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PHOTO SET 2005-A: Forced Labour
Forced labour is probably the most systematic and prevalent abuse committed by the SPDC against villagers throughout Burma. Village heads are ordered to provide labourers for building roads and other infrastructure, portering for the Army, constructing and maintaining Army camps, performing sentry duty at Army camps and along roads, farming for the Army and many other jobs. In addition, villagers must use much of their time filling the constant demands from SPDC Army camps and authorities for large quantities of bamboo, roofing thatch, stones and gravel, logs, planks and other materials. Some of these materials are used for the construction and maintenance of roads, SPDC Army camps and other SPDC projects, while the rest is sold on the market for the personal profit of the Army officers. Villagers are not provided with tools or food to complete the work and are often treated brutally, some dying as a result. The labour takes them away from their livelihood and leaves them very little time to farm their fields or to earn a living. Whatever little money the villagers are able to get must be given to the SPDC to avoid having to go for the labour so they can do their own work. Village heads often receive demands from many different Army camps and SPDC authorities for various kinds of labour at the same time. Many villagers try to strike a balance by paying the 'fees' to avoid some of the labour while still regularly going for other forms of forced labour. To meet all of the demands the entire family must take part, such that children must go for forced labour even if this means pulling them from school, and women must leave infants at home and abandon their other work in order to do forced labour.
On November 1 st 2000, the SPDC claims to have issued an order outlawing the use of forced labour and prescribing punishment for any soldier, officer or official who continues to demand it. A High Level Team (HLT) sent in September 2001 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) found that although news of the order had been distributed in some areas, its dissemination was limited and forced labour was still widespread. No one was prosecuted for demanding forced labour until 2004, when the first few cases were brought against SPDC civil authorities and resulted in convictions. Thus far only seven such cases have been prosecuted nationwide, a paltry total considering the extent of the abuse. Though this could be considered the first crack in the impunity of civilian SPDC officials to demand forced labour, not a single Army officer or soldier has yet been prosecuted despite the fact that most forced labour demands are issued by the Army. All of the photos in this photo set were taken years after the SPDC order banning forced labour was issued. They show that the order, the ILO's critical reports, and the prosecutions of civilian authorities have not had much of an effect on the ground. Forced labour continues to be systematic, pervasive, and implemented with complete impunity, often for the sole aim of exercising military control over civilians. Another tactic the SPDC is using to avoid international censure while increasing the number of forced labourers available to the Army is to use convicts for forced labour, particularly as porters. This is particularly common in areas like Papun District where SPDC units have difficulty catching enough villagers for their needs. A whole system has developed for sending convicts to transit camps where they are readily available to the Army. Most of the convicts are serving sentences for petty crimes, but to feed the Army demand innocent civilians are sometimes grabbed from the streets simply to be turned into instant 'convicts' without charge or trial. Convict porters are treated particularly brutally so more and more of them are escaping throughout Karen areas, as documented in Section 6.2 (Convict Porters) below.
It is extremely difficult and dangerous to take photos of forced labour, and these here should be seen as a small sampling. For every photo presented here, thousands more could be taken if it were possible to safely do so. The forced labour shown in these photos and described in the captions is consistent with the hundreds of interviews conducted by KHRG researchers during the last three years, and the texts of thousands of SPDC written orders which are sent monthly demanding all forms of forced labour. Some of the interviews can be seen in reports issued by KHRG. The translations of several hundred SPDC orders demanding forced labour can be seen in SPDC and DKBA Orders to Villages: Set 2003-A (KHRG #2003-01, August 2003) and other previous order sets published by KHRG. See also previous KHRG photo sets and regional reports for additional pictures and information on forced labour. The photos below have been divided into the following sections based on the nature of the forced labour: Portering (6.1) ; Convict Porters (6.2) ; Guides, Messengers, and Meetings (6.3) ; Roads (6.4) ; Forced Labour Maintaining Army Camps, Army Farms, and Villages (6.5) ; and Supplying Materials (6.6) . Each section contains a brief introduction to the photos included. 6.1 PorteringSPDC Army units in rural areas still use civilians to carry most of their supplies and ammunition. Roundups of thousands of townspeople from central Burma to carry supplies into the hills are less common now than ten years ago, but they still occur sometimes on a smaller scale (see photos 6-51 to 6-54 ). Instead, SPDC Army units use local villagers from the areas where they operate as porters, while for extended operations they also use convict porters (which are documented in the next section ). Villages face regular demands for people to go as porters for periods of one to several days, sometimes on rotation. Normally they must porter for every SPDC unit in their local area, and possibly also for the DKBA (photos 6-43 and 6-44 to 6-46 ) and the KNLA. SPDC units also grab people along their way and force them to carry loads for indefinite periods (photos 6-23 to 6-24 , 10-107 to 10-113 , 4-19 , 6-47 , and 4-20 to 4-21 ), or use portering as a form of torture or punishment (photos 4-11 and 4-16 to 4-17 ). SPDC columns are almost always accompanied by porters. Another form of portering occurs when villages are ordered to transport rations without escort from one point to another, usually an SPDC Army rations storehouse to a remote Army post (see photos 6-11 to 6-18 , 6-42 , and 6-49 ). If they take too long or if anything goes missing on the way, their entire village is punished. This type of portering is consuming more and more of people's time as the SPDC penetrates remoter areas and establishes new camps, as they are doing in Toungoo district (see 'Peace', or Control? [KHRG #2005-F3, March 2005]). For example, photos 6-25 to 6-34 show a case where 1,000 villagers in Tantabin township were forced to carry supplies to outlying SPDC posts to stockpile enough for the long rainy season. In such cases, one or more people per house are forced to show up regardless of other responsibilities at home or in the fields. Children must often go because their parents need to work to support the family (see photos 6-25 , 9-6 , 11-37 to 11-39 , and 6-44 to 6-46 ). Women often go (see photos 6-2 to 6-7 and 6-25 to 6-34 ) because men don't dare face the soldiers for fear of being arrested as 'rebels'; when SPDC columns come looking for porters men often flee (see photos 6-23 to 6-24 ), leaving the women particularly vulnerable to abuse. Villagers are not paid for portering and must even take their own food (see photos 6-21 to 6-22 ). SPDC forces also order them to use their bullock carts (photos 6-11 to 6-18 and 6-20 ), motor vehicles (photos 6-31 to 6-32 and 6-36 to 6-39 ), and elephants ( photos 7-73 to 7-74 ) to transport Army supplies, logs and materials, without any compensation whatsoever. Portering is extremely dangerous because SPDC troops often use porters to detect landmines, such as the young girls in photos 11-37 to 11-39 and Saw P--- in photo 11-45 . Many porters are also wounded when resistance forces ambush SPDC columns, as in photos 6-10 , 5-29 and 5-51 . Photos 5-14 to 5-19 show a group of villagers who were ambushed by one SPDC unit while portering for another, killing one of them and wounding several others. Moreover, when SPDC forces are ambushed they often blame, and then torture, any porters with them who happen to be from that area (see photos 4-20 to 4-21 ). Porters suffer wounds from carrying heavy loads ( photo 6-47 ) and from beatings, such as the deaf villager in photo 4-19 who was beaten with rifles because he couldn't respond to the soldiers' commands. Porters kept for longer time periods are sometimes killed if they can no longer carry loads (see photos 6-51 to 6-54 ), though this is rare on shorter shifts of local portering. After their ordeal, people often come home only to fall ill for a prolonged period afterward (see photos 6-50 and 10-147 ). To avoid portering, some people try to hire itinerant labourers to go in their place. In some areas this has become so common that 'porter brokers' have set up business, charging high fees to villagers but paying almost nothing to the impoverished labourers desperate enough to porter Army supplies for a living (see photo 6-48 ). Alternatively, villagers pay monthly fees to SPDC officers to be exempted from portering (see photos 6-40 to 6-41 ), though when new officers arrive they often continue to collect these fees but demand porters as well. The combination of porter fees and portering demands from several sources eventually causes many people to flee their villages (see photos 7-73 to 7-74 and 10-107 to 10-113 ).
Photo #6-1: Saw H---, age 51, from K--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun district. On September 27 th 2004 he and another villager were forced to carry loads weighing over 20 kilograms from M--- army camp to T--- army camp for SPDC LIB #598 (Battalion Commander San Main Tha commanding). The trip took from early morning until noon, and they didn't arrive back at their village until after dark. They received no payment and had to take along their own food. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-2, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5, 6-6, 6-7: All of these villagers from Than Daung township in Toungoo District described to KHRG how they had been forced to porter for SPDC Battalions during 2004. Naw S---, age 20 ( photo 6-2 ) and Naw B---, age 38 ( photo 6-3 ) are from different villages, but both had been portering just a few days before they were interviewed in August 2004: Naw S--- for IB #48 and Naw B--- for a combined column of IB #39 and IB #124. Naw B---, age 55 ( photo 6-4 ) was forced to carry a load of Army rice by IB #39 in June 2004 despite her age. Naw L---, 52 ( photo 6-5 ) was with a group of 35 people from her village who were forced to carry Army rations from Than Daung Gyi to an IB #92 outpost by Captain Zaw Zaw Aung in February 2004. This was traumatic for her because in 2000 her daughter was killed in the crossfire while doing an almost identical shift of forced portering for SPDC IB #20, leaving her two children aged 2 and 7 in Naw L---'s care. Thirty-five year old Saw A--- ( photo 6-6 ) had been forced to porter Army supplies twice for IB #48 within the week before he was interviewed in August 2004. When interviewed in June, 19-year-old Saw S--- ( photo 6-7 ) had just finished two shifts of portering in a row for a combined column of IB #39 and IB #124. Forced portering is a regular activity for villagers in hilly Toungoo District, where roads are impassable to vehicles during the June to October rainy season and all Army supplies are transported on foot by porters. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-8, 6-9, 6-10: All three of these villagers from H--- village in Tantabin township, Toungoo District were forced to carry loads for SPDC IB #60 during the 2004 planting season. Naw L---, 18 (left) was in a group of 12 villagers who had to porter on May 31. Saw D---, 37 (centre) was taken on July 15. When Saw T---, 49 (right) was taken on July 11, the column was ambushed and one of the other porters died. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-11, 6-12, 6-13, 6-14, 6-15, 6-16, 6-17, 6-18: This series of photos shows forced labour transporting rations for SPDC LIB #376 in Thaton district in June 2004. Photos 6-11 and 6-12 show villagers in K--- village setting off with their baskets to pick up the rations from the Army storehouse at T---. From there they have to carry them on their backs to H--- village, where the rations are deposited and stored in the village health clinic. The villagers in H--- must then take the rations from the clinic and load them onto their own bullock carts, as shown in photos 6-13 through 6-15 . They must then haul the loads on their bullock carts to LIB #376 camp at L--- (see photos 6-16 through 6-18 ). They are paid nothing for this work or for the use of their carts. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-19: Villagers from S--- village in Thaton district at an Army rations storage dump in July 2004, pouring out Army ration rice which they are being forced to transport to another Army camp for SPDC LIB #376. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-20: Three villagers in Bilin township of Thaton district using their bullock carts to do forced labour hauling rice in May 2004. They were ordered to transport eighteen sacks [900 kgs. / 1,980 lbs.] of ration rice from Yo Klah Army camp to outposts of SPDC LIB #376. They received no payment for their work or for the use of their carts. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-21, 6-22: On March 6 th 2004, villagers from K--- and M--- villages in Dweh Loh township, Papun district grab the packed lunches other villagers have prepared for them and set out for the Army camp, where they have been ordered to porter Army rations for the day by Major Mya Htway of SPDC LIB #440. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-23, 6-24: Village men leaving M--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun district in October 2003 to avoid being taken as porters. They had heard that a column from SPDC IB #57 was on the way to the village. In this district, such columns normally round up any village men they can catch and take them as porters, so these men will not return to the village until certain that the soldiers have left. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #4-11: Saw P--- from M--- village demonstrates how SPDC soldiers tied him and beat him. On October 4 th 2003, a KNLA unit ambushed soldiers from LIB #350 close to his village in Dweh Loh township of Papun District. Sergeant Tin Shwe and four of his soldiers from IB #57 went to his home and called him down from his house, whereupon the soldiers kicked and beat him unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he was taken to Meh Way Army camp, where he was tied up in the position shown in the photo and beaten until he lost consciousness again. The following day, he was forced to serve as a porter for IB #57 as they returned to Shwegyin town in Nyaunglebin District, but managed to escape a couple of days later. He told a KHRG researcher that he does not know if his family was punished for his escape, but does not yet dare to return in case the soldiers are waiting for him. This photo was taken in October 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #5-14, 5-15, 5-16, 5-17, 5-18, 5-19: On June 13 th 2003, 300-400 villagers from the villages surrounding the Kler Lah forced relocation site in Toungoo District were ordered by SPDC Infantry Battalions #124 and #26 to porter rations along the Toungoo to Mawchi vehicle road, from Tha Aye Hta Army camp to the newly formed Army camp at Ler Wah Moo Thwa Koh on the border between Karen and Karenni (Kayah) State (see map ). As they were returning without military escort to Tha Aye Hta to take their second loads, they were ambushed by one of the SPDC's Dam Byan Byaut Kya ['Guerrilla Retaliation'] units at 1 p.m. near Wa Soe village. The villagers dropped their baskets and fled into the surrounding forest. Photo 5-14 , taken two days later, shows 65 of the villagers who escaped and found their way to this IDP hiding site in the forest. A number of villagers were wounded and at least one was killed. As he was fleeing, 25 year old Saw N--- (photos 5-15 and 5-16 ) from D--- village suffered numerous shrapnel wounds to his buttocks. Photos 5-17 and 5-18 show Saw Pu Tu, also from D--- village, who was killed in the incident, laying face down in the forest with the remains of his portering basket still over his shoulders. Photo 5-19 is of Saw Pu Tu's widow, Naw L---, along with their five children. It is unclear why the Dam Byan Byaut Kya would open fire on villagers doing forced labour for the SPDC, but it is a unit which was created to kill villagers and operates with complete impunity (for more on the Dam Byan Byaut Kya in Toungoo District see KHRG's October 2004 report Enduring Hunger and Repression). These photos were taken in June 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher; the dates stamped on the photos are wrong.]
Photos #6-25, 6-26, 6-27, 6-28, 6-29, 6-30, 6-31, 6-32, 6-33, 6-34: Villagers in Tantabin township, Toungoo District during two solid weeks of forced labour. On April 1 st 2003, Operations Commander Khin Maung Oo of the SPDC's Southern Command ( Ta Pa Ka ) Strategic Operations Command #3 issued orders for 1,000 villagers from SPDC-controlled villages in the Kler Lah and Kaw Thay Der areas to porter supplies from Kler Lah to Tha Aye Hta Army camp, in order to stockpile enough rations and supplies at Tha Aye Hta in preparation for the coming wet season. Sein Than, commanding officer of IB #75 Company #4 based at Yay Tho Gyi Army camp in Kaw Thay Der, was responsible for rounding up many of the villagers for this labour. It is a six-hour walk from Kler Lah to Tha Aye Hta. For the first two weeks of April, approximately 1,000 villagers had to carry loads in shifts along this route, which is part of the Toungoo – Mawchi vehicle road (see map ). While some villagers carried, others were forced to work clearing the bush along both sides of the road to protect SPDC columns from ambush. These photos taken between April 7 th and 12 th show the villagers travelling up and down the road with loads of Army rations, tools for roadside clearing, and their own food and other supplies. The villagers shown here are from Kler Lah, Kaw Thay Der, Ler Ko, Klay Soe Kee, Wa Tho Ko, and Maw Ko Der villages. Women made up a large portion of the workforce, and there were also children (see photo 6-25 ). They had to bring all their own food and tools, and were paid nothing. The bamboo handles protruding from baskets in photo 6-30 are the handles of their machetes, and in photo 6-25 one man can be seen carrying a two-person saw over his shoulder for clearing trees. Photos of villagers doing clearance work could not be taken because this was done under the watch of SPDC soldiers. The truck in photos 6-31 and 6-32 is owned by 55-year-old villager Saw T--- from K--- village. He was ordered to transport 40 sacks [2000 kg. / 4400 lbs.] of rice from Toungoo town to the Army camp at Tha Aye Hta without payment, not even compensation for the cost of the petrol. In the photos, villagers portering loads are trying to hitch a ride on the truck. Photos 6-33 and 6-34 show a group of villagers bedding down for the night along the roadside, some using their baskets as pillows. [Photos: Tantabin township villagers, assisted by KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-35: On March 12 th 2003 Naw M---, 32, and Naw S---, 28, from K--- village in Tantabin Township of Toungoo District were ordered by SPDC IB #75 to porter rations along the Kler Lah - Bu Sah Kee road to the Maw Ni Dtine Gyi military camp at Naw Soe. This photo shows them setting off with their baskets. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #9-6: Eleven year old Naw P--- was ordered by Company Commander Thant Zin from IB #264 to porter rice for SPDC troops from Pa Leh Wah to Klaw Mi Der SPDC Army camp in Toungoo District on March 8 th 2003. The route goes uphill, from the vehicle road in the valley to the hill outpost (see map ). When rations need to be transported to supply Army outposts, SPDC forces are willing to use children rather than make several trips to transport the supplies themselves. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-36, 6-37, 6-38, 6-39: These trucks were ordered to carry SPDC Army supplies from Naw Soe to Bu Sah Kee in Tantabin township, Toungoo District in March 2003. A total of eleven vehicles were requisitioned from Kler Lah, Kaw Thay Der and Kaw Soe Ko villages. None of the owners were paid for the use of their vehicles, nor were they given any petrol. In photos 6-38 and 6-39 , soldiers from IB #26 and IB #48 can be seen riding in the backs of the trucks. [Photos: KHRG researcher; dates printed on the photos are wrong]
Photos #6-40, 6-41: Villagers in T--- village, Lu Thaw township, Papun District gather to hand in their monthly 'porter fees' to the village headman. To avoid regular shifts of forced labour as porters, each house in the village has to pay 1,000 Kyat per month to Htun Neh Lay, commanding officer of SPDC IB #9 Column #1. Every village in the region has to pay similar fees to whatever battalions are nearby. These photos were taken in March 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #11-37, 11-38, 11-39: On January 4 th 2003, SPDC LIB #341 (Kyaw Mya Thaung commanding) ordered villagers from P--- and K--- villages to carry Army supplies from Hsaw Bweh Der to K'Hee Kyo Army camp in Bu Tho township of Papun District. These girls aged 12, 15, and 20 were part of the group, which had to leave Hsaw Bweh Der at 7 a.m. The soldiers who were supposed to accompany the villagers set out for K'Hee Kyo through the forest, but ordered the villagers to walk along the vehicle road, apparently suspecting that the road may be mined. Shortly before arriving at K'Hee Kyo camp one of the villagers hit a tripwire, detonating a claymore mine placed there by the KNLA. Nine of the villagers were wounded. Photo 11-37 shows Naw A---, age 12, who was hit by shrapnel in the shoulder, left arm, left wrist, and under her breast; medics were later unable to remove the shrapnel, and a month later she said it still made her dizzy often. Beside Naw A--- in photo 11-38 is Naw B---, 15 (left), who was wounded in the bladder; both girls are shown in school uniform. Photo 11-39 shows 20 year old Naw M---, who sustained shrapnel wounds to her left thigh. Four others were injured more seriously and were sent to the SPDC hospital in Papun town. The use of villagers as human minesweepers is a common SPDC tactic throughout all areas of Karen State. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 10-107, 10-108, 10-109, 10-110, 10-111, 10-112, 10-113: On January 15 th 2003 SPDC troops from LIB #434 passed through villages in Bwa Der village tract of Bu Tho township, Papun district, on their way to replace another unit posted along the banks of the Salween River. In each village they passed they tried to catch men as porters and looted the villagers' belongings, causing these villagers from Kyi Thi Pu, Tee Doh Kwee Hta, Klaw Ko, Hsaw Weh, Bwa Der, Noh Kee and Th'Ree Hta villages to flee into the forest. They had been in the forest three days when these photos were taken. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-42: Part of a group of villagers from Meh Way A'Htat Su, Kloh Kee, Toh Meh Kee, Khaw Wah, Day Law Pu, Htoh Kaw Saw Kee, and Meh Kaw Loh villages in Dweh Loh township, Papun District portering supplies for the SPDC. When this photo was taken in late December 2002, these villagers had already been carrying supplies to the military camp at Meh Way Hta for LIB #440 on a daily basis for the past three weeks. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-43: Villagers in W---, Dweh Loh township, Papun district gather in preparation to go portering for DKBA forces on December 13 th 2002. They had been given orders that each family must carry one big tin of rice to the DKBA camp at Ku Thu Hta. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #5-29: Saw L--- was wounded in crossfire while doing forced labour as a porter for the SPDC. On November 20 th 2002 the battalion that he was portering for was ambushed by KNLA soldiers in the Meh Pleh Toh area in T'Nay Hsah township of Pa'an District. This photo shows a Karen medic removing cotton swabbing from a large shrapnel wound in his back. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #4-16, 4-17: On November 14 th 2002, Saw K---, 35 years old, from M--- village in Kawkareik township, Dooplaya District, was returning from working in his aunt's betelnut plantation near K--- village when he ran into SPDC Army soldiers from LIB #416, Column #2, led by acting column commander Yeh Naing. The Column detained him and forced him to serve as a porter for several days, during which he was accused of being a KNLA soldier and was bound, beaten, and tortured numerous times. Each night he was tied to a tree, unable to move as the nylon rope was wrapped around his chest, arms, legs, and throat. While tied like this he was kicked, beaten with a rifle butt and a piece of bamboo until they both broke, stabbed with knives, and burned. They cut off pieces of his earlobes and sliced his throat with a knife. He was only released after his village head paid the soldiers a 'fine' of 20,000 Kyat, along with numerous chickens, snacks, and cheroots. These photos were taken shortly after his release in November 2002. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #4-19: This deaf villager, Saw M---, from L--- village in Kawkareik township, Dooplaya District was captured on November 14 th 2002 and taken as a porter by soldiers from LIB #416 Column #2, led by intelligence officer Yeh Naing. The soldiers regularly beat him with their rifles because he was unable to hear their orders. He escaped during a clash between the SPDC Army soldiers and the KNLA. This photo was taken in November 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-44, 6-45, 6-46: Villagers from K--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District portering rice for the DKBA in November 2002. In areas where the DKBA is active, villagers face forced labour demands from them as well as SPDC forces. Note the young child walking with a small load behind the two women in photos 6-45 and 6-46 . [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-47: Forty-year-old Pa T--- from K--- village in Bu Tho township, Papun District shows the wounds he received while portering for the SPDC. He was captured by SPDC Army soldiers on October 19 th 2002 and forced to porter loads for them until November 2 nd 2002, when he was released. The wounds and bruises on his back are from the rubbing of his heavy bamboo basket. This photo was taken three days after he was released. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #11-45: Saw P--- from T--- village in Nyaunglebin District lost his leg while carrying rice from Mu Theh for the SPDC on October 3 rd 2002. This photo was taken two weeks later as he was receiving medical attention from Karen medics. Villagers seriously wounded while portering for SPDC forces are often left to die rather than being given treatment. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-48: In many cases, villagers who do not dare, or are not available to porter for the SPDC can hire itinerant labourers to go in their place. This is usually arranged through a porter broker in one of the larger villages or towns. The labourers are usually impoverished ethnic Burmans from other parts of the country who have come in search of work. In some areas a system has developed whereby SPDC officers demand a quota of porters from a village head, who instead gathers money from the villagers and pays a porter broker to send the specified number of porters to the SPDC camp (for an example of this, see Forced Labour Orders Since the Ban [KHRG, February 2002], Order #100 ). Standard rates tend to be around 1,000 Kyat per day of portering. This money is paid to the broker, who in turn pays the porters. These seven Burman itinerant labourers were given work by K---, a porter broker in Kler Lah village of Toungoo District. In this case the villagers had to pay the broker 5,000 Kyat for each porter; however, each of these men received only 500 Kyat for their work, while the broker kept the other 90 percent of the money. This photo was taken in November 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-49: Part of a stockpile of rations and supplies for SPDC IB #39 that villagers were ordered to transport by car from Kaw Thay Der to the outlying SPDC Army camps at Naw Soe and Bu Sah Kee in Tantabin township of Toungoo District. This photo was taken in November 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #7-73, 7-74: Saw K--- from Dweh Loh township, Papun District, owns two elephants which he uses to make his living by hauling things. In late 2002, DKBA officers from #777 Brigade ordered him to begin doing forced labour hauling logs for them; however, he was afraid to do this because the KNU had banned logging in his area. If he hauled the logs he would face arrest by the KNU, and if he didn't he would face arrest by the DKBA, so he left his village with his elephants. These photos were taken as he was leaving on November 11 th 2002. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #5-51: Saw M---, 42, from K--- village in Bilin township of Thaton District was wounded while portering for the SPDC. In late 2002 he was forced to accompany SPDC LIB #2 Column 1 (Battalion Commander Aung Zaw Win commanding) and carry a wounded SPDC Army soldier. When KNLA soldiers ambushed the column near Htee Maw Kee village, he was wounded twice in the buttocks and again on his thigh in the firefight. The SPDC soldiers did not provide him with any medical treatment for his wounds. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #4-20, 4-21: As he was fishing on the banks of the N--- on September 17 th 2002, Saw H---, 42, from T--- village in Bilin township, Thaton District was captured by SPDC Army LIB #2, Column #1, led by battalion commander Aung Zaw Win, and forced to porter supplies along with the Column. Shortly afterwards the column was ambushed by KNLA soldiers and he was blamed for the attack. The soldiers beat him with a rifle until it broke in two. They wrapped his head in a soaked cloth so that he couldn't breathe and kicked him about the head. They then tied him to a house post and Captain Lin Htat sliced open his calf and his thigh with a knife. He was later released, given injections, had his wounds bandaged, and was offered 5,000 Kyat by the soldiers – which he refused. These photos were taken in November 2002. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-50: Saw M--- from M--- village in Dweh Loh township of Papun District fell ill and suffered abdominal pain after having to porter for the SPDC. He was ordered to carry supplies by battalion commander Chit Nyo of LIB #365, Column #1. This photo was taken in August 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-51, 6-52, 6-53, 6-54: M---, age 30 (photos 6-51 and 6-52 ) was grabbed from the street by SPDC soldiers when on his way to see a movie near his Rangoon home on May 26 th 2002. He was detained together with 200 others who had been similarly rounded up, then sent to be an operations porter for SPDC LIB #9 Column 1 in Papun district. There he met Z---, age 35 (photos 6-53 and 6-54 ), who had been grabbed from the streets of Pegu (Bago) city on May 27 th while buying some fuel near his home. Part of a group of 65 porters rounded up from the towns of Burma and some taken from the prisons (see photos 6-95 and 6-96 ), they were forced to carry loads weighing 20 viss [33 kg. / 72 lb.] or more from Papun town across the mountains to the Da Gway (Dagwin) Army camp at Koh Ni Koh in Lu Thaw township, Papun District, on the bank of the Salween River where it forms the border with Thailand. Normally this would be a 3-4 day walk, but takes longer for a large military column with porters. The porters had to carry loads of food, ammunition, and medicines to supply Da Gway camp, which is inaccessible by road. Near Da Gway, M--- saw LIB #9 Column 1 soldiers shoot dead three porters because they were unable to continue with their loads. Treated like convict porters, M--- and Z--- had to share one mess tin of rice per day with a group of six people. After repeated trips and with no end in sight to the forced labour, M--- and Z--- fled together and escaped on July 21 st 2002. These photos were taken shortly after their escape, and show the wounds on both men from carrying heavy bamboo baskets and the emaciated condition, particularly of M---, caused by lack of adequate food. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #10-147: Saw S--- from K--- village, Dweh Loh township, Papun district was forced to go as a porter for SPDC LIB #2 Column 1 (Major Tin Htun commanding) in 2002. On his return home he was continually sick. His spleen was swollen and he couldn't work. [Photo: KHRG researcher] 6.2 Convict PortersIn recent years the use of convict porters has become a mainstay of SPDC military operations. This has largely taken the place of the urban porter roundups that used to happen in the towns of central Burma until 1997, though it has not decreased the Army's demands for porters from rural villages; instead, the Army uses more porters than ever before. Its demand for convict porters has become so insatiable that the SPDC has established a system of transit camps called Won Saung – literally, 'Carrying Service' (see photos 6-79 and 6-80 to 6-81 ). After being transferred from prison to the Won Saung , which are placed near the Army's major areas of operation, convicts are supposed to be issued the basic needs of a porter (such as slippers and plastic sheet), though these are often withheld. The hundreds of convicts at the camp are then available for immediate mobilisation whenever requests are received from Army units. Only men are included, and political prisoners and those with long sentences still ahead of them are usually not sent as porters for fear that they are more likely to attempt escape; the majority are therefore those serving short sentences, or those with only a few years left of a longer sentence. Many men subjected to this brutal treatment were imprisoned for offences as petty as selling illegal lottery tickets, fighting in a teashop, or playing cards in a funeral parlour (see photos 6-55 to 6-59 ). Worse yet, the demand for convict porters is so great that some men say they were grabbed from the street, sent to prison without charge or trial, and immediately sent on to the Won Saung without having committed any crime. The three men in photo 6-76 were Buddhist monks when this happened to them; see also photo 6-81 . The use of convicts as porters is one way the SPDC has tried to escape international censure for forced labour. It should be noted, however, that convict labour, if not assigned as part of the sentence by a legally constituted court, still constitutes forced labour in violation of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 29, which Burma has ratified. Moreover, their use as porters in combat situations and the brutal way they are treated violates the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian norms. Convict porters are used particularly in protracted military operations, or in areas like Papun district of Karen State where the Army has difficulty controlling villages or catching villagers for portering labour. When not portering, they are also used as labour on roads and Army camps. They often work alongside civilian forced labourers but are treated much more brutally than civilian porters, and are used in intensive military operations for indefinite periods, often extending well past the end of their sentences. Many convict porters say that it appeared they were to be kept as porters until they either died or escaped. They are fed almost nothing – six men are forced to share enough food for one (see photos 6-79 and 6-80 to 6-81 ). They are beaten or killed on the slightest pretext (photos 6-62 to 6-66 , 6-72 to 6-74 , 6-77 to 6-78 , 6-79 , 6-80 to 6-81 , 6-93 , and 6-95 to 6-96 ), and used regularly as human minesweepers (photos 6-79 , 6-80 to 6-81 , and 6-93 ). They are forced to carry even when their shoulders are cut and bleeding from the heavy baskets. Many of those who escape say they witnessed the killing of others simply because they could no longer carry loads (see photos 6-68 to 6-71 , 6-76 , and 6-93 ). Emaciated and dehumanised, their lives considered forfeit, soldiers even call them using 'kaung' , a form of address reserved for animals. Many of them are now escaping throughout Karen areas because they realise they have nothing to lose (see photos 6-55 to 6-59 , 6-80 to 6-81 , and 6-93 ). Some are killed by landmines in the effort (see photos 11-27 to 11-28 and 11-40 to 11-41 ), and many die of weakness, illness or exhaustion even after escaping (see photo 6-75 ). SPDC units make little effort to stop them, knowing replacements are always available from the Won Saung and that the hundreds of escapees create an added burden for the Karen resistance, who must feed them and give them medical treatment with no outside help – because no international organisation is yet willing to help these men. For further background see Convict Porters: The Brutal Abuse of Prisoners on Burma's Frontlines (KHRG #2000-06, December 2000).
Photos # 6-55, 6-56, 6-57, 6-58, 6-59: Just a few of the hundred or more convict porters who have escaped in Papun district since the beginning of 2005. These men were portering for SPDC Light Infantry Battalions #3, #119, and #120. KHRG researchers in the area say that SPDC forces are bringing unprecedented numbers of convict porters with them as they try to extend their foothold in the Papun hills. Most of the men shown here were arrested and imprisoned for petty 'crimes' including illegal border crossing, playing cards in a funeral parlour, causing a car accident, cockfighting, and selling illegal lottery tickets, while the remainder were imprisoned for petty drug offences or murder. Regardless of their original crime or sentence, all of them say they were treated brutally as porters and chose to escape as soon as they could. The number of convict porters now escaping poses a problem, because villagers in Papun district have no food to feed them or medicine to treat them, nor does the KNU. If they return home they will probably be captured. In small numbers, they can be sent across the border to find work illegally in Thailand, but in such large numbers this becomes impossible. No international agency is presently willing to accept responsibility for helping these men. These photos were taken in February 2005. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-60: M--- was a convict porter being forced to work repairing the military access road from Kyauk Kyi to Saw Hta (see map) by SPDC Infantry Battalions #382, 383 and 388 until he escaped at the beginning of January 2005. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-61: Three convict porters who escaped from various SPDC Army columns in Papun district, January 2005. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-62, 6-63, 6-64, 6-65, 6-66: Convict porters who escaped from SPDC IB #30 at Plah Ko in northern Papun district, late November 2004. The first two photos show K---, age 23 from Rangoon, and the wound he received when an SPDC soldier hit him on the head with a rifle butt. The remaining photos show N---, age 38 from Irrawaddy Division. His back is scarred from the rubbing of the heavy bamboo basket he carried, and his foot was gashed by a stone when he was running to escape. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-67: Convict porter K---, age 18, was the youngest of nine convict porters who escaped from SPDC LIB #385 on October 17 th 2004 in Papun district. In this photo taken 3 days later, he is still wearing his blue prison uniform. His home is in Pegu Division, but it would be dangerous for him to return there. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-68, 6-69, 6-70, 6-71: Escaped convict porter A---, 22, was forced to porter for LIB #540 for five months in Dweh Loh township, Papun District before he finally escaped on July 5 th 2004. While with the battalion, he was forced to carry a sack of rice [50 kgs. / 110 lbs.] on his own. He saw one of the other porters shot dead by one of the soldiers when he became too weak to keep carrying his load. Photo 6-68 shows his emaciated condition brought on by the physical exertion and lack of food. Photos 6-69 through 6-71 show the festering wounds he sustained to his shoulders and back from where the basket that he had to carry rubbed and knocked against him with every step he took. These photos were taken shortly after his escape. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-72, 6-73, 6-74: H---, age 39, was a convict porter for SPDC LIB #351 based at Pwa Ghaw, northern Papun district, until he escaped in June 2004. Photo 6-73 shows the wounds on his shoulders from carrying heavy loads, and photo 6-74 shows the spot on his head where he was hit with a rifle butt. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-75: Saw W---, 57, and his wife Naw P---, from K--- village in northern Papun district. These days convict porters who escape from SPDC units frequently arrive in their village. Together they cared for escaped convict porter Kyaw Than, who had escaped from the SPDC IB #384 camp at Maw Pu in mid-2004, but in his weak state he fell ill and died. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-76: Escaped convict porters (left to right) S---, age 20, A---, age 20, and K---, age 18, who were forced to porter loads for the SPDC in Bu Tho township, Papun District. All three of them were Buddhist monks. One evening they were out for a walk when they were stopped and detained by SPDC troops, who then sent them to prison without charge or trial. On arrival at prison they were forcibly disrobed, then sent to Papun district as convict porters. All three of them were forced to porter loads to frontline areas and work on the vehicle road at Kaw Pu for LIB #379. They were not provided with sufficient food and were subjected to regular beatings. They witnessed one of the other porters, Than Nyein, 20, shot dead by one of the soldiers because he had contracted malaria and became too weak to carry a load. When they felt they could no longer endure the treatment, they fled on April 28 th 2004. This photo was taken a couple of days later. It is likely that they were initially arrested for no reason other than to fill the SPDC's growing need for convict porters. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-77, 6-78: Escaped SPDC convict porters who served in Lu Thaw township of Papun District. Both of these men were taken out of prison and sent to the frontline to porter for LIB #383 in early February 2004. They escaped along with two others on February 14 th 2004 when they could no longer endure the conditions, which included regular beatings by the soldiers. The wounds that can be seen on their shoulders are from the rubbing of the heavy baskets they had to carry. Photo 6-77 shows W---, 26, from Insein near Rangoon, while photo 6-78 is of A---, 23, from Magwe in central Burma, still wearing his blue prison uniform. These photos were taken shortly after their escape. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-79: U Z---, 46, and U A---, 45, were taken from Pa'an Won Saung ('carrying service') #1 at Myaing Galay near Pa'an to serve as convict porters in Papun District. The Won Saung are prison camps near frontline areas where convicts are interned by the Army so that they are more quickly and easily available when needed by field Army units for convict labour. On September 21 st 2003 they were assigned to LIB #701, whose officers ordered them to walk in front of the soldiers as human minesweepers and forced them each to carry 2,000 rounds of machine-gun ammunition. They were only given one mess tin [600 grams / 1.3 lbs.] of cooked rice – enough for one meal for one person – to feed six of them each day. Whenever they were too weak to continue carrying, they were severely beaten by the soldiers. On October 9 th 2003 they fled the battalion and walked for two days without food until they were discovered by a KNLA patrol. This photo was taken later in October 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-80, 6-81: Maung M--- ( photo 6-80 ), 27, from S--- village in Pegu Division and Maung S--- ( photo 6-81 ), 35, from T--- village in Pegu Division ran away from the SPDC Army battalion that they were portering for. Both were being detained in Pa'an Won Saung #1 at Myaing Galay – Maung M--- had served eight months of a two year sentence for stabbing another man during an argument, and Maung S--- had been interned at the Won Saung without charge or trial, probably simply to boost the number of available convict labourers – when they were handed over to LIB #703 in late September 2003. During the month that they were with the battalion, they were forced to carry loads of ammunition and rations weighing up to 35 viss [58 kg. / 125 lb.] , and were ordered to walk in front of the soldiers as human minesweepers. Each day, they were only given one mess tin [600 grams / 1.3 lbs.] of rice with which to feed six men – only enough for one meal for one person. Anyone who was too weak to keep up was punched, kicked and beaten with the butts of the soldiers' rifles. If they were no longer able to continue carrying their load, they were simply left behind to die. No medicine was supplied to anyone who fell ill. Fearing that they would soon die if they remained with the battalion, they fled with two others to KNU-held territory on October 24 th 2003. Both men display the wounds left behind by the rubbing of the heavy baskets that they had to carry. These photos were taken in November 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #11-27, 11-28: K---, age 29 from Pegu Division, was a convict porter with SPDC troops. He fled from the battalion he was portering for along with two companions on October 1 st 2003. When one of the others stepped on a landmine, K--- was wounded and both of his companions were killed. He is shown here having the pieces of shrapnel removed from his shoulder by a Karen medic. This photo was taken in late November 2003, almost two months after the incident. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-82, 6-83, 6-84: Three convict porters who escaped from the battalion that they were portering for in Dooplaya District in October 2003. They are T--- ( photo 6-82 ), K--- ( photo 6-83 ), and M--- ( photo 6-84 ). They each display the wounds made by the bamboo baskets that they were ordered to carry. These photos were taken in Dooplaya District shortly after their escape. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-85, 6-86: Ko A---, age 23, a convict porter from Irrawaddy Division who was forced to carry loads for SPDC troops in Dooplaya District until he managed to escape in October 2003. The wound on his lower back is from the rubbing of the heavy bamboo portering basket. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-87, 6-88: Convict porter H---, 35, escaped with three others on September 25 th 2003 after portering for SPDC LIB #418 (under Light Infantry Division #99) in Papun district for approximately three weeks. He was serving a two-year sentence for assault when he was sent to be a frontline porter. These photos taken shortly after he escaped show a wound to his leg that he received while portering, and the wounds on his back left by the basket that he had to carry. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-89, 6-90, 6-91, 6-92: S--- (photos 6-89 and 6-90 ), and H--- (photos 6-91 and 6-92 ), both 35 year old Burmans from Irrawaddy Division who were serving sentences for murder, were taken to Papun district as convict porters for Light Infantry Division #66 but escaped in March 2003 when they could no longer endure the conditions inflicted upon them by the soldiers. They said the soldiers also refused to provide any medical care for their wounds. They are shown here still wearing blue prison uniform. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-93: A---, age 28, a painter from Rangoon, was arrested and imprisoned for selling illegal lottery tickets. He served only three months of his two year sentence in Insein prison before being transferred to Toungoo prison. He remained in Toungoo prison for only one week before being handed over to IB #124 based in Than Daung Gyi in Toungoo District of Karen State as a convict porter. IB #39 then took him as a porter to Kyo Ta Tan in Than Daung township for three months, during which time he was regularly beaten and forced to walk in front of the soldiers as a human minesweeper. Following this, he was reassigned to carry rations such as rice, salt, sugar, and tins of milk for IB #26. He was also forced to build the soldiers' huts with wood, bamboo, and thatch that he had to cut himself. Four of the nine porters working for IB #26 were beaten to death when they were no longer able to continue. Their names were Thein Htun, Tin Hlaing, Ya Goke, and Thein Zaw. Another porter, U Sein Htun, was shot dead by intelligence officer Captain Tin Hla. The surviving porters were forced to bury the bodies. During the time he spent with the soldiers, he was repeatedly kicked, punched, beaten with rifle butts, and once cut with a machete. Fearing that he too would soon die if he remained with the battalion, he fled in the middle of the night on February 17 th 2003. "Of the nine porters, five of them died. They [SPDC] forced them to work, beat them, and killed them. There was no medicine to treat them so they died. One of them was hit in the body until he died. Another was beaten to death with a gun barrel. They would hit me at least 20 times a day. I couldn't bear it anymore so I escaped. It took me for four days [to reach help]. I had no rice to eat. I was starving. The villagers looked after me and fed me." This photo taken in February 2003 shortly after his escape shows his emaciated and malnourished condition. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #11-40, 11-41: These ten convict porters, most of them still in blue prison uniform, escaped from Light Infantry Division #99 in January 2003. As they were fleeing, one of their group was killed after stepping on a landmine near T--- village in Lu Thaw township, Papun District. The others tried carrying their wounded friend to help, but he died before they could find any. His body was left behind as the other surviving convicts continued searching for help. Only after being found by a KNLA patrol were they able to return and retrieve their friend's body for burial. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-94: Maung M---, a 24 year old mechanic from Mandalay, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for using methamphetamines. Before his sentence was finished, he was taken out of jail to be sent to Papun District to serve as an operations porter for an SPDC Army unit. This photo shows the damage done by the heavy bamboo basket that he was forced to carry rubbing against his back. He was able to flee from the unit for which he was portering on September 19 th 2002. This photo was taken a week after he fled, and shows him still wearing blue prison uniform. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-95, 6-96: K---, 35, is from Pegu (Bago) town, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for getting in a fight in a teashop. After two months in Insein prison, he was sent to SPDC LIB #9 Column 1 as an operations porter in October 2001. He was forced to carry heavy loads of rations and military supplies from Papun town to Da Gway (Dagwin) Army camp at Koh Ni Koh in Lu Thaw township, Papun District, on the bank of the Salween River where it forms the border with Thailand. This work went on for months, during which he and the other porters were given very little to eat. At one point when K--- was not able to continue carrying his load, the soldiers beat him over the head with the butt of a rifle and hit him in the face with the barrel. The wound to his head where he was beaten can be seen in photo 6-96 . In June 2002, the convict porters were joined by non-convicts who had been rounded up from the streets of Rangoon and Pegu (see photos 6-51 through 6-54 ). K--- escaped on July 30 th 2002 and reached a Karen village, where these photos were taken shortly afterward. [Photos: KHRG researcher] 6.3 Guides, Messengers, and Meetings
In addition, village heads are frequently summoned to meetings to receive orders for forced labour from local military officers. Attending these meetings is a form of forced labour in itself, because it takes up a great deal of the village head's time. Officers also use these occasions to interrogate and punish village heads. As a result, village heads often ignore calls to meetings, though officers threaten various punishments for this. Photo 4-15 shows a villager who was locked in leg stocks for skipping a meeting, while the village elders in photo 6-103 were threatened with fines if they failed to attend. Photo 5-50 shows a bullet sent along with a summons to a meeting, indicating that the village headwoman or others will be shot if she fails to attend. The text along with photos 6-100 and 6-102 discusses some aspects of how forced labour is assigned to different villages at these meetings.
Photo #6-97: Saw W--- from M--- village in Thaton district spoke to a KHRG researcher just after returning from a shift of set tha forced labour at the nearby camp of SPDC LIB #350 in late February 2005. People from his village and the surrounding villages have to go every day for set tha and other forms of forced labour at the LIB #350 camp. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #5-2: Saw G---, 42, from H--- village in Tantabin Township of Toungoo District was wounded during fighting between the SPDC Army and KNLA soldiers. He had been ordered to serve as a guide by Commander Hlaing Win Tin of SPDC IB #60 Column #1 when a battle occurred on July 1 st 2004 despite the informal KNLA-SPDC ceasefire. He received numerous wounds to his arm, leg, and abdomen as he was trying to escape the fighting. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-98: These villagers from P--- village in Bilin township, Thaton District were forced to act as human shields for SPDC Army soldiers in October 2002. Column Commander Htun Lin Oo of IB #8 Column #1 ordered these 14 villagers to walk among the soldiers as they were out on patrol in October 2002. This is a common tactic used by SPDC Army forces, in the belief that the KNLA may not ambush them if it is likely that many Karen civilians will be wounded or killed. This photo was taken in November 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-99: A villager from M--- village in Bu Tho township of Papun District performing forced labour as a set tha ('messenger') for the local SPDC battalion. Most villages under SPDC control are forced to send one or two villagers each day to each nearby Army camp to do forced labour as set tha . The officers use set tha people to run errands, deliver written SPDC order documents to recipient villages, fetch village leaders or goods demanded from villages, and lead SPDC patrols along pathways. In between these duties they are used for other errands such as fetching water, gathering firewood or standing sentry at SPDC Army camps. This villager is returning home from a nearby SPDC Army camp with a written order from the local officer demanding 10 viss [16 kg. / 36 lb.] of pork and one big tin [12.5 kg. / 28 lb.] of rice from the village. Orders such as these are regularly issued to all villages living under the control of the SPDC across Karen State. This photo was taken in March 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-100: Villagers of M--- village tract in Bu Tho township, Papun District, attending a meeting in mid-February 2003 to discuss SPDC demands for porters, set tha , forced labour, bamboo and thatch. Each village is usually given a quota of porters or building materials that they must provide, based on the size of the village, while some orders are issued to entire village tracts at once. Every SPDC Army camp issues its own orders for all these things to village heads, so villages face constant and overlapping demands. Orders issued to village tract leaders must be divided between villages, and village heads must divide the quotas and labour rotation between households of their village, when possible taking account of the number of people in each household. Coordination meetings like this are therefore sometimes necessary. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #4-15: Saw H---, 50, from H--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District was one of several villagers summoned to a meeting with SPDC officials in Shwegyin town. All ten of those who were summoned fled their villages in fear of what may await them at the meeting. Saw H--- was later found and arrested by intelligence officer Corporal H--- from LIB #440 and detained at Meh Way army camp. The soldiers locked his legs in a set of mediaeval-style stocks while they interrogated him. When he was released two hours later, the order to report to the meeting was reiterated, along with a warning: "You were told to go to Shwegyin but you didn't go, so we needed to arrest you. Nothing will happen to you when you go. We don't know why you have to go, but when you do; if they ask you about loh ah pay [forced labour], you must tell them that we pay you for it and that we feed you." This photo was taken in December 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-101: Saw W--- and Saw K--- from M--- village in Dweh Loh township of Papun District running errands for the camp commander of K--- Army camp of SPDC LIB #350. They had to report to the camp that morning for their turn doing forced labour as set tha ('messengers'). This photo was taken in December 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-102: Naw P--- is a village head in Dweh Loh township of Papun District. She explained to a KHRG researcher how both the SPDC and the DKBA issue her village with order documents in which they state their demands. Her village must regularly provide the soldiers with food, building materials, extortion money, and villagers for forced labour. If they fail to comply, she and the entire village are punished. She is shown here holding some of those written orders sent to her village by the SPDC. Even these order documents are delivered by villagers doing forced labour as set tha . This photo was taken in December 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-103: The village head of K--- in Papun district and a group of his villagers head for a meeting with SPDC officials in Papun town on October 29 th 2002. They had been ordered to attend this meeting and threatened with a cash fine if they failed to appear. The officials also demanded a chicken, which one of the villagers is carrying in the photo. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #5-50: This order document, sent to the village headwoman of L--- village in Kya In Township, Dooplaya District on October 23 rd 2002, is ordering her to attend a meeting the next day at the request of Column Commander T--- of LIB # xxx Column 2. Accompanying the letter was a 5.56 mm bullet from an Burmese Army MA-1 assault rifle as a very clear threat that if she did not attend, they would shoot the villagers. [Photo: KHRG researcher] 6.4 Roads
Instead of facilitating movement for villagers in the area, these roads make it more difficult. The military camps and checkpoints are used to restrict the movement of villagers, to extort money and to catch porters. Plantations are destroyed to make way for the road and the Army camps (see photo 6-134 ), and people with fields near the road often abandon them, fearing that if sighted by patrols along the road they may be shot or captured for forced labour. The road itself becomes a barrier to movement, difficult and dangerous to cross particularly for internally displaced villagers seeking to evade SPDC troops (see Section 10, Flight and Displacement ). The increased military presence in the area creates more forced labour and extortion, particularly related to the roads themselves. Forced labour on roads is one of the major burdens on rural villagers. All SPDC road projects use forced labour, and many of them are entirely built using forced labour. Villagers are forced to dig and haul earth from their own land, build embankments and lay road surfaces, and dig drainage ditches. Most of the roads are dirt-surfaced and badly engineered, so they wash away every rainy season and villagers have to rebuild them annually (photos 6-113 , 6-132 , 6-136 , 6-149 to 6-151 , and 6-164 ). Many projects now involve laying stone roadbeds, so villagers are forced to gather thousands of cubic metres of stone and assemble it into measured piles called kyin for inspection to ensure that they have gathered their quota. Photos 6-123 to 6-130 show the stages of work in gathering stone into kyin , a process also shown in photos 6-115 to 6-118 , 6-119 to 6-122 , and 6-135 . Photos 6-153 to 6-156 show how villagers must then spread the stone and lay the roadbed themselves. Villagers are also forced to provide all the labour to build and maintain road bridges (see photos 6-131 and 6-153 to 6-159 ), and to provide all the timber and other materials for the bridges at their own expense ( photos 6-160 to 6-161 ). In the past few years, one of the most prevalent forms of forced labour demanded of villagers is 'clearing the scrub along the roadside'. To protect themselves from ambush and to make it even more difficult to move along or cross a road without the knowledge of the Army, military officers order people in villages near the road to clear all the trees, bushes, long grass and weeds within a specified distance of the road – creating a bare swathe of ground 10 to 50 metres wide flanking the road on both sides. This is extremely time-consuming and labour-intensive and must be repeated regularly (see photos 3-2 , 6-141 to 6-143 , 6-25 to 6-34 , 6-146 to 6-148 , 6-165 to 6-167 , and 6-172 to 6-174 ). It is also extremely dangerous, as there are sometimes landmines in the roadside scrub (see photos 6-105 to 6-106 ). In some cases, SPDC units also force villagers to do this work along footpaths used by their patrols (see photo 6-140 ). Road work is intensive and can go on for weeks or months at a time. The SPDC usually demands at least one person from each house in every nearby village, often totalling to thousands of people, for days or weeks at a time without rest (see photos 6-25 to 6-34 and 6-152 ). Most families cannot spare so much time away from other work, so children are often sent to fill the quota (see photos 6-115 to 6-118 , 6-119 to 6-122 , 9-4 , 9-5 , 6-168 to 6-171 , and 9-7 ). People have to provide their own food and tools (see photo 6-152 ) and are almost never paid. Photos 9-4 and 9-5 show a rare case where people were paid 100 Kyat per day, less than 1/3 of the normal rate for day labour in the area. Even so, paid labour obtained under threat or duress is still forced labour under ILO Convention 29, which Burma has ratified. Much of the work is done without direct military supervision, on the understanding that the village will be attacked or forcibly relocated if the work is not done to the Army's satisfaction by the deadline. When soldiers are involved in supervising, women are sometimes raped (see photo 8-6 ). In some cases, convict porters are also forced to work on roads (photos 6-60 and 6-76 ), as are SPDC child soldiers ( photo 12-9 ). In many areas road labour has become such a burden that people have fled their villages, while in other cases they have chosen to ignore the demand for forced labour, knowing that from that time onward they must always flee their village whenever SPDC troops come because they are now considered as 'enemy' (see photos 6-138 to 6-139 ). Those remaining in their villages and performing the labour must somehow find time for it alongside all the other military demands they face, while still producing enough food to survive; which has severe implications for food security, health and education. In spite of this, villagers find ways to retain their dignity, their character, and their will to resist, as demonstrated by the sense of humour of the villagers in photo 6-130 .
Photo #6-104: The dirt road partly visible crossing from left to right is the Kler Lah – Bu Sah Kee vehicle road (see map ) used by the SPDC to supply Army camps in southern Toungoo district. In rainy season the road becomes impassable and villagers in the area are forced to porter supplies along it. When this photo was taken in January 2005, area villagers were being forced by SPDC IB #73 (Lwin Oo commanding) to cut clear all the grass and scrub along both sides of the road to protect military convoys against ambush. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-105, 6-106: Naw P---, 20 (left) and Naw M---, 21 (right), two villagers from K--- village in Than Daung township, Toungoo district, who were among those forced to cut scrub along the sides of the road for SPDC LIB #439 Column 1 (Battalion Commander Aung Htay Win commanding) on December 23 rd 2004. While they were clearing the scrub, one of the other villagers stepped on a landmine. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-60: M--- was a convict porter being forced to work repairing the military access road from Kyauk Kyi to Saw Hta (see map) by SPDC Infantry Battalions #382, 383 and 388 until he escaped at the beginning of January 2005. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-107, 6-108, 6-109, 6-110: Villagers from K--- village in Nyaunglebin District doing forced labour on a vehicle road on October 23 rd 2004, by order of SPDC Camp Commander Khin Maung Kyi at Aung Soe Moe army camp. Photos 6-107 and 6-108 show the villagers digging earth from around their village, which they must carry in baskets to the road, then spread and pack it down on the road surface as shown in photos 6-109 and 6-110 . They are not paid or fed and are provided with no tools or heavy equipment; all work must be done by hand, using nothing more than hoes and machetes. Note that women make up at least half the workforce in the photos. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #3-2: Villagers at Naw Htaw Pwa relocation site in Nyaunglebin District (see photo 3-1 ) spread out along the dirt road to do forced labour cutting and clearing scrub from the roadsides on October 12 th 2004, under orders from SPDC Operations Commander Khin Maung Oo. These people were forced to move from their homes in S--- and P--- villages to the relocation site earlier in 2004 and are now regularly used for forced labour. Villagers are forced to clear scrub from roadsides as a security measure to protect SPDC vehicles from ambush. They are provided with no tools and must clear even trees and dense scrub with nothing but machetes. Most of the workers in this photo are women. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-111: A section of the Toungoo to Mawchi vehicle road in Toungoo District. This road was originally constructed largely through the use of forced labour and each year must be repaired by forced labour after being damaged by the monsoon rains. Each year thousands of villagers are forced to porter goods along this road to supply the outlying SPDC Army camps with rations, ammunition and supplies. The section shown here is between Kler Lah and Kaw Soe Ko. Along this section, whenever the SPDC Army prepares to send rations up the road to their camps, 50 to 60 villagers are demanded to clear the bush along both sides of the road to protect the troops from ambush. This photo was taken in August 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-112: Naw S--- is a 39 year old mother of five from S--- village in Tantabin township, Toungoo District. When interviewed in September 2004, she said that SPDC IB #73 Commander Aung Kyaw Myint orders people to work on the road and the army camp so often that they no longer have enough time to work for their own welfare. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-113: Villagers from K--- village rebuilding the vehicle road from Kler Lah to Bu Sah Kee in Tantabin township of Toungoo District. This road was built by the Army using forced labour to facilitate Army control of Tantabin township. The villagers are clearing away a section of the embankment that washed onto the road during a heavy rainstorm. The villagers were ordered to do this work by local Army authorities, and had to attend even though this was the time for weeding their ricefields. They receive no pay and have to supply their own tools and food whenever they perform this kind of work. This photo was taken in August 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-114: K---, 42, from K--- village in T'Nay Hsah township, Pa'an District described to KHRG some of the forced labour for the DKBA in his area. Beginning on June 5 th 2004, the DKBA #999 Brigade Special Battalion (Lt. Col. Saw Maung Chit Thu commanding) ordered all villages in the area to send six villagers three times a month to build a vehicle road between Kway Sha and Meh Pleh villages in southeastern T'Nay Hsah township (see map ). The villagers have to take their own tools and food to eat. This photo was taken in June 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-115, 6-116, 6-117, 6-118: On April 20 th 2004, Brigadier General Myint Aung, commanding officer of SPDC Military Operations Command #9 based in the Lay Kay Army camp in Bilin township of Thaton District, ordered the reconstruction of sections of the old colonial road running from Kyaik Khaw (Thein Seik in Burmese), to Wee Raw village, before turning north to follow the Donthami River to Lay Kay village (see Thaton district map ). Other sections of the road further north which have not yet been restored will pass through Htee Pa Doh Hta and Yo Klah villages, continuing to follow the Donthami River to the edge of Papun district, where it will turn east to Ka Dtaing Dtee village in Dweh Loh township of Papun District (see Papun district map ). Should this road be fully restored, it will provide a direct link between Thaton and Papun, giving the SPDC the ability to rapidly deploy troops anywhere along the road's length. Similar to what has happened in other road projects, Army camps will be established all along the road, leading to increased militarisation, forced labour, oppression and displacement of civilians throughout the region. According to a KHRG researcher working in the region, "Since the KNU and the SPDC have made the ceasefire [in January 2004], the suffering of the villagers has not reduced. Furthermore, the SPDC and DKBA soldiers have been repairing the car roads, so they have been forcing the villagers like slaves more and more." These photos show villagers from K--- village gathering the 300 piles of stone for the road that they were ordered to provide. Each pile of stone is one kyin – 100 cubic feet, measured as 10 feet (3 m.) square by 1 foot (30 cm.) deep. These villagers began work on the piles of stone on April 20 th 2004, but were still collecting stone two months later in June. Many parents send their children to do the work because the adults are needed in the farmfields or doing other work for family survival; this is why more than half of those in the photos are children. Alternatively, entire families including children come out to do the work in order to get it done faster so time will still be left for their farming and other work. Most of the children shown in these photos are aged between seven and thirteen years old, but even those as young as four or five (see photos 6-115 and 6-116 ) come along because they cannot be left home alone, and end up carrying rocks along with their older siblings. See also photos 6-119 through 6-122 and photos 6-123 through 6-130 , which show other nearby villages also collecting stone for the same road. These photos were taken in May 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-119, 6-120, 6-121, 6-122: Villagers from K--- village in Pa'an township of Thaton District performing forced labour for the SPDC on the Kyaik Khaw-Lay Kay car road. All of the villages lying on or close to the path of the road were ordered to collect stone that will later be used in the road's construction. Each village had to assemble 300 kyin of stone – one kyin being 100 cubic feet, measured as 10 feet (3 m.) square by 1 foot (30 cm.) deep – and place these square piles of stone neatly along the road route. According to the KHRG researcher who took these photos, "They [the villagers] have to build roads and bridges, stand sentry on the roads, and collect stones that are used in the road construction. The SPDC soldiers from Military Operation Command #9 commanded by Brigadier General Myint Aung are the ones who are forcing them to do this. They are based at Lay Kay Army camp and are forcing the villagers to collect the stone for the car road. Each village has had to collect 300 piles of stone. The villages west of the road are Maw Lay, Ka T'Daw Ni, P'Nweh Klah, Noh Nya Thu, Lah Ko, Ka Meh, Dta Bpaw, Ler Klaw and Lay Kay villages, while the villages to the east are Ei Heh, Kru Si, Noh Aw La, Pwa Ghaw, Kyaw Kay Kee, Dta Thu Kee, Noh Law Plaw, Noh Ka Day, Htee Pa Doh Kee, Meh Theh Pwoh, and Ha T'Reh villages. The villagers from all of these villages had to collect 300 piles of stone per village. The villagers need to work in the fields during May, but they didn't have time to work for themselves. The DKBA forced them to repair the car road, and the SPDC also forced them to repair the road and collect the stone. The villagers tried to cultivate their fields but the SPDC and the DKBA forced the villagers to do many things so they can't work their fields." Because it was a crucial time in the crop cycle, many of the workers were teenage girls and boys like those in photos 6-119 and 6-120 and younger children whose parents needed to be in the fields. Whenever work needs to be completed quickly or if there are not enough adults who are available to work, the village children must also pitch in and work alongside the adults. Photos 6-115 through 6-118 and 6-123 through 6-130 portray other villages in the vicinity which were also ordered to work on this road. These photos were taken in May 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-123, 6-124, 6-125, 6-126, 6-127, 6-128, 6-129, 6-130: Villagers from T--- village carrying out the orders of Brigadier General Myint Aung, commanding officer of Military Operations Command #9, stationed at the Lay Kay Army camp in Bilin township of Thaton District. On April 20 th 2004, he gave the order for each village to contribute 300 kyin (30,000 cubic feet) of stone for road construction (see also photos above). LIB #376 and LIB #378 were two of the battalions under Military Operations Command #9 which were responsible for implementing this order among the villagers shown here. This set of photos shows the stages the villagers must go through to assemble the stone: first the stones are collected from the banks of the Donthami River or one of its tributaries ( photo 6-123 ), and then carried to be placed in neat piles beside the site of the road (photos 6-124 through 6-126 ). Those with bullock carts used them to cart the stone from the riverbank to where the piles were to be made. Each kyin requires about 10 bullock cart loads of stones. Others employed baskets and sacks to carry the stones. Photo 6-130 shows some of the villagers standing on top of one of the piles of stone, clowning around at the end of the day's work. This photo is included here to illustrate the strength of the villagers in retaining a sense of humour in a difficult situation, despite the heavy burden that forced labour places over every aspect of their lives. Their time could be far better spent preparing their fields and planting their paddy than performing heavy and unpaid forced labour for the SPDC – labour which places the survival of their families in jeopardy. Smiling and laughter are just one of many coping mechanisms they deploy against despair and hatred. The joking in this photo, and the smiles in others in this photo set, certainly do not mean (as occasionally claimed by some self-styled foreign 'experts') that the villagers must be providing their labour voluntarily, that they are enjoying it, or that they do not feel deep anger, resentment, and a will to resist the oppression they are undergoing. They are only trying to deal with the situation in their own way, and the continued existence of their smiles and jokes in itself represents a partial victory over the oppression of a regime that seeks to control their every action. These photos were taken in May 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-131: The Hah Reh Kloh bridge on the Kyaik Khaw – Lay Kay road in Bilin township of Thaton District. This 36 metre (120 foot) long bridge was built using the forced labour of nearby villages in 2001. This photo was taken in May 2004 after the bridge had been damaged in a flood. The villagers must now repair it. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #12-9: Maung S---, a 14 year old Burman from a town in Mandalay Division, was arrested in broad daylight and forced into the SPDC Army. He was approached by three soldiers who asked to see his ID card. Unable to produce one (many children do not obtain ID cards until age 18), he was then arrested and sent to Mandalay where he received four and a half months of basic military training. This trick is commonly used to forcibly conscript children, most of whom are unaware that no law exists stating that a child must serve a jail term for failure to produce an ID card. Following his training, he was to be assigned to LIB #xxx in Papun District, but en route he was sent to Papun town where he was used as forced labour collecting stone for road projects. He had to begin work at 7 a.m. and was forced to collect the stones all day, only resting to eat. He eventually deserted when he could no longer endure the work that he was being forced to do. This photo was taken in April 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-132: A section of the 45 kilometre (28 mile) long Kler Lah – Bu Sah Kee vehicle road in Tantabin township of Toungoo District as it looked in May 2004 (see map ). This road was built by forced labour between 1995 and 1998 to increase SPDC military presence and access in the southeastern part of the district, and now has several Army camps dotted along it. During dry season private vehicle owners are forced to transport supplies to these camps, and all year round villagers are also forced to porter supplies along its route. The road becomes impassable in the wet season and large sections of it wash away every year in the heavy rains. The villagers are called upon every dry season to perform forced labour rebuilding the road. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-133: A stretch of the Toungoo – Mawchi vehicle road in Tantabin township of Toungoo District as it appeared in January 2004 (see map ). Once the SPDC had completed construction on the Kler Lah – Bu Sah Kee road in 1998, they focused their attention on repairing the 150 kilometre (96 mile) long old colonial road from Kler Lah to Mawchi in Karenni State. The reconstruction work, conducted largely by forced labour, was completed in 2002. In early 2003, the SPDC established a number of new permanent Army Army camps along the road at Wa Baw Day, Kler Htoo Day, and Ler Wah Mu Thwa Koh to give them a better foothold in the region. The SPDC used this road to move troops and supplies through the area during its 2003-2004 offensive against the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) and the simultaneous forced relocation campaign against the villagers in southern Karenni State. Not only does this road provide the SPDC with increased military access allowing for the rapid mobilisation of troops into southeastern Toungoo District, it effectively cuts the district in two, with the camps and patrols along its path creating a substantial barrier against movement – blocking the supply lines to KNLA forces in Than Daung township and the flight of villagers in either direction. Villagers and IDPs in the area of the road no longer dare to travel to their fields for fear of being seen by an SPDC patrol, further exacerbating the already serious problem of food scarcity, and most people from villages along the road route have had to flee either northward or southward into the hills. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-76: Escaped convict porters (left to right) S---, age 20, A---, age 20, and K---, age 18, who were forced to porter loads for the SPDC in Bu Tho township, Papun District. All three of them were Buddhist monks. One evening they were out for a walk when they were stopped and detained by SPDC troops, who then sent them to prison without charge or trial. On arrival at prison they were forcibly disrobed, then sent to Papun district as convict porters. All three of them were forced to porter loads to frontline areas and work on the vehicle road at Kaw Pu for LIB #379. They were not provided with sufficient food and were subjected to regular beatings. They witnessed one of the other porters, Than Nyein, 20, shot dead by one of the soldiers because he had contracted malaria and became too weak to carry a load. When they felt they could no longer endure the treatment, they fled on April 28 th 2004. This photo was taken a couple of days later. It is likely that they were initially arrested for no reason other than to fill the SPDC's growing need for convict porters. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-134: Over 10 plantations of loh trees (a type of palm used for roofing thatch) belonging to Kya Th'Raw village were destroyed in the construction of this vehicle road in Thaton township, Thaton District. Saw T---, a villager from an adjacent village who was ordered to work on the road, told a KHRG researcher, "The Burmese [soldiers] forced the villagers to build the road. It passed through the villagers' loh plantations, but they didn't dare to complain about it. They didn't receive any payment [compensation]." A number of the stumps of the trees that were cut down can still be seen protruding from the road. This photo was taken in January 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-135: A kyin (100 cubic feet, measured as 10 feet square by one foot deep) of stones gathered by villagers from K'Law Kher village in January 2004 as part of their forced labour on a road construction project in Bilin township of Thaton District. Saw T---, a 43 year old villager from a neighbouring village, was also ordered to perform forced labour on this road: "The Burmese [soldiers] forced the villagers to build the road. One person from each house had to work on the road every day. The villagers from Kyaik T'Raw, La Aw Kher, Shwe Yaung Pya and K'Law Kher villages had to go to work. We had to start collecting the stone first and then clear the road afterwards. We gathered it [the stone] pile by pile. Each pile of the stone must be 10 feet square by 1 foot high. [In all] we had to make 294 piles. We had to carry it by bullock cart. It took us over ten days to collect the stone." This photo was taken in January 2004. In April 2004 the project was extended and expanded, as shown in photos 6-115 through 6-130 above. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-136: A section of the vehicle road between Ma Yan Gone and Mi Kyaun Ain villages in Bilin township of Thaton District. Each dry season, the SPDC forces all of the nearby villages to perform forced labour repairing the damage done to this road during the wet season. This photo was taken in January 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-137: Villagers from L--- village in Thaton township of Thaton District taking a break from performing forced labour building a road for the SPDC in December 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-138, 6-139: This villager from M--- village in Bu Tho township of Papun District, shown here making thatch to repair her roof, was ordered to perform forced labour for the SPDC on the Papun – Pah Heh vehicle road. The road is only used for military control of the area, and the work that the SPDC was expecting the villagers to perform would have taken at least one month to complete; time which the villagers needed for their own work. The villagers therefore did not go when summoned, so they must now live in fear and flee their village whenever an SPDC patrol nears for fear of being arrested. Photo 6-139 shows a section of the road that they were ordered to work on. This road, built by forced labour, runs north out of Papun through the Kaw Pu (Kaw Boke) Army camp to the Pah Heh Army camp (see map ). These photos were taken in December 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-140: Villagers from K--- village performing forced labour for the SPDC, cutting back the bushes alongside the footpath between K--- and M--- villages in Dweh Loh township of Papun District. The SPDC Army soldiers order the villagers to do this so that it is harder for the KNLA to ambush them. This photo was taken in October 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-141, 6-142, 6-143: Villagers from L--- village doing forced labour for the SPDC in Bilin township, Thaton District in May 2003. LIB #308 Company #2 (Kyaw Nyunt commanding) ordered these villagers to cut back the brush from the side of this vehicle road to create clear sight-lines along either side, in order to prevent KNLA ambushes of SPDC trucks and columns. The villagers are required to provide their own tools whenever they are ordered to perform forced labour for the SPDC. Photo 6-141 shows the villagers assembling at the home of the village head before going to do the labour; a number of them are carrying shingles of roofing thatch that they were ordered to deliver to LIB #308 at Yay Pu Army camp while the others were working on the road. Photo 6-142 shows them spreading out along the roadsides to clear the scrub, and in photo 6-143 they have begun the clearance work. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-25, 6-26, 6-27, 6-28, 6-29, 6-30, 6-31, 6-32, 6-33, 6-34: Villagers in Tantabin township, Toungoo District during two solid weeks of forced labour. On April 1 st 2003, Operations Commander Khin Maung Oo of the SPDC's Southern Command ( Ta Pa Ka ) Strategic Operations Command #3 issued orders for 1,000 villagers from SPDC-controlled villages in the Kler Lah and Kaw Thay Der areas to porter supplies from Kler Lah to Tha Aye Hta Army camp, in order to stockpile enough rations and supplies at Tha Aye Hta in preparation for the coming wet season. Sein Than, commanding officer of IB #75 Company #4 based at Yay Tho Gyi Army camp in Kaw Thay Der, was responsible for rounding up many of the villagers for this labour. It is a six-hour walk from Kler Lah to Tha Aye Hta. For the first two weeks of April, approximately 1,000 villagers had to carry loads in shifts along this route, which is part of the Toungoo – Mawchi vehicle road (see map ). While some villagers carried, others were forced to work clearing the bush along both sides of the road to protect SPDC columns from ambush. These photos taken between April 7 th and 12 th show the villagers travelling up and down the road with loads of Army rations, tools for roadside clearing, and their own food and other supplies. The villagers shown here are from Kler Lah, Kaw Thay Der, Ler Ko, Klay Soe Kee, Wa Tho Ko, and Maw Ko Der villages. Women made up a large portion of the workforce, and there were also children (see photo 6-25 ). They had to bring all their own food and tools, and were paid nothing. The bamboo handles protruding from baskets in photo 6-30 are the handles of their machetes, and in photo 6-25 one man can be seen carrying a two-person saw over his shoulder for clearing trees. Photos of villagers doing clearance work could not be taken because this was done under the watch of SPDC soldiers. The truck in photos 6-31 and 6-32 is owned by 55-year-old villager Saw T--- from K--- village. He was ordered to transport 40 sacks [2000 kg. / 4400 lbs.] of rice from Toungoo town to the Army camp at Tha Aye Hta without payment, not even compensation for the cost of the petrol. In the photos, villagers portering loads are trying to hitch a ride on the truck. Photos 6-33 and 6-34 show a group of villagers bedding down for the night along the roadside, some using their baskets as pillows. [Photos: Tantabin township villagers, assisted by KHRG researcher]
Photo #9-4: On March 15 th 2003, SPDC LIB #434 commander Khin Maung Myint ordered the villagers of B--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District to repair the Papun – Ka Ma Maung car road. Many of the adults were busy preparing hill fields for planting season and were not free to go, so they sent their children to go in their place. Twelve-year-old Naw M--- was one of those who had to perform forced labour in her parents' stead. Villagers who had no children had to either go themselves or hire labourers to go in their place. However, at 1,000 Kyat per day for each labourer, this is beyond the means of most villagers. Those who went were forced to supply their own tools and food and were only paid 100 Kyat per day, less than a third of the lowest rate for day labour in Burma. Even so, it is rare for SPDC authorities to pay anything whatsoever for forced labour. Even if it is paid, labour compelled under duress is still considered forced labour and is a violation of international conventions (e.g. ILO Convention 29). [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #9-5: Naw T---, a 12 year old villager from K--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District displays the 100 Kyat note that she was paid by SPDC authorities after performing forced labour rebuilding a road for them in March 2003. In many villages the SPDC demands that each household must supply one worker to report for forced labour, with no exemptions on any grounds. With her father dead and her mother bedridden, Naw T---'s older brother must tend to their hill field while she fills their family's quota for forced labour. The 100 Kyat that she was paid per day amounted to a paltry total of 2,000 Kyat (about US$2 at market rates) at the end of the 20 day work period that she was required to complete. This amount of money is only enough to purchase one big tin [12.5 kgs. / 28 lbs.] of rice, which would only feed their family of three for about one week. The fact that the authorities paid the money directly to Naw T--- demonstrates that they have full knowledge that children are doing the forced labour. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-144, 6-145: Villagers from P--- village doing forced labour developing the old colonial Kyaik Khaw – Lay Kay vehicle road in Bilin township, Thaton District in January 2003 under SPDC orders. In 2004 this forced labour expanded into a major project, as shown by photos 6-115 through 6-130 above. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-146, 6-147, 6-148: These photos taken in March 2003 show the main vehicle road from Papun town to Ka Ma Maung in southern Papun district. The section of road shown in photo 6-146 had just been resurfaced and had a new drainage ditch dug, all by the forced labour of local villagers. Photo 6-147 shows another section of the same road near Ku Seik, where villagers are regularly forced to cut and clear scrub along the roadside. Photo 6-148 shows a closeup of part of the roadside where villagers have burned off the underbrush. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-149, 6-150, 6-151: These villagers from Lu Thaw township in Papun District were forced to work on this road between Ma Htaw Army camp and Kwih Si Army camp throughout 2002. They were ordered to repair the road after sections of it had been washed away during the wet season, as well as cut back any brush from the sides of the road to protect SPDC troops against ambush and collect piles of stone for repairs to the road. When interviewed by a KHRG researcher, they spoke of their fear that they would have to continue working for the SPDC during 2003, leaving them with very little time to tend to their own fields and plantations. These photos were taken in May 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-152: Villagers from D--- village in Bu Tho township of Papun District going to do forced labour for the SPDC in February 2003. They had to sleep on the roadside where they worked for two nights before they were allowed to return home. They had to sleep out on the open ground. The SPDC did not provide them with any form of shelter. Sleeping outside like this without mosquito nets almost guarantees a case of the dangerous strain of Plasmodium Falciparum malaria which is endemic in these hills. They did not receive any payment nor were they even provided with any food while doing the work. Note the two children in the group. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #8-6: Naw M---, 20, was one of four women from K--- village forced to cut the brush from beside the Toungoo to Mawchi car road. IB #48 battalion commander Maung Maung Win ordered the women to report to Tha Aye Hta Army camp on December 23 rd 2002, where they were to work for ten days. En route to the army camp at 7 p.m. that day, she saw one of the other women, Naw M---, raped by the driver, Corporal Khin Zaw. On January 6 th 2003 when they should have been released, Maung Maung Win refused to allow them to go, instead ordering them to serve as front line porters. They heard him tell his soldiers, "Take these four women to the front line. If they don't go I will kill them." This photo was taken in April 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-153, 6-154, 6-155, 6-156, 6-157, 6-158, 6-159: In late 2002, villagers from fifteen different villages in Htee Po Kyaw, Noh Kay, and Htee Klay village tracts of T'Nay Hsah township, Pa'an District were forced to build this road from Meh Pleh to Aw Bo Deh in the township's southeast (see map ). The villagers were ordered to complete the construction by the end of February 2003 or their villages would be severely punished. First they had to collect stone on the riverbanks ( photo 6-153 ) and lay it out in kyin (one kyin is 100 cubic feet [2.7 cubic metres] of stone, measuring ten feet [300 cms.] square by one foot [30 cms.] high). Transporting each kyin to the road site takes ten trips by bullock cart ( photo 6-156 ), and the villagers had to gather hundreds of kyin . At the road site, the villagers had to spread the stone along the entire length and breadth of the road (photos 6-154 and 6-155 ). Without proper engineering or drainage, the road will rapidly degrade and the villagers will regularly be ordered to repair it. Photos 6-157 , 6-158 , and 6-159 show the Meh Pleh bridge where the road begins. This bridge was built entirely with forced labour and the villagers are also under orders to see to the bridge's maintenance. The sign at one end of the bridge (see photo 6-159 ) proclaims that 'This bridge is the bridge of the local civilian villagers. Maintenance and repair of the bridge is always the duty of the civilian villagers.' The road, however, is more likely to be used by Army trucks than by local villagers' carts, for which it would be too rough. These photos were taken between November 2002 and February 2003. [Photos: KHRG researchers]
Photos #6-160, 6-161: Villagers from P--- village in Bilin township, Thaton District doing forced labour milling and hauling timber for the construction of a bridge at Baw Naw Wah in January 2003. Villagers from Pwa Ghaw, Noh Aaw La, Ha T'Reh, Ka Meh, Kyu Kyi, Kyaw Kay Kee, and Ta Thu Kee villages were ordered to work on this bridge. The villagers were not paid for their time or labour. The SPDC is rapidly expanding its network of roads across Karen State, and in Thaton District the regime has focused its attention partly on rebuilding the Kyaik Khaw – Lay Kay car road, which includes this bridge. This road is eventually to be extended all the way to Ka Dtaing Dtee in Papun District to link up with the Ka Ma Maung – Papun road (see photos 6-115 through 6-131 ). The Bilin – Papun vehicle road is yet another major road project in the region. For SPDC forces these roads mean stronger military control of the surrounding region, but for villagers they mainly mean more forced labour building and maintaining roads and new Army camps. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-162: These eight villagers from the M--- relocation site in Bu Tho township, Papun District are going to perform forced labour for the SPDC. They were ordered to cut back the bushes from the side of the Ka Ma Maung – Papun vehicle road in neighbouring Dweh Loh township (see map ). They had to take their own tools and were not paid for their labour. This photo was taken in December 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-163: Villagers from W--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District working to clear the brush from the sides of the Bilin – Papun vehicle road in December 2002. The forced labour order was issued by Camp Commander Soe Kyi of SPDC IB #2 based at Ku Thu Hta Army camp. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-164: Major Kyi Soe of SPDC LIB #3 ordered the villagers of L--- village in Bilin township, Thaton District to construct this bridge of the outskirts of their village. The soldiers provided them with 30,000 Kyat to cover the costs of the bridge, but this only met a quarter of the overall cost. The bridge required two tonnes of timber, each tonne costing 60,000 Kyat. The villagers had to make up the shortfall themselves. This photo was taken in December 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-165, 6-166, 6-167: Villagers from Bilin township in Thaton District doing forced labour cutting back the scrub from beside the Bilin – Papun vehicle road. SPDC Army soldiers from Light Infantry Division #44 (Min Aung Hlaing commanding) ordered these villagers to clear all trees, bushes and plants within 50 feet [15 metres] of either side of the road in order to protect their troops from ambush while travelling along the road. The villagers were given from November 20 th to November 30 th 2002 to complete the work. While those with machetes cut and cleared the grass and small scrub, teams with two-person handsaws ( photo 6-167 ) cut down small and large trees. These same villagers were forced to build and maintain this road and to construct the Doh Ler Tay Bridge. They have never received any compensation for any of the labour that they have been ordered to perform. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-168, 6-169, 6-170, 6-171: On November 14 th 2002, villagers from P--- village were ordered to report to the Twee Thi Oo SPDC Army camp in Dweh Loh township, Papun District to perform loh ah pay . SPDC LIB #534 had given them orders to cut back the scrub from alongside the car road near the camp for three days. The villagers had to take their tools and enough of their own food to last them the three days, knowing that the SPDC would provide them with nothing. Photos 6-168 and 6-169 show the villagers leaving for the camp, carrying food in their baskets. Note the young girls and boys among the group; the young are sent because parents must be in the fields at this time of year to protect the ripening rice grain from animals. Just two days after finishing this forced labour, on November 19 th they were yet again issued forced labour orders from LIB #534. This time they were ordered to clear the brush alongside the Ka Ma Maung – Papun car road at the Htee Ghay Law bridge and to perform any required repairs to the bridge, which they were to carry out with their own repair materials. Photos 6-170 and 6-171 show two of the villagers returning to the bridge with bamboo to make repairs. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-172, 6-173, 6-174: Villagers from L--- village in Dweh Loh township of Papun District doing forced labour for the SPDC in October 2002. Captain Moe Zaw of IB #51 ordered the villagers to clear the bush from the side of the Ka Ma Maung – Papun car road. The SPDC regularly orders the villagers to create wide 'killing zones' along the flanks of the car roads so that it is more difficult for the KNLA to ambush any SPDC columns moving along the road. Early each morning for three consecutive days, the villagers had to walk the eleven kilometres (seven miles) from their village to the road in order to work ( photo 6-172 ). After a full day's hard work clearing thorny scrub in the heat of the sun (photos 6-173 and 6-174 ) they set out for the long walk home at 5 p.m. rather than sleep out in the open beside the road, where they would be susceptible to malaria, snakes and other hazards. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-175, 6-176, 6-177: Villagers from P--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District ordered to perform loh ah pay for the SPDC. On October 29 th and again on October 30 th 2002, they were ordered to cut back the scrub from beside the Ka Ma Maung-Papun car road. In order to complete the work in the allotted time, they had to start at 7:30 am each day, continuing until late in the afternoon. The villagers were not paid for the work nor were they provided with food, and each villager was expected to supply their own tools. Every year they are forced to perform this type of work when they need to be in their ricefields. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #9-7: When villagers in M--- village of Bu Tho township, Papun district were ordered by the local SPDC Army to clear the scrub along the sides of the nearby vehicle road in October 2002, twelve-year-old Naw K--- was the youngest in the group doing the forced labour. SPDC authorities frequently take children for forced labour, or they demand one person per household and the children must go because the parents need to work every day to feed the family. [Photo: KHRG researcher] 6.5 Forced Labour Maintaining Army Camps, Army Farms, and Securing Villages
SPDC Army units in rural areas are now under orders to find or produce their own food as much as possible, so many of them have confiscated nearby farmland without compensation and now force villagers to work it for them. Photo 7-53 shows villagers doing forced labour growing rice for the Army on confiscated land. They are also forced to work on the profit-making ventures of local SPDC and DKBA officers, including logging operations, brick baking factories, and fish farms (see photos 6-189 , 6-190 to 6-191 , and 6-200 to 6-205 ). All of these forms of forced labour are an additional factor in causing many people to flee their villages (see photos 10-78 to 10-79 , 10-85 to 10-87 , and 10-174 to 10-181 ).
Photo #6-97: Saw W--- from M--- village in Thaton district spoke to a KHRG researcher just after returning from a shift of set tha forced labour at the nearby camp of SPDC LIB #350 in late February 2005. People from his village and the surrounding villages have to go every day for set tha and other forms of forced labour at the LIB #350 camp. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-178: Villagers from K--- village doing forced labour building a fence around the SPDC's Taung Thon Lon army camp in Papun district on September 28 th 2004. They also had to cut and haul all the bamboo to build the fence. SPDC LIB #344 (Battalion Commander Major Khin Maung Way commanding) is based at the camp, and regularly forces local villagers to build and repair the camp fences, saw firewood, and perform other duties without pay. Most Army camps are surrounded by several rings of perimeter security fences, so villagers have to do forced labour almost constantly gathering materials and maintaining camp fences. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-179, 6-180, 6-181, 6-182: These shingles of roofing thatch were demanded from southwestern Papun district villagers in September 2004 by SPDC LIB #598 for the purpose of rebuilding their camp at Gkay Gkaw. Photos 6-179 and 6-180 show some of the thatch stacked near the riverbank ready to be sent by boat (which the villagers must also arrange) to the Army camp. Photos 6-181 and 6-182 are from another village in the area, where people were still preparing the thatch to meet their quota under the same order. SPDC written orders demanding hundreds of roofing shingles at a time are a regular burden on villages, as can be seen in KHRG's 'SPDC Orders to Villages' reports . The villagers must gather leaves and bamboo, split the bamboo to make the frames and shave it to make ties, then weave the leaves onto the frame to make each shingle, a very time-consuming process. These villagers are not only forced to provide the building materials but also to do the work at the camp itself (see photos 6-183 through 6-186 ). [Photos: KHRG researchers]
Photos # 6-183, 6-184, 6-185, 6-186: Not only were villagers in the area forced to provide thatch to rebuild LIB #598's camp at Gkay Gkaw, Papun district in September 2004 (see photos 6-179 through 6-182 ), they were also forced to provide other building materials and do much of the work themselves. Photo 6-183 shows a group of villagers returning from forced labour rebuilding the camp, while the other photos show a different group of villagers preparing to haul materials to the camp for the next shift of forced labour. Several of those forced to do heavy work at the camp were elderly; for example, the two villagers in photo 6-186 are aged 57 and 60. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-187: Saw M---, 54, is a father of six and lives in H--- village, Tantabin township, Toungoo District. Like many others in his village and other surrounding villages, when interviewed in August 2004 he complained that since SPDC IB #73 established themselves at Shan Zee Boh in early July 2004, Captain Thein Lwin Oo forces villagers throughout the entire area to take turns going every day to build the camp and carry supplies for the Battalion. Saw M--- says that as a result he no longer has sufficient time to work for his family. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #7-53: Officers from SPDC LIB #434 confiscated these irrigated ricefields from Naw S---, 40, of K--- village in Bu Tho township, Papun District. She received no compensation. This photo was taken at ploughing time in July 2004. In the foreground a buffalo can be seen attached to a plough, while in the distance some villagers from W--- village can be seen using their own buffaloes to do forced labour after being ordered to plough the fields for the soldiers. The villagers are also forced to plant, weed, and harvest the fields, but the soldiers take the entire harvest. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-188: Saw P--- from A--- village in Nyaunglebin District, who was forced to work for SPDC troops at two different Army camps in 2004 despite being 60 years old. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-189: A villager does forced labour as part of a DKBA logging operation in Pa'an township of Thaton District. Soldiers from DKBA #333 Brigade regularly force people from P--- and N--- village to cut and mill hardwood logs for them. The soldiers watch the villagers do the work at gunpoint. They then force the villagers to transport the timber for them, all without payment. This villager from N--- village was ordered to use his tractor to carry teak, ironwood, and mahogany planks to Ohn Daw village at the confluence of the Salween and Yunzalin Rivers in Bu Tho township, Papun District. The DKBA claimed that the timber was to be used in the construction a new pagoda, but many of the villagers believe that it was sold. Logging is one of the major sources of income employed by the DKBA. This photo was taken in May 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-190, 6-191: A brick baking business controlled by LIB #376 (Major Aye Lwin commanding) in Pa'an township of Thaton District. Between March 1 st and 20 th 2004, Major Aye Lwin ordered the villagers of K--- village to bring enough loads of firewood to fire the brick kilns (some of the leftover firewood is visible in photo 6-190 ), and used his own soldiers as labour to bake the bricks for his personal profit. Not only were the villagers forced to work without pay but, adding insult to injury, they were forced to buy the bricks afterward at 15 Kyat per brick. These photos were taken in May 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-192: On April 21 st 2004, DKBA Ka Hsaw Wah ('White Elephant') Battalion Company #5 (Lieutenant Htoh Lweh commanding) ordered six villages in Dweh Loh township, Papun District each to send five villagers to build them a new Army post on the Papun – Ka Ma Maung car road not far from Ma Htaw village. The villages that were ordered to provide labour were Khaw Klah, Tha Ma Kyu Law, Ta Hu Law, Noh Pa Doh, Th'Waw Ko Law and Ma Htaw villages. Each household in these villages was also ordered to provide 50 lengths of bamboo and 15 shingles of roofing thatch for construction. The DKBA planned to use the new post as a checkpoint to exact tolls from every civilian vehicle passing along the road. They now demand 1,000 Kyat from each car/truck, 500 Kyat from each bullock cart, and 200 Kyat per motorcycle. SPDC and DKBA Army vehicles are, of course, exempted. It took 30 villagers three days to complete the work, yet not one of them received any form of recompense. This photo shows some of the piles of prepared bamboo and thatch which had been delivered to the site prior to the construction of the buildings in April 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-193: DKBA soldiers forced villagers in Papun town to construct this security fence; whether its purpose is to keep KNLA forces out or villagers in remains unclear. This photo was taken in October 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #10-78, 10-79: After H--- village in Bu Tho township, Papun district, came under SPDC military control and had to begin complying with forced labour demands, young and old fled the village to escape. The 85-year-old man in photo 10-78 said despite his age he didn't want to face the Army's demands. These photos were taken in November 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 10-85, 10-86, 10-87: Villagers on the move in T'Nay Hsah township, Pa'an district, in September 2003. They are among a group of 180 people in 30 families who fled villages in T'Nay Hsah township after SPDC LIB #706 Column 2 (Major Kyaw Thu Ra Win commanding) and DKBA units from Brigades 333, 555 and 999 came to establish four new camps at Po Thwee Kyo, Wah Mi Kyo, Thay Daw Kyu Htoo and Tee Wah Klay beginning in July 2003. Villagers from ten villages in the area were forced to use their elephants to haul logs, build the camps, and carry ammunition and supplies to the troops, who also began looting livestock from the villages. Worst of all according to the villagers, they laid landmines which killed over 20 of the villagers' cattle and buffaloes and made the villagers afraid to walk to their fields or in the forest. Most of them therefore fled into the mountains or toward the Thai border. In photo 10-87 , an internally displaced mother and her children share a pot of rice porridge in an attempt to make their rice supply last as long as possible. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-194: The outer perimeter of the SPDC Army camp at Htee Yu Thaw village in Kru Tu (Kyone Doh) township, Dooplaya District. This camp was built on the confiscated plantations of Saw P--- and Saw K---, neither of whom were compensated for the loss of their livelihoods. Lying in the foreground are the broken-down dikes of a number of irrigated paddy fields that were also destroyed in the construction of the camp. Every aspect of this camp was constructed using forced labour. The soldiers forced the villagers to build the soldiers' huts, dig the trenches and bunkers, and construct the fence visible in this photo. This is only the outer layer of three concentric rings of fence erected around the camp. Between each ring of fencing are rows of sharpened bamboo spikes planted as additional perimeter defences, all done by forced labour. This photo was taken in May 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-195: SPDC soldiers ordered the villagers from M--- village in Bu Tho township, Papun District to construct this bamboo fence around their village and monastery. Many villages across Karen State have been ordered to fence themselves in with only one or two gates for entrance and exit. The stated purpose of these fences is to keep Karen resistance forces out of the village, but they are more often used when SPDC Army columns arrive at the village – by blocking off the gates they can trap the villagers inside, making it easy to round up forced labourers and loot the villagers' belongings, or to capture village leaders for interrogation. This photo was taken in March 2003. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-196, 6-197: The SPDC Army camp at M--- village on the banks of the Yunzalin River in Bu Tho township of Papun District. The LIB #38 soldiers based here forced the villagers to construct not only the camp but also the fences surrounding it. These photos were taken in March 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-198, 6-199: Villagers from northern Than Daung Township in Toungoo District on their way to perform forced labour for the SPDC in December 2002. On December 7 th 2002, Lieutenant Htun Win of IB #73 Company #4 (Captain Khin Zaw commanding) ordered about 100 villagers from various villages nearby to perform loh ah pay at the Htee Tha Saw Army camp. The villagers say this happens four times every month. Photo 6-198 shows seven villagers from K--- village leaving to go to the Army camp, while photo 6-199 shows villagers from H--- village preparing to go for forced labour. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-200, 6-201, 6-202, 6-203, 6-204, 6-205: An SPDC-run sawmill in the Twee Thi Oo forest in Dweh Loh township, Papun District. This sawmill was established in 1999 and has been operating ever since. As a result, most of the old-growth timber has already been felled and milled into posts and planks. This area once had large stands of teak and ironwood trees; now there are only small trees. The SPDC and DKBA have similar sawmills throughout the Baw Kyo valley. At the mill shown here, local SPDC officers force the villagers to fell the trees and haul the logs to the sawmill with their elephants. Private vehicle owners are forced to transport the finished product to town. No one is compensated for their time or expenses. Moreover, the local villagers are forced to guard the mill as sentries, and if the KNLA damages or destroys it then the villagers are forced to pay to rebuild it. These photos were taken in November 2002. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #11-51: Saw K---, 39, from G--- village in Toungoo District lost his leg to a landmine when performing forced labour for the SPDC on March 11 th 2002. Soldiers from IB #264 ordered him to cut small logs and bamboo for use in repairing buildings in T--- army camp and he stepped on one of their landmines near the camp perimeter, blowing off his right leg. This photo was taken in July 2002. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-206, 6-207, 6-208: Villagers from K--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District doing loh ah pay for the SPDC in July 2002. An officer of LIB #365 (Battalion Commander Chit Nyo commanding) ordered them to build this storehouse for the Battalion's rice and other foodstuffs. These photos were taken in July 2002. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 10-174, 10-175, 10-176, 10-177, 10-178, 10-179, 10-180, 10-181: Villagers fleeing forced relocation in Kya In township, Dooplaya District in mid-2002. On February 24 th , SPDC IB #78, IB #77, and LIB #83 ordered all villages in Ta Gu Kee area to move to Meh T'Kreh and said they would shoot on sight anyone who remained. Between April 27 th and May 12 th , troops from SPDC LIB #301, LIB #416, and IB #78 entered Tee Th'Blu, Kaw Keh, Tee P'Nweh, Paw Ner Mu, Done P'Loung, and Tee Khaing villages, ordered the villagers out without specifying a destination, and burned their houses, schools, churches and food supplies. As a result, hundreds of villagers fled to Noh Po refugee camp in Thailand. Photos 10-174 through 10-177 show them heading for the Thai border in late May and early June 2002. Photo 10-178 shows a group that had just arrived at the refugee camp in late May. Photo 10-179 shows Naw H--- and her family; when IB #78 ordered their village of Tee Law P'Leh to move within 4 days to Lay Wah Kah on April 27 th , they obeyed, but after two weeks doing forced labour every day and without proper shelter, food or medical help at the relocation site, they fled to Thailand in mid-June. After three months at a relocation site, Saw P--- and his family ( photo 10-180 ) also fled in mid-June, saying there was no way of surviving at the site and they were forced to work constantly for the Army. Naw P---, 23 ( photo 10-181 ), fled with her baby in June after two weeks at Meh T'Kreh relocation site for the same reasons. [Photos: KHRG researcher] 6.6 Supplying Materials
In many cases SPDC and DKBA officers demand materials 'for the camp' but then sell them for personal profit. This is most often the case with demands for hardwood logs, but some officers also demand roofing thatch, bamboo and other materials in order to sell them. Sometimes the demands are so large and frequent that this is clearly the intent (see photos 6-228 to 6-236 and 6-237 to 6-240 ). Photos 6-214 to 6-216 and 6-217 to 6-219 show villagers poling large hardwood logs downriver by order of the DKBA; to do this they must cut bamboo, lash it to the logs to make rafts, then manoeuvre the logs for hours downriver, sometimes through fast water. When villagers in Dweh Loh township of Papun district refused to do this for an SPDC officer in January 2005, he sent his soldiers to shoot up their village and they had to flee (see photos 2-1 to 2-3 ).
Photos # 6-209, 6-210, 6-211, 6-212, 6-213: In late February 2005, officer U Y'Khaing of SPDC LIB #350 demanded bamboo and thatch from villages near their camp in Thaton district. Photos 6-209 and 6-210 show some of the thatch and bamboo which each family had made ready and stockpiled for transport to the camp. The remaining photos show some villagers from M--- and H--- villages carrying their quota of bamboo and thatch to the camp on February 25 th . [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-214, 6-215, 6-216: In January 2005 DKBA soldiers came to K--- village in Dweh Loh township, fired off their weapons to intimidate the villagers, and then ordered them to float the DKBA's logs down the Bilin River. To do this, the villagers were ordered to gather 100 pieces of wa tho bamboo, each at least 12 cubits (6 m / 18 ft) long and two handspans in circumference. Photos 6-214 and 6-215 show the villagers gathering some of this bamboo on January 29 th 2005, and photo 6-216 shows them beginning to raft a hardwood log down the river (the log is in the centre with bamboo tied to both sides to keep it afloat). Some of these hardwood logs can weigh a tonne or more and are extremely difficult and dangerous to manoeuvre. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-217, 6-218, 6-219: Villagers from M--- village, Dweh Loh township, Papun district use bamboo to raft hardwood logs down the Bilin river on January 25 th 2005. They were ordered by the DKBA to cut the logs, haul them out of the forest with their elephants, and float them downriver so that DKBA officers can sell them for personal profit. The villagers receive nothing for this. Women pole the rafts downriver, and despite the dangers of the heavy logs rolling over, even women with babies strapped to their backs must go; Karen men are not willing to confront the DKBA for fear that they may be forcibly recruited. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 2-1, 2-2, 2-3: In January 2005, local SPDC officers ordered the people of K--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun district to cut teak logs and float them downriver to the SPDC Army camp so the officers could sell them. The villagers failed to comply, so on January 25 th 2005 SPDC soldiers came to their village and started firing off their guns. The villagers ran in all directions; these photos show a group of them hiding in some bushes outside the village, checking to see if any soldiers are following them. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-179, 6-180, 6-181, 6-182: These shingles of roofing thatch were demanded from southwestern Papun district villagers in September 2004 by SPDC LIB #598 for the purpose of rebuilding their camp at Gkay Gkaw. Photos 6-179 and 6-180 show some of the thatch stacked near the riverbank ready to be sent by boat (which the villagers must also arrange) to the Army camp. Photos 6-181 and 6-182 are from another village in the area, where people were still preparing the thatch to meet their quota under the same order. SPDC written orders demanding hundreds of roofing shingles at a time are a regular burden on villages, as can be seen in KHRG's 'SPDC Orders to Villages' reports . The villagers must gather leaves and bamboo, split the bamboo to make the frames and shave it to make ties, then weave the leaves onto the frame to make each shingle, a very time-consuming process. These villagers are not only forced to provide the building materials but also to do the work at the camp itself (see photos 6-183 through 6-186 ). [Photos: KHRG researchers]
Photos # 6-183, 6-184, 6-185, 6-186: Not only were villagers in the area forced to provide thatch to rebuild LIB #598's camp at Gkay Gkaw, Papun district in September 2004 (see photos 6-179 through 6-182 ), they were also forced to provide other building materials and do much of the work themselves. Photo 6-183 shows a group of villagers returning from forced labour rebuilding the camp, while the other photos show a different group of villagers preparing to haul materials to the camp for the next shift of forced labour. Several of those forced to do heavy work at the camp were elderly; for example, the two villagers in photo 6-186 are aged 57 and 60. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-220, 6-221: In August 2004, an SPDC Army unit based in Tantabin township of Toungoo District ordered the villagers from W--- village to collect these piles of firewood and giant bamboo for delivery to the Bawgali Gyi Army camp adjacent to the Kler Lah relocation site. The villagers from this area are regularly called upon to supply materials such as these to the SPDC Army camps. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-222, 6-223: Villagers from K--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District trudge through pouring rain and mud in July 2004 carrying shingles of roofing thatch to repair the SPDC Army camp at Meh Way. Saw Soe Aung of LIB #589 demanded five shingles of thatch from each of the 57 houses in the village. One person from each house must go to the camp to deliver their shingles and help with the repairs, rain or shine. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-224, 6-225: Village women from T--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District sending roofing thatch to the SPDC. On May 29 th 2004, IB #263 replaced IB #38 at the Taung Thon Lon SPDC Army camp. In assuming command of the post, Major Tin Win Naing of IB #263 demanded 200 shingles of thatch from each of a number of nearby villages to repair the camp. Other villages, such as P--- village, were ordered to supply 500 lengths of bamboo. In cases like these, men are afraid to go to the Army camp for fear that they will be detained as suspected rebels or taken as operations porters. Women and girls therefore deliver the materials to the camp, despite facing similar risks themselves. These photos were taken in June 2004. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-226: Villagers from K--- village in Bilin township, Thaton District supplying thatch for the DKBA in May 2004. They had to walk for three hours in each direction in order to deliver the thatch to the Meh Si monastery in Papun District where it was to be used. The order was issued by one of the units in the DKBA Ka Hsaw Wah ('White Elephant') Battalion. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-227: Villagers from W--- village in Dweh Loh township of Papun District providing roofing thatch to the SPDC in February 2004. Captain Lu Maung Htat, an officer of Military Operations Command ( Sa Ka Ka ) #9, ordered the villagers to deliver the thatch to the Ku Thu Hta Army camp. Children are involved because the family needs to work efficiently to get all their work done, which includes multiple overlapping demands for forced labour along with their own work. SPDC officers never object to the involvement of children as long as the work gets done. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-228, 6-229, 6-230, 6-231, 6-232, 6-233, 6-234, 6-235, 6-236: Throughout January 2004, commander Zaw Lwin Htut of LIB #349 demanded large quantities of bamboo and roofing thatch from numerous villages in Dweh Loh township of Papun District. Each household in all of these villages was ordered to deliver six lengths of bamboo and five shingles of thatch to the Win Maung SPDC Army camp adjacent to the Wah Mu relocation site. Saw S---, 29, from P--- village told a KHRG researcher, " I had to go to send six pieces of bamboo and five shingles of thatch to the SPDC at Wah Mu. They are from LIB #349. The name of their commander is Zaw Lwin Htut. They didn't pay us; they forced us to work. If the people don't work they won't allow them to stay in the village. They said that people who don't go to do loh ah pay , portering, or set tha are not villagers [i.e. that they must be rebels]. If the people don't work they have to hire someone [itinerant labourers], and if they don't hire labourers then they have to leave." The villagers were not paid, nor were they provided with any tools or even food. Providing these materials is labour intensive. Photo 6-228 shows a villager from K--- village cutting fronds that will be used to make the thatch from his plantation of Loh (Cabbage Tree palm) trees. Bamboo must be cut in the forest, then split and shaved to make the frames for the thatch shingles. Photos 6-229 through 6-233 show people representing each house in K--- and M--- villages carrying their quota of thatch and bamboo to the Bilin river to be transported to the Army camp. At the riverbank the materials from several villages are laid out in piles so village leaders can count them (photos 6-234 and 6-235 ); if on arrival at the Army camp they are found to be one household short of the quota, the entire village will be punished. In photo 6-236 , one of many rafts sets out to deliver the materials to the Army camp. These photos were taken between January 8 th and 27 th 2004. Thatch is often demanded by Army camps to repair their own buildings, but when such large quantities are demanded it is possible that the SPDC officers plan to sell it for personal profit. Photos 6-237 through 6-240 and 6-248 through 6-250 below suggest that this may be the case, because they show that Wah Mu army camp demands large quantities of these materials from the villagers at least once every 3 months. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #9-3: A group of children from P--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun District await the return of their parents who were forced to supply roofing thatch to a nearby SPDC Army camp. This photo was taken in January 2004. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-237, 6-238, 6-239, 6-240: Villagers from various villages in Dweh Loh township of Papun District sending roofing thatch and lengths of bamboo in October 2003 to SPDC LIB #349 at the Wah Mu SPDC Army camp. Every house in the villages concerned was ordered to supply five lengths of bamboo and a number of thatch shingles. The bamboo and palm fronds had to be cut in the forest, the shingles manufactured and prepared, and then all of the materials delivered to the banks of the Bilin River, where it was bound together and rafted down the river to the Army camp. These same villages had to repeat this ordeal again three months later, when ordered again to send thatch and bamboo to the same SPDC camp (see photos 6-228 through 6-236 above). [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-241, 6-242, 6-243, 6-244: Villagers from Baw T'Kaw Der, Klaw Hta, Klaw Oo Aw, and Kler Gho Der villages, all in Lu Thaw township of Papun District, were ordered by SPDC IB #35 to deliver thatch and bamboo to the local SPDC Army camp. These photos were taken in October 2003 as they were carrying the building materials to the camp. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-245: These villagers from K--- village were ordered to cut and send these strips of split bamboo to a nearby SPDC Army camp in Tantabin township, Toungoo District. The bamboo was to be used in the repair of the camp – split bamboo is used in walls, floors, and fencing. Most such repair work is also done by the forced labour of villagers. This photo was taken in September 2003 as they were preparing to take the bamboo to the camp. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photos #6-246, 6-247: Saw P--- from W--- village ( photo 6-246 ) and Saw N--- from T--- village ( photo 6-247 ), both in Dweh Loh township of Papun district, on their way to deliver the quota of bamboo which had been demanded in June and July 2003 by Major Nyi Nyi Lwin of SPDC IB #35. They had to carry it all the way to the Major's camp at Meh Way. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-248, 6-249, 6-250: Shortly after taking up their post at Wah Mu Army camp in Dweh Loh township of Papun district, SPDC IB #30 ordered these villagers from K--- and M--- villages to supply them with thatch and bamboo. These photos show the villagers in March 2003 carrying the thatch and bamboo to the Bilin riverbank, where they lash it together into rafts and float it downriver to the Army camp. Later in 2003, IB #30 was rotated out of the post and replaced by LIB #349, who continued to issue similar orders to these villagers (See photos 6-228 through 6-236 and 6-237 through 6-240 above). [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photos # 6-251, 6-252, 6-253: These villagers from H--- village in Lu Thaw township, Papun District were ordered to supply building materials to Htun Neh Lay, commanding officer of SPDC IB #19 Column #1. Photo 6-253 shows the stacks of roofing thatch assembled in the village before the villagers carried them to the camp. These photos were taken in March 2003. [Photos: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-254: People from P--- village in Dweh Loh township, Papun district carrying bamboo they were ordered to deliver to Ka Dtaing Dtee Army camp on October 27 th 2002. The camp commander demanded 300 pieces of bamboo from the village, and they had to carry them the 11 kilometre (7 mile) distance from their village to the camp. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
Photo #6-255: Roofing thatch prepared and stacked on the riverbank by villagers of L--- and P--- villages in Lu Thaw township of Papun District in October 2002. They were ordered to supply the thatch to SPDC IB #2 (camp commander Soe Kyi commanding) at Hla Gone Pyo Army camp. They have to ferry the thatch down the river by raft to the camp. [Photo: KHRG researcher]
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