Fact from interrogation with a port

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Subject: Fact from interrogation with a porter who escaped from SLORC

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* Fact from interrogation with a porter who escaped from SLORC *
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May 14, 1997



                Name            - saw kay ni (not his actual home )
                Age             - 50 year 
                Race / Religion - Karen / Christian
                Address         - 'Ha Ko Khee' village, 'Pha Pon' township, 
                                  Karen State.
 _________      Father's Name   - 'Saw Pho Lu'
|| Photo ||     Mother's Name   - 'Naw War Phaw'
 ---------      Occupation      - farmer
                Marital Status  - Widow, father of 4 children
                Education       - 5th Standard at Middle School in ' Pha Pon'
                Height          - 5 feet 5 inches

1. Duration of serving as a porter - nearly 2 months (From 12th march till end 
   of April) 

2. Name of the regime who captured him - 'Kha La Ya' 548. 

3. Things he has to carry - bullets, weapons, chicken, pork, but which were
taker 
   by force, household qtensils taker from villages where native villagers
move out
   to other places. 

4. History of the way he was captured - I was captured during shopping in
the market 
   alone with many other people by soldiers from ' Kha La Ya " No. 548
threatening 
   with killing by guns. 

5. The people who were captured at the some time - about 100 people from nearly 
   villages ( 60 men and 40 women) 

6. Experiences during the way serving as a porter - 
   (A) only one plate of rice which is inadequate for average built adults.
It he 
       asked for some more rice he was scolded. Sometimes over though he had
pork 
       it was only two pieces each being about the size of two-finger
breath. It 
       was due to the fact Kat is every village SLORC soldiers killed Mary hen, 
       pigs, cows and buffaloes for themselves and they got the chance of
eating 
       meat a lot. 
   (B) All porter had to give labor without getting payment furthermore the
villagers 
       were forced to give 300 kyats each house as porter fees to avoid
giving labor 
       by themselves there were about 40 houses is our village. 
   (C) No medial services for porter -the soldiers said that there were to
medicines 
       for the porters and if they were sick and could not follow they would
be killed 
       by shooting. If the porters wished not to die, they must sure in
spite of being 
       ill. Unless other wise as a porter it was a matter of their choice
between live 
       and death. 
   (D) We could not avoid seeing the porters being beater by the soldiers.
Two female 
       porters became unconeious due to continuous beating along the route
and those 
       two women were left on that spot. Fortunately, the two women found
accidentally 
       by KNU soldiers, received necerssary treatment and send back to their
home village.
       Remark those two women were lives of KNU leader named Bo Pha Palaw
Pho and Bo Kyaw 
       Hair respechively. They come to be know as insurgent's wives and
demanded loads and 
       eruelly battered. As they become nearly died they were left alone and
one's six-year
       -old son was taker by the 'Kha La Ya 548' regime. 
   (E) Two of the porters died on the way. One of them was a siey-haired
sixty years old 
       Karen oldmen and the other one was fifty years old. Both of them were
left one the 
       way at the time they were exhausted due to overwork and they died
soon after. 
   (F) Throughout the time nearly two months serving as a porter there were
many battles 
       between KNU and SLORC. Three soldiers of SLORC were found dead and
they were buried 
       beside the route. 

7. how did they escaped? 
   I had two carry on injured SOLRC soldier to Pha Pon. At the entry gate of
Pha Pon there 
   is a bridge. I was left there because I could not stand continuing
carrying and escaped. 

8. What am I going to do? 
   Just after arrival at my village, we including all villages were forced
to move to Thai-
   Burmese border, now, I am staying at 'Kalopa refugees camp' if conditions
permitted I.e. 
   there is no SLORC's disturbanus, I would like to go back home. 
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