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Restrictions on Activity and Movement
SPDC Army units try to control every aspect of the daily life of villagers, and to this
end they regularly issue orders restricting all of the villagers’ regular activities
and movements. In many areas villagers are under a tight curfew, only allowed to be
outside their villages from sunrise to sundown and not allowed to sleep in their farmfield
huts, which makes it extremely difficult for them to produce a successful crop,
particularly if their fields are far from the village. Where travel between villages is
allowed at night, villagers are not allowed to use flashlights but must use firebrands
(burning sticks) to light their way; the SPDC views flashlights as ‘tools of
rebels’ which allow a person to travel through the dark without being spotted by
their soldiers. In theory, these restrictions are intended to prevent the villagers from
being able to contact opposition forces, but in practice they go far beyond this and are
used as a form of psychological intimidation and subjugation. They are also used to ban
villagers from trading in goods independently of the monopolies set up by local military
officers. Villagers are told that if they violate these restrictions or if they run from
SPDC soldiers (which they often do in fear of being grabbed for forced labour), they will
be shot with no questions asked. Many are in fact shot for such violations, as can be seen
from interviews published in other KHRG reports. In the most cynical document included
below (Order #4), a village headwoman was forced to thumbprint and
sign, with witnesses, a prepared document stating that her village would gladly accept
‘whatever’ punishment is decided upon by the authorities if her village fails to
report intelligence or to obey restrictions on their activities. In effect, they are
forcing her to sign an acceptance of her own arrest, torture or execution, or the burning
or forced relocation of her village.
Some of the orders included below are ironic because they restrict the production of alcohol and gambling in the villages, while at the same time SPDC soldiers constantly demand alcohol from villagers (as can be seen below under ‘Extortion of Food, Money and Materials’) and force village elders to sell tickets in the Army’s own illicit lotteries. Such orders can be seen as a cynical method of control, forcing villagers to do something while at the same time declaring that activity illegal so that they will always feel at the mercy of the military. Army units also force villages to regularly provide ‘registration lists’ of their population, livestock, tools and belongings, which are used to calculate demands for forced labour, meat, extortion money, etc.
Some of the orders below demand to know the names of anyone in the village who possess firearms. SPDC authorities forbid villagers from possessing any but the most primitive flintlock firearms, which they use for hunting and to protect their crops from pests. At the same time, SPDC Army units often threaten to punish the village if a gunshot is heard anywhere in the area. Once they obtain the list of those who possess firearms, these are likely to be the first villagers arrested, tortured and accused of being rebels whenever a shot is heard nearby.
Stamp: Frontline
#xxx Infantry Battalion
______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp:
To: 21-9-99
Note: Chairperson,
[Sd.]
21-9-99 ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp:
To: ______________________________________________________________________________ Pledge 1. My name is Daw [Mrs.] xxxx . Village: xxxx village ,
one of the elders. For the collection [transport] of [Army] rations along
the xxxx / yyyy bullock-cart path, to provide security, women / men
villagers from my village must send information on time and quickly (to xxxx camp)
about everything unusual we see along the path from mile numbers 35 to 36; and will do
sentry duty for the whole area to obey the order. ______________________________________________________________________________ 19/7/99 To [blank] ______________________________________________________________________________ Frontline
#xxx Infantry Battalion [page 2 of original begins here] 4) Therefore, to release the 26 family members I am sending this letter with 2
people from the Village Peace & Development Council, xxxx village tract, where
they were previously registered. ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Chairperson ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: [page 2] Regarding this announcement, [we] will wait from 7-3-99 until 22-3-99. ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Chairperson /
Secretary 3-3-99 ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: Date:
6-3-99 ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: Frontline
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion ______________________________________________________________________________ To: ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: 28-10-98 ______________________________________________________________________________ |
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This section includes documents issued to villagers by SPDC authorities and military units as a means of controlling their movements and activities. Villagers caught without such documents face summary detention and torture, being taken as porters for indefinite periods, or possibly an accusation of being a ‘rebel’ followed by summary execution. Villagers can do nothing without a pass issued by the military, or by the Village or Village Tract Peace & Development Council which have been authorised by the military. If a villager carrying a pass issued by his/her Village Peace & Development Council is subsequently arrested and accused by the military, the village authorities who issued the pass will also be arrested; because of this, the military can feel confident that the village heads are too afraid to issue passes to anyone who may be subject to military suspicion. As an added burden, villagers are often forced to pay for these passes.
The first document below is a standard family registration list, which must be held by every family for presentation to military authorities whenever requested. The information in this list is used to allocate forced labour and extortion demands, and also to check for any visitors or strangers in the village who can be arrested and accused as ‘rebels’. The other documents are standard passes to travel from one village to another, to work the farmfields, to carry rice to or from the village, to buy or sell livestock, and to possess a primitive flintlock firearm. In many areas villagers are forbidden to spend the night at their fields in order to make it impossible for them to have any contact with opposition forces. However, this makes it impossible for villagers whose fields are a long distance from the village, so in some cases they can obtain passes to sleep one or more nights at their fields, such as those included below. Note that the passes specify exactly where they are allowed to stay and how much rice they are allowed to take with them; this is supposedly to prevent them taking food to the opposition troops. They are usually allowed to take much less food than is required even to feed themselves for the duration of the pass. The same logic applies to the passes which must be obtained to carry rice or other goods to or from the village, and the passes to buy or sell livestock. The military uses every restriction possible in its attempt to cut off all contact between the villagers and the opposition, and to block any food supplies from reaching the opposition.
| Order #15 Register of family population # Name Age Father's
Sex Relation
Occupation Village ______________________________________________________________________________ Order #16 Recommendation Pass for Travelling Name _________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: To: IB
#xxx ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp:
Total Expenses Captain xxxx
5,000
Kyat ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: Permission letter to travel Name: U
aaaa ______________________________________________________________________________ To: IB #xxx
Date: 16/2/99 ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
|