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General Forced Labour

 

 

 

Forced labour constitutes the most pervasive and burdensome abuse inflicted on villagers by SPDC military units and civil authorities.  The orders below give some indication of how frequent the demands for all kinds of labour can be for villagers.  These orders include demands for villagers to porter rations to Army camps, provide labour on roads, carry munitions and supplies for mobile Army columns, forced labour building and maintaining Army camps, acting as unarmed sentries, military messengers and general servants at Army camps, and other various forms of labour.  Orders demanding bullock carts, boats or elephants for use by the Army have also been included because such orders implicitly force the owners to go along and do forced labour driving the bullock team, boat or elephant (see Orders #8, 28, 30, 60, 67, and 111 as well as others).  In addition to these direct forms of forced labour, villagers are also ordered to provide building materials and other such things to the Army.  Producing and transporting these materials is forced labour in itself, but these orders have been separated out and included in the next section, ‘Forced Labour Supplying Materials’.  Orders demanding that village heads and others run to Army camps to report intelligence or deliver food or labourers, included in other sections of this report, can also in their own way be considered forms of forced labour.

 

The order with perhaps the heaviest 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.

 

Each of the orders in this section demands from one to more than 100 villagers at a time for forced labour.  Orders specifying one or only a few people are usually for rotating shifts of forced labour as messengers or general servants at Army camps, or as porters for mobile patrols.  Demands for larger-scale projects, such as carrying rations to camps or road labour, often specify a total number of people per village (for example Orders #41 and 58) or demand one person from each family in a village (see Orders #5 and 91).  While some orders demand only men (such as Order #47) or specifically request women, most do not discriminate by gender.  Heavy demands for forced labour coupled with the necessity of working a field means that some families have no choice but to send their children.  SPDC officers usually do not hesitate to force the children to perform the same labour as the adults.  Occasionally they prefer adults because they can do more work and issue orders specifying this (see Order #89).

 

Many orders do not specifically state what type of labour the villagers will be forced to perform.  These orders are often for forced labour as servants, messengers, sentry duty or general maintenance at an Army camp.  Some orders do specifically order villagers to carry Army supplies (Orders #60 and 68) or to build structures at Army camps (Order #68 and 102).  Orders demanding labour for larger projects are usually more specific; for example orders demanding forced labour on roads (Orders #1, 14, 46, 49, 102, 115, 126, 136, 142, and 143) and on bridges (Orders #36 and 115).  Most of the roads in Karen State are poorly built dry season roads that wash out every rainy season and have to be rebuilt with forced labour every year.  Villagers are often also forced to clear wide fields of fire along both sides of the roads used by the Army.  This usually involves cutting brush and tall grass as well as taking out tree stumps (for example Orders #4, 37, 81, 86 and 134).  These “killing zones” are intended to make it difficult for resistance forces to landmine the roads or ambush Army supply convoys.  They also make it more difficult for people, including internally displaced villagers, to cross the roads without being detected.  Order #121 demands that the villagers return to clear a roadside a second time because the Army was “not satisfied” with the work “we ordered”.  Orders #36 and 116 demand villagers to act as unarmed sentries on rotating 24-hour or 48-hour shifts every few hundred metres along the road.  Villagers must also build the sentry huts for this purpose (Order #119).  The villagers are then supposed to notify the nearest Army camp if they see anyone on the road, and they are held responsible and punished if anything subsequently happens along the road.

 

Following the SPDC’s decision in 1998 to drastically cut back the rations sent to Army units, more and more farmland is being seized from villagers who are then forced to work the land to grow food for the Army.  Order #54 is entitled ‘Agreement Allowing Work on the Army’s Fields’ and is basically an ‘agreement’ forced on the villagers to farm their own fields for the benefit of the Army.  The order specifies how much land to work and how much paddy must be harvested and given to the Army.

 

Many of the following orders refer to forced labour as ‘loh ah pay’, a Burmese term meaning voluntary community work such as clearing a path next to a village or repairing a Buddhist temple.  By definition, ‘loh ah pay’ cannot be demanded by an Army or a distant central government, it has to be initiated within the local community.  The orders below make it clear that none of the labour demanded is voluntary and much of it is demanded under threat, either explicit or implicit.  Some of the orders threaten village elders with physical punishments if they fail to send ‘loh ah pay’, or dictate punishments after labourers have run away.  Rather than attempt to translate ‘loh ah pay’ we have left it as it is in the orders.  Some orders also refer to forced labourers as ‘wontan’ (‘servants’), a term more commonly used to refer to government civil servants, although none of the labourers demanded in the orders were paid or compensated in any way.  ‘Sit seh nyay wontan’ (‘Military operations servants’) is used to refer specifically to frontline forced labour porters for Army columns, while ‘emergency’ labour usually means ad hoc portering to carry rations and supplies to Army posts.  Another type of labour is called ‘set tha’ (‘messenger’), which essentially means forced labour as military messengers, general servants, errand-runners and occasional sentries at Army camps.  Most villages are forced to send one or more people each day on a rotating basis for this form of forced labour at every nearby Army camp.  It is usually these villagers performing ‘set tha’ forced labour who have to deliver the order letters in this report to the villages; this explains phrases such as “send the money with this messenger” or “come immediately with this set tha”.

 

Many local military units and lower-level officers send their demands for forced labour directly to the village heads of each village in the area, but some higher-level officers and military units use the heads of the village nearest their camp or the village tract head as a conduit.  The orders are sent to the head and it is left to him or her to allocate the demands to the villages in the area.  This is why some of the orders below for forced labour are addressed from a village or village tract head to another village head.  Once the order is received it is usually the village head who must decide which villagers to send to fill the quota demanded by the Army.  Many villages use a system of rotating the labour among the families in the village, allowing the burden to be spread as evenly as possible.  Even with this system there are so many different forms of forced labour demanded from the villages by the Army units and SPDC authorities, that most families have to send someone once every week or two. 

 

Some of the orders, such as road building or fencing an Army camp, are on an ad hoc basis while other orders demand villagers on a ‘permanent’ or ‘rotating’ basis.  This means that the villagers must provide a certain number of villagers on a rotation of a few days to a week (see Order #6).  Villagers must often take along their own rice and stay at the Army camp for the duration of their rotation while doing labour as messengers, sentries, building and maintaining buildings, bunkers, trenches and fences, clearing scrub, cutting and hauling firewood, hauling water, short-distance portering and other duties that are demanded of them.  They are usually not released until their replacements arrive.  Women often go because the men do not dare to face the soldiers (when soldiers get angry at men they immediately accuse them of being ‘rebels’), and children often go so their parents can continue working in their fields.  When villagers go for ad hoc labour they are often kept much longer than the originally specified time, and rotational labourers are often kept working longer than their shift because the village fails to send the replacement on time.  Villages often fail to send replacements on time for ‘permanent’ rotational workers because no one is available, and this results in orders from the Army to “come and replace the servants” with fresh people or to send food for workers whose food has run out.  The Army will usually not release the labourers to come home until their replacements arrive; for example, Order #22 states, “Starting from tomorrow [you] must send 2 people.  [We] Will release the present 2 people when those 2 people arrive, you are informed.”  The table in Order #111 shows a good example of forced labour being rotated between villages in a village tract; in this example the demand is for bullock carts, but similar rotations are used for many forms of forced labour.

 

Orders for road building or clearing of brush often only give the location and length of road which must be completed and a deadline, and it is left up to the village head to decide how many villagers to send to get the work completed on time.  The village heads are sometimes ordered to personally accompany the forced labourers to the worksite (using language such as “Chairperson yourself must come and bring them”).  This is so the officers can simply order the work done and leave the elders to supervise the work, in full knowledge that if the work is not satisfactory the elders will be arrested and punished.

 

None of the labour demanded in the orders below is voluntary, but done under the direct or implied threat that village elders or villagers will face serious punishment if they fail to comply.  In addition to threats, villagers are fined for failing to show up for work.  Sometimes this is stated as a fine (Orders #109 and 131), while other times the military or civil authority claims that they had to hire other people in the villagers’ place and now the village must reimburse them for the cost (Order #131).  Army and SPDC authorities usually respond to any tardiness in complying with orders for forced labour by sending angry and threatening letters, often written in red ink, and sometimes accompanied by a bullet (see Order #113), until after the second or third letter the village has little option but to comply with the demands.  If the village still does not comply they could face the real possibility of very serious punishment which usually includes the arrest and torture of villagers.  Threats for failing to comply with an order are often vague, such as “If you fail it will be the Chairperson’s responsibility”, but sometimes they are more specific: for example, Order #44 states, “If [they] don’t come to carry by 15-3-2002, the village females/village males from the Elder’s village are not allowed to come to Bawgali and must move quickly from the villages where [they] are now staying, you are hereby warned and informed.”  In Order #72 the Camp Commander writes, “If the ‘loh ah pay’ do not come, we will declare that [your village is] a rebel village.”  The area of Karen State where this order was written, Dooplaya District, was the scene of a wave of village destruction and relocations during 2002 on the pretense that the villages were assisting the KNU, and a threat like this would have been taken very seriously.

 

Forced labourers sometimes flee before their shift or work assignment is finished and this makes SPDC officers particularly angry.  Orders are then sent to the village demanding a fine or that the villager be identified and brought back for punishment and to serve out their shift.  In Order #23, the village head was ordered to send more workers to finish the work, while Order #114 tells the village head to send rice packs with his villagers so they will not get hungry and go home early.  Order #122 states, “Today the two rotational messengers went back at 20 minutes past 5 o’clock in the evening without fulfilling their duty.  The order we issued is equivalent to law, so matters like this will not be forgiven at all (at all) in the future, and the messengers who went back are hereby punished with 3 days of extra duty, you are informed.”  The Camp Commander goes on to re-emphasise, “Obey the orders you are issued as equivalent to law.”

 

Going for all this forced labour puts a heavy strain on the villagers, so they often try to get out of it by hiring others to go in their place or by paying bribes to the Army, which are often described as ‘paying to hire servants’.  Officers accept money for some forms of routine forced labour.  This money is usually pocketed by the officers who then demand the same labour from another village.  Eventually after asking the other villages in the area they come back to the first village and the villagers then have to perform the labour while also paying to ‘avoid’ it.  Something of a system has developed wherein villages begin paying more in order to avoid the ‘actual’ forced labour, first on an ad hoc basis and then on a routine basis, until this becomes a regular extortion ‘fee’.  The Army takes the money and then demands more labour on top and the process repeats itself.  This system has become so formalised in some villages that they now pay several types of weekly and monthly ‘servant fees’, ‘porter fees’, and ‘messenger fees’ to several Army camps, while simultaneously doing forced labour as servants, porters, and messengers at the camps.  Demands for these fees can be seen in the section ‘Extortion of Money, Food and Materials’ below.  Another money-making tactic used by many Army units is to demand more forced labour than they actually need, knowing that (or in some cases specifying that) only half of the workers will be sent and the villagers will pay money for the remainder.  On days when rotational forced labour like ‘set tha’ (‘messengers’) is not needed, instead of giving the villagers the day off the Army units usually order that money be paid for that day in lieu of labour. 

 

Some village heads have developed systems of hiring people, either locals or itinerant day labourers, to go in place of their villagers.  They collect the money for this from each household in the village.  Some village tract heads ordered by the Army to provide forced labourers from their village tracts automatically hire people to go in the place of the villagers and then send demands for the costs out to the villages under their control.  This is especially so in areas where the villages are small and scattered.  Villagers who cannot pay all of the ‘fees’ which pile up have to go for the actual labour.  Some families do the easiest labour while gradually selling off their livestock and belongings to pay the fees to avoid harder labour, but for poorer families the debt load often becomes too much and they are left with little option but to flee the village.

 

Most of these orders were issued between January 2002 and February 2003.  The continued distribution of these orders despite the SPDC’s insistence that it has prohibited the practice indicate the lack of any real action to stop forced labour.  Any one of these orders is enough evidence to prosecute an Army officer under Section 374 of the penal code, as the SPDC has claimed it will do, but despite the existence of tens of thousands of such orders not a single case has been brought since the SPDC’s prohibition in November 2000.  Forty-four of the orders in this section have been issued since the beginning of October 2002, when the ILO’s Liaison Officer took up her post in Rangoon.  Although many orders are still specific in their demands for forced labour, more and more SPDC officers appear to be issuing their demands orally to village heads at meetings at Army camps.  The notes at the bottom of many of the orders in the ‘Summons to Meetings’ section detail the forced labour that was demanded of the village heads at these meetings.

 

This section contains many of the orders for forced labour, but more can also be found in the sections ‘Forced Labour Supplying Materials’, ‘Set to a Village I’, ‘Set to a Village II’, ‘Set to a Village III’, ‘Set to a Village IV’, ‘Education’, and ‘DKBA & KPA Letters’.  Orders indirectly requiring forced labour are included in all the sections of this report.
 

Order #1 (Dooplaya)

       Stamp:

Township Peace and Development Council

          Kya In Seik Gyi Town                             Township Peace and Development Council

                                                                                Kya In Seik Gyi Township, Kya In Seik Gyi Town

                                                                                Letter No.  x / x - x / Oo x (              )

                                                                                Date: 2001 December   21

 

            To

            Chairperson / Village Head

                        xxxx    village 

 

Subject:            Invitation to a meeting

 

 [The] Matter of resurfacing the road  regarding this matter a coordinating meeting will be held according to the agenda below and [you] are invited to attend the meeting.

 

Program

                                    Date:    (24 -12 -2001)

                                    Time:    10 o'clock in the morning / afternoon

                                    Place:      TPDC office            

 

                                                                                                                   [Sd.]

                                                                                                        (for)  Chairperson

                                                                                 (Saw Ku Ree, Deputy Township Department Head)

Copies - Office

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #2 (Toungoo)

 

                       Stamp:                                      To:

Village Peace and Development Council                  Chairperson/Secretary

             Than Daung Township                                xxxx [village]                                 Date: 1-1-02

                Bawgali Gyi Tract

 

Subject:     The matter of sending loh ah pay

 

               In accordance with the order of the Deputy Battalion Commander from Bawgali Gyi Army Camp [given] at 5 o’clock this evening, send without fail 3 loh ah pay people from xxxx village who must follow the bulldozer on 2-1-02 at 7 o’clock in the morning, you are informed.

 

                                                                                                                  [Sd.]

                                                                                                   Stamp: (for) Chairperson

                                                                                       Village Peace and Development Council

                                                                                      Bawgali Gyi Tract - Than Daung Township

 

[‘Follow the bulldozer’ means to ride along on the bulldozer to deter the KNLA from laying landmines to destroy it.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #3 (Toungoo)

 

                                        Stamp:

            [Illegible]  Peace and Development Council
                             Than Daung Township

                                Bawgali Gyi Tract

 

                                                  To:

                                                       Chairperson

                                                       xxxx [village]

                                                       Date: 2-1-2002

 

Subject:            The matter of sending loh ah pay servants

 

      Regarding the above subject,    send 1 loh ah pay servant person from the Elder’s village and Chairperson yourself must come, you are informed.

      Must come today along with the loh ah pay servant.

(2-1-2002)

 

                                                                                                              [Sd.] 2-1-2001 [sic]

                                                                                                              Stamp: Chairperson

                                                                                               Village Peace and Development Council

                                                                                              Bawgali Gyi Tract, Than Daung Township

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #4 (Thaton)

 

         To:

              Heads

              xxxx village

 

Subject:       Informing [you] to cut the bushes of the forest along the car road

 

1.  Regarding the above subject, to cut the bushes of the forest along the car road, [the villagers] from xxxx village have to cut the bushes of the forest completely on 4-1-2002 at the place where you are responsible, you are informed.

 

2.  If [you] fail, it is the responsibility of the Head.

 

3.  The Head yourself must come to xxxx Camp to report that the cutting of the bushes from the forest is finished, you are informed.

 

Date:    3-1-2002                                                                                    [Sd.]

Place:   xxxx [Army] Camp                                                        Camp Commander

                                                                                                  xxxx [Army] Camp

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #5 (Papun)

 

                  Stamp:                                  To:                                                                               Date: 8-1-02

Peace and Development Council                    Chairperson, xxxx village

           Papun Township

               yyyy village

 

Subject:   Loh ah pay matter.

      Tomorrow on 9-1-02 cut [the bushes] at the side of Ma Htaw-Ku Seik car road, one person from each house to carry out loh ah pay, you are informed.

 

(Note)

If [you] fail,                                                                                                           [Sd.]

It is the responsibility of the Head                                                                        U aaaa

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #6 (Dooplaya)

 To:
       Village Head
        xxxx village                                                                                             Date: 11-1-2002

             As soon as [you] receive this letter, from the Elder’s village quickly gather five people for loh ah pay as guides, and come to send [them], you are informed.  Also arrange to change them every 3 days by rotation, letting [you] know and you are informed.  

 

                                                                                                                       [Sd.]

                                                                                                  Frontline #231 [IB], Column #x

 

______________________________________________________________________________

Order #7 (Papun)

               Stamp:                                  To:                                                                                   11-1-2002

#107 Light Infantry Battalion                      Chairperson

          #x Company                                    xxxx village

 

         Send 5 people for set tha [messengers] from xxxx village to yyyy village to arrive this evening, you are informed.

 

                                                                                                                               [Sd.]

                                                                                                           Stamp: Company Commander

                                                                                                                       #x Company

                                                                                                           #117 Light Infantry Battalion

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

 Order #8 (Papun)

 

                  Stamp:                                                                                                                Date: 12-1-02

Peace and Development Council

    K’Dtaing Dtee Village Tract

 

                                                 To:

                                                      Head     

                                                      xxxx [village]

 

                                                                               Subject:

                                                                               The matter of calling bullock carts for water

 

      #36 Battalion from yyyy [Army] Camp needs bullock carts for water, so send water bullock carts to arrive on 13-1-02 at 6 o’clock in the morning to yyyy Army Camp, you are informed.

 

Note: Without fail.

 

                                                                                                            [Sd.]

                                                                                                  Stamp: [unclear]

 

[On the back this order is addressed “To: Head, xxxx [village] (Emergency letter), (Urgent)”.  The village head did not send the requested bullock carts and was sent Order #9 the next day.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #9 (Papun)

 

                 Stamp:                                                                                                             Date: 13-1-02

Peace and Development Council

    K’Dtaing Dtee Village Tract

                                                  To:

                                                       Head

                                                       xxxx [village]

 

Subject:     Send bullock carts for water

 

       Regarding the above subject, send bullock carts for water and the Head must come without fail, you are informed.

 

Note:

      Do not fail.  The Head must come with the set tha [messenger] who brought this letter. 

 

                                                                                                             [Sd.]

                                                                                             Stamp: (for) Chairperson

                                                                                  Village Peace and Development Council

                                                                              K’Dtaing Dtee Village Tract, Papun Township

 

[On the back this order is addressed “To Head, xxxx [village], (Urgent)”.  This order was sent the day after Order #8 above.  Note in this order the village head is ordered to come.  He or she will probably be scolded for not sending the bullock carts on the previous day.  The order was received in the morning and the village head sent the carts in the afternoon.  The bullock carts and drivers had to go and carry water for three days.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #10 (Papun)

 

                 Stamp:

Frontline #38 Infantry Battalion

    Column #x Headquarters

 

To:

     U aaaa

     xxxx village                                                                                                                        Date: 14-1-2002

 

Subject:     Demanding an elephant for help

 

     In xxxx Army Camp, 1 truck has fallen down off the side of the road and rolled over.  To pull it back onto the road, send 1 elephant, rope for pulling and an elephant keeper from the chairperson’s village to xxxx Army Camp today on 14-1-2002, asking for help. 

 

                                                                                                                     [Sd.]

                                                                                                         Column Commander

                                                                                                 Frontline #38 Infantry Battalion

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Order #11 (Papun)

 

                                                                                                                                Stamp:

                                                                                                              Frontline #38 Infantry Battalion

                                                                                                                    Column #x Headquarters

To:

     Chairperson

     xxxx village                                                                                   Date: 15-1-2002

 

Subject:      Informing [you] to send set tha [messengers]

 

     Regarding the above subject, send 2 set tha [messengers] from xxxx village to xxxx Army Camp to arrive today, you are informed.

 

                                                                                                                     [Sd.]

                                                                                                    (for)  Intelligence Officer

                                                                                                       #38 Infantry Battalion  

 

                                                                                                                  Stamp:

                                                                                                  Frontline #38 Infantry Battalion

                                                                                                       Column #x Headquarters

 

______________________________________________________________________________ 

Order #12 (Toungoo)

                     Stamp:                                              To:

Village Peace and Development Council                        Chairperson/Secretary

            Than Daung Township                                       xxxx village

               Bawgali Gyi Tract                                                                                                               Date: 20-1-02

 

Subject:            Must send loh ah pay to follow the bulldozer

 

     In accordance with the letter of Sergeant aaaa, assistant to the IB #39 Deputy Battalion Commander at Bawgali Gyi Army Camp, the Chairperson/Secretary yourself must bring 1 loh ah pay person from the Elder’s village to Bawgali Gyi monastery for the bulldozer on 21-1-02, at 7 o’clock Monday morning.  If [you] want to know everything, quickly contact Sergeant aaaa at the monastery, you are informed.

 

                                                                                                               [Sd.]

                                                                                               Stamp: (for) Chairperson

                                                                                    Village Peace and Development Council

                                                                                   Bawgali Gyi Tract, Than Daung Township

 

______________________________________________________________________________ 

 

Order #13 (Toungoo)

 

                     Stamp:                                              To:

Village Peace and Development Council                        Chairperson/Secretary

           Than Daung Township                                        xxxx village

              Bawgali Gyi Tract                                                                                                           Date: 20-1-02

 

Subject:             Must send loh ah pay to follow the bulldozer

 

      In accordance with the letter of Sergeant aaaa, assistant to the IB #39 Deputy Battalion Commander at Bawgali Army Camp, Chairperson (or) Secretary yourself send 1 loh ah pay person from the Elder’s village to Bawgali Gyi to arrive on 21-1-02 at 7 o’clock Monday morning, you are informed.

 

                                                                                                                 [Sd.]

                                                                                                  Stamp: (for) Chairperson

                                                                                      Village Peace and Development Council

                                                                                     Bawgali Gyi Tract, Than Daung Township

 

[Although written slightly differently, this order is calling for the same labour as Order #12, but from a different village.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________

 

 Order #14 (Thaton)

 

               Stamp:

#207 Light Infantry Battalion

   Military Staff Department

 

Subject:     Calling a meeting for repairing the road / clearing the road

 

      Regarding the above subject, to discuss and coordinate, Chairpersons yourselves must come without fail to xxxx [Army] Camp on 23-1-2002 to arrive at 1200 hours, you are informed.  /  Must send 200 bamboo [pieces] and 300 thatch  [shingles] to arrive on 26-2-2002.

 

                                                                                                                        [Sd.] 22-1-02

                                                                                                                    Camp Commander

                                                                                                                         xxxx Camp

                                                                                                                     Frontline LIB #207

 

[On the back this order is addressed “xxxx [village], Chairperson”.  The meeting called for all of the villages near the yyyy-zzzz car road to go to work on the road.  The villagers who went to work on the road had to bring all their own food and tools.  The villagers began cutting the brush on 24/1/02 and the work took two and a half days to complete.  The repairs on the road were ordered so that the SPDC could send food to its Army units.  Similar orders were sent to several villages in the area.  This village sent the demanded bamboo and thatch on time.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________ 

 

Order #15 (Thaton) 

                Stamp:

#207 Light Infantry Battalion

   Military Staff Department 

 

               Subject:      Calling a meeting for repairing the road / clearing the road

 

      Regarding the above subject, to discuss and coordinate, Chairpersons yourselves must come without fail to xxxx [Army] Camp on 23-1-2002 to arrive at 1200 hours, you are informed.

 

                                                                                                                           [Sd.] 22-1-02

                                                                                                                      Camp Commander

                                                                                                                             xxxx Camp

                                                                                                                        Frontline LIB #207

 

[On the back this order is addressed “xxxx [village], Chairperson”.  This order is for the same meeting and road work as Order #14, although without the attached demand for bamboo and thatch.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________

Order #16 (Papun) 

To:

     Head (xxxx village)                                                                                            Date: 23-1-2002

 

                As soon as [you] receive this letter, from the Head’s village send quickly 5 pieces of wa boh bamboo [a species of giant bamboo] and 5 loh ah pay people to xxxx Army Camp, you are informed.  When this letter arrives to the Head note it, reply, and send the loh ah pay. 

 

                                                                                                                      [Sd.]

                                                                                                     Frontline IB#38 Column #1

                                                                                                                 xxxx Camp

 

[On the back this order is addressed: “To: xxxx village, Give it to the Head.”  Stamp: Frontline #38, Infantry Battalion, Date: 23/1.  Column #x Headquarters.]

 

______________________________________________________________________________

Order #17 (Papun)

              Stamp:                                                                      Frontline #36 Infantry Battalion

Frontline #36 Infantry Battalion                                                 K’Dtaing Dtee [Army] Camp

   Column #x Headquarters                                                       Letter No: xxx / xx / xxxx / Oo x

                                                                                                Date: Year 2002 January 23rd

 

            To:

                             Head          

                                    xxxx [village]            

                                                                       

 

Subject:         Come to meet with the Battalion Commander

 

1. The populace from the villages in the area of military operations under control of our battalion must wait systematically by the road as sentries, on the left/right sides of the [stretch of] road for which you are responsible, so that the rebels can’t lurk and shoot, and can’t plant landmines/tripwires for the [Army] supply vehicles, logging trucks and lorries which are going along the Ka Ma Maung-Papun car road.

 

2. [We] Want to discuss and coordinate about the above mentioned subject, so the village heads yourselves must come without fail to meet at xxxx Camp on 26-1-2002 at 11 o’clock, where the battalion commander is staying, you are informed.