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SURVIVING IN SHADOW: Widespread Militarization and the Systematic Use of Forced Labour in the Campaign for Control of Thaton District
XI. Future of the Area
Although the ceasefire has largely brought a halt to military offensives and armed ambushes in Thaton District, there has not been a commensurate improvement in the situation faced by the villagers living there. Fighting still occurs whenever SPDC and KNLA forces stumble on each other; DKBA units still attack KNLA forces; SPDC patrols still hunt out and attack the homes of KNLA officers and their families; KNLA units still ambush SPDC patrols encroaching on their space; and all sides continue to use landmines. Whenever fighting does occur, villagers are forced to pay the price. Villagers have been arrested and tortured by the SPDC and DKBA following skirmishes with the KNLA. Large fines of as much as 50,000 to 100,000 Kyat have been imposed on nearby villages that have been held responsible for the attacks or for the explosion of landmines. Villagers are caught in a situation where they must juggle the demands of all sides, and where they are punished by each armed force for the actions of the others despite having no control over events.
"The people [KNLA] came and shot and one of them [SPDC] died. They fined the villagers 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 or 80,000 Kyat. We can't pay that. The villagers don't do business. They must also think about us. They don't care about us. They want to force us to do any kind of work that they have. The only thing that we don't have to do is clean their anus."
"Saw Kyi Nu" (M, 28), villager from xxxx village, Bilin township (Interview #30, 3/02)
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| This hill field, lying adjacent to the Kyaik Khaw to Lay Kay car road was burned by SPDC Army troops in March 2002. The destruction of villagers' food supplies is a central tactic employed by the SPDC in its campaign for control over the region. [Photo: KHRG] |
Most of the abuses and deprivations which the villagers must suffer are not outcomes of the armed conflict, however, but result from SPDC and DKBA efforts to extend their control over the region and exploit its civilian population. There is presently no indication that the use of forced labour, the regular demands for extortion money and building materials, the movement restrictions, or the overall general situation facing villagers is going to improve any time soon. There are, however, some indications that things may actually get worse. The construction of the numerous new roads presently being built with forced labour will lead to the even greater militarisation of the region, and will subsequently require the continued use of forced labour as the villagers must maintain, clear, and guard those roads. All military camps that will ultimately be built along the lengths of those roads will be, if history is anything to go by, built with forced labour and supplies portered out to them by the villagers. More camps will also likely lead to more demands on top of the plethora that the villagers must now endure, as the commanding officers of those new camps demand that they too receive a slice of limited village resources. SPDC officers make demands that take no account of the limited resources and time available to villagers, presumably because they are only interested in gaining as much wealth as they can before being rotated out of the area. The apparently unquenchable greed of some of the commanding officers that have been and are presently based in the region acts as a noose slowly tightening around the villagers' necks as they slowly become more vulnerable to poverty, debt, disease, and hunger. The resources of rural areas like Thaton District are being systematically looted and transferred to urban areas, where they are used to finance the business ventures and urban development which the SPDC presents to the outside world as 'economic growth' and 'national development'.
The SPDC and the DKBA both operate a number of money-making projects in the district, with trends showing that this practice is on the rise. Almost all of these ventures are implemented through uncompensated confiscation of villagers' land and the use of forced labour and should be closely watched, as some of them are conducted in conjunction with private firms. The huge 5,000 acre rubber plantation in Bilin township co-owned and operated by Rangoon-based company Max Myanmar, for which the land was confiscated from local villagers without compensation, is perhaps the most striking example of this. The upgrading and paving of a number of the roads in the district is a development that also requires ongoing observation, as not only is this being done with forced labour, but it will also facilitate a much larger and more rapid influx of SPDC Army troops and 'investment' projects.
The situation confronting the villagers of Thaton District is unstable and uncertain. When the abuses they face and the demands placed upon them become too great to bear, villagers here have few places to run. Unlike some other Karen districts, the hills are not high enough nor the forests large and impenetrable enough for significant numbers of villagers to evade SPDC and DKBA patrols for long. Flight to one of the refugee camps in Thailand is long, dangerous, and uncertain, preventing many villagers from attempting the journey. Most villagers for the time being have to persevere with the situation with little outside help. They draw on their own resourcefulness, finding ways to outwit or evade those who place demands on them, sharing burdens and resources among themselves to survive and retain as much control over their own lives as they can, yet living under the SPDC is taking a heavy toll on them. The seemingly endless list of demands and ever-increasing militarisation of the district has created a climate of fear and resentment, and casts a shadow under which it is increasingly difficult to survive.
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| Villagers from Bilin township cutting back the brush from beside the Bilin – Papun car road for LID #44 in November 2002. The villagers were ordered to clear all trees, bushes, and scrub from within 50 feet [15 metres] of either side of the road to create wide 'killing zones' to protect SPDC Army units using the road from KNLA ambushes. [Photo: KHRG] |
"We work one day and eat one day. We can get food to eat if we can work. If we can't work, we can't get any food to eat. In this situation, the Burmese also force us to work. The Burmese [soldiers] fine us if we can't work enough for them. We are afraid of them so we have to do it. We don't have money to pay them. We don't have land to run to. As the Burmese say, 'We have no land to run to. We have no money to pay.' We can't do anything, so we have to suffer among them."
"Saw Wee Lee" (M, 42), villager from xxxx village, Thaton township (Interview #101, 11/03)
"There were 200 houses. Now there are only 100 houses remaining including the widows. They have all gone to stay in other villages and have become their villagers. Some of them have gone down to stay in the lower places and some of them have built houses in Thaton. Some of them have come here [to the refugee camp]. Some of them have gone up to yyyy or zzzz. Some of them have gone to stay in Bilin. Some of them have gone to stay in the plains. The villagers are fleeing because they can't suffer it. They are forced to work, but they don't give us enough rice to work. We didn't have food to eat. They didn't have rules when they forced us to work. If they forced us to work for 15 days, they should release us after 15 days. They should have released us when we arrived in other villages. But they are not like that. They didn't release us when we arrived in other villages. They arrested more porters when they arrived in the other villages. They forced all the porters to carry their backpacks. They walked carrying only themselves and their equipment. I looked at them. They always oppressed the villagers."
"Saw Play Kee" (M, 40), refugee from xxxx village, Thaton township (Interview #98, 3/03)
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