English
ကညီကျိာ်
မြန်မာThese orders were issued during the period mid-1998 through December 1999 and have been selected from over 350 such orders. They include orders restricting the movements and activities of villagers, demands for forced labour, support for military operations, extortion of money, food, goods and building materials, and orders summoning village elders to attend ‘meetings’ at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply. Many of the orders demanding forced labour were issued well after May 14, 1999, which is when the SPDC leadership claims to have issued a general order to all of their military and administrative units to halt conscription of forced labour under the Villages Act and Towns Act, colonial-era laws which allow authorities to press-gang labour under certain circumstances. In practice, the military and SPDC authorities violate the conditions of these Acts (for example, that only able-bodied and unemployed men be conscripted) in most of their demands, and almost never even make reference to these Acts when demanding forced labour from villages.
Note: Some details have been blacked out with ‘xxxx’ for Internet distribution.
Following are the direct translations of close to 300 written orders sent from State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Army units and local authorities to villages in Papun, Toungoo, Dooplaya and Pa’an Districts of Karen State, southeastern Burma. They were issued during the period mid-1998 through December 1999 and have been selected from over 350 such orders. They include orders restricting the movements and activities of villagers, demands for forced labour, support for military operations, extortion of money, food, goods and building materials, and orders summoning village elders to attend ‘meetings’ at which SPDC Army officers or officials dictate demands for forced labour, money and materials and threaten the village for any failure to comply. Many of the orders demanding forced labour were issued well after May 14, 1999, which is when the SPDC leadership claims to have issued a general order to all of their military and administrative units to halt conscription of forced labour under the Villages Act and Towns Act, colonial-era laws which allow authorities to press-gang labour under certain circumstances. In practice, the military and SPDC authorities violate the conditions of these Acts (for example, that only able-bodied and unemployed men be conscripted) in most of their demands, and almost never even make reference to these Acts when demanding forced labour from villages.
Originals of these orders were obtained by KHRG monitors in each region. They were issued by local SPDC and DKBA Army commanders and Peace & Development Councils (PDCs), which are local-level SPDC administration at the Township, Village Tract and Village levels. While the Township and often Village Tract PDCs consist of SPDC officials under direct military control, the Village PDC chairperson and members are appointed, often against their will, by the local military. These are the village elders to whom the orders are addressed and sent, who are referred to as ‘Chairperson’ and ‘Secretary’ in the text. They are responsible for providing forced labourers, money, materials, intelligence etc. as demanded by the military and the higher-level PDCs, and they are the first to be arrested and tortured if they fail to do so; this is what is meant by threatening phrases such as "if you fail it will be your responsibility". Village elders are deluged with orders like these almost every day, from all the Army camps near their village as well as the various levels of SPDC authorities. For every order reproduced here, hundreds more are issued every week; these should be seen only as a small representative sampling. This report does not aim to provide a comprehensive picture of the human rights situation in these areas, but to provide a reference containing examples of several kinds of orders received by villages in several different regions. More information on the human rights situation in each District is available in other existing KHRG reports.
Orders in this report have been divided into main topics. For each topic a short summary has been included to explain the context in which the orders were issued. Within each topic, the orders have mainly been sorted starting from the most recent and proceeding to the oldest, with a few exceptions. Some orders span 2 or more topics, such as those which demand forced labour as well as extortion money; in these cases we have taken into account the main focus of the order in categorising it.
Notes on the Text
Most of these orders were handwritten, some typed, and carbon-copied if sent to more than one village. The orders were written in Burmese with the exception of some of those included under ‘DKBA Orders’, which were written in Sgaw Karen where noted. All of them were issued by SPDC authorities and military units except those included under ‘DKBA Orders’ and ‘Karen Peace Army Propaganda Letter’.
We have attempted to accurately reproduce the visual page layout of each order, and underlining, etc. are as they appear in the order. ‘Stamp:’ gives the translation of the rubber-stamped unit identifier affixed to many of the orders, while ‘[Sd.]’ denotes the usually illegible signature of the issuing official. The language of many of the orders sounds awkward because Burmese grammar is very different from English; for example, the ordering of phrases within a sentence is almost opposite, sentences are often very long and convoluted, and personal subject and object pronouns are often omitted in Burmese. We have translated the words and expressions as directly as possible, though we have sometimes had to make minor changes in the sequence of the words for the wording to make sense and have the exact same meaning in English. Furthermore, many SPDC Army officers and Non-Commissioned Officers are semi-illiterate so they write with terrible grammar and frequent mistakes. Where necessary, we have added notes in italics in square brackets for clarification, but all other text is as it appears in the orders. In Burmese, numerals are usually written in parentheses; in the translations these have been omitted in most cases where they would not be used in English. As in the originals, all numeric dates are shown in dd/mm/yy or dd/mm format. Some orders use Burmese dates: the year 1361 is the period from April 1999-April 2000, the months begin at each new moon and are divided into the moon’s ‘waxing’ and ‘waning’ phases. We have noted the equivalent Gregorian calendar date where it is not already specified. Village names, people’s names, Army camp names and some other details have been replaced with ‘xxxx’, ‘yyyy’, ‘aaaa’, ‘bbbb’, etc. where necessary to protect villages from retaliation. These different letter combinations are sometimes used to distinguish between several people or villages being referred to within the same order.
Most orders are addressed to the ‘Chairperson’, which is the SPDC-appointed Chairperson of the village PDC, while other orders are addressed to the ‘Village Head’ or ‘Headman’, who is head of the village elders; these are usually the same person, and often it is actually a woman because the villagers feel that women, particularly elderly women, will be detained and tortured less often than a male headman would be. Some of the orders address the village headwoman colloquially as‘Mother’. At the village level, the ‘Chairperson’ is usually victimised by the local military; however, at the village tract and township levels the ‘Chairperson’ is often a corrupt SPDC appointee who works closely with the local military. For example, there are many orders below sent from the Village Tract Chairmen of some of the village tracts in Papun and Toungoo districts, passing on the Army’s demands for forced labour to the village Chairmen at the lower levels.
Many orders call for ‘loh ah pay’, a Burmese term referring to a traditional practice of contributing one’s labour for small village or temple projects in order to earn Buddhist merit; however, the labour demanded in these orders is forced under threat and is not actually ‘loh ah pay’ at all. Rather than translate this misuse of the term, we have left it intact where it occurs in the orders. The term ‘wontan’ also appears frequently; we have translated this literally as‘servant’, and it is used by the SPDC to refer to porters and other forced labourers. ‘Operation servants’ are forced labour porters for frontline operations. Many of the orders demand that the village head ‘bring information’ or ‘report information’ to the Army camp; this is a summons for the village head to report intelligence on opposition movements near the village, any visitors to the village, and all activities of the villagers. Reference is made to ‘servants’ fees’, also known as ‘porter fees’; these are the routine extortion fees which villagers must pay to all Army battalions in their area. The texts of the orders often refer to the addressee using a polite term which directly translates as ‘Gentleman’, or ‘in Gentleman’s village’. People’s names are often prefixed with honorifics such as ‘Saw’, ‘Pa’, ‘U’, or ‘Maung’ for men, and ‘Naw’, ‘Daw’, or ‘Ma’ for women. Many orders contain phrases like "if you fail it is your responsibility" or "we will not take any responsibility for your village"; these are threats that village elders will be arrested and detained under torture or houses will be looted and/or burned for failure to comply with the order. Some Battalions in the orders call themselves ‘Frontline’ battalions, indicating that they operate in conflict areas. They also refer to the ‘Tactical Command’, also known as ‘Strategic Command’, a field operations command which usually controls 3 full Infantry or Light Infantry Battalions from a headquarters in the region.
Restrictions on Activity and Movement
SPDC Army units try to control every aspect of the daily life of villagers, and to this end they regularly issue orders restricting all of the villagers’ regular activities and movements. In many areas villagers are under a tight curfew, only allowed to be outside their villages from sunrise to sundown and not allowed to sleep in their farmfield huts, which makes it extremely difficult for them to produce a successful crop, particularly if their fields are far from the village. Where travel between villages is allowed at night, villagers are not allowed to use flashlights but must use firebrands (burning sticks) to light their way; the SPDC views flashlights as ‘tools of rebels’ which allow a person to travel through the dark without being spotted by their soldiers. In theory, these restrictions are intended to prevent the villagers from being able to contact opposition forces, but in practice they go far beyond this and are used as a form of psychological intimidation and subjugation. They are also used to ban villagers from trading in goods independently of the monopolies set up by local military officers. Villagers are told that if they violate these restrictions or if they run from SPDC soldiers (which they often do in fear of being grabbed for forced labour), they will be shot with no questions asked. Many are in fact shot for such violations, as can be seen from interviews published in other KHRG reports. In the most cynical document included below (Order #4), a village headwoman was forced to thumbprint and sign, with witnesses, a prepared document stating that her village would gladly accept ‘whatever’ punishment is decided upon by the authorities if her village fails to report intelligence or to obey restrictions on their activities. In effect, they are forcing her to sign an acceptance of her own arrest, torture or execution, or the burning or forced relocation of her village.
Some of the orders included below are ironic because they restrict the production of alcohol and gambling in the villages, while at the same time SPDC soldiers constantly demand alcohol from villagers (as can be seen below under ‘Extortion of Food, Money and Materials’) and force village elders to sell tickets in the Army’s own illicit lotteries. Such orders can be seen as a cynical method of control, forcing villagers to do something while at the same time declaring that activity illegal so that they will always feel at the mercy of the military. Army units also force villages to regularly provide ‘registration lists’ of their population, livestock, tools and belongings, which are used to calculate demands for forced labour, meat, extortion money, etc.
Some of the orders below demand to know the names of anyone in the village who possess firearms. SPDC authorities forbid villagers from possessing any but the most primitive flintlock firearms, which they use for hunting and to protect their crops from pests. At the same time, SPDC Army units often threaten to punish the village if a gunshot is heard anywhere in the area. Once they obtain the list of those who possess firearms, these are likely to be the first villagers arrested, tortured and accused of being rebels whenever a shot is heard nearby.
Order #1
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Column x Headquarters
Column x Headquarters Letter Number: xxx / Col. x / Oo 1
Date: 1999 September 23
To:
Village Head
xxxx village
Subject: To inform all villagers who live in the villages
1) We the Army Column are searching out and fighting the Nga Pway ['ringworms', derogatory SPDC slang for KNU/KNLA] in the jungle, in the mountains, in the rivers and the valleys by day and night. We the Army have mistakenly shot the villagers.
2) We the Army do not want to shoot innocent villagers. We inform the villagers as follows so that this will not occur again:
- Do not hunt or beat the bush [to flush out game] with guns in the jungle.
- Do not run away when you see the Army. If you run away we will consider you to be Nga Pway and you will be shot.
- Do not go from one village to another at night. If it is an emergency matter, go along the path using a lamp or firebrand. Do not use a flashlight. If the lamp suddenly goes dark, you must continue on by singing a song.
3) We inform you that action will be taken against villagers and villages who do not follow the above.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
Column x Headquarters
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #2
Stamp: To: 21-9-99
Frontline # xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Company #x xxxx village
Subject: Report any unusual information every day
- Regarding the above subject, to provide all unusual information from the village, report one piece of information every day.
- When [you] send the information, [you] also have to report the occupations, movements, and activities of the people in the village.
- [We] have heard the sound of percussion-lock firearms ['too mee thay nat'] around xxxxvillage. [You] haven't sent information to our army camp about these gunshots.
- If we hear the sound of percussion-lock firearms shooting again, [we] will shoot with a big one [mortar or artillery] from our camp, the Chairperson must know in advance.
- [You] must send one piece of information every day to our army camp. Don't report that there is nothing (unusual), you are hereby informed.
Note: Chairperson,
-
- The meaning of 'information' is unusual information about the rebels or social obligations, activities, health and the movement of guests. [You] must send information every day.
- On 22-9-99, the 35 houses in xxxx village must send 35 bundles of firewood to yyyyvillage, under the Church.
- Send 1 bottle of honey to arrive on 25-9-99.
- When the Chairperson from yyyy village comes, [you] must come to report to our Camp.[We] arrived at the Chairperson's village on 21-9-99 but [you] didn't come to meet with us. From now on don't be like that.
[Sd.] 21-9-99
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
['Unusual information' means intelligence about opposition military movements. As specified in Note #1, the Army is also demanding information about any and all activities of the villagers, including a daily report of all guests, visitors and people passing through the village, who are often arrested by the military and tortured for information on the opposition. The percussion-lock firearms are simple homemade shotguns which are the only thing the villagers are allowed to use for hunting.]
Order #3
Stamp: To:
Frontline # xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
In xxxx Village Tract, do not give paddy, rice or set kyay ngwe [protection money] to the enemy.[We] will burn and relocate the villages who give these. [We] will decree them to be hard core[enemies]. Call one person from each house and explain this [to them].
[Stamped:] Column Commander
# xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #4
Pledge
1. My name is Daw [Mrs.] xxxx . Village: xxxx village , one of the elders. For the collection[transport] of [Army] rations along the xxxx / yyyy bullock-cart path, to provide security, women / men villagers from my village must send information on time and quickly (to xxxx camp) about everything unusual we see along the path from mile numbers 35 to 36; and will do sentry duty for the whole area to obey the order.
2. If I don't report unusual information from my area, in the event that soldiers or civilians are [subsequently] killed, injured, or rations are lost, my village will take responsibility and in accordance with whatever is decided by the persons in authority [we] will reimburse [pay compensation] and accept any punishment with full satisfaction [without complaint], I sign this pledge below.
[Thumbprint] [Thumbprint]
Witnesses: Pledge Giver:
Name: Daw yyyy Signature: X
Place: xxxx Name: Daw xxxx
Signature: X Place: xxxx village
Occupation: Village Head
--------------
Name: [blank]
Place: [blank]
Signature: [blank]
--------------
Name: [blank]
Place: [blank]
Signature: [blank]
[This is a document prepared by the Army which a village headwoman was forced to thumbprint and sign with another village elder as witness.]
Order #5
19/7/99
To [blank]
I am writing this letter to inform the Chairperson from xxxx [village]. The Dee Kay Bee Ay [DKBA]troops who stay in Hla Gone town [said that] if you take down wooden rafts or bamboo rafts, you must let them know first before you take them down, even for buffaloes and cattle. If you do not inform them, they will not take the responsibility when you arrive in Bilin [town] and get arrested.
(for) U xxxx
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
yyyy village, Papun Township
Order #6
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx [camp]
Ref. #: xxx / 10 / Oo 1
Date: 1999 January 2nd
To: Frontline #yyy Infantry Battalion
yyyy [camp]
Subject: To release villagers' families from xxxx village tract who do shifting paddy cultivation
1) It is learnt that while clearing the western part of yyyy village tract, Frontline #yyyInfantry Battalion Column #x arrested a total of 26 women and children from families of xxxxvillage who are working and staying in farming huts. They have now become yyyy village family members.
2) Now their husbands and family members are reporting to the Army Camp at xxxx village that they have failed to arrive back yet.
3) Those arrested women and children are temporarily living in the fields for their shifting cultivation and they are legally registered in xxxx and yyyy village tracts. Moreover, they have served dutifully the troops under Na Ta Ka [Southwestern Regional Command] control region of our Army.
[page 2 of original begins here]
4) Therefore, to release the 26 family members I am sending this letter with 2 people from the Village Peace & Development Council, xxxx village tract, where they were previously registered.
(a) U aaaa N.I.C. # [blank]
(b) U bbbb [names of the 2 villagers bringing the letter; NIC= National Identity Card]
[Sd. / 2-1-99]
Battalion Commander
# xxx Infantry Battalion
(for) Temporary Battalion Commander
20-1-99 - and the money 200 Kyat [different handwriting, related to money paid to the Army]
21-1-99 - " 500
22-1-99 - " 500
[This letter was sent from one Army unit to another, to inform them that the 26 women and children arrested while working their fields and detained by IB #yyy are legitimate villagers from the garrison village of IB #xxx, and should therefore be released. This letter gives an indication of the risk villagers face every time they try to work fields far from their village, even when they are women and children who obviously have no connection to the opposition. In many cases the soldiers arrest and detain them simply to obtain ransom money. The note at the bottom is not part of the original letter, but is a village head's notes on money he/she later had to pay to the Army.]
Order #7
To: Chairperson
Secretary
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village Date:23-4-99
Subject: Prohibition to prevent the distilling and selling of alcohol
Regarding the above subject, in Gentleman's [your] village do not distill alcohol secretly and sell it. If [we] discover and capture [you], serious action will be taken in accordance with the law. The village must inform [us] by making a register of the names, ages, and fathers' names of those who have recently distilled alcohol and send it now as soon as [you] receive this letter, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Frontline # xxx Infantry Battalion
Copies to:
xxxx Army Camp
Frontline # xxx Infantry Battalion
[This order is ironic given that one of the things most frequently demanded from villagers by SPDC troops is alcohol. Note also that home-distilled or fermented alcohol plays a central part in the rituals of the Animist Karen minority, and without the alcohol they cannot properly make offerings to the spirits.]
Order #8
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
[illegible]
Subject: Proclaiming the order of prohibition
1) Beginning from 18-1-99, all villages in the control area of #xxx Light Infantry Battalion,xxxx mobile column, are prohibited from having any illegal lottery, gambling or Cher Htee [Thai lottery] except for the Aung Ba Lay Thein Htee [official SPDC-run lottery] acknowledged and announced by the Government.
2) In the period after the start of this ban, if we find anyone gambling or obtain reports of gambling serious action will be taken.
3) Therefore, to stop gambling in your village, find out evidence using various means and take action, you are hereby informed.
Date: 17-1-99 [Sd.]
Ref. No.: 1000 / 1 / xxxx Mobile Column
Column Commander
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Majorxxxx
Order #9
Stamp:
Village Peace & Development Council
Papun Township
xxxx village
To: All Village Chairpersons
aaaa, bbbb, cccc, dddd,
eeee, ffff, and gggg villages
Subject: Sending an announcement letter
1) Regarding the above subject, at one of the sugar cane plantations in xxxx village, buffaloes and cattle have entered many times at night to eat and destroy it. [We] have arrested these buffaloes and have fined the owners of the buffaloes and cattle.
2) When [we] fined the owners of the buffaloes and cattle, [they] gave [the fines]. But for one of the newborn buffaloes, no owner appeared so [we] are detaining and caring for it in xxxxvillage. Chairpersons from the relevant villages, inform and announce this to all the people in your villages, that if your villagers have lost any buffaloes they should come and look, and pay to retrieve [them].
3) When [they] come to retrieve, if they can describe the buffalo exactly we will decree that they are the true owner of the buffalo.
4) When the owner of the buffalo comes to retrieve the buffalo, [he/she] will have to pay the price of the sugar cane which was destroyed by the buffalo and the daily wages for those who have taken care of it.
5) [We] first captured and started to take care of this buffalo on 28-2-99. Until now [we]haven't seen any of the owners. Chairpersons of the relevant villages, regarding this buffalo, if the owner stays in your village come to retrieve it.
[page 2]
Regarding this announcement, [we] will wait from 7-3-99 until 22-3-99.
6) If the announced period is over and the owner hasn't come, [we] will decree that this buffalo has no owner. Once it becomes ownerless, no one can come to protest regarding this buffalo, we are letting the Chairpersons of the relevant villages know, you are informed.
Date: 7-3-99
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village, Papun Township
[This is a 2-page carbon-copied order sent to several villages. This is a regular tactic used by SPDC authorities and Army units, who use villagers' land for their own plantations and then when villagers' animals wander into the plantations the troops capture the animals and either kill them or heavily fine the owners, to the extent that the owners are afraid to reclaim their livestock. The fines decreed are usually much more than the destruction, if any, which was caused. However, as this order comes from a Village-level authority and was sent to the heads of all surrounding villages, it may or may not be influenced by the local military authorities; note however that the issuing village has an SPDC Army base in it.]
Order #10
To: Chairperson / Secretary 3-3-99
(xxxx [village])
Subject: To compile and send the register of cattle which carry goods in the village
Regarding the above subject, send the register of cattle which carry goods and other cattle in the village to the Camp. Keep to the specified deadline of 4-4-99, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
[These registers are used to demand cattle for hauling labour, to extort meat from villagers, and to determine village wealth for cash extortion purposes. One of the dates is most likely wrong; either it was sent on 3-4-99 and due on 4-4-99, or sent on 3-3-99 and due on 4-3-99.]
Order #11
Stamp: Date: 6-3-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Company #x To: Chairperson / Secretary
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, come without fail to xxxx camp on 7-3-99 at 10 o'clock in the morning, you are informed. Bring the register of those in the village who use percussion-lock firearms ['too mee thay nat'].
[The meeting] Will be held tomorrow at 10 o'clock.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
xxxx [officer's name]
Order #12
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion xxxx camp
Column x Headquarters Letter #: 01 / 5 / 100 / Oo 1
Date: 1999 January 29th
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: Compile a register of houses, population, and bullock carts in the village
Regarding the above subject, from the Gentleman's [your] village record the number of houses, population, register of [villagers'] names, and number of bullock carts ([with] names of the owners) and send it to arrive at xxxx Army Camp on 31-1-99 at 8 o'clock in the morning. Send [it]without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
xxxx Army Camp
Order #13
To:
Chairperson
xxxx Village Date: 23-11-98
Subject : Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, #xxx Infantry Battalion's xxxx Camp Commander and Chairpersons of villages plan to hold a meeting, so come without fail according to the timetable below. If someone fails [to come] it will be their own responsibility (effective action will be taken). Chairpersons who come to attend the meeting should bring with them the list of village families, population list, occupations [list], and list of people living in their fields.
Meeting Time: 1998 November 25th, 12 o'clock
Place: xxxx Camp
[This order is unsigned. The lists are for use in controlling the movements of villagers and transients, and for calculating demands for extortion and forced labour.]
Order #14
Stamp: 28-10-98
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract
To: New and old Chairpersons and Secretary
Saw aaaa, Saw bbbb, Saw cccc
xxxx [village]
Subject: To change from the old to the new Chairperson
Chairpersons and Secretary, regarding the matter of confirming the new Chairperson, the new and old Chairpersons and the Secretary, all three of [you], come to meet with the Column Commander and the Camp Commander on 29-10-98, Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock, you are informed. When you come, bring the register that [I] already gave [you], with the signatures of a witness and people who are changing [old and new Chairpersons], you are informed. Regarding the matter of coming to meet with the Column Commander, do not come with nothing [i.e. do not come empty-handed, without a gift]. Come without fail, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.] 28-10-98
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Towship
[All changes in village heads must be approved by the local military authorities, who often demand a village head of their own choosing.]
Permits and Passes
This section includes documents issued to villagers by SPDC authorities and military units as a means of controlling their movements and activities. Villagers caught without such documents face summary detention and torture, being taken as porters for indefinite periods, or possibly an accusation of being a ‘rebel’ followed by summary execution. Villagers can do nothing without a pass issued by the military, or by the Village or Village Tract Peace & Development Council which have been authorised by the military. If a villager carrying a pass issued by his/her Village Peace & Development Council is subsequently arrested and accused by the military, the village authorities who issued the pass will also be arrested; because of this, the military can feel confident that the village heads are too afraid to issue passes to anyone who may be subject to military suspicion. As an added burden, villagers are often forced to pay for these passes.
The first document below is a standard family registration list, which must be held by every family for presentation to military authorities whenever requested. The information in this list is used to allocate forced labour and extortion demands, and also to check for any visitors or strangers in the village who can be arrested and accused as ‘rebels’. The other documents are standard passes to travel from one village to another, to work the farmfields, to carry rice to or from the village, to buy or sell livestock, and to possess a primitive flintlock firearm. In many areas villagers are forbidden to spend the night at their fields in order to make it impossible for them to have any contact with opposition forces. However, this makes it impossible for villagers whose fields are a long distance from the village, so in some cases they can obtain passes to sleep one or more nights at their fields, such as those included below. Note that the passes specify exactly where they are allowed to stay and how much rice they are allowed to take with them; this is supposedly to prevent them taking food to the opposition troops. They are usually allowed to take much less food than is required even to feed themselves for the duration of the pass. The same logic applies to the passes which must be obtained to carry rice or other goods to or from the village, and the passes to buy or sell livestock. The military uses every restriction possible in its attempt to cut off all contact between the villagers and the opposition, and to block any food supplies from reaching the opposition.
Order #15
Register of family population
# Name Age Father's Sex Relation Occupation Village
name
1 U aaaa 50 U kkkk M [Family] Head Farmer xxxx
2 Daw bbbb 48 U mmmm F Wife Farmer "
3 Naw cccc 24 U aaaa F Daughter Farmer "
4 Maung dddd 22 U nnnn M Son-in-law Farmer "
5 Naw eeee 22 U aaaa F Daughter Farmer "
6 Saw ffff 17 " M Son Farmer "
7 Saw gggg 17 " M Son Farmer "
8 Pa hhhh 7 " M Son Student "
9 Naw iiii 1 Maung dddd F Grandchild "
10 Pa jjjj 11 Pa pppp M Nephew Student yyyy
Family population: Male (6) persons
Female (4) persons
Total (10) persons
Stamp: Stamp:
Village Law & Order Restoration Council #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
4-8-97 11-8-97
xxxx village, Papun Township Column #x
[Sd.] 11/8/97
(for) Frontline LIB #xxx
Daw xxxx
(for) Chairperson
Village Law & Order Restoration Council
xxxx village, Papun Township
[This is a family registration document which each family must have in their possession. If soldiers find anyone in their house who is not listed in the document, the unlisted person(s) are arrested and tortured as suspected oppositionists or taken as porters, and in some cases the whole family may be arrested or taken for labour.
Order #16
Recommendation Pass for Travelling
Name _________________________________
Age _________________________________
Father's Name _________________________________
Occupation _________________________________
Religion _________________________________
Address _________________________________
Destination _________________________________
Purpose _________________________________
Dates permitted _________________________________
Subject: The village chairperson recommends that those ( ) persons mentioned above are honest.
Village Head
Chairperson
[Sd. "Dawxxxx"]
xxxx [village]
xxxx region
[This is a blank form filled in for use as a standard travel pass by the village authorities.]
Order #17
Recommendation
Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract Peace & Development Council
Than Daung Township
From xxxx village, Naw aaaa , father's name U bbbb , age ( 20 ) years, is permitted to go to yyyy village , the surrounding hill fields, cardamom gardens and betelnut gardens, from 23/8/99 to 28/8/99. Naw aaaa is permitted to take with her ([blank]) milk-tins of rice and ([blank]) packets of [cooked] rice to eat.
Name Naw aaaa is permitted only for the day / to sleep overnight.
Place to sleep overnight: ( yyyy village, near the peanut plantation )
[Sd.] xxxx
(for) Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This is a typical permit which villagers in the area must obtain simply to go to their fields during the day. In this case the villager is being allowed to stay several nights in her fields before returning to the village. The document is a typed and copied form letter with the personal details written in.]
Order #18
Recommendation
Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract Peace & Development Council
Than Daung Township
From xxxx village, Saw cccc , father's name U dddd , age ( [blank] ) years, is permitted to go to yyyy village plantation , the surrounding hill fields, cardamom gardens and betelnut gardens, from 5/7/99 to 12/7/99. Saw cccc is permitted to take with him ( 12 ) milk-tins of rice and ( [blank] ) packets of [cooked] rice to eat.
Name Saw cccc is permitted only for the day / to sleep overnight.
Place to sleep overnight: ( yyyy village, near the plantation )
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This is a typical permit which villagers in the area must obtain simply to go to their fields during the day. In this case the villager is being allowed to stay several nights in his fields before returning to the village. The document is a typed and copied form letter with the personal details written in. Note that though the pass is supposedly for one week, the villager here is only allowed to take 12 milk-tins of uncooked rice with him - enough for 6 meals at the most.]
Order #19
Recommendation letter to buy and carry
Stamp: To: IB #xxx
[illegible] La Ka Ya [military training]school
xxxx Village Tract Frontline IB #yyy
xxxx Camp
yyyyCamp Date: 9-6-99
Subject: Permission to buy and carry rice
Regarding the above subject, the villagers in the list below from xxxx village, xxxxVillage Tract, are permitted to buy and carry rice for their food. They are truly recommended [i.e. they are guaranteed as honest villagers].
(1) Saw aaaa Rice (2) sacks
(2) Saw bbbb Rice (2) sacks
(3) Saw cccc Rice (2) sacks
(4) Saw dddd Rice (2) sacks
(5) Saw eeee Rice (2) sacks
(6) Naw ffff Rice (1) sack
[Sd.] 8-6-99 [Sd.]8-6-99
Chairperson Camp Commander
Village Tract Peace & Development Council xxxx Camp
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This is a typical pass letter which villagers must obtain from the authorities before they can buy or transport commodities between villages.]
Order #20
Recommendation
Stamp:
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract
Saw aaaa, who lives in yyyy village, xxxx Village Tract, is hereby truly permitted to watch his plantation land using a percussion-lock firearm ['too mee thay nat'].
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[Written on the back:]
Total Expenses
Captain xxxx 5,000 Kyat
Cost of buying things for the Column Commander
when [he] stayed in xxxx 4,500 Kyat
Making copies of recommendation papers 2,000 Kyat
When the Column came 4,000 Kyat
Each village the first time 1,000 Kyat
Recommendation papers 2,000 Kyat
Eating Expense 850 Kyat
The third time 800 Kyat
4,650 Kyat
Total expenses 4,650 Kyat
Had to give the price for one sack of rice
to the xxxx in charge of rations 3,500 Kyat
Total 8,150 Kyat
[The front of this order is a permission letter for a villager to carry a simple flintlock shotgun, and on the back a village elder has compiled some of the expenses which the village has incurred in meeting the demands of the local SPDC forces. 'Recommendation papers' are the travel passes which villagers have to obtain from village heads in order to go outside the village.]
Order #21
Stamp:
Village Peace & Development Council
Date: 19-5-99
Papun Township
xxxx Village
Permission letter to travel
Name: U aaaa
Age: 53 years old
Father's name: U bbbb
Address: xxxx [village]
Destination: yyyy village
Purpose: To go and pick up the [woman]schoolteacher
The above mentioned U aaaa is truly a villager from xxxx and is permitted to travel, we hereby recommend.
(for) xxxx
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village, Papun Township
[Villagers need letters like these every time they travel from village to village or they face arrest, detention and possible torture or being taken as a porter.]
Order #22
To: IB #xxx Date: 16/2/99
Frontline IB #yyy
xxxx camp
yyyy camp
Subject: To buy a cow
Regarding the above subject, for their food, the villagers below from xxxx village will truly buy and transport a cow, they are hereby verified.
1. U aaaa, 2 female cows
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
Frontline IB #xxx
[This is a pass letter permitting a villager to go and buy 2 cattle.]
Order #23
Recommendation Stamp:
Frontline #xxxInfantry Battalion
#xCompany
Name: U aaaa
Father's Name: U bbbb
Age: 53 years
Address: xxxx village, yyyy village tract,
Papun Township
We recommend the above as a true xxxx villager.
[Sd. / 6/10/98]
(for) Company Commander
#xCompany
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[This document is issued as a travel pass to move between villages. Villagers risk arrest if they go anywhere without such a pass.]
Order #24
Stamp:
Peace & Development Council Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract xxxx Village Tract - Papun Township
Letter No. x / Ya Ya Ta (xxxx)
Date: 1998 August 18th
Recommendation
For the villagers' sustenance, for village head Daw aaaa's and the villagers' sustenance, the daughter of bbbb who stays in xxxx village will truly carry 10 sacks of rice from yyyyto xxxx village. [We] give permission to carry it.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Papun Township
[One sack of rice weighs 50 kilograms, so this does not mean that the villager will literally carry them but that she has bought rice to transport to her village, and this letter has been issued as a permit to transport the rice to her village. Normally villagers are not allowed to take rice into the hills because SPDC forces believe it will be used to feed Karen troops.]
Order #25
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters (18-5-98)
Already sent the information
According to the register of the village population, [the bearer] is truly a villager fromxxxx village. From 19-5-98 to 29-5-98 travel is permitted from xxxx village to yyyyvillage, you are hereby recommended.
[Sd.]18-5-98
[This document is a travel pass, typical of those required by villagers to travel outside their villages.]
Forced Labour
The most systematic and burdensome abuse inflicted on villagers by SPDC military units and authorities is forced labour, and the orders included below give some impression of the constant stream of demands for all kinds of labour which villages have to face. They include demands for one person per family to go for forced unpaid road labour, various numbers of villagers to go as porters carrying munitions and supplies for mobile military columns, forced labour building and maintaining Army camps, carrying Army rations and supplies, acting as unarmed sentries, military messengers and general servants at Army camps, and various other forms of labour. We have also included orders which demand bullock carts and boats for use by the Army, because such orders implicitly force the owner to go along and do forced labour driving his/her bullock team or boat. Orders for villagers to do forced labour as sentries and for village elders to ‘report information’ to the Army, which are also forms of forced labour, are included in the next section entitled "Orders to Provide Military Support". Note that many of these orders demanding forced labour were issued well after May 14, 1999, which is when the SPDC leadership claims to have issued a general order to all of their military and administrative units to halt conscription of forced labour under the ‘Villages Act' and the 'Towns Act’. In practice, the military and SPDC authorities almost never even make reference to these Acts when demanding forced labour from villages.
Most of the orders are addressed to the village head, who must then decide which villagers must go to fill the quota demanded by the Army. A rotating system between the families of the village is generally used to do this, in order to spread the burden as evenly as possible. However, with so many different forms of forced labour being constantly demanded by every Army unit and SPDC authority in the area, families find that they must send someone for forced labour at least once every week or two. Some of the demands are on an ad hoc basis, such as orders to spend a week building a road or a day fencing an Army camp, while other orders demand ‘servants’ on a ‘rotating’ basis, which means that the village must provide a certain number of forced labourers on a rotation of a few days to a week. The villagers must take along their own food and stay at the Army camp for their rotation, doing labour as messengers, sentries, building and maintaining buildings, bunkers, trenches and fences, clearing scrub, cutting and hauling firewood, hauling water, short-distance portering and any other duties demanded of them. They are usually not released until their replacements arrive; hence some of the orders below in which Army officers write things such as "Send the replacements for the 5 servants because they have been here for 7 days already." Some orders specifically demand men or that no children be sent (see Orders #59 and #101), but most orders leave this up to the villagers. Women often go because the men do not dare face the soldiers (see for reference Order #35), and children often go so that their parents can continue to work in the fields. Order #106 specifically demands that ‘all those aged above 12 years … including women’ go to the camp the following day for forced labour. Many of the orders demand that the village elders personally accompany the labourers from their village to the camp (using language such as ‘Gentlemen, come yourselves to bring them’); this is so that on arrival the officers can interrogate the elders for intelligence on opposition movements and the activities of villagers, and so that the elders can be put to supervising the forced labour of their villagers.
It is difficult for villagers to go for all of this forced labour, so they are often delinquent in complying with the orders. Usually the Army responds by sending threatening and angry letters, often written in red ink, until after the third letter the village has little option but to comply or face the possibility of very serious punishment which usually includes the arrest and torture of village elders. None of the labour mentioned in the orders below is undertaken voluntarily, but always under the direct or implied threat that the village elders or villagers will face serious punishments for any failure to comply. Some of the orders below warn that any failure to comply will be punished, while others mete out specific punishments to villagers who do not perform, demand fines or replacement labourers from the villages, and demand the names of any villagers who have failed to appear or have run away from forced labour (see for example Orders #28, 29, 32, 107 and113). Order #118 threatens that the village will be forcibly relocated to an Army-controlled site if it fails to complete the assigned forced labour clearing a roadside, while Order #107 warns that the Army will shell the village if the village head does not bring 5 villagers for forced labour. The military authorities usually refer to the work and the labourers themselves as ‘loh ah pay’, a Burmese term referring to a traditional practice of contributing one’s labour for small village or temple projects in order to earn Buddhist merit; however, the labour referred to in these orders has no connection whatever to the type of work meant by ‘loh ah pay’. Rather than translate this misuse of ‘loh ah pay’, we have left it intact where it occurs in the orders. One type of forced labour is called ‘set tha’, which essentially means forced labour as military messengers, general servants, errand-runners and occasional sentries at Army camps. It is important to note that not only do these orders demand forced labour, but after being written by an Army official they are almost always delivered to the villages by civilians doing ‘set tha’ forced labour as messengers. Many of the orders also refer to forced labourers as ‘servants’ (‘wontan’), ‘loh ah pay servants’, or occasionally ‘operations servants’, which means frontline porters.
Some of the orders included below demand payment of fees in lieu of forced labour. These can take various forms. In the most common form, the villagers simply cannot do all the forced labour demanded of them and still produce a crop to survive, so they hire someone to go in their place or pay a ‘fee’ which is essentially a bribe to the military in lieu of going. This is sometimes disguised under the wording of ‘paying the Army to hire labourers’, but in fact the Army simply pockets the money and demands others to do forced labour instead. In some cases the military demands far more labour than is actually required because they are actually seeking payment rather than labourers. Another form of forced labour fees is shown inOrders #127 and #128. These orders have been issued by the head of a Village Tract Peace & Development Council who is working closely with the military in the area. In this area, the military gives orders to the Village Tract telling them how many forced labourers they want from the villages. The Village Tract authorities know that the villages cannot provide the labour, so they hire itinerant labourers through agents in town to fill the military’s quota. They then divide the burden of forced labourers between the villages in the village tract based on the size (number of households) of each village, and send out an order for each village to reimburse them for the hiring price at a rate of 4,000 Kyat (or in some cases 4,250 Kyat) per forced labourer. Essentially this is the most indirect form of forced labour, where each village must gather money from each family, which is then used to pay the village tract authorities to hire labourers to meet the military’s demands. In most regions the forced labour works on a more direct basis, and even in this particular region this system does not prevent the military from issuing ad hoc demands for forced labour directly to the villages on a regular basis.
The orders below have been divided into 3 categories: general forced labour, forced labour on infrastructure, and forced labour fees. ‘General Forced Labour’ mainly includes rotating and ad hoc labour at Army camps, portering, forced labour as messengers, servants, etc. Many of these orders do not specify the exact nature of the forced labour, so some of these actually relate to infrastructure. Orders under ‘Forced Labour on Infrastructure’ include those for building and rebuilding roads and bridges, and several orders forcing villages to clear the scrub along roadsides to create a ‘killing ground’ which makes it harder for opposition troops to ambush SPDC columns and convoys, and also makes it harder for opposition troops to move across the roads. Orders under ‘Forced Labour Fees’ directly relate to the collection of money from villages in lieu of forced labour. Note that other sections of this report also include orders which either directly or indirectly entail forced labour, particularly the sections "Orders to Provide Military Support" and"Extortion of Food, Money and Materials".
A) General Forced Labour
Order #26
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Company #x
[I am] Writing this letter. To carry the rations tomorrow, send 10 people from Chairperson's village to me. Do not be late. Arrive at 5 o'clock in the morning. I will be waiting.
P.S. Reply when [you] receive this letter. Yours,
[Sd.] 15/11[/99]
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
[The 'rations' are Army rations which are usually dropped at the roadheads by military convoys once every month or two; entire villages are then ordered to carry the rations from the roadheads to Army camps and outposts throughout the region.]
Order #27
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
To:
Chairperson, send without fail 10 male loh ah pay servants on 8-10-99 to xxxx. (Chairperson or Secretary must come to bring them.) Come and arrive on the 9th at 12 o'clock noon.
[Sd.] Captain, 8/10/99
(for) Column Commander
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #28
Stamp: To: 13-9-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Company #x xxxx village
Subject: [We] already ordered the following things from the Chairperson of the village
- [We] already ordered you to send a messenger (every day) but [you] have failed, so the fine is 1,000 Kyat.
- [We] will order you again on the day when [you] must send a messenger.
- Take the census of every house and send the combined registers to the camp to arrive on 14-9-99.
- Report the list of overnight guests. If [you] don't report it, [you] will be fined 500 Kyat.
- If [we] call for loh ah pay, [you] have to come on time.
- [You] have to come to the camp and sign to get permission to transport rice.
- On Tuesdays and Fridays, those who will go to the market must come first to the camp to get permission.
Regarding the above subjects, [we] already gave orders to the Chairperson, so if [you] don't obey, serious action will be taken.
[Sd.] 13-9-99
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[Villages are supposed to send 'messengers' on a daily rotation to do errands at the Army camp. The house registers which are requested are used to determine rates of extortion and demands for 'loh ah pay' forced labourers. In Burma, all overnight guests must be registered with the authorities or the host and their whole family risk being arrested. The final two items refer to the permission which villagers must obtain to transport rice into or out of their village, go to market or go anywhere at all. All of these demands are routine and typical, though it is rare to see them expressed so clearly all in one document.]
Order #29
Stamp: 22-9-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Company #x
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: Collecting firewood in the village / Chairperson come to meet
1. Regarding the above subject, from our camp [we've told you to] collect one bundle of firewood, but as of today [it] hasn't arrived yet.
2. On 21-9-99 [I] sent a letter but [you] didn't reply at once. Send a messenger every day on time.
3. Whether the Chairperson is healthy or not, [you] haven't informed us. Chairperson, keep to the specified time and come today, 22-9-99, at 1200 hours.
4. If you are not well, hire a carrier and come.
5. If [you] don't come, [I] will refuse permission and prohibit the carrying of rice to xxxx village, and will prohibit the transport of market goods.
6. Carrying rice to yyyy village is permitted. Carrying to xxxx village is not permitted, you are informed.
7. Regarding the above subject, summoning [you] because [I] want to meet and discuss this. If [you] don't obey and come, you must be punished and labelled as being solidly against the nation, and serious action will be taken. Come today.
[Sd.] 22-9-99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[This is a seriously threatening letter. Firstly, if the officer forbids the transport of rice and market goods to and from the village this may bring starvation on the villagers, and the village head is additionally threatened with being labelled as a 'destructive element'. 'Carriers' and 'messengers' mean villagers to do forced labour as porters and 'set tha' messengers respectively.]
Order #30
Stamp: 14-9-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion
#( ) Company
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: Informing [you] to send the new labourers
The labourers from xxxx village have done their duty for 20 days already. Therefore we inform the Chairperson to come on 14-9-99 with the new labourers to change.
[Sd.]
(for) Company Commander
#( ) Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[This order refers to villagers doing a shift of forced labour who must be replaced before they will be released. The Company number has been left blank.]
Order #31
To: 13-9-99
Village Head, xxxx village
Subject: To send 1 servant
A servant from xxxx village ran away on 11-9-99. Informing you to send 1 servant to yyyy camp today.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
Column x Headquarters
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #32
To: Chairperson Date: 12-9-99
xxxx village
Subject: The Chairperson must come and meet with the Camp Commander
Village Chairperson, there are emergency matters to take care of, so as soon as [you] receive this letter, come quickly to meet the xxxx Camp Commander. If [you] fail, the responsibility will fall on the Chairperson, letting you know so you are hereby informed.
Chairperson, from 8-9-99 until now the messengers from the village have not come. Therefore, [send] a register of the names of the messengers who were on duty from the 8th until now, and [we] will fine these messengers.[We] will fine the messengers who were on duty 1,000 Kyat [each], letting you know so you are hereby informed.
[Sd.] 12-9-99
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
[Written in addition on the back of this order was 'Come to meet today'.]
Order #33
Stamp: 11-9-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion
#( ) Company
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: Informing you to send back the servant
1) One rotation servant from xxxx village ran away as he pleased.
2) We inform you to replace the 1 servant who ran away on 11-9-99.
[Sd. / 11/9]
Company Commander
#( ) Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #34
To: Chairperson Stamp: Date: [blank]
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labourers]
Send one person per house from Gentleman's [your] village without fail for loh ah pay on the 28th at (0600) hours to yyyy village, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Order #35
Chairperson
Subject: The matter of loh ah pay labour
Tomorrow at 6 o'clock in the morning, come without fail and arrive at the Ya Ya Ka [VPDC] office with food for 3 days. No less than 5 persons.
Note: They can be women or men.
[Sd.]
Order #36
Stamp: To:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Secretary
xxxx village
Chairperson/Secretary, bring along with you 10 persons for loh ah pay labour this evening.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
Frontline #[blank] Infantry Battalion
Order #37
Stamp:
Infantry Battalion #xxx
Company #x
To:
Chairperson
xxxx Village
As soon as you get this letter, Chairperson yourself come with a servant and report. Also, bring along 2 pyi[about 4 kg/9 lb] of rice and 1 bottle of cooking oil.
[Sd:] xxxx
[To come 'with a servant' means to bring one person from the village to do a shift of forced labour at the Army camp.]
Order #38
To:
aaaa / U bbbb [elders' names] Stamp:
xxxx Village Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
- We are releasing servant xxxx two days early. His turn is supposed to be 5 days, but his duty is finished.
- At this moment, send an elephant to carry coconut trees to build xxxx bridge.
- Send quickly ironwood 3 by 1 [3"x1" planks] and 60 feet [long].
[Sd.]
Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[The first point notifies the village elder that the villager has finished the task he has been forced to do so he is being released before the originally specified time. The second and third points also involve forced labour, because no one can control an elephant except its regular owner/mahout so this person must go (possibly losing significant income he could have made with his elephant otherwise), and the ironwood planks demanded are hard to find and very labour-intensive to saw.]
Order #39
To: Village Head 25-8-99
xxxx village
Subject: To send servants
Letting the village head or the deputy village head or village elders know to come with 5 duty servants toyyyy village, where the local Column Commander is staying today.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
Column x Headquarters
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #40
To: Chairperson
Subject: [We] need wood for building the new high school. So for loh ah pay from the villagers, your villagers have to come and carry the timber to [the site] near xxxx village. [They] have to do loh ah pay and[come] with a packet of rice each.
Gathering place: xxxx VPDC [Ya Ya Ka]
Time: Morning at 6:30 (10-8-99)
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This particular Village Tract Peace & Development Council works very closely with the local military who appointed them, so it is difficult to know whether this order really originated with the military or the PDC. This particular PDC is known for receiving orders directly from the military and passing them on to the villages.]
Order #41
Stamp: To:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairpersons Date: 13/7/99
Column #x VPDC
aaaa / bbbb / cccc /
dddd / eeee / ffff [villages]
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour] and attend a meeting
1. For the use of xxxx Army Camp, send loh ah pay labourers to arrive on 14-7-99 at 7 o'clock in the morning as listed below.
(a) aaaa village (70) persons
(b) bbbb village (20) persons
(c) cccc village (25) persons
(d) dddd village (15) persons
(e) eeee village (40) persons
(f) ffff village (15) persons
1. [sic: 2.] Therefore send the loh ah pay labourers at the specified time, and Village Chairpersons, [we]will hold a meeting on 14-7-99 at 8 o'clock in the morning, so come on time without fail, [you] are informed.
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander
Chairperson must bring 140 150 limes when you come to the meeting.
[Copies of this order were sent to all villages listed at the top.]
Order #42
To: Chairperson
xxxx village Date: 30-6-99
Subject: To send village servants for rotation
To do loh ah pay for Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion, [send] 1 servant from each village, Chairperson yourself come to bring them to xxxx Army Camp to arrive on the 4th waning day of first Wa Zoh month [1-7-99] , you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
xxxx Camp
Order #43
Stamp: To: Chairpersons
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion VPDC
Column #x aaaa / bbbb / cccc /
dddd / eeee / ffff [villages]
29/6/99
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour]
1. For use at xxxx Army Camp, send the number of loh ah pay labourers specified in the list below to the army camp, to arrive on 30-6-99 at 7 o'clock in the morning.
(a) aaaa village (70) persons
(b) bbbb village (20) persons
(c) cccc village (20) persons
(d) dddd village (40) persons
(e) eeee village (30) persons
(f) ffff village (10) persons
2. Therefore, send the loh ah pay labourers on time according to the quantity specified, you are informed.
3. To hold a meeting for the village chairpersons, come to the army camp to arrive on 30-6-99 at 10 o'clock, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander
(xxxx Army Camp)
Order #44
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Frontline Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Informing [you] to come and bring servants
When Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion was patrolling for regional control and security, when we stopped in yyyy village we had a problem with servants. Chairperson yourself come to send 5 loh ah pay servants fromxxxx village with rations for 3 days to arrive today at yyyy village, intelligence department, you are informed.
Date: 25/6/99 [Sd.]
Place: yyyy village (for) Regional Battalion Commander
['We had a problem with servants' means that they could not round up enough villagers as porters for their patrol or forced labourers to take back to the Army camp.]
Order #45
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
#x Column VPDC
xxxx [village] 25/6/99
Subject: To send a motorised longtail boat
If you gentlemen have Daw xxxx's motorised longtail boat, the Army needs to use it. When you get this letter, just send it.
[Sd.]
At Tat xxxx
[This order carries the implicit demand that the boat owner/driver go along to drive the boat.]
Order #46
To: Chairperson, Secretary 24-6-99
Subject: To buy and carry rice
Regarding the above subject, 15 loh ah pay servants from Chairperson's village must come to xxxx village tomorrow at 7 o'clock. [You] must report information to the Camp. [You] must give 1,500 Kyats cash to the Column for the servants' food every 15 days. Therefore, send 1,500 Kyat in cash with the servants tomorrow. [I am] writing this letter to inform you.
[Sd.] 24-6-99
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This order is written in red ink, which is interpreted by villagers as an indication of urgency and an implied threat. It is the village head who must report intelligence to the camp, while the 15 other villagers being demanded must do some form of unspecified forced labour. Such forced labourers always take along their own food because they know the Army will not feed them; the demand for regular payments for their food is probably just direct cash extortion. It also implies that this labour will be permanent and carried out on a 15-day rotation basis.]
Order #47
To:
Daw aaaa (Village Head) 17-6-99
xxxx [village]
The Column says that mother's village, xxxx, should cut wood between 28-Mile and 34-Mile. Therefore, mother should tell loh ah pay labourers from the village to report to yyyy camp.
Respectfully,
Camp Commander [Sd.]
yyyy camp
['28-Mile' and '34-Mile' refer to road or pathway milestones, so the area covers a stretch of 6 miles.]
Order #48
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairpersons
Column #x VPDC
aaaa / bbbb / cccc /
dddd / eeee / ffff [villages]
Date: 14/6/99
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour]
1. For use at xxxx Army Camp, the above villages must send loh ah pay labourers to the army camp, to arrive on 15-6-99 at (0700) hours, according to the list below.
(a) aaaa village (70) persons
(b) bbbb village (15) persons
(c) cccc village (20) persons
(d) dddd village (10) persons
(e) eeee village (40) persons
(f) ffff village (10) persons
2. When [you] send the loh ah pay labourers, they must bring plastic sheets themselves, and the loh ah paylabourers from bbbb village have to go from xxxx to yyyy camp and arrive at (0800) hours in the morning, you are informed.
[Sd.] 14/6/99
xxxx Army Camp Commander
[This was a carbon-copied order sent to many villages. The plastic sheets they must bring are to worn to protect themselves from the rain.]
Order #49
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 10-6-99
Intelligence xxxx Village
Army (Land)
Subject: Come to send information to yyyy Camp within this night
Regarding the above subject, Chairperson (or) Secretary yourselves from xxxx village must come to yyyy Camp tonight with one person to replace the guide [to replace the villager currently doing forced labour as a guide] for the Column. Bring information without fail. This is an emergency matter so bring information without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.] 10/6/99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #50
Stamp: 8-6-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Company #x
Ko aaaa,
Sending this letter right now with the villagers from xxxx village to carry rice. From the 50 sacks of rice left by Captain bbbb, give 11 sacks of rice to these villagers. [I] will ask [them] to come and carry the rest of the rice within the day. I will give them a recommendation letter together with my [this] letter when the villagers come. You check it and give them the sacks of rice. If [we] need help, [we] will ask it from Ko aaaa[you]. Right now, [we] don't need it. When [we] need, I will tell [you]. Send back this letter and the recommendation letter for the rice along with the villagers. If [you] have any problems, write a letter to me.
With friendliness,
[Sd.] 8/6/99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[This is a letter from an Army officer to a village elder. The Captain has left 50 sacks of rice at the elder's village, and this officer has now rounded up villagers to do forced labour carrying it the rest of the way to his camp. This letter is to verify to the village elder that it is okay to hand over some of these sacks of rice to the villagers to be carried away; the villagers will have to make several trips to carry all of it.]
Order #51
Stamp: Date: 4-6-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Col. x
To: Village Head
xxxx [village]
- Village head and 3 messengers, come on 5-6-99 and report without fail to yyyy.
- Come before 9 o'clock.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Order #52
Stamp: Date: 4.6.99
Infantry Battalion #xxx
Company #x
To:
Daw aaaa
xxxx Village Head
Subject: Informing [you] to come to the Army Camp
Regarding the above subject, xxxx Village Head Daw aaaa must come with a messenger [someone to do forced labour as a messenger] on 5.7.99 [sic: 5.6.99] at 9 o'clock to yyyy Army Camp, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #53
Stamp: 1-6-99
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract
To: Chairperson, Secretary, Village Mother, Village Father
yyyy [village]
Subject: The matters of rotating for guide duty and servants' fees
+ the matter of clearing the rice taxes
Chairperson and Secretary, as soon as [you] receive this letter, you are requested to come right now to xxxx.[We] have to discuss and clear up the above subjects. You are requested to bring the money at the same time. It is important so come without fail, [we] write this letter to inform you.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #54
To: 31.5.99
Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: From xxxx village, the village head must come and bring the carpenters who will build the bridge and villagers immediately upon receiving this letter to yyyy camp, you are informed.
Bring the rice that you borrowed.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy camp
[Both the carpenters and the villagers will be used as forced labour to build the bridge.]
Order #55
Stamp: To: Chairperson / Secretary
#xxx Infantry Battalion xxxx village 30-5-99
Column #x
Subject: Asking for loh ah pay servants
From gentleman's village, the Column asks you to give 15 loh ah pay servants and bamboo and pork, bring them at the same time to the Column. Informing you for the second time. Do not fail to bring them. If you fail, it will be the gentleman's [your] responsibility, you are informed.
[Sd. / 30-5-99 (xxxx)]
(for) Column Commander
Frontline IB #xxx, Col. #x
Order #56
Stamp: To: Chairpersons
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion VPDC
#x Column aaaa / bbbb / cccc /
dddd / eeee /
ffff / gggg [villages]
Date: 30/5/99
Subject: To attend a meeting and send loh ah pay
1) On 31-5-99 in the morning at 8 o'clock, the Battalion Commander wants to meet the Chairpersons from the above villages at xxxx Army Camp. The Chairpersons yourselves come to the Army Camp at 0740 hours, come without fail.
2) On 31-5-99 at 0700 hours, send loh ah pay for use at the Army Camp according to the numbers below. Each of them must prepare [and bring] plastic sheeting, you are informed.
(a) aaaa village labourers 70 persons
(b) bbbb village labourers 25 persons
(c) cccc village labourers 30 persons
(d) dddd village labourers 20 persons
(e) eeee village labourers 40 persons
(f) ffff village labourers 15 persons
(g) gggg village labourers ([blank]) persons
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander
xxxx [camp]
Order #57
Stamp:
Peace & Development Council Date: 23-5-99
xxxx village tract
The headman's village must start providing one bullock cart for Ta Won Kyay [duty/obligation], so send this bullock cart to arrive on 24-5-99 at 6 o'clock in the morning.
Note: Change the bullock cart every day, and when we finish 6 carts [we] will switch to another village.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun Township
['Ta Won Kyay' (duty, obligation) is the term used to refer to things such as rice quotas and other materials which villagers must give on a regular specified basis to the Army and authorities. This means the village will have to provide a bullock cart for the Army's use on a regular basis, a different villager's cart each day for 6 days in a row, then the rotation will move to another village. This automatically implies that the bullock cart owners will have to go along to drive their teams in doing the forced labour.]
Order #58
Stamp: 19-5-99
Frontline #[illegible] Infantry Battalion
Column #x
To: Chairperson / Secretaries
Now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, come quickly to replace the servants with servants from Gentlemen's[your] village, each of them with rations for 5 days, a machete and plastic sheet, you are informed.
Friendly and respectfully,
[Sd.] 19/5
Sgt. Maj. xxxx
Mobile Army (Sgt. Maj.)
Order #59
Stamp:
Peace & Development Council Date: 6-5-99
xxxx village tract
From Gentleman's [your] village, [send] one bullock cart and 5 loh ah pay labourers, they must be men and do not send fewer under any circumstances. Send them without fail to the Ya Ya Ka [VPDC] office on 7-5-99 at 6 o'clock in the morning in order to build a sawmill.
Note: Major xxxx has ordered it.
[We] will not accept fewer [than 5] under any circumstances.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract / Papun Township
[This order and those immediately below give an indication of how the military uses the village tract PDC authorities to force its orders on the villages. The village did not comply immediately as ordered, so this order was followed by Orders #60 and 61 below.]
Order #60
Stamp: Date: 7-5-99
Peace & Development Council To: [Village] Head
xxxx village tract yyyy [village]
Subject:
The xxxx Army Camp Commander [asks for] 5 loh ah pay labourers and 1 bullock cart from the [village] head's village. Send them quickly right now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, you are informed.
Note:
The [village] head and 2 assistants of the [village] head must come. If [you] fail, we will not take responsibility [for what happens].
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract / Papun Township
[This order followed the day after Order #59 above. The village still did not comply, so Order #61 was sent.]
Order #61
Stamp: Date: 8-5-99
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
Headman, [we] asked you to send one bullock cart and 5 people to arrive at 6 o'clock in the morning, but until now they haven't arrived yet. Therefore, send quickly one bullock cart and 3 people right now with the person who brings this letter, to carry the machine saw in xxxx village.
Note: Send them to arrive within 1 hour.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun Township
[This order followed the day after Orders #59 and #60 above. As no more orders followed, the village must have complied; however, just a few days later the demand was repeated in Orders #62 and 63 below.]
Order #62
Stamp: Date: 12-5-99
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
From Headman's village, send without fail one bullock cart at 6 o'clock in the morning.
Note: Major xxxx has ordered it.
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract / Papun Township
[This order came only a few days after those immediately above, and was followed the next day by Order #63 below.]
Order #63
Stamp: Date: 13-5-99
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
Right now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, the Headman must come and bring along one bullock cart to the Ya Ya Ka [VPDC] office.
Note: The Headman clearly doesn't respect this office.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract / Papun Township
[This order followed the day after Order #62 above. Taken in the local context, the 'Note' written on this order is extremely threatening.]
Order #64
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson Date: 4-5-99
Column #x VPDC
xxxx [village]
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour] to clear the scrub
To clear the scrub between yyyy and zzzz villages, come to yyyy led by the village head and arrive on 5-5-99 at 6 o'clock in the morning, you are informed.
[Sd.] 4.5.99
Camp Commander
Frontline IB #xxx
(xxxx Army Camp)
Order #65
To: Chairperson
xxxx village 4-5-99
[For] loh ah pay [send] 10 persons tomorrow, 5-5-99 at 0700 hours, and send information to the camp.
[Sd.]
Capt. xxxx
xxxx [camp]
LIB #xxx
[This order was written with very abrupt grammar, literally "Loh ah pay, 10 persons tomorrow, …"]
Order #66
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary
Column #x xxxx village
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, [send] 2 servants from Gentleman's village to the Column, Gentleman yourself come to send them tomorrow early in the morning, you are informed.
Note [Sd. / 4/5/99]
Gentleman yourself, (for) Column Commander
do not fail to come and send.
Order #67
To: Chairperson
xxxx [village] 4-5-99
Now, when you receive this letter, tomorrow, 5-5-99 at 0700 hours hire 10 persons for loh ah pay, and report information to the camp.
[Sd.]
Capt. xxxx
xxxx [camp]
LIB #xxx, Company #x
[Though this order refers to 'hiring', it really just means to bring 10 people for forced labour.]
Order #68
To: Chairperson 2-5-99
xxxx village
Subject: To clarify about servants
Regarding the above subject, to clarify about the servants from xxxx village, Chairperson yourself come today to the yyyy Camp Commander, you are informed.
[Sd. / 2/5/99]
Captain xxxx
yyyy Camp Commander
Order #69
To: Chairperson / Secretary 1-5-99
xxxx [village]
Subject: The Chairperson must come with one guide
Regarding the above subject, right now as soon as [you] receive this letter, come to the camp at once. Come quickly, it's important. Bring along one guide.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[The village head is being asked to bring one of his villagers to do forced labour as a guide for an SPDC Army column.]
Order #70
Stamp: Date: 27-4-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x
To: Chairperson
Secretary
xxxx village
Subject: To send loh ah pay
Regarding the above subject, to carry [Army] rations, you Gentlemen yourselves must come and bring along loh ah pay [forced labourers] from Gentlemen's [your] village, to arrive on 28-4-99 at 6:00 in the morning, you are informed.
[Sd.] 27/4
(for) Intelligence Officer
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Note: To register the names for loh ah pay, make a list of their names, ages and fathers' names systematically.
[This is a standard order which villages always receive when the monthly ration shipments come in, and all of the villagers are forced to go and carry them from the delivery point to the Army posts.]
Order #71
To: Chairperson Date: 21-4-99
Secretary
xxxx village
Subject: To send rations for loh ah pay [forced labourers]
Regarding the above subject, for one of the loh ah pay labourers from Gentlemen's village who is with Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion, come to send 2 bowls [about 4 kg / 9 lb] of rice, fried shrimp-paste, plastic sheeting and salt to yyyy village now, as soon as [you] receive this letter. If [you] fail, it will be Gentlemen's [your] responsibility, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Note: Next time [you] change the servant, bring the rations [for him] at the same time.
[This order probably resulted when one of the villagers doing forced labour ran out of food. The Army does not want to release him nor feed him, so they demand food for him from the village, then go on to warn the village head that in future all forced labourers on rotation should bring along enough food for their shift.]
Order #72
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 17-4-99
Column #x Headquarters
Subject: To send loh ah pay servants
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, Gentleman [village head] yourself bring rotation loh ah paymessengers to the camp.
xxxx village
xxxx township
Order #73
Stamp: Date: 17-4-99
Frontline Headquarters #2 To:
Infantry Battalion #xxx Chairperson
xxxx Village
Subject: To send emergency servants
Regarding the above subject, you are informed to come yourself and bring one servant immediately to yyyy Camp when you get this letter. If you fail, it will be your responsibility.
[Sd. / 17/4/99]
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #74
To: Chairperson / Secretary Date: 12-4-99
xxxx village
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour]
Regarding the above subject, from Gentleman's [your] village [send] one man for loh ah pay with food for 5 days. Gentlemen, come yourselves to bring him to yyyy [camp] and arrive on 13-4-99 at 12:00 o'clock noon, you are informed.
Stamp: [Sd.] xxxx
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Intelligence Officer
Column #x Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #75
To: Chairperson / Secretary Date: 11-4-99
xxxx village
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour]
Regarding the above subject, to carry [Army] rations, loh ah pay from the Gentlemen's [your] village must come and arrive on 12-4-99 at 6:30 in the morning at yyyy village. Gentlemen, come yourselves to bring them, you are informed.
Stamp: [Sd.] xxxx
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Intelligence Officer
Column #x Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #76
To: Chairperson / Secretary 9-4-99
xxxx village
Subject: To send 8 load-carrying bullocks
Regarding the above subject, to carry rice to yyyy, send 8 load-carrying bullocks to the Chairperson's house at zzzz [village], to arrive on Sunday 11-4-99 at 0700 hours.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #77
To: Chairperson / Secretary
xxxx village 2-4-99
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, [send] 2 servants and a donation of 5,000 (Five Thousand) Kyat forxxxx pagoda. Send it to yyyy village without fail.
If you fail the Chairperson and Secretary will be held responsible, you are informed.
Stamp: [Sd.]
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion Intelligence Officer
Military Control Headquarters LIB #xxx
yyyy [camp]
[The 'servants' are forced labourers, and the donation will likely be either pocketed by the Intelligence Officer or used to make an offering to the pagoda in his own name.]
Order #78
Stamp: Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion xxxx Village Tract Peace & Development Council
Column #[blank] Headquarters Than Daung Township
Verification Date: 31-3-99
The 3 villagers named below, in place of xxxx Village Tract, are taking responsibility as military operation servants together with our Frontline #xxx [IB], Col. #x, from 31-3-99 to 31-4-99 [sic: 30-4-99], they are truly verified.
1. Ko aaaa 35 years old, (father) U eeee xxxx Village, Kyauk Kyi Town
2. Ko bbbb 32 years old, (father) U ffff yyyy Village, Kyauk Kyi Town
3. Ko cccc 27 years old, (father) U gggg zzzz Village, Than Daung township
[Sd.] 31/3/99
Column Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This is a movement pass for 3 villagers who have been hired by the village to go as frontline military porters in place of 3 of their villagers. The portering shift is to last an entire month.]
Order #79
Stamp: Date: 17-3-99
Peace and Development Council
xxxx village
To: Chairperson
yyyy [village]
Subject - Informing you to gather labourers to carry rations
According to the order from the Ma Ya Ka [Township Peace & Development Council] in Papun of 1999 March 16, letter number 3/16 - 1/Oo 1/178, between 20-3-99 and 25-3-99 we have to send [rations] from Papun to zzzzcamp. We inform you to gather labourers to carry 17 sacks of rice from yyyy village to zzzz camp, and to send the labourers to xxxx Ya Ya Ka [the Village Peace & Development Council of xxxx village] on 19-3-99 at 12 noon, and do not be late.
PS - Bring with you sacks and pots for carrying the rice.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village, Papun township
Order #80
Date: 14-3-99
To: Chairperson Stamp:
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labourers]
From the Gentleman's [your] village, send one person per house without fail on the 15th at (0600) hours toyyyy Village for loh ah pay, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Intelligence Officer
Order #81
To: Stamp:
Chairperson Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Date: 26-2-99
xxxx village Column
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour]
Send one person per house for loh ah pay from Gentleman's [your] village without fail on 26-2-99 to yyyy Army Camp, you are informed.
To arrive at (0700) hours. [Sd.]
Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #82
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
#x Company
To: Chairperson
xxxx Village Date: 25-2-99
Subject: To send 5 bullock carts and 1 messenger
Regarding the above subject, from your village, sir, [send] 5 bullock carts to yyyy village and one messenger to zzzz camp to arrive tomorrow, 26-2-99, in the morning at 9 o'clock. Do not fail to send [them]. If you fail it will be your responsibility, sir. You are informed.
[Sd.]
#x Company Commander
Order #83
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion 26.2.99
#x Company
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Reply by this messenger to inform [us] whether or not you have finished sending 5 bullock carts and a messenger from yyyy to zzzz.
[Sd.]
xxxx [camp]
[This order followed after Order #82 above.]
Order #84
Stamp: To:
Village Tract Peace & Development Council Chairperson, Secretary
xxxx Village Tract xxxx [village]
Subject: The matter of rotating servants
Chairperson, send the servants for rotation today, 19-2-99, Friday, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.] 19-2-99
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
['Servants' here means forced labourers; villages have to provide a fixed number of forced labourers on multi-day 'rotations' to the Army camps in their area. The current set of labourers are not released until their 'rotation' replacements arrive.]
Order #85
To: Chairperson Stamp:
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
Date: 18-2-99
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, Chairperson yourself come to meet with the Battalion Commander atyyyy camp, you are informed. When the Chairperson comes, bring a messenger at the same time. The messenger from Chairperson's village never came yet. Chairperson yourself come, and if you do not come we will take action, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
yyyy camp
Order #86
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Intelligence
To:
Village Head
xxxx village Date: 14 / 2 / 99
Subject: To send loh ah pay labourers
[You] are informed to send immediately 10 loh ah pay labourers to xxxx as soon as you receive this letter, absolutely without fail.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
Order #87
To: Chairperson / Secretary Date: 10-2-99
xxxx Village
Right now, when [you] receive this letter, the Chairperson yourself must come to the Army Camp. Together with the Chairperson, bring along 2 people to be servants. If [you] don't come, the responsibility will fall on the Chairperson.
Important. [Sd.]
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
Order #88
To: U aaaa (xxxx [village]) Date: 29-1-99
Chairperson
Come and bring 15 villagers to carry the [Army] rations, and arrive on 31-1-99 in the morning at yyyy.
[Sd.]
yyyy [camp]
Order #89
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Date: 26-1-99
Column #x Headquarters
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: To send loh ah pay [forced labour]
Send one person per house for loh ah pay from Gentleman's [your] village to yyyy village, to arrive on 27-1-99 at (1000) hours. Send [them] without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #90
Stamp: URGENT 26-1-99
Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Column #x
To: Chairperson U aaaa
xxxx village
Yesterday [you] sent 2 bullock carts but they didn't arrive yet at yyyy village. Send them now, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
Major xxxx
['URGENT' is written in red ink and underlined. The owners/drivers of the bullock teams will also have to go along to drive their teams doing forced labour.]
Order #91
Village Head Stamp:
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
The place for which your village is responsible is not yet finished. Tomorrow early morning, the whole village must do it.
16-1-99 [Sd.]
Arrive at 0700 in the morning. Battalion Commander
Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
[This order refers to a forced labour assignment which was given to the village, such as clearing a patch of road or some related job, but the Army is not satisfied with the work which has been done and is therefore ordering the "whole village" to come out and finish it.]
Order #92
To: Chairperson 15-1-99
xxxx [village]
[We] already called for a loh ah pay group, but no one has come yet. The whole village must come for loh ah pay to arrive on 16-1-99 at 6 o'clock in the morning, and now as soon as [you] receive this letter, quickly send a sentry to guard the bridge to the camp, you are informed.
[Sd.]
xxxx camp
Order #93
Stamp: To:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Column #x Headquarters xxxx [village] Date: 11-1-99
Subject: To carry [Army] rations
To carry rations at yyyy Camp, 15 loh ah pay labourers must come to zzzz village, to arrive on 12-1-99 at 0700 hours in the morning, you are hereby informed.
(Do not fail to send [them].)
[Sd.]
Column Commander
Column #x Headquarters
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #94
Stamp:
Battalion Reinforcement Platoon To: Mother Daw aaaa Date: 6-1-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[We] sent a letter with a messenger on the 2nd [of January] to xxxx and until now he has not come back yet. Therefore make the messenger come back. Send him now with the messenger who brought this letter.
[Sd.]
Platoon Commander
Battalion Reinforcement Platoon
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[This order refers to a villager who was doing forced labour as a messenger; the Army officer sent him to deliver an order to a village and he never returned to continue his shift, so the officer is demanding that he return.]
Order #95
Stamp: Date: 6-1-99
Battalion Reinforcement Platoon Village Head
#xxx Infantry Battalion xxxx village
Subject: To send bullock carts
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion at yyyy Army Camp urgently needs bullock carts. Send 5 bullock carts to arrive on 7-1-99 at 0900 hours, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Platoon Commander
Battalion Reinforcement Platoon
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[This order will also force the owners/drivers of the bullock carts to drive their teams in doing the forced labour hauling things for the Army.]
Order #96
To/ Chairperson
From xxxx village we need 2 servants, please send [them] as soon as possible when you get this. It is an emergency.
[Sd.]
IB xxx
Order #97
To/ Chairperson Daw aaaa
From xxxx village we need 2 servants, please send [them] as soon as possible when you get this letter. It is an emergency.
[Sd.]
IB xxx
Order #98
To:
Dear xxxx Village Head: Come and replace the servants when you get this letter. You are hereby informed.
#xxx [IB] Camp Commander, xxxx [camp]
Order #99
Stamp:
Village Tract Peace & Development Council To: Chairperson / Secretary
xxxx Village Tract xxxx [village]
Chairperson, right now as soon as [you] receive this letter, come to yyyy village. [We] have to clear the matter of servants right now. Come and meet without fail, you are requested.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract / Than Daung Township
['Servants' (wontan) in this context means forced labourers. 'Clear the matter' means to clarify demands for forced labourers and possibly to admonish the village for previous failures to send people when ordered.]
Order #100
To: Chairperson, Secretary
xxxx [village]
Send 2 servants right now. [I] have already given the 1,200 Kyat in cash that the Chairperson gave me. The Chairperson must clear the balance, you are informed.
From 15 to 30 yyyy
zzzz [camp]
[This is apparently a note from one village head to another, telling him that he has already passed on the payment of 1,200 Kyat to the Army but that the Chairperson had better forward the balance as well as 2 forced labourers immediately.]
Order #101
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Stamp: xxxx [camp]
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Letter #: xxx / 11 / Oo 1
Column #x Headquarters Date: 1998 December 26th
To: Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village
Subject: To send loh ah pay
Regarding the above subject, to go and carry [Army] rations from yyyy [village], from Gentleman's [your]village one person per house must come with a basket and hand-basket [a type of bamboo basket carried in the hand like a shopping bag] each, to arrive on the 27th at (0600) hours. Do not fail to send [them], you are informed.
[Sd.] 26-12-98
(for) Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Note: When you send the loh ah pay [labourers], they should not be too old / too young.
Order #102
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion yyyy [camp]
Column #x Headquarters Letter number: xxx / 01 / Oo 1
Date: 1998 December 24th
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: To coordinate the number of servants
Regarding the above subject, come to discuss and coordinate on 25-12-98 at 0900 hours. Come without fail to report information, you are informed.
[Sd.] 24-12-98
(for) Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Note: For your village, divide the real families in the village register into those who can do servant duty and those who cannot do servant duty and bring it [the lists].
['Servants' ('wontan') and 'servant duty' mean forced labourers and forced labour for the Army and SPDC authorities.]
Order #103
Brother,
I visited with Intelligence and he told me that aaaa said 4 persons have to help. He will let you know later where [they] have to guard, when [they] have to go and how many days it will last. Ask bbbb to send a little turmeric powder [a yellow-coloured spice] for me.
Your younger sister / 23-12-98
cccc
dddd said [he] isn't sure about Thramu [Teacher] yet, that's why I haven't let her go back yet.
[This is actually a letter from one Karen village elder to another, written in Sgaw Karen, passing on news of SPDC demands for forced labourers.]
Order #104
To: Village Head Date: 15-12-98
xxxx village
[You] are informed that xxxx village should send 10 loh ah pay [workers] to yyyy village tomorrow, 16-12-98, at 0730 hours in the morning without fail.
[Sd.]
Army
Order #105
Stamp: xxxx
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion 13-12-98
Company #x
To: Chairperson
xxxx Village
Tomorrow on 14-12-98, send 20 people to arrive at 0700 hours at yyyy for loh ah pay labour, you are informed.
[Sd.] 13/12
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #106
To: Date: 9-12-98
Chairperson ( xxxx [village] ) Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion
#x Company
(1) For loh ah pay, gentleman's village should send persons aged above 12 years (all those aged above 12 years) including the Chairperson. Bring food for one day (without fail) and report at 09 o'clock in the morning on 10-12-98, Thursday, at zzzz Camp.
(2) Every village in yyyy - zzzz area is being called for loh ah pay, thus gentleman's village is informed to come no later than 9 o'clock in the morning without fail.
[In different handwriting:] All villagers aged above 12 years (including women) should come to yyyy Camp at 9 o'clock on 10-12-98, Thursday, without fail.
[Sd.]
Company Commander
yyyy Camp
Company Commander
#x Company
[This order was carbon-copied to several villages, with the village name and the final note at the bottom written in afterward by hand.]
Order #107
To: Stamp:
Chairperson Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Column #x Supervisory Group
Subject: Informing [you] to bring the servants
1. Regarding the above subject, as soon as [you] receive this letter, led by the Chairperson and Secretary yourselves, come and bring 5 servants, one and a half viss [2.4 kg / 5.2 lb] of chicken and one and a half baskets of rice from Gentleman's [your] village to yyyy village.
2. If [you] don't come and bring [them], [we] will send the shell of a big weapon so that you won't need to come yourselves.
[Sd.] xxxx
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x
Temporarily at yyyy
6-12-98
U aaaa:
The Chairpersons yourselves must come. The Commander is asking for you.
[The 'servants' requested means villagers for forced labour. The threat to 'send a shell' means that if you don't comply, don't bother coming later to explain because we will simply shell your village.]
Order #108
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion 1-12-98
Column #x Headquarters To: Daw aaaa
I am writing this letter. Send duty servants from xxxx village to yyyy to arrive on 2-12-98.
[Sd.] 1-12-98
Intelligence Officer
['Duty servants' (Ta Won Kya wontan) means forced labourers to do a rotation of errands at the Army camp.]
Order #109
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Company #x
To: Chairperson (xxxx [village]) Date: 20-11-98
There is nothing to meet about. For the Army camp there is no firewood, so assist with 2 bullock carts [full of firewood], and to run the machine come and coordinate with the Captain.
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander (yyyy [camp])
[This order requires the villagers to go to the forest to cut firewood, then haul it to the camp, as well as to discuss forced labour 'running the machine',which may be a sawmill or rice mill.]
Order #110
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion Date: 11-11-98
#x Company
This is aaaa writing this letter.
2 servants from xxxx village and 2 servants from yyyy village ran away today, so you are informed to send immediately 2 substitutes, and 2 from yyyy village, totalling 4 people.
[Sd. / 11/11/98]
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
zzzz Camp
Order #111
To: Chairperson Date: 26-10-98
xxxx village
Subject: To carry rations at yyyy
Send 10 loh ah pay labourers from xxxx village on 28-10-98, Wednesday, to carry [Army] rations at yyyy, you are hereby informed. If there are not enough people, hire some people from the zzzz group commander.
[Sd.]
zzzz Camp Commander
['Hire some people' means that if the village sends less than 10 people then they also have to send money to make up for as many as they do not send. The money will not be used to 'hire' labourers; instead, the labour will be divided among as many people as have been sent, or additional labourers will be demanded from other villages. On the back of this order the village head wrote a list of 10 names, the people who went for the forced labour.]
Order #112
Daw aaaa (Village Head) xxxx [village] 19/10/98
- I'm Major bbbb.
- Mother must send someone [replacement labour] to yyyy Camp, because cccc has been a servant for 7 days.
- If [the replacement person] doesn't arrive, it will be Mother's responsibility.
[Sd.]
Major bbbb
* Messenger dddd has been serving for 4 days, so change him tonight.
[This order demands replacements for rotation forced labourers who have already been with the Army for some time. 'It will be Mother's responsibility' implies that the labourer will not be released if his replacement doesn't arrive; 'Mother' is the village headwoman.]
Order #113
Stamp: To: Date: 27-9-98
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Company #x xxxx Village
Subject: Calling a meeting about military operation servants
[We] want to discuss and specify the number of servants who will go with the mobile column for military operations, so come and arrive on 28-9-98 at 10 o'clock in the morning, you are informed. The set tha [forced labourers for messengers and errands] didn't come on the 25th, so you are informed to bring along with the Chairperson those set tha labourers and the set tha labourers for 28-9-99, Saw aaaa and bbbb, a total of 4 villagers from xxxx.
[Sd.]
yyyy Camp Commander
['Military operation servants' means forced labour porters to go on extended frontline patrol with mobile Army columns; such porters are frequently kept by the Army for a month or longer, and are often killed when they can no longer carry.]
Order #114
Stamp:
Peace and Development Council
xxxx village tract [Village] Head 13-9-98
From the Chairperson of the Ya Ya Ka [Village Peace & Development Council], to discuss about servants, come to a meeting at Ya Ya Ka office on 15-9-98, in the morning at 7 o'clock, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
Village Peace and Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun township
Order #115
To: Ma aaaa Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion 20/7/98
Company #x
- The servants have been released.
- This evening at 3 o'clock come to meet at the Army (monastery).
- [We] want to know if the news has changed or not.
- [We] order you to bring one pair of chickens.
[Sd.]
Company Commander
Company #x
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
B) Forced Labour on Infrastructure
Order #116
Stamp: Township Peace & Development Council
Township Peace & Development Council Karen State - Than Daung Town
Than Daung Township Letter #: 5 / 3-21 / Oo 6
Date: 1999 / July 21st
To: Chairperson
xxxx village tract
xxxx Village / Than Daung Township
Subject: The matter of cutting the scrub and clearing the forest beside the
Baw Ga Li - Maw Chi - Ko Chaung road
1. Regarding the above subject, at Southern Regional Army Headquarters, Regional Commander General Tin Aye, Deputy Regional Commander Brigadier General Thura Maung Ni and their troops wish to travel to Than Daung Gyi, so [you] must always open [the forest] to the light and clear the road from Than Daung to Than Daung Gyi, and [you] must clear alongside the Baw Ga Li - Maw Chi - Ko Chaung road and open [it] to the light by cutting the scrub and the forest, you are ordered and informed.
2. Therefore, the villagers along the Baw Ga Li - Maw Chi - Ko Chaung road in Gentleman's [your]village tract, within your own village tract boundary [you] must open [the ground] to the light, cut the scrub and clear the forest along the road by the deadline of 31-7-99, and when it is finished you must report, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
(Saw Soe - Secretary)
Copies to-
Battalion Commander, Frontline IB #59, Baw Ga Li
Deputy Battalion Commander, Frontline IB #35, Than Daung
Supervise the villagers to do it on time, sending this order to request you.
Engineer, public construction business, Than Daung Town
Join and work together with the villages and report when it is finished.
Office Copy / File
[This is a typed and copied order with the village name written in afterwards by hand. Villages are often ordered to 'clear the scrub' along roadsides, mainly to make it more difficult for opposition troops to ambush SPDC columns and convoys and to make roads harder for opposition troops to cross. The road mentioned is over 100 kilometres long, part of an old disused pre-World War Two road from Toungoo town (in eastern Pegu Division) eastward to Mawchi (in southern Kayah State). In early 1998 the SPDC began using forced labour to build a new road along the old route. For more information see "False Peace: Increasing SPDC Military Repression in Toungoo District of Northern Karen State" (KHRG #99-02, 25/3/99), pages 20-23.]
Order #117
To: Date: 6-9-99
Village Head, xxxx village
Subject: Informing all village heads to come and meet with the Company Commander
We ordered [you] to clear the roadside from 21-mile to 18-mile during the period from the 2nd to the 9th [of September 1999]. But [you] did not do your duty perfectly on the segment [of road]that we assigned. Some of the villages have new heads of their village, and the new village heads do not know the segments which they have to clear. Therefore let the new village heads and the old village heads know to come and meet with the Company Commander without any absentees.
Note: On 7-9-99 report without any absentees. [Sd.]
Company Commander
[Villages are frequently ordered to clear the scrub along several miles of roadside, mainly to make it more difficult for opposition troops to ambush SPDC columns and convoys and to make roads harder for opposition troops to cross. '21-Mile' and '18-Mile' specify road markers, so this village was ordered to clear the scrub from both sides of the road over a 3-mile stretch. This order was later followed by Order #118 below.]
Order #118
To: Date: 25-9-99
Village Heads
vvvv, wwww, xxxx, yyyy, zzzz villages
Subject: Informing you to come to 21-Mile
We ordered you to clear the roadside from 21-Mile to 18-Mile, but we are not satisfied with the clearing. Therefore we ordered all of the village heads to come and meet three times already. We inform you that if you fail [to come] this time, according to the instructions of Tactical Command, your villages will have to relocate to appropriate places for security.
If the village heads fail to come, we will inform the Tactical Command about relocation again and again.
Ko aaaa, Ko bbbb: come without fail. [Sd.]
Company Commander
[This order was a follow-up to Order #117 above. It has become much more threatening, making it clear that the village will be forced to relocate to an Army-controlled site if it fails to comply.]
Order #119
Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract
Peace & Development Council
Than Daung Township
To: Chairperson / Secretary
Subject: To discuss the collapse of the vehicle road
Regarding the above subject, come and gather at the VPDC [Ya Ya Ka] office tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock. The Gentlemen yourselves must come and discuss what to do about the collapsed vehicle road, you are invited.
Respectfully,
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[At this meeting the villages will almost certainly be assigned forced labour to rebuild the collapsed road. Most roads in Burma are dirt, built by forced labour and incompetently engineered by unskilled Army officers, so they collapse every monsoon season and villagers are forced to rebuild them every dry season.]
Order #120
Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract
Peace & Development Council To:
Than Daung Township Chairperson / Secretary
The condition of the yyyy - zzzz vehicle road is no good at all. Therefore, as a show of public strength, one person per house with mattock [large hoe], machete and food for 3 days must come without fail from Gentleman's [your] village to the Ya Ya Ka [VPDC] office tomorrow at 6:30 a.m.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #121
Chairperson
Subject: The matter of rebuilding the roads
Regarding the above subject, come without fail for loh ah pay labour. One person per house must lay the stones for the roads, informing and reminding [you] again.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #122
Stamp: To: Chairpersons
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion VPDC
Column #x xxxx / yyyy / zzzz [villages]
Date: 22/6/99
Subject: Building bridges to cross the rivers
1. The small rivers between zzzz, yyyy and xxxx villages make it difficult for the villagers to travel in the rainy season. Your villages must finish making each bridge on the specified rivers by 27-6-99 as below.
- Build 2 bridges for the two rivers between zzzz and yyyy: zzzz [has to build] 1 bridge between zzzz village and aaaa river, and yyyy village [has to build] 1 bridge at aaaariver.
- xxxx village has to build 1 bridge between yyyy village and xxxx village at ¾® river.
2. Therefore, finish the bridges by the specified time, you are informed.
[Sd.]
wwww Army Camp Commander
[The meaning of '¾® river' is unclear, but appears to be a blank which was left because the officer did not know the name of the river and was never properly filled in. While the Commander claims that the bridges are for the benefit of the villagers, it is more likely that he is having them built for the benefit of his mobile patrols.]
Order #123
To: Village Head 13.1.99
xxxx [village]
Subject: To come and meet with the Company Commander at yyyy Army Camp
1) From xxxx village, one person from each house [must] come to yyyy Army camp tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock led by the village head. Do not fail to come.
2) You must clear the scrub from the roadside area as we notified you before, so be quick. Do not fail to come. If you fail to come the responsibility will be yours, you are informed.
[Sd. / Captain]
Company Commander
#x Company
yyyy Army Camp
Order #124
To: Chairperson Date: 15-12-98
xxxx village
Subject: Calling for road loh ah pay
Regarding the above subject, to repair the car road (yyyy / zzzz) on 16-12-98, bring 67 loh ah pay workers with mattocks / machetes to yyyy camp on 16-12-98, (Wednesday) morning at 0700 hours, without fail. Village head or assistant village head yourself [must] come, you are informed. If you fail to come, the responsibility will be yours.
Place: yyyy Stamp:
Date: 15-12-98 Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column x
[This is a typed order copied to several villages, with the village name, date and exact number of labourers written in afterwards. Mattocks are large hoes.]
Order #125
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion yyyy [camp]
Column x Headquarters Letter #: xxx / 01 / Oo 1
Date: 1998 December [blank]day
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: To discuss the cutting and clearing of the road
Regarding the above subject, [we] want to discuss about doing it, so come and arrive on 9-12-98 at (0700) hours at yyyy [camp], you are informed.
[Sd.] 8-12-98
(for) Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #126
Stamp: Date: 12-3-98
Village Peace & Development Council xxxx / Ya Ya Ka
Ye Township, yyyy village Ye Township
To: Chairperson
Secretary
xxxx village
Subject: Invitation to the meeting to coordinate emergency work and to send workers
Reference: Ye Township Peace & Development Council, date 11-3-98,
letter no. 100 / 2-10 / TPDC Ye
1) In accordance with the notification by Tactical Command #222 and TPDC [Township Peace & Development Council], to finish the Ye-Dawei [Ye-Tavoy] railway within the specified time, send 10 workers from each place, we already informed you with the letter referenced above.
2) The aforementioned meeting:
Date: 15-3-98, afternoon at 12 o'clock exactly
Place: yyyy village (VPDC) [at the Village PDC office]
Attend without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
Ye Township, xxxx Village
Copies: Office copy
Outgoing file
[The Ye-Tavoy railway, over 150 kilometres long from Mon State to Tenasserim Division, has been built with the use of several hundred thousand villagers as forced labour since 1993. It is still not functioning, but forced labour on the project still comes and goes for villagers in the area. For background and interviews concerning this project, see the reports "Forced Labour in Mon Areas" (KHRG #96-20, 22/5/96), "Ye-Tavoy Area Update" (KHRG #96-01, 5/1/96),"SLORC Orders to Villages: Set 96-C" (KHRG #96-22, 27/5/96), and other previous reports.]
C) Forced Labour Fees
Order #127
Stamp: Date: 15-10-99
xxxx Village Tract Peace & Development Council
Than Daung Township
To: Chairperson / Secretary ( xxxx [village] )
Subject: The matter of collecting the monthly servants' fees for 9/99
1. The register for sending servants and reserve Army servants in 9/99 is as follows:
(a) Tactical Command 21 persons
(b) IB #xxx 12 persons
(c) IB #xxx 11 persons
(d) IB #xxx 9 persons
(e) IB #xxx 22 Persons
Total 75 Persons
2. Every village in xxxx Township has to pay their quota of servants' fees, depending on their proportion of the [total] number of households.
(a) aaaa [village] 43 x 4,000 = 172,000 [Kyat]
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
176,250
(b) bbbb [village] 12 x 4,000 = 48,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
= 52,250
Balance from 8/99 = 21,000
Total = 73,250
(c) cccc [village] 6 x 4,000 = 24,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
28,250
Balance from 8/99 = 90,800
Total = 119,050
(d) dddd [village] 5 x 4,000 = 20,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
24,250
Balance from 8/99 = 62,250
Total 86,500
[page 2 of original starts here]
(e) eeee [village] 5 x 4,000 = 20,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
24,250
Balance from 8/99 = 155,700
Total = 179,950
(f) ffff [village] 2 x 4,000 = 8,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
12,250
Balance from 8/99 = 32,125
Total = 44,375
(g) gggg [village] 2 x 4,000 = 8,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
12,250
Balance from 8/99 = 25,750
Total = 38,000
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This order relates to the standard "servants' fees" (often called 'porter fees') which villages must all pay every month in addition to the forced labourers they must send. In this Village Tract, the PDC is working closely with the local SPDC Battalions; they receive orders from the Battalions, then pass them on to the elders of all villages under their administration, sometimes with extra demands tacked on to enrich themselves. In the process, a complex system of 'servants' and 'servants' fees' has developed within this village tract. Initially the local Battalions issue orders to the Village Tract PDC demanding numbers of forced labourers for a specific purpose. Knowing that the villages do not want to do the labour and will be slow to comply, the Village Tract PDC often hires day labourers through agents in Toungoo, pays for their 'car fees' (i.e. transport costs) to the village tract, and supplies them to the SPDC military. The Village Tract PDC then issues orders to the villages under their administration to pay their share of the cost based on the relative size (number of households) of their village; for example, a village may be ordered to pay for 10 of the 80 people hired by the Village Tract PDC. In this order, the amount billed to the villages is 4,000 Kyat for each short-term porter plus 250 Kyat for his 'car fee' where necessary. Item 1 above specifies how many forced labourers the village tract sent to the Army for the month, and the rest of the order divides up the costs between the villages of the village tract. The payment generally averages out to 1,000 or more Kyat per family. The Army also demands many other fees from them, as well as food and, of course, their forced labour as 'servants'; many families cannot pay, and as can be seen by the 'balances' still remaining from previous months, several villages are far behind in their payments.]
Order #128
To: Chairperson / Secretary
Subject: The matter of collecting monthly fees for Army servants for 8/99
1. The register of Army servants and reserve Army servants which [we] sent in 8/99 is as follows:
(a) IB #xxx 22 persons Stamp:
(b) Tactical Command 21 persons xxxx Village Tract
(c) [IB] #xxx 12 persons Peace & Development Council
(d) [IB] #xxx 20 persons Than Daung Township
Total 75 persons
2. Each village in xxxx Township must pay their quota of servants' fees, depending on their proportion of the [total] number of households.
(a) aaaa [village] 43 x 4,000 = 172,000 [Kyat]
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
176,250
(b) bbbb [village] 12 x 4,000 = 48,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
52,250
Balance from 7/99 = 45,990
Total = 98,240
(c) cccc [village] 6 x 4,000 = 24,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
28,250
Balance from 7/99 = 63,500
Total = 91,750
(d) dddd [village] 5 x 4,000 = 20,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
24,250
Balance from 7/99 = 48,000
Total = 72,250
[page 2 of original starts here]
(e) eeee [village] 5 x 4,000 = 20,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
24,250
Balance from 7/99 = 131,450
Total = 155,700
(f) ffff [village] 2 x 4,000 = 8,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
12,250
Balance from 7/99 = 27,875
Total = 40,125
(g) gggg [village] 2 x 4,000 = 8,000
1 x 4,250 = 4,250
12,250
Balance from 7/99 = 17,500
Total = 29,750
[page 3]
Therefore, collect it according to the quotas for each village and come to bring it, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This order relates to the standard "servants' fees" (often called 'porter fees') which villages must all pay every month in addition to the forced labourers they must send. For additional explanation, see also the notes on Order #127 above.]
Order #129
Stamp: Date: 7-6-99
xxxx Village Tract To:
Peace & Development Council Chairperson / Secretary
Than Daung Township xxxx village
Subject: To collect and send the monthly military servants' fees for ( 5 / 99 )
Regarding the above subject, in ( 5/99 ) the number of military servants that were sent was ([unclear]) persons. In accordance with the proportion of houses in each village, Gentleman's xxxx village must pay ( 15,750 ) Kyat for ( 3 ) persons as military servants. Therefore, the Gentleman's village must collect it and come to give it, you are informed.
For the previous months of ( / ) ( / ) ( / ), you must pay in cash ( 16,625 ) Kyat. Collect and bring it at the same time.
Total of the money due: 32,375 Kyat.
[page 2 of original starts here]
Therefore, in accordance with the request, collect from the villages and come to bring it, you are informed.
[Sd.] 8-6-99
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This is a typed and carbon-copied order with the village name and some of the amounts (shown in italics) written in afterwards; the line totalling the two amounts and the second page were also written in afterward by hand. Similar to Orders #127 and 128 above, this order was issued after the village tract authorities had hired itinerant labourers to send in response to the military's demands for forced labour. The village tract authorities then determine how many labourers each village is 'responsible' for and bills them accordingly. The village addressed in this order also must pay some money for the 'previous months', i.e. they are behind in their payments. The Army also demands many other fees from them, as well as food and, of course, their forced labour as 'servants'.]
Order #130
Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract
Peace & Development Council To:
Than Daung Township Chairperson, Secretary
Subject: To send servant money
Regarding the above subject, [we] want you to collect and send servant money. If you don't come and bring it between 22-6-99 and 26-6-99, serious action will be taken by the Army camp.
Note: [We] want the Chairperson yourself to come and report to the Ya Ya Ka[VPDC] office.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[This refers to money collected from the villages by the village tract authorities to hire people to go for forced labour assignments; see also Orders #127-129 above. Here again the complicity of the village tract authorities and the Army can be seen; the village tract has hired and sent people to fill the Army's forced labour demands and is simply demanding reimbursement from the local villages, but threatens them with action 'by the Army camp' if they fail to pay.]
Order #131
Stamp: 19-6-99
Village Peace & Development Council To: Chairperson, Secretary
Ye Township, yyyy village xxxx [village]
Subject: To send 6 carriers [porters] for LIB #xxx Operations
Regarding the above subject, [we] have to hire carriers. xxxx village is responsible for 7,500 Kyat, seven thousand five hundred Kyat exactly, send it without fail on 20-6-99, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
Ye Township, xxxxvillage
[This order really means that the village must send either 6 porters or 7,500 Kyat in lieu of porters. It is issued by the Village Peace & Development Council of a central village; the Army has sent a demand for a certain number of porters, and this VPDC has had to distribute the burden between the villages in the area. Knowing that no one in the local villages dares go as porters, they are assuming that each village will prefer to pay to hire substitutes rather than go themselves, so they are taking the responsibility for collecting the money and hiring the substitutes. In the disastrous economy of today's Burma, there are usually some itinerant labourers around who are desperate enough to hire themselves out to go as porters in the place of villagers.]
Order #132
The matter of the servant from xxxx [village]
29 - 16,000 was paid
xxxx [village] 9-5-99
Give Saw aaaa 200 [Kyat] of spending money.
[This is a quick note to or from a headman, regarding money which was paid to the authorities in lieu of forced labour and 'spending money' to be given to someone who is going for forced labour.]
Orders to Provide Military Support
Virtually the entire population of Karen areas fears and despises the SPDC military and authorities, but this does not prevent the Army from trying to force the civilians to provide direct help to their military operations. This takes various forms, including forced labour at Army camps (see above under 'Forced Labour'), forced labour as unarmed sentries at Army posts and along roads, pathways and rivers, and orders that village elders report on the movement of opposition forces. In most Karen areas, village elders are told that they are responsible for keeping the Army fully informed of all opposition activities, and are seriously punished if the Army is subsequently attacked or hears of opposition troops moving around the village. These punishments often include the arrest and torture of village elders, burning of houses, or forced relocation of the village. In many areas villagers are also forced to do rotating shifts as unarmed sentries, posted around Army bases and outposts so that the soldiers don't have to do it; if they see anything they are supposed to pass the message by shouting, beating bamboo or running to the soldiers. They are also forced to do 24-hour shifts guarding vehicle roads; usually 2 villagers must man each of several posts spaced along the road covering the distance halfway from their village to the next village in either direction. If they see any movement on the road they must send the message up the line or report it to the Army camp the following day, and will then be forced to sweep that part of the road for mines. If any mine explosions or ambushes occur on their stretch of the road, the village is held directly responsible and may be shelled, burned, and/or forced to relocate. Similar guard duty is also assigned for rivers (see Order #145).
Whenever SPDC soldiers flee the Army, local villages are also held responsible and punished for this, and these punishments can be extreme if the Army suspects that the village has in any way sheltered the deserters or helped them on their way.Order #147 below was issued after 4 soldiers deserted, and would almost certainly have been followed up by a visit to the village by a heavily armed military column to interrogate the villagers.
Army officers often call village elders to meetings to discuss 'security matters' or 'control matters', which involve all of the types of demands listed above. This section includes orders directly related to these topics, while other forms of military support (such as portering, carrying rations to Army camps, and serving as messengers and guides) have been included in the 'General Forced Labour' section above.
Order #133
Stamp: Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Village Tract Peace & Development Council
Date: 8/10/99 yyyy Village Tract
Company #x
To: Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village
1. In this open season period, to discuss the security of the villages and the camp, the Column's control over the region, and destroying the rebels, and for the Camp Commander to order what is needed, [we] will hold a meeting at the Chairperson's house in yyyy village. For the meeting, either the Chairperson or the Secretary from [each of] the six villages under control of our camp must attend. The meeting will be held on October 10th 1999 (10/10/99) at 12 o'clock noon.
2. The persons who attend the meeting must obey the rules below.
(a) The persons must be those who really lead the villages.
(b) Do not bring any presents for the Camp or the Column.
(c) Persons who fail or are late for the meeting will be seriously punished. Serious action will be taken against the village leaders and the village.
3. [You] must obey the above order and attend the meeting at the yyyy village chairperson's house, you are ordered.
[Sd.] 8.10.99 [Sd.]
Chairperson Camp Commander
Village Peace & Development Council yyyy Camp
yyyy Village Tract, Than Daung Township Company Commander
Company #x
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #134
To: Chairperson Date: 12-10-99
xxxx Village
Right now as soon as [you] receive this letter, the Chairperson yourself must go quickly to report information at Kya In Seik Gyi (Ma Ya Ka [Township PDC]), and come without fail to see the Column Commander at yyyy, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
[Copies of this exact same order with the same wording were sent to the heads of all villages in the area.]
Order #135
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To:
Date: 20-9-99 Chairperson
Company #x xxxx village
Subject: To report any unusual information every day
(1) Starting right now when [you] get this letter, every day report any unusual information by messenger.
(2) Even if [you] do not get any unusual information, send at least 1 piece of information every day. One piece of information about the enemy, or the people who come and go in the village, a register of peddlars, number of plantations, hill fields, etc. Write one piece of information. It must tell all that they [the people reported on] are doing.
(3) Send information about health, education, social obligations and occupations in the village with the messenger.
(4) Starting right now when [you] receive this letter, send a messenger every day, you are hereby informed. The Chairperson must not fail to do this, you are informed. If [you] don't do it serious action will be taken, you are hereby informed.
Note: Send a messenger every day. Even if [you] do not have any unusual information, [you]must send at least one piece of information. The 42 families of xxxx village must each send firewood to the ground beneath the Church on 22-9-99, to arrive by 1000 hours.
Chairperson:
1. On 25-9-99 send 15 viss [24 kg / 52.5 lb] of pork to the camp.
2. Send 2 bottles of honey, as I ordered, and one monkey on 23-9-99.
3. If the Chairperson gets well, come to meet [me] on 24-9-99.
4. Send a messenger every day.
[Sd.] 21-9-99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[Though this order sounds extremely repetitive, it has been translated exactly as it was written. 'The ground beneath the Church' is the space underneath the building, which is built raised on posts. Note that in the midst of all these demands, in note #3 the Commander acknowledges that the headman is not even well.]
Order #136
Stamp:
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
yyyy Village Tract
To: Chairperson, Secretary, Village Mother, Village Father
xxxx [village]
Subject: The matter of sending unusual information every day about [Army] camp
security and regional peace and development
Regarding the above subject, come from the Chairperson's village to the camp to send any unusual information about the region every day on time at 8 o'clock in the morning. Also, Chairperson (or) Village Mother / Village Father, come yourselves to meet with the Camp Commander. If you fail, action will be taken. Note: Each month, send 5,000 Kyat in cash per village for 3 servants, and at the same time 3,000 cheroots for the camp, the Camp Commander has informed [us].
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
['Unusual information' means intelligence about any opposition movements, visitors to the village and activities of villagers. The money 'for 3 servants' which each village must pay every month is simply extortion which goes under the name of "servants' fees". The villages must also provide 'servants' at the same time.]
Order #137
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
To: Chairpersons
aaaa, bbbb, cccc, dddd, and eeee village tracts
Subject: The matter of sending information about the enemy from the area of the
villages
1. Schedule for sending information about the enemy, by rotation of villages:
(a) From dddd [village] to cccc [village], arrive at (0900) hours
(b) From cccc [village] to bbbb [village], arrive at (1000) hours
(c) From bbbb [village] to aaaa [village], arrive at (1030) hours
(d) From aaaa [village] to eeee [village], arrive at (1100) hours
2. If [they] don't arrive at the specified time, no need to wait. Send the information on with the set tha messenger.
3. When they sent the military information about the enemy, cccc [village] wrote that they would take responsibility for their village but would not take responsibility for outside their village. [We] already notified and gave responsibility to the villagers for all villages within 3 miles [of their home village], to report whether there is any unusual information or not.
4. Therefore, to gather any unusual information from the area within 3 miles of your village, ask[the villagers] to do rotation duty. If our troops arrive and a battle occurs, [we] will arrest the sentries who are doing rotation duty, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[This order is written in a very convoluted way to express something which should be very simple. Item 1 specifies that a 'set tha' messenger should be sent from one village to the next ('dddd' village to 'cccc' village, then from there to 'bbbb' village, etc.), according to the schedule, with the information being passed on from village to village until all the information for the region reaches the Army camp at 11 o'clock. Item 2 means that if the messenger doesn't arrive on time from the preceding village, your village is not to wait but to send your own messenger onward anyway to keep the schedule. Items 3 and 4 order the village heads to use villagers for rotating forced labour gathering this intelligence everywhere within 3 miles of their village, and warn them that if the SPDC column is attacked in their area they will arrest and detain the villagers who were doing this forced labour as 'sentries' as a punishment for not providing sufficient intelligence. This is a typical arrangement forced upon villages by the SPDC.]
Order #138
Stamp: 2-8-99
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
yyyy Village Tract
To: Chairperson / Secretary
xxxx [village]
Subject: The matter of sending information and sending food for the camp
Regarding the above subject, one person per village [including] from the Chairperson's village must bring information tomorrow on 3-8-99.
Come tomorrow to meet with the Camp Commander, and bring without fail 1 viss [1.6 kg / 3.5 lb] of chicken and vegetables for the camp, by order of the Camp Commander, you are informed.
[Sd.] 2-8-99
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
yyyy Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #139
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To:
Company #x Chairperson / Secretary
Right now when [you] receive this letter, come quickly to report information to xxxx camp, you are informed.
[Sd.] xxxx
Camp Commander x
xxxx Camp
[The back of this order was marked "Quickly".]
Order #140
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column x Headquarters
To: Village Head
xxxx Village
Subject: Invitation for a meeting
Regarding the above subject, for area security matters and to get information about enemy matters, every village head must come to yyyy Army Camp for discussion on 30-6-99. If you fail, it is your responsibility. You are hereby informed.
[Handwritten note:] Must arrive in the morning at (0900) hours.
[Sd. / 30/6/99]
Place: yyyy Camp Intelligence Officer
Date: 27-6-99 Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
[This is a typed order which has been carbon-copied; the date and village name were written in afterwards.]
Order #141
Stamp: To: 23-6-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
#x Company xxxx village
Subject: To send information to yyyy camp
Regarding the above matter, the villagers listed below from xxxx village who were carrying rice didn't come to report and carry at yyyy camp, so 4 sacks of rice were lost. The villagers who didn't come to report information:
(1) Saw aaaa
(2) Saw bbbb
(3) Saw cccc
(4) Saw dddd
(5) Maw eeee
Therefore, to solve the matter of the 4 lost sacks of rice, the Chairperson of xxxx village together with the 5 villagers mentioned above who didn't report the information, come to yyyyCamp on 24-6-99 at 10 o'clock and do not be late. Report information without fail, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.] 23-6-99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[It is unclear whether the lost sacks of rice belonged to the villagers or the Army. Either way, it appears that the SPDC Commander suspects that the rice has gone to the KNLA. On the back of this order, the village head has written in Sgaw Karen a list of 10 names under the heading 'People who have to carry rations at yyyy tomorrow'.]
Order #142
Stamp: Date: 4-6-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Company #x xxxx Village
Subject: Come to report information at yyyy Army Camp
Regarding the above subject, Chairperson yourself from xxxx village, come to yyyy Camp to report information on 5-6-99 at 0800 hours in the morning. You are informed [to come] without fail.
[Sd.] 4/6/99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Note:
If the Chairperson is not there, the Secretary or Village Mother / Village Father must come without fail to report information.
Order #143
To: Chairperson
xxxx [village]
Subject: Attend a meeting
Regarding the above subject, bring information to yyyy village and arrive today (11-4-99) at 11 o'clock, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
Order #144
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 10-2-99
Intelligence xxxx village
Now, on receiving this letter come to bring information quickly to the Column at yyyy, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Frontline LIB #xxx
Order #145
To: Stamp:
U aaaa Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Date: 5/2/99
Column #x Headquarters
1. U aaaa, xxxx village is not included in yyyy group, so no need to send sentries for the road.
2. zzzz Camp has assigned [your village] the duty as sentries to guard the Bilin River, so reply with a letter that you have a problem providing sentries for the road [as well].
3. [Your village] Must fulfil this duty, so if [you] can't fulfil it, respond by writing a letter.
[Sd.]
Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
[This order is from an Army camp which has ordered the village to do forced labour as unarmed sentries along the Bilin River. The village head has apparently protested that another Army camp is already forcing them to stand sentry along the road, so the officer is responding by telling the village head to notify the other Army camp that they can no longer do sentry duty on the road because they now have to guard the river.]
Order #146
To: Chairperson 16-1-99
xxxx village
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
To discuss operations and security, on 18-1-99 in the morning at 9 o'clock there will be a meeting in yyyy camp. Come to attend, you are invited.
[Sd.]
xxx xxxx [Army serial #]
Bo xxxx
yyyy Camp Commander
LIB #xxx
Order #147
To: Chairperson 26-3-99
xxxx [village]
Four soldiers have left. If [you] see [them], send the information quickly.
[Sd.]
Bo [officer]
[This is a request for villagers to report any sightings of 4 deserters from the SPDC Army. Desertions are increasingly frequent, and villages are heavily punished if they are suspected of sheltering or aiding deserters.]
Order #148
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Village Head
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
Date:11-1-99
Today, as soon as you receive this letter, village head yourself bring information to yyyy camp, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Order #149
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Village Head
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
Date:[blank]-1-99
Today when you receive this letter, village head yourself, send information to yyyy camp, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Order #150
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Company #x xxxx Village
Right now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, come quickly to yyyy Army Camp to report information. If [you] do not arrive, I will come myself.
[Sd.] xxxx
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[The threat to come to the village himself is serious, because if an officer comes to the village with soldiers the village will be looted and the elders may be detained and seriously punished for having failed to comply with this written order.]
Order #151
Stamp:
To: Village Head Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Column #x Headquarters
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
1) About security matters, an emergency meeting will be held so the Village Heads yourselves[must come] to yyyy camp on 30-12-98 to arrive at 1200 hours. Do not fail to come, you are informed.
2) It is an emergency meeting so if you fail to come action will be taken against the village head, letting you know, you are informed.
[Sd. / 28/12/98]
Date: 28-12-98 Intelligence Officer
Place: yyyy #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #152
Stamp: To: Date: 16-10-98
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Company #x xxxx village
[We] have emergency matters, so the Chairperson must bring along Ma aaaa, who saw 15 Nga Pway ['Ringworms' derogatory slang for KNLA soldiers] on 12-10-98. Come and arrive on 17-10-98 at 6 o'clock in the morning, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.]
yyyy Camp Commander
[The purpose of this order is to summon the village woman mentioned for a full interrogation.]
Extortion of Food, Money and Materials
SPDC Army units force villagers to provide them with everything under the sun - money, food, condiments, alcohol, cheroots, betelnut, firewood, clothing, building materials, and many other things, as well as logs and commercial goods which they can sell for profit. Occasionally the Army units pay for some of the things they demand, but usually at prices much lower than their actual value and with money they have taken from other villages. More often the villages are simply told to send whatever is demanded immediately and without any payment. Demands for food have particularly increased since 1998, when the SPDC in Rangoon cut back on the quantities and quality of rations and issued orders to Army units in the field to take as much food as possible from villagers or produce it themselves. Villages also find that the demands increase with the ongoing expansion of the Army, because each new Army camp established in their area duplicates the demands of all of those which already exist. Most villages in Karen areas report that the number of Army camps in their area making demands on them has quadrupled, quintupled or more in the past 12 years.
It is also important to note that many of these orders are really demanding forced labour, particularly those for wood, bamboo, roofing thatch shingles and other such items. To fulfil Army demands for bamboo or wooden planks, the villagers must cut wood in the forest, haul it back, saw it into planks and then haul them to the Army camp; when roofing shingles are demanded, they must gather leaves and bamboo in the forest, shave the bamboo into strips, then make split-bamboo frames, mount the leaves and tie them on with bamboo strips to make shingles several feet long. Hundreds of these must then be delivered on bullock carts or the villagers' backs to the Army camp.
Demands for money take on various forms: direct demands, demands for "servants' fees" and other fees, demands for "pagoda donations" which are then either kept by the Army or donated in the names of the officers, and requests to "borrow" money which is usually never repaid. In some cases the "servants' fees" are paid to the village tract authorities to hire substitute labourers to meet the Army's forced labour demands (see above under 'Forced Labour Fees'), but more often they are paid to the Army in lieu of going for forced labour. When paid directly to the Army, this money is supposedly to hire labourers or to buy food for those doing forced labour, but in reality the officers pocket the money, round up their forced labourers and force the villages to provide food for them. Order #155 below even demands 50 Kyat from a village for every visitor who arrives there. This is easier to enforce than it may seem, because all visitors to villages must be registered and reported to the local military or the village elders are arrested.
All of these demands for cash and materials are sent to the village head, who must then distribute the burden by assigning villagers to gather the materials on a rotation basis and dividing the amount of cash to be paid by the number of families in the village. Most families end up having to contribute several thousand Kyat per month toward the cash demands, as well as material contributions. This is in addition to the food and belongings looted by passing patrols and the forced labour they must do. Given all the demands placed on them, it is often difficult or impossible for a village to comply, particularly when the Army demands 50,000 Kyat within 2 hours, 50 durian fruit, 500 wooden posts or 500 thatch shingles within 2 days. In these cases the village either ignores the order or scrambles to comply, but as soon as they are late the Army begins issuing increasingly threatening letters. In some cases direct threats are made; for example, Order #161threatens to arrest the village head if the demands are not met, while Order #191 threatens to stop all commercial activity in the village and force it to relocate if it fails to deliver wood and bamboo to the Army camp.
Order #153
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To:
Company #x U aaaa
I am writing this letter. Get 5 viss [8 kg / 17.5 lb] of dried betelnuts for me. I'm sending this messenger to get it right now.
Yours,
[Sd.] 13/12
Camp Commander
xxxx Camp
Order #154
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Date: 24/9/99 xxxx village
Company #x
Chairperson, [we] must get 2 books, 200 sheets of foolscap [paper] and one pair of size 40 shoes from the Chairperson for Capt. xxxx, and if there is any unusual news, send the information to the camp urgently.
[Sd.] 24/9/99
(for) Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx
Order #155
To: Chairperson, Secretary Date: 11-9-99
xxxx Village
Subject: The Chairperson or Secretary must meet with the Camp Commander
Chairperson from xxxx village, there are many guests in the Chairperson's village. Our camp has specified a guest registration fee of 50 Kyat per guest.
Send it [the money] to our Camp for the fees of these 29 guests, you are informed.
For the Camp from Chairperson's Village:
(1) 1 big tin of betelnut
(2) 1 bottle of honey, help us.
Note: When the messenger comes to report information to yyyy Camp, tell the messenger to come first to yyyy Camp to report the information.
[Sd.] 11-9-99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[All visitors and guests in villages must be entered into a register. In this case, the Army Camp charges the village a 'fee' of 50 Kyat per visitor as yet another cynical method of extortion, and is demanding the money for the 29 latest visitors. The 'Note' at the bottom of this order makes little sense, but here it must be taken into account that most Burmese military officers are semi-illiterate and not particularly bright.]
Order #156
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: U aaaa
Column #x Headquarters
I am writing this letter.
There is no special subject. [I] am taking 3,000 Kyat in cash from the xxxx Chairperson for the moment. Right now I have emergency needs, so send 5,000 Kyat in cash with this messenger. Send 3 good durians for the Column Commander. If able, [I] also need 1 chicken.
[Sd.]
Respectfully
Corporal xxxx
(Intelligence Section)
[SPDC officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) frequently 'borrow' money from villagers such as the 3,000 Kyat mentioned above, but they seldom pay it back. In addition, this NCO is demanding direct extortion of 5,000 Kyat, among other things. Durian are large and highly-valued seasonal fruit.]
Order #157
To: Chairperson / Secretary
xxxx [village]
Subject: To coordinate and discuss village affairs
Chairperson, there are emergency matters, so come to yyyy village to arrive tonight, you are requested. If [you] have enough beef, [I] want [you] to bring 1 viss [1.6 kg / 3.5 lb] of meat and 1 viss of viscera. The Column has gone out and the camp troops are left behind [in the camp]. If possible, bring 3 viss to feed the camp.
[Sd.]
9/9/99
Order #158
To: Saw aaaa
Chairperson, xxxx Village
Have you finished doing the things I ordered? Do it and send it back to arrive today. Do [send]also 1,000 Kyat.
Friendly and respectfully…
[Sd.]
Corporal bbbb
Communications
yyyy Camp
Order #159
To: Chairperson
(xxxx [village])
I am writing this letter.
It is no unusual subject. Right now [I am] sending 1,000 Kyat in cash with this messenger. Buy dogfruit with this money and send it. If you have the thing that I asked from you, send it. Also give something big to cook for our curry.
[Sd.]
Respectfully
Corporal xxxx
(Intelligence)
[Dogfruit is a hard, bitter pulpy disc-shaped 'fruit' which is generally cooked into meals in early rainy season. The expression used for 'something big to cook' implies a whole chicken, pig or cow. Sometimes officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) send money to pay for some of the things they demand; however, this money has often simply been taken from other villagers, and this particular NCO has sent some of the other orders in this report demanding cash from village elders.]
Order #160
Stamp: Date: 8-9-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Company #x
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Chairperson, things are not going well here for food, so I am asking for help from Chairperson.
From Chairperson, [send] one chicken, 1 viss [1.6 kg / 3.5 lb] of durian jam, and one bottle of honey, please arrange [it].
Sgt. xxxx
[Sd.] 8/9/99
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Company #x
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #161
Stamp: 30-8-99
#xxx [IB], Company #x
xxxx [camp]
U aaaa,
Come to xxxx camp without fail to arrive on August 31st 1999. If [you] do not come,[we] will come to arrest [you]. If [you] don't come, serious action will be taken, [this is your]second warning.
Note: Bring along with you 15 ripe durians.
[Sd.]
Duty Officer
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #162
Stamp: 23-7-99
Village Tract Peace & Development Council To:
xxxx Village Tract Chairperson and Secretary
Subject: The camp is demanding things, so come and send [them] to arrive this evening,
as follows:
(1) Send 20 durians.
(2) Capt. xxxx orders 3 bowls of dogfruit.
[He] asked me to inform you to bring beautifully shaped durians. Be sure to send them.
[Sd.] 23-7-99
aaaa
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[The Army Camp has passed on its demands to the village tract authorities, who in this order are passing them on to the villages. Durian is a large, seasonal and highly valued fruit. Dogfruit are a staple part of the Karen diet in some areas during part of rainy season.]
Order #163
To: Village head 15-7-99
xxxx village
Right now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, come and bring along 10 golden banana trees toyyyy Camp, bring them without fail.
[Sd.]
Captain
Order #164
Stamp: Date: 29-6-99
#xxx [IB], #x Company
Date: 29/6/99 To: Chairperson - U aaaa
xxxx [camp] yyyy village
Writing a letter from xxxx Army Camp. Send the money that U aaaa took for the cost of the rice, together with 5 bowls of dogfruit and 200 rambutan fruit, to arrive on 30-6-99, you are informed.
[Sd.] 29/6/99
Ta Ka² [Sergeant Major]
[Dogfruit is a hard, bitter pulpy disc-shaped 'fruit' which is generally cooked into meals in early rainy season. Rambutan is a very sweet fruit with a red hairy-looking exterior, common throughout Southeast Asia. The reference to the money is unclear, though it may mean that the village has been ordered to send money for the 'cost' of feeding forced labourers or is sending money in lieu of rice.]
Order #165
Stamp: 29-6-99
Village Peace & Development Council To: U aaaa
Ye Township, yyyy Village yyyy (xxxx villager)
Subject: Money Problems
Regarding the above subject, the money that U aaaa took is overdue past the deadline. Until now you haven't sent it back. Come quickly to pay. If you don't pay [we] will turn this over to the appropriate person, letting you know.
This letter now is your last notification. [Sd.]
Village Peace & Development Council
Ye Township, xxxx Village
[This is a letter from the authorities of a central village to an elder of another village who has held back a payment or borrowed money to pay off SPDC fees. 'The appropriate person' most likely means the local military.]
Order #166
Stamp:
#xxx [IB], #x Company Date: 17/6/99
Date: 17/6/99 To: Chairperson - U aaaa
yyyy [camp] xxxx village
Writing this letter from the Army Camp. [We] have to give a present to the leaders from the Division, so [you] must bring 50 durians from U aaaa's village to arrive on 20-6-99 at yyyy Army Camp, the Captain orders it.
[The bottom part of this order with the signature was torn off. The 'Division' is the Light Infantry Division, which consists of 10 Battalions. Durian are large, seasonal and highly-valued fruit weighing several kilograms each, not readily available in quantities like 50 at a time. The village failed to comply on time with this Order, so it was followed by Order #167 below.]
Order #167
Stamp: Date: 20-6-99
#xxx [IB], Company #x To:
Date: 20/6/99 Chairperson
yyyy [camp] xxxx village
Subject: To send durian
Chairperson U aaaa, the army camp asked for 50 durians to arrive on 20-6-99. Why didn't they arrive yet? Don't [you] care about the army camp? Why? Therefore, right now as soon as [you] receive this letter, the Chairperson yourself must come without fail to report information and to bring 50 durians on 21-6-99.
If they don't arrive on 21-6-99, serious action will be taken.
[Sd.]20/6/99
Sgt. Maj.bbbb
IB #xxx, Company #x
(for) Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
[This order came when the village failed to comply on time with Order #166 above.]
Order #168
To: U aaaa
Chairperson
xxxx village 30-5-99
Subject: To send 1 basket of rice and 1 viss [1.6 kg/3.5 lb] of chicken
Regarding the above subject, come and bring 1 basket of rice and 1 viss of chicken with the messenger to yyyy camp, you are informed.
Come to meet with the [Sd.]
yyyy Camp Commander Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
LIB xxx, Column #x
2nd Lieutenant bbbb
Order #169
Stamp:
Infantry Battalion #xxx
Date: 25-5-99 To: Pa aaaa
Company #x
When you receive this letter, bring 3 pyi [about 6 kg/13 lb] of rice to xxxx village tomorrow morning, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.]
IB #xxx
Column
Order #170
Stamp: To: Chairpersons
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion VPDC
Column #x aaaa / bbbb / cccc /
dddd / eeee / ffff / gggg [villages]
Date: 22/5/99
Subject: To send bamboo / thatch
For the use of xxxx Army Camp, send without fail bamboo / thatch as [specified] below to arrive on 25-5-99, you are informed.
(a) aaaa [village] bamboo, (200) pieces
(b) bbbb [village] big bamboo, length 15 cubits, (20) pieces
(c) dddd [village] big bamboo, length 15 cubits, (10) pieces
(d) eeee [village] big bamboo, length 15 cubits, (25) pieces
(e) ffff [village] big bamboo, length 15 cubits, (10) pieces
(f) cccc [village] thatch, (150) [shingles]
(g) gggg [village] big bamboo, length 15 cubits, (10) pieces
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander
Frontline IB #xxx
['Big bamboo' ('wah gyi') is bigger diameter than ordinary bamboo, suitable for building posts. 15 cubits is approximately 22.5 feet / 6.7 metres. The thatch requested is 150 shingles, woven by the villagers from leaf and split bamboo; usually each shingle is 3 to 4 feet long. The 3 orders below also relate to this subject.]
Order #171
Stamp: Date: 23-5-99
Frontline [illegible]
#[Illegible] infantry Battalion
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: Sending bamboo to repair the camp
Regarding the above-mentioned matter, to repair the damaged parts of the camp, send without fail 500 bamboo [poles] from Gentleman's [your] village to the camp, right now as soon as [you] receive this letter. If [you] fail, serious action will be taken.
[Sd.]
yyyy Camp
Order #172
Stamp: Date: 27-5-99
Frontline [illegible] To: Chairperson
#[illegible] Infantry Battalion xxxx village
Subject: To send bamboo quickly
Regarding the above subject, until now Gentleman's [your] village hasn't come to send the bamboo yet. As soon as [you] receive this letter, come quickly without fail to bring it to the camp. If[you] fail, serious action will be taken.
Bring at the same time the 30 durians and 2 bottles of honey that I already asked from you. Chairperson yourself, come to meet at the camp.
[Sd.]
yyyy Camp
Order #173
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 27-5-99
Column #x VPDC
xxxx [village]
Subject: To send bamboo
Gentleman's [your] village must send big bamboo [posts], but until now you haven't sent [them] yet. Send [them] to arrive on 28-5-99, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander
Order #174
To: [Village] Head Date: 11-5-99
To plant at the Column, come and send 100 small chillie plants to Frontline IB #xxx, Column #x, atxxxx, to arrive on April [sic: May] 12th 1999 at (1400) hours.
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion [Sd.]
Column #x Headquarters Column Office
[Note that to provide 100 chillie bushes on 1 day's notice, the village will have little option but to uproot someone's entire chillie field.]
Order #175
To: Chairperson
xxxx [village] 10-5-99
(1) 10 bowls [about 20 kg/44 lb] of rice, one basket of charcoal, send tomorrow.
[Sd.]
Capt. aaaa
yyyy
yyyy Camp Commander, LIB xxx
Captain aaaa
Note: This rice and charcoal has already been sold.
[The note at the bottom either means that the Captain has already given money for the goods, and/or that he has arranged a buyer for them for his own personal profit.]
Order #176
To: Chairperson Date: 8/5/99
VPDC
xxxx village
Subject: To send wooden poles / bamboo / thatch
1) For the use of yyyy Army Camp, come to send wooden poles / bamboo / thatch to arrive on 11-5-99 at the Army Camp according to the list below.
(a) aaaa village Bamboo (500) pieces
(b) bbbb village Thatch (200)
(c) cccc Thatch (150)
(d) dddd Big bamboo (30) pieces
(e) eeee Bamboo (300) pieces
(f) ffff Wooden posts (100) pieces
Therefore, send the materials from each village on the specified date without fail, you are informed.
Stamp: [Sd.]
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Company Commander
Column #x Company #x
Frontline IB #xxx
(yyyy Army Camp)
Order #177
To: Chairperson / Secretary 29-4-99
xxxx [village]
Subject: The matter of repaying the price of the pork
Regarding the above subject, to be paid the price of the pork which the Column and the Camp have bought, come to the camp as soon as [you] receive this letter, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #178
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Frontline Headquarters #x Column #x Headquarters, yyyy [camp]
Infantry Battalion #xxx Ref No. xxx/xx/01/Oo 1
Date: 1999 April 28
To:
Chairperson
Village Peace and Development Council
xxxx village group
Subject: To send Bamboo/Hmyo [wood of a type of mangrove tree]
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion, Column x Headquarters, for repair of yyyy Camp, [needs] from the villages included [in the distribution of this letter], 300 bamboo and 100 hmyo each 6 taun [3 metres / 9 feet] long from each village. As soon as you get this letter send it to yyyy Camp, you are informed.
[Sd]
(for) Column Commander
[This is an order carbon-copied to several villages, with the village name written in afterwards.]
Order #179
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Date: 26-4-99
Column #x
To: Chairpersons
Village Peace & Development Councils
aaaa village, bbbb village, cccc village,
dddd village, eeee village, ffff village,
& gggg village, Papun Township
Subject: To attend a meeting and send the material for building
1) Regarding the above subject, a meeting will be held to discuss the regional area. Chairpersons of the villages concerned, each of you yourselves must come to xxxx village to arrive on 28-4-99 at 12:00 o'clock in the afternoon, and do not send the [village] secretaries to represent you.
2) To rebuild the living quarters in the camp and outside, we have divided the responsibilities among the villages concerned as shown below.
(a) ffff village Thatch, (200) [shingles]
(b) eeee village Wooden posts (100)
(c) cccc village Bamboo (500)
(d) dddd village Wah Boh Wah [a type of giant bamboo] (30)
(e) bbbb village Thatch, (200) [shingles]
(f) gggg village Shark-tooth saw (1)
(g) aaaa village Loh ah pay [forced labourers]
3) Send the above materials to arrive at xxxx Army Camp on 24-4-99. If [you] fail, it will be the Gentlemen's [your] responsibility, we are letting you know and you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
[In the list of materials, the number of thatch refers to long shingles of thatch woven by the villagers out of leaves and bamboo. A shark-tooth saw is a type of long two-man manual saw for sawing logs.]
Order #180
Stamp:
#xxx [IB], Company #x
21-4-99
xxxx [camp]
To: Sir, the Captain asks Chairperson U aaaa from yyyy [village] to buy rice and also 5 rice sacks for the camp. Let [him].
Sir, take 500 [Kyat] of pocket money from U aaaa.
I already told [him].
Respectfully,
[Sd.] 21-4-99
xxxx [camp]
Order #181
Stamp: 20-4-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary
Column #x xxxx village
1) For the use of Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion, yyyy Army Camp, send without fail 150 hardwood posts, as big around as a milk tin [diameter 3 to 4 inches / 8 cm] and 12 feet long, to arrive on 23-4-99 at yyyy Army Camp, you are informed.
2) Chairperson or Daw aaaa Secretary, either one come on 21-4-99 (Wednesday) to report information to the Army at yyyy without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
[In item 2, the officer has used correction fluid to blank out the terms shown as crossed out, and has written in the village secretary's name in their place. The village did not send the posts on time, so this order was followed by Order #182 below. ]
Order #182
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x
To: Chairperson / Secretary
Village Law & Order Restoration Council
xxxx [village] Date: 24/4/99
Subject: Come and bring the wooden posts
Gentleman's [your] village has to send the remaining 150 wooden posts, so come to bring them and arrive today (24/4/99), you are informed.
[Sd.]
Army Camp Commander
Frontline IB #xxx
(yyyy [camp])
[This order followed Order #181 above.]
Order #183
To: U aaaa (Chairperson) 11-4-99
xxxx village
U aaaa, I am writing this letter. Right now [I] have arrived at yyyy village. I remember you. Come to meet me from zzzz village. Bring along in cash 30,000 Kyat (Thirty Thousand Kyat). When [you]arrive here I will talk to you.
I also want to see you. I have arrived in your area.
Health to all the villagers. Come as soon as [you] receive this letter.
That's all.
[Sd.]
Captain xxxx
IB #xxx
Order #184
To: Village Head Date: 1-4-99
xxxx [village]
Gentleman [Village] Head:
The gentleman [village] head must arrange the rotation of 4 viss of curry. Now xxxx village must arrange for their turn, to arrive today on 1-4-99 and send it without fail, you are informed. If you fail today, you will have to give more curry as punishment.
Note
If you fail, [you must give] 5 viss. [Sd.]
yyyy [camp]
LIB #xxx
['Curry' is the usual translation of a term which actually means meat dishes to eat with rice. The villages in this area are forced to rotate, with a different village each day providing 4 viss (6.4 kg / 14 lb) of 'curry' for the local Army camp; this letter notifies a village that today it is their turn, and that if they are late they will be ordered to give more. See also Order #197below.]
Order #185
To:
Village head
xxxx village 1-4-99
[Village] Head, I am writing this letter. I already asked you for 1 bottle of honey, 1 packet of sesame jaggery and 1 bunch of golden bananas, so give them now to this messenger. Now we have arrived at yyyy. If [we] get time, [we] will come.
Thank you, [Sd.]
Friendly
Captain aaaa
yyyy
[Jaggery is hard brown crystallised sugar, made by boiling cane juice; the type demanded here also has sesame seeds in it.]
Order #186
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Frontline Headquarters #x Column #x Headquarters, yyyy Camp
Infantry Battalion #xxx Ref. No. 101 / 02 / xx / Oo 1
Date: 1999, March 16th
To:
Chairperson
Village Peace and Development Council
xxxx Village Tract
Subject: To send bamboo and nipa palm
To repair Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Column #x Headquarters at yyyy Camp, the included Village Tracts must send 100 bamboo [posts] and 300 stitched nipa palm leaf shingles toyyyy Camp. They must arrive on 20-3-99, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
[This order was carbon-copied to several villages with the village name written in afterwards. The leaf shingles are used for roofing.]
Order #187
To: Chairperson
xxxx village Date: 2-3-99
Subject: To send thatch
Regarding the above subject, to rebuild the buildings and the living quarters at yyyy camp, for fences, roofs and walls send 300 thatch shingles from the Gentleman's [your] village to arrive atyyyy camp on 10-3-99 at the latest. Asking for your help.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
yyyy camp
xxx xxxx [serial #], Bo xxxx
[This is a typed form letter with the village name and number of thatch shingles written in afterwards by hand. The last line under the signature is the officer's serial number and name.]
Order #188
Stamp:
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
yyyy Village Tract
To: Chairperson, Secretary
xxxx [village]
Chairperson, right now [we] must get 75 viss [120 kg / 262 lb] of betelnut for the Deputy Battalion Commander. Chairperson's village must collect 20 viss of betelnut and send it to yyyy village to arrive on Wednesday, the Camp Commander has asked for it. [We] will give 1,400 [Kyat].
[Sd.] 2-3-99
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
yyyy Village Tract, Than Daung Township
[In this case the Deputy Battalion Commander has demanded a large quantity of betelnut so the village tract PDC is distributing the demand among the local villages. 75 viss is a huge quantity of betelnut, far too much for personal consumption; the Commander is paying the villagers very little for it, and probably intends to sell it on the market for personal profit.]
Order #189
To: Chairperson, Secretary
Subject: Arrange a pig weighing 20 viss [32 kg / 70 lb] for tonight
Chairperson, arrange a pig weighing 20 viss for tonight, it is the order of the Column Commander. You absolutely must arrange it.
[Sd.] 25-2-99
(for) Camp Commander
xxxx
Order #190
To: xxxx village head 25-2-99
Subject: Writing to let you know, if you receive my letter come to see me at once. Come and call [to come along] the yyyy village head and one child of aaaa [a villager]. Come for sure. Bring along for me 3 viss [4.8 kg / 10.5 lb] of jaggery. On 27-2-99 arrive at zzzz.
Receive [this letter] and comply.
From,
[Sd.]
zzzz [camp]
[This order was written in Sgaw Karen. Jaggery is hard crystallised blocks made from boiling sugar cane juice.]
Order #191
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 22-2-99
Company #x xxxx village
Subject: Informing you with a warning
Regarding the above subject, to fence yyyy camp we allotted you [to supply] wood and bamboo, and we will not accept any reason if you are late. If you fail, the village sawmill / rice mills ['ha la seh', referring to rice milling machines from China] / other commercial activities will be stopped, and we will force the village to relocate, you are informed.
Maj. aaaa's assistant [Sd.]
yyyy Camp Commander Capt. bbbb (for) Company Commander
LIB xxx, Company #x #x Company
Order #192
To: Chairperson
I'm writing this letter.
At the place where we stopped in xxxx village below the monastery, there is a shop. In that shop buy a blade for shaving and one [razor] handle. It costs 400 Kyat. This evening arrive at yyyy to see me.
I am staying in the house in front of the camp, before the house of the Company Commander.
I need to use the rest of the money for the servants, so bring me as much as you have.
Come now at once when you receive this letter (urgent).
xxxx [Sd. / 28-1-99]
LIB Cpy. x
xxx - Captain xxxx's group
[The 'money for the servants' means porter fees, a routine form of SPDC extortion which is demanded from villagers allegedly to 'hire' or 'feed' porters; however, the Army then forces villagers to go as porters without pay and bring their own food, pocketing the money.]
Order #193
Stamp:
Peace & Development Council Headman 17-1-99
xxxx Village Tract yyyy [village]
#x Tactical Command has emergency need for 10 viss [16 kg/35 lb] of betelnut, [so we are] asking for help from Gentleman's [your] village. [We] will pay the price of the betelnut at once at the current price of xxxx village.
Gentleman yourself, help [us], you must arrive on 20-1-99, you are requested.
[Sd.]
Member (1)
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village Tract, Papun Township
Order #194
xxxx [village] 16-1-99
5 x 5 - 8 taun - 1 piece
5 x 2 - 8 " - 3 pieces
6 - three ma - 8 " - 2 pieces
3 x 2 - 8 " - 3 pieces
LIB xxx, Company #x
Captain aaaa
Send flooring to xxxx village, yyyy camp.
[This is a list of wood which the village must provide as flooring for the Army camp, specifying the dimensions of the various types of posts and planks - one 5" x 5", three 5" x 2", and three 3" x 2", each 8 'taun' (about 12 feet) long. One 'ma' is 25 pya (1 Kyat = 100 pya), so the reference to "6 three-ma"'s is unclear.]
Order #195
To: U aaaa
Near to xxxx village, [we] know that Ko bbbb keeps his teak. We will make furniture, so [we] want to borrow for a moment about 1 ton or 2 tons from this teak.
We already borrowed teak and later cccc came to repay it. If we meet with Ko bbbb, [we] will tell[him]. If [we] saw the teak when it arrives up above, we already have to pay more to the teak sawyer. That's why we need it quickly.
[We] will send cccc to get the teak.
Stamp: [Sd.]
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion yyyy Temporary [camp]
Column #x Headquarters 16-1-99
Battalion Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #196
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, come to yyyy camp. Bring 5 coconuts to arrive at yyyy camp today, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #197
To: U aaaa Date: 24-12-98
Chairperson
xxxx [village]
Chairman -
In accordance with [orders given at] the coordination meeting, the Gentleman's[your] village has responsibility for [providing] 4 viss [6.4 kg / 14 lb] of curry, send it to arrive on 26-12-98, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Army Camp Commander
yyyy Army Camp
LIB xxx
['Curry' is the usual translation of a term which actually means meat dishes to eat with rice. See also Order #184. The villages in this area are forced to rotate, with a different village each day providing 4 viss (6.4 kg / 14 lb) of 'curry' for the local Army camp; this letter notifies a village that today it is their turn.]
Order #198
To: Chairperson 22-12-98
U aaaa
Gentleman's [your] village and xxxx village, it is your turn to pay curry to the camp until the 27th. Both gentlemen must coordinate in accordance with specifications to send it on 23-12-98, you are informed.
Chicken 4 viss / pork 5 viss / dried fish 5 viss, whichever kind you get.
[Sd.]
(for) Camp Commander
LIB xxx
Camp Commander xxxx
[Each 'viss' is 1.6 kilograms / 3.5 pounds.]
Order #199
To: Chairman Date: 14-12-98
Tomorrow, 15/12/98, make one basket for [carrying] chickens, [we] want you to send it.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander (2)
xxxx Camp
LIB xxx, Company #x
Capt. xxxx
Order #200
To: Chairperson (previous) 30-10-98
Secretary
xxxx village
1. Verify that the cost of aaaa's watch is 1,000 Kyat, and (Chairperson / Secretary) pay it to[him].
2. Secretary, take care of the matter that I ordered you.
3. Find 2 bowls of peanuts (nuts only [i.e. shelled]).
4. I will call [you] when I need. [You] must come when I call.
[Sd.]
Sgt. Maj. bbbb
[This Sergeant Major has taken the villager's watch and is ordering the village head to reimburse the villager for it, as well as demanding other things while he is at it.]
Order #201
Stamp:
Frontline #x Tactical Command Group
Date: 27.7.98
Southwest Region Headquarters Date: 27-7-98
To: Head
On 28-7-98 send 1 viss of chicken. The officer has no curry to eat so send it without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Camp Commander
xxxx Tactical Command Army Camp
Rice / Crop Quotas and Taxes
Farmers of every type of crop in Burma have to hand over a portion of their crop to the SPDC authorities. The quotas are set as a certain number of baskets of paddy or units of another crop per acre. Meetings are held to notify the villages in each area how much acreage they are supposed to grow (whether they can in fact plant that many acres or not) and the quotas they must pay per acre. After the harvest, 'paddy-buying' officials go around the villages to collect the quota. These quotas are usually set at 12-15 baskets of paddy per acre, and farmers are forced to sell their quota to the authorities at less than half of market price or face arrest. In practice, when the farmers hand in their quotas the corrupt local officials steal much of this money by deducting many kinds of bogus 'fees' and claiming that the rice contains straw or impurities, and the farmers end up receiving only 20% or less of market price; meanwhile, the SPDC takes the crop quota, and the officials pocket most of the money. For examples of this process, see "Death Squads and Displacement" (KHRG #99-04, May 1999).
In the past 3 years crops in many regions have been virtually wiped out by droughts and floods, but no exceptions are granted and the quotas have actually increased during this period. Many farmers have lost their seed paddy due to SPDC extortion, looting, forced labour and crop quotas so they cannot even plant a full crop, yet they must still pay full quota. In many areas the SPDC also claims to be implementing 'development' through double- and triple-cropping programs. In these areas, farmers are ordered to grow a second or third crop and promised the irrigation and fertiliser which is necessary; however, the officials steal the funds and sell the fertiliser so the farmers cannot grow the crop, but they must still pay the quota on it, and this quota can be even heavier than on the main crop (Order #207 refers to a quota on a second crop).
In addition, farmers must pay any 'taxes' on their acreage which are invented by the local military and PDC authorities;Order #209 is an example of this, where a local Battalion is taxing farmers for every acre they have planted in rubber.
Order #202
Township Peace & Development Council
Myawaddy Town
Date:2-11-99
Stamp: To:
Township Peace & Development Council Chairperson
xxxx village
Myawaddy Town
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, [we] will hold a meeting according to the aim below. Attend without fail (without fail), you are invited.
Aim : To discuss and coordinate the matter of buying rice
Agenda : Date: 3-11-99
: Time: 10:00 o'clock
: Place: Township Chairperson's Office
[Sd.]
(for) Chairperson
[This is a typed and carbon-copied order with the village name, date and agenda written in afterward by hand. 'The matter of buying rice' relates to demands by the authorities for the annual rice quota.]
Order #203
To: Stamp:
Chairpersons ( All ) #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx Village Tract #x Company
aaaa / bbbb / cccc /
dddd / eeee / ffff [villages]
Date: 16-7-99
Subject: Invitation to the Administrative Coordination Affairs meeting
[You] are informed by Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion (yyyy Army Camp), to discuss paddy cultivation affairs in villages, the Chairpersons themselves should come to yyyy Army Camp on the 5th Waxing day of Second Wa Zoh month [17-7-99] without fail.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Army Camp
[This would likely be a meeting to assess how much paddy acreage the villages are growing and give orders on how much the authorities demand that they produce and how much they will have to give as quota.]
Order #204
To: Chairperson Stamp: Date: 16-7-99
xxxx village #xxx Infantry Battalion
Company #x
Subject: Invitation to a meeting to discuss administration
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion (yyyy Army Camp) in the village wants to discuss and coordinate the matter of land for cultivation. Village Chairpersons yourselves must come without fail to yyyy Army Camp, to arrive on the 5th waxing day of second Wa Zoh [17-7-99], you are informed.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Camp
Order #205
To: Chairperson Stamp:
xxxx village Infantry Battalion #xxx
Company #x Date: 16-7-99
Subject: Invitation for discussion meeting about control
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion (yyyy Army camp) would like to discuss with the villages about agriculture. Every village chairperson must come on the 5th day of Second Wa Zoh Lah Zan [the 5th waxing day of Second Wa Zoh month] to yyyy Army camp, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Camp Commander
yyyy Army camp
Order #206
Stamp: Township Peace & Development Council
Township Peace & Development Council Kya In Seik Gyi town
Kya In Seik Gyi town Letter No. 5 / 41-28 / Oo-6
Date: 1999 May 11th
To: Village Head
xxxx village
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Paddy buying regarding this matter, [we] want to coordinate and discuss with [you] gentlemen according to the plan below. Come to the meeting without fail, you are informed.
Plan
Date: 13-5-99 (Thursday)
Time: Afternoon at 1:00
Place: Ma Ya Ka [Township PDC] office
[Sd. / 11/5/99]
(for) Chairperson
Copies: Office Copy
[This is a typed form letter with the specific details (shown in italics) handwritten in the blanks. 'Paddy buying' refers to the purchase of the forced paddy quotas by the regime.]
Order #207
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 2-5-99
Column #x
[We] want to discuss about buying dry season paddy. When [you] receive this letter, come on 3-5-99, tomorrow, to the place where I am staying, xxxx village.
[Sd.]
2-5-99
[Dry season paddy is a second crop (the main crop is grown in rainy season), and the discussion will be about farmers handing over their quota of the second crop at low government price. In many areas the SPDC orders the farmers to grow a second crop but provides no assistance with the necessary irrigation or fertilisers, so the crop fails or the farmers never plant it; however, they are still forced to pay their quota.]
Order #208
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Company #x xxxx village
Subject: Calling for a meeting
1) Regarding the above subject, to meet and discuss with Chairperson [you], on 11-3-99 at 1000 hours, gentleman yourself come to yyyy village, you are informed.
2) When the gentleman comes, bring the register of houses in your village, population, field acreage, and rubber acreage, you are informed.
Place: yyyy [Sd.]
Date: 9-3-99 Army Camp Commander
yyyy Army Camp
Capt. xxxx
[The registers of households and acreage will be used to assess paddy and rubber quotas and taxes. See also Order #209 below.]
Order #209
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
#xxx Infantry Battalion yyyy village
Column #x Headquarters Letter No. xxx / 10 / Oo 1
Date: 1998 December 12th
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: To pay rubber [tax]
Regarding the above subject, for 1 acre of rubber it is 160 Kyat, to be paid by 16/12/98, Na Daw Lah Sote 14 [14th waning day of Na Daw month], to the Township Peace & Development Council (Kya In Seik Gyi) or to Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion at yyyy village. Pay according to whichever is nearer your village, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
Copies:
Office Copy
Order #210
To, 31-7-98
Auntie
I write this letter.
The subject matter is that Auntie can come and get the rice as you need. Therefore, come and get it during the next one or two days. The Camp Commander himself will write a chit, and you can get 30 sacks.
That's all.
The Camp Commander asks Auntie Thank you,
to come yourself without fail. xxxx
xxxx
[This order is unclear; it may have been written after the Army had confiscated the village's rice, telling the headwoman that she can come and get the weekly ration (the Army often does this, with the theory that it will prevent villagers giving rice to opposition forces), or it may be a sympathetic NCO telling a village head that his camp will help the village by giving some rice.]
Health, Education and Pagoda-Building
The orders below have been arranged with those concerning health issues first, followed by education and finally some orders related to building pagodas. The orders concerning health mainly involve meetings regarding vaccination campaigns, midwife training, and village support for the local 'health director'. Most of the health campaigns in Burma are financed by foreign organisations, though when they are implemented the SPDC rarely mentions this and tries to claim full credit in front of the local people; in addition, as can be seen from some of these orders, the villagers are ordered to contribute food and money for various ceremonies connected to these programs and village leaders are threatened if they fail to cooperate fully.
There are only 2 orders concerning education, one being an order to attend a meeting of the parent-teacher association at which 'The Tactical Commander himself will attend the meeting and will give orders for what is required' (Order #216). The other (#217) is a letter from a student to a former teacher, criticising him for promoting students based on favouritism rather than merit and encouraging him to 'follow the truth'; essentially this letter is a reference to the corruption which has crept into the teaching system, as underpaid teachers struggle to survive on minuscule pay and face various pressures from the Army and local authorities.
The final orders (#218 through #221) relate to various stages of the construction of two pagodas in different areas, from the clearing of the land to the placing of the crowning 'hti' on the finished pagoda. In both cases the villagers have been ordered to hand over land, then to provide the building materials and forced labour to build the pagodas, then at their opening the Army officers claim all the Buddhist merit for the project. Usually villagers are glad to contribute resources and labour to pagoda projects, but not when they are initiated and ordered by the Army.
Order #211
Stamp: Date: 21-5-99
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
For the price of building a fence for the house of the health supervisor, the Headman's village must pay 200 Kyat. Send it to arrive on 24-5-99 for this expenditure.
Note: Only for your health supervisor.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun Township
Order #212
Stamp: Date: 9-5-99
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
We have important requirements to announce for giving medicine to the headman's village. Come without fail to the VPDC office on 10-5-99 at 8 o'clock in the morning.
Note: If [you] don't attend, [you] are a headman who doesn't take responsibility for his village.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun Township
[This apparently concerns some medicine which is to be distributed to the villages, presumably by some outside non-governmental organisation or UN agency. The headmen are to be briefed or given orders in advance of the distribution.]
Order #213
To: Stamp:
Chairperson Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Column x Headquarters
Subject: Invitation to attend a celebration for the completion of training
You are invited to attend without fail the celebration for the completion of nursing and midwife training number (1/99) on 5-3-99, at the village health clinic in yyyy village.
Place: yyyy village health clinic
Date: 5-3-99
Time: Morning 0800 hours
For use in the completion [ceremony] of the training, get and send 5 viss [8 kg / 17.5 lb] of fish on 3-3-99, asking for your help.
[Sd.]
Training responsible person
Order #214
Stamp:
Peace & Development Council To: Village Head
xxxx Village Tract
Subject:
Invitation to a meeting.
Regarding the above subject, xxxx health director will discuss with [you] gentlemen. Come and arrive on 5-1-99, in the morning at 8 o'clock, you are informed.
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Papun Township
Order #215
Stamp: Date: 6-12-98
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
Village Head
yyyy [village]
In village head's village, the health department will give vaccinations, so for your village the village head yourself must come to take responsibility. On 7-12-98, in the morning at 10 o'clock, arrive at the Ya Ya Ka [Section/Ward Peace & Development Council]office without fail.
Note: If you do not arrive on 7-12-98 the higher officials will brand the village head as one who is not taking responsibility for health in his village.
[Sd. / 6-12-98]
(for) Chairperson
Order #216
Stamp:
Southwest Command Military Headquarters
#x Tactical Command Group
To: [Village] Head
xxxx village
Subject: Informing [you] to attend the meeting
A meeting of the parent-teacher association of xxxx village basic education middle school, and to discuss and coordinate the sale of rice to the villages, will be held atxxxx village on 20-5-99.
2. The Tactical Commander himself will attend the meeting and will give orders for what is required. The village heads yourselves must attend without fail, you are invited.
3. Come to xxxx village to arrive on 20-5-99 at 8 o'clock in the morning. If [you] fail it will be your responsibility sir, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Tactical Commander
[This order is typical of the Army's meddling in all matters, with the local military commander dictating how the school must be run and most likely making further demands on the villagers.]
Order #217
Headmaster: 2-3-99
How is the situation? I feel unhappy to hear. Is the headmaster a man? You need to follow the truth and do what is important. Don't divide everything [people]. Give priority to what could be over what you want there to be. Give first place to the one who gets the best marks. Don't favour. The pupil [I] will take the responsibility to say thanks. The pupil wants everything to be good, that's why the pupil will take the responsibility. Don't worry headmaster.
Pupil
Temporary / xxxx [village]
[This is a letter from a pupil to a headmaster, subtly criticising him for practicing favouritism, possibly accepting bribes, and giving in to pressure by the authorities in his dealings with his students. Teachers are under steady pressure by the authorities to teach the SPDC curriculum, to instill SPDC propaganda in their students and to turn in students who oppose the regime. The teachers are demoralised by this situation and in addition they cannot survive on their salaries, so many demand bribes to pass students and fail those who cannot pay.]
Order #218
To: Stamp:
Chairperson #xxx Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Company #x Date: 20-7-99
Subject: Invitation to the village Chairperson to meet with the Battalion Commander
From the Battalion Commander of Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion to the xxxx village Chairperson, [you] are invited to discuss and coordinate the construction of a Monastery in yyyy village, and to get the materials that [we] need. As soon as [you] receive this letter, come quickly as you are invited.
[Sd.] 20-7-99
(for) Camp Commander
zzzz Army Camp
Company #x, Company Commander xxxx
Order #219
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Intelligence Deparment yyyy Army Camp
Letter #: xxxx / 03 / Oo 5
Date: 1999 January 16th
To: Village Head
xxxx Village
Subject: Invitation to attend the ceremony for the blessing of
newly cleared land for the Monastery
1) yyyy village needs a Monastery, so the populace of the region has given in charity for the building, led by Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion. [We] already measured the land and cleared it. At the building site of the Monastery, the monks will read Pali texts and bless the newly cleared land on January 19th 1999, the 3rd waxing day of Da Boh Dweh month, year 1361, at (1200) hours in the afternoon.
2) For those who come to the ceremony, including the monks, people and spectators, [we]will make an offering of food in the afternoon. Attend without fail, you are respectfully invited.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
[This is a typed and copied letter with the village name written in by hand.]
Order #220
Stamp: Date: 11-5-99
Peace & Development Council To:
xxxx village tract [Village] Head
Subject: Invitation to the placing of the hti on the pagoda
On the hill of xxxx Army Camp, on 15-5-99, Saturday, #x Tactical Command will place thehti atop the pagoda and make offerings. Come to this ceremony, you are invited.
The villagers from Headman's village may also make offerings as they wish.
[Sd.]
Member (1)
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract / Papun Township
[The 'hti' is the crowning golden umbrella-shaped ornament placed as the final touch on the tip of a pagoda. Its placement is always accompanied by a great deal of ceremony. SPDC authorities and military units try to make Buddhist merit for themselves by building and crowning pagodas, though they usually steal the money to build them and often use the villagers as forced labour to build them. See also Order #221 below. 'Member (1)' means the leading member of the VPDC, under the Chairperson and the Secretaries.]
Order #221
To: Village Head Stamp:
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column x Headquarters Date: 12-5-99
For the placing of the hti on the Pagoda in yyyy camp, for the meal with the ceremony, come to send 5 viss [8 kg / 17.5 lb] of bamboo shoots and 5 lemons from Gentleman's[your] village to yyyy camp, to arrive on 13-5-99, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
Column #xHeadquarters
[See also Order #220 for further explanation of the ceremony mentioned here.]
Summons to 'Meetings'
The orders below call village elders to 'meetings', usually at the local Army base. Village elders are deluged with such orders every week from each Army camp in their area, making it difficult for them to tend their fields and perform their functions within the village. Many of the orders 'invite' the elders, but almost without exception they add the phrase 'without fail'. They are expected to drop everything and go immediately to the Army camp on receipt of these orders. Usually these meetings are completely one-sided: an Army officer dictates demands for forced labour, money or materials to a village elder and gives deadlines, or scolds and threatens the elder for being lax in meeting previous demands. Sometimes the elders are ordered to report on all movements of resistance forces in their area, and are threatened with punishments if any of the information later proves to be inaccurate. The commanders often call all the village heads in their local area to come to the camp at the same time so they can allocate demands to each village, and in this case the orders are copied and sent to as many villages as are required.
The orders commonly threaten the elders that if they fail to come "the responsibility will be yours", or "the responsibility will fall on the village". The former means that the elder will be arrested and punished, the latter that the village will be punished in some form, which can mean forced relocation, looting or the burning of some houses. Some carry explicit threats, such as Orders #223 and 263, which threaten that if the village head doesn't come the Army will arrest anyone they see from his village. Order #247 threatens to take 'action according to the law' if the village head fails to come, while most other orders simply threaten 'serious' or 'severe' action. Perhaps the most threatening order in this set is #222; it contains no threatening words, but it was sent to the village with two small pieces of charcoal enclosed. Pieces of charcoal are occasionally sent with an order by SPDC officers to warn the recipient that the village will be burned as punishment for failure to comply.
Village heads are usually afraid to go to these meetings, so on receiving these orders they often disappear off to their farmfields or to other places. This usually results in further angry and threatening letters from the Army officer, until after the third or fourth letter the village head has to decide whether to go to the camp or flee his/her village.
Order #222
To: Chairperson
xxxx Village
Today [we] have to hold a meeting at yyyy village, so the Chairperson or Secretary yourself must come to the Column Commander at zzzz Village together with this messenger, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
[This order was delivered accompanied by 2 small lumps of charcoal, which is usually interpreted as a serious threat that some houses or the entire village will be burned for any failure to comply.]
Order #223
Stamp: To:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Column #x Headquarters Secretary
Ten-house group leaders
Right now when [you] receive this letter, come quickly to meet with the Column Commander. If[you] do not come, [we] will arrest the villagers when [we] see them on the path.
[Written:] Column Commander
[Stamped:] Column Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #224
To: Chairperson
xxxx Village
Subject: Invitation to attend a meeting
Gentleman, a meeting will be held so come to yyyy Village Army Camp on 30-12-99, and arrive "today" at 12 o'clock, you are invited.
[Sd.] 30/99
(for) Company Commander
Order #225
Chairperson / Secretary Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract Peace & Development Council
Than Daung Township
On 8-11-99 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, attend the meeting at the Ya Ya Ka [VPDC] office, you are hereby informed.
Note: Attend without fail.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #226
Stamp:
#xx Light Infantry Division Headquarters
Tactical Command #xxx
To: Chairperson / Secretary
xxxx Village
To meet, coordinate and discuss matters of Regional Development and Security, come and arrive on 7-11-99 at 0900 hours at yyyy Village, you are informed. (Sunday)
[Sd.]
(for) Tactical Commander
#xxx Tactical Command
Military Operations Supervisory Group
Order #227
Stamp: Date: 6-11-99
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x Headquarters
To: Chairperson / Secretary / Members / Ten-houses group leaders
xxxx Village
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
1. Regarding the above subject, the above-mentioned Gentlemen must attend at the yyyy Village Peace & Development Council Office without fail (without fail) on 6-11-99 at 0900 hours to coordinate matters of village peace and security, you are hereby ordered.
[Sd.]
(for) Intelligence Officer
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #228
To: Chairperson Date: 24-10-99
xxxx Village
Subject: [You] Must come to yyyy Village
1. Come to meet with the Battalion Commander on 24-10-99. Arrive at 3 o'clock in the afternoon at yyyy village. Come without fail, you are hereby informed.
2. If [you] fail to come, serious action will be taken.
[Sd.] 24/10/99, Captain
[The village head failed to attend this meeting, so this order was followed by Order #229 below.]
Order #229
To: Chairperson
xxxx Village
[We] summoned [you] to attend the meeting at yyyy but [you] didn't come, so come and arrive on 28-10-99, you are informed again.
[Sd.]
Intelligence Officer
[This order followed Order #228 above.]
Order #230
Stamp:
Township Peace & Development Council Township Peace & Development Council
Kya In Seik Gyi Town Kya In Seik Gyi Township
- Kya In Seik Gyi Town
Letter # 5 / 43-1 / Oo-6 / 0908
Date: 1999 / October 11th
To: Village Head
xxxx Village
Kya In Seik Gyi Town
Subject: The matter of attending a meeting
Regarding the above subject, to coordinate and discuss management matters for village tracts in Kya In Seik Gyi Township, the village heads must attend without fail a meeting according to the agenda below, you are hereby informed.
Agenda
Date: 19-10-99 (Tuesday)
Time: Afternoon, 1:00 o'clock
Place: Township Peace & Development Council Office Meeting Hall.
[Sd.] 11/10/99
(for) Chairperson
(Saw Ee Naw- Secretary)
Copies to-
Tactical Command Troops (Base) Kya In Seik Gyi Town
File
Office Copy
[This is a typed and carbon-copied order with the village name written in afterward by hand.]
Order #231
To: Village Head, xxxx [village] 29-9-99
- Report to yyyy camp as soon as possible when you receive this message.
- We will take action if you fail.
- We want you to come urgently.
Stamp: [Sd.]
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion yyyy camp
Column x Headquarters
Order #232
To: xxxx Village
Chairperson / Secretary 29/9/99
Subject: Summons to meet with the IB #xxx Battalion Commander
Regarding the above subject, the Gentlemen must respect the time and come to yyyy Army Camp on 30-9-99 at 10 o'clock, you are invited.
Stamp: [Sd.] xxxx, 29/9/99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Officer xxxx
Column #x Supervisory Group xxx - xxxx [serial #]
Order #233
To: Chairperson Date: 19.8.99
(xxxx Village)
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, the Chairperson yourself must come without fail to yyyy VPDC [Ya Ya Ka] office on 20-8-99 at 09:00 hours.
[Sd.]
(for) Intelligence Officer
#xxx Infantry Battalion
yyyy Camp
Order #234
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
#x Column Headquarters
To: Chairperson / Secretary Date: 9-8-99
xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Regarding the above subject, to discuss for emergencies, Chairperson and Secretary from xxxxvillage [must] come and bring information to yyyy camp on 10-8-99 at 0900 hours without fail, you are informed. If you fail we will surely take action.
[Sd.]
Column
#x Column Headquarters
['Emergencies' usually means urgent need for forced labourers or other demands.]
Order #235
Stamp: Date: 6-7-99
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary [sic: 6-8-99]
#x Column Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
In accordance with the above subject, to discuss important matters the xxxx village Chairperson / Secretary [must] come to meet at yyyy camp on 7-8-99 at 1300 hours, you are informed. If you fail severe action will be taken.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
#x Column Headquarters
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Order #236
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
#x Column Headquarters
To: Chairperson / Secretary Date: 3-8-99
xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Regarding the above subject, [we] have important matters to ask you. xxxx village Chairperson/Secretary, go to call both the Chairperson and Secretary from yyyy village, then come to meet today, 3-8-99, arrive at zzzz camp.
Note - xxxx village Chairperson/Secretary
- yyyy village Chairperson/Secretary [come to the meeting]
[Sd. / 3/8]
(for) Column Commander
#x Column Headquarters
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Order #237
Stamp: Date: 25-7-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
To: Chairperson
( xxxx ) village
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, the pastors from the Gentleman's [your] village and the Gentleman yourself must come to yyyy Camp on July 26th '99 at 0900 hours, you are respectfully invited.
[Sd.]
(for) Temporary Battalion Commander
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #238
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary 14-7-99
#x Column Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Regarding the above subject, the Chairperson / Secretary from xxxx village [must] come to yyyycamp at 1000 hours, come without fail, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
#x Column Headquarters
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Order #239
Stamp: Date: 14-7-99
xxxx Village Tract
Peace & Development Council To:
Than Daung Township Chairperson / Secretary
Subject: Summons from the Army
Right now, when [you] receive this letter, summoning [you] to come quickly to yyyy [village]hall.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #240
To: Chairperson / Secretary
Subject: To discuss emergency matters about the village
Gentlemen, there are emergency matters to discuss so attend without fail at the Ya Ya Ka [VPDC]office on Sunday morning at 8 o'clock and be on time, you are invited.
Time: Morning at 10 o'clock. Ya Ya Ka [VPDC] office, 11-7-99.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #241
Stamp: Date: 10-7-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
To: Chairperson, (xxxx) Village
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, the Gentleman must come to yyyy Camp to arrive on 11.7.99 at 1200 hours, you are respectfully invited.
[Sd.]
(for) Temporary Battalion Commander
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #242
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary
[illegible] xxxx village Date: 28-6-99
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Regarding the above subject, to discuss and ask [you] about important matters, the Chairperson / Secretary [must] come to meet with the Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Column Commander at yyyycamp, arrive on 30-6-99.
Do not fail. Come to meet respectfully. If you fail, severe action will be taken.
[Sd.]
28/6
Order #243
Stamp:
xxxx Village Tract
Peace & Development Council To: Chairperson / Secretary
Than Daung Township
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, [we] have to discuss about the village. [We] want you to come to the VPDC [Ya Ya Ka] office on 27-6-99 at 10 o'clock in the morning.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #244
To: Stamp:
Chairperson Infantry Battalion #xxx
xxxx village Column #x
Date: 26-6-99
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion would like to discuss with you about control matters. [You]must come to yyyy camp on (28-6-99) at noon, (12) o'clock, you are respectfully invited to attend the meeting without fail.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
yyyy Army Camp
['Control' matters refers to the Army's control of the area, including such issues as villagers doing forced labour as sentries and village elders being ordered to regularly report on all movements of resistance forces. Identical orders were sent to all villages in the area.]
Order #245
Stamp: Date: 26-6-99
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary
#x Column Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Regarding the above subject, to discuss important matters the village Chairperson / Secretary[must] come to meet with the LIB xxx Column Commander at yyyy village. Arrive on 27-6-99, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
#x Column Headquarters
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Order #246
Stamp: 19-6-99
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract
To: Chairperson, Secretary, Village Mother, Village Father
Subject: Come to meet with the Camp Commander
Regarding the above subject, Chairperson and Secretary, come today to meet with the Camp Commander, you are ordered. [We] want [you] to come quickly. Come and arrive at xxxx Camp on 19-6-99 at 2 o'clock.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
xxxx Village Tract, Than Daung Township
Order #247
Stamp: Date: 12/6/99
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Company #x xxxx village
Right now, if [you] receive this letter, as soon as [you] receive this letter, the Gentleman must come to meet with the Column Commander at yyyy [village], you are informed.
Note:
If [you] fail to arrive, action will be taken according to the law. If the Chairperson can't come, one of his representatives must come and meet.
[Sd.]
Company Commander
#x Company
Order #248
Stamp: 10-6-99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To:
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet the Column Commander
Secretary from xxxx village, right now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, come quickly toyyyy village to meet with the Column Commander, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
Column #x Headquarters
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #249
To: Chairperson / Secretary
xxxx village 29-5-99
Now, when you receive this letter, sir, come yourself to meet with the Column without fail. If you fail, you will be responsible, sir, you are informed.
[Sd. / 29/5/99]
(for) Column Commander
Frontline IB #xxx, Col. x
Order #250
To:
Chairperson
xxxx Village 28-5-99
Chairperson yourself must come immediately to yyyy village, if not the chairperson yourself then a representative must come immediately. You are hereby informed.
[Sd:] xxxx
Company Commander
F.L.I.B. #xxx
#x Company
[A Burmese abbreviation is used equivalent to 'F.L.I.B.', short for Frontline Infantry Battalion.]
Order #251
Stamp: Date: 28-5-99
Peace & Development Council To: Headman
xxxx village tract
U aaaa, Major bbbb wants to see you, so now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, come to yyyyVPDC office.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun Township
Order #252
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village 28-5-99
Subject: Come to meet
As soon as you receive this letter, come to meet at yyyy camp, you are informed. If you fail it will be the gentleman's [your] responsibility.
zzzzTownship
Order #253
To: Chairperson (or) Section Leader Date: 27-5-99
xxxx village
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, come to meet with the Column Commander at yyyymonastery. Bring one assistant.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
Frontline #xxx, Col. #x
Order #254
Stamp: Date: 15-5-99
Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract
For a discussion with the [village] headmen, attend without fail on 16-5-99 at 8 o'clock in the morning at the VPDC office.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Peace & Development Council
xxxx village tract, Papun Township
Order #255
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary 15-5-99
Column x xxxx village
Now, as soon as you receive this letter, the gentleman yourself come to meet with the Column without fail. If you fail it will be your responsibility, sir, you are informed.
Note
Come together now with the one who brings this letter.
[Sd. / xxxx]
(for) Column Commander
Pa/Ka Column Commander xxxx
Army unit - IB xxx
Order #256
Stamp: Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Frontline Headquarters #x Column #x Headquarters, xxxx [camp]
#xxx Infantry Battalion Ref. No. 100 / xxx / 10 / Oo 1
Date: 1999 May 4
To:
Chairpersons
Village Peace and Development Councils
aaaa / bbbb / cccc Villages
Subject: Come immediately for emergency discussion
Villages listed above, your village chairpersons must come immediately in person when you get this letter. Do not send representatives, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
Order #257
Stamp:
Frontline Headquarters #x Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Infantry Battalion #xxx Column #x Headquarters, xxxx [camp]
Ref. No.: 102 / 10 / xxx / Oo 1
Date: 1999 May 2nd
To:
Chairperson
Village Peace and Development Council
aaaa, bbbb, cccc, dddd village tracts
Subject: Invitation to attend a meeting
From the villages mentioned, the Chairpersons yourselves must come to xxxx Camp for a meeting as soon as you receive this letter, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Column Commander
Order #258
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Village Head 1-5-99
Col[umn] #x (xxxx) village
Subject: Come to yyyy Army Camp
Regarding the above subject, [we] want to meet with the village head, so come to meet with the Battalion Commander at yyyy Army Camp; arrive on May 2nd 1999 at 1 o'clock, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
Order #259
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet
Regarding the above subject, as soon as you receive this letter come to meet at yyyy camp, you are informed. If you fail it will be the gentleman's [your] responsibility.
[Written below in red ink:] IB #xxx Deputy Battalion Commander xxxx, 27/4/99, yyyy camp, Division, mother unit Kya In Seik Gyi.
Order #260
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Column #x
To: Chairperson 23-4-99
xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet
Regarding the above subject, now, as soon as you receive this letter, come to meet at yyyy Army Camp. If you fail, it will be the gentleman's [your] responsibility.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
#x Column
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #261
Stamp: Section Peace & Development Council
Peace & Development Council yyyy village
yyyy village tract Letter #: 10 / 12 / VPDC yyyy
Date: 1999 / 18th of April
To: [Village] head
xxxx [village]
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
1. The Tactical Command group at yyyy village will hold a meeting. Village heads yourselves must attend without fail.
2. The meeting will be held on 21-4-99 at yyyy camp. Come to yyyy village at (0900) hours in the morning and do not be late. If [you] don't come it will be your responsibility sir, you are hereby warned and informed.
[Sd.]
Member
Village Peace & Development Council
yyyy village tract, Papun Township
Order #262
Stamp: 15.4.99
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
#x Column
To:
U aaaa / bbbb
Chairpersons
xxxx Village
Dear Sirs,
When you receive this letter, come and meet at yyyy village today at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. You are informed to come to yyyy village today at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and if you fail it will be your responsibility.
[Sd. xxxx]
Intelligence Officer
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #263
To: Chairperson 12/4/99
Secretary
Ten-house group leaders
Right now, when [you] receive this letter, ask this messenger where the Column is staying and come to meet with the Column Commander.
If [you] don't come, [we] will arrest the villagers.
Arrive on 12/4/99 and 13/4/99. Column Commander
Frontline IB #xxx
Order #264
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
(1) Come now to meet at yyyy [village] quickly.
(2) If it is dark in the evening, come with a firebrand [to light the way; the troops won't allow the villagers to use flashlights].
[Sd.]
Order #265
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson Date: 8-4-99
Column #x xxxx village
Gentleman, today [we] have a meeting in yyyy Camp, so Gentleman yourself must attend without fail and must arrive in the afternoon at 2 p.m. at the yyyy [village] Chairperson's house. Come without fail, you are informed.
Respectfully,
[Sd.]
Bo xxxx
(for) Mobile Army
Frontline #xxx
Order #266
To: Chairperson, Secretary 4-4-99
xxxx [village]
Chairperson, come yourself and bring the village mother and village father from Chairperson's village, you are informed by the Camp Commander. Prepare and bring a register of the number of cattle.
[Sd.] 4-4-99
xxxx
Order #267
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson
Column #x Headquarters
Subject: To come to an emergency meeting
Come to meet on 2-4-99, arriving in the morning at 8 o'clock at xxxx camp. If you fail it will be the gentleman's [your] responsibility.
Major xxxx
Column Commander
#x Column
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #268
Stamp:
#xxx Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson 31-3-99
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet
xxxx Chairperson, as soon as you receive this letter come to meet.
Major xxxx
Column Commander
#x Column
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #269
Stamp:
To: Chairperson Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Column x Headquarters
Date: 10-3-99
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, [we] will hold a meeting at yyyy Army camp on 14-3-99 at 8 o'clock in the morning. Do not fail to attend, you are invited.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
yyyy camp
Order #270
Stamp:
To: Chairperson Frontline #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
xxxx village Column x Headquarters
Date: 9-3-99
Subject: Chairpersons must come
Regarding the above subject, now, as soon as [you] receive this letter, the Chairpersons yourselves must come to yyyy Army Camp, you are informed.
[Sd.]
(for) Battalion Commander
yyyy Camp
[Added below in handwriting:] As soon as [you] receive this letter, the Chairpersons yourselves must come. Do not send substitutes. If [you] fail, serious action will be taken.
[Sd.]
[This is a typed and carbon-copied letter with the village name written in by hand. The note below was also written in by hand and signed with the same signature.]
Order #271
To: Village Chairperson Stamp:
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column x Headquarters Date: 6-3-99
Now, as soon as you receive this letter come to yyyy camp. The Column Commander wants to meet. Do not fail to come, you are informed.
[Sd.]
yyyy camp
Order #272
To:
Chairperson
xxxx Village
Subject: Every village Chairperson must come and report.
Regarding the above subject, to discuss important matters with every village Chairperson, they must arrive today (1-3-99) and report to yyyy Camp. You are hereby informed.
(1) Full Moon Da Baun (today) must arrive.
(2) Responsible person must come, if not the Chairperson.
(3) Bring information.
yyyy Army Camp
[This order was copied to several villages with the village name written in afterwards.]
Order #273
To: Village Head Stamp:
xxxx village Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion
Column x Headquarters Date: 15-2-99
Now, immediately when you receive this letter, come to yyyy camp quickly. The Column Commander wants to meet.
[Sd.]
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion, Col.x
yyyy Camp
Order #274
Stamp:
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion To: Chairperson / Secretary Date: 8-2-99
#x Column Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Regarding the above subject, xxxx Village Peace & Development Council Chairperson / Secretary, when you receive this letter come to meet with the LIB xxx Column Commander, you are informed.
Do not fail. Obey respectfully, you are informed again.
[Sd. / 8-2-99]
Column Commander
LIB xxx, Column Office
Order #275
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion To:
Column #x Headquarters xxxx village
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
[We] want to have a meeting with the Village Peace & Development Council chairpersons (or) secretaries of villagers from the region of the Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Column, so do not fail to attend in accordance with the following agenda, you are informed.
Meeting place yyyy
Meeting date 6-2-99
Meeting time 0800
February 5th 1999 [Sd.]
Column Commander
#xxx Infantry Battalion
Order #276
Stamp:
To: #xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Chairperson #x Company
xxxx village 5-2-99
Subject: Invitation to a meeting
Regarding the above subject, a meeting will be held on 7-2-99 at (0900) hours in yyyy Camp. Do not fail to come, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Company Commander
#x Company
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion
Order #277
To: Dear Gentlemen Stamp: 3-2-99
[illegible]
Chairperson or one of the members from xxxx village, when you get this letter you must come immediately with [sic: to] the commander to yyyy Camp. [You] must come at 8 o'clock tomorrow, 4-2-99, you are hereby informed.
Camp Commander
[Sd.]
['Members' refers to the members of the appointed Village Peace & Development Council.]
Order #278
Stamp:
Frontline #x Tactical Command Unit 26-1-99
Southwest Regional Headquarters
To: Village head
xxxx village
[We] have matters to coordinate with you sir, so come to Tactical Command #x at yyyy on 27-1-99 at (1200) hours, you are informed to come without fail.
[Sd.]26/1/99
Captainxxxx
Camp Commander
Tactical Command #x
Order #279
To: xxxx [village]
Chairperson / Secretary
From xxxx [village], both Chairperson and Secretary come to yyyy village today, to arrive in the evening at 5 o'clock. Do not fail.
Stamp: [Sd.]
#xxx Light Infantry Battalion (Intelligence Officer)
Military Control Headquarters (Frontline #xxx)
Date: 24-1-99
Place: yyyy village
Order #280
To: Chairperson
U xxxx
If you receive this notification letter, come quickly with Kyaun T'Ga [lay monastery helper(s)]. Come quickly.
Column Commander
xxxx [village]
LIB xxx, Column x
Column Commander aaaa
Order #281
Stamp: To:
Village Tract Peace & Development Council Chairperson
yyyy Village Tract xxxx village
Subject: The matter of calling a meeting
Regarding the above subject, right now as soon as [you] receive this letter, Chairperson / Secretary yourselves come together with this messenger, you are informed.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Village Tract Peace & Development Council
yyyy Village Tract
Order #282
Stamp:
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion 12-12-98
Date: 12-12-98
Column #x Supervisory Group
To: Chairperson
xxxx village
Subject: Come to meet with the Column Commander
Chairperson U aaaa yourself from xxxx village, come to meet with the Column Commander. If U aaaais not there, the Secretary must come to meet. If neither of them is there, one of the Members[of the Village PDC] must come to meet right now, come in the night. If [you] fail to come action will be taken against the persons responsible, you are hereby informed.
[Sd.]
Column Commander
Frontline Infantry #xxx, Sa Ka²
Order #283
Stamp: To: xxxx village
Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion Chairperson
Column #x Supervisory Group U aaaa
I am writing this letter so that tomorrow the Chairperson and Secretary [of the Village PDC], 2 persons, will come to yyyy camp to arrive on the 8th of December, tomorrow, at 11 o'clock.
We are not going to the uplands, [we] will come down to yyyy tomorrow. Therefore, tomorrow at 11 o'clock come without fail to yyyy. [We] have demands to make.
Yours,
[Sd.]
7-12-98
xxxx [place name]
#xxx [IB], Column #x
Officer xxxx
xxx xxxx [serial number]
DKBA Orders
The orders below were issued by DKBA units in Papun District with the exception of #286, which was issued further south in Dooplaya District. In these areas the DKBA is primarily occupied in helping the local SPDC military as guides and in fighting the KNLA, but many DKBA units focus their activities on collecting money in various ways, by conducting or taxing commercial logging, demanding payments from villages, setting up road checkpoints to collect money from all vehicles and passengers, or by various other means. They are also involved in supervising forced labour of villagers on roads or building pagodas in some areas, whether under SPDC orders or for their own purposes. As a result of these activities, their orders to villages look very much like SPDC orders, except that they are often written in bad Burmese or almost equally bad Karen. The DKBA also tend to be more direct in their language if and when they want to issue threats. However, it is important to note that some DKBA units are worse than others, and many of their orders are written in a much more genial tone than SPDC orders.
Some of the orders below were written in Burmese, while the others were written in Sgaw Karen. Instead of writing the DKBA's name in Karen or Burmese, the officers usually write a series of Burmese characters which are pronounced "Dee Kay Bee Ay", but which have no meaning in Karen or Burmese. Where this occurs, we have used "Dee Kay Bee Ay" in the translations. Where they have written out the name of their Army in Karen or Burmese we have translated directly; it does not usually translate directly as Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, but as 'Progressive Karen Buddhist National Army' or simply 'Karen Buddhist Army'. Where we have written DKBA, it is because the order wrote it that way in English characters.
Order #284
Stamp:
Karen Buddhist Army
D.K.B.A.
To: Date: 17.7.99
Chairperson & Secretary
(1) With strong friendliness we leave this note. We took a pack of Kyeh Ni and a pack of London [Kyeh Ni and London are brand names of Burmese cigarettes].
(2) After discussing with us, [we] will allow you to go down if you want to go down with wood or bamboo [presumably to town or to market].
(3) If you do not discuss it with us, we won't be responsible for any arrests.
Note: Buffalos, cattle etc. (xxxx) [Sd. / 17-7-99]
yyyy, zzzz [villages] Company Commander
Please explain all. #x Company
xxxxBattalion
Dee Kay Bee Ay
[This order was written in Burmese. It essentially tells the villagers that any time they want to take materials, livestock or anything down to the market towns they must first get specific permission from the DKBA, and that if they do not and are subsequently arrested en route by SPDC troops then the DKBA will not help them.]
Order #285
To: [blank] Stamp:
Karen Buddhist Army Date: 6.7.99
D.K.B.A.
Subject
I send this letter for the Village Head. Letting you know to cut the bamboo for our D.K.B.A. huts which we will build. Your village has to send bamboo in the amount of (100) [posts]. Send it to the monastery by the deadline of 16-7-99. You are hereby informed.
Dee Kay Bee Ay
Company Commander Bo xxxx
Company #x
[This order is written in very bad Burmese.]
Order #286
Stamp:
Karen Buddhist Army 1-6-99
D.K.B.A.
To: Chairperson, Secretary
Respectfully,
Writing this letter to let you know to help us with one basket of rice, send it to arrive on 2-6-99 in the morning at 8 o'clock.
Relying on you, soldier [Sd.]
xxxx (Dee Kay Bee Ay)
Temporarily at xxxxvillage
(xxxx)
[This DKBA order was written in Burmese.]
Order #287
Stamp:
Karen Buddhist Army
D.K.B.A.
Date: 2-6-99
Progressive Buddhist Karen National Army
xxxx village head, letting you know.
The subject, if you see my letter don't delay, come at once. Now I have already come back, I want to visit with you. The day when you came I was not there, I went to a meeting. Now I have already come back, come and see me. The one writing this letter is yyyy Camp.
Boxxxx.
2-6-99
[This order is written in Sgaw Karen.]
Order #288
To: Head Date: 19-5-99
xxxx village
Subject: To attend a meeting
D.K.B.A. will hold a meeting on 23-5-99 in the morning at 8 o'clock at the D.K.B.A. office. Do not fail to attend.
You are hereby informed in advance.
[Sd. / 19-5-99]
Saw aaaa, xxxx [village]
Frontline Office, Dee Kay Bee Ay
(xxxxBattalion)
[This DKBA order is written in Burmese.]
Order #289
Progressive Buddhist Karen National Army Date: 26-9-98
xxxx Village Head
Respectfully letting you know as follows: Because there will be hunger in the village, we will discuss together for the benefit of all of us with our Army. The meeting will start on 27-9-98. Come to yyyy (camp), Bo aaaa's house.
Signed Bo aaaa
[This DKBA order was written in Sgaw Karen.]
Order #290
To: Date: 14-9-98
Chairman
Respectfully, I write this letter to let you know. Can you give the help which I already asked from [you] or not? If [you] can give, come to help and arrive in the evening, [I] earnestly request.
[We] have important matters [to address].
[Sd.] 14-9-98, xxxx [serial #]
xxxx [village]
Dee Kay Bee Ay
[This order from the DKBA is written in Burmese. The soldier includes his serial number along with his signature.]
Order #291
Progressive Buddhist Karen National Army
Date:16/6/98
To: [blank]
Subject: #901 Sin Pyu Daw Battalion Commander's directive
Starting on 1998 June 16th, the village population will have the opportunity to use drugs from June 16th to June 31st.
2) Starting from July 1st, if they are seen using drugs they will be punished with 3 months of hard labour.
Note ------ If [people] do not follow this order, #901 Sin Pyu Daw Battalion, xxxx [camp], will punish [them] with 3 months of hard labour.
[Sd. 16/6/98]
Copies: xxx / xxxx / Major
Battalion Commander #901 Battalion Office
Deputy Battalion Commander (xxxx Camp)
Cpy. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5, Security 1 / 2 (Saw xxxx)
Office Copy
[This order was sent out by the DKBA, typed in Burmese.]
'Karen Peace Army' Propaganda Letter
[Note: The information in the following paragraphs has been updated and corrected; see the 'Update' paragraph immediately following.]
The order below was sent to villages in Than Daung township of Toungoo District, in the far north of Karen State, by the Nyein Chan Yay A'Pweh ('Peace Group'), which was formed in 1997 much further south in Dooplaya District by Thu Mu Heh, a notoriously corrupt KNLA officer who defected to the SPDC. He failed to take many of his troops with him, but the SPDC Army helped him to recruit villagers to what they called the 'Peace Group' or 'Karen Peace Army' (KPA), partly by conscription and partly by promising that families of recruits would not have to do forced labour for the SPDC. The SPDC made a public show of giving Thu Mu Heh proxy authority over much of Dooplaya District of southern Karen State, but most of his new soldiers fled and he failed to control the area, so the SPDC brought DKBA troops back into the area and Thu Mu Heh's group faded from the picture [for more information see "Dooplaya Under the SPDC: Further Developments in the SPDC Occupation of South-central Karen State" (KHRG #98-09, 23/11/98), and other preceding reports].
Villagers in Dooplaya district still report seeing a few KPA soldiers occasionally acting as adjuncts to SPDC military columns, but the letter below was issued far to the north in Toungoo District of far northern Karen State. It may indicate that the SPDC has reassigned Thu Mu Heh and/or part of his group to the north, and this letter may be an attempt to woo recruits in his new area of operations. Though there are a few truthful claims in this propaganda regarding some aspects of KNU corruption, most of the statements are gross exaggerations; for example, the claim that the KNU set up the refugee camps in Thailand is false, as is the claim that all of the ceasefire groups whole-heartedly support the SPDC. In reality, most of the ceasefire groups still openly oppose the SPDC but have been backed into a corner where it is no longer possible for them to fight. Furthermore, the list of ceasefire groups is exaggerated; the bulk of the Shan State Army (item c) is still fighting the SPDC, as is the KNPP (item l) and the KNU 6th Brigade (item o). Thu Mu Heh was part of the KNU's 6th Brigade but defected on his own and failed to take many troops with him. Padoh Aung San (item q) was the KNU's forestry minister and defected in 1998 after some bad business deals, taking no troops with him whatsoever.
Regardless of its inaccuracies, the purpose of the letter is to try to turn villagers against the KNU and attract recruits to Thu Mu Heh's group. SPDC commanders occasionally send out similar letters, and it is noteworthy that this letter was typed in Burmese, not Karen. For the villagers of Than Daung township, its main meaning is that yet another group will soon begin demanding their labour, food, and money, when they are already being stripped clean by all of the demands made on them.
UPDATE TO ABOVE INFORMATION
(Added on March 23, 2000)
In the explanation of this letter, it was speculated that this group is somehow related to Thu Mu Heh’s group in Dooplaya District, which goes by the same name in Burmese (‘Nyein Chan Yay A’Pweh’, or ‘Peace Group’) but calls itself ‘Karen Peace Army’ in English. However, after making further inquiries it appears that there is probably no direct connection between the group which issued this letter and Thu Mu Heh’s group. According to KNU sources, a group of approximately 30 KNLA soldiers and their families surrendered to the SPDC in late 1997 in Than Daung township of Toungoo District, where this letter was issued. Since that time, the SPDC has named them ‘Nyein Chan Yay A’Pweh’, the same as Thu Mu Heh’s group, and has mainly used them for propaganda purposes such as this letter. The name ‘Peace Group’ comes from the SPDC’s rhetoric over the past 3 years, which calls the act of surrender ‘exchanging arms for peace’. There may be several small groups of surrendered Karen soldiers in various regions who have been given the name ‘Peace Group’ since 1997, but there appears to be no actual connection between such groups.
Order #292
Stamp:
Than Daung Township Special Region Peace Group
Karen State
From Peace Village, Than Daung Township, Karen State, U Saw Peh Ree Mo (or) Bo A'Wah Dee, Bo Kweh Mu, Saya Kyaw Way, Saya Than Myint, Saya Koh Koh, Saya Aung[illegible], Padoh Aung Than Htoo, U Ba Kistah, Padoh Si Blu, Peace Army and their families;
To inform the people who are in darkness, such as the (KNU) Karen National Union, Karen National Liberation Army 2nd Brigade in Toungoo District, the Toungoo District Chairperson, 2nd Brigade Commander Brigadier General Saw Meh Aye Sein and subordinate Karen Youth.
The most important need and our biggest strength is our Union of Burma, not anything else. Only the unity of our nation. The Myanmar Army is trying to fundamentally organise and work to strengthen the unity of the nation. Today weknow, see, accept and believe in the true good intentions and correct actions of the Tatmadaw [SPDC Army], so the nationalities' troops holding arms have joined the national objective of organising equally under the law, as shown in the list below.
[Following is the SPDC's list of groups which have made ceasefire deals; see notes above]
(a) Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Assembly of Troops from Different Units [Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army] (Kokang Group)
(b) Myanmar Nationalities Solidarity and Unity Party [Burma Democracy Solidarity Party or Burma National United Party, later renamed United Wa State Party] (Wa Group)
(c) Shan State Army (Shan)
(d) Nationalities Democratic Alliance Group (Shan / Akha Group)
(e) Democracy Army (Kachin)
(f) Kachin National Improvement & Development Army (KDA)
(g) White Pa'O National Organisation (PNO)
(h) Kayan National Army
(i) Karenni Nationalities People's Liberation Front (Ka La La Ta)
(j) Kayan New Land Party [KNLP]
(k) Many nationalities in Shan Nationalities People's Liberation Group[SNPLO/SNPLA]
(l) Karenni National Progressive Party [KNPP]
(m) New Mon State Party [NMSP]
(n) Loimaw Group (Laid down arms) [this is Khun Sa's Mong Tai Army]
(o) KNU 6th Brigade (U Saw Thu Mu Heh's Group)
(p) Rakhine BCP [Burmese Communist Party]
(q) KNU, Padoh Aung San's Group
Troops are continuing to exchange Arms for Peace. Our group is also included in the nationalities' armed groups mentioned above. We ourselves decided to join the legal fold on 7-11-97, over one year ago already. Isn't that right?
The Karen nationality is the second biggest population in Burma. Karen nationals also have the same blood as other nationals. [We] are brothers ([written in English:] Fraternal Bond). However, no one dared to challenge the crooked and clever British Colonialists, who made the Karen and Burmese hate each other in many different ways. Therefore, even up to now we brothers still doubt each other, so it is difficult to regroup together and unite.
In past history, because of territorial conflicts and conflicts between nationalities, Burma lost its independence and freedom. We have been a slave country, subordinate to others, and we even lost the human rights of independence, such as rights to commerce, development and education. At the present time, the nationalities are forgetting their differences and the ethnic nationalities are of the same heart and can show unity, so we have already obtained our freedom, isn't that true? The shadow that will destroy the unity of the nationalities has appeared, at the same time we have already heard the sound of the rebels who will swallow us.
Because of the colonial expansionists, revolutions like the KNU revolution, Mon revolution and Shan revolution are working to destroy the Union. Today the KNU does not represent their ethnic group. The Karen people feel distaste and hate for them and do not support [them]. They revolt against life under Independence, but the rebels have not gained victory, they cannot even stay in the towns. They have fled to hide in the border areas, where they perpetrate many kinds of evil. They steal and sell the natural resources of the country, they call themselves refugees in other countries, they send letters for pity and they don't have enough to eat. The leaders are making business and getting rich in other countries, their children are studying in popular foreign Universities, they are proud and take duty in the military of other countries. They open refugee camps to show their Karen nationals, they ask for money but do not feed them enough. They look down on them, they announce many things and organise misunderstandings, we have seen this ourselves. Do you want to deny it?
If [you are] staying in the other country but shouting loudly for the welfare of Karen people, [you] have to be ashamed, isn't that right? Most of the Karen people are staying in Burma, there's no way to deny it. They are staying with the other nationalities, together through hot and cold. Like the other nationalities, they are working for the development of their region, but they can't do it completely because of the Karen (KNU) revolution. They have no peace and quiet in their land. The nationality groups who have made peace with the State Peace & Development Council Government are joining hands with the Tatmadaw [SPDC Army] and the People's Government and are working day and night for the development of their regions. We are surprised to see them improving and that they are contented. Our Karen State will be late to develop and improve. Isn't that right? The KNU is the defendant. Think about it deeply.
If you think the pressure from the British Colonialists from the other country is right and if you think of nationalism and religion before all else, the Karen people will become grass and soil. Today, the leaders of their KNU and their families are rich, and the Karen people are slowly becoming poor. Think about it deeply. You believe what the outsiders tell you and do not believe what your own blood tells you, and you think you are enemies of each other. You make friends with enemies and act selfishly and stupidly. [You] have to examine yourselves.
[We are] Talking to you about the light. Come back to peace along the path strewn with flowers. Our National Government, people and Tatmadaw [Army] will welcome you just as parents welcome their children. They are arranging everything for our living even though we don't need it. We are also getting a chance to develop our lands and our Karen nationals in a good way. We also want you to taste and feel peace like us. You will see the truth and leave the darkness, and you will stay in the light.
[Sd.]
Chairperson
Than Daung Township Special Region
Nyein Chan Yay['Peace'] Group
[This propaganda letter is written in Burmese and is 3 pages long. In the list of ceasefire groups at the beginning of the order, we have translated directly from the Burmese but have included some more commonly used English names in italics where helpful. For notes on these groups and other information, see the explanation above the order. The KNU's 6th Brigade covers Dooplaya District, where Thu Mu Heh's group originated; the 2nd Brigade covers Toungoo District.]
Copies of the full set of Burmese orders in this report are available (with appropriate details blacked out) on approved request from KHRG.
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