Interview #8

Tavoyan Villager
Ye Pyu Township, Tenasserim Division, Burma

I left the village a week ago in May 2001 because I could not face to go portering and pay the porter fees in the village. [The interviewee was interviewed in May 2001.] I came to Thailand to find a job because I did not have time to work in my village. In 2001, I had to go porter about ten times. Most of the portering we did for LIB 282 and LIB 273. They are patrolling for pipeline security, and we had to carry their food and supplies whenever they need. The village arranges this kind of portering by rotation.

In January 2001, I had to go porter for LIB 273 for three days. I had to carry my own food and carry their food. We had to go for three days, and that time there were15 porters with them. We had to walk at night, and we could not use a torch light. Many people could not carry their loads, so we had to help each other. . . . We had to follow them in the jungle. When the soldiers patrolled in the area for pipeline security, there were sometimes about 20 soldiers and sometimes up to 50 soldiers. I also was hit by the soldiers when I portered for them. They said I did not walk fast. Before I left I saw a villager, age 22, who died when he was portering and stopped close to our village. . . .

The foreigners who work on the gas pipeline came to my village very often, and they also know that we had to porter for LIB 273 and LIB 282 who took security for them. They did not say anything about the portering for soldiers providing security. We did not get payment for being porters for these soldiers. We had to bring our own food when we portered for the soldiers. Other villages . . . also have to give porters to LIB 282 and LIB 273 as we did. If we did not want to go porter in our rotation, we had to pay 2500 kyat. If we did not have money, we could not refuse. Before I came here, I had to hire others to go in my place four times.