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Appendix 4:
Testimonies Presented to the Tribunal
The following are excerpts from selected
testimonies presented to the Tribunal prior to April 1999.
 1. The mountains of war 
P'deh War, a 19 year old male student
from Papun Township, Karen State.
On 28 March 1997, the Burma army started a
strong offensive in our township. The KNU soldiers are very
short on ammunition, having no more than about 20 bullets per
weapon, so they heard that the Burma army order was- "If
the KNU shoots once, shoot ten times; if they shoot ten
times, shoot 100 times; if they shoot 100 times, shoot at
them all day."
None of the villages has more than about 40
houses- all are small mountain communities. Every house has a
barn. The Burma army soldiers began along the Bilin River
valley, at a village called Ta Me Der. They entered burned
all the houses, rice, and the villagers’ possessions.
Virtually everything was destroyed, except a few caches of
rice successfully hidden in the jungle.
On April 3, IB 51 soldiers entered
Thay Khoh Mu Der village and all the villagers evacuated
without preparing any food for themselves. This became a big
problem when they fled into the deep forest and couldn't get
any food. They had nothing to eat. The Burma army troops
slept in the village, and after eating pigs and chickens,
they burned down 36 houses and 14 barns containing 200-400 baskets of
paddy
each. They saw a place where villagers had hidden about 80
baskets. The villagers had no food, so some decided to come
back for the hidden rice. So five men fearfully returned, and
just before they arrived they saw the soldiers, so they
deliberated, "Do we dare to go back and take the
grain?" And one said, "Never mind, we will go back.
If we die, we'll die together and if we survive, we'll
survive together." They had walked barely a few more
steps when the soldiers opened fire. One of them, named Phar
Khin Sein, aged 50, was killed. The other four escaped. After
that the soldiers burned the 80 baskets of rice.
In total, 67 houses and 55 barns were
burned down within a few days, as well as 10 hidden rice
stores, each with about 40 baskets of grain. Later,
the villagers faced serious food and shelter problems- they
were forced into the jungle. Having destroyed all these
places and this food the soldiers returned to Ker Gaw Lo,
which they had not destroyed, and took porters. Rather than
flee, the village elders tried to negotiate with the
soldiers. The army demanded 4000 kyat from
each person not going to serve as a porter.
The soldiers destroyed and burned all the
people's property. On April 8, IB 135 entered Hkeh Pa
Htah village and burned all 38 houses and 23 paddy barns
containing 100- 200 baskets grain each, and ate two
buffaloes. All the villagers, about 2000 in number, fled
before their arrival and hid in Hkoh Khi forest. Many
villagers from surrounding areas had already fled to Hkeh Pa
Htah. They brought with them enough food for one month, so in
the forest they felt very tired and worried about their
future. If the army withdrew the people would return and try
to sow a crop. If not, there was no way to survive in the
jungle, so then they would probably be forced to go to
Thailand.
This unit of soldiers came bit by bit until
making their rendezvous with the other unit [IB 51] at Thay Khoh Mu
Der. The two groups began to consolidate all people around
the army camps. Those villagers staying outside their
control, even children or the elderly, would be treated as
insurgents.
They proceeded to burn down Doh Daw Khi, Mu
Khi, Too Gaw So, Hti Thaw Pe Khi, and Hkeh Der villages. The
first was Doh Daw Khi, where 20 houses were burned down. They
also burned down 17 barns there. The total number of houses
in these villages, in addition to Doh Daw Khi, would be about
80. Immediately after that, the soldiers entered Maw Law
village where all of the villagers, 10 families, fled as
quickly as possible to rendezvous at the big caves in the
forest. They had taken very little food and had to eat
porridge for three weeks until some KNU solders escorted them
to Yeh Mu Plaw area. They travelled by night in small groups.
The soldiers shot at 30 buffalo at Maw Hsar Plaw. Those not
killed were blinded and could not graze. The army left a
note, "These animals were support for KNU, so they are
our enemies, therefore we had the right to kill them."
Furthermore, they burned 18 houses in Ti
Thoo Der and left a message on a tree which said "Kill
the Karen race!" The villagers fled to the forest for
more than three weeks. There were more than 200 people. On
April 28, it rained very hard, so a lot of the people got
fevers, especially the children, and there was no medicine.
The people were drinking water from the streams. As for food,
most had managed to bring some rice and salt. Apart from
that, they had to forage for vegetables in the jungle. Most
people ate one or two cups of rice per day. I asked some villagers, "If
the route opens up, will you cross into Thailand?" They
answered, "We absolutely won't. We will live or die in
these mountains. If we die we'll die together. If we eat,
then we'll eat together."
According to a report by Saw Dee Gay
Htoo in October 1998, the Yeh Mu Plaw region continues to
experience serious incursions as part of the 1998-99
offensive. He also managed to make contact at the end of
December 1998, and reported that at that time the Burma army
troops were stepping up the regional offensive, spear-headed
by the destruction of all and any crops and food stocks
already made scarce by poor weather conditions.
2. War and hunger in the 1990s
Saw Htoo K'baw, a 36 year old teacher
and father of five from Papun Township, Karen State.
I arrived in Papun Township in 1981. I went
to help the people there, and as a high school graduate I was
given a teaching position in the [KNU] high school. Until
1992, conditions weren't too tough. At first, the school
committee provided me with food and some money, which was
adequate. But in January 1992, the Burma army began to battle
KNU. They patrolled and skirmished, and 1992 was the first
year that we had food problems.
Before all that our area was pretty stable.
Less secure places faced regular fighting, causing people to
flee into safer areas like ours. There was increasing
population pressure over time. When I left earlier this year
[1997] the village had reached more than 200 houses, compared
to the typical village size of only 30 houses. Originally,
apart from growing rice, people had no problems earning a
living by fishing; breeding livestock; growing and foraging
for vegetables; cutting timber and trading. KNU taxes were
reasonable- one basket of paddy
per acre and a little bit more for sugarcane. However, over
time it became harder to live by agriculture. Soil fertility
suffered. Land should lie fallow for at least a three or four
years, but nowadays it’s two years at most. That's
because of growing populations people move further away from
government control. The land is totally exhausted.
After 1992, I also grew my own rice. I
planted 3-4 baskets of seed the first year. Because the
soldiers were patrolling and the soil was poor I didn’t
harvest enough to feed my family, only 5 baskets. After
school closed in January, I planned to trade in biscuits, Ajinomoto
and clothing. The soldiers began patrolling because of people
trading in this way, and they would stop people on the road
or shoot at them if far away. I only attempted to trade goods
this one time, in 1992. As I was returning with my goods in a
group of 5 people, some Burma army soldiers who were off to
one side of the path saw us and shot at us. We all dropped
our possessions and ran for our lives. So, I lost all my
valuables and was discouraged from further trading
activities.
By 1994 more villagers had come, the
village was getting crowded and dirty, and people were
getting sick. Most children under 5 were ill. One illness was
"yellow eyes." Apart from the yellowness in the
eyes and face, the children's livers were swollen. About 20%
of children under five died. Only with urgent medical
treatment could they possibly hope to survive. Their skin and
eyes yellowed and their livers enlarged. At first people
didn't think too much of it and used traditional medicines.
When that didn’t work, the people tried to get help from
outside, but it was too late.
Pu Ta Thoo, a neighbor of mine, lost a
two-month-old baby. He went to get a KNU medic, but the child
had already been sick for 3 or 4 days. Anyway, the medic had
nothing for this illness, only paracetemol and quinine. Pu Ta
Thoo had no money for medicine; intravenous drips from
Thailand are very expensive, and medicines from inside Burma
are unreliable. So the child died. The mother was also ill,
weak with fever and headache, although. My family
faced the illness too, and what's more we had to flee from
the Burma army and stay at the bottom of a river valley. We
didn't have spare clothing or mosquito nets, so the children
suffered chills.
Work became harder. The soil was losing its
fertility. The soldiers patrolled at the time of the harvest,
and so crops were destroyed and went bad. Starting from
September 1994 my family had to eat rice porridge. Sometimes
I had to go without food to feed my family. Sometimes all we
had to eat were boiled bamboo shoots and roots.
In 1995, because of constant Burma army
movement, we had to be ready all the time. In the hot season
I worked odd jobs. The school committee couldn’t take
care of teachers anymore. We couldn't buy any clothes, and
had only one set each. Some newer arrivals risked their lives
by returning to their old villages. My children were coughing
terribly, but I had no money for medicine. I searched far and
wide for money, but couldn't earn enough. I just made certain
that I boiled all drinking water for my children.
In September I planted two baskets of rice
seed. It was almost harvest time when we fled to where there
was no food. As we had not brought much food, we ate eat rice
porridge. For two or three months we hid, and our fields were
trampled by livestock and destroyed by the soldiers. I would
forego food so my children could eat. I would go around and
beg for rice. Some people would take pity and give one or two
cups-
mostly these were hill people who were coping better than the
rest of us. It's true that by this time people suffered
differently. Most who had migrated more recently and were
living off agriculture or fishing were suffering
considerably. Traders and the traditional hill people were
managing better. We only cooked one small pot of rice per
meal. We had one pot, but no plates, bowls or cutlery, so we
ate from bamboo. In 1996 things became so tough that we
couldn't even get salt anymore, which used to come in from
Papun. But by this time all roads had been cut. No one dared
travel secretly, afraid to be shot along the way.
Villages on the other side of the river
suffered more, because they received little warning when the
soldiers came. They suffered constant harassment, and they
never had enough food. In spite of all this they didn't want
to move. From June to August of 1996 they ate porridge and
bamboo shoots, and from September to November they ate roots.
My family ate like this until the December harvest. That year
I planted three baskets and reaped 15.
In early November 1996, my uncle was
killed. His name was Phar Maung Kyaw. He was about 47 years
old, and had 4 children. The troops were approaching as he
prepared to flee, but he didn’t know how close they
were. His wife left first and he followed, but he took the
wrong path and ran into the soldiers. His wife heard the gun
fire but did not know what had happened. After a couple of
days went by she understood that it was her husband who had
been shot. All the villagers were terrified, and for
over a week none of them went back. However KNU soldiers saw
the corpse, which had been shot in the head and chest.
In 1996 we fled three times. Each time we
had no food, no grain with us, and so we all foraged for
roots. The first time was when we were preparing the fields,
during March; once during May-June; once during the harvest
in October-November, on each occasion for 1 to 3 weeks. If
the soldiers used a familiar approach we usually had enough
warning to prepare, but sometimes they came down from the
mountains by surprise, so we had to flee with nothing. Even
if people prepared they would only be able to carry enough
food for 4 or 5 days, one week at most. In the forest
relationships varied. Some shared their food with others,
knowing that it would run out quickly, and then left to look
for roots together, others did not. The last time, I
saw one family especially close to utter starvation, the two
small children crying from hunger. The mother pitifully fed
them roots which had been boiled enough. She probably knew
that they would make them sick but didn't know what else to
do. After that they experienced nausea, vomiting and
diarrhea. They had absolutely no possessions whatsoever,
other than one pot, a machete and a small blanket. For
shelter people made small bamboo frames which they covered
with leaves or plastic. During the rainy season we also had
to make a floor to sleep on.
By this time the army units usually killed
anybody they saw in the village. Around April, it rained very
heavily for about a week. Our house collapsed into the river
and was totally destroyed, we were left with nothing, no food
and no place to stay, so we fled and hid. The children were
sick, and a KNU administrator gave me some grain. I thought
about the situation, and thought that as we had lost our
house and possessions we wouldn't stay there anymore, and so
we came to this refugee camp step by step.
By 1997 it was easy to flee, we had nothing
left anyway. We had lost, sold or exchanged all our meager
possessions over time in order to get food. We never had
much, but before 1992-93 we had 4 or 5 items of clothing
each, enough blankets, mosquito nets, plates and spoons to go
around. By 1997, my wife, our three oldest children and I had
exactly one set of clothes each, and our youngest two
children we simply wrapped in rags, and carried them on our
backs when we fled. A machete, a pot and a bamboo bowl, some
rice, two blankets and one mosquito net were the sum total of
our possessions. Under such conditions money is not spent on
clothes and such, you only think about getting food. Whether
I taught in the school, worked the fields, or slept at home,
I only had one shirt to wear. If our children suffered
diarrhea and spoiled their pants, then we washed them and
dried them in front of the fire, in time for school.
If we look at all of this, then we can say
that because of the Burma Army offensive and destruction
starting from 1992, transport was restricted and prices were
on the rise. Travel is difficult and it isn't possible to get
medicines, food is scarce. There is increasing sickness and
it is more difficult to earn a living. That the Burma army
soldiers are deliberately creating starvation astonishes
people. When it is almost time for people to burn the fields,
the army terrorizes people so that they are too afraid to
stay in their fields. They move all over the place and
approach from different routes. Finally, the rains have come,
causing the troops to withdraw. Then the villagers have to
start work to get food during the rains. When the crop is
almost ready, the troops come back again and go directly to
the fields and trample the plants when they are due for
harvest. The villagers again flee to the forest, leaving
their cattle behind, and this also becomes a problem, as the
animals roam around eating the crops. All this leaves
villagers totally distraught and with no idea how to feed
themselves in the future. All villagers suffer in the same
way, this is not just a once-off event, and so are utterly
discouraged as to how to work for a livelihood.
3. Displaced
Kyay Mi, a male farmer from Papun
Township, Karen State.
We came to Thailand because of too many
problems from the Burma army soldiers. We had to pay porter
fees and then we thought that we'd be left alone, but they
still gang-pressed us into porter service. They burned our
houses and food supplies and it is plain to see that we could
never stay on there. We were afraid for the safety of our
lives. The army deploys its troops close together and sends
out patrols to harm the people and destroy villages. Most
villagers have been forced to move and stay hidden from the
troops. At the moment they are surviving on last year’s
harvest. But next year if they can’t find food then they
will flee into Thailand. But the trip is hazardous and you
have to bring enough food to last along the way. Some of us
didn't have enough rice and had to borrow from others. So you
can see that these are the problems facing us: scarcity of
food, rainy weather and the soldiers. Along the way one baby
in our group died, and two elderly people suffered acute
health problems. There was no medicine.
At present the soldiers are building
barracks, so they required villagers to carry loads, hack
wood and do all sorts of things for them. Workers have to
provide their own food. Some managed to flee from the most
difficult areas. If people move and find that they can not
plant then they move again, otherwise they'd starve the next
year. We heard news that the strategic commander said
operations were done in that area. But others heard that they
would begin another operation. If that happens, the people
will be in great danger. The commander told people that if
they want to run away, they should either run very far or
stay close to the army. If they find people in the jungle
they shoot on sight. Only when there is peace in our country
will the people survive and prosper. If it is not so, the
people will still have to bear heavy burdens. People like us
will come here, and the rest will die.
Source: Burma Issues video tape
#17A/154, September 1997
4. A village teacher
Naw Eh Paw Htoo, a 33 year old woman
from Myawaddy Township, Karen State.
In March 1997, there was increasing
suffering and poverty in my village. I was there together
with my four children and husband, my house and my land,
which yielded 600 baskets of paddy
grain. Before the fighting we ate okay. From 1984 to 1988, I
was teaching at Taung Oke. In 1985-86, the army reached and
destroyed our village, but they left and people came back. In
1989, they again reached the village, destroyed my stuff and
burned down my house and shop. But they went away and I still
dared to stay. When I married in 1989, my husband and I moved
to another village where we planted rice and raised
livestock. We could work peacefully and the KNU taxation wasn't much.
It was easy and we had enough to eat.
From 1990 through 1996, we were reasonably
well off. There were no problems, and only in this year,
1997, did we face real problems. What we met with was very
different from before, when the Burma army came, destroyed
some things and went away. This time, they came to stay
beside the village, and we always had to go to help them, and
they came into the village and destroyed things like our
household possessions, and entered our houses to get food, so
we had to feed them. Anything they didn't eat they discarded,
especially food like paddy grain, threshed grain, root plants
and small livestock. The soldiers who came to control our
area were Battalion 425, commanded by Kyaw Zaw Aung. They
destroyed household possessions and destroyed our rice grain.
They also took and ate our pigs and chickens. Anything
that they didn't eat, they killed, and likewise rice grain
that they couldn't carry away, they set on fire. So we really
faced problems for our food. On a day to day basis we could
still eat, but over a longer time we would surely have
starved. Because we couldn't travel around, we couldn't work.
We always had to follow their orders and only do things for
them. They will surely force the villagers into starvation.
Even if I only look at my household, we had to frequently
face problems; I can't even count how many times. My children
suffered from sicknesses such as diarrhea and malaria, as a
result of sometimes having to flee and so often not having
clean food.
The soldiers stayed in the village,
therefore we had to see them every day and almost every day
they impoverished the villagers. They demanded the villagers
threshed rice, and said that their own rations weren’t
tasty, but the villagers' rice was tasty. They eat the
poultry for free. They demanded people's pigs and said that
whether big or small they would give 3,000 kyat per
pig. Before I fled I had to sell one of my pigs this way. It
would have been worth 1,500 to 2,000 Thai baht but I
had to sell it for 3,000 kyat. I also had 4-5 buffalo, and
after I came here I heard that the Burma army shot and
ate one of them.
Now I have come here, and none of my four
children are well. Before fleeing, we lived in fear and we
made the children sleep in the fields, without any mosquito
nets. My oldest child has malaria, and the middle two are
also getting fevers everyday, so they have to take medicines.
The youngest has diarrhea and anemia, and also has to take
medicines.
I know that if I had stayed in the village
[rather than come to the refugee camp] for a longer time, I
would have faced more suffering and poverty, sickness and
death, because the village no longer had access to a clinic
and the Burma army soldiers did not take care of people, only
always terrified them. I came to the refugee camp because I
was unable to stay in my village as a result of the soldiers
confiscation and destruction of my food, rice and possessions
on a daily basis. If I had stayed in my village for an
extended period of time I would surely have starved. So
before my family reached the point of starvation we fled to
this refugee camp. If I had stayed in my village I would
surely have died. A lot of the villagers who are still there
will also come. I could not bring anything with me. My house
and land are still there. There was still 20 baskets of
threshed rice in my rice store. I had to leave all of that.
I can't think about staying in my village
now. I won't ever go back until the situation in the country
has changed.
5. Another offensive
Naw Tha Kyeh, a 45 year old woman
from Myawaddy Township, Karen State, speaking in July 1997.
We were working as farmers and had been
able to trade our crops easily. The Burma army troops first
came into the village in 1986 and later again in 1993. Each
time they came, they took paddy
and rice stocks and destroyed our property. They subjected
villagers to extra-judicial arrest, torture and murder,
causing most people in our area to flee into Thailand each
time. We suffered serious losses to our farms, gardens and
livestock. Only after they left, were we able to return and
reconstruct.
In February of 1997, they launched a new
offensive. This time our people were unable to flee. The army
said all livestock and grain supported the KNU and proceeded to burn,
loot and destroy it all. The cattle and buffalo were either
taken away to be eaten or shot. Any villagers who pleaded
with them to do otherwise were ignored. The worst thing was
that when it was time to begin tilling our lands, the
soldiers denied us permission. They forced us instead to
build their barracks, construct roads for their supply lines,
be their guides and simply stay at the sites of their camps
without any work at all. We were not able to go and sell any
of the remaining fruit and vegetables from our farms. They
blocked all trading activities.
Not only did they confiscate our paddy, but
they also did not allow us to prepare our farms for the
coming season, which poses a serious threat of starvation.
Consequently, some of us were determined to risk death by
crossing the border areas. Some have made it to the refugee
camps, others have been caught by the Burma army troops and
murdered or tortured brutally.
6. A hillside farmer
Phar Too Ngar, a 40 year old from
Kya-Inn Seik Kyi Township, Karen State, speaking in 1997-98.
I stayed in my village for 30 years and
worked as a paddy
farmer. I also grew vegetables, betel nut palms and rubber
trees. In 1992-93, the village flooded, so we stopped working
those fields. That year we frequently ate rotten rice,
because the rice store was wet. After that I started to work
swidden fields, from 1994 to 1997. My swidden fields yielded
about 108 baskets per year, and I re-sowed 10 baskets.
Until January 1997, our village only had to
pay low KNU taxes
and work conditions were good. Starting then, we faced
increasing poverty. When the Burma army soldiers first
entered, they made people construct their army camp and begin
a road to Kyaik Done. The villagers had to work for three
days, rest for one day, on rotation. Work was begun in
January. Villagers who didn't go had to give 1200 kyat for
three days, direct to the soldiers. For construction
of the road, some villagers had to give up agricultural land,
but did not receive any compensation. At least 30 households
had to leave land and houses to make way for the road. I too
lost some of my rubber plantation and vegetable gardens.
There is no longer any time for villagers
to get food for themselves. Only the army's work can be done.
The soldiers made people construct two big rice stores- to
contain 400-500 baskets of grain each- and then made
villagers contribute one cup of rice per person per day. They were still doing
this when I left.
As there is no longer enough food in the
village, people are developing bad characteristics. Some are
stealing rice to eat. A lot of villagers don't have enough to
eat, so they want to come to Thailand, but they can't come
easily. Army units are stationed all around the village. If
they see people who are leaving secretly, they threaten to
shoot them.
Since the Burma army entered the village
there have also been more deaths. Some elderly people
terrified by the soldiers have died from heart problems.
Soldiers pick fights with villagers everyday. They drink and
accuse villagers of cooperating with KNU.
Villagers can do only the army's work,
constructing roads and other forms of labor. If soldiers see
villagers going to do their own work then they ask,
"Where did you get permission from? Who gave you
permission?" They confiscate carts and bulls. They
threaten that if anybody shoots at them in the village then
it will become ash. They are building shops on villagers'
land and then make them buy the shops for 5000 kyat each,
and every month charge 500 kyat as tax per shop. Some people
who lost their houses due to the road construction have been
instructed to purchase them
When I first left, my objective was to take
my wife to be cured of tuberculosis in a refugee camp clinic.
A week after I came, I heard that my house, my vegetable
gardens and all my land was destroyed, so I no longer want to
go back. They must have thought that I came to contact KNU.
The total value of all my possessions would have been 100,000
Thai baht.
By the time I left, 40 households in the
village were already facing serious hunger. Everybody is
suffering poverty. If they stay in the village for a long
time then they will die of starvation.
Saw Canady, an information collector
in the region who also witnessed these events, forwarded the
following details..
In February 1997, Burma army troops of LIBs 203, 205 of Division
22 and LIB 505 of Division 77 launched military operations in
Kyeik, Kwin Kale, Dan Kalaw and Thay Phat Htaw village areas.
25-30 villagers from each village in the area have
since had to serve on forced labor projects such as road
constructions, rice barn constructions and serve as guides.
The workers include men, women and
children, all of whom have to supply their own food and
medicines while doing the work. They have had to construct
two big rice barns on high ground near Kyeik village to store
the supplies from surrounding villages, and ration it back
out to the villagers.
Houses that stood in the fields outside of
villages were shifted and rebuilt inside. Also all livestock
had to be moved in. The troops robbed the villagers property
and when the owners asked for things to be returned, they
intimidated them into silence.
The Muslim populations at Kyaik Done and
Pah Kalaw Ni villages were evicted and denied their
possessions. They told the Muslims, "This is not your
place, go back to your country." I witnessed 90 bullock
carts and cattle, buffaloes and goats belonging to Muslims
being confiscated by the Burma army troops. The Muslims had
to leave their properties with tears in their eyes.
They have made house registers and
villagers are issued with documents. Those without documents
are classified as rebels. Bullock carts and motor cars are
being commandeered to transport food and ammunitions. They
are levying taxes on cars and elephants.
The army has given guarantees that it will
treat people well. But in practice, their troops commit
daylight robbery, gang-press labor, and extortion. Because of
all this the villagers are full of woe and misery. The army
does not allow anybody carrying belongings while traveling to
prevent people from fleeing.
7. An elder’s thoughts
Phu Kar Hsu, a 55 year old father of
seven children from Kya-Inn Seik Kyi Township, Karen State.
The Burma army arrived at our village about
2 months back, in March 1997. Some of us fled to the border
area and some stayed behind in hiding, to watch how things
went.
My family and I came to a refugee camp when
the army started its campaign. Later, I went back to my farm,
to have a look at the situation. The troops there were from
Division 44. They were forcing people to work as porters and
guides, interroging people and beating them. They confiscated
property and livestock which they sold and ate. They gave
villages orders to relocate, to separate them from the KNU.
They also seized people from the
surrounding villages and forced them to carry army rations.
Those who could not cope were beaten and abused. They treated
porters whom they had brought with them from far away very
badly, and eventually killed them.
Within a week of arrival, the soldiers
ordered two bullock carts and three people from each
surrounding village go to the Division 44 camp at Kwi Kler
daily. Each village also had to provide 20 to 25 laborers to
work on road constructions daily. Every person had to work
the entire day, providing their own food and medicines. All
buildings and trees in the path of the road construction had
to be pulled down. The soldiers also extorted money and
belongings from villagers.
When I went to the market in Kwi Kler
village, I met a soldier who searched my bag and I had to
give him 200 kyat. The troops there tried to sell buffalo, cattle and
other looted goods, but the villagers knew where these things
were coming from and refused to buy them. I heard a villager
speak to one of these soldiers: "Look here, we've been
tilling the land and raising livestock here for so many
years, and we have just a few animals. As for you, you've
been here for such a short time, you don't till the land or
rear animals, and yet you seem to own more than we do. How
come?" The soldier replied, "Uncle, as we know each
other so well, I do not think I need to answer your
question."
8. Demoralized communities
Lein May Aye, a 24 year old mother of
two from Kya-Inn Seik Kyi Township, Karen State.
About five months ago, in February 1997,
the Burma army troops of Division 44 came into our village.
It has about 30 houses. Most of the people are traditional
farmers. These troops are stationed at Kyaik Done and
whenever they come, they shoot and kill our livestock at
random, and also confiscate our belongings. They make people
serve as porters and guides, and go to work in their army
camp every day. All the males in the village were forced to
work as porters when they first arrived, and later we had to
provide five workers each day.
Initially this work was being done during
the hot season when we had little work of our own to do, so
although the burden was heavy, we could bear it. But later,
when we had to attend to our farm work, clearing the hill
plantations and so on, it was a more difficult situation.
They also confiscated the paddy
that the villagers keep for home consumption, so villagers
are left starving. Many of the villagers in the area are no
longer able to spend any time working for their own
livelihoods as they have to give all of their energy to
support the Burma army troops labor requirements. The types
of work commonly required include building barracks at their
camps, carrying arms and ammunition, serving as guides, doing
sentry work and sending messages.
Eight households left our village and we
met up with four from Win Lone village, so in total over 60
people ended up coming. We took six days to prepare for the
journey to Thailand. We brought a week’s food supply:
just salt, chilies and rice. No medicines for people who
became ill. But on the 18th, we encountered a
group of Burma army troops who fired at us, and we scattered.
I ran and found my way to an old woman farming a hill
plantation, and stayed there for a while. Later she guided me
to Thailand. Of the people who started the journey in my
group from our village, only fifteen made it here. I’m
not sure about all the others. I heard that some were caught
by the soldiers and taken back to Kyaw Htah and Azin. Some
others are still hiding in the jungle and some gave up and
went back to their villages.
Many of the villagers are demoralized.
Since the army onslaught, most villagers have left our place.
I think very few will still be there now. Villagers can no
longer get any earnings, and if they fail to meet
soldiers’ demands then they are beaten and abused. They
will not be able to get enough rice for the coming year. In
front-line areas, officers sell their supplies and feed off
the rice and food belonging to the villagers. I think no one
would like to stay in their villages any more. If they have
any chance to come here they’ll do so, although if they
become aware of the danger they’ll meet on the way then
they’ll surely be discouraged.
9. Flight
Saw Heh Nay, a 48 year old father of
four children, from Kya-Inn Seik Kyi Township, Karen State.
In July 1997, Battalion 230 demanded that
people in our village serve as porters. The loads were
unbearably heavy. If we could not carry them then they beat
and kicked us. We had to carry one and a half baskets of
rice each. We had to carry them for 4-7 days. If we could not
carry them then they started beating us. I myself never got
beaten, but I saw other people beaten.
They ordered seven villages relocate to Waw
Loo. If anyone refused to go, or if they saw people in any
other places, they said that they would recognize them as
their enemy and kill them all. They did not send the orders
by letter. They came into the village, called a village
meeting and spoke directly to the people. When they move the
villagers to the new site they will make fences and restrict
villagers activities.
For these reasons I came to Thailand. If we
stayed there, our lives would be ruined. We came in a group
of 50 villagers. It was a very hard journey, because we had
to find ways safe from the Burma army. It took three weeks to
arrive. Currently, we don't have any problems. But if the
Thai authorities do not allow us to stay here, we can't do
anything. We cannot go back, we dare not go back and face the
soldiers.
Source: Burma Issues video tape #17A/152
10. The army is
not easy to work with
Saw Sein Thaung, Ta La Ku Religious
and Cultural Preservation General Secretary, from Hlaing Bwe
Township, Karen State.
I am responsible for the preservation of
the Ta La Ku [a traditional animist sect] religious and
cultural norms. Being under control of the military
government is very hard. The Burma army called us to go back
from Thailand and work together with them for a better life.
It was very difficult to work together with the army. We had
to do everything they told us to do. The only burden we could
not bear was portering. The loads were enough for horses and
elephants to carry. If we could not carry them then they
kicked us and beat us severely.
We called a community meeting with other Ta
La Ku people. We agreed that we would come to Lay Taw Kho [a
Ta La Ku village in Thailand]. If we stayed in our village
then we would get more and more trouble. A lot of people
came. The Burma army asked us to go back. They said that they
won't treat us badly the way they've done before. They said
that they won't ask us to work, but we don’t trust them.
We told them that if they want us to go back, then let their
authorities come to our place and make a magical oath in
front of our religious leader that they won't oppress us any
more. They sent a message in reply that "there is no way
the Tatmadaw will obey orders from villagers."
We left all our property and rice stocks in
our village. We don't have food and we have no rice fields
here in Lay Taw Kho, so I asked people, "What are we
going to do about this situation?" We want to go to a
place where we can get rice, but when we think about our
religion, we cannot go because the way we eat and the way we
live is different from other people. If we go there, we will
lose our religion. So we will have to stay here and die with
our religion.
Source: Burma Issues video tape #17A/152
11. Building roads, going hungry
Kyaw Me, a 40 year old man from
Hlaing Bwe Township, Karen State.
Our village has about 150 households. About
50 households have their own paddy fields. The others work swidden crops and seek
daily wages. Sundry workers earn about 75 kyat per
day, or are often paid one pyi of rice. There are monthly
taxes on every household, such as 100 kyat porter fees and 50
kyat messenger fees. The administration collects a paddy
quota and pays only 250 kyat per basket.
From 1996 to the present, about 60
households have not had enough to eat. These are mostly
sundry workers. They have to beg for grain from others. They
have to give too many taxes now, and the expenses of farming
are also going up. Especially now, the only thing that
matters is to work for the military, constructing roads and
camps. On 1 April 1997, a Division 99 officer ordered us to
construct a road from our village to Hlaing Bwe. Each
household must go three days at a time, and take their own
food. The work is from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. The officer also
demanded 200 kyat from every house for the purchase of sand
and gravel. People who don't go to work on the road must give
500 kyat to the military per household for three days. For
these reasons, in the future there will be serious food
shortages.
12. The cost of living
Nyein Chan, a fisherman with six
children from Hlaing Bwe Township, Karen State, speaking in
1997.
In 1996-97, we have had to work on road
constructions. The length of road that each village must
construct varies with the village size. We have to take our
own food and materials. Soldiers come and eat our food, so we
feed both ourselves and them. In order to feed them we have
to collect money from people. They said they would provide
half the food during construction, but each village received
only one sack of rice. That's about one cup of rice per person.
Due to high taxes, youths have to work in
Thailand. In some houses only old women and girls are left,
but they have to go and work on the roads anyway. In some
houses, there is only one old mother and one child left. If
the mother cannot go, the child must go.
For the sake of economic progress, the
military government says that people will have to buy water
pumps and grow rice during the dry season. But this won't
happen. If farmers are to grow during the dry season they'll
have to buy fertilizer, which costs at least 1800 kyat per
sack. Petroleum is 130 kyat per gallon. If costs are so high,
farmers won't be able to do this work. But if they don't do
as instructed then they can no longer work as farmers.
Most villagers in my area earn their
livelihoods fishing. We have to give tax to the village
council. We pay taxes, but then the soldiers demand fish
every day. We get a reasonable amount of fish and an income
from this work, but that income is no longer equivalent to
the cost of living. Food is expensive, we have to give taxes,
and in our village there is a People's Militia unit whom we
have to feed and pay wages. These are not just the conditions
in Karen State. When I went to Mawlamyine
[Mon State] I saw soldiers arresting people to serve as
porters. For 15,000 kyat you could go free. In Burma, if you
have money then you can do a lot.
13. We wandered
from place to place
Naw Ble, a 40 year old mother of nine
and swidden farmer from Taninthayi Township, Tenasserim Division.
Our village has 30-40 families. In February
1997 the Burma army troops entered a nearby village, so we
all ran away in fear. We wandered from place to place, and
learned that troops were passing through our village
regularly. We also learned that the animals had all been
eaten. Some of the coconut and betel nut palms had been
chopped down by soldiers.
After wandering in the jungle for more than
one and a half months, we felt there were no more places to
go. Some people suggested going back would be better than
being caught in the jungle. So one day when there were no
soldiers in the village, we re-entered.
We saw all our possessions scattered, and
no cock crowed, no dog barked, no cat cried and no cattle
wandered about the place. Everything was quiet. The next day,
troops started to dig trenches by our houses. They did not
harm us, but would climb our trees and take fruit. They
ordered us not to leave the village without permission. To go
out cost 15 kyat per day, and we had to be back before dark.
They ordered us to bring our paddy from where we hid it, or they would find and
destroy it. Some brought the rice and it was confiscated. The
soldiers ate it. At the same time, soldiers went
house-to-house selling ration rice for 50 kyat a pyi. We pay
to work our own plantations, we serve them without wages, our
paddy is looted then we buy back rice to survive. Our fruit
and crops are taken, our animals and plants are taken, we are
unable to escape. They told us troops in the hills have
orders to kill anything they see. We are haunted by this.
Source: KNU Mergui-Tavoy Information Office, Situation Report on
Internally Displaced People inside Mergui/Tavoy Distict
Areas, 22 August 1997
14. No living things
Saw Ke Hko, a 30 year old male farmer
from Taninthayi Township, Tenasserim Division.
My village has 50 houses. In February 1997,
LIB 433
entered the village and we all fled. Later some of the
villagers went to Kaw Maw Pro to try to buy salt and other
goods, and two were detained by soldiers. The soldiers tried
to persuade the two to organize other villagers to return to
our village. They promised to build a school, clinic and
other development projects.
The two returned and told us what the
soldiers said. We dared not believe them, we were frightened.
However, the pastor went to see the situation. He came back
and told us the army would not harm us if we returned, but if
we continued to hide outside the village, they would not
guarantee our safety. So we returned and saw everything
broken and scattered. The houses contained no living things
and the trees were bare of any fruit. The skin and bones of
our animals were spread everywhere and the place was swarming
with flies. We started to repair our houses. LIB 433 returned
the next day, they built trenches by the houses. No one was
allowed to go outside the village. Those wanting to go to
their plantations had to pay 15 kyat per
person per day. No one was allowed to stay outside overnight.
Everyone had to be back before dark.
Every two days, two people had to go to the
commander in the village, provide a boat each and serve as
guides on the river. I was ordered to be a permanent guide. I
had no time to help my family. We also had to make a
front-line hospital, a rice store and an office for them.
We sneaked out at night along with nine
other families. We had only been back in the village for
three weeks. We could carry only a little rice with us, but
after two days we met some KNU soldiers who offered us some more.
I feel bitter about the troops staying in
our village, looting our rice and eating it, then selling us
their rations. We have very little money to buy rice. Think
about it! How long can we survive without any time to earn
money?
Source: KNU Mergui-Tavoy Information Office, Situation Report on
Internally Displaced People inside Mergui/Tavoy Distict
Areas, 22 August 1997
15. Shouldering the load
Aung Win Thein, a 35 year old
fisherman with four children from Thayet Chaung Township, Tenasserim Division.
In my village, Burma army troops demand
porter fees one, two or three times a month. It is not the
same each month. As time goes by, villagers cannot afford to
pay, so they have to go instead. They demand 2-3 villagers
per time, because my village is small. If they do not get
porters through the village authorities, they come and
capture villagers themselves.
I do not remember the date I started
serving as a porter. I think I had been serving for one month
and three days when I fled from porter duty in July 1998.
After LIBs 373
and 380 demanded porters from our village, we had to draw
lots, and I ended up on the list. Last year I already had to
serve as a porter once. On that trip, when we arrived at Aing
Win village I sneaked away.
This time, I was sent to Thayet Chaung
police station and had to spend one night there. In the
morning, we were sent to IB 25 in Dawei. We had to wait there for 3 days. There were 70-80
porters there, from several villages. We had to buy food. The
military did not feed us. From there, we were sent to Myitta
village, east of Dawei, and spent one night there.
In the morning we had to follow LIBs 373
and 380 in separate columns. We had to carry one basket of rice each. I was in the first column of 45
porters. We traveled down the Tenasserim River. After five
days, we arrived in Htee Hta, where the army had set up a big
camp. On the way, we had very little time to rest, just once
every 2-3 hours of walking. Those who could not bear their
burdens were beaten and kicked. I was kicked or hit not less
than 50 times. My burden was really heavy, so that whenever
we had to walk up slopes it became difficult to step forward.
At those moments, I was hit by the soldiers. On the way, I
saw three porters’ corpses. One of them died simply
while drinking water, because he was too weak and tired.
Another four porters were left in the jungle, as they could
not walk any further. At night, we had to make fences with
bamboo cut from the forest and sleep inside the fence. The
soldiers slept around us.
I also saw some soldiers who were really
tired. I saw one soldier who loaded his gun to commit
suicide, but others grabbed his rifle, and then he was tied
up and beaten. I also saw some stronger soldiers hit and
kicked the weaker soldiers when they were unable to walk. I
heard them whisper to each other that some soldiers were
fleeing along the way.
After we arrived in Htee Hta village, we
were not released. They ordered us to dismantle the roofing
on deserted houses and build new shelters. They fed us two cups of rice a day, with
salt, and sometimes banana palm shoots. The soldiers had
enough rice, curry and canned food. We porters slept in a
shelter we built ourselves. The roof was made of old iron
sheets. When it rained, the roof did not cover us, so we
slept soaked. There were so many sick porters among us. The
military didn’t care for the sick.
From Htee Hta, we had to carry things
downstream again. We arrived in Maw Hta, and spent one night
there. In the morning, we headed into the jungle. After two
days, I became too weak to carry my load so I requested they
reduce the weight I was carrying, but in vain. I decided to
flee whenever the opportunity allowed. One night when the
troops were on the top of a hill, me and two other porters,
Sein Min Oo and Ko Aung Soe, sneaked out. Though we didn't
know where to go, we only thought it necessary to escape. We
walked down a stream and arrived at the Tenasserim River,
where we saw two women. We requested they ferry us to the
other side of the river with their boat. After we arrived on
the other side, we walked downstream and later saw two other
villagers, who fed us. After we finished our meal, these two
villagers sent us to a KNU officer. By the time I arrived there, I could not
breathe or cough hard, because of chest pains. The KNU
soldiers gave me some medicine. We ate well and regained our
health, strength and weight. Now I want to go back to my
home, as I've left my children and wife without any money.
Source: KNU Mergui-Tavoy Information Office, Update Situation Report,
27 August 1998
16. No rest for the farmers
U Nyunt, a middle aged man from
Thayet Chaung Township, Tenasserim Division, speaking in June 1998.
I’ve come to the border to sell my
cattle. I’ve come every year for the last five years.
The reason is that I’ve had no money to grow paddy, so
every year I’ve come to sell some cattle to get money.
This time, I sold three cows for 10,000 Thai baht. If
you change that to kyat it’s about 80,000. I have six acres of fields
at my village. That land doesn’t yield too much paddy.
If you use fertilizer then one acre can yield 60-70 baskets.
If you don’t use it then it’s only 30-40. Last
year, for six acres I got a total of 350 baskets. I used 14
bags of fertilizer. One bag of fertilizer was 3000 kyat, so
for six acres it cost 42,000 kyat. I hired a plowing machine
for 3000 kyat per acre. You also have to give money to hire
people to transplant seedlings and harvest, so for my six
acres I had 80-100,000 kyat total expenses. The amount that I
got by selling my three cows now will be completely used for
this year's harvest expenses.
We give 6–8 baskets per acre paddy
quota, as our yield is low. For my six acres I give 48
baskets. Last year, we got 190 kyat per basket from the
government. At first, we had heard that they would pay real
market value, but later we only got 190 kyat. At that time,
the market price was 350-400 kyat per basket. Farmers with
more than three acres are given loans from the government at
the rate of 1000 kyat per acre. That commits us to giving
them the paddy quota. We have to take the quota paddy to a
storage facility about 10 miles from our village. For people
with carts and bullocks, it’s no problem, but for people
without, they have to rent them from others. For the trip of
10 miles, the rent is two baskets of paddy.
Traditionally, in the monsoon we worked
paddy, and in the summer worked vegetable gardens. From 1992
to the present, the agricultural corporation officials
introduced a program to increase paddy yields. You have to
crop exactly according to their method. For 6 years we have
done like this. Our village has low quality soil, so unlike
some other places we don’t get too much paddy. The
villagers lose all of their money because after working the
monsoon crop we have to do the summer crop. The summer crop
is a total loss for farmers, but if you don’t do it, the
government will take away your land. So, we lose our money,
but anyway, we grow it. To grow the summer crop, each year
the stream must be dammed and an irrigation system built. The
construction of this must be done by the villagers as
"people’s contributions." We do this work for
a month at the start of every summer, so the farmers get no
rest.
Our village has more than 400 houses.
There’s an army post. Ten soldiers from IB 404 stay there. Every
house must give 500 kyat per month as porter fees to the
village council. Also, four porters are called and rotated
monthly. Villagers who don’t want to go must hire other
people to go, and for one month that’s 60,000 kyat.
Every day, two other people have to stay as
"standby" porters for the soldiers in the village.
To hire another person for this duty is 300 kyat per day. If
you kill a pig or cow to sell, you must give 10% as
"flesh tax" to the soldiers. Sometimes they kill
people’s chickens or ducks in front of the villagers,
but nobody dares to say anything back to them.
17. Everything left behind
Kyan Pyu, a 52 year old father of six
of Palaw Township, Tenasserim Division, speaking in the jungle in May 1998.
Forced labor has been demanded by the
soldiers since they established a base close to our village
in 1989. I was forced to labor several times. The common
laboring duties are building outposts, sharpening spikes,
sentry duties, digging trenches and carrying building
materials. Those refusing orders were given a penalty of 3-4
days digging trenches at the army base.
The Burma army troops ordered our village
relocate to Palawgon twice. Initially in 1996, while
the villagers were harvesting, and the second time, also in
the harvesting period of 1998. I heard that people at the
Palawgon relocation site could not work for themselves.
Besides paying for basic foods, they also had to buy fuel and
even drinking water. Fearing military persecution, my family
and I did not move to the relocation site. We and some others
fled to the jungle about two hours by foot from our village.
Nine families left with us. Many of the villagers fled,
scattering across upper streams.
We live in fear of the Burma army. They
searched for our hiding places four times this year. If they
find us, they will shoot or capture us. They caught one of my
daughters. I heard that she was imprisoned and is alive. The
fourth time, the soldiers killed six villagers in our area.
This year we have changed our hiding place all four times.
Each time one of us is caught, we have to change our hideout
for fear that the one arrested will become a guide for the
soldiers. Each time the soldiers find people, they use them
as guides to find other hiding places.
I have left nearly all of my property. I
left my plantation, my house, all of my livestock. My betel
plantation yielded 100,000 kyat of produce each year. But I had to leave it all. I
learned that my house has been burned down by the military.
The house was worth about 150,000 kyat. I could carry
nothing. I left everything behind. Before, I could make ends
meet, but now I am without income.
Here in the hideout, my greatest fear is of
the soldiers. I am always worrying they might come. Other
problems we face are sickness and the difficulty of finding
medicine. The second greatest problem is food. Salt and fish
paste are rare commodities. We need money to buy food, but
now we do not have incomes as we did in our villages. Also,
we can only buy these goods at villages controlled by the
army. We dare not travel to buy goods at these villages. They
are quite far and we fear the soldiers will capture us. Rice
is a problem only if the soldiers find and destroy it.
18.
Anti-insurgency and food scarcity
Saw Eh Doh War, a 27 year old farmer
from Kyauktaga Township, Pegu Division, speaking in June 1997.
My village is in a front-line area.
Innocent villagers have often been killed in battles. In
1994, the Burma army forcibly relocated a lot of villages to
Taw Katah military camp on the Shwe Kabin-Kyauk Kyi road.
Their strategy is to deny the KNU shelter and food
supplies. The actual result is that the people have had to
face food scarcity. To go back to their farmlands, people
have to get permission from the army authorities. Usually
approval is granted for between one and seven people from a
village to return for up to seven days. It is generally a
couple of hours traveling time from the relocation sites back
to the old village areas. But tilling of land relies on
weather conditions, and so this also makes problems. Often
the time period given by the authorities for the farmers to
do their work is simply not long enough or the conditions are
not suitable at the time for the villagers to do their farm
work, so there has been a sharp decrease in the production of
paddy.
The villagers are also conscripted as
porters. Three to five young male villagers have to be on
stand-by in each camp at all times. The purpose is also to
have the able-bodied young men under their watch, so their
contacts with the KNU will be severed. The parents of those
men have to send them meals daily. Villages which have not
yet been relocated have to pay various taxes, such as porter
and sentry fees, and special taxes twice per month of 100-200
kyat per
time. All the people's earnings are going to the military
government. This is also a part of their strategy- the
villagers must use all their grain stocks simply in order to
survive.
Paddy stocks from Sa Pyin Gyi, Hta Htu, Paw
Thayay, Teik Pauk, Oh Myay Do, Patala, Kywe Gyo Inn, Noh Po
and Kya Inn villages are being stock-piled at Hta Htu and
Kywe Talin military camps. The soldiers ration the paddy back
to the villagers. Villagers have to go and present
passes to withdraw their food quotas. During the rainy
season, floods made it difficult for people to go and draw
rations, so people were going hungry. The soldiers
also sell the paddy to traders instead of redistributing it
to the villagers.
19. The social
costs of government policy
A 25 year old farmer from Kyauktaga
Township, Pegu Division, speaking in June 1997.
Half of the people in our village are
farmers. It is the traditional occupation. Under the current
government, some are turning their backs on farming and
looking for other ways to earn their livings.
Taxes and quotas on farm produce have been
rapidly increased under this government. As a family of
eleven people, we need 400 baskets of
paddy for
our annual consumption. Our farm of 10 acres yields about 60
baskets of paddy per acre. But after the quota and taxes and
other costs, we don’t have enough. So we have had to
plant summer crops, such as peanuts and beans, to make up for
the loss. Besides that, when the sale of paddy was 50 kyat for one basket on the open market, the government
gave only 15. When it was 100 kyat per basket, they gave only
40. There have been such rapid rates of inflation on basic
goods like rice and beans, but not wages. Consequently, a
range of social problems have arisen out of increasing
poverty, such as theft of rice and other possessions. The
government ignores these problems stemming from its policies.
The majority of villagers are trying to
till lands handed down through their families over
generations, and they are clinging to them by selling cattle
and parts of the land to meet costs. They are desperate to
prevent their lands from being confiscated by the government.
Farmers have no skills they can apply to trades other than
their own.
The government lacks the know-how,
machinery and support to build the agricultural base. Large
areas of land have been destroyed by flooding, but in spite
of lost agricultural output, the government doesn’t
lessen the quotas they demand be sold to them.
20. Taxation,
relocation, starvation
Saw War a 28 year old man from Kyauk
Kyi Township, Pegu Division, speaking in May 1997.
I know some people in my area are now
forced to eat rice porridge, and some have sought help from
friends. I know this because I work together with one of the
elders of my village who was feeding people coming to seek
his help. These things go on all the time, but especially
when military operations occur during the hot season. Most of
the people who are starving are daily-wage earners, who get
around 80 kyat per
day, and tenant farmers. I know that starvation is occurring
as a result of all varieties of taxation, forced labor,
forced relocation and military operations.
In our area we produce one annual crop.
With fertilizer we can get a good crop of about 80 baskets
per acre. Land tenants then have to repay around 25 baskets
per acre to the land owner, and hire a pair of cattle at 50
baskets per bull, to plow the fields. The government
quota is 15 baskets per acre. That leaves a farmer working
five or six acres with less than half of the crop to sell.
People are called to serve five-day and
seven-day rotations as porters, and the soldiers also
arbitrarily detain people to work for them. These are not the
same as "voluntary" labor which is mostly on roads
and other constructions. Long term labor is the worst.
It's not for one day, one week or one month- you just
disappear and that's that. You don't get told anything about
what’s planned for you. To get exempted you have to pay
from 100 kyat for a day to 5000 kyat for long-term duties.
One house usually is called upon for labor three or four
times per year. To exempt a village from relocation costs
30,000 kyat. Some villages have been ordered to move
twice in one year.
21. A farmer’s lot
A 53 year old father of five in
Thayawaddy Township, Pegu Division, speaking in June 1997.
The price of paddy is
currently on the rise. One hundred baskets wholesale for 32,500 kyat. The government quota is 12 baskets per acre. They
give 160 kyat per basket. But when the paddy is
weighed by government agents we have to add five to ten
baskets for every one hundred baskets delivered- we always
take along surplus. We give one hundred, but they always find
ways to cut it back. They always do things like that
to us. They claim there is trash among the paddy. They make
deductions called "donations." They draw up
registers and promise to provide one bag of discounted
fertilizer per acre of farmland, but give nothing.
Our farms can yield up to 70 baskets of
paddy per acre. My 17 acres can yield nearly 1000 baskets.
But after we've given our quota and deducted planting and
harvesting expenses we are left with an amount barely
sufficient to cover our basic food expenses. In the past we
didn't use much fertilizer, so our production level was less-
only up to 50 baskets per acre. At that time, though,
the cost of living was lower, so we could get by. But by
1985-86, under the previous socialist regime, the situation
was deteriorating. We couldn't sell any of our paddy on the
open market at that time- it all went to the government. The
farmers could hardly keep enough of their crop for household
consumption. In the present conditions we are free to sell
part of our crop on the open market, but the expenses
involved in planting, harvesting, labor and so on are
escalating right out of proportion. Food and commodities
prices are also on the rise. So you can see that the
farmer’s lot is still unenviable. It has only become
worse and worse.
22. A landless worker
Chit Tin, a 25 year old father from
Bilin Township, Mon State, speaking in July 1997.
My parents are wage earners, as our family
has no land of our own. Starting from when I was 16 until 24,
I too worked on a farm. Now I have left. Working as a farm
laborer I received 10 baskets of polished grain for a season's work-
farmers hired me to help them plant and maintain crops. I
had to feed seven people. Our daily consumption was 1 pyi of
rice, small quantities of fish paste; chilies; Ajinomoto
and vegetables foraged for in the forest. If my younger
brothers did not attend school, they could also catch some
fish. My parents are aged, so it is difficult for them to
work, apart from foraging for vegetables. My two younger
brothers we were trying to keep in school, but now they have
to support our parents. Sometimes we had absolutely no more
rice left and then we had to go and seek some from other
villagers, such as farmers whom I worked for. At these times,
my father would also work. We would borrow enough rice to
keep us going for one or two months. But sometimes after
working to get rice, I had to give it back to people whom I
had borrowed it from and so then we no longer had enough left
to eat ourselves, and had to borrow it again. Generally, we
had to beg for rice like this at least once a year, usually
not long before the new harvest was in.
Our family didn't want to come to this
refugee camp. But because land holders have become totally
discouraged they don’t want to do the work anymore. In
our area land is not yet organized by title- people simply
clear land for use. What prevented me from doing that was the
need for capital items, such as tools and cattle to plow the
land, and a stock of seeds to sow. None of these do we poor
people have available to us, nor is there any way for us to
get such items without too much expense. It is easier to work
on someone else's land.
In 1990, the Burma army arrived in our
region. Other villagers fled, but I was not aware of the
arrival, as I was off working. They captured me and forced me
to work as a porter for more than 2 months, carting
ammunitions up the one hill three or four times per day. They
fed me only once per day. It wasn't long after I was released
that they began relocating villages on three-day notices.
They started relocations again in 1996, to
an army camp. They try to control the population by keeping
them close by. In recent times there have been three
relocations, around March-April of each year. To leave the
relocation site, such as to go work in the fields, you have
to get a pass from the village chairman, and return
the same day- the hours of the pass are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Outside these times, the soldiers threaten to shoot anybody
they see on sight. Most farmers' properties are at least two
hours walk from the relocation site, and so they have a
maximum of 6 hours work time available per day. There is no
longer any benefit in doing work. So the land holders are no
longer working their fields and this also created a
big problem for me. Although I might have been able to find
some other work, it is very difficult to earn a living now,
and we live in constant fear of the military. We had
no choice left but to come to this refugee camp.
Between February and May, the roads are
open to vehicles, and so the military sends enough supplies
to last for the rainy season, when conditions aren't good for
transporting large quantities of food. First, the soldiers
resell the supplies they get. This happens in two ways.
Individual soldiers sell their personal supplies to
supplement their incomes. In particular, they sell beans and
condensed milk. But sometimes they also sell their rice,
particularly if it is poor quality. The other thing that
happens is that the battalion commanding officer sells bulk
provisions for personal profit, especially the stocks of
rice. Most rice is sold by the commander, not the soldiers
themselves. Generally, the village head acts as a broker.
Most buyers are traders from other places. The traders bring
in basic commodities for sale, like salt, fish paste, chilies
and Ajinomoto,
and if they are making a profit then they purchase the
soldiers' provisions. The effect of all this, however, is
that by the time the rains have set in and the roads are no
longer open, the soldiers don’t have sufficient
provisions left for themselves, and they demand rice from
villagers. They demand rice weekly for the duration of the
rainy season and quantities vary from one can to one pyi per
house, depending upon the needs of the soldiers and the size
of the household. Come the next dry season, and it starts all
over again. Although quite a number of units have been
rotated through this garrison, it seems customary for each to
behave in this manner.
23. Forced relocation
A 26 year old female teacher from
Bilin Township, Mon State.
My village is in the plains, and there are
also hills around the area. Villagers are paddy and swidden
farmers. Typically, villages in this area had 20 to 30
houses each. My village stayed in the same place for a long
time, but starting from December 1995, after the crops had
been harvested, the Burma army soldiers gave villagers two
day notices to relocate to Kwee Lay village. People were too
afraid not to go. These relocations were part of the Four
Cuts operation. Due to this relocation program, food has
become increasingly scarce. Prior to relocations, Kwee Lay
had about 50 houses. At present it has more than 300.
After people relocated, they thought that
they would stay for a short time, and then go and stay back
in their original places, so they didn't bring all of their
possessions, but instead hid them around the place.
One villager explained to me how he had hidden possessions in
the river bank. Some soldiers went to catch fish and
saw the villagers' possessions, so they took them. This
villager lost a lot of household items.
Most of the villagers are animists or
Buddhists, and they have a lot of religious observances
regarding agriculture. For example, if fields are damaged
prior to the appropriate date when they must be prepared,
then the people will no longer use them. In 1995, four
villages were ordered to relocate to Kwee Lay, being K'wah
Htah, Lah Kyoe Khoh, Su Khi, and Ta Meh Khi. Many
people failed to relocate as they were instructed, so the
Burma army came and burned their lands. For the rest of that
year, they ceased their work and refused to grow rice. Although
they had rice left over, they had to give it to the Burma
army, KNU and DKBA.
The village was taxed by KNU for a long
time, though there were some benefits such as schools and
clinics. When the Burma army came, it also made demands, but
if fields were not destroyed, then we could pay. But with the
advent of the DKBA in 1996, food problems have grown.
Starvation has started as a result of the relocations. The
area is being watched intently by the Burma army and DKBA, so
if people want to go out of the village to their fields then
they have to get a pass and cannot stay out for a long
time. Passes are issued daily for 5 kyat each,
allowing travel from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. People cannot carry
rice out of the village or they are accused of taking it to
the KNU. One person told me that if he walked very quickly,
then he could reach his farm, strip three betel palms of
their fruit, and bring it back to Kwee Lay for sale. Most
relocated villagers have to travel two to three hours to work
their farms. As they have to travel back and forth like this
all the time, they are also unable to look after their crops
very well. The crops become damaged by diseases, insects and
weather, so there is no longer any benefit in doing the work.
The crops are also damaged by the movements of soldiers from
one place to the next. Another thing is that few of the
farmers are paddy farmers, most are swidden farmers. Swidden
crops need the land to lie fallow before being used again,
but due to relocations more and more people are being forced
into a small area, so the land is becoming crowded and the
quality of the soil is deteriorating rapidly. Also, when the
rice crop is almost due, they still have to give taxes or
food to the Burma army and DKBA soldiers in ever increasing
quantities, and so they experience hunger. At that
time of year most people are not eating regular meals of
rice, but are eating rice porridge, perhaps only once per
day, with a few bamboo shoots. Parents often go hungry to
feed their children.
In March 1997, children in Kwee Lay were
dying virtually daily, due to basic illnesses and inadequate
care. At least twenty children died in one month. A lot of
new people were coming into Kwee Lay, but had to go back to
work their original properties daily, so they had
insufficient time left to take care of their children. They
have had to work harder than ever before, and even all the
youth are also working. The youngest are left behind, by
themselves, in unsanitary conditions. Many get measles and
dysentery. Their diseases are treatable, but there are no
medicines, and many end up dying.
Due to soldiers’ activities or
difficulties in getting to their farms, people are no longer
working their lands. So there is no longer enough food left
to eat. Villagers are facing starvation and disease. They
can't contemplate their futures. Some who have no money and
no more rice go to those with rice and do domestic work at
their houses to get food to eat, meal by meal. The house
owners are very embarrassed and sympathetic, but the people
who come to do the work are no longer thinking of anything
except how to get a small amount of food to fill their
stomachs, which will satisfy their immediate needs.
As I see it, the village is in serious
decline. The villagers are totally discouraged, and some want
to leave their lands for good and find other work, but as
they have never left their area or done any other kind of
work, they can't think of where they would go or what they
would do. The food that they grow, they don't get to
eat. They have to give taxes and meet demands from three
sides. Even if they have only rice porridge to eat, they
still aren't too discouraged, but now some can't even eat
rice porridge any more- sometimes they just eat roots
and leaves. Some villagers told me, "If we could go to
Thailand easily then we would all desire to go, but we don't
want to give up our homelands here to other people."
24. The reality
of agricultural development
Myint Soe, a 34 year old laborer from
Thaton Township, Mon State.
This is a general description of my village
since 1988, but things have been worse since 1996 than any
time before. The village has only about 18 real landowners,
and the rest are hired workers. The biggest farm is 50 acres.
I worked on a 13 acre holding, which yielded 60-70 baskets of
rice per acre, as long as we used fertilizer.
High taxes and hunger forced some farmers
to sell their land. They have to pay the annual quota, which
the government buys at 150 kyat
per basket. The administration had us build a big dam, and to
support this work farm owners paid one more basket per
acre annually to the township council. The dam
construction began in 1992 and took two years. The water is
for the dry season crop. The dam needs maintenance, and if
you don’t go you are fined 100 kyat per day.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation
sells two kinds of fertilizer which farmers can buy on credit
at 3,200 kyat per acre. But our township council prefers
selling to merchants, leaving farmers with only 4 bags for 10
acres. But when the debts are due, farm owners have to pay
the full value, as if they had actually received 2 bags per
acre. We heard that the government sent irrigation
pumps, but after the township council received them all the
pumps disappeared.
Villagers build roads without pay. If you
don't go, the soldiers make you a porter to the frontline. IB
33 Commander Aung Ye Min established a rubber plantation on
500 acres near the village. The army made people plant trees
then fence in the plantation. Cattle used to graze there, and
now if they stray back the soldiers shoot and eat them.
Taxes and oppression are starving the
village. There’s no time to work, only to pay taxes and
do forced labor; many villagers have little food. Some must
eat porridge, some only water skimmed off boiled rice, and
others only sweet potatoes. To feed the children some
adults go without food for one or two days at a time. Even
so, children increasingly suffer diarrhea, sore stomachs, and
death.
I have 5 children. My oldest daughter, who
is eleven, always went to do forced labor while we parents
looked for food. You see children 8 or 9 years old working.
Sometimes we only had enough rice for porridge. I worked all
day, then went home only to hear my children cry from hunger.
My tears fell, too. I could not suffer the poverty of my
village. I came to Thailand to work and send money home, so
that they can eat.
25. Separation for survival
Ma Khin, a 30 year old
mother from Thaton Township, Mon State, speaking in May 1997.
Previously my family had seven
and a half acres of our own land, however, we had to give a
quota of 14 baskets
paddy grain per acre annually. Our land yielded only about
300 baskets per year. We were forced to sell the land to a wealthy person for
only 30,000 kyat. We used this money across six years,
while doing labor on other farms, but now it’s
all gone. Now, one acre of land in my village can fetch more
than 20,000 kyat.
Of my five children, three have
had to leave home and work elsewhere. The oldest is 17. My
husband got work as a subsistence wage laborer, digging earth
to the west of Mayankun. He could earn 50-150 kyat per day,
depending on the amount dug, but it was still not enough to
support our family. Also, the army is constructing a cement
road between Mayankun and Kyeh Kaung villages, and are
demanding laborers or a fee of 100 kyat per person per day.
As a result of these problems in
getting enough food for our family, we have had to separate.
The children have gone to do domestic work in other houses.
We parents came to work in Thailand. We figured that we could
get better wages than in Burma, but after we came we were
split up by agents and I was sent to a rich person who
clearly planned to sell me. I and my friend fled secretly,
and will now return to Burma.
26. Food scarcity in the delta
Kyaw Aye, a 40 year old fisherman
from Ngaputaw Township, Irrawaddy Division.
I once stayed in my wife’s village and
worked as a logger, but with increasing restrictions and
demands by various authorities, it was becoming more and more
difficult to earn a living this way. In 1994 I told my wife,
"I can’t stay here and do this work any more- if we
don’t leave, we’ll starve." I left the village
and went to stay in town with family members. It was better
to go to an urban area. Life is easier for the people there
than in rural areas. I was lucky to have family in town. If a
rural person tries to move into town without having any
connections, it is very difficult to get started.
Since I stayed in town, I became a
fisherman. During peak season I can make about 1,000 kyat per
week. During the other times of year I also repair bicycles.
The income from this activity is pretty inconsistent-
sometimes quite good, sometimes nothing. People simply
can’t support a family on one form of income- you have
to try your best to find as many different ways to get money
as possible.
In 1993 three children died a couple of
doors down from my house. All boys, they were around 10, 8
and 6. The children had always been weak and malnourished,
especially in the last couple of years. Their bellies were
distended and their ribs stuck out—like starving African
children we saw in magazines. Their knees were swollen and
their calves were sticks. Their skin was white, their lips
pale. They often had diarrhea. Their father worked
cutting grass and bamboo to build houses. They all died about
a week apart—I remember because I went to cut timber for
a week, came back and heard one had died. I went back to the
forest, came home the next week and another was gone. Just
one week later the third child died. We knew the family well.
I remember the family’s condition and how this all came
to pass.
Their father used to grow bananas,
cucumbers, and watermelons on a small plot about two miles
outside the village. After the 1988 uprising, the government
consolidated the village, so the family had to move. Wild
elephants ate all their plants, and so he turned to cutting
bamboo. He earned about eighty kyat per
day, which might have been enough, but he only got cash when
bamboo traders came, so the family sometimes went hungry.
Also, at 45 he was getting arthritis and couldn’t work
every day. His family of seven ate no more than mine of five,
and my children were younger. They begged for help
frequently. Of course, we pitied them and helped as we could.
Apart from rice, my wife gave them salt and fish paste.
When the children got diarrhea nobody
suspected anything serious. They took some Burmese medicine,
but that didn’t stop it. Intravenous drips might have
helped, but those cost 150 kyat or so, and nobody could
afford them. So they passed away. The parents knew their
children were dying, but there was no health care or
medicine. Their father could only weep, heartbroken.
I knew this was a wrong and terrible thing.
In my opinion, these children died from starvation. If they
had adequate food they wouldn’t have died. And they
weren’t the only ones, but I don’t know the
others’ details. In nearby villages there was a minor
epidemic. No matter how deep in poverty, people are never
excused from demands for labor and money. This family had no
alternative but to struggle for survival every day, and so
the children died.
The annual inflation rate on basic food
items in the last few years has been about 25%. Before 1988,
we didn’t see price increases like that. If my family
runs short of food then I simply have to work extra-hard, and
other members of my family will try to find some way of
getting a little extra income, such as buying big bunches of
vegetables, splitting them up and reselling them in one kyat
bundles. Everybody does like this.
Every year people are called up to do labor
on roads. This was another thing that seriously affected my
ability to earn an income in my wife’s village.
Previously, I had to go twice, for an entire month. Orders
came down from the township council through the village head.
In my house there was but my wife and daughters and myself,
so who else would go? The government was making these roads
to connect with an artery from Pathein to
Ngaputaw, but until now no vehicles are allowed on these
roads as they are unpaved and would be destroyed in the wet
season. If you chose not to go to labor then you could find
somebody willing and negotiate a price for them to take your
place, usually around 1000 kyat.
I didn’t have any savings to do like this. In fact, when
I went to the road works I had only about 60-70 kyat with me.
A lot of people at the construction site
got headaches and fevers. As far as I see it, it should have
been the responsibility of officials making us do the work to
provide medicines for those who got ill, but they didn’t
give a thing. We also had to take all of our own tools- we
got no support from the government for any of the work. We
constructed huts in the fields that the road was constructed
across. The farmers who lost land naturally got no
compensation. One road also cut through a cemetery, but never
mind about that! Women from a local village sold small
quantities of food daily, but people in my group didn’t
have money. We mixed rice, fish paste, salt and turmeric
together and just ate that. Of course, we were usually weak
and sickly, as we were doing hard work but eating poor food.
While I was absent, my family survived on about 900 kyat a
month. My wife collected fire wood and cut bamboo which she
resold to traders on the riverside, earning about 10 kyat per
day.
It’s a lot easier to stay in an urban
area than in a small rural village. Since I’ve stayed in
town, I’ve never had to go and work like the villagers
are called up to do. If a young or middle aged man stays in a
rural village, then any demand falls on your head, as
there’s few people. This was increasingly the case when
I stayed in my wife’s village, so I told her
"let’s move to the town." I remember that at
that time we had little food left, and my clothes were
ragged, but when you don’t have enough food you
don’t think about buying new clothes.
In my wife’s village of about 100
houses, I would say that around 90 households are living in
poverty. But poverty has different levels of severity. What
generally prevents people from improving their incomes is
that they have no money to get some capital items to do more
lucrative work. This is a big difference between people like
myself who are able to survive reasonably well and those who
are struggling to fill their stomachs every day. For example,
nearly everybody in my wife’s village had the ability to
do logging work like I was, but they needed the money to buy
a saw, which cost about 1500 kyat a few years ago, and they simply don’t have
any money. It’s not that they can’t do the work.
In my opinion there are definitely serious
food shortages among the rural poor. I would say that 60-70%
of the villagers face the threat of hunger on a daily basis.
Every day the only foods that people ever eat are rice, fish
paste and leaves. For a lot of them, to have their income
generation interrupted for even one day means that they have
no food. Some have single sets of clothes and no blankets, or
only the most threadbare ones.
In the towns there’s still a lot of
poverty, but it’s not so bad as the rural communities. I
would put the urban poor at 60-70 % of the population. In
town, the wealthy are traders, video hall owners, loan sharks
and so on. I would say that 30 to 40% of the urban population
have food problems daily. Mostly, these are farm laborers or
petty traders of vegetables and so on. A lot of them are
migrants from the rural areas trying to escape the same kinds
of problems in their home villages. Between those who are
getting by and those who are not, it’s again a matter of
having some materials or equipment on which to base your
income. For example, a porter who carries stuff off boats can
get up to 100 kyat per day, but somebody with a
bicycle-sidecar can get 200-300 kyat per day.
Poverty has certainly been on a steady
increase, it has never dropped. Since 1988, prices have risen
to four to eight times what they were back then, which is
especially shocking to our people who were previously used to
stable prices. Just once around 1984-85 there was a really
big increase in the cost of rice. It was prior to the new
crop. Overnight the price jumped from 40 to 800 kyat for one basket and
stayed like that for a couple of months until the new crop
was in, when it fell back to 70-80 kyat. For two or three
months people were eating only one meal of rice porridge with
some leaves per day. I’m not sure exactly why it
happened, but I heard that the BSPP
government had been taking very high quotas and this led to
shortages. I don’t know really what they were doing with
all that rice and how they worked things out.
Poverty increases problems among people,
especially in towns. In villages, people are still tight-knit
and try to face their difficulties without undermining each
other, but in towns that’s not so. People bring
everything into their houses before nightfall, so that it
won’t be stolen. Chickens are often thieved. I lost a
whole melon vine one time- somebody just came and ripped the
whole lot up from along side the house during the night.
Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to bring plants in!
People lose their lives working for the
army without receiving a salary and then their families get
no compensation. Health is bad, but there are no decent
clinics, so people die who shouldn't have to. School children
lack materials and struggle amid poverty. As we are all
suffering from the military government's oppression we must
join hands to overthrow them. It is clear that the people
have the right to take this course of action.
The following is additional material
received from this source as of December 1998. It highlights
the worsening food-crisis in the Irrawaddy Division.
Since last year, the cost of almost all
foodstuffs and basic goods in the delta have doubled. In
August 1998, I met with a corporal from IB 93. I didn't ask him
anything, but of his own accord he complained about the
rations received by his battalion. They are still receiving 6
pyi of rice per month, but all of the surplus items- oil,
salt, sugar, condensed milk, beans, fish paste- are being
rationed at only half of the previous level.
To get extra money, soldiers in the delta
go out on "conscription" drives. They go to the
village/ward council officers, inform them they want to
conscript one or two people, and tell them how much it will
cost to opt out. They don't make the cash amount too high,
and right now nobody wants to become a soldier, as their
conditions aren't as good as before, so the soldiers know
that people will pay the money. The money is split between
the soldier collecting it and his superiors.
Fishing is not as good as before, as there
is little water in tributaries. This in spite of good rains
in 1997-98. There is heavy deforestation in the delta, and
also intensive irrigation. Wells are increasingly empty too.
In the past, people were happy to let neighbors share water
from wells, but in this last year, families were reserving
their wells for their own use only, and even then some don't
have enough.
In June-July 1998, there was a lot of rain
and many children died from dengue fever. Adults also
suffered the disease, but didn't die. Every day children came
into the town hospital and two to three per day were dying
for a period of some weeks. In one case on July 26, a father
paid 2000 kyat for a
boat to bring his child to the hospital, and then the doctor
told him it was too late, and refused to treat the child. The
father told him, "Whether too late or not, give the
medicine!" and was ready to pay for it. But the doctor
refused, and shortly after the child died. The father in a
fury swore and abused the doctor and hospital staff. For
those children who survived, it took 2-3 weeks in hospital to
recover, which cost parents more than 20,000 kyat. At the
hospital, absolutely everything must be purchased and paid
for.
Now, a large number of children are forced
to drop out of school after Standard 2 or 3. A member of my
family works at a school where most of the children attending
are particularly poor. At that school, the children who
attend often come with no food for the day, no shoes, etc.
The school materials are also all insufficient.
In July 1998, I met with a schoolteacher.
The teacher was pushing a bicycle loaded with dried goods,
basic household items, etc. He explained to me that he and
his sister are both primary school teachers, and must take
the main responsibility to support their family of 6. The
1200 kyat salary is not enough, but also they are not given
permission to resign their positions and find other work.
Therefore, to survive he goes to buy small goods in town and
resells them in his village, a couple of times per week. It
takes about one and a half hours traveling time on the
bicycle each time. Most teachers must find extra sources of
income like this to survive. While teachers, like other civil
servants, continue to receive 6 pyi of discounted rice at
about 30 kyat per pyi each month, it is generally poor
quality, and sometimes rotten. Some resell it, some re-polish
it.
In my opinion, the main issue in the last
year has been the price of food- it's doubled, but wages are
unchanged. As a result of this, regular people are slowly
understanding more about how this government is no good for
them. They see that the authorities are only working for
themselves and the country. People have stronger political
ideas than before, mainly rooted in the economic difficulties
of the present. More and more people consciously recognize
that they are poor due to the bad government. There is more
cautious resistance than before, both out of the need to
survive and out of resentment to the administration. For
example, 5-6 years ago, farmers absolutely had to give the
paddy quota that was set, whatever the case. Nowadays, they
try to find ways not to give full amounts, and the government
is more cautious. Traders recognize that taxes are high and
there are a lot of problems for them under the regime. They
think that if there was "democracy" then economic
conditions would improve. In fact, most people equate
democracy with better economic circumstances.
27. A teacher’s lament
A 35 year old woman from Pyapon
Township, Irrawaddy Division, speaking in June 1997.
Due to the high cost of living, government
wages are not sufficient to make ends meet. I receive a
salary of only 900 kyat per month. At present, we have a monthly deduction
of 500 kyat for the loans given last year. We then use 280
kyat to buy 14 pyi of rice and by the time all other
deductions for teachers welfare funds and the like are made
there's only about 80 kyat left. In residential areas there
are further collections for construction of roads, receptions
for officers and other compulsory donations that all add to
the burden of poor workers. Those contributions amount to at
least another 50 to 100 kyat per month. On top of all these,
there are weekly work teams organized to clean the ward. If
we can't send someone to join the team it's 30 kyat per
household. Road repair work is required twice per year. We
have to take our own food and tools. That work lasts for
three days to one week each time. If we cannot attend then we
have to find a substitute or pay a fine directly. The fine is
up to 1000 kyat. When we tell them that we are government
employees, the authorities turn a deaf ear to our complaints.
We all have to do the same work.
Eight years ago, we got 450 kyat a month.
At that time we used about 100 kyat for our 14 pyi of
discounted rice. Although we had to make a contribution to
the welfare fund, we still had about 300 kyat left. Five
members of a household could basically live on 8 kyat per
day, for oil, salt, chilies, onions and a few vegetables. At
that time a viss of onions was only about 8 kyat, and pork 25-30
kyat. Now a viss of pork is 220-250 kyat. The costs of
foodstuffs have risen 9-10 times since then. Our pay has only
doubled. Given our current incomes, workers are doomed to
starve, or work up debts. To survive I give private tuition
to 15 students at my home, for one hour each morning and
again each evening. I charge 50 kyat per month, per student.
That's enough to cover basic expenses for oil, salt and so
on.
Food and commodity prices are rising daily.
I have thought about leaving my teaching position, as I feel
very frustrated. On second thoughts, I realize that I would
have no money. If I resign my job, I would also have to
explain why I want to leave. It is a very complicated process
and I would be subjected to suspicion and interrogation. My
husband was previously also a government employee. Now he has
a job as a watchman at a commercial firm. We are lucky that
he has been able to send some money to us, otherwise we would
be in deep trouble.
Some public servants cannot afford to keep
their children in school. Once they are old enough, they have
to join their parents in working for the household. When we
think about our education, we realize that even university
graduates have a hope of only becoming government employees,
which would not do anything to improve one's life. To make
money is the overwhelming solution to our problems.
28. The summer paddy program
Kyaw Win, a 30 year old male farmer
from Pyapon Township, Irrawaddy Division, speaking in June 1997.
I farm six acres, and give a quota of 11 baskets paddy per
acre. I would like to try the summer crop, but I am unable to
irrigate. Farmers close to the roads are required to
cultivate summer paddy without fail. In some areas,
once the directive was given to start the summer cultivation,
farmers were forced to harvest unripe monsoon paddy crops.
Some who had planted soya beans after the first crop had to
destroy or uproot the plants to start the summer paddy on
orders from the township council. Then, due to poor
irrigation, crops failed and many farmers had to face severe
losses and bankruptcy.
The lower level administrators, seeking
only to satisfy their superiors, demanded that villagers
cultivate summer paddy along the whole length of both sides
of roads. I’m lucky, because my farm is quite a distance
from any road. I made a cover-up by cultivating a small plot
of land in accordance with their demands. I sowed the seeds
for the administrators to see, and the paddy sprouted. The
local officials who came were taken in. Later, due to the
lack of water supply, the plants shriveled and died.
A lot of farmers have to play along to make
things easier for themselves. They pretend obedience. If
there is a plot of land available for summer cultivation and
there are people who want to use it, then it must be given
up. A lot of people only contributed half of their quotas on
monsoon paddy. I too have contributed only half. We
have been pressed many times by council officials to complete
our contributions. We tell them that we will supplement what
we've given and after they go away at least we're left in
peace for a while. In the last couple of years, there
were arrests and detentions. People had to sell their cattle
to pay fines and get relatives released. This year there
haven't been any arrests. However, owners of land who
failed to meet their quotas for last year are being required
to pay a 1000 kyat fine per acre before they begin
re-cultivating their fields.
As the government didn't get full quotas,
the rice mills have been closed down to prevent
farmers from secretly milling withheld grain. Those
who are determined to mill their paddy have to bribe police
between 100 and 200 kyat. The police get their cut and the
farmers get their paddy nicely milled. The policemen too have
insufficient incomes upon which to live. But when the
district or township council officials approach then the
mills have to stop functioning. The authorities know what is
going on. They have their own corrupt practices and they know
all too well about this sort of behavior. This kind of
corruption is nothing new. But it's obvious that there's no
progress for farmers. We have to tell lies in order to use
our own possessions and property. That's the way of life
these days.
29. An outspoken elder
In January 1997 a meeting was called
in Pyapon Township, Irrawaddy Division, to receive instructions from the
Agriculture Minister, Lt-Gen Myint Aung. A farmer who attended the meeting
gave this account of proceedings:
The government has been giving instructions
for the cultivation of summer paddy
crops, and have placed district, township and village council
officials in charge of implementation. These officials seek
only to keep their superiors pleased, by ordering farmers to
grow summer crops without fail. As a consequence,
farmers who do not have adequate facilities or money for this
cultivation have had to face tremendous difficulties. As the
farmers are living under a military dictatorship they do not
dare to present the unpleasant reality to officials.
On 10 January 1997, the Agriculture
Minister was to meet farmers at Ohn Bihn village, Pyapon
Township. The township council issued orders that one person
from every farming household in the township must attend
without fail. The meeting commenced with a speech by the
Agriculture Minister, after which members of the audience
were invited to submit their views. Two people deliberately
selected by local authorities stood up and presented positive
views on the summer crop. They didn't present any negative
issues. After these two speeches, the minister again called
for comments or questions. At that time, a 60 year old farmer
took the unprecedented step of standing up and risking arrest
in order to outline reality. He spoke as follows:
"Although the summer cultivation
scheme will have benefits, it cannot be so in every place and
every circumstance. There are three elevations to take into
account- high, middle and low lands. This paddy planted on
low lands with good access to water sources will succeed, but
on middle level lands there will be a lot of difficulties in
irrigating, and in spite of high investments by farmers the
land will not hold water for long, so ultimately the expense
will outweigh the value of the yield. As for the high-level
farmlands, summer paddy cultivation will simply not work.
Also, most farmers are in poverty, and cannot meet the cost
of labor for the scheme. On top of these miseries, the local
officials are putting a lot of pressure on us to produce the
summer paddy, in spite of how inappropriate it is. Farmers
have to bear impossible burdens."
At that point the members of the audience
started cheering and clapping, whistling, jumping up and down
and making somersaults. Then other farmers were encouraged to
speak one by one about their problems and make known the real
difficulties they have had to endure. There was constant
applause and clamor, the sound of which spread throughout the
neighborhood.
After hearing the complaints of the
farmers, the general said that he himself had been traveling
all over many townships and had repeatedly heard fabricated
reports by the township council officials. He then started to
remove officials from their positions. He thanked the elderly
farmer and those others who had revealed the facts to him. He
stated that the dry season crop must only be undertaken in
appropriate conditions. He warned local officials not to
molest and overburden local farmers. After the meeting
closed, people thronged to congratulate the elderly farmer
for his outspokenness.
30. No more livelihood
This information came from a friend
of farmer U Po Gyi’s family in Wakema Township, Irrawaddy Division.
Before 1991, U Po Gyi had 3 acres of land
which could yield up to 30 baskets
per acre. The government quota was 12 baskets per acre. U Po
Gyi also had to put aside six baskets for next years crop,
leaving him with a net total of approximately 48 baskets of paddy per
year. He also had to hire cattle and farm implements. These
expenses didn't leave him with too much, but he could net
about 20 baskets of rice per year, enough to survive on.
1991 was a very dry year, although there
was still enough water at U Po Gyi's farm for the crop.
However due to many insects the crop was halved. In January
1992, village council officials and three police rounded him
up with many other farmers who had been unable to give their
quotas. They sentenced him to two years in jail, and his
family had no way to get him out. In his absence, his wife
worked as a subsistence laborer, but in June 1993 she sold
their land out of desperation, at 8000 kyat per
acre. She used 20,000 kyat to have her husband released. But
he was in poor physical condition and died of a heart ailment
about 2 months later. That same year, there was a big
increase in demand for labor on road constructions. In the
absence of his father, U Po Gyi's only son, Maung Ta Ta, who
at the time was 15 years old, worked on the Wakema –
Shwe Laung road for one month. During that time the boy drank
unsanitary water and ate poorly. He contracted dysentery and
a fever, and died at the road site.
Since that time, the remaining members of
the family, U Po Gyi's wife and four daughters, have had to
split up. None of the daughters is in school, and two of them
have gone away to find work. Only the mother and youngest
daughter are staying together doing daily wage labor to
survive.
These kind of events go on all the time. I
can give this example because I know the people involved.
Others always just look on these situations with pity, and
recognize suffering, but don't think that they can do
anything about them. They become normal. In Burma, each level
of society puts a little more pressure on the next one down,
until by the time you get to the very bottom the greatest
pressure is there- those people bear everything, that's the
result.
31. Death of a child
This story of a girl who was four
years old at time of her death in Wakema Township, Irrawaddy Division, was told by the same person as the
previous testimony.
Naw Paw Wah was the youngest of three
children in her family. She died during the rainy season of
1996, as her parents were unable to get enough food and
couldn't take good care of her.
When they married in 1981, her parents had
two acres of residential land. They sold their land in 1988,
in order to do some trade, but after their first child was
born, and prices and taxes were rising, they became
increasingly poor. Later, her father began to work as a
laborer. In 1996, he could earn only 60 kyat per
day. But their daily average food expenses were 80 kyat. For
typical workers like these, the cost of basic foodstuffs,
like oil, onions and beans, are totally unaffordable. If the
parents don't work or are sick for one day then they go
without food. Their neighbors are all in the same situation,
so they are unable to help.
Naw Paw Wah’s mother mostly did odd
jobs, like carrying things for people in the marketplace. The
children had to be watched by their grandmother during the
daytime. She couldn’t take very good care of Naw Paw
Wah. The child developed a fever and weakness. The fever
continued at a low level for about a month. If the child
rested and ate well she could easily survive, but if she felt
well then she ran off and played, and then became sick again.
Her mother would return to work. After three days of more
serious fever, Naw Paw Wah fell unconscious, and her
grandmother called her mother to take her to the clinic.
Although rushed to the hospital, the child died. The hospital
staff said that she was sick due to poor nutrition. She would
not have died if her parents had time to take good care of
her; if she had enough food for adequate nutrition.
32. A fisherman
A crab catcher and fisherman in
Bogalay Township, Irrawaddy Division, spoke on conditions there in June
1997.
A lot of people are catching crabs at the
moment. Ten years ago very few people were interested in
catching crabs- only fish. Now crab catching is on the
increase, so brokers and buyers are too. A crab
catcher can earn up to 3000 kyat per month. But the rising price of rice doesn't
result in improved living conditions.
The Maingma Hla Kyun forest reserve in
Bogalay Township is being decimated for firewood. There are
streams there where shrimp can be caught, but the license fee
costs up to 100,000 kyat. We heard that this license is
issued by the People's Pearl and Fisheries Corporation. If
they utilized the money they got from licenses on jetty
projects and road repairs then the people wouldn't be left
bearing such heavy burdens. But now we have to make twice
annual financial contributions for road repairs. We
have to pay for repairs of bridges, new school buildings,
expenses for officials visits, firewood for the military, soldiers
meals and everything. All this amounts to about 100 kyat per
month per household. If we complain that we lack the money,
we are usually told to report to the village council. We
can't do that. If we say anything they don't like then we
risk detention. So, in spite of our lack of money we do our
best.
We're not facing starvation yet, but we
have to eat with thrift. Sometimes we have to borrow rice
from our neighbors, and later we do them good turns back. We
are living "hand to mouth." Having a full sack of
rice in reserve is a thing of the past. Fishermen earn our
food off the day’s work. Whether or not we get democracy
isn't a big issue for us. We just need to do our work in
order to survive.
33. A failed irrigation scheme
A 58 year old widow from Hlee Ku
Township, Rangoon Division, speaking in August 1997.
The government made us dam the Ngamoeyeik
River then called on us to grow summer paddy. The
construction site was 5 miles away, and we walked back and
forth every day in the hot season, when it was really
stinking hot. Each family in the region had to send people to
dig. I heard that one pregnant woman died carrying loads of
soil on her head. I had to hoe the ground. The work was
enormously tiring. After we went home in the evening, they
videotaped the day’s progress. The dam opened in 1995.
Summer paddy started in 1996. They didn't
give seeds, we had to buy them. I'll tell you something, they
made us buy seeds taken from other farmers. But different
strains of rice were all mixed together, one from here, one
from there. When we planted we didn't notice the difference,
but they grew at different rates. There were three different
kinds of rice, so what can you do about that? You can't do
anything! You would have to harvest one field three different
times, which is too much work. Farmers were furious—some
destroyed the whole lot and planted beans or sesame, then
bought paddy in the market for their quota.
Well, by this time most monsoon paddy had
been harvested, and people had planted their beans. But
with the dam finished everybody had to grow summer rice. They
told us we couldn't grow nuts, we had to grow paddy.
Officials from Rangoon,
not soldiers, came and ripped up the beans and even
unharvested rice. That was just about the last straw. The
government said, "We are making you grow summer paddy
for you yourselves to eat." They said monsoon paddy is
for government and summer paddy would be for farmers.
When we needed water they didn't open the
dam; when we didn’t want water they gave it! At first
they didn't release water as some people hadn't finished
harvesting all of their crop. Summer paddy needs water, so
the government opened the dam and way too much water poured
out. People who hadn't finished harvesting their first crop
rushed out to gather it all up. In bean fields, water flooded
the landscape. Villagers asked, "What are you doing? We
can't even live here any more." Then the government
answered "If you can't stay then get out—we're just
following instructions." Later they cut the water and
the summer rice started drying up in the fields. People ended
up pumping in water themselves, which was expensive. The
administration said, "You farmers are dishonest. When
you need something we give it, then you protest. We can't
follow your whims any more." The authorities said
farmers are inconsistent and don't do things right.
Farmers were now losing their crops. So
villagers went to break open the dam themselves. The
authorities became angry and said, "You went to break
open this dam, so you must relocate!" The village
leaders outlined their case step by step, then the
authorities understood a little. We didn't have to relocate,
but we had to help repair the dam. We nearly died in the
stinking hot weather.
The authorities didn’t come to see
areas where the paddy was flooded. You can't know about that.
They come and take video footage of areas where the crop is
good, where it's green and ripe. The stuff that didn't grow
they don't show- you can't say anything about that. Due to
flooding, a lot of paddy got wet and smelled foul, so when we
took it to the procuring agents they said that it wasn't good
paddy and refused to accept it. As a result of all this,
nobody is producing enough paddy. No farmer has enough to
eat. This is what I know from my own experiences and what I
myself have witnessed.
All of the fields in this area are in this
situation. This year there's a lot of grasses and weeds among
the paddy, and a lot of insects too- that's Burma paddy, not
the same as Thailand. The whole of the township has these
conditions. The government just says that the farmers don't
behave honestly. They say that if we behaved honestly things
wouldn't be like this.
My son-in-law and I had to give more than
80 baskets of paddy quota. He has about six acres of fields,
and if he works the paddy problem-free he can get 200
baskets. This year, he got less than 200. The administrators
come and calculate the paddy grain production per acre by
walking around to find an area where there's a lot of stalks,
and stripping stalks until the grain has filled one cup, so then they can say
how many stalks it takes to fill one cup and from that how
much each acre will produce. If you take stalks from an area
where there's dense growth like that then two or three stalks
will fill one can. So they said that one acre would produce
80 to 90 baskets. My son and I have six acres of land
to plant, but now, through deliberate over-estimate by
officials, it’s become seven! Really it's six, but they
registered it as seven. When the paddy has actually fully
grown they don't calculate on the basis of the true yield-
you have to give what was demanded based on estimates.
Our land was flooded, so we hired a pump.
He had only about 60 baskets left, which we took to the
administration—the entire lot, and not a single basket
was left. But they said, "This grain is no good, we
don't want it," and they made him bring it all back. He
couldn't think any more, and went to get the whole lot
husked. They said that the paddy was rotten, and wouldn't
accept it. They're also looking at the chaff, and if there's
too much rubbish they're not taking it. This is because some
people started to mix their grain with dirt and other stuff
to increase the apparent quantity. People said, "There's
a lot of chaff and dirt because we stay in a dusty
place." Others use bribes- a couple of bottles of
alcohol here and there and maybe you can get 10 baskets off
your quota.
Now I've come to Thailand to do some
trading, sell medicines and stuff, instead of working there.
There's nothing to be gained from it.
34. A civil
servant
A 40 year old government
administrator from Pyinmana Township, Mandalay Division,
speaking in June 1997.
I have been a member of the civil service
for 18 years, and my current salary is only 1200 kyat. A
government salary nowadays isn't worth enough for a single
trip to the market. My wife is also a government employee and
our combined income is not much more than 2000 kyat per
month. There are the usual deductions made from our wages-
this is a common thing for government employees. The net
total of our salaries leaves only about 1400 kyat for food.
The government, however, has a scheme for disbursing an
additional 300 kyat per month to employees. Anybody who is
absent from 5 days of work in a month is not eligible. In
actual fact, the government is not increasing workers’
wages. This 300 kyat welfare payment is simply a ploy to get
workers to do more and stay in their workplaces. Previously,
although our wages were low, we were better off. Nowadays, if
only one member of a household works, the wage wouldn't even
be enough for oneself, let alone the whole family. So workers
these days have to plan their families carefully to avoid
having additional children. They don't need new members of
the family causing everybody to be sucked further into the
agony of poverty and want.
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