Interview #11

Farmer
Loilem Township, Shan State, Burma

In Burma, we have not enough food to eat. . . . [W]e have to pay porter fees of 150 kyat per month [to the government]. . . . I have a big family to take care. Besides paying them, I have to respond for my family too. We struggle because of the shortage of food, so we decided to leave.

Just three days before I came to Thailand [in December 2000], I had to fence their [the military's] camp. . . . We have never gotten any payment from the military. . . . We never got any payment for any kind of work: fencing, farming. Sometimes we had to carry bamboo of our own. I did not want to go. [But] they said, "Everyone is following the order. Only you want to refuse, just do it. Don't talk much. . . ."

At the time [three days before I left], we had 27 people [working for the military]. . . . I brought a knife to the workplace. I saw a mountain of bamboo that they got free from the villagers. We cut, chopped bamboo, and fenced the camp. There were about ten women, including 16-17 aged girls. . . . We had to put the chopped bamboo among the wire fence. . . . The soldiers ordered the headman and then the headman told the people. I did not want to go.