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SPDC & DKBA ORDERS TO VILLAGES:
SET 2003-A
Papun, Pa’an, Thaton, Nyaunglebin, Toungoo, & Dooplaya Districts
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
August 22, 2003 / KHRG #2003-01
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This report presents the direct translations of 783 order documents and letters, selected from a total of 1,007 such documents. The orders dictate demands for forced labour, money, food and materials, place restrictions on movements and activities of villagers, and make threats to arrest village elders or destroy villages of those who fail to obey. Over 650 of those selected were sent by military units and local authorities of Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta to village elders in Toungoo, Papun, Nyaunglebin, Thaton, Pa’an and Dooplaya Districts, which together cover most of Karen State and part of eastern Pegu Division and Mon State (see Map 1 showing Burma or Map 2 showing Karen State). The remainder were sent by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) or the Karen Peace Army (KPA), groups allied with the SPDC. All but a few of the orders were issued between January 2002 and February 2003.
Villages in Karen areas receive a constant stream of order documents such as these almost every day, from all the SPDC Army camps near their village as well as from various levels of SPDC authorities, commanding them to provide people for forced labour, materials and supplies for the Army, extortion money, food, crop quotas, intelligence and other forms of support for the military. Many of the orders simply command village elders to immediately go to Army camps for ‘meetings’ at which Army officers dictate lists of demands and threaten them with punishment if there is any failure to comply. The orders translated and presented here in this report should be seen as only a small representative sample of the thousands of orders issued to villages in these areas during this time period. For every order reproduced here, hundreds more are issued every week throughout Burma. The aim of this report is not to provide a comprehensive picture of the human rights situation in these areas, but to provide a reference containing examples of the many types of orders received in villages in several different regions. More information on the human rights situation in each District is available in other existing KHRG reports. Additional details on the structure and details of the SPDC and DKBA Armies can be found in “Abuse Under Orders: The SPDC and DKBA Armies through the Eyes of their Soldiers” (KHRG #2001-01, 27/3/01).
Over 200 of the orders in this report contain demands for unpaid forced labour sent to villages by SPDC authorities (these include the orders in the sections ‘General Forced Labour’, ‘Forced Labour Supplying Materials’, and many of the orders in the ‘Set to a Village’ sections), while more than another hundred summoned villagers to meetings where demands for forced labour were given (these can be found in the ‘Summons to Meetings’ section). All of these orders and letters were written and issued well after November 1st 2000, which is the date when SPDC Secretary-1 Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt signed an order prohibiting the further use of forced labour by military and civilian authorities and stating that anyone who demands forced labour would henceforth be punished under Section 374 of the Penal Code and other laws (see Appendix B). In 2002, KHRG already published over 450 orders for forced labour which were issued after Khin Nyunt’s prohibition (see “Forced Labour Orders Since the Ban: A Compendium of SPDC Order Documents Demanding Forced Labour Since November 2000” [KHRG #2002-01, 8/2/02]), and the orders in this report provide even more evidence. Yet despite the existence of thousands of these orders, not a single person has yet been charged under Section 374 or any other law. All of these orders were also issued after the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) High Level Team (HLT) published its critical report in November 2001 on the SPDC’s continued use of forced labour and inadequate attempts to halt its use. Although the number of orders for forced labour and the use of forced labour seemed to decline just prior to the HLT’s visit in September 2001 and for a short period afterward, 2002 saw the demands for forced labour and its use climb back up to previous levels. Many of these orders have been issued since the ILO’s Liaison Officer took up her position in Rangoon in October 2002.
The number of forced labour orders sent to villages, the fact that they are openly signed and stamped by many different SPDC battalion officers and civilian officials, and that not one of these people has yet been charged, demonstrates clearly the lack of sincerity in the SPDC’s claims that it is working to eradicate forced labour. Instead, testimonies gathered by KHRG from villagers and SPDC deserters indicate that efforts are being made by the SPDC to cover up some of its use of forced labour. For example, many military officers who used to write orders specifically demanding forced labour now summon village elders to ‘meetings’ where the demands are given orally. Some SPDC officers and officials assign responsibility for rounding up forced labour to their DKBA and KPA allies, so the orders do not originate from SPDC units; but when they arrive for work, the villagers find themselves working for the SPDC nonetheless.
The order with perhaps the most direct international implications is Order #49, in which the Army Strategic Operations Command tells several villages in Toungoo District that they must obey all demands placed on them by a private construction company operating in their area - effectively giving a private company the authority, with Army backing, to demand forced labour directly from villages. The implications of this for foreign corporations working in joint ventures with Burmese private companies are dire, over and above the fact that this order itself involves the resurfacing of a road just to the south of Than Daung Gyi, a site which the SPDC is actively developing for tourism.
Originals of most of these orders were obtained by KHRG researchers in each region, while some were gathered by field researchers for the field offices of the Federated Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB). KHRG would like to thank the field researchers of the FTUB for the extensive help in gathering these orders, and for working with KHRG to translate many of them.
Where necessary to protect people from retaliation, village names,
people’s names and some other details have been blanked out in the order translations
below. Additional details have been blanked out for this Internet version of the report.
The print version of the report and the full set of copies of the original orders (blacked
out where necessary) are available subject to approved request submitted to KHRG. Additional orders can be found
in previously published KHRG reports, including
“Forced Labour Orders Since
the Ban: A Compendium of SPDC Order Documents Demanding Forced Labour Since
November 2000” (KHRG #2002-01, 8/2/02), and
“SPDC & DKBA Orders to
Villages: Set 2001-A” (KHRG #2001-02, 18/5/01) .
Structure of the report
In order to make it easier to find orders on specific topics we have divided them into thematic sections such as ‘General Forced Labour’ and ‘Extortion of Money, Food and Materials’. Where an order could fit in more than one section, such as a demand for both forced labour and money, we have categorised it based on the aspect that would be most important to the villagers; for example, an order demanding both forced labour and money would be placed under ‘General Forced Labour’. All the orders were issued by SPDC military units and authorities except where otherwise noted; DKBA and KPA orders have been placed in the ‘DKBA and KPA Letters’ section. The sections are listed and explained below.
General Forced Labour: This section includes orders for forced labour at Army camps, on roads, portering, and many other forms of forced labour, and related documents. Demands for bullock carts, boats and elephants are also included here, because these demands implicitly demand the forced labour of the owner/driver of the cart, boat or elephant.
Forced Labour Supplying Materials: This section includes orders indirectly calling for forced labour by demanding materials from villagers which require intensive labour to produce and deliver. For example, demands for hundreds of thatch roofing shingles, tons of logs, or quantities of firewood or bamboo force villagers to do hard labour cutting, gathering, preparing and then delivering these materials to Army camps. In contrast demands for rice, pigs, money and other goods are not included in this section because they are more a matter of dispossessing villagers of their belongings; they are included in the section ‘Extortion of Money, Food and Materials’.
Set to a Village I: All of these orders were sent by SPDC and DKBA military units to a single village, ‘Village A’, in Papun District between August 2002 and October 2002. Many of the orders are direct or indirect demands for forced labour. Rather than mixing these orders in with the others, we have separated them out to give a chronological picture of the stream of demands a village receives over the space of a few months.
Set to a Village II: These orders were sent to ‘Village B’ in Papun District from April 2002 to October 2002. They are a mix of demands for forced labour, money, food, and intelligence. They are separated out here to provide a second example of the demands faced by a single village.
Set to a Village III: All of these orders were sent to ‘Village C’ in Thaton District by various SPDC authorities and the DKBA between February 2002 and August 2002. As with ‘Set to a Village II’ the orders are a mix of demands, and they provide another example of a stream of demands to a single village.
Set to a Village IV: These orders were sent to ‘Village D’ in Dooplaya District by SPDC military authorities, Village Tract Peace and Development Councils and the Karen Peace Army between February 2002 and September 2002. Most of the orders are demands for forced labour.
Extortion of Money, Food and Materials: This section contains orders which use implicit or explicit threats to demand cash, rice, livestock and various other goods from the villagers, usually with no payment whatsoever.
Crop Quotas: These are orders related to the rice quotas which the SPDC forces all farmers to hand over every year for less than half the market price. No exemptions are granted for bad years or natural disasters and the system is fraught with corruption, driving many farmers into starvation or off their land.
Restrictions on Movement and Activity: These orders prohibit villagers from going anywhere outside their villages without passes issued by the authorities, and force them to register any guests in their homes. They also restrict the transport of food to and from villages and ban villagers from cutting wood for their own use, even while other orders demand that they cut logs for the Army and deliver their rice to Army camps.
Demands for Intelligence: These are sent to village heads ordering them to come and report intelligence information on all activities of their villagers and resistance movements in the area. Several of the orders demand that village heads provide ‘register lists’ of all families, crop acreages, schools, health clinics, monasteries and churches for military intelligence purposes.
Education and Health: This section includes orders for villagers to provide materials, money and forced labour to build schools and clinics, to go for teacher training courses and to receive vaccinations.
Summons to ‘Meetings’: These orders call village elders to come to Army camps to meet with the military or SPDC authorities. The purpose is often unspecified, but at these ‘meetings’ the officers usually dictate demands for forced labour and materials, restrict the activities of villagers and issue threats.
DKBA and KPA Letters: All of the orders issued by the DKBA and the KPA have been placed in this section, with the exception of DKBA orders which have appear in the sections ‘Set to a Village I’, ‘Set to a Village II’ and ‘Set to a Village III’, and two KPA orders which appear in ‘Set to a Village IV’. The content of these orders is similar to those issued by the SPDC military and authorities. We have divided them into 6 subsections: DKBA Recruitment, DKBA General Forced Labour, DKBA Demands for Materials and Money, DKBA Restrictions, DKBA Meetings, and KPA Letters.
Within each of the above sections, we have sorted the orders chronologically from the oldest to the most recent. Orders with no indication of date have been placed at the end of each section. Beside each Order Number heading we have given its district of origin (Toungoo, Papun, Nyaunglebin, Thaton, Pa’an, or Dooplaya) in parentheses.
Notes on the text of the orders
Most of these orders were handwritten, some typed, and carbon-copied or copied on a cyclostyling machine if sent to more than one village. Many of them have been produced as form letters for distribution to many villages, with the village name and any other specific details written in afterwards by hand. The orders were written in Burmese with the exception of some of those issued by the DKBA or KPA; under each DKBA or KPA order we have indicated the language used.
We have attempted to accurately reproduce the visual page layout of each order, and underlining, etc. are as they appear in the order. ‘Stamp:’ gives the translation of the rubber-stamped unit identifier affixed to many of the orders, while ‘[Sd.]’ denotes the usually illegible signature of the issuing officer or official. The language of many of the orders sounds awkward because Burmese grammar is very different from English; for example, the ordering of phrases within a sentence is almost opposite, sentences are often very long and convoluted, and personal subject and object pronouns are often omitted in Burmese. We have translated the words and expressions as directly as possible, though we have sometimes had to make minor changes in the sequence of words for the wording to make sense and to have the exact same meaning in English. Moreover, many SPDC Army officers and Non-Commissioned Officers are semi-illiterate so they write with terrible grammar and frequent mistakes, and misspell place names and people’s names. Where necessary, we have added notes in italics in square brackets for clarification, but all text is as it appears in the orders. All text not in square brackets is in the text of the document itself.
To protect people and their villages against retaliation, we have blanked out the names of people, villages, Army camps, Army officers and other details where these could be used to track the villages involved. These have been replaced with ‘xxxx’, ‘yyyy’, ‘aaaa’ etc. We have generally used ‘xxx’ for numerals and general information, ‘xxxx’, ‘yyyy’, ‘zzzz’, ‘wwww’, ‘vvvv’, etc. for place names, and ‘aaaa’, ‘bbbb’, ‘cccc’, etc. for people’s names. When an order refers to several people or places, we have assigned each person and place a specific string (‘yyyy’, ‘cccc’, etc.) to keep the references consistent and avoid confusion. In blanking out names we have often left the honorifics in place: for example, in Burmese ‘Daw’ is used for married women and ‘Ma’ for young unmarried women, while ‘U’ is for older or respected men, ‘Ko’ and ‘Maung’ for men close to the writer’s age, younger men or to indicate a lower level of respect. In Sgaw Karen, ‘Saw’ or ‘Pa’ are prefixes for men and boys and ‘Naw’ for women and girls regardless of marital status.
In Burmese, numerals are usually written in parentheses; in the translations these have been omitted in most cases where they would not be used in English. As in the originals, all numeric dates are shown in dd/mm/yy or dd/mm format. Some orders use Burmese dates: the year 1364 is the period from April 2002-April 2003, the months begin each new moon and are divided into the moon’s ‘waxing’ and ‘waning’ phases. We have noted the equivalent Gregorian calendar date where it is not already specified.
Most of the orders were issued by local SPDC Army commanders and Peace & Development Councils (PDCs), which are local-level SPDC administration at the Township, Village Tract and Village levels. While the Township and often Village Tract PDCs consist of SPDC officials under direct military control, the Village PDC chairperson and members are appointed, often against their will, by the local military. Most orders are addressed to the ‘Chairperson’, who is the SPDC-appointed Chairperson of the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC), and/or the ‘Secretary’ of the same VPDC. This council, consisting of a Chairperson, Secretary, and Members, is supposed to administer the village for the SPDC, which mainly consists of arranging whatever the Army and the higher-level PDCs demand. Other orders are addressed to the ‘Village Head’ or ‘Head’, who is head of the village elders, and is often the same as the VPDC Chairperson. If a village fails to comply with an order, the Chairperson or Village Head is usually the first to be punished by being arrested and beaten or detained for ransom; this is what is meant by threatening phrases such as “if you fail it will be your responsibility”.
Village heads have to spend so much time supervising the forced labour of their villagers and running back and forth to the Army camp whenever summoned by the officers that it is difficult for them to find time to farm their own fields. Moreover, whenever the Army demands money, livestock or goods, it is difficult for the village heads to get it from the villagers so they often end up paying for it themselves. Finally, the village head is at constant risk of arrest, interrogation and torture if he/she fails to comply with a single order or if there is any resistance activity near the village. Therefore, most villagers, especially in or near conflict areas, are too afraid to be a village head. Some villages now rotate their village heads every month if they cannot find anyone willing to take the responsibility. Another solution which is now used by many villages is to choose women as village heads, because the villagers feel that women, particularly elderly women, will be detained and tortured less often than a male headman would be. This is somewhat true, because Burmese culture requires that the young show great respect to parents and elders, and many Burmese officers feel intimidated when dealing with elderly women who remind them of their mothers; however, many of them will still not hesitate to detain or torture an elderly village headwoman. Some of the orders address the village headwoman colloquially as ‘Mother’, and the sender sometimes refers to himself as ‘Son’. Other terms such as ‘Uncle’ and ‘Auntie’ are usually terms of respect for elders or commanders, not actual blood relations.
At the village level, the ‘Chairperson’ is usually victimised by the local military; however, at the village tract and township levels the ‘Chairperson’ is often a corrupt SPDC appointee who works closely with the local military. The local Army often dictates demands to the Township or Village Tract PDC leaders, who then divide the demands among the villages and issue the written orders; this is why many of the orders to village heads are sent by village tract heads, but merely repeat the direct demands of the Army. The orders often contain phrases such as ‘in the Elder’s village’ or ‘the Elder yourself must come’; ‘Elder’ here is our translation of the gender-neutral term ‘Lu Gyi Min’, a reference to the village elder who receives the letter, and though it may sound awkward it is the closest term we have been able to find in English. In some past KHRG reports this was translated as ‘Gentleman/Gentlemen’, but we have discarded this because the Elder being addressed is frequently a woman.
Many orders call for ‘loh ah pay’, a Burmese term referring to a traditional practice of voluntarily contributing one’s labour for small village or temple projects in order to earn Buddhist merit; however, the labour demanded in these orders is forced under threat and is not actually ‘loh ah pay’ at all. Rather than translate this misuse of the term, we have left it intact where it occurs in the orders. The term ‘wontan’ also appears frequently; we have translated this literally as ‘servant’, and it is used by the SPDC to refer to porters and other forced labourers. ‘Operation servants’ are forced labour porters for frontline operations. Many of the orders demand that the village head ‘bring information’ or ‘report information’ to the Army camp; this is a summons for the village head to report intelligence on opposition movements near the village, any visitors to the village, and all activities of the villagers. Reference is made to ‘servants’ fees’, also known as ‘porter fees’; these are supposedly monies which the Army can use to hire or feed forced labourers, but in practice they are simply routine extortion fees which villagers must pay to all Army battalions in their area, and the money is kept by the officers. Many orders contain phrases like “if you fail it is your responsibility” or “we will not take any responsibility for your village”; these are threats that village elders will be arrested and detained under torture or houses will be looted and/or burned for failure to comply with the order. Some Battalions in the orders call themselves ‘Frontline’ battalions, a standard designation indicating that they operate in conflict areas.
Some of the orders from Dooplaya District bear stamps of the Western Command (Orders #103, 181, 585, and 599) normally based in Rakhine State. For several years now, strategic operations command units from Western Command have been based in Toungoo District and southern Dooplaya District, and these units are under that command.
You may scroll down sequentially through the report, or click on a heading to go directly to that section (to see the maps you must click on 'Map 1' or 'Map 2' below).
Map
1:
Burma, showing military commands
General Forced Labour (Orders #1-150)
Forced Labour Supplying Materials (#150-191)
Set to a Village I: Village A, Papun District (#192-200)
Set to a Village II: Village B, Papun District (#201-226)
Set to a Village III: Village C, Thaton District (#227-241)
Set to a Village IV: Village D, Dooplaya District (#242-251)
Extortion of Money, Food, and Materials (#252-335)
Restrictions on Movement and Activity (#347-354)
Demands for Intelligence (#355-426)
Summons to ‘Meetings’ (#443-652)
DKBA General Forced Labour (#654-685)
DKBA Demands for Materials and Money (#686-719)
Appendix A: The Village Act and the Towns Act
Appendix B: SPDC Orders ‘Banning’ Forced Labour
SPDC State Peace & Development Council, military junta ruling Burma
PDC Peace & Development Council, SPDC local-level administration
VPDC Village Peace & Development Council (abbreviated ‘Ya Ya Ka’ or ‘Ya Ah Pa’ in Burmese)
TPDC Township Peace & Development Council (abbreviated ‘Ma Ya Ka’ or ‘Ma Ah Pa’ in Burmese)
IB Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers fighting strength
LIB Light Infantry Battalion (SLORC/SPDC), usually about 500 soldiers fighting strength
LID Light Infantry Division (SLORC/SPDC), made up of 10 Light Infantry Battalions
Company Military unit of about 100 soldiers, though often understrength in SPDC Army
Column Combination of Companies, assembled for operations; usually 100-300 soldiers
Camp Army base or outpost; from remote hill posts of 10 soldiers to Battalion HQ camps of several hundred soldiers
KNU Karen National Union, main Karen opposition group
KNLA Karen National Liberation Army, army of the KNU
DKBA Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Karen group allied with the SPDC
KPA Karen Peace Army, a small group under SPDC control in Dooplaya District
Nga Pway ‘Ringworm’, derogatory SPDC slang for KNU/KNLA
loh ah pay Voluntary labour to make merit, but used by SPDC for most forms of forced labour
set tha ‘Messengers’; forced labour as errand-runners, messengers, and for some odd jobs
wontan ‘Servant(s)’, used by SPDC officers to mean forced labourers, usually porters
Kyat Burmese currency; US$1=6 Kyat at official rate, 800+ Kyat at current market rate
Viss Unit of weight measure; one viss is 1.6 kilograms or 3.5 pounds
Kyat Tha 16 grams; 100 kyat tha equals 1 viss
Pyi Volume of uncooked rice equal to 8 small condensed milk tins; about 2 kg / 4.4 lb
Bowl Volume of uncooked rice same as a pyi
Tin Also ‘big tin’, volume of rice or paddy of 8 pyi; about 17 kg / 37 lb of husked rice
Basket Volume of rice or paddy equal to 2 Big Tins
Taun Burmese unit of measurement equalling 1.5 feet or ½ metre (elbow to fingertip)
Twa Burmese unit of measurement equalling 8-9 inches or 20-22 cm (one handspan)
U Burmese honorific prefix for older or respected men
Ko, Maung Burmese honorific prefix for younger or less respected men
Saw, Pa Sgaw Karen prefix for men and boys
Daw Burmese honorific prefix for married women
Ma Burmese honorific prefix for younger unmarried women
Naw Sgaw Karen prefix for women and girls
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