Interview #32

Shan Farmer Murng Kerng and Ke See Townships, Shan State, Burma

In December 2000, Burmese soldiers came to arrest people in the village. Three people had to porter for them. The soldiers were a patrolling column. . . . They relocated the villages to stay together. Moreover, they arrested people to be porters. When they came to arrest the villagers for porters, did they did not inform the headman. I was just rising from bed. The whole village was awakened by their arrival. They said "Come! come!", and they had all the male villagers get together. They said they needed "guides." We said we had no people, and they took three people for porters. They did not take me, but they did take my son.

My turn to porter happened later. I was staying in the village at that time. Then the soldiers from IB 99 came into the village and arrested me. I was with five to seven other people. I had to carry the soldiers' clothes for one day. I had just woken up when they arrived. They told us to follow them. I said, "Please don't take us, we have no people to work." They said, "No! You all must come. We have to talk." They asked us whether we saw rebels or not. We said we saw no rebels. I did not want to go with them. But they said I must go. They told me that it was only for a while, but it turned out the whole day. They never paid.

We had to fence their base and clear the canal for farming. We had to go fence the military base once a month. My last turn to go do the fencing, before I came to Thailand, was in December [2000] or January [2001]. The headman informed us. He said that our turn to work in the military base was due. We had to work from 7 or 8AM until we finished. The soldiers did not feed us or provide water. They just came and looked and asked how much work we had done. Then they noted it down in their books. They said that if we didn't finish the defined amount of work, we would get punished. One household had to work on two lines of fence. We had to buy the bamboo ourselves, about 150 kyats for a pole. For two lines we used two or three poles. We also had to use about seven poles of another kind of bamboo that cost about 50 kyats for a pole. So for two lines of fence the bamboo cost about 700 or 800 kyats. Every household had to go. We had to finish that two lines of fence within three days. Otherwise, we would get punished. No one could resist. Nobody wanted to go. Many people had to work for them. The whole village together with bull-carts. There were so many, both young and old. I couldn't remember.

Around December [2000] or January [2001] soldiers arrested me for one night. They interrogated me as well. Then on the next day I was taken as a guide to a village. They released me there. I was taken [again] as a guide for one night and two days [to a different place]. I had to go with them. On the way, the Burmese soldiers arrested people and accused them of being rebels. I was afraid while I was with them. When they released me, they said "go back and stay in your home." I stayed at home about one month after that before I came to Thailand. [The interviewee fled Burma in early 2001.