers taught me [to study at the monasteries, boys are taken into the monastery as novices]. The monks hired a teacher for us. After I passed the fourth standard, I went outside [the monastery] and studied in the fifth standard. After the fifth standard, I thought I would work so I left from being a novice. Then I worked.

Q: What was your rank in the Army?
A: In the Army I was a private.

Q: Did you enjoy joining the Army?
A: I didn’t enjoy joining the Army at all.

Q: Did you have to join?
A: Yes, they forcibly arrested me so I had to join.

Q: Tell me how you became a soldier.
A: When I was 13 years old my mother handed me over to a monk to go to Rangoon. The next morning I followed the monk. I was a novice and studied in the monastery. When I passed fourth standard, I continued studying, but when I passed fifth standard, I went to work. The monk had found a job for me. I was to serve food in a rice and curry shop near a car road. They gave me 8,000 kyat per month with food. I didn’t even work there a month and the owner fired me, so I was angry with the owner. I fought with the owner and went back to the monk. When I went back to the monastery the monk shouted at me. I was angry with the monk and went to the Bayinnaung festival in Rangoon with my friends. On the way, I visited a section [of Rangoon] with a group of my friends. I asked my friends to wait for me while I stepped into the dark [down a dark alley] so I could urinate. I don’t know if they heard me or not. When I finished, my friends were not there. Five or six police came to me. They ran and chased me to arrest me. They tried to arrest all four of us, but the others fled and escaped. They could only arrest me. They asked me if I had brought my nationality card [identity cards which are supposed to be carried by all Burmese, but are commonly left at home]. I told them I didn’t bring it, but that I was a student and had come with my friends. I pointed to my friends, but they were gone. They had disappeared. I told them I hadn’t brought my student card. They didn’t like that. They put handcuffs on me and took me to their station.

Q: Did they question you after they handcuffed you?
A: They questioned me about why I was going around in that section without a nationality card. They told me they had arrested me because they suspected me of doing something or hiding in the dark [‘hiding in the dark’ is actually an offense but is so vaguely worded that Burmese police are able to use it to arrest people even in the daytime.]. They said they arrested me because it was their responsibility. However, I had done nothing. I was going around in that section with my friends. They arrested me because I didn’t bring my nationality card.

Q: How old were you then?
A: I think I was 13 years old at that time. They took my book and everything, so I don’t remember what year. It was in the daytime at 11 or 12:00, during the cold season [December - February 1996].

Q: If you were not arrested would you have continued studying?
A: I had planned to continue studying.

Q: Where did they send you?
A: The next morning one of the soldiers came to them and the police handed me over to him. Then they sent me to the Mingaladon Su Saung Yay place in Rangoon [this is a gathering and processing center for new Army recruits]. I told them, "I would like to go back to my parents. Send me to the monastery." They told me they couldn’t send me back.

Q: What did they do with you when you arrived there?
A: They cut my hair and also the hair of the other people who arrived at the Army camp with me. They kept us in the same barracks. There were over 60 people in that barracks.

Q: Had those 60 people been arrested in the same way as you?
A: When I asked them, the police had arrested most of them. There were only 2 people out of 10 who were interested in being there [had volunteered].

Q: Did they beat you when they sent you to the Su Saung Yay?
A: When I told them I would like to go back outside [to go home], they asked me, "Will you enter here, or will you enter prison?" They gave me only two options. I didn’t want to be in prison. My parents had told me about prison. So, I joined them [the Army].

Q: What happened then?
A: They kept me for one week at the Su Saung Yay. The rice and curry that they fed me was morning glory leaves mixed with leeches. There were insects in the soup and in the rice there were stones. We couldn’t eat. They fed us two times; one time in the afternoon and one time at night. During the mealtime, they ordered all 50 or 60 of us to queue up, then we had to go one by one into the eating room. We had to stay inside all the time. When we went to the latrine, they ordered us to take off all our clothes, then they allowed us to go to the latrine. They kept one, two or three sentries. They were worried we would escape.

Q: Do you know the name of the leader of the Su Saung Yay?
A: I don’t know the leader’s name. During the training, the trainees didn’t get a chance to know all their names.

Q: How wide was your room?
A: It was a very long barracks and the room was very wide. Here was a group and there was a group. They had to lay on the timber planks, put their clothes packs under their heads and sleep [They do not have individual beds. The barracks have a walkway down the middle, and a wooden floor on both sides of the walkway raised about 1 foot, where the soldiers sleep side by side]. There were 4 barracks.

Q: Where did they send you after you stayed there for a week?
A: They sent me to attend the training at the Oak Twin training school in Pegu Division for 6 months. They sent me by truck. There were over 50 people attending the training with me. The whole group went there, about 54 people. They were the people who had stayed and slept with me in the same barracks. It was all of them. They [the camp officials] called our names and the names of our parents and then they sent us. The people in the other barracks were being gathered to attend the next training.

Q: Do you remember the date you went for training?
A: I don’t remember the date.

Q: What did they teach you in the training?
A: They taught us the military methods. They taught us how to hold guns, how to run and how to fight the enemy. They taught us what to do when we were traveling or eating. They taught us how to fight when our enemies were staying on a mountain. They also had us practice it ourselves.

Q: Did they give you any political or social training?
A: The instructors and the head instructor didn’t teach us so we didn’t know about them. In the training they didn’t tell or teach us about it. They only gave us military training.

Q: Did they teach you how to deal with the civilians during the training?
A: They didn’t teach us about that. They taught us only military things.

Q: What time did they start the training in the morning and when did it finish?
A: They taught us from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. After they taught us, they sent us to a hall for writing and explained to us about the military terms. Then they told us what we shouldn’t do [this is what they shouldn’t do militarily and not what they shouldn’t do to civilians]. Then they drove us outside [the camp] again. After we got there, we had to queue up and then each group of us had to go under the bamboo or under the trees where one of the officers held a book in front of us and taught us.

Q: Did they give you only military training or did they also teach you agriculture?
A: It was not only military training. We also had to do agriculture; making rubber plantations and planting trees [they were not taught agriculture, but had to work at it]. We had to do Pa Take. We called it Pa Take. Pa Take means Loh Ah Pay [the term used for civilian forced labor]. It means we have to work. We had to go and do Loh Ah Pay.

Q: How long was the training?
A: We had to attend the training for four months.

Q: If the training was for four months, what did they ask you to do for the other two months?
A: Sometimes they didn’t send material for the Army, so we had to work for two months [until their equipment arrived]. We had to do Pa Take. We had to do Loh Ah Pay. They ordered us to work from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. After we ate rice at 1 p.m., we started to work again at 1:30 p.m. We had to cut bamboo and trees on the hill for their families [the instructors’ families] to lay their floors and build their houses. After we cut the trees, we had to carry the wood back to the car road. Then they demanded bullock carts from the nearby villages and sent the wood to the Army camp. They didn’t fulfill our needs at all. We couldn’t report our problems at all.

Q: How did they feed you in the training?
A: When the news was sent that someone was not good, the Bo Mu [Major, or officer] from the training had a bad habit of putting a half a sack of sand into one sack of rice. Then they fed us. We ate, but we bit on stones. Each time we would chew we would bite a stone. There were also insects in the soup. If one of the trainees was no good, then all the trainees had a problem. They [the instructors] said they hated it when a person went to complain to them. That is why they did it.

Q: How did the instructors eat?
A: When they ate, the rice was very white. Everything including the curry was very white [meaning that it was very good quality]. They fed us rice and curry that was the same as pig food. They fed us rice weighed on a regular scale, one or two plates. If they didn’t have rice, they fed us only this [food fit for a pig].

Q: Did anyone get sick during the training?
A: I saw two trainees die during the training. When one of them went to the clinic, he couldn’t walk at all. He was slowly becoming thinner and thinner. He didn’t smoke, but he had drunk alcohol. I saw two people die. One was sick and was given the wrong treatment. At first they gave him an injection, then they fed him English medicine [a term used by Burmese to mean anything Western]. They gave it to him during the training, but then he ate something sour. In the afternoon, when the training had finished, we went and saw that he was dead [there is a common folk belief in Burma that if someone is already sick and then eats something sour, he will die].

Q: Did they take care of the sick people?
A: If there were sick people, they [the instructors] asked them to go to the clinic. If they got better, they had to go back and rest in the barracks. They didn’t need to attend the training. They gave time like that, but the instructors did come to look in on them a few times. We trainees who attended the training had to take care of each other. If they [the sick people] couldn’t wash their clothes, we washed it for them.

Q: How many instructors were there?
A: There were five or six instructors. In the six months the Bo Mu [the officers] didn’t tell us their names. Their superior officers told them not to. They just gave us the training. After they trained us, they went back to their Army family camp [the camp where soldiers and their families live]. They came to teach us at 10 a.m. or 12 p.m. and in the afternoon they went back at 4 or 5 p.m. We didn’t get a chance to learn their names and we couldn’t ask them.

Q: Did they give you a personnel number when you attended the training?
A: They gave me a personnel number when the training was finished. It was xx/xxxxx.

Q: Did they give you a uniform?
A: The OG uniform [OG is a brand name of clothing made in Burma which is known for its poor quality; they also make the uniforms for the Burmese Army] they gave us was no good to wear. It was very heavy when it got wet. The uniforms were all ragged after we went for a military operation for one week. We couldn’t wear them anymore.

Q: Did they beat you during the six months you attended the training?
A: I was beaten by them within the first two or three months of the training. I was together with my friends and talking about the bad things done by the officers at the Su Saung Yay. A person who heard us went to tell the instructors. They slapped my cheek, punched me with their fists and kicked me with their boots. I told them, "We are young people, friends talking and joking." They told me someone had come and told them. Then they punched me, slapped my cheek and kicked me.

Q: Did they tell you what that person told them you said?
A: That person went to tell them that I was speaking about the officers doing bad things to the civilians. He was attending the training and in the same unit with me. After the training, when they sent us to the different battalions like #545, 546, 231, 547, 548, and 549 [all Light Infantry Battalions except #231 Infantry Battalion] we were separated from each other and I didn’t see him anymore. His name is Aung Zaya. Right now he is a Saya [this term is used for Corporals] in #231 [Infantry Battalion]. He was injured in the leg by a bullet and lost one side of his leg, so he has taken a rest from the Army. He was a soldier and was wounded in the leg when he went to the frontline.

Q: Did they give you money during the training?
A: They never gave money to me. I had to be poor and use only the little bit of money I had brought from the monk [the monk at the monastery where he was studying had given him some money]. I brought a little over 2,000 kyat from the monk. They didn’t give me a single coin of money.

Q: Was the training enough for you?
A: I think it was enough.

Q: Where did they send you after the 6 months of training?
A: They sent me to Karen State to LIB #549, Nabu Battalion [the battalion based at Nabu village, also called T’Nay Hsah in Karen]. Fourteen or fifteen people were sent there. The other people took duties in the other battalions.

Q: What kind of equipment did they give you?
A: They gave us one uniform set for a year. They gave us an OG uniform and a jungle hat.

Q: Did they also give you a mess tin?
A: They people who were in the Army longer got them. The soldiers who had been in for six or seven years got mess tins. I had only four years so I didn’t get one.

Q: What kind of weapon did they give you?
A: They gave me an MA 1. It is the same design as the AK. They didn’t tell us where it was made, but the name of the gun is MA 1. The [serial] number of my gun was xxxx. The Chinese sent them to Burma and then the Burmese designed it.

Q: How many bullets did they give to each soldier?
A: I could take 240, 250 or 260 bullets with a guarantee [the soldiers have to account for all of the bullets when they hand them back in after a patrol or operation]. We took four or five magazines. The gun and bullets were enough for me at the frontline.

Q: How many soldiers were in LIB #549?
A: There were more than 100 or 120 soldiers in one battalion. The name of the commander is U Kyaing Zaw. I guess he is about 30 or 40 years old. The deputy battalion commander went to attend a training and a new deputy battalion commander came not so long ago so I don’t know his name. The name of the first deputy battalion commander was Bo Mu Aung Tin Htay [Bo Mu is a major]. The one who is charge of the rear area [the battalion’s base camp where the supplies and offices are] is Bo Mu Min Shwe Oo. When all the companies in the battalion have left, he has to stay with the sentries for the headquarters and take responsibility for the monthly salary at the battalion camp. He had to take responsibility and be in charge of security at the rear area battalion camp in the Nabu region.

Q: Which Company were you in?
A: I was in Company #3. When we were moving, there were five people in one section and the Saya Gyi [Sergeants] controlled them. In most of the companies there are 20 or 21 soldiers.

Q: How long did you serve with LIB #549?
A: I served with them for four years.

Q: How old is the oldest soldier in your unit?
A: The person who led the single people was about 30 years old. He was Saya Gyi Aung Win [Sergeant Aung Win] from Company #3; and also Saya Gyi Hla Shwe [Sergeant Hla Shwe]. They lead the single people separately. The married people had to stay separated. They kept the single people in a separate barracks [at permanent Army camps, the single men and the married soldiers and their families are housed in separate compounds].

Q: What is the name of the camp?
A: They call it Nabu. There are three battalions, LIB #547, LIB #548 and LIB #549. Their camps are along the car road and each battalion camp is an hour apart. LIB #549 is at the Nabu battalion camp. In the past the Indians were staying there [Burma-born people of Indian descent, most of them Muslims; the SLORC forced them out of Nabu village in 1995, bulldozed their homes and built an Army base]. They [the SLORC troops] destroyed the Indians’ Arabic school and drove out the Indians, then they built the car road. I saw it. [For more information see the main body of the report under ‘Life in the Tatmadaw/In the Rear Areas’.]

Q: Do you know which villages are close to the LIB #549 camp?
A: Yes, I will tell you. The name of the village that is close to the battalion camp is Inn Shay. It is behind the mountain ridge of LIB #549. There are Inn Shay, Twee Sawan, and Dta Weh Dah. These villages are around #547, #548, and #549. The villages close to #547 are Toh Kaw Ko, Wah Lay and Tee Po San.

Q: What is the attitude of your battalion commander?
A: The attitude of the battalion commander who has arrived now is that as long as his family is living comfortably he doesn’t care about anything. He allows us soldiers to live as we like. He is a battalion commander who doesn’t look out for the benefit of many people, but only looks out for his own benefit. The officers who are staying in the battalion camp are working hard for their families to be comfortable. They don’t know what is happening to the soldiers and Saya Gyi [Sergeants] who are under them. If we have a problem, we are supposed send the news to the Saya Gyi, and the Saya Gyi sends the news on to the officers, but we couldn’t do that. We had to clear the problem ourselves, and the Company Commanders stay as though they don’t know [the official path for problems goes through the Sergeants to the officers, but in reality, the officers aren’t interested so the soldiers must solve their problems themselves].

Q: Do the other soldiers who work with you have bad feelings about being in the Army?
A: They want to gather and tell about their feelings, but if we gathered and talked about it, the officers would have thought we were plotting against them. They thought the officers would kill them. That is why they didn’t even dare to think. They want to think, but they don’t want to do anything [which might get them in trouble with the officers]. I have seen that even the Sergeants and Corporals and the other soldiers who have high ranks have fled [he means senior Non-Commissioned Officers, not senior officers].

Q: Were they arrested after they escaped?
A: If they were arrested, they were put in prison. But, if the leaders were not satisfied or didn’t like those who fled, they were even killed………………………….

Q: Did they order you to do agricultural work when you were at the camp?
A: When I arrived at the battalion camp we had to queue up in the morning at 6 a.m. At 6:30 a.m. they finished the line up [inspection; roll call]. Then we each had to do Pa Take [‘practice’, a term used for soldiers’ forced labor]. We had to bake bricks, to cut trees and carry them, and to cut bamboo and carry them. We had to build the buildings in the battalion camp. They [the officers] forcibly ordered the villagers to do Loh Ah Pay. When they [the officers] arrived in a village, they demanded chicken and rice from the village headwoman. We saw it with our own eyes and didn’t agree with this. Once they got it from the village headwoman, they sent it to their section. There is a Company office and the officers are in charge of it. There are 6 or 7 or 8 officers living there. They take the good things for themselves and the poor things like potatoes, they gave seven of them to each section. We have five or six soldiers in each section and we can’t eat enough with just seven potatoes. We complained, but they didn’t respond to us. We had to take the things they gave us, had to eat what they fed us and had to do what they forced us to do. The commander told me it is the orders of the Army. I didn’t say anything in reply because he is a higher officer than me and also older than me. I didn’t reply and stayed quietly. I have seen them force the civilians to build roads, bridges and do everything for the battalion camp and do Pa Take [soldiers’ term meaning forced labor at the Army camp]. I even had to force the mothers [in Burmese, older women are referred to as mothers]. When the mothers were tired and if I gave them a chance to rest, the officers asked me why they had to rest. I told them, "Bo Gyi [captain], it is like this; they are tired so I asked them to rest." He asked me, "Don’t you want to force the civilians? Why don’t you want to force them?" I told him, "Bo Gyi, they work and are tired so I asked them to rest." I told them [the officers], but they didn’t excuse me at all. They didn’t say anything to the villagers. They called me away and slapped my face. I felt distressed that time also………………

Q: Did you ever have to go on operations in other places, like Chin State or Kachin State?
A: I have not been there. I have only been in the Karen State area.

Q: Where did you go in Karen State?
A: I went on the Papun military operation and it took over 8 months. I went before the end of June [1999]. I also had to go and patrol around the villages close to the camp [around Nabu in southeastern Pa’an District]. I had to do sentry duty for one or two weeks. I have never been to the south or to the north in Shan State.

Q: Have you ever fought the KNLA?
A: It never happened when I went to the frontline. Another unit went in front and our unit came behind and I saw that they were fighting. I have never fought directly, but I wouldn’t have been afraid if a battle had occurred.

Q: Did your unit ever arrest any of the enemy?
A: When I went on an operation in Papun [district], one of the soldiers from Signals [the communications unit of the battalion] went down in the valley and saw an AK [AK-47 assault rifle]. Above the bank of the river there is a village and it was before we arrived at that village. They suspected a person we saw near there. When an officer saw the gun he suspected that man. Nearby there was a boy looking after some cows. "Where are you from?" They asked the boy who the man was, but he didn’t know. They arrested the man and asked him, "Whose gun is this?" They interrogated him and punched him. Later, when they couldn’t ask him anything else, they called the village head. He asked a soldier to go and call the village head. The village head said he had never seen this person. He also didn’t know what village the man was from. They asked him again and again, but they couldn’t get an answer. They asked through an interpreter because he couldn’t speak Burmese. He didn’t answer so the senior officer gave us an order and we had to kill him ourselves. The one who ordered us was from our company and his name is Captain Aye Min Oo. He is the company commander and has two stars. They [the soldiers] took a mattock from the village, dug a hole and killed him. I saw it. I killed only this person. Three or four soldiers were there. Each soldier shot him two or three times. He was dead and we buried him there.

Q: Was he a villager or an enemy soldier?
A: They couldn’t tell whether he was a villager or an enemy. They saw an AK, so they suspected him and killed him.

Q: Are there any prisoners in your unit?
A: There is no jail in our camp, so they are put in prison.

Q: Did your unit plant landmines?
A: When we went on operations we saw landmines, but we didn’t plant them. We planted landmines when we were staying in the camp. We didn’t plant them when we went to the frontline. We saw the landmines from our enemies. We dug them out. When #547 [Light Infantry Battalion] arrived on the Papun military operation, the Nga Pway [‘Ringworm’; a derogatory term used by the SPDC when referring to the KNU and KNLA] put a hand grenade in a bag and threw it near them when they were eating. The #547 soldiers fled. When they were laying down [to take shelter from the explosion of the grenade], they [the KNLA] took three guns and then ran away. We followed them but we couldn’t catch them.

Q: How did you think about the KNU when you were a soldier?
A: When I was a new soldier, I didn’t know that the KNU are tha bone [rebels]. I didn’t know what it was at all. After four years, why don’t they allow us to read the newspapers or listen to the radio? Are they worried that we will understand something? Are they worried that we will be confused? I thought about this and I left the Army camp with my brother and put down my weapon [surrendered].

Q: Did you think that the KNU was your enemy or bad people?
A: If I have to give my opinion, my Saya Gyi told me they were the enemy. I didn’t know what kind of enemy. Now I have stayed in the Army for four years and I have seen the DKBA. They [the officers] said that this is an enemy. So then I knew.

Q: Did they say the DKBA were the enemy?
A: Yes, they said that they [the DKBA] had surrendered. I saw them only one time there.

Q: How did the soldiers deal with the DKBA?
A: We soldiers can’t fight [he means fist fights] with the DKBA. They [the SPDC] are worried that the opinions of the DKBA are going to change. If we fight with them, they [the SPDC] take action against us. Nothing happens to the DKBA.

Q: Has there ever been fighting involving shooting with the DKBA?
A: We have had misunderstandings and fought the DKBA. We shot them because we thought they were the enemy. The officers in LIB #547 had a problem that they were not satisfied with the DKBA. They are staying in the Nabu area. Some of the officers talked about fighting the DKBA. Some of the DKBA heard them and rebelled. They returned to the KNU, but they didn’t fight yet [they didn’t attack LIB #547].

Q: Did any other soldiers flee or kill themselves before you left?
A: I have seen that. Some of the soldiers were depressed because they suffered from being punched by the officers. Their parents had given birth to them and had never slapped their faces. They were angry and shot themselves dead. I saw three people do that. They were older than I was and they had arrived at the Army camp before me, so the officers didn’t tell us their names. They only showed us their photos.

Q: Did the soldiers talk about democracy or Aung San Suu Kyi in the Army camp?
A: Usually, we didn’t talk about this. We worked and didn’t dare to think about that. I have heard about it because people have told me, but I don’t have an opinion about it.

Q: Did you know about the refugee camps along the Burmese-Thai border?
A: I also didn’t know about them.

Q: Did you steal the villagers’ animals or rice when you were in the Army camp?
A: I didn’t steal them myself, but I saw the officers demand them from the village headwoman.

Q: Didn’t the officers order you to do it?
A: They ordered me to do it, but I told them I didn’t know where the things were. They told me where the things were that the village headwoman had, but I didn’t do as they asked me to do.

Q: Have you ever seen the soldiers kill villagers or rape women?
A: I have seen the families of the soldiers. The men did it because their living situation is no good. The SPDC gives them a small monthly salary to use for their families, but they have a wife and two children, so it is not enough for them to live on. It is for their wives and children that they robbed the villagers. Some were imprisoned for it. Some of the single soldiers were drunk with alcohol and went up the villagers’ houses and pulled the girls hands and raped them. Then they were imprisoned, I have seen it [the imprisonment of soldiers for these offences is rare; most are given some form of light punishment, if any at all].

Q: Do you know the names of the ones who were imprisoned?
A: They were staying in the camp for many years longer than me, so I don’t know them.

Q: What did the villagers think of the SPDC?
A: The villagers were suffering from the forced demands. I don’t know their opinion, so I can’t speak about it. The Mother didn’t tell us.

Q: Who is the Mother?
A: When I was staying the four years in the battalion camp, the Mother supported and fed me whatever I needed food. She is Karen. She lives in aaaa village, bbbb. She is not the village head, just a Mother [one of the older women of the village]. I don’t know her name, I only know the name of her sister, Naw xxxx.

Q: Did you hear the villagers talking about democracy or the military government?
A: When we were patrolling I saw some villagers drinking alcohol and talking about this, but they spoke Karen and I am Burmese, so I didn’t understand [he does speak a small amount of Karen].

Q: When you ate rice did everyone eat together or separately?
A: When we ate the Saya Gyi [Sergeant] took out his mess tin and we cooked rice in it. We had to go and take rice and curry separately. We soldiers had to eat separately from the Saya Gyi.

Q: Do the soldiers’ families stay in the Army camp?
A: They don’t keep the families of the soldiers in the Army camp. They keep the families of the soldiers in the battalion camp. The buildings on the outside are called the Army camp. The camp on the other side is called the battalion camp. The children who are studying in the middle school or high school are kept in the families’ place. They are staying with their families at Nabu.

Q: Did they allow you to listen to the radio or read magazines in the camp?
A: They allowed radios, reading books, and magazines. They didn’t allow us to listen to the radio [they could only use it to listen to music cassettes]. When the Saya Gyi [Sergeant] saw one radio, he asked, "What is that?" I told him it was nothing and I turned on a cassette [he had been listening to the radio]. He said, "That isn’t true. Bring that radio to me." Then they kept it in a box. We couldn’t listen to it anymore.

Q: Did they allow you to write a letter to your parents when you were in the camp? Did they allow you to go and visit them?
A: For this, they asked that anyone who wanted to go back must go and report [to the officers]. They will do it when we go to report. They will write a letter of recommendation. When someone had gone back, they would let another person from the battalion go back only when the first person returned. But the first person didn’t come back to the battalion and fled. Therefore, very few of us were given permission. They didn’t dare give permission. Many people fled. When we sent letters to our parents, none of the letters reached them. They [the officers] took them from the mailbox, read them and then threw them away. They didn’t let us read any of the letters from our parents. They disappeared.

Q: Do your parents know that you are in the Army?
A: The monk went back to my village, so they know. The monk went back and told my mother. Right now she doesn’t know which battalion I am taking duty in, but she knows I am in the Army.

Q: Have you sent any letters to your mother?
A: I sent them, but the letters I sent did not arrive to my parents. The letters reached the Saya Gyi [Sergeants] and disappeared in their office. The letters sent from my parents didn’t get to my hands. They [the Sergeants] destroyed them in their hands. The monk went back to the village and told my mother that I had joined the Army, but they don’t know which battalion, state, or where. They only know that I have arrived at an Army camp.

Q: How much was the salary of the battalion commander each month?
A: The battalion commander received over 10,000 kyat per month. The officers received 12,000 kyat. The company commander [a captain] gets 12,000 or 13,000 kyat. The higher officers received 14,000 or 15,000 kyat. U Kyaing Zaw is the major who controlled the whole battalion camp, so I think he got 15,000 or 16,000 kyat. The Sergeants receive over 6,000 kyat. Lance Corporals get 5,300 kyat. He is a Lance Corporal [indicating his friend]. I was a private for four years, but he was in the Army for five years. We privates are starting from the basic military training and if we do a good job, they will increase our rank. If they don’t want to give [promotions], they don’t give. This is the opinion of the leaders. I worked for four years in the Army, so I got 4,700 kyat. The new soldiers receive about 3,000 kyat.

Q: What was your monthly salary?
A: They gave me a monthly salary of 4,700 kyat. I had to buy military equipment when I arrived at the battalion. I had to buy jungle boots. One boot is over 300 kyat. I had to buy slippers, a black collar badge, a gold collar badge, and a gold and black color badge for my hat. I also had to buy and wear a good uniform [dress uniform]. They gave us only one uniform each year. In the area of our military operations it was very rough. When we were running and climbing the mountains, it was hooked on thorns. Sometimes it was scraped by a tree branch and it had become ragged. For a new one we had to buy it. I also bought a chest for putting clothes and other things in. They also took out support money. I couldn’t spend this monthly salary for myself at all.

Q: How much did they take out?
A: They took out 400 kyat for support money. The battalion support money is for the children’s nursery school. They took out money for the middle school and the high school [it is doubtful that these schools ever received the money. It was more probably taken by the officers for personal use]. Then they told us that to save money for later they took out 1,000 kyat for that [the officers claim to set up savings accounts for the soldiers, but when the soldiers later go to withdraw the money they find that there is little if any of it in there - the officers have taken it; see interview #2]. In addition, money is taken out for parties and funerals. If people die in the Army camp, they take out 40 or 50 kyat [for the funeral]. They take 500 kyat for building a pagoda. When it has all been taken out, we received only 200 kyat of our salary. They cut it every month. They show this reason and that reason and then cut it. Then they don’t explain themselves. They write a letter and say that they cut it for this reason and then give the salary to us. The soldiers who can’t read came to show the letter to us and we read it to them. We told them, "Don’t go to ask them [the officers]. If you go to ask them, you will be punched and your cheeks slapped by them."

Q: Did you plan to go to the KNU when you escaped?
A: We didn’t plan like that. The two of us planned that if we got jobs, we would work, then we left. We thought about whether they [the KNU] would believe us fully or not if we said we would work for the KNU. We were worried that they would think we were fake [sent as spies]. That is why we told them we wouldn’t do it. If they believed and trusted us, we promised that we would work with them.

Q: When you saw the KNU, were they like you had imagined them when you were a soldier?
A: No.

Q: How did the KNU deal with you when they saw you?
A: They couldn’t speak Burmese, so they talked to us in Karen. I can’t speak much Karen language so at first I was downhearted. I was downhearted but he [the other man who fled with him] wasn’t. I was downhearted because I had never experienced being arrested. They talked to us in Karen. We also spoke to them. They laughed. We had a problem with communication. Later, the Burmese student group [the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front; ABSDF] came and gave encouragement to us. From then on there were Burmans also staying with us, so I’ve been happier since then. We left the Army camp, but not with the intention of going back to Burma [to their home villages]. We left the Army camp to work. We felt that the KNU would believe us if we worked for the resistance.

Q: What do you plan to do now?
A: I have been planning to work if I can get it.

Q: Do you plan to go back home?
A: I don’t plan to go back home. If I get money, I will support the Mother who took care of me [a Karen woman who took care of him when he was in the battalion camp] because I love her as my parent. But I dare not go back to Burma. Every battalion sends the information [about who has deserted], so if they arrest us, they will kill us.

Q: Do you think they will do something to your mother now that you have fled like this?
A: I don’t know. I don’t think they will send the information to her yet. They will keep it for one year. Then they will send a letter to my mother that I died in the fighting or stepped on a landmine.

Q: What is the situation in your village?
A: When I stayed in my village, the village head had to collect a tax on the flat fields, land, hill fields and humans. I didn’t know about these taxes when I was young. When I asked my parents they said, "We don’t know son. They are collecting it from those of us who are working the hill fields. The people who don’t have hill fields and work for a day and eat for a day [villagers who don’t own land but work on other people’s land for a daily wage] have to pay at least 1,000 kyat."

Q: Did they take porters in your village?
A: They didn’t take porters there. Few soldiers come there because there are no insurgents. They did come a few times, but not very often.

Q: Is there a school in your village?
A: There is only a primary school and the monastery. There is no hospital or clinic. We have to go to the hospital and clinic in the town. We have to send the sick to town by bullock cart.

Q: What did the villagers in your village think about the SPDC?
A: The villagers near my house were talking among themselves, but they didn’t want us children to listen. I was young at that time.

Q: Is there a Karen village near your mother’s house?
A: There is no Karen village. They are mountain Chin. We baked charcoal. We went to town by bullock cart and sold the charcoal. We had to use the money that we received for our living.

Q: Before you were a soldier, did you think about the military government and what they were doing?
A: At that time I didn’t think about it. I stayed in the Army for four years and I didn’t know what was happening in Burma at all. I knew about it when I arrived on this side [of the conflict] and one of the KNU uncles told me about it.

Q: What would you say now about the military government in Burma?
A: We saw it with our own eyes that the SPDC military dictatorship is governing the civilians unjustly and we are not satisfied. For that reason I want to say that I don’t want them taking and forcing people to do Loh Ah Pay, to build roads and to build Army camps without consulting their opinion.

Q: What else would you like to say?
A: I am not satisfied that the SPDC military dictatorship in Burma is forcing the civilians to do Loh Ah Pay. One day, I plan to avenge them. I will work. If I don’t work, I will work in the resistance with the student group [ABSDF].

Q: Do you think you will continue to study?
A: I don’t have any relatives here so I don’t have any way to study [no one to support him while he studies]. If I have a chance and people send me to school, I would like to continue to study.

Q: Thank you.
A: Yes.