Enduring Hunger and Repression: Food Scarcity, Internal Displacement, and the Continued Use of Forced Labour in Toungoo District
Food Security
"The villagers can't work properly. Why? It is because we can't work full time. Sometimes the SPDC demands set tha, or they demand that we carry their rations. We have to go and do loh ah pay at their Army camp. Sometimes we have to go twice a week, and sometimes we have to go once a week. If we have to go many times a year we cannot work for ourselves. We do not have time to do our jobs. It causes problems for our families. We have to work for them and we don't have enough time to work for ourselves. We have to do a lot of things, but we can't do them because we have to work for the SPDC. They force us to work. We have to go to porter and we have to go to do loh ah pay, so we can't work properly for ourselves."
"Saw Y'Gaw Ko" (M, 35), village head from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #132, 12/02)
Karen villagers in the hills of Toungoo District have traditionally lived as subsistence farmers. Their method of dry hill rice cultivation enables them to grow enough rice to see them through to the next harvest, with very little left to sell or barter. Villagers also usually have small plots where they grow vegetables to supplement their diet. They might also grow some limited cash crops like cardamom, betelnut, or fruit which they can sell or barter for other foodstuffs like salt. Most villagers also raise chickens, ducks and pigs. Under normal, peaceful conditions villagers rarely go without food for very long. This system, however, has been severely disrupted by the SPDC.
"The villagers here are doing hill fields. Sometimes, the SPDC demands loh ah pay, so we have to go. Some of the families have only one person [who is able to work], so they can't work in their hill fields. We can't work well so we so we can't work for ourselves properly. We don't have enough rice and paddy."
"Saw Ni Ko Win" (M, 44), village head from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #136, 12/02)
The struggle to find enough food has become perhaps the most important issue for villagers in Toungoo District, both for Nyein Chan Yay villagers and internally displaced villagers in the forest. Almost every villager interviewed by KHRG talked about not having enough food to feed his or her family. Only a very small proportion of villagers are able to get enough food for themselves and their families for the whole year. Most villagers live from day to day hoping that the harvest will be enough this year, or that they will be able to get enough money to buy rice to see them through until the next harvest.
"We can never work properly. The SPDC demands that we go over here and over there [for forced labour] so we don't have time to work [for themselves]. This is why we don't have enough food."
"Saw Heh Kay Law" (M, 32), v illage secretary from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #134, 12/02)
"We have no income. If we work, we can eat, if we don't work, we can't eat. They [the villagers] can't work properly because the SPDC demands loh ah pay very often or once or twice a month don't have enough food. We have no income. We have to rely on our cardamom. We get our money from [selling] cardamom. Some people owe people rice and they can't pay it back. Sometimes it causes problems. Some of the parents of the people who are doing hill fields are not well, so they have to go for loh ah pay."
"Saw L'Paw Wah" (M, 42), village secretary from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #137, 12/02)
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| This 54 year old villager has had difficulty finding enough food for herself after her son was executed by the Dam Byan Byaut Kya. [KHRG] |
In the Nyein Chan Yay villages the constant demands for forced labour have a very direct impact on the villagers' ability to have enough food [see 'Forced Labour']. Whenever villagers have to go for forced labour it is time that they cannot spend in their fields. By not spending enough time in their fields villagers are unable to plant as much as they normally would. They also do not have enough time to adequately watch over their crop to keep the animals and birds from eating it. At harvest time, if there is too much forced labour the villagers' are unable to harvest their entire crop before the animals eat it. To make up for the shortfall in the harvest, villagers usually try to sell some of their cash crops, poultry or livestock to buy rice. Some villagers may work for more well off villagers as day labourers in the fields or doing odd jobs in the village to get some money. However, the villagers see much of the money they intended to use to buy food going to the SPDC in the form of forced labour fees, fees for competitions or to pay for the officers' pork curry. In addition, the soldiers have stolen or simply killed most of the chickens, ducks and pigs that the villagers used to have, so they cannot sell them to get money [see 'Fees, Extortion and Looting' in 'Nyein Chan Yay Villages'].
"They [the villagers] can't work properly. The SPDC demands loh ah pay every month and now the weather is not good, so we don't have enough [food]. We can't cut our hill fields on time. We have to find it [more food] at the cardamom and dogfruit [harvest] times."
"Saw Cho Htwe" (M, 30), villager from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #139, 12/02)
"I have to go and work as a hired labourer. If people call me to go and build their house I get 500 Kyat per day. If I go and cut bamboo for a day, I get paid 500 Kyat. I'm already old. I am 78 years old. If I do not work no one will come and feed me. ... It is a problem but I have to just pretend to myself that I am happy."
"Saw Po Htun" (M, 78), internally displaced former village head from P– village, Than Daung township (Interview #175, 3/02)
"The villagers have to work fiery and live fiery [without peace]. It is because everything is expensive. We can't work well, so we do not get enough food. We can only make small hill fields. We do not get enough to eat. We can only ever get enough for one or two months ... If we don't have fruit [plantations], we have to go and do day labour at Kler Lah. We can get 250 Kyat per day."
"Saw No Poh" (M, 49), village head from M– village, Than Daung township (Interview #159, 3/02)
The upkeep of a hill field demands a lot of time of the villagers who tend to them. Particularly approaching the harvest season in November and December, villagers must spend much of their time in the fields to scare away the wild animals that come to eat the ripening paddy. The harvest season corresponds with the end of the rainy season, at which time the demands for forced labour are increased to repair the roads and bridges that were damaged or washed away by the monsoon rains. Compounding this are the travel restrictions which the SPDC often imposes on villagers going to their fields. These limit the amount of time which villagers can go to their fields. Sometimes the restrictions completely ban the villagers from leaving their villages [see 'Restrictions']. The restrictions also sometimes stipulate that the villagers may not sleep in their field huts. Some villagers' fields, especially relocated villagers, are very far from the village and can take hours to walk to. Without being able to sleep in their field huts, the villagers are only be able to spend a few hours a day in their fields and are completely unable to scare off any animals that come in the night to eat or trample the crops.
"Sometimes when we are harvesting, they [SPDC] come and demand that we go over here or over here. We have to leave our hill fields and the paddy is destroyed. When a lot of our paddy is destroyed, we don't have enough rice to eat."
"Saw Ni Ko Win" (M, 44), village head from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #136, 12/02)
Many villagers in Toungoo District grow cash crops on small plots of land so that they will have something to sell or barter to buy rice or other foodstuffs to see them through to the next rice harvest. The more common cash crops in the district are cardamom, betelnut, dogfruit, mangosteen, coffee and durian. These crops are easier to maintain than the rice fields, but villagers still find it difficult to have enough time to take care of them or to adequately harvest them when they become ripe. SPDC soldiers sometimes go to the plots when the villagers are not there and steal the fruit, cardamom or betelnut leaving little left for the villagers to harvest. Sometimes the trees are cut down or burned down by the soldiers. The villagers only get money if they can get their crops to a market to sell them and this is often difficult due to the travel restrictions placed on the villagers [see ' Restrictions' ]. In markets in the district the villagers must produce three to four viss (5-6.5 kgs. / 11-14 lbs.) of cardamom to buy a 50 kilogram (110 lbs.) sack of rice.
"We are not free to work for ourselves. We have to go and carry their rations and do set tha. We don't have enough time to work for ourselves, so we do not have enough food. ... We have to find paddy and rice, but we do not have enough. We have to find more. We have to go and barter our cardamom [in order to buy rice]. We sell our dogfruit and barter it as well. Even when we do this, we don't have enough food."
"Saw Y'Gaw Ko" (M, 35), village head from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #132, 12/02)
"There are only a few people who can grow enough food. There are many people who don't grow enough food, they have to buy it. They get money from their plantations. They can buy food after they get money from their plantations [by selling the harvest]."
"Saw Mya Thu" (M, 45), village tract secretary from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #138, 12/02)
"We have no income. We can get a little bit of money during the cardamom harvest, but it is not enough. They [the villagers] can work properly, but they don't get enough food."
"Saw Pa Say Lah" (M, 48), villager from L– village, Than Daung township (Interview #192, 12/02)
"We have to buy rice in Thauk Yay Ka village. We can get one sack of rice for every three or four viss [5-6.5 kgs. / 11-14 lbs.] of cardamom. Some people are poor and don't have any rice or any cardamom. They cannot do anything and they are faced with starvation. Some of them die."
"Saw Bee L'Koh" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #133, 12/02)
Most items are very expensive in the mountains in Toungoo District. The markets in the far north of Than Daung township were charging 4,500 Kyat for a sack of rice in May 2002, but in as little as six months, the price had doubled to 9,000 Kyat in December of the same year. The prices charged on basic items are twice as high, if not higher in the hills compared to what they are in the markets in Toungoo. In August 2003, a sack (50 kgs. / 110 lbs.) of rice was priced at 6,000 Kyat in Toungoo, while in Kler Lah the same bag would fetch 14,000 or 15,000 Kyat. The price hike is to cover the expenses incurred by the truck drivers as they must pass through no less than seven checkpoints before reaching Kler Lah. The soldiers occupying each of those checkpoints extort a little money as a toll, all of which in turn is passed onto the villagers in the hills. The increasing costs of living are approaching the point where very few villagers are able to buy enough food to feed themselves. Some of the poorer families only have enough food for one meal per day. Previously self-sufficient villagers have been forced to eat rice porridge with a few roots, leaves or bamboo shoots in it to get them through to the harvest. Villagers normally only eat this at the very end of the year if their harvest the previous year was not enough to get them through to the next harvest. In Toungoo District, many villagers are now forced to eat it at the beginning of the rainy season in June with the next harvest five to six months away. Some villagers are only able to eat once a day.
"This year in April and May, one sack [50 kgs. / 110 lbs.] of rice cost 4,500 Kyat, but now [in December, 2002] it costs 9,000 Kyat."
"Saw Bee L'Koh" (M, 35), villager from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #133, 12/02)
"We are faced with a lot of problems. The prices [of food] are increasing, so people can't [afford to] buy food to eat. Some of the poor people can only eat once a day."
"Saw Mya Thu" (M, 45), village tract secretary from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #138, 12/02)
"In Kler Lah one sack of rice costs 14-15,000 Kyat. In Taw Oo, it is only 6,000 [Kyat], but when it arrives in Kler Lah and Kaw Thay Der they charge 14-15,000 Kyat for it."
"Saw Ku Lu" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher (Interview #4, 8/03)
In a particularly disturbing move, the SPDC in Toungoo District has been periodically blocking the shipment of rice up to market villages in the hills [see ' Restrictions' ] . Many villagers, without the ability to grow enough rice, depend on this rice to feed their families. When the rice does come the SPDC forces the villagers to pay for a permit before they can buy the rice and limits the amount of rice that a villager can buy. The more rice a villager wants to buy, the more expensive the permit.
"They obstruct us when we have to go to buy rice. Sometimes they close [the roads when we] to go to buy rice. There is no stability for us."
"Saw Y'Gaw Ko" (M, 35), village head from xxxx village, Than Daung township (Interview #132, 12/02)
Internally displaced villagers face even more difficulties getting enough food to eat. Most of the villagers try to sneak back to their rice fields to tend them when there are no SPDC troops around. Others who have been pushed farther away from their fields, try to clear new fields on the sides of the hills. These fields are much smaller than the fields they would normally clear. Clearing and planting the fields can be very dangerous. The smoke from clearing and burning the brush can be seen for miles around, and the villagers stand out distinctly in their open fields on the sides of the hills, making easy targets for SPDC troops. The need to constantly be on the run from the SPDC Army patrols makes it difficult for villagers to have the time to work their fields. Sometimes villagers are forced to leave whole fields unharvested because SPDC troops were operating in the area at harvest time and the villagers were too afraid to go to their fields. At the completion of the 2002 harvest season (November to December) as many as forty or fifty hill fields were left unharvested in the area close to the Karenni State border. The establishment of the new SPDC Army camps at Ler Wah Moo Thwa Koh and Ler Htoo Day on the Toungoo to Mawchi car road prevented the displaced villagers in that area from harvesting 60-65%of the hill fields located there.
"There are only one or two people who get enough food. Most of the people can't get enough food because the SPDC is active and the people have to flee, so they cannot work for their food. The people who get enough food have to share with the people who do not get enough food."
"Saw Pa Kay Lah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from P– village, Tantabin township (Interview #85, 7/01)
"Most of the people do not get enough food. The people who get enough food would only be about one third [of the population]. Out of thirty people, only ten of them would get enough food."
"Saw Bway Htoo Lay" (M, 24), internally displaced villager from H– village, Than Daung township (Interview #150, 7/01)
"Each year they have to go to their hill fields with fear because they are close to the SPDC camp. They do not dare to go. This is wasting the villagers' time."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
"Some of the people can get enough rice, but some of them don't get enough food, because they can only cut a little hill field. If they don't get enough food, they have to go and buy rice."
"Saw Pa Say Lah" (M, 48), internally displaced villager from L– village, Than Daung township (Interview #192, 12/02)
"Because of the SPDC oppression, we don't have any money anymore. We have to work very hard so that we have enough to eat. ... We can't work well inside our own country because the SPDC oppresses us. ... Instead of harvesting 300 viss [490 kgs. / 1080 lbs.], some of the people only get 10 viss [16 kgs. / 36 lbs.]."
"Saw Hser Paw" (M, 25), internally displaced village head from G– village, Than Daung township (Interview #165, 3/02)
"They [villagers] cannot work in their hill fields in peace. They only have time to work in seven or eight hill fields out of every twenty. They cannot finish harvesting the other fields, so they must leave the paddy behind because the SPDC disturbs them. This year [2003], the villagers from xxxx [village] and yyyy [village] had to leave forty or fifty hill fields unharvested because the SPDC came and built their camps at Ler Wah Moo Thwa Koh and Ler Htoo Day."
"Saw Ku Lu" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher (Interview #4, 8/03)
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| These displaced villagers from Than Daung township are travelling to a nearby village to buy rice because they are unable to grow enough of their own. [KHRG] |
"They always have to stay in fear. They have to go and work, but at the same time, they need to listen to the situation. They have to go to their hill fields with fear. They go to their hill fields for one day and then they come back to their places for five days to listen about the situation, so that the time is wasted for them. They do not get as much as they should get with the hill fields that they do. For example, they should get 100 baskets of paddy from one hill field, but instead of getting 100 baskets of paddy, they only get ten or twenty baskets. Because of this, they have a problem with a lack of food. ... Most of the people who have to flee and stay like this are only one, two, or three hours away from [the SPDC camps]."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
A central component of the SPDC's strategy since 1999 has been a sustained effort to deprive the displaced villagers of their food supply, so they will be forced to come down out of the mountains. When the soldiers go into the mountains they target not only the villagers' rice storage barns but also the fields themselves. The soldiers go through the fields trampling or burning the crops just before or at harvest time. Alternatively, they place landmines in the fields so the villagers will be unable to harvest them. More recently, the soldiers have been sabotaging the fields before they have even been planted. A part of the rice growing cycle is that the villagers must cut down all the brush which has grown up in the field in January or February. The brush is then left to dry until March or April when it is burned. The ash provides the soil with some nutrients and also protects the seeds from being blown away after planting. SPDC columns have taken to burning the cut brush before it has completely dried. The brush then burns unevenly because much of it has not yet dried completely. The result is that the villagers can only use the parts of the field that did completely burn. This drastically cuts down the amount of area that can be planted and results in a much smaller harvest. Some villagers have moved to more remote areas to escape the SPDC patrols. These areas do not have very good soil for growing hill rice and the villagers are unable to get the same yields as before.
"Recently, when they [SPDC] came to Karen State, they came and burned the plantations. ... The paddy that we get is from doing small hill fields and hiding the paddy. They had their military operation campaign and burned everything."
"Saw Hla Kaw Wah" (M, 63), villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #93, 4/02)
"We don't get enough food. During the paddy harvest they come and destroy the paddy and the betelnut plantations so that we don't get enough food."
"Naw Ka Ya" (F, 19), internally displaced villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #127, 3/02)
"They have had to flee and stay to the south of the river. There are a lot of mountains. There is a lot of forest. They flee to stay there so that they can make their hill fields there. The soil there for their hill fields is not good, so they cannot get good paddy. If they sow the paddy seeds, they will get back one or two baskets [of paddy]. If we have to tell the truth, the villagers never get enough food."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
The shortage of food has become a very serious problem for the displaced villagers. Many villagers have to eat boiled rice porridge at the beginning of the rainy season or even while they are still preparing their fields. This is usually a last resort option used by villagers to stretch their rice supply until the next harvest. The fact that some villagers are having to eat it before they have even planted their crop means that they will likely run out of rice long before the harvest. In addition to rice, much of what the villagers eat consists of whatever they can forage from the forest. This is made up mostly of forest vegetables and roots like bamboo shoots. Salt and chillies have become luxuries and meat is almost never eaten except for what can be hunted in the forest or caught in the streams. Even the act of making a fire can be dangerous because the smoke can be seen from a distance and the sound of cutting the firewood may bring the soldiers. Sometimes the wood cannot be lit to make the fires because there is no way to keep it dry. Some villagers borrow food from friends and relatives, but this is also not as feasible as before because now most villagers do not have enough rice and there are fewer people who they can borrow from. Villagers are having to turn friends away when they come asking for some food.
"Some of the people who have fled to stay in the jungle have to eat rice porridge. They don't even have any salt. They don't dare to go and buy salt. They have to use ash instead of salt."
"Saw Hla Kaw Wah" (M, 63), villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #93, 4/02)
"No one stays in the village. If we stayed in the village, the SPDC would come to the village and kill us, so the people no longer dare to stay. We flee and stay in the jungle. We can only get enough food for two or three months. For the rest of the time we have to go and do day labour [so they can buy food]."
"Saw Law Ko" (M, 57), internally displaced former village head from N– village, Than Daung township (Interview #162, 3/02)
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| Abandoned hill fields in Tantabin township. The increased SPDC military presence in the area owing to the establishment of a number of new SPDC Army camps along the Toungoo-Mawchi car road sent many villagers fleeing into the forest, no longer daring to return to work their fields. [KHRG] |
"The people who live there have [cardamom] plantations. ... If they get a little, they go to sell it at the shop and exchange it for some rice. If we look at some of the villagers, the big problem that they have to face is the lack of food, so they have to go and cut Ga Ka Du, Haw Hti La, and Haw La Sho [wild vegetables which grow in the jungle] in the jungle and go to exchange them. Some of them go and dig up some Ku Ti and Nwae Ti [roots which grow in the jungle] so that they can boil them to eat."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
"The reason that the villagers are getting less food is because of the SPDC's oppression. Some of the people have to tell their friends that they cannot help them when they come and ask them if they can have some food. We have to try and look after each other because of the SPDC's oppression. The prices of rice, salt, and fishpaste are all increasing. In the village now, the price of one viss [1.6 kgs. / 3.6 lbs.] of fishpaste is 400 Kyat. Some of the people can't afford this. They have to borrow 3,000 or 4,000 Kyat from their friends so that they can buy salt and fishpaste to eat. They say that 'If you don't give it to me, we will not have anything to eat'."
"Saw Hser Paw" (M, 25), internally displaced village head from G– village, Than Daung township (Interview #165, 3/02)
"There is no one who gets enough food. There are many people who don't have enough food. They can't do anything. They have to go out and find it but they can't. For the people who have some food, they have to share a little bit of their food with the others."
"Saw Po Thu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #86, 7/01)
"There are some people who have to eat rice porridge. Even then they do not have enough food for the whole week. They only have enough food for one or two days. Because of the SPDC, the people don't dare to go out and find food."
"Saw Po Thu" (M, 37), internally displaced villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #86, 7/01)
"Now the big problem that they [IDPs] have to face is about food. The [lack of] food causes them a big problem. Right now they have to eat rice porridge."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
In order to supplement the inadequate amount of rice that they are capable of growing, most internally displaced villagers must rely on what money they can obtain by growing cash crops in small clearings in the forest. The money that they raise from selling their harvests is then used to buy rice. Having these small cash crops as their sole source of income, means that the only money they receive comes at the time of the harvest. What money is gained from the sale of their harvest must then be budgeted to keep for the rest of the year. When this money eventually runs out, they must take food on credit, repaying all debts accrued throughout the year after they have reaped and sold their next harvest. The displaced villagers must also get the crop to the market to sell it. This can be a very difficult task because the paths might be mined and SPDC troops will shoot them on sight if they are seen. Once they get to the market village they may also be arrested for not being from the village.
"If there is a shortage of food, we have to take our betelnut and our betelnut leaves to xxxx [village]. We don't have any other income other than cardamom, betelnut, and betelnut leaves."
"Saw Htoo Wee" (M, 52), internally displaced village head from L– village, Than Daung township (Interview #186, 10/02)
"They go and get the rice from xxxx [village]. They have to borrow the rice because they don't have any money [to buy it]. They pay it back after the cardamom harvest."
"Saw Pa Say Lah" (M, 48), internally displaced villager from L– village, Than Daung township (Interview #192, 12/02)
"I sold everything I had so I don't have anything anymore. Now I have to find some vegetables so that I can sell them in xxxx [village]."
"Saw Soe Tint" (M, 60), internally displaced villager from P– village, Than Daung township (Interview #174, 3/02)
Some of the displaced villagers slip into the Nyein Chan Yay villages and work as day labourers to get enough money to buy food for their families. While they cannot make much, between 250 and 500 Kyat a day, it is enough to buy some rice to eat. The returns of such work are only outweighed by the risks. By travelling into the larger villages, these labourers run a greatly increased risk of meeting with the SPDC soldiers either on the paths, as they pass by their Army camps, or in the villages themselves.
"They have to go and sell things. The people who have only very little hire themselves out [as itinerant labourers] to get some money that way. When they get a little bit of money, they go to the market and buy some rice for themselves to eat."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
Travelling to one of the larger villages such as Kler Lah, Kaw Thay Der, or Than Daung Gyi is done at great risk. Many of the larger villages possess a strong SPDC presence, greatly increasing the chances of being caught. For this reason, internally displaced villagers rarely enter the villages themselves. Many of them will wait on the outskirts of the village and ask one of the locals to go to the market for them while they hide in the forest until the villager returns, goods in hand. Some villages have established small, secret 'jungle markets' to serve this purpose. At these markets the displaced villagers are able to personally sell their goods in exchange for rice without having to go to an SPDC-controlled village. These markets are considered illegal by the SPDC and they have been attacked in the past by SPDC soldiers who entered shooting and then looted the market after the villagers had fled. Owing to the remoteness of some of the hiding sites, a lot of displaced villagers must walk for up to two days over the rugged hills to the market. The steepness of the hills that they must traverse for their return journey means that many displaced villagers are only able to carry a relatively small amount of rice. This means they must then repeat the journey again in as little as a week as their supplies dwindle. Some of the villagers living in the more remote areas seemingly only just arrive home before they need to leave again. The journey itself is very dangerous because of the many SPDC patrols and Army camps. The SPDC also knows some of the paths the villagers use and plants landmines along them to stop the displaced villagers from coming to get rice. Many villagers have been killed or maimed by these landmines while trying to get rice for their families.
"Right now, the villagers buy their rice from xxxx [village] and yyyy [village]. The villagers who stay outside don't dare to go directly to xxxx, because they are afraid of the Burmese [soldiers]. They are afraid of the SPDC Army. They have to go carefully. They have to go and contact the villagers who stay in xxxx and yyyy. They contact the villagers who stay inside xxxx or yyyy and have them carry the rice out of the village for them [where they are waiting]. They have to go and carry like that, the villagers who stay outside don't dare to go directly into the village."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
"I can't work very well. I have to go to Than Daung to buy [rice]. I have to walk for two days. We have many problems. If the SPDC are on the path, they will take the people's things. When we go, we don't go on the big [car] road. We only cross the road a few times. If we meet with them when we cross the road it causes problems for us. Our family does not have enough food to eat."
"Saw Kyu Heh Law" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from K– village, Than Daung township (Interview #152, 1/02)
"Sometimes, we have to go and buy rice from xxxx [village] and carry it back in fear. If they see us on the way they ask us 'Are you carrying that rice for yourself or for other people [portering it for the SPDC]?' If we tell them that it is our own rice, we then have to beg them not to take it. We say to them 'If you take it, we will not have any more food to eat'. If we give them 200 or 300 Kyat, they let us go."
"Saw Hser Paw" (M, 25), internally displaced village head from G– village, Than Daung township (Interview #165, 3/02)
"[When going to the market,] if the SPDC sees us we have to lie and tell them that we live in the relocation site. We have to lie to them and tell them that we aren't returning to our village. If we don't lie, it will cause a problem for us."
"Saw Soe Tint" (M, 60), internally displaced villager from P– village, Than Daung township (Interview #174, 3/02)
Very little in the way of food relief comes to the villagers hiding in the forests of Toungoo District. Because of the long distance and the steepness of the mountains, Karen relief organisations usually simply provide the villagers with some money with which to buy rice. This necessitates having to then go to one of the Nyein Chan Yay villages to buy the rice with the usual dangers mentioned above. The money is usually only enough for about two month's worth of rice. The relief organisations cannot reach all of the displaced villagers and most have to make do with what they have.
Related Resources
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Further reading [Toungoo District]:
Further reading [Dam Byan Byaut Kya death squads]:
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