PORTERS: SLORC’S SALWEEN OFFENSIVE

An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
April 8, 1995 / KHRG #95-12

TOPIC SUMMARY

Rounding up porters (Stories #1,2,3,4), "iron cage" trains (#1,2), women porters (#1,2,4), torture (#1,2,3,4), killings (#1,2,3), abandoned villages (#1,4), porters in battle (#3), urban forced relocation (#2), economic conditions (#2), conditions in Dagyon "New Town" (#2), DKBA (#2,3).

NAME: "Maung Ko Lay"      SEX: M          AGE: 28
FAMILY: Married, 2 children but one already died
ADDRESS: South Okalappa, Rangoon            INTERVIEWED: March 7, 1995
DISCRIPTION: Burman Buddhist, market seller

I sell things in the market. Sometimes I work as a bricklayer or dye clothes. I do whatever work I can get. They arrested me in the afternoon, about 1:30 p.m., when I went to watch video. That day my wife went to work, but there was no work for me. I went to look for work at the clothes dyeing place but they already had enough workers, so I had nothing to do in the afternoon. I went to watch a video called "Hong Kong Jetma". It started at 1:30 p.m., and 15 minutes later soldiers closed the doors of the video hall and guarded every door. They surrounded the back, then they came in to the video hall and looked for men my age. They were police together with soldiers. They picked out all the men of my age. They took about 25 or 30, I think - a lot of people. They left the old people and women with children. They sent us to the railway station by truck. I saw a lot of people at the railway station, but I don’t know where they were arrested. I think there were 150 or almost 200 people, all sitting on the ground. I didn’t see any women or old people. Later I saw some women in the jungle, but I don’t know where the soldiers arrested them.

We slept at the railway station. In the early morning we had to get up, and the soldiers kept us sitting there but didn’t give us any food or water. I wondered if they were waiting for their officer. I think it was 3 a.m. in the morning, but I had no watch. Then the train arrived. They put us on the train and closed the train doors, and no one who passed by could see inside the train. Inside there was an iron grid cage. We had to stay inside the cage while the soldiers stood around outside of it. Then the train left. At another railway station the soldiers made us get off, and I knew it was Thaton. Some trucks were waiting for us at the Thaton football ground. I saw alot of people, about 300, and about 60 military trucks. Some people bribed the soldiers. I don’t know how they got the money or how much, I just saw them going back. The soldiers said, "Don’t try to escape. You won’t get free if you try to escape. If even one of you tries to escape, we’ve already received an order to kill you. Wait and see what will happen to you!" When they were talking to us, they looked as though they really would shoot us.

We were divided into many groups, 5, 7, or 12 in each group plus soldiers on each truck. There were 5 porters along with every 4 or 5 soldiers. In the afternoon at about 1 or 2 o’clock they sent us by truck to a village. We slept there one night. I don’t know where because I’ve never been in that area before. We went to a camp. It was a big camp. I saw many battalions, a lot of warehouses and an airport. At night we had to sleep beside the airport. Early the next morning they came and took us by truck. After 10 minutes drive we got to the edge of the forest and we had to start carrying for Division #33, Light Infantry Battalion #216. I had to carry things including beer, alcohol, Lucky Strike cigarettes and food. These things were in a box 1½ feet high. The soldiers swore at me: "You won’t see the rest of your life if you drop it! We’ll kill you!" While they were walking, some soldiers often fired their guns to make noise. I was frightened and looked back because I have a heart disease. Once I almost dropped the box from my shoulders. A soldier saw me and kicked me in the back and the chest like a Kung Fu fighter, and he said rudely, "It is very important. It is not your mother’s husband! [a rude Burmese expression] If you do like that again, you’ll see what will happen!"

I saw a man with us who was in bad health, and he died later. The night before he died we came to a village, had a rest and then continued to another village. He couldn’t carry anything so we helped him to carry his load. A soldier asked, "Why can’t you follow us, even without your load?" He looked as if he couldn’t follow them anymore. He said, "I really can’t follow you, sir. You can leave me or kill me." The soldier hit him in the forehead with his rifle butt, and his skin was broken and bleeding. He said "Don’t delay our journey!", and another soldier said "Kill him! Don’t waste time for only one." But other porters said they would help to carry the man - they said "We have one man who is very strong". While we were saying this, the soldiers were pulling the man by his hands, dragging him cruelly. It was a horrible scene. A strong man came forward and told the soldiers that he would carry the man. The soldiers asked him "Can you carry him?" and he said "Yes". He took the man on his shoulders until we got to the big camp. Just before we got there, there was some fighting and two soldiers were killed. When we got to the camp they gave us some rice, just one canteen-lid full, put in some plastic or spooned into the longyi [sarong] of each porter. That night, we slept on the hill at the camp. The sick man couldn’t eat anything, even when we gave him food. He couldn’t move his mouth. We found him dead in his place the next morning and we covered him with a blanket. And we left. I don’t know where he was from, but he was about 19 years old.

We had never climbed mountains like this before. We couldn’t follow the soldiers because we were very tired of climbing. One or two out of each group were left behind in some places, so the soldiers swore and drove them along to catch up. We saw about 150 women at the top of a hill. I’ve never seen so many women in the jungle before. They were Burman, Indian, Karen, various nationalities, maybe Shan too. I saw them among the soldiers but I don’t understand why. We stayed apart from them. I think the women didn’t have to carry heavy things, but I don’t know how much they had to carry. At night before I went to sleep, I saw the sentry and asked him, "Where do we have to go, and when are we going to be released?" He seemed to be good-tempered. He said "The deeper the forest, the worse things are going to be. It would be a good idea for you to escape from here". But then he said, "Don’t run away because the Karen soldiers will cut your head off when they see you, and there are many landmines." So we didn’t dare escape. We had to keep following them into the deeper jungle.

Getting food and water was difficult. There were alot of troops and all of them had water. I asked them for a bit of water but they refused it and said "We don’t have enough water to give you any." As for us, even though we had to carry their things we would have carried water as well if we’d had any containers, but we didn’t. We had to throw away our own things, like our slippers and other things, because we couldn’t carry anything extra. When we walked downhill in our slippers sometimes we slipped and fell down, and then the soldiers hit us. That’s why we threw our slippers away. The soldiers gave us rice once a day for 2 meals at a time, but we ate it all at once and couldn’t keep any food for the next meal. It wasn’t enough and we ate it all, so at night we had no food and no water. We were very hungry. When we were sick, we went to ask for some tablets but they said, "We have no medicine for you, only for us." I only saw fighting once. We just had to walk and walk, and carry their supplies.

One morning I was talking to the soldier I mentioned before, and he said "You will get the worst later on". Then I saw a 50 year old man who was left like the other man who died before. I don’t know if he is still alive. His name was U Tun San. The next morning when we were carrying the rice, we were looking for the opportunity to escape all the time. We were all waiting for the one who would escape first, but I didn’t see anyone escaping. Then we saw a fork in the path, and one of the men in front of us started to run down the hill. We followed him, throwing away our rice. There were 8 of us, and we ran down the hill and were silent for about 1½ hours. While we were hiding, the soldiers were swearing at us and then they left. They didn’t shoot any bullets because they didn’t know where we were.

We climbed any mountain we saw, and we searched for food and water. We were losing our strength and becoming weak. We didn’t have any food for a whole day, but our priority was water and to continue our journey mountain after mountain. Along the way we met 4 Indian people who said "You are very lucky". They told us that as SLORC was advancing we were following behind them. Then we saw the river from the top of the highest mountain. Now we know it was the Salween River, but at the time we didn’t know. We noticed that the SLORC troops had cooked and eaten on top of that mountain. Some food was left over on the leaves, and I saw a lump of rice and I was so glad. I shared it with my comrades because we had escaped from hell together, although I could have eaten it all myself. We can really say that we were lucky. It took us 3 days to that mountain, then 2 more days to the river. We had to use burning sticks to see our way at night. We passed through some villages, but we didn’t see anyone in those villages. Everything inside the houses was in chaos and overturned. We slept in a village after the SLORC troops had left it. In that village I could see that the SLORC troops had shot the pigs and chickens and taken whatever they saw. I had never seen this situation before.

We found some paddy in a village, so we husked it and cooked it in a big tin that we found. We’d been 3 days without food until we found the paddy in the village. The next morning we set out straight for the river. We imagined that once we got to the river we’d build a raft to cross and escape from them. We couldn’t think of anything else but escaping from them. When we reached the river, we saw "Myo Thant" [see his story in this report]. We first saw him from a distance, and we knew he wasn’t a soldier because he was wearing a longyi [sarong]. We went towards him. He was moving a little bit, so we turned him over and found he was still alive. We gave him some boiled rice we’d saved from the village, and we carried him. We decided we would look for a village for help, and explain to them our tragedy as porters. When we came along the river, we saw a floating house on the river. We were surprised and happy, because we thought we could use it to cross the river. But we worried that someone would see it because it was so big, so we planned the crossing. We cut some bamboo at 4 or 5 p.m. to carry with us, so that if the house broke apart we could use the bamboo. We carried "Myo Thant" and we put the bamboo in the house. Then we saw the students [the All-Burma Students’ Democratic Front, calling from the Thai side of the river]. They shouted out "Who are you?" in Burmese. We thought they were Burmese soldiers because they spoke Burmese, so we didn’t answer anything and we got ready to hide. Then they shouted again, "Are you porters?" with a different tone, so we came out and answered "Yes, we are porters, and we are going to cross the river." They called, "Come quickly. You will die on that side." We tried to push the floating house but it was too heavy and it didn’t work, so we crossed the river on small bamboo rafts. Each raft had 5 bamboos and 2 or 3 people could use it. There were 10 of us, 4 Muslims and 6 Burmans. On the other side of the river, the students gave us some rice and we made a fire freely and cooked it. They gave "Myo Thant" some medicine and noodles, and after that he got better. Then we came here. On the way, we could never make a fire because we were afraid the SLORC soldiers would see the smoke [even though they were in Thailand]. Now I still have this injury on my foot from tripping over something when I was carrying. I couldn’t heal it, because I knew I would feel their fists if I asked for medicine for my foot.

NAME: "Nyunt Swe"           SEX: M           AGE: 23
FAMILY: Single
ADDRESS: Dagyon New Town, near Rangoon           INTERVIEWED: March 7, 1995
DISCRIPTION: Burman Buddhist, clothing dyer

I have lived in Dagyon New Town for about 9 months. Before I stayed in Sin Ma Leit [a district of Rangoon], but the SLORC authorities relocated the people from Sin Ma Leit. The whole quarter had to move, about 300 households. Some people were sent to Hlaing Tha Ya New Town and some to Dagyon. At Dagyon they gave us a plot and we received 300 Kyats [less than US$3 at market rate], but we had to pay for the new house ourselves. There was no electricity and no water supply. We had to dig a well ourselves. It was very hard. Some people have to buy water. The ground used to be a paddy field. There were alot of people moving there from different places. It is very far from my work. I have to take a truck to Thin Gan Kyone for 1 hour, then to the centre of Rangoon at Sule Pagoda, then another bus to work [in South Okalappa]. In our old place at Sin Ma Leit, they built a plywood factory. It belongs to the government.

My father died. Now we are 5 people, my 3 younger siblings, my mother and I. My mother sells things. The younger ones are still very young, they are going to school. The situation is not good. We have to live day by day. I work today, buy the food for today and eat it all, then the next day I have to work again. Sometimes we have to pawn our things to borrow money to buy food. And the price of rice is increasing. Today maybe 60 Kyats, tomorrow maybe 70 Kyats. The more the government increases the pay of the civil servants, the higher goes the price of rice. I earn about 50 or 60 Kyats a day. Combined with my mother’s earnings, we can buy the food. Right now the price of rice is between 60 and 70 Kyats [per pyi, about equivalent to 2 kg.] Sometimes I have no work. The bus to Thin Gan Kyone costs 2 Kyats, but after 4 or 5 p.m. the government bus stops running and we can only take a private bus for 10-15 Kyats. From the centre of Rangoon to Dagyon, it costs at least 30 to 40 Kyats at night time.

The government provides rice for the civil servants monthly at their work place, but I don’t know how much they have to pay for it. Moreover, the civil servants can live in government houses. There are lots of civil servants in Dagyon, in government houses with water and electricity. They sent all the people who are not civil servants to Southern Dagyon, and in Northern Dagyon there are only civil servants [Note: from all other accounts, civil servants are also struggling to buy enough rice to survive. However, they are somewhat better off than "Nyunt Swe", so by his standards they are rich.]

In Dagyon each plot is 20 by 60 feet. There is no clinic, but we can go to a private clinic. There is one school, up to 9th Standard. The school is right in front of the Battalion Army Camp. It is Battalion 303. Some of the schoolteachers are Captain’s or Major’s wives. There are only a few civilian teachers. Some children go to that school, but most are sent to the monastery. The monks teach the children. We have to give them 25 Kyats a month. We can send children to the government school but they have a strict quota. This year they didn’t accept my younger sisters so we sent them to the monastery. The same for my neighbour’s children. I cannot pay fees for high school. I myself had to leave school after 3rd Standard [grade 3]. Now my younger sister is in 3rd Standard. She is 10 years old.

I was arrested on the way back from work. An ordinary bus appeared in front of us and someone called us, "Get on! Get on!" We thought it might be a cheap fare bus and we got on. It took us to Thin Gan Kyone jail. There were about 15 of us - the others didn’t get on the bus. They sent back the old men and the children, and then there were 10 of us left at the jail including me. It was in January or February, I think in February. I slept one night in the jail, then the next morning we were sent to the railway station. I saw about 80 people there. Some were sleeping and some were sitting on the floor. I was crying, bending my head down on my knees. They ordered, "Don’t look up! Keep your heads down!" They put us inside iron cages inside 2 carriages of the train and took us to Thaton. Then they sent us to Thaton football ground. I saw alot of porters there, 400 or 500, mostly men of my age. Some were between 30 and 40. There were no women. I saw about 80 army trucks, including 10 civilian trucks. After cooking, they ordered us to get into the trucks. Then they whistled for the convoy to get moving toward the jungle. The soldiers were talking to each other on radios. When they put us on the trucks I realized we would be porters.

I saw alot of sentries along the way. We got to Pain Ne Gone village and slept there. They gave us some rice, one canteen lid of rice. A soldier said "Don’t go anywhere! I’ll shoot you if you go out!" Pain Ne Gone is in Papun Township. The next morning we were sent to Papun by trucks, and when we got there they collected us in a warehouse. Then 3 trucks sent us to the foot of the mountain. It took about 1 hour. From there the soldiers forced us to carry things, like jerrycans full of alcohol, dried fish, and cheroots. There were about 150 porters. At night we had to carry the rice sacks. They were very heavy. We were forced to carry them to the top of the hill by kicking and beatings. We had to come down the hill the same night. They stopped and put us in one place on the ground and then they said "You can have dinner now!" But we had no food, because we only got 2 canteen lids of rice per day without any curry, fishpaste or salt and it wasn’t enough [so they’d already eaten it all for the day]. We asked the soldiers "Are we near our destination?" He said, "No. There’s been some fighting in front of us." Later we saw an overturned military truck, 2 dead bodies covered in blankets and blood all around. When we were walking we saw many trucks coming back. I asked a soldier and he said "There was fighting with the convoy we saw."

At Pa Hai camp I saw alot of soldiers and about 100 women. They were Indian women and some Karen women. Some women were from the cities. The next morning, the soldiers were swearing at the women because they couldn’t carry, but the women kept smiling. But it wasn’t easy for us. At night, the soldiers gave us the rice sacks to carry the next day. Every morning we had to carry the rice sacks [from Pa Hai camp up the mountain] and the soldiers said "Don’t run away. You will be beheaded by Karen soldiers". We couldn’t bear this any longer. We were put between groups of soldiers when we were walking. They were Battalion #4 under #33 Division. They had many officers. At 7 a.m., we started to carry. We had a rest at 1 p.m. and we received 1 canteen lid of rice and continued. We weren’t allowed to drink water after we ate [usually in Burma people don’t drink anything with a meal, but drink a glass of water as soon as they finish]. After 5 or 6 hours we had a rest. I was carrying for about 6 days. We had to carry all day from place to place, and even at night time. They threatened us "There are lots of landmines around. Don’t run away!" Sometimes soldiers were very drunk, and they talked to us stupidly so we couldn’t sleep well. Then the soldiers said "We’ll kill you when you pass in front of us." The soldiers chose a leader from among the porters for each group of 50 porters. Sometimes that leader punched us too. He just had to carry one soldier’s bag on his back, and he got more food than us. He got 2 canteen lids of rice when we got only one.

I saw one porter beaten with a rifle butt, but I don’t remember his name. Afterwards, the soldiers were talking to each other and said "It will be better to abandon him here." Another one said "We could get in trouble if we leave him here, so it would be better to kill him now." But they didn’t kill him, and we carried him to Pa Hai camp. In the morning, I think he had died because he didn’t move any more. When we left the camp, they left him lying on the ground covered with rice sacks. After we left the camp we escaped. 8 of us escaped, but along the way we saw one porter on the riverbank and another at the students’ place.

On the 19th [of February] at night, we built a raft 7 feet long. We saw something moving across the river and we stayed quiet on the raft. We thought it might be SLORC soldiers. They asked "Who are you?" from the Thai side, the first in Burmese and the second in Burmese but with a Karen accent. So we answered "We are porters". We went to them, and we saw one dead body in the river near the Thai side. They asked us "Did you put the dead body here?", and we said we didn’t [the body was most likely a porter killed by SLORC troops further up the river - such bodies are a common sight in the Salween]. They said "We have rice for you". That night we got two pots of rice. We ate it and slept. The next morning they said "The situation is not good here", and K--- sent us to this place by car.

I saw DKBA, but they weren’t with our group. K--- told me about them. We saw them wearing yellow headbands and shouting at the Burmese side [of the Salween River] from the Thai side. They were shouting at the boats in the river to come to them. They shot 2 or 3 bullets, then they burned down one house and went back uphill. The next morning they came back to the riverside wearing red scarves around their necks. We were hiding in a house on the Thai side. They drove upriver in a boat, arrested one man and asked for a ransom of about 10,000 Baht. There were about 20 of them in 2 boats.

NAME: "Myo Thant"            SEX: M            AGE: 29
FAMILY: Married, 3 children
ADDRESS: Htaut Khant, near Rangoon            INTERVIEWED: March 7, 1995
DISCRIPTION: Burman Buddhist, market seller

They arrested me at the Htaut Khant market, in the evening at about 6 p.m. They sent us right away on an army truck to Rangoon railway station. We slept one night there, then the next morning we left for Thaton. They made us sleep one night at Thaton football ground. There were 400, 500, or 600 of us, only men. They made us sleep on the football ground, with no roof or anything. They gave us just rice and fishpaste, each an equal amount of rice. I think they said, "Tomorrow, you have to go as porters". They never offered to pay us. I don’t think we could have bribed them. Some men were sick.

The next day they took us to Papun in an army truck. Finally we reached the end of the road. We couldn’t go any further, and we had to start walking. They forced us to carry shells. We had to go to the top of the mountain. I had to carry 6 shells, longer than one plah [about 18 inches] each. There were 200 people just carrying their heavy weapons. There were old men between 50 and 60 years old. Sometimes I had to carry 3 big tins of rice. We started early in the morning. We got to eat between 12 and 1 p.m., but it depends on the situation. They gave us some food, then we had to continue until 5 or 6 p.m. and then we could take dinner. At about 12 or 1 p.m. they fed us one canteen-lid of rice with fishpaste. If there was no fishpaste we got a bit of salt. We couldn’t ask the soldiers for water. When we were walking and we saw a stream we could drink some water, but we had no container. Everything depended on the situation. Sometimes we could rest, sometimes we couldn’t. When they lost their way, we could rest while they were looking for the way.

When they were shooting heavily, I laid down on the ground and hid behind the paddy field dyke. I was struggling for my life. I didn’t see anybody who they were fighting, because I had to stay on their side. I only heard about the fighting at Manerplaw. I met the DKBA. They were guides for SLORC, to show them the way through the jungle. There were about 30 of them, carrying guns. They tied yellow pieces of monks’ clothing around their heads. I saw them talking to SLORC on walkie-talkies.

The Burmese soldiers’ badges said 3 on one side [probably 33, for #33 Division] and 116 on the other [for #116 Battalion]. We had to walk one group of porters behind each group of soldiers. There were 10 porters in a group, then 5 or 6 soldiers. When a porter was too weak and was staggering, the soldiers lost their patience and kicked them down the hillside. I saw this about 6 times. I saw it in front of my own eyes. When the soldiers had finished attacking Manerplaw, I had no more energy and I didn’t get any food. On the way to their camp I couldn’t walk anymore. I told the soldiers that I couldn’t follow them anymore, but the soldiers thought I was lying. They swore at me and hit me with rifle butts. They hit my knees three times, and my back and chest several times. Then they left me alone in the forest. I stayed in that place in the jungle for about a week without food. Then I was very hot and thirsty so I went to look for water. I found water and took a bath and a drink. I was very weak so I couldn’t sit up at all. I didn’t have any food for one week. I wanted to go back to a hut but I fell down on the sand. Then I fell asleep, and some other porters found me and carried me. [Other porters said they found him unconscious along the riverbank - see their testimonies in this report.] I couldn’t walk, so they had to carry me all the way to the students [the ABSDF]. We crossed the Salween River.

Now I still have scars [he showed scars on his chest, back and legs]. I want to go home. I don’t know how to survive here at all.

NAME: "Khin Myint"               SEX: M             AGE: 25
FAMILY: Married, 1 child aged 19 months
ADDRESS: Hinthada, Irrawaddy Division             INTERVIEWED: March 7, 1995
DISCRIPTION: Burman Buddhist, hawker / day labourer

I was arrested on February 10th at 8 p.m. I was watching a video in another quarter of town. The army arrested 17 of us. They didn’t say anything to us. They just took us to Light Infantry Battalion 17 on the other side of the river. Then they took us across the river to Thara Wo, and then to Rangoon. We stayed one night in Rangoon but didn’t sleep. They sent us by train from Rangoon to Thaton, to Thaton football ground. We arrived at about 11 a.m. There were 80 trucks there and they put about 12 porters and 4 or 5 soldiers in each truck. They sent us to Papun. We slept 2 nights on the way to Papun. We started walking from Papun. I had to carry salt, canned meat, dried fish, alcohol and other supplies. The dried fish bags were light but the salt was very heavy. The other bags were even heavier, but I don’t know what was inside. We had to carry those between 2 of us.

They gave us one canteen lid of rice and salt. If they were in a good mood, sometimes they gave us dried fish and some oil. When they didn’t give us any food, they said they would give us curry tomorrow. We started walking at 5 a.m. and we reached the military post called Pa Hai camp at 5 p.m. Some porters couldn’t carry on the way and they were beaten with gun butts. One of them, Hla Tin, pleaded "Just leave me. I can’t carry anymore." But they didn’t leave anyone, they just dragged him. I didn’t see them kill anyone, because I was in the front group. Before we reached Pa Hai camp, each soldier had 10 porters. After Pa Hai camp they didn’t follow us like that. They only had 10 or 15 soldiers leading the way. Altogether there were about 80 soldiers. There was a man who was not a soldier. The soldiers told him to be leader for 50 porters. He had nothing to carry. He beat and kicked all the porters who couldn’t carry, who refused to carry or who tried to rest. The soldiers kicked the porters who were close to them. There were about 500 porters altogether. The youngest were about 18 years old, and the oldest were about 50 or 60. Our group had 100 or 150 porters. Over 10 soldiers went in front of us, and about 100 women porters were behind. Then some more soldiers were behind the women. They usually kicked us on the back 2 or 3 times. When they were beating us, we tried to avoid it and just go faster. One of those times, a porter who was wearing yellow shorts dropped his load and tried to escape. I also dropped mine and tried to follow him to escape. I only carried for 2 days. We also had to carry water sometimes. We had to walk very far to get it. We couldn’t sleep very well because as soon as we got back to their camp they always forced some porters to go and get water. They also forced 50 of us to go to a place where their truck went off the road and pull it back onto the road. So we only had a short time to sleep.

The women had to carry the same as we did, but their load was not as heavy as ours. When the porters were getting ready to leave Pa Hai camp, I saw them yelling at an old woman who was laying down: "Wake up and start carrying!" But she didn’t get up. She and the other women were about 60 or 70 years old, and the soldiers yelled and shouted at them. Some of them were Karen, some Indian and some Burmese, but they could all speak Burmese. Among the old women, I saw a child aged about 14. He was staying with the women. I think they were sick. We also saw 5 or 6 women who had fair complexion and didn’t look like porters. They looked at us smiling and laughing. I’m sure that they were not porters.

After escaping we passed some villages. We slept 3 nights on the way, and we had no food to eat for 3 days. There were 8 of us. We saw houses but there was nobody in them. We reached the highest mountain and saw that the soldiers had just left there, and then we saw a small stream and continued. We saw a small village, but no one was there. I went in a house and saw empty boxes and things spread all over, and we found some paddy. We cooked it and slept there one night. The next morning we left. We saw a big stream and found a field hut, and we slept there one night. We found some more paddy, we pounded it and cooked it and then we continued. We saw a village - there were many houses, even some big houses, but there was nobody there. We found a man lying on the riverbank ["Myo Thant"]. We gave him some boiled rice and some banana and asked him about the SLORC troops and he said "They left in that direction. They left me on the way 10 days ago. I had no water, so I came to the river to get water and I couldn’t make it back." We planned to make a bamboo raft, but then we saw a floating house. We put our rice soup pot on it and we tried to cross the river, but we were drifting. After a few minutes, a group called to us "Who are you? Where are you going?" We jumped into the river and went to them. They were students. We reached them on the 19th [of February]. It was 5 days after we escaped. Now we don’t know which direction to go or how far it is, but we will try to go home.