SPDC continues systematized abuse of villager’s vehicles in Yebyu Township

July 14, 2010

HURFOM, Lort Taing village-track, Yebyu Township

Soldiers from the SPDC have been seizing vehicles from Yebyu Township villagers for their personal use, without compensation or regard for the treatment of the vehicles. This practice, which has occurred for 10 years, has slowly increased in severity as demands for vehicles have become more presumptuous. A shocking indicator of this abuse to personal property is that for many locals it is almost normalized, with an expectation that this practice is normal.On July 5th a HURFOM field reporter found that at least three villages in the Lort Taing village-track in Yebyu Township, were suffering form the daily commandeering of their own motorbikes by local army units. They are Kyauk Ka Din, Kyauk Ta Lin and Alae Sakhan villages, under the jurisdiction of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 282. In these cases, data is collected directly form victims as this abuse as it is so frequent nearly ever local has experienced loosing his or her transportation to local SPDC soldiers.

The systematized motorbike commandeering functions as follows:

Villagers with motorbikes must report their bike to the village headman, who adds the owner’s name to a list of all bikes available in town. From that list a rotation is set in which 1, though more recently 2 or 3, bikes are made available every day to members of the local SPDC LIB’s No.282 and No. 273. On the day a villager’s turn comes, the bike must be left at a predetermined point so that throughout the day any soldier form the battalion may use the bike for any purpose. Depending on the village, soldiers or villagers must pay for petrol for the bike. As is noted by numerous victims of the scheme, soldiers are in no way responsible for the bikes they borrow, and as evidenced by the frequent damage, treat them with little care.

The forced commandeering of motorbikes by the local army has been a common experience in this region since 2000. [1]However within the last few years, the cases of forced commandeering of motorbikes have increased as soldiers have demanded more bikes be made available. Maung Alar, 23, a resident of Kyauk Tha Lin village told HURFOM’s field reporter:

In the past there were only two motorbikes in Kyauk Tha Lin village. One of these two motorbikes, or both, had to be sent to LIB NO. 282 when the troops, led by the battalion officer, had a trip. These cases began in the past but still continue nowadays and they even demand more [access to bikes]. Now there are about 30 motorbikes in our village. When we sent the motorbikes (to the military base), drivers must also be included. Even though the army asked for one [to use] a day, sometimes they use more than one [motorbike] a day. In this situation, we daren’t complain to the army directly. We have to ask for the motorbikes [back] via our village headman. When they use them more than two or three days, we worry about them and go to the military base for our motorbikes.

There are an average of 200 households in each village and in Alae Sakhan village every household possesses a motorbike. In the other two villages, motorbike ownership is less common, with there being only 30 motorbikes approximately in Kyauk Ta Lin village and 40 in Kyauk Ka Din, according to local residents.

U Byar Daught, 42, a betelnut cultivator and resident of Kyauk Tha Lin village, said that the villagers pay at least from nine hundred and fifty thousand to one million six hundred thousand to purchase a motorbike. Given the significant savings a bike purchase consumes, the abuses of the vehicle by local military units is emotionally denigrating to villagers who feel miserable because of the damage often caused to bikes, the depreciation of the bikes value, and trauma of having ones bike forcefully borrowed by local soldiers:

A month ago (in early June), a sergeant and his private from LIB No. 282 which is based in Alae Sakhan village commandeered my Honda Wave I motorbike. According to the village headman they would use for just one day but [they] took if [for] two days. And then they left the motorbike at the monastery after they had used it. My motorbike is as good as a new one [when I got it]. I bought it last year at about one million five hundred thousand [kyat]. When I got it back, it’s exhaust pipe was damaged at the base and nearly dropped down [to the ground]. I didn’t dare to complain to anyone and pushed my motorbike to the workshop in Yepu village that is three miles and two furlongs away from here. It was very disappointing. There was no responsibility and they used my property as they liked.

Given that it is illegal to register bikes in the region, locals have zero leverage over how their bike will be used by local soldiers. Villagers who own bikes have reported that the bike ends up becoming expensive to keep as 70% of the bike costs for maintenance go towards repairs from damaged caused during use by the local battalions.

Ko Thar Kyi, 32, a resident of Alae Sakhan village said that the cases in which the local army commandeers the villagers’ motorbikes are very common in Alae Sakhan village. He also expressed his disappointment and frustration at the commandeering of two to three motorbikes per day by soldiers who often take the bikes just because they are available, though there is no reason that they need to use them that day:

Normally our motorbikes had to be sent to a common place: their military base or the house of the village headman [To make the bike available]. But [at least] they used their own petrol. We had to send the motorbikes by rotation. If there was any absence, the minimum punishment is being hit with a fine and the maximum is being arrested. At the other villages – Yepu, Kyauk Ka Din and Kyauk Ta Lin – if you didn’t want to send your motorbike, you had to pay motorbike tax for the month. We had to pay the village headman five thousand kyat per month [to not have to submit a motorbike]. However, this option is not accepted in our village. They said that motorbikes are essential for their trips and use the villagers’ motorbikes unfairly. Some guys [soldiers] are very scornful. If the motorbike you send looks old, they hesitate to take it and if new, they used it even they just going to the teashop. The motorbikes are frequently broken down. They abandoned the motorbike at the place where it broke down and the owner has to pick it up. My motorbike was treated two times in this way. They abandoned it outside the village after a flat tire.

The locals cited in interviews that the abuses of the army against villagers includes not only commandeering motorbikes but also sometimes forced labor in construction on their military bases and transporting of troops or taking VIP trips using villagers’ 4 wheel drive trucks. In these instances villagers had to use their own petrol during these commandeering cases. Additionally villagers from these three communities have reported that cases of commandeering of 4 wheel drive trucks have been increasing.

Nai Chit Maung, a motorbike owner in Alae Sakhan village, described his disappointment to HURFOM:

It is difficult that the local troops changed [rotated to different stations] two or three times within these ten years but this sort of commandeering motorbikes does not disappear. Even the demands are more and more. In the past, the students’ bikes were not subject to commandeering. Now they are added to a weekend list [because students’ bikes are available at weekends] of motorbikes to be commandeered. In my opinion, this event shows that they really screw us over. One of the problems is that no one, including me, dares inform the higher authorities about these cases. In order to make villagers not inform the higher authorities about these cases, they committed a lot of cruel punishments in the previous months, so we have to suffer in silence.

The cases surrounding the long-term systematized theft and abuse of property by local SPDC battalions is characteristic of the daily coercion that communities living in ‘Black Areas’ face. This is the first time HURFOM has documented abuse within this area, but commandeering of motorbikes by SPDC forces is widespread throughout northern and southern Ye Township. While HURFOM often documents the sever and life threatening abuses of forced labor and portering, imprisonment, torture, and summery execution, it is important to highlight that villagers are under siege at every level, including through subtle and pervasive abuses. In this instance the theft of belongings almost becomes a normalized component to daily life for villagers.

The daily commandeering of village bikes not only restricts a villager’s capacity to travel within the community or to other villages, but also is a direct abuse of personal property. The numerous reported instances in which villagers must make repairs to their bikes after being commandeered, or the significant percentage of bike costs going to repairs, indicate strong disregard by local units for care and maintenance of local’s motorbikes. Though not as easily quantifiable, this becomes an emotional abuse as villagers who spend money on and value their vehicles, can do nothing to guard against the systematic abuse of these prized belongings.

[1] Designated a “Black Area”, or free fire zone due to the prsence of assorted insurgent forces Burmese military units have practiced a policy of unrestricted abuses including, extortion, theft of goods, forced portering, imprisonment, torture, and even summery execution.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News