ILO: FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA-45

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

[ILO COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA, SLICE
45]

204

Ethnicity:          Mon
Age/sex:            32, male
Family situation:   Married with four children
Occupation:         Day labourer
                    State (village had 60 households)

The witness came to the Mon refugee camp in early 1998. He did
forced labour in March/April 1997 on the construction of a
road from Kya In Seik Gyi to Taungbauk. This was a new road
being constructed across farm land. The construction of this
road started in the 1996 dry season. The work was ordered by
the soldiers who ordered a meeting of all the villagers to
inform them that one person from each house in the village had
to go to the work site. They were told that any villager who
did not go would be punished. They were told that if a
household did not have a male worker, a woman would have to be
sent. The work site was a one day walk from the village. When
they arrived they had to work for a period of four days. The
villagers had to bring their own food. He did this work about
five times before the rainy season, when construction halted.
Each time he had to work for four days, with a one day walk at
either end. About 60 villagers went at a time, of which about
20 were women; there were also about ten children under 15,
the youngest about 12 or 13. The work they had to do was to
collect large stones, crush them, and lay them on the
embankment, with larger stones on the bottom and smaller
pieces on top. All the villagers had to do the same kind of
work. He saw a total of about 1,000 people working on the
road. Each person was assigned a given amount of work to do.
They had to start work at 6 a.m. and finished at 6 p.m. Rest
times depended on the arrangement made by the village head,
with workers usually getting a one hour rest in the middle of
the day. No arrangement was made for the workers who had to
sleep at the work site; they had to sleep on the ground in the
fields around the construction site. There were soldiers at
the work site. They did not supervise the actual work as it
was the village head who was responsible for this, but they
patrolled the work site and checked on the work that was being
done. The village also had to provide porters to the military.
Six people had to be provided, and these were rotated every
three days. The village head was responsible for arranging the
rotation. He had to find out where the troops were and send
six replacement porters to that place, after which the first
six would be released. Sometimes it was difficult to find out
where the troops were, so sometimes it was two weeks or even a
month before the village head was able to change the porters,
especially if the troops were very far away, such as in an
offensive against the KNU (the troops could be as far away as
Three Pagodas Pass). He himself did portering about ten times
since June 1997, for a different period each time, but ranging
from three days to nine days. During portering he had to carry
ammunition (seven to nine mortar shells). He had to carry them
for the whole day, sometimes even at night. There was little
rest, especially when the troops were in a hurry. The porters
were only provided with a small amount of cold, hard cooked
rice and some fish paste. They usually slept in the jungle,
but sometimes in a plantation or in a Karen village. If
porters were slow they were treated very badly by the
soldiers. Once he was portering at the same time as his
brother, and his brother was mistreated because he could not
walk quickly as he was very tired. The soldiers kicked him
with their heavy military boots, punched him, and jabbed him
with a knife (the knife blade entered about one inch into his
buttocks). After this his brother could not walk properly, and
was allowed to walk with no load for one day, but then the
next day had to carry his load again. He saw this himself. He
was sworn at by the soldiers, but never beaten. He saw many
other porters beaten by the soldiers, some of whom were from
his village. Soldiers always beat porters who could not work
properly; he saw this on every occasion he went portering. No
porter was allowed to return home even if they were suffering
from exhaustion or illness. He also did portering, less
regularly, since he was 14 or 15 years old. At this time the
soldiers took porters by coming into a village and rounding
them up, so the villagers often fled at this time. Before the
Mon cease-fire, portering was much less regular. He did
portering a total of about eight times before the cease-fire,
but he ran away to avoid being rounded up on many more
occasions. In the period after the cease-fire, he did
portering on a further eight occasions (not including the ten
times since June 1997). Before the cease-fire, when porters
were rounded up by the soldiers they were never released and
the only way was to run away. The treatment of porters was
also worse before the cease-fire. If a porter could not walk
quickly he was beaten, but before the cease-fire he would have
been shot. He saw the bodies of over 30 dead porters when he
was portering before (they had either been shot or beaten to
death). His father was seriously injured during portering
about ten years ago. It was during an offensive and his
shoulders were rubbed to the bone from carrying a heavy load
in a cane basket on his back. During offensives, porters were
also used as human shields, by being put in front of the
troops in dangerous areas. It was like this in every
offensive, and hundreds of porters were killed in this way.
Porters were liable to be shot if they tried to run away, but
they had no choice because they would not be released
otherwise. He always ran away; 13 days was the longest he did
portering. After the cease-fire, portering was arranged
through the village head. It was not then possible to run
away, but porters were released when replacements arrived. In
the beginning of 1997 his village was forced to build an army
camp for IB 32 at Taungbauk village (about one hour walk from
his village). One person from each house in the village had to
do the work constructing the camp. Villagers also had to bring
five small trees and five pieces of bamboo with them for the
construction. Owners of bullock carts in the village were also
forced to provide their bullock carts for the transportation
of construction materials to the camp. During construction of
the camp, villagers had to stay at the camp until their work
assignment was finished (about two days). About half the
workers were women; there were no children. Treatment by the
soldiers was not bad. Whenever the soldiers came into the
village they asked for rice, chickens or alcohol, which the
village had to provide. They sometimes informed the village
head what they required, but at other times they just stole
what they wanted directly. There were usually about ten
soldiers staying in the village (they stayed at the houses of
the village head and village secretary), and the village had
to feed them. If the soldiers wanted anything, they would just
take it. The village head was elected by the villagers, and
was sympathetic to their problems, but he had to do as he was
ordered to by the military. The situation in some other
villages was much worse than in his village, especially when
villages were suspected of helping rebels. In these villages
there was common torture of the villagers, and rape. Recently,
before he went to the camp, there was forced relocation in his
area (though not of his village). Other villages in the area
had to move to Taungbauk village. The relocation order was
issued in October. He heard about the case of one Mon family
who did not want relocate, because they had a rubber
plantation. this was near Kyauk Kyat village, about 1 hour
walk from his village. Because they did not relocate, the
family was held at gunpoint while four soldiers raped their
daughter in front of them. He heard about this from people in
the area who knew the family. The 10 villages which were
relocated included Kyauk Kyat, Tha Shay, Ma-U, Klaw Taw
Chaung, Kyaik Raung, Tha Ya Gone and Ye Le. Of these, Ma-U and
Kyaik Raung were mainly Karen, while the others were mainly
Mon. The villages ranged in size from 60 to 200 families each. 
They were given one month to relocate to Way Tha Li village
(which is between Taungbauk and Kya In Seik Kyi, and so under
military control) and Taungbauk village (which has an army
base). Some villagers moved to the relocation sites, some went
to refugee camps, and a few remained secretly in their
villages. The battalions he knows of that were involved in the
relocations were IB 32, LIB 355 and LIB 356. He decided to go
to the refugee camp, because he was a day labourer and had no
farm, so had to work every day just to survive. He was unable
to do this, however, because of portering, which meant that he
could not continue to feed his family. His family, his
brother's family, and three other families fled to the refugee
camp together. It was mostly the poorer villagers who fled,
but the better off villagers (those with farms) generally did
not flee. The farm owners in his village were warned that if
they allowed rebels to stay in the village, their village
would also be relocated. His village and another close-by
village were not relocated, because the soldiers wanted to use
them as somewhere to stay. The other village was mostly Mon,
with some Tai inhabitants also. 
                     _______________________


205

Ethnicity:          Tai
Age/sex:            41, male
Family situation:   Married with four children
Occupation:         Labourer
                    Kayin State (village had 100 households)

The witness came to the Mon refugee camp in December 1997. He
had done portering. He was rounded up by the military and
forced to carry things for them. The last time was in
September 1997, the first time was when he was about 17. He
could not estimate how many times he had been a porter.
Sometimes it was as often as twice a month. He usually
portered for about ten days at a time, but he was not released
by the soldiers after this time, he used to run away. If a
porter was caught trying to escape, he would be beaten and
then given a heavier load. This happened to him twice. If a
porter was slow he would be beaten. This happened a few times
to him. Anyone who had the strength to carry a backpack would
be taken, from about 13 years old, to old men. Women were not
taken. The heaviest load he had to carry was artillery shells;
19 smaller shells, or a smaller number of larger shells. This
was so heavy that he was unable to walk properly. The shells
also banged against his back when he walked, which caused an
injury. Other things he had to carry included rice and other
food. The longest period he was away for was 25 days. He did
all kinds of portering, including at the front line and in
battles. In battles, the porters were put in the middle of the
soldiers; he never saw a porter die during a battle. If there
was fighting with rebels, the soldiers would go into villages,
beat the village head, and burn down the village. The number
of porters depended on how many the soldiers could get;
sometimes there would be five, sometimes as many as 20. The
worst was portering in the rainy season, when sometimes they
would get no food for a whole day. The soldiers would normally
sleep on a platform above the ground, but the porters would
just have to sleep on the mud, which was worse in the rainy
season. The porters had to cook for themselves, and for the
soldiers as well. If at any time the porters did not carry out
orders quickly, or if they were slow when walking, they would
be beaten, punched or hit with a rifle butt. Such beatings
were very common; he saw this on every trip he went. Several
times he saw porters hit on the head so hard that the skull
was exposed, and their whole head and face was covered with
blood. He had seen porters who were sick and could not
continue beaten by the soldiers and then die (from a
combination of the beating and the illness); this happened
occasionally but not every trip. Sometimes if a porter was
sick he could pay the soldiers to be released from further
portering (for three days, 200 kyat or the equivalent in
chickens). When the soldiers went into a village they would
steal whatever they wanted, and sometimes if they saw a
beautiful girl, they would grab her by force and kiss her.
Once he saw a soldier catch a villager who was suspected of
being a rebel and shoot him on the spot. The soldiers also
used to grab the village head and hit him. The worst injury he
has personally suffered during portering was a blow to the
head (with a rifle) which resulted in severe swelling but no
permanent damage. Last year, when he was in his village, some
soldiers came into his house and stole some of his things and
kicked him with their boots. The soldiers would often force
villagers, including women, to sleep at the army camp, as a
deterrent against possible rebel attacks. He does not know if
the women were abused at this time. The last time he did
portering (in September 1997) it was arranged through the
village head. The village head told him to go for three days'
portering, but he was not released for 20 days, because no
replacement arrived. His feet were very sore from walking, and
he had a fever and headache. He was not allowed to take any
rest, and was beaten to make him go faster. The porters were
not fed properly, only salt and rice. There was enough rice to
fill them up, but nothing else, and so they became weak. The
soldiers would steal chickens from villages, but would not
give any to the porters. Finally, after 20 days, six
replacements arrived, and he was released. He was usually
rounded up for portering by the soldiers while he was working
in his fields. At these times he would often try to run away,
and was sometimes successful. The other villagers would also
try to run away. If a villager had money, it was also possible
to pay the soldiers to release them so they could avoid
portering. If he was looking after his cows when he was
grabbed, he would not have a chance to take the cows back to
the village. Only twice was portering arranged through the
village head. Another time the whole village (including him)
had to cut bamboo poles for the construction of a camp for IB
355. Other villages had to do the actual construction, his
village just had to provide the bamboo. It was very hard work,
and took the village two days of cutting. The bamboo poles had
to be very large (he indicated about 30 cm diameter), and 20
cubits long (about 9 metres). He did not do other kinds of
forced labour, but other people in his village had to do
forced labour on road construction. The road was being built
to Three Pagodas Pass. The work started last year in the hot
season. Five people from the village had to go for 15 days at
a time. Which people from the village had to go was organised
by the village head. He left the village before his turn came.
The village also had to give food and money to the soldiers
once a month. Every month the soldiers would ask for what they
wanted; it would be food (such as pork), or money, but usually
not both. This had been going on for many years. He came to
the refugee camp two months ago, with his family. They came
because of the many problems they faced: there was a lot of
portering, so they were unable to do their own work; any time
they left the village, they were at risk of being grabbed by
soldiers for portering. Many other families from his village
had come to the camp before him (he knows of about 30).
                     ________________________


206

Ethnicity:          Karen
Age/sex:            65, male
Family situation:   Seven (him, wife, three daughters, two
                    sons)
Occupation:         Hill cultivation (dry rice farmer)
                    State (village had 15) households

The witness came to the Mon refugee camp in early 1997. His
village was relocated during the rice harvest last year to
Taungzun village. This was when he came to the refugee camp.
Five or six other families fled from the village at the same
time. The soldiers gave the village five days to relocate. He
did forced labour for the army constructing the road to Three
Pagodas Pass. This work started early last year, and the work
was continuing when he left. He first did road construction in
1996. At that time the work was close to his village, and the
villagers could return to the village to sleep. Because his
village was so small, there was no system of rotating
labourers. Sometimes one person from each household had to go,
sometimes all workers in the whole village had to go. So
sometimes he was the only person from his family doing the
work, sometimes he worked together with his son. The work they
had to do was cutting down trees, building an embankment, and
collecting rocks to put on the embankment. They were forced to
work from first light to dusk without a break. They had to eat
before they started, and again after they finished. If people
were tired and could not work the soldiers demanded that they
do the same as everyone else, and beat them, slapped them on
the face, or kicked them with army boots. One of his sons who
also did forced labour was never beaten; the other son was in
the KNU and so never did forced labour. He himself was also
beaten by the soldiers. He also had to do portering over the
last three years. In the beginning portering was arranged
through the village head, but later the soldiers just used to
come to the village and round people up. He could not count
how many times he had done portering. Sometimes it was six
times a month if it was just short trips (one or two days). If
they had to go to a village a little far away, it could be two
weeks. He had to carry loads of 10 viss (about 16 kg), and
sometimes up to 20 viss (32 kg) of artillery shells or three
tins of rice. There was no problem for porters if they could
keep up, but if they were slow they would be beaten. When he
was slow, the soldiers would shout at him, saying he was
useless, and then kick him. Sometimes this would happen 4 or 5
times a day. He saw other porters beaten unconscious or with
heads split open. Sometimes porters who were too sick or weak
to continue would be killed and then thrown from the side of
the mountain. He saw this happen twice. Some porters were so
sick or weak when they were released from portering that they
could not even return to the village. Villagers would have to
collect them from the side of the road where they had been
left, bring them back to the village and nurse them back to
health. Twice when he returned to the village after portering
he was so weak he could not work, and other villagers had to
look after him. Some soldiers were better natured than others.
Sometimes the soldiers even wanted to give him water, but they
could not because they themselves would be beaten if they were
seen doing this. The last time he did portering was for two
weeks in April 1997. On this occasion he had to carry six
large artillery shells. It was very heavy, but the soldiers
told him he was lucky because his load was so light. One day,
early in the morning, the SLORC soldiers came to his house and
accused him of having a son who was a KNU soldier. One of his
sons had in fact been in the KNU, but had already left. The
son had got married and lived in Mi Hki village (close to
Three Pagodas Pass). In fact his son had been arrested by the
SLORC, and had recently escaped, but at the time he did not
know this. The soldiers then beat him with a bamboo stick and
shouted 'stupid ringworm' ['ringworm' is a slang term used by
Tatmadaw soldiers to refer to KNU soldiers]. The soldiers then
accused him of being in the KNU and of hiding a weapon, and
demanded to know where it was. They hit him many times on
the back of the head, shoulders and back, until he was
unconscious. His son was now in the refugee camp. After his
son escaped he came to his house, but he told his son not to
stay there because it was dangerous, so he went to the camp.
Before his son escaped, he was tortured, and they cut his ears
(but not completely off), and cut part of his lips off.
                     ________________________


207

Ethnicity:          Karen
Age/sex:            50, male
Family situation:   Seven (him, his mother, his wife, four
                    children)
Occupation:         Hill cultivation (he was also the village
                    head)
                    Kayin State (village had 20 households)

The witness left his village in September 1997, because he
heard it was unsafe for him, so he went and stayed in
Kyunchaung village before fleeing to Thailand in January 1998.
A friend of his who was a village head in another village
warned him that the authorities were asking questions about
him, which is why he left his village. The first time Burmese
soldiers came to his village they told him to show them the
way to Bo Deh village. The second time, he sent one of his
villagers instead. At other times, the soldiers did not come
to the village to take porters, they just sent an order
demanding a certain number of villagers. Usually they asked
for two or three porters, but they once demanded ten porters,
which was impossible for the village to provide, since the
villagers ran away to avoid portering. This was in the 1997
hot season. Porters were badly treated, and one villager was
badly beaten. It was up to him as village head to rotate those
porters after three days or whenever possible. The third time
they came to his village, in April 1997, he was not there. The
soldiers arrested all his family and started looking for him.
When he arrived home they tied him up, and released his
family. They told his family to go back to their house and
stay in the house. Then the soldiers took him to a cow shed
and tortured him, demanding to know where he kept guns. They
punched him in the face and chest and hit him with the barrel
of a gun. The leader of the group of soldiers, a captain,
accused him of being a rebel. The village secretary came and
spoke to the captain, explaining that the village head was
simply a farmer, and was not a rebel, but the captain refused
to listen and warned the secretary that if he was not careful
he would be in trouble too. The soldiers continued to torture
him and he suffered a serious cut to the head and internal
injuries. The torture included rolling an iron bar repeatedly
up and down his shins, putting bullets between each of his
fingers and then squeezing them together. They also repeatedly
held his head under water in the stream. This torture
continued from noon until evening. The next day at noon they
began to torture him again. They repeatedly asked him if he
had a gun and where it was. They took him to the stream again,
put his head under water so his ears filled with water, and
then banged their hands together over his ears. Because of
this he was now partially deaf. They continued torturing him
until he was unconscious, then tied him up and left him in the
stream with his head on a tree branch. When he regained
consciousness he found himself like this, and saw the soldiers
on the bank of the stream waiting for him to recover. On the
third day they took him with another man who had also been
tortured to Grupadi village. They arrived in the evening and
then another column of troops arrived and the commander of
that column took the two of them so that they would not be
able to run away. At this point he told the other man that
they should try to run away, otherwise they would be killed.
They were tied up at night to a paddy barn, but when the
soldier who was guarding them fell asleep, he managed to untie
his hands, and they ran away. 
                     ________________________


208
 
Ethnicity:          Karen
Age/sex:            54, male
Family situation:   12 (him, wife, ten children of which two
                    still live at home)
Occupation:         Village head
                    Kayin State (village had 47 households and 
                    was established only ten years ago; before
                    this he was in Kya In Seik Gyi town)

The army came in March 1997 and took all the chickens and
other animals from the village. The villagers were scared and
so said nothing. Also in March 1997 they were ordered to build
an army camp at Ya Kra, five miles away. The camp was for
Brigade 44. His village had to provide two porters and one 
bullock cart all the time for the construction; these were
rotated every three days (they would be released only when
their replacements arrived). Other villages in the area were
also forced to construct the camp, a total of about 40 people
at a time. It took about two months to complete the
construction. Because he was the village head, he had to go
there almost constantly to supervise his villagers and check
on their work. The soldiers were rude to the workers, and
swore at them, but they were not beaten. The treatment was
much worse during portering. Portering began in March 1997.
The village was ordered to provide two people permanently for
portering. If these people were not sent, the army would come
and arrest people. Also, there were usually two KNU soldiers
staying in his village. The soldiers came and made this
accusation, but initially he denied it. Then they punched him
hard in the kidneys twice. They said that if the two KNU
soldiers did not give themselves up, they would kill all the
villagers and burn down the village. The soldiers who said
this were from LIB 2. The two KNU soldiers had families in the
village, and so they gave themselves up. They were not killed,
and were in fact released after about 10 days. After this
Brigade 44 was replaced by Brigade 22, in April 1997. Later,
in September, they forced the village to relocate within 15
days to Bo Deh village, one-and-a-half miles away. The
commander said that if the villagers didn't want to go there,
he didn't care, as long as they went away. The villagers were
told that anyone seen in the village after this time would be
shot. After this, the villagers were allowed to return to
their old village during the day, but they had to be back in
Bo Deh between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. They did not have to pay
money to leave the relocation site during the day. It was
Brigade 22 who ordered the village to relocate. After the
relocation, Brigade 22 was replaced by LIB 545; they were
really bad and very violent. Soldiers from LIB 545 would steal
the pigs and chickens from the villagers, and if the villagers
complained, they would punch and hit them. The village had to
provide three porters for LIB 545, but some villagers didn't
dare to go, and paid 1,300 kyat for a three-day period to
avoid going. He didn't personally ever go portering, but his
son-in-law went about 10 times. The other villagers did a
similar amount of portering to his son-in-law. Treatment
during portering was very bad. Porters were punched and had
wounds caused by the cane baskets they carried their loads in.
He saw porters with their backs split open from the baskets.
Portering was continuing in September (when he left). There
was a particularly bad incident which happened before the
village relocated. Some soldiers came and arrested four
villagers (two of the names are U Kyaw Ku and Ngwe Tu). It was
a Sunday, and they arrested them after church. The soldiers
then held a meeting of the villagers inside the church. The
reason they arrested the people was that they had received
information that these people had guns. This was not true.
Inside the church, they tied the four villagers' hands behind
their backs, then beat them up in front of the other
villagers. They were kicked, punched and beaten with sticks
and a looped rope. Two were injured very seriously. One was
unable to open his eyes and the other had chest wounds. The
villagers were particularly upset by the fact that the
soldiers deliberately chose to do this in a church. Since he
was the village head, he tried to offer himself for arrest in
place of the four villagers, as a guarantee, but the soldiers
refused and threatened to arrest him also. The whole village
was then forced by the soldiers to stand in the hot sun, even
the children. After this, the four villagers were taken away.
One was so badly injured he could not walk, and two other
villagers had to carry him. As the village head, he also went
along (making a total of seven villagers). They were taken to
a nearby army camp where they spent the night. No medical
treatment was provided for the injured villagers, except some
ointment which did nothing. (One of the villagers, when he was
finally released had to be admitted to hospital because of
serious injuries). They were all very scared. The next day
they were taken to another army camp about six miles away, and
they were all beaten by the soldiers on the way. He was hit on
the head with a pistol and slapped across the face. Once at
the second army camp, they were left tied up for three or four
days. They were given rice and fish paste, and had to sleep
with their hands tied behind their backs. After this they were
released, and one of the villagers had to be sent to the
hospital. There were other cases of the army torturing
villagers. One person in a nearby village was suspected of
having a gun and was hung upside down from a tree and then
beaten so that he spun around. Another person was tied up in
the river for four days (with his head kept out of the water).
A friend of his from another village was put in a hole in
the ground because he was accused (wrongly) of having contact
with rebels. He was kept in the hole, which was covered over
with mud, for four days, but was given food and water. All
these cases involved Brigade 44. He left for Thailand in
September 1997, when the village was relocated. At least 50
other people came with him.
                     ________________________


209

Ethnicity:          Karen
Age/sex:            39, male
Family situation:   Married with two sons
Occupation:         Rice farmer
                    Kayin State (village had 100 households)

The witness left Paw Ner Mu village in June 1997, and stayed
in other villages in the area until he came to Thailand in
August 1997. He did forced labour and portering. The soldiers
came in March 1997 and arrested about 40 villagers, lined them
up and started interrogating them. They took ten (including
him), who they suspected of being rebels to a nearby village,
and interrogated and tortured them all night. The ten were
split up and three soldiers beat up each person and
interrogated them. They were not all in the same place in the
village, they were split up, so he did not see what happened
to the others, but he later found out it was the same as what
happened to him. He was hit and punched the whole night by the
soldiers, even though he kept saying he was not a rebel. At
one point they put a gun in his face, between his eyes, and
told him they were going to shoot him, but did not. During the
beating his shoulder was injured, and he was unable to use his
arm afterwards for a month. Seven of them were then sent to
another camp, and he and two others were kept at that village.
He told the captain that he was just a farmer, was not a
rebel, and did not have a gun. Finally, the captain released
him and gave him a pass to return to his village. At this time
Brigade 44 was posted at an army camp nearby, called Ya Kra.
These soldiers did not believe that he was not a rebel, and
started making accusations. He told them to ask the village
head, and if they wanted to kill him, then kill him, but that
he did not have any information to give them about rebels.
They were angry with the way that he talked to them, and
arrested him and put him in a small (three metre diameter,
four metre deep) underground cell for two days and two nights,
with only a little light. They gave him a small amount of rice
and water. After this they took him out of the cell and kept
him in the army camp for one week. He could move around the
camp, but was not allowed to leave. Finally his pregnant wife
came to the camp and offered to guarantee that he would not
leave the village. They were allowed to return to the village,
but he could not go outside his house (he was not under guard,
but if he had been found outside his house, he would have been
in trouble). Three or four days later, Brigade 44 left and was
replaced by Brigade 22 (in April). He does not know when
Brigade 22 left, but in May he noticed some soldiers who were
from Battalion 549. A few months later, LIB 545 arrived. When
LIB 545 arrived, the situation became really bad. He needed to
obtain a pass from the soldiers to work in his fields. Even
though he had this pass, he was seen by some soldiers, who hit
him with the butt of a rifle and arrested him, then used him
as a porter. He ran away after the first day, and the soldiers
shouted after him but did not shoot him. He went back to his
village, but a week later (in May/June) the village head
called him to go portering. He was given the option of paying
2,000 kyat for the three days portering so he would not have
to go, but he did not pay the money. He had to work as a
porter on that occasion for 11 days. For these 11 days he had
to carry artillery shells or rifle ammunition which was so
heavy he could hardly carry it and could not walk properly.
There were seven other porters with him from his village. They
had to walk for the whole day, only stopping occasionally. He
did not know the names of the places they went through. They
were fed only a handful of rice per day, sometimes with salt
and fish paste. They slept in the jungle or in villages they
passed through. The porters had to do exactly what they were
told. If they talked, the soldiers would beat them. He was
also kicked because he could not walk quickly with his load.
When they went through villages, the soldiers would steal
things from the villages, and this would be put into the
porters' baskets, even though they were already too heavy.
After 11 days, the village head sent replacement porters
and they were released. Within a week of returning to his
village, he was called for portering again, and s o he decided
to leave. 
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[END OF SLICE 45]