Interview #28

Villager
Murng Pan Township, Shan State, Burma

According to the villagers, there is no "porter[ing]" now, but [the military] calls it by another name. This time they ask for "A-Ku-A-Nyi," which means "helper." That means a villager has to go with them for five days as a guide, and they ask for it all the time.

Every village including the towns [had to clear the road]. Those who had money, they hired Burmese to clear for them. For us, we didn't have money. So, we had to clear by ourselves. One household had to work for seven days and would be replaced by others. . . . [M]y turn was 15-20 days ago. [The interviewee fled Burma in late January/early February 2001 and was interviewed in early February 2001.] [T]he letter of order was brought from the town. The letter stated that each person had to clear the road for seven days. It's never finished. It has to be cleared again and again. I went for one day, and then I hired others and came back. [I came to Thailand] because I didn't want to do this "Lo-Ah-Pae" [the common term for forced labor], and it was very hard to make money this year. Sometimes I didn't even have money for the cheroots.