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SURVIVING IN SHADOW: Widespread Militarization and the Systematic Use of Forced Labour in the Campaign for Control of Thaton District
IX. Education and Health
Education
"Q: Do they allow the villagers in your area to build schools so the children can study their own language?
A: They do not allow this at all. Now the parents of the children understand that if their children are not educated, they won't get respect. They wish to send their children to be educated, but the parents have to work for them [SPDC and DKBA] a lot so they can't send their children to school. Some of them leave school after they pass 4th Standard [Grade]. They have to work. You can see them among the people when they go for 'loh ah pay' [forced labour]. Really those children should be studying and staying under the care of a teacher. It is time for them to find education, but now they have to work. Their parents do not have enough food to eat, so they have to help their parents. For schools, they [SPDC] say that these things are taken care of by the SPDC, but they don't provide them anything."
"Saw Kaw Thu" (M, 37), Karen township official, Pa'an township (Interview #6, 6/03)
Education is very important to most Karen villagers, with those living in Thaton District being no exception. Most villages of more than a few houses have a primary school, although some of these only reach 2nd Standard (Grade) instead of the usual 4th Standard. According to a KHRG field researcher, in 2004 there was only one high school, four middle schools and 89 primary schools with 223 teachers for 7,205 students throughout the whole district. These totals only include schools in areas accessible to KHRG field researchers or the KNU, and do not include schools in the towns of the district or the villages to the west of the Rangoon- Martaban motor road and railway. Villagers try to send their children to school for as long as they can. However, most students leave school either before completing or upon completion of primary school. For most villagers, going beyond primary school usually requires going to stay as a boarding student in a distant village. The high costs associated with education and the fact that sending a child away to study means one less set of hands to help at home or in the fields is often too great a burden on the family economy. For most children, schooling is of secondary importance next to the other more pressing needs of helping to provide for their families. Only 7% of students who complete primary school then attend middle school, and only 14% of this number then go on to high school. Children who are able to study often find that their studies are interrupted. Whenever the SPDC enters a village, families and teachers may flee or the students become afraid and stay close to their families in case of trouble. As a result, many schools are only able to operate one week out of every few, with many of them closing altogether during the harvest season. Teachers are also unable to devote all of their time to teaching because their salaries are too low to live on and they must spend some of their time working to provide for their families.
"There are only three Standards. We increased it to six Standards, but the SPDC came and destroyed it. They didn't like it. It is not easy [for us] to improve. They don't like the Karen."
"Saw Ba Ray" (M, 26), teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #33, 3/02)
"I am teaching but I don't get a salary. Sometimes the enemy [SPDC] comes and oppresses them [the villagers] and they have to go. They don't have free time. They have no money for school fees. They have to go for the Burmese [to perform forced labour]. They also have to find food for themselves. They have weak points, so they can't pay for the school fees. I taught for the whole year, but last year I received only seven baskets [147 kgs. / 322 lbs.] of paddy."
"Saw Ba Ray" (M, 26), teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #33, 3/02)
Schools in Thaton District can be divided into three different categories according to who administers them: village schools, mission schools, and SPDC schools. Village schools are organised, administered, and built by the villagers themselves, though they sometimes receive support from the KNU Education Department. The teachers are commonly villagers from the community who have received some schooling, although many have not gone further than 4th Standard themselves. As a salary, the other villagers give them a small amount of pocket money and some food. Most teachers in these schools do not stay for long because they cannot get enough food or money to provide for themselves and their families. The SPDC typically allows these schools to exist up to 4th Standard. The mission schools are paid for by Christian groups and are staffed by missionaries from Moulmein or places such as Bassein in the Irrawaddy Delta. The teachers in these schools are paid salaries from the mission, but the villagers are also required to provide them a place to stay, food, and some money for travel. The SPDC tolerates these schools so long as they do not surpass 3rd Standard. The SPDC schools are usually staffed by one or more teachers appointed by the SPDC Department of Education. The teachers are paid by the SPDC, but the villagers are expected to provide the teachers with food. Sometimes these Department of Education teachers resent being posted to rural Karen areas, so before long they disappear and are not replaced; in some cases they bribe education officials in town to keep paying their salaries as though they were at the school, but they never return. Many villages also hire villagers as teachers to work alongside the SPDC teachers. The village teachers are completely provided for by the other villagers; the SPDC provides them with nothing. Only the bigger villages have SPDC schools. The SPDC schools are permitted to continue all the way to the completion of secondary schooling to 10th Standard, although there is only one high school in the whole district.
"There is a school to 4th Standard. There is one teacher and about 30 students. The SPDC hasn't come to make trouble [for the school] yet. Kawthoolei [villager slang for the KNU] is distributing enough support with Karen text books, books and pens. The schoolteacher was chosen by the villagers and the KNU. Aaaa takes care of her with money and the villagers give one basket of paddy from each house per year."
"Daw Lah Zin" (F, 48), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #28, 3/02)
"There are two female teachers. Really the government has to support the school. The government supported one schoolteacher who came for one or two days and then went back. We couldn't do anything, so we have to have our own teachers. We provide them with one basket [21 kgs. / 46 lbs.] of paddy each for one year. This year we can't give them the full amount of paddy and money."
"Naw Lah Eh Mu" (F, 53), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #32, 3/02)
"I have been teaching for 15 years. I say only 15 years, but if I count it, it is more than 15 years. We work for the civilians and are concerned with Kawthoolei because we love our nationality. We are interested in working for every nationality on every side. KNU supports us and the villagers support us. They all support us. ... I received 6,000 Kyat this year when Thra ['teacher'] aaaa came back. It was from Kawthoolei for the school. I haven't received any Kyat [from the SPDC]. Sometimes I receive about 30 or 35 baskets [630-735 kgs. / 1,380-1,610 lbs] of paddy from the villagers. I have also received 25 baskets [525 kgs. / 1,150 lbs.]. I didn't get enough to eat in any year. I have had to buy food to eat every year. We breed pigs and chickens and we have to sell them."
"Naw Kay Lah" (F, 42), village head and teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #41, 8/02)
"There is a school set up by the villagers. There are 79 students. The people say that we set the school up ourselves so there are a lot of school fees. There are four Standards. There were three teachers last year, but there will be two teachers this year. They [SPDC] don't support anything in our village. It is an independent school. We provide two, three or four baskets of paddy [to the teachers]. My daughter is studying in 2nd Standard, so she had to give three baskets. The small kindergarten is one basket. ... We don't get support from anywhere. People [villagers] gave it to us last year. The people gave it to yyyy village and then the people from yyyy village provided it to us. Nobody gave it to us. Our school is self-reliant. The villagers support themselves. ... The yyyy school is a government school [SPDC]. We can't apply to get one [an SPDC school] yet. We are not big enough, so we can't do it. In our self-reliant school we collect one or two baskets of paddy. If the government came to set it up for us, we would know things and be clever. We built a school but it is not successful. We built a hall and the students are studying in the hall. I can say that because our school was not successful, we will dismantle it and come back and build the school in the middle of the village. We will build the school again."
"Daw Lay Wah" (F, 50), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #54, 4/03)
"We have to collect their [the teachers] payment from the villagers. The villagers have to pay. For two teachers, it is two baskets [50 kgs. / 110 lbs.] of rice and 10,000 Kyat each month. With the 10,000 Kyat they buy chillies, salt and fishpaste and things they like to eat. The government supports them and the villagers also have to support them."
"Saw Play Kee" (M, 40), refugee from xxxx village, Thaton township (Interview #98, 3/03)
"The schoolteachers come from Rangoon , Thaton, Bilin and Lay Kay. The government takes care of them. They get a salary. They receive 1,650 Kyat per month. That is for the small teachers. They are the teachers from Lay Kay. The higher teachers get about 3,000 or 4,000 Kyat. The civilians also have to support them. We have to provide them with salt and fishpaste. We have to build houses for them. We have to provide rice and everything completely. The only thing that we don't have to provide for them is clothes. We provide all the other things like firewood. ... They sometimes collect two or three bowls [3-5 kgs. / 7-10 lbs.] of rice. When they are finished with their food for one week, they collect it again. It adds up to a lot for one year. They collect it from the whole village each month. It is over 10 baskets [250 kgs. / 550 lbs.] of rice. After they collect it they sell the rice and buy chillies and monosodium glutamate."
"Saw Bo Ghay" (M, 36), refugee from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #52, 3/03)
"There was a school up to the 5th Standard. There were two female schoolteachers. The Burmese government appointed them. There are about 30 or 40 students. The school wasn't open regularly. The children only studied two or three times a month. They [the teachers] arrived at 9 or 10 o'clock. The people had to go and pick them up by boat at yyyy. When they arrived at 9 or 10 o'clock, they taught one or two words to the children and then let the children go free. They don't teach Karen, they only teach two subjects, Burmese and English."
"Saw Play Kee" (M, 40), refugee from xxxx village, Thaton township (Interview #98, 3/03)
"There is a school to 5th Standard. At first, we villagers arranged it ourselves on a self-help basis. Later we asked for some pity. The villagers are forced a lot and we couldn't hire the teachers anymore. Then we went to the SPDC and asked for teachers. If we were successful, we could pay less [because the SPDC would pay the salaries]. Now the SPDC has come to send three teachers for us. They only sent them and we have to feed them. They pay for their salaries in monthly payments."
"Saw Cho Aung" (M, 49), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #64, 7/03)
"The KNU helps some for the teachers. They are really the same nationality, so they love their nationality and they want to help. They teach the teachers, encourage the teachers and explain to the teachers. Really, the teachers don't belong to the SPDC. They belong to the KNU, and they can have a small primary school. They cannot have a high school."
"U Maung Shwe" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #67, 7/03)
"There is a school in xxxx village. There are only four Standards. There are two female schoolteachers. The government organised it and the government supports them. They provide everything for them. We don't have to support them."
"Saw Loh Mu" (M, 45), village head from xxxx village, Pa'an township (Interview #93, 5/04)
Students have to buy their own books, stationery, and other school supplies. Often the teachers buy the textbooks and notebooks in town and come back and sell them to the students. In the village schools, some books are also supplied by the KNU Education Department, but these have to be carried in from Thailand so not so many of these are distributed to students. The KNU also sometimes provides pencils and notebooks, but most students must buy their own. The SPDC does not provide anything besides the teachers to its schools. Students in these schools must still buy their own textbooks and notebooks. The textbooks cost from 50 to 100 Kyat each. Entrance fees for the primary schools are in the range of 2,000-3,000 Kyat per year. According to "Saw Eh K'Thaw" [Interview #7] , a Karen district official for Thaton District, in addition to this, the students must also pay a bribe of 4,000-5,000 Kyat in order to transfer in from another school. If the students cannot pay this, the school will say that it is full and turn the students away. The students also have to buy their uniforms and pay 'sports fees' to the township and state authorities. The entrance fees asked in the village schools are not nearly as high. The average entrance fees to attend a village school are approximately 200-800 Kyat depending on the level being studied.
"They [SPDC] said they would offer support [for the school], but when we went to buy books they were very expensive. They told us to go and buy them from other shops. They sold only one or two books. There are about 40 or 50 students, so one or two books is not enough. We had to go and buy them from other shops. If one book is 50 Kyat, we had to go and buy them for 100 Kyat from the shop. We always have to buy them like this. I see that what they [SPDC] are doing is wrong."
"U Maung Lay" (M, 39), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #23, 2/02)
"The books come from above [through the KNU]. They helped with some and we bought some. We went to buy them in Ka Ma Maung. They [SPDC] make problems if we meet them. We have to carry the books secretly. We don't dare to carry the Karen books. We have to carry them secretly."
"Saw Ba Ray" (M, 26), teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #33, 3/02)
"They [teachers] collect entrance fees of 200 Kyat for each student. The students don't have to give school fees. They send the entrance fees to the office, then they buy books for the students."
"Saw Loh Mu" (M, 45), village head from xxxx village, Pa'an township (Interview #93, 5/04)
"The SPDC government produces the textbooks by quota. One book for kindergarten, 1st Standard, 2nd Standard, or 3rd Standard is 80 Kyat. One dozen of the notebooks are 300 Kyat. One set of textbooks is the Myanmar Reader, General Natural Science, Reader 1 and Math 1 and it costs 400 Kyat. Everything costs [a total of] 700 Kyat. We haven't paid the cost yet."
"Saw Heh Taw" (M, 51), village head and school teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #74, 5/04)
"They have the chance to study, but their parents don't have enough food to eat so the children can't study well. They just study one or two grades, but then they have to leave the school and work for their homes [in the fields]. Right now, the school entrance fees are very expensive. In order to study, each student has to pay entrance fees of about 2,000 or 3,000 Kyat. They don't have enough [money] to buy materials for school such as books and pens, so many of them can't send their children to school. If we estimate, there are only 50% of the children who can study. The other children can't study. ... They have to pay bribes to the schoolteachers to move to the other schools. If you don't give 5,000 Kyat, they don't give you the school leave [transfer] pass. If you don't give them 4,000 or 5,000 Kyat, they say that the places are full."
"Saw Eh K'Thaw" (M, 55), Karen district official (Interview #7, 11/03)
"One person is 200 Kyat. The entrance fee is 200 Kyat. Each student from 3rd Standard and 4th Standard has to give 60 Kyat for the township and state sports fees. Kindergarten and 1st and 2nd Standards have to give 30 Kyat."
"Saw Heh Taw" (M, 51), village head and school teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #74, 5/04)
"Yes, we have to give entrance fees. One of my daughters studied in 4th Standard and they asked her to hand over 800 Kyat for entrance fees."
"Saw Bo Ghay" (M, 36), refugee from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #52, 3/03)
"The teacher goes to buy stationery in the town, but the students have to pay for it. The students have to give school fees and each student has to give 800 Kyat."
"Saw Zaw Kee" (F, 48), villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #62, 7/03)
In Bilin township there is only one middle school and one high school. Most students who can continue their studies go to the high school in Lay Kay to continue their studies beyond 5th Standard, but some go to Bilin. Fees for studying in town can be high. According to the "Saw Eh K'Thaw" [Interview #7] , a Karen district official for Thaton District, students who want to study in 5th Standard are required to pay up to 50,000 Kyat. Karen students are able to attend university and can get student cards. However, to take the 10th Standard exam, the final exam of high school needed to get into university, the students must have a national identity card. Many of the villagers from remoter rural areas do not have these cards. In order to get a national identity card a villager must go to an SPDC official and 'develop an understanding' , which means plead with the official and pay a bribe of about 10,000 Kyat. Most students from the rural areas would be unable to attend anyway because of the high cost of the tuition and the costs of living in town. Attending a university in Burma can cost as much as 150,000 Kyat per month. The only other alternative for further education is to attend one of the schools in one of the refugee camps in Thailand , where there are high schools and a few informal post-secondary programmes. The further hazards to studying in town were illustrated in 2003 and again in 2004, when the SPDC forced all male and female students above 7th Standard to attend basic military training [see also 'The Pyitthu Sit' in 'The Military Situation' section] . Many students abandoned their studies and returned home from the towns out of fear of this training. They became worried that after the training they would be forced to join the SPDC Army. The SPDC had already asked many of the older students to join the Army after the training.
"Some students are happy to continue studying [past 3rd Standard]. Some students went to study in Lay Kay and some students went to study at a mission school. Some students went to study in the higher place [refugee camps]. Some students do not enjoy studying. They play."
"Saw Ba Ray" (M, 26), teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #33, 3/02)
"The government doesn't take responsibility for the students in town. They have to pay fees for food and for school. ... I asked the people who go to stay [to study in the towns]; they have to pay 150,000 Kyat for food [per year]. The government doesn't support them."
"Saw Eh K'Thaw" (M, 55), Karen district official (Interview #7, 11/03)
"At present in 2003 and 2004, the female and male students who go to study above 7th Standard in town, have been forced by the SPDC government to attend basic military training. Government servants such as schoolteachers and medics also have to attend basic military training. They also called the villagers less than 45 years old to attend. I saw female school teachers from yyyy attend the training while their school was closed. Each of them [the trainees] had to take a piece of wood or bamboo that was 3 cubits [1.4 metres / 4.5 feet] in length and one fist [15 cms. / 6 inches] in circumference. When they arrived at the training place, they used them as guns. It is difficult for them to find wood and bamboo in town. They gave 3 months of training to the females and as well as the males. They have conducted this training in almost every town. The reason for this training is that they will fight back when the other countries come to invade. Many students came back from town because of the training. They do not dare to study anymore. They worried that they would have to become SPDC Army soldiers because they had attended the training. They [SPDC] asked the older students to join the Army."
"Saw Ghaw Wah" (M, xx ), KHRG field researcher (Interview #4, 6/04)
Village schools and mission schools are able to teach their own syllabus, including the Karen language (usually provided that the SPDC does not find out). SPDC schools follow the SPDC curriculum which is heavily Burman-centric. These schools only teach in Burmese and English. The teaching of Karen is not permitted in these schools. The teachers, most of whom are appointed by the SPDC, often cannot teach Karen anyway as they are typically either ethnic Mon or Burman and are thus unable to even speak the language. One KHRG researcher has reported that there are no teachers who are capable of teaching Karen in any of the SPDC schools in all of Thaton township. The only way for students to learn Karen is through secret lessons taught by other villagers who know how to read and write. In xxxx village in Bilin township, for example, the students study Karen in secretive lessons once a week from a 'school worker' .
"They don't allow us to study Karen subjects. Now they don't study Karen. They only study Burmese and English. They do not allow us to teach the Karen language. They will argue if we teach it. They don't allow it, so the people don't teach it."
"Naw Hser Paw" (F, 43), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #24, 2/02)
"Yes, there is a school. There are 9 Standards and there are about 10 teachers. There are about 200 or 300 students. Many students come to study at xxxx. It is a government school. ... They don't allow them to teach Karen now. At this time the children do not understand Karen. They don't allow it. My sons are in 7th and 8th Standard, but they don't understand any words in Karen. The Burmese don't allow it."
"Saw Bo Ghay" (M, 36), refugee from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #52, 3/03)
"They don't teach Karen. That is why we thought we would ask one girl [from the village] to teach. When we went to the Education Chief's office, the Education Chief said that we could study it. But for them, they can't speak Karen, so they can't teach it. They said they would allow us to teach. They said that, but they didn't give us Karen teachers, they gave us Mon teachers."
"Saw Cho Aung" (M, 49), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #64, 7/03)
The SPDC has taken over several of the village-run schools and renamed them 'Government Schools'. After declaring the schools to be 'Government Schools', the SPDC no longer allows Karen to be taught. One KHRG researcher, who described the condition as "the dog covering the footprint of the pig" , reported that in 2004, the SPDC took over many of the villagers' schools in this manner. For example, in 2002, construction began on the high school in Lay Kay village. The school was built with bricks using villager labour from the surrounding villages. The school goes to 10th Standard, the highest grade in Burmese schools. To pay for the construction the SPDC demanded a total of 420,000 Kyat from eight villages in the vicinity. In addition to the money, the villagers were also ordered to provide 300 tons of wood. On January 31st 2002, Colonel Min Aung Laing, commanding officer of LID #44, distributed the Shwe Pa Si Newsletter ('Golden Drum'; Volume 1, Number 5), to villagers in Bilin township. The newsletter spoke of the development projects that the SPDC was going to implement for the good of the people. However the terms in the newsletter were never upheld and the soldiers simply forced the villagers to build the school and a clinic in Lay Kay village at their own expense. The villagers were also forced to pay for the newsletter. In reality the newsletter was merely another way for the corrupt commanding officers to line their pockets with money extorted from the villagers under the guise of development. The villagers were not happy about it, but were afraid to say anything for fear of the potential repercussions.
Order #14
To: 1.8.2003
Chairperson
xxxx Village
[We] Have to coordinate and discuss the construction of Noh Aw La School, so the elder yourself must come now, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Captain aaaa
Frontline IB # xx
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| Order #14: While meeting with the officer, the village head was told that he had to arrange to send 20 villagers each day to help in the construction of the Noh Aw La school. He was instructed that they should arrive on August 5th 2003, equipped with their own mattocks, chopping hoes, and bullock carts. |
"They ordered us to build a school. They told us to do it independently. They ordered us to do it. We must build it. We finished planting the posts, but when they came to look at it, they said, '60 feet in length and 30 feet in width.' We had to do it exactly. I told him, 'Commander, the civilians are very weak. We can't do it. We can only do this. There are no floors, no walls and no roof.' He said, 'I asked you to do it, so I can't go back and report it to the town. It is for your villagers to develop for the future.' He encouraged us with a strict rope. Now we have finished building it. They haven't given it a name yet. He said, 'Now your village is self-reliant.' I told him, 'If you want to take a photo, you can take it. You can show it to the Division or the department concerned, so I can get money for the cost of the zinc [roofing] and nails.' He said it was no matter and just wrote it down. I told him, 'They gave over 600,000 Kyat for Pwoh school. The length of my school is longer than Pwoh school so it will cost more.' I told him the expenses for the building fees, post fees and bamboo fees."
"Saw Heh Taw" (M, 51), village head and school teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #74, 5/04)
"In the beginning the monk wanted to build the school. He had already been preparing it for four or five years, but he hadn't built it. He milled the wood, but it wasn't enough. Then the Division Commander came and told him, 'Monk, you have to build a middle school.' The monk told him, 'I don't have the wood. I also don't have money.' He said, 'No problem, I can do it.' He sent over one ton of wood. The people had already milled a lot of wood here. We had to carry bricks from Du Yin Seik. We had to carry them to P'Nweh Klah. P'Nweh Klah had to send them on to Ha T'Reh and Ha T'Reh had to provide 'loh ah pay' [forced labour] for sand and bricks. We had to work the whole rainy season. We had to go and get rations for them. We were tired. They harassed us when things were lost."
"Saw Tah Ler Kee" (M, 61), village head from xxxx village, Pa'an township (Interview #94, 5/04)
"One time [in 2003] we had to build a government middle school. It was during the month of Tawthalin [Burmese month corresponding to September] when the water flooded. We had to go and carry bricks and sand for the whole rainy season. It was better during the months of Thadinkyaut and Tasaungmone [Burmese months corresponding to October and November respectively]. We were not willing to do this. They came and forced us to do it."
"Saw Kwee Tha" (M, 56), village head from xxxx village, Pa'an township (Interview #90, 5/04)
"They talked about the school matter [at a meeting with the Division Commander]. They said they would like to make Lay Kay school up to 9th [10th] Standard. Every village such as Ler Po, Thu K'Bee, Paya Raw, Ler K'Ter, Ta Oo Ni, Yoh Klah, Htee Pa Doh Hta, Khaw Po Pleh, Htee Chit Baw, Ler Klaw and Ta Paw had to help them. He said to help them so the children will be educated. We had to try. Every government likes education. There are only a few houses in our village, so they demanded 30,000 Kyat. They demanded 40,000 Kyat and 50,000 Kyat from Thu K'Bee and Paya Raw villages. They demanded it from every village for making Lay Kay school. They demanded 100,000 Kyat from Htee Pa Doh Hta, Yoh Klah and Lay Kay villages. We had to collect it from the villagers."
"Daw Lah Zin" (F, 48), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #28, 3/02)
"There is a school to 10th Standard. I think there are around 20 teachers. They [SPDC] say it is their school, but they demanded the timber from us."
"Saw Zaw Kee" (F, 48), villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #62, 7/03)
"They [SPDC] said that they worked but they didn't and took it [the money] when they went back. We had to buy zinc [roofing] and cement. We had to work with the villagers from Lay Kay. The villagers in Lay Kay also had their own work. We told them that we had our own work. They told us to work and help each other a little bit and that they would also help us the government way."
"Daw Lah Zin" (F, 48), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #28, 3/02)
"When we read the newsletter distributed by the SPDC Army, we thought that it would be good for the villagers. The newsletter said that they would develop the education and healthcare for the villagers. The children of the villagers would be able to start reading. It said that the SPDC government would give education and health rights to the villagers who live amongst the mountains, but really it is for the Burmese SPDC Army officer, Light Infantry Division #44 commander Colonel Min Aung Laing to get money. He sells them [the newsletter] to the villagers to get money. ... The villagers who are living in the Lay Kay area of Bilin township complained that Colonel Min Aung Laing forced them to build a high school and a clinic in Lay Kay village. The SPDC government didn't help them with any of the expenses for the school or the clinic."
"Saw Ghaw Wah" (M, xx ), KHRG field researcher (Interview #1, 4/02)
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Health
The health care situation for villagers in Thaton District is poor. There are no hospitals in the area besides those in the large towns of Thaton, Bilin, Pa'an (in Pa'an District), Ka Ma Maung (in Papun District) , and Moulmein ( in Mon State ). There are few clinics and even fewer that actually have trained medical personnel and medicines. Villagers with money go to seek treatment at the SPDC hospitals in the towns, but this is extremely expensive and those without money must treat their illnesses as best they can with traditional herbal medicines in the village. Some villages have trained medics or midwives, but no clinic. The medics or midwives operate out of their own homes, prescribing medicines which the villagers must then find themselves. Occasionally SPDC Army medics give medications when they stay in villages. However this is not done free of charge, with the villagers having to give one or two chickens or some rice in exchange for the medicine. KNLA medics also treat villagers when they are around.
The SPDC continues to restrict the carrying of medicine in the district, so villagers can have problems if they are caught carrying it. The SPDC believes that if villagers are in the possession of medications they will give them to the KNU, heedless of the fact that the vast majority of villagers cannot afford even the smallest amount of medicine to treat their own families. The penalties for carrying medicines may include beatings, torture, arrest, and/or a stint of forced labour for the military. Villagers with SPDC-approved medical training, however, are permitted to carry medicines.
"We have a nurse and a midwife in the village. We have to say that they belong to them [SPDC] because they went to get training from them. They gave them certificates. They take care of us, but we have to pay for the medicine."
"Naw Kay Lah" (F, 42), village head and teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #41, 8/02)
"Health is very bad in our village. The children aren't well because we don't have enough medicine and it is far [to go to get medicine]. When there are serious diseases we have to go to Pa'an, Thaton or Bilin. We have to spend money. When my wife went one time it cost 10,000, 20,000, up to 30,000 Kyat. We couldn't do anything. We had to borrow it from other people and we had a debt. We couldn't do anything. There weren't any grains of rice at home."
"Saw Bo Ghay" (M, 36), refugee from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #52, 3/03)
"There is no hospital in the village; we have to go to Thaton. We have to buy all the medicine with our own money. If we don't have 70,000 or 80,000 Kyat we are going to die. We must go to the hospital."
"Saw Play Kee" (M, 40), refugee from xxxx village, Thaton township (Interview #98, 3/03)
"They haven't set up anything. When we ask for medicine, we have to feed them chicken. If we don't feed them chicken, we have to feed them rice. If you don't feed them, they don't give you anything."
"Naw Kay Lah" (F, 42), village head and teacher from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #41, 8/02)
"There is no clinic in the village, but there is one in the camp. We have to go to the camp. They give us medicine and injections. We don't have to give money, but they ask us to get one chicken. It means we have to give it. They asked us to give small chickens. We had to buy vegetables, fish and frogs. It means that this is the fee. We had to buy it for them every morning. If you went every morning, you had to buy it for them every morning. They asked us to buy small chickens. We always had to buy them. If we didn't buy them, they didn't look after us carefully."
"Saw Bo Ghay" (M, 36), refugee from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #52, 3/03)
"The people go to get the medicine. Sometimes we hear that they have prohibited medicine. Sometimes the people carry it secretly. The people don't dare to show that they carry it. The people can only carry a few tablets. When Thramu ['female teacher'] aaaa went she brought a lot. She isn't afraid because she treats the villagers. When there isn't anyone going to buy medicine, they make it more expensive. We will die if we can't treat it. We don't dare to die."
"Naw Thu Paw" (F, 43), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #26, 3/02)
"They [villagers] don't dare to carry medicine. If the SPDC soldiers see them, they will kill them. Now they specify that batteries and medicine are very important things. The shopkeepers don't dare to sell them freely. They take action if they see them."
"Saw Cho Aung" (M, 49), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #64, 7/03)
The KNU operates two clinics in the district which villagers are able to go to, but sometimes they have to walk long distances to get there. The KNU and Karen relief organisations have a few mobile health teams which operate in the area. These teams must get their medicines from Thailand and carry everything in their backpacks. As a result they are unable to take large amounts of medicines with them and quickly run out. KNU health workers often only have enough medicine to last two or three months at a time. The SPDC has punished villagers in the past for seeking medical help from the KNU and punished health workers for contacting the KNU. Furthermore, the extent to which the SPDC now controls the district makes it virtually impossible for mobile Karen relief teams or KNU medics to gain access to all areas in need.
"Kawthoolei [KNU] keeps a civilian clinic. They call it 'Number 3 Freedom Clinic'. We come here to get treatment and our diseases cured. Since I have been getting treatment in this clinic, they are treating us with the medicine they have. The medics tell us that sometimes they have problems with communications and that the distances are far. They treat us with the medicines they have. They give us food. They take care of us. They try to cure our diseases and we are satisfied with them. We are also very thankful for them."
"Saw Mya Thein" (M, 25), villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #15, 8/01)
"There are only our nephews [other villagers] who went to learn medicine and then they came back to treat us. We go to ask for medicine from our nephews [KNLA and Karen relief medics]. If they have it they come to give it to us. If they don't have it, we die. Sometimes there is not enough because they have to look after the whole village. It is not only me who gets sick, it is everyone. ... Sometimes they arrive. Now they are here [KNLA medics]. They tell them to come and look after the villagers. When they have medicine they look after us. When they don't have it they can't look after us."
"Naw Kyi Doh" (F, 44), widowed villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #37, 7/02)
"The students come to take care of us once a year. They come to give medicine and injections. They are the Burmese students who work together with the KNU [probably the Backpack Health Worker Teams (BPHWT)]."
"Naw Wah" (F, 38), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #38, 8/02)
"KNU takes care of us. Now the backpack workers come to look at us. They take care of us. They also have to be afraid of the SPDC. As far as I know, they take care of as many people as they can. Sometimes we can go to see them when they enter our village if they have medicine. They don't have medicine every time. If they have medicine they take care of us. Don't think it's the SPDC [who helps the villagers]."
"Saw Cho Aung" (M, 49), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #64, 7/03)
"If we get sick we sometimes ask people from wwww or xxxx. Sometimes we buy medicine in the shop and sometimes we get medicine from people's bags [backpack medics]. Sometimes if we need medical injections we have to call aaaa and sometimes we call bbbb. In cases of severely sick patients, if we can't treat them, we send them to Pyi or sometimes they die at home."
"Naw Tha Wai" (F, 46), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #66, 7/03)
At various times the SPDC has offered basic medicine or midwife trainings to the villagers. The villagers must pay their own costs for the trainings. A basic medic training in 2000-2001 cost 6,000 Kyat per month. For a midwife training in 2002, villages had to send three people and pay 3,000 Kyat per month for the training fees. The trainings generally take three months to complete. Women who have finished middle school are allowed to attend the basic midwife training. According to a KHRG field researcher, the SPDC held the trainings again in 2004, where they called for one villager from each village to attend medical training to become midwives. The costs demanded, however, had more than doubled, costing the villages 40,000-50,000 Kyat to send one person to the training for three months. When the students came back they had to buy their own medicines and administer them themselves, although few were able to do this because they had no more money. No salaries are given to the medics by the SPDC. The medics and midwives have to ask the villagers to buy the medicines themselves and then bring them back to be administered.
"They went to learn it [medicine] from the SPDC and then they came back to take care of the villagers. They don't get payment. They went to learn themselves and then they came back to take care of the villagers. They have to buy medicine. They buy it themselves and administer it. ... They had to pay the fees [for the medical training] themselves. It was 6,000 Kyat for a month. ... They [KNU medics] are in the village but they have to do it secretly. Right now they are working together [the KNU medics and the SPDC-trained medics]. They can stay when they understand each other."
" Daw Way " (F, 53), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #9, 3/01)
"There is no clinic. We go to buy medicine in yyyy. We go to call the medics from yyyy. There is no clinic there. They are living in their homes. They attended training in another place. The people go and call them to give injections. We have to buy the medicine ourselves. After we buy it, we ask them to inject it."
"Naw Htoh Kee" (F, 58), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #63, 7/03)
"For health there is no medical person with a high level [a doctor]. There is no hospital in the area. There are only health workers and basic midwives. People have to go and get treatment from them when they get sick and have diseases. They don't treat you if you can't give them money. ... The people who have gone and received health worker training from the SPDC must still pay for the medicine. People have to do many kinds of forced labour for them [SPDC], so they don't have money to go and get treatment at the big hospital in the town – so they must die."
"Saw Kaw Thu" (M, 37), Karen township official, Pa'an township (Interview #6, 6/03)
"We have a dispensary and a nurse who has a certificate from the SPDC. They can dare to come back and help the patients. The people [villagers] give them medicine one or two times to take care of the patients. The SPDC doesn't give us medicine and doesn't give us the nurse. It is just the villagers here who have to go to attend the training and get a certificate. If they come back to treat patients, they have to buy medicine to treat the patients. I have never seen the SPDC support us with medicine."
"U Maung Shwe" (M, 40), villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #67, 7/03)
"The SPDC government called the health workers from each village tract to attend the midwife medical training. Some villages sent people to attend and it cost them 40,000 or 50,000 Kyat for 3 months of training. After they came back from the training, they couldn't buy any medicine because they didn't have any money. If they had money, they could buy it."
"Saw Ghaw Wah" (M, xx ), KHRG field researcher (Interview #4, 6/04)
The SPDC also seems to have some kind of vaccination programme in the district, although very little evidence is presently available as to the effect or extent of this programme. It is unclear when the vaccinations actually took place or if the programme is still in progress. The evidence at hand states that the vaccinations were given to village children in Bilin township. This may have been a programme initiated by UNICEF, who have been involved in child vaccination programmes in Burma . No evidence has emerged of similar programs being implemented in any of the other townships. The villager who described this to KHRG claimed that the children developed fevers after receiving the injections. However without further information it is impossible to say if the fevers experienced were a side-effect or the intention of the injection.
"Once we fed them and it cost more than the price of the medicine. They ate a lot, but they only gave one or two injections. The children's buttocks were in pain and they ran. The people didn't dare to come and show them [their children] again. They left after they gave the injections. The people later got fevers, but they [SPDC] didn't look back."
"U Maung Lay" (M, 39), village head from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #23, 2/02); describing an SPDC vaccination program implemente in his village
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| This ten month old baby suffers from severe malnutrition. She lives in a village in southern Pa'an township that is encircled by SPDC Army camps. The regular demands of forced labour, food, and fees issued by the soldiers based in those camps leave this child's parents with little time or resources to get enough food to feed their family. Many villagers in the region have become so impoverished that they can no longer adequately provide for their families. [Photo: KHRG] |
Villagers suffer from various illnesses in Thaton District, yet they have little education about disease prevention. Malaria, dengue and other fevers, dysentery, anaemia, stomach ache, and diarrhoea are common. KHRG researchers say that tuberculosis is becoming more common and measles outbreaks can occur in the dry season. Many of the children suffer from jaundice, hepatitis, enlarged spleens (a symptom common with malaria), and malnutrition. Due to the inavailability and expense of medicines, many villagers treat themselves with traditional medicines made of roots and leaves, water anointed by a shaman, or by a traditional healer who 'calls the spirit' out of the afflicted part of the body. Many people die from illnesses which would be easily treatable if they were allowed access to pharmaceutical medicines. While malaria is a major killer, many villagers, especially malnourished children, succumb to readily treatable and highly preventable diseases such as diarrhoea and influenza.
In a move similar to the school construction campaigns discussed above, the SPDC has ordered the villagers to build clinics in each of the villages. Most of the small villages were unable to comply with this order, but clinics have been built in many of the bigger villages. After they were built, the SPDC came and took photographs of the clinics for use in their propaganda. They would then declare that the clinic was built by the SPDC for the good of the villagers. In reality, it is the villagers who pay for all the expenses associated with the construction and actually build the clinics. No medicines or medics are provided for the clinics after their completion, and they usually lie abandoned within months of their construction.
"They [SPDC] came to build a clinic, but their arms and legs never moved. Finally they reported that they had built it. They said they built it, but they shouted and scolded the people strongly. Their legs and arms didn't do any work. They didn't suffer. They didn't pay for the cost of the nails and planks. They said they built it. They built it to be remembered. When we get peace in the country, they will say that they built the clinic in xxxx village. That is why I am lazy to do it. He [SPDC officer] said, 'If there are no nails, bring bamboo ties. If there are no bamboo ties, I will burn it.' I thought in my heart that if he wants to burn it, then burn it."
"Daw Paw Ghay" (F, 50), village head from xxxx village (Interview #75, 7/03)
"The SPDC soldiers in the frontline area ordered the villagers to build clinics in their villages. The villagers from the big villages built them. After they built it, the SPDC took a photo and wrote down that 'Regional Development Clinic' was built by Battalion Commander Hla Win from LIB #376, but really the villagers paid for all of the expenses for the whole clinic. Even after it was built, there was no medicine."
"Saw Ghaw Wah" (M, xx ), KHRG field researcher (Interview #4, 6/04)
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