Enduring Hunger and Repression: Food Scarcity, Internal Displacement, and the Continued Use of Forced Labour in Toungoo District
Future of the Area
"Each year they torture us worse and everything that we see [them do] is more severe. If the Burmese [soldiers] do not go back, how many people are going to die in the future? We wish that all of the Burmese [soldiers] would go back to their places. If they don't go back, our villagers will be faced with more and more trouble. ... We do not know our future. Now, if they force us to carry a load, we have to go. We cannot refuse them. We do not know if in our future we will die or if we will be safe if we have to go and carry a load for them."
"Naw Paw Eh" (F, 18), villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #81, 4/01)
While the SPDC is gradually increasing its control over Toungoo District, it will be some time yet before their control is total. The KNLA has thus far successfully managed to hold out and continue its low-intensity guerrilla war against the SPDC Army units stationed there. The current verbal ceasefire between the KNU and the SPDC has had the least effect in Toungoo District. Although the frequency of engagements has declined, KNLA and SPDC military units still clash in the area. No territory has been delineated between the two sides in the ceasefire talks and units from both sides occasionally run into each other. KNLA units are particularly frustrated at having to stand by and watch while the SPDC repairs its roads, builds new camps, builds supply stockpiles in the camps and brings in more troops to the area. This frustration has spilled over into several engagements with SPDC forces. The ceasefire is still very tenuous, but if it breaks down and fighting resumes, the KNLA is very adept at using the rugged, mountainous terrain of the district to its advantage and will be able to resist the SPDC for some time to come.
"We can do nothing because we are afraid of them. Even though they said that they will not use their power, they will still use it because they have weapons with them. They cannot stay alive without using their power; they can stay alive only if they use power."
"Saw Bo Kee" (M, 50), village head from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #75, 7/02)
"We are oppressed in [terms of] education, economy, social duties and obligations, food, and travelling. We are oppressed in everything. Why? ... Now, the civilians can't work for their food very well. To have our lives, we must dig the ground [cultivate their hill fields] until our fingernails and toenails fall out. How can we learn? We don't have any time to think about economics, social duties and obligations, health, or education anymore. Now it is too hard to stay alive. The SPDC soldiers who go to the frontline cause a lot of problems for us. Now they have closed the road and they don't allow us to buy goods. When the civilians go in the jungle, they meet with the SPDC soldiers. The women want to go to their hill fields, but when they go, they meet with the SPDC so they do not dare to go anymore. They come back here and stay at home. If the SPDC soldiers see a beautiful woman they will want to touch her and cause many problems for her. ... They [SPDC] say to the people who are in the prime of their lives, 'Friend, come and show us the way.' But they really want to send them to the dead country [to kill them]."
"Saw Hla Kaw Wah" (M, 63), villager from K– village, Tantabin township (Interview #93, 4/02)
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| Without adequate health care, and with no money to purchase any medication, this 26 year old internally displaced mother is unable to care for her children as she lays stricken with malaria. [KHRG] |
"We don't want fighting in our country. We want to stay in our place peacefully. This is what we need. We want our plants to grow, we don't want fighting. We just want to improve our knowledge and our religion. Our life is unstable. We don't know how we are going to work for food. We are afraid of them. We are afraid that they will hit us or that they will kill us."
"Saw Noh Lee" (M, 45), internally displaced village head from K– village, Than Daung township (Interview #181, 3/02)
The increase in the number of Dam Byan Byaut Kya units operating in Toungoo District is cause for some concern. While they have not been engaging in the brutal behaviour that characterised their early existence, the threat is still there. The fact that some, or all, of these units are now becoming part of the standard battalion structure lends itself to the possibility that now every battalion commander can call on his own execution squad to carry out his dirty work.
"The civilians are oppressed by the SPDC. They give priority to their armies. They do not care for the civilians."
"Saw Htoo Kwee" (M, 47), village head from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #13, 4/01)
"We have to do whatever they tell us. If we don't, they will hit us. We are afraid of them. We have to work with understanding, otherwise they will hit us. They go and take some people's belongings and say to them, 'You live in Burma and you can't even speak Burmese.'"
"Saw Hser Paw" (M, 25), internally displaced village head from G– village, Than Daung township (Interview #165, 3/02)
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| An internally displaced family hding in the forest of Tantabin township. Families such a this must run for their lives whatever they can carry whenever an SPDC Army patrol draws near. [KHRG] |
A key component of the SPDC's campaign for control in Toungoo District is its ever spreading web of roads and Army camps. The now completed road from Toungoo to Mawchi cuts the district in two and combined with the camps along it and the patrols between them, is a substantial barrier to movement. The road from Kler Lah to Bu Sah Kee is another barrier. The SPDC is now able to move troops along these roads and supply its camps more efficiently. This was demonstrated when it used the road to move troops into the area and keep them supplied during December 2003 and January 2004 for its offensive in Karenni State. In addition to the roads, the SPDC has also constructed many new camps throughout the region. These camps are small, but just by being there they provide places for the SPDC to send patrols out from and to observe the surrounding area. The KNU and villagers are finding it more difficult to move around. Internally displaced villagers who have fields in sight of the new camps are now only able to work their fields at night.
"The SPDC [built a new] camp at Ler Wah Moo Thwa Koh. They built their camp there and now the villagers from Wa Soe and Sho Ser have fled away from there and stay in the jungle."
"Saw Ku Lu" (M, 26), KHRG field researcher (Interview #4, 8/03)
"Before they made the car road, their Army was active on and around the [site of the] car road so that the KNLA couldn't come and attack them. Many battalions settled down. There were ten battalions in all. They came to take responsibility to secure the car road. They were operating around the car road. The villagers who stayed close [to the site of the road] always had to flee."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
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| A 25 year old villager receiving treatment for bullet wounds in his buttocks that he sustained while portering for the SPDC. He was ambushed by Dam Byan Byaut Kya soldiers while portering a load along the Toungoo-Mawchi car road for a regular SPDC Army battalion on June 16 2003. [KHRG] |
Although forced labour has decreased somewhat in the past couple of years, villagers continue to say that it is at intolerable levels. The roads will still have to be repaired after every rainy season and supplies brought up to the camps along the roads and in the hills. The new camps and additional soldiers in the area will mean more demands for forced labour at the camps. Already villagers have to go to build the camps for the soldiers. These new camps will also have to be supplied and it will be the villagers who will have to supply the labour to porter the supplies up to the camps.
"I wonder when we will have peace. There is no peace for me. They call us [for portering] and demand that we pay them the porter fees. They demand money, so people have to pay. If the people can't pay, they scold them. They are still forcing people to pay for porters. They said that there was going to be no more porters, but they still force us to go and work. I think that we will have to pay until we die, so there will be no peace for us."
"Naw Thet Wah" (F, 58), internally displaced villager from P– village, Than Daung township (Interview #164, 3/02)
"What the Burmese soldiers are doing does not look like soldiers; they look like robbers and thieves. The soldiers should take care of the civilians, but now it is the civilians who are taking care of them. They force the civilians to take care of them [provide them with food] and to guard them [to act as human shields] when they travel so that they do not get hurt. A government has to look after its civilians, but now the civilians are looking after them. An army has to take care of its civilians, but now the civilians have to take care of them."
Saw Ba Aye (M, 47), pastor from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #55, 4/02)
The widespread use of landmines by both the SPDC and the KNLA will continue to be a problem for the villagers for years to come, with neither group removing unexploded mines or even mapping their placement. The villagers, unaware of the locations of these mines will continue to be wounded, maimed and killed by them. The factory-manufactured landmines used by the SPDC, such as the Burmese-made MM2 antipersonnel blast mine remain active for years after placement. The SPDC's penchant for laying the mines in villagers' fields, in villages and along the paths that villagers use, will make many places in Toungoo District uninhabitable for many years until the mines can be removed.
"They shot him dead in front of us..."
"When they came to the village, all of the villagers fled, but our family didn't flee because one of our family members was sick and died. They arrested twelve of us. The troops were from IB #20. ... They forced us to carry [their supplies] and they forced us to go in front [to walk in front of the soldiers]. They tortured us when they took us to Kaw Law Ka. They shot one person dead, beat one person to death, and raped one person. They called one of the porters in front of us and shot him dead in front of us. His name was Saw Abraham. They shot him dead on April 20 th 1997 at 7:00 o'clock in the evening. The person that they beat to death was named Saw Taw Naw. [The woman who was raped was] Naw aaaa, she was 27 years old. The Commander raped her himself. The name of the Commander was Min Tha. ... They also arrested and tortured other people and beat them. They tortured people with fire. They heated an iron and burned us with it. They didn't feed us, our friends from xxxx [village] came and fed us. Our friends came and got us out. They [SPDC] demanded 30,000 Kyat for each person."
"Saw Ya Ya Kee" (M, 47), internally displaced villager from L– village, Than Daung township (Interview #185, 10/02)
"Can we have peace? Our parents suffered, do we still have to suffer like this? We are getting older and older, will we have to always suffer like this?"
"Saw Kloh Law" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from K– village (Interview #144, 11/00)
"Our civilians have to travel in fear so that they can work and eat. We have to be afraid of the SPDC and be aware of the SPDC. If they see us they will kill us, but we still have to go [to their plantations]. If we do not go there, we will not be able to eat anymore. ... We have to work with understanding. We have to work with fear." - "Saw Hser Paw" (M, 25), internally displaced village head from G– village, Than Daung township (Interview #165, 3/02)
Arguably, the most immediate problem presently facing Nyein Chan Yay villagers and internally displaced villagers alike is that of food security. Only a very small percentage of Nyein Chan Yay villagers are able to get enough food, despite living in 'stable' villages with their fields nearby. None of the internally displaced villagers interviewed for this report claimed to receive enough food. The SPDC's continued destruction of both the Nyein Chan Yay villagers' and internally displaced villagers' rice fields and plantations has only resulted in exacerbating this problem. Although the Nyein Chan Yay villagers have better access to food, this is sometimes upset by the SPDC's periodic withholding of rice from the villagers in the hills by blocking the shipments of rice coming in from the plains in the west of the district. The food security situation will only become worse as the SPDC increases its militarization of the district. More camps and more troops will mean more forced labour and less time for the villagers to work in their fields. It will also mean more fees that have to be paid and more looting of the villagers' rice supplies, chickens and livestock.
"I am already old. I can't travel anymore. We will have our lives here and we will die here. I don't want to go to any other place anymore. They can kill us if they want to kill us. If they want us to stay alive, then they can allow us to stay alive. Our civilians want to stay peacefully. We want to be able to work properly, we want to be able to work freely. They come from Bu Sah Kee and demand dog and pork to eat. We have fed them for a long time already so we have nothing left to give them anymore."
"Saw K'Paw Heh" (M, 53), internally displaced villager from K– village, Than Daung township (Interview #182, 3/02)
"There is not enough food to eat because the Burmese [soldiers] have been active. We are afraid of them and we have not dared to go to work in our hill fields. The Burmese [soldiers] would torture us so we are afraid of them. When we go to work in our hill fields, we have to do so with caution."
"Saw Eh Law Kaw Ko" (M, 53), internally displaced villager from D– village, Than Daung township (Interview #147, 3/01)
"I can't tell you everything. If I had to tell you everything that they do, we would not have enough time. They are getting worse. We are very tired. [They have been doing this] for many months and many years, so we are not able to work well. The costs [of living] are increasing. If we don't work we can't get any money and we can't buy food to eat. We have to go and work for them, but we also have to work for ourselves."
"Saw Soe Ghee" (M, 42) villager from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #26, 6/01)
The SPDC's campaign to drive all of the villagers out of the hills and into relocation sites or villages under SPDC control is failing. The conditions in the relocations sites and Nyein Chan Yay villages are so bad that many villagers choose not to live in them if they can. Many villagers who have lived under the SPDC have later fled due to the heavy fees, forced labour and inability to find enough time to work their fields. The villagers are well aware of the dangers of living on the run in the forest, but many still choose this option. Karen villagers have strong ties to their land and would prefer to live on it, or at least near it, if possible. Hiding in the hills is the only real other option; the refugee camps in Thailand are too far away and the other Karen Districts to the south and Karenni State to the east all have their own problems and are unable to provide for villagers who arrive there. The internally displaced villagers in Toungoo District will have to continue to make do with what they can and what little aid reaches them from the outside.
"Everybody hopes to come back to stay in their own place. Most of the villagers hope to come back to their own places. They say, 'This country never has peace. We want to go back and stay in our village, but we have to flee and stay like this. We don't want to stay like this anymore. We always have to live in fear.' They don't want to live like that anymore. They want to go back and live in their own homes. ... It is difficult for them. They have to stay in the jungle, and it is not easy to come to a refugee camp [in Thailand] because there are many troubles. The way is far. It is too far. ... [It takes] about ten days or sometimes more than ten days. It is difficult for them to come with children and old people. There are also enemies on the way. They have to come and pass between the enemies. It is not easy. The other thing is that they do not want to leave their area and their homes. They want to stay in their area. If they are going to die, they want to die in their area. If they are going to live, they want to live in their area. ... Right now they need peace. They want to go back and stay in their place and want to be able to work so that they can eat in peace. Most of the villagers told me this."
"Saw Eh Doh" (M, 25), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 2/01)
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| The countless landmines strewn across Toungoo District will remain a threat to villagers and IDPs alike for years to come. The SPDC continues to plant landmines in areas frequented by civilians. This villager was killed outright after stepping on an SPDC mine in March 2002 while going to buy food for his family. [KHRG] |
"If it is a Nyein Chan Yay [Peace] village, when the SPDC come, the women and children don't need to flee, but the men have to flee or they will be taken as porters. If it is not a Nyein Chan Yay village, the villagers will flee with their pigs and chickens before the SPDC arrive if they hear that the SPDC is coming. They [the villagers] are divided into two groups like that."
"Saw Bee Thaw" (M, 30), KHRG field researcher (Interview #2, 2/01)
"We have to flee and live in the jungle. It is not only now, but ever since we have known ourselves. We have had to flee like this many times because there is no peace in our country. There is fighting in our country. We hope to have peace in our country so that our villagers can go back to their villages and work. This is our wish."
"Saw Hser Nay Soh" (M, 30), internally displaced villager from S– village, Than Daung township (Interview #156, 1/02)
Talks between the KNU and the SPDC over the conditions for a more lasting ceasefire are likely to continue for some time. Although they are hopeful, there is not much optimism among Karen villagers that the ceasefire will amount to any real benefits for them. After 55 years of fighting with the SPDC, most Karen villagers are very distrustful of any promises from regimes in Rangoon. Whether there is a ceasefire or not, the past experiences of other ethnic groups have shown that there have never been any political settlements agreed to after the ceasefires. Instead the villagers are forced to live in a type of limbo, where the guns are silent but the armies are still there. As long as there is no political settlement and the armies remain in Toungoo District, the villagers will have to provide forced labour, pay extortion money and see their belongings, crops and animals stolen.
"We need everything for the village. We need medicine for health, and we need materials so we can work. For the whole village, the whole township, and the whole district, the most important thing that we need is freedom. We don't need conflict in Burma anymore. We need freedom for the whole country of Burma. I think that if we have freedom, it will be easier to build, to work, and to get an education."
"Saw Pa Kay Lah" (M, 45), internally displaced villager from P– village, Tantabin township (Interview #85, 7/01)
"At this time, the power is in their hands, and it is the time when we have to suffer."
"Saw Htoo Kwee" (M, 47), village head from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #13, 4/01)
"Whenever their leaders speak to them about torturing us, they say that they haven't. [They say] that they haven't oppressed us. They are lying when they say that they don't abuse us. It is true when we tell you about what the people from xxxx village have faced."
Saw Ghay Hser" (M, 52), pastor from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #70, 7/02)
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| The increased militarization of Toungoo District and the intensified oppression that follows it sends many more families, such as this one from Tantabin township fleeing into the jungle where they hope to escape detection by the SPDC. [KHRG] |
"I would like to tell you many things. I want to say that the SPDC military junta is a bad government who doesn't love the civilians. I worked for the SPDC council [VPDC] as an elder for eight years. When I was working for them I saw that the villagers were faced with many problems such as portering and many other types of demands. I have seen it and I even had to arrange for it. I have experienced it and passed through it, so all that I say is true. I feel very bad about that. I am now sixty years old and I wish that our people can be freed from being slaves. A government must love her civilians, but this government does not love her civilians. Moreover, she oppresses her civilians and tortures her civilians. It makes me feel very bad in my heart. If it is possible, I want to see my Karen people delivered from porter fees and loh ah pay fees before I die."
"Saw Moo" (M, 60), pastor from xxxx village, Tantabin township (Interview #71, 7/02)
Related Resources
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Further reading [Toungoo District]:
Further reading [Dam Byan Byaut Kya death squads]:
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