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Residents Forced to Construct Military Barracks for Border Guard Forces’ (BGF) troops in Myawaddy District, Karen State.

In early February 2011, the Captain of Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No. 5, under the Southeast (SE) Command Military Operation, ordered ethnic Karen villagers to do loh-ah-pay[1] in the form of barracks construction for former Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) troops now turned Border Guard Force (BGF).  The buildings built for the BGF army battalions include the captain’s office, military barracks, officers’ hostels, long-low buildings with collection rooms, garages, and ordinance stores. Though the central government has allocated funds for the construction of those buildings, villagers forced to do loh-ah-pay are not only unpaid, but are obligated to provide their own supplies as well.

Myawaddy District: In August 2010, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army agreed to join forces with the Burmese government and transform from an armed ethnic group into the BGF.  Though the Burmese government promised to build these barracks quickly, having not yet begun before February, the Burmese government is now making a push to start and finish the construction. The Burmese government plans to build advanced and modern facilities for the DKBA to show its satisfaction that the DKBA made the switch.  BGF battalions have been positioned in Thin-kan Nyi-Naung village, as well as other areas of Karen State and eastern Mon State.   Situated in northern Thin-kan Nyi-naung village, Myawaddy Township, battalions No. 1017-1019 bases are now in the midst of construction. The villages ordered to do forced labor are Par-Chaung village with 300 households, Mae Ka-nae Ta-dar village with 100 households, Mae Ka-nae Ywae Thit village with 150 households, Ah Pyin-kwin Kalay village with 300 households, Ah Htae-kwin Kalay village with 200 households, and Thin-kan Nyi-naung village with 1,000 households.

According to Karen villagers from Thin-kan Nyi-Naung village, who have now fled to the Thai-Burma border (Three Pagodas Pass area), ten new battalions have been formed and villagers who live near the battalions’ barracks’ construction sites have been forced to provide labor for this construction. These men, all between the ages of 20 and 40, were forced not only to provide labor on a random basis, but also provide their own supplies for construction.

A second corporal from the Karen Peace Council (KPC) explained the current construction being carried out in the area. Apart from the three battalions (1017, 1018, and 1019), seven more battalions are also being built in southern Thin-kan Nyi-naung village.

“[The army] used the efforts of the people for the construction of battalions, and out of the 10 battalions, four battalions are being built at one time. Because of this [building four battalions at once], it is estimated that the number of villagers in Myawaddy district who are ordered to do loh-ah-pay must be 100 – 200. Yet, it could be more than this. For the construction of battalions in northern Myawaddy, the villagers are demanded to provide wood, bamboo, cement, sand, stone, and lime, since the allocated budget from the central government is not enough. This [not enough budget] has been explained by the Burmese army. This has not been implemented yet, but if it becomes true [demanding the citizens to provide those materials], the citizens will be very affected: not only performing forced labor but also providing those materials. This obviously affects us, the citizens.”

Due to past experience, Saw Nyi Aung[2], a young man from the Karen Literary and Youth Association from Pa-an Township, commented that the SPDC cares greatly about the armed groups that have transformed into the BGF. In line with the Burmese government State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC) policy of splitting possible descent – the SPDC is making sure to construct modern buildings for the BGF troops, in order to show BGF troops the elevated status and higher living quality they will experience in comparison to the average Karen people.  Believing that the forced labor will become unbearable, Saw Nyi Aung explained that many of the villagers will leave the area, the BGF will take over, and an influx of ethnic Burmese will move to the area. This belief is in accordance with a policy of the Burmese government frequently employed in ethnic areas, known as “Burmanization,” in which the Burmese government attempts to exert control over areas previously people by ethnic minorities by encouraging ethnic Burmans to move into these areas, and subsequently creating a divide between the ethnic minority population and ethnic Burman population[3].

On March 4^th, one Thin-kan Nyi-naung villager, who had already done loh-ah-pay three times, explained to HURFOM reporters how he and other villagers were used continuously for forced labor, commenting that if the forced labor goes on any longer, he and others will be forced to flee the village with their families:

We are here mainly working to survive, and in fact, we are struggling for our living by depending on the pay we receive from grinding-rice mill. I have a family. Every child in the family is still young, depending on me. And since the price of everything here is rising sharply, we cannot just depend on our daily wages. When everyone is just able to survive on what they earn, the Burmese army uses them to do loh-ah-pay without paying. As it is ordered by the army, no one can complain about it.  And to go for loh-ah-pay, the village head has to organize and gather the number of villagers that the army asks for. For me, because I can not put up with doing loh-ah-pay anymore, I will probably have to leave my home village soon. This is because I cannot do my own work. Like our family, if the members of other families are also used for  loh-ah-pay, no one will want to remain living in this village. It can be assumed that the army wants us to leave because they ordered us to do loh-ah-pay. We will wait for a while, observing how the situation here is going.

According to Thar-kyi, 30, a Thin-kan Nyi-naung villager, who has carried out loh-ah-pay twice: once in mid-February and the second time at the end of the month, a long-low building with 80 military housing rooms mainly for officers is being built. By March 12^th, 50% of the building was finished.

At the moment, the building is in the process of being completed. 50% of it is already completed. There are 3-4 battalions for the BGF, including [No.] 1017 battalion, 1018 battalion, and 1019 battalion. Those barracks being built are more advanced and better than other barracks for other battalions. The barrack that we were ordered [to work on] in February is a type of office building, and we had to fill out that land plot for the construction of the office building. I still remember that we also had to carry stones to build the barracks of collection rooms for unmarried army members, hostels for army families, and other stores. To summarize, comparing with other battalions that I have seen, these battalions for BGF are more advanced. Of those BGF battalions, at battalion No. 1017, there is also a clinic. This was told to me by a friend of mine who had to work there [at the clinic’s construction].

Thar-Kyi further explained that the Burmese army has in fact been hiring people to help. Instead of hiring local villagers, though, the army has hired skilled workers for building structure design, finishing the final steps, and other construction projects. These hired workers are paid 3,500 Kyat per day, and there are a total of 200 hired employees. He noted that those employees are not Karen natives from Ko Thar-Kyi, noticing the difference in their Burmese accents from local villagers.  These employees have been hired from other regions to work in Thin-kan Nyi-naung village.

Knowing the effects that forced labor can have upon family livelihoods and the likelihood of experiencing abuses committed by army troops, some villagers fled their homes. In an interview with a Thin-kan Nyi-naung villager, Saw Nyi Naing, 33, who fled to Three Pagodas Pass Township in early March, he explained how the SPDC troops have been using villagers to do loh-ah-pay without compensation and that the SPDC has demanded that villagers bring their own supplies of wood and bamboo for the construction. Also notable in his description is that, different from past experiences of forced labor in which there were rotations throughout the village, those who are forced to work this time are chosen at random.

The Burmese soldiers (including not only the regular army, but members of the engineering army from  Moulmein Southeast Command) organized and ordered [villagers] to do loh-ah-pay. The villagers have been ordered to do loh-ah-pay since the beginning of this month [February]. The villagers have to bring their own meals. Worse yet, no one gets paid. The orders given are not regular. The villagers are ordered to go for Loh-ah-pay not in turn [not ordered by rotation]. They [the army ] ordered whoever they see to do loh-ah-pay. To give an example, the army wants to get 30 people to work, and to get exactly 30 people, they go around the village and order anyone they see to go do loh-ah-pay …it is not necessary to have carpentry skills to work.  When the villagers arrive at the construction sites, they have to carry bricks, bags of cements, and stones. Villagers residing near Thin-kan Nyi-naung have been doing loh-ah-pay for a long time.  For me, I can not do loh-ah-pay anymore. Actually, I was ordered to do loh-ah-pay four times in one month. I also heard from the village head that we’ll be asked to provide wood and bamboo for barracks construction. As a poor family, we can only go for loh-ah-pay, but we can not provide what they demand. Consequently, it will lead to problems. Therefore, we came here [Three Pagodas Pass] to avoid it, and we’ve planned to find whatever work we can until the construction of military barracks is finished.

Instances of forced labor in Burma have been documented in abundance, but Saw Nyi Naing’s report that the forced labor is imposed upon the villagers at random creates a whole new dilemma. Most villagers are just barely surviving on subsistence levels. When a family’s turn for forced labor is rotated throughout the village, it allows the family to plan ahead in order to survive. The fact that these villagers are being subjugated to forced labor at random creates increased strain upon their lives and no way in which to adapt. Eventually, these villagers are forced to leave the village with no remaining way to survive.

In fact, the Burmese government has funds for hiring workers to construct these barracks. But, the preceding quotes show that the money is not reaching the hands of those who are actually doing most of the physical labor. Money is instead going into the hands of the army as well as the hired skilled workers from other areas of Burma coming into  the area to finish the projects.  Below, Ko Ngwe Ohm, who is 44 years old and a Myawaddy resident, currently working with the DKBA wonders how the DKBA feels about the oppression of the Karen ethnic villagers for the benefit of the BGF forces:

“If we look at this, it is obvious that the allocated funds will go into the pockets of captains and nothing will be spent on hiring employees [manual laborers]. We heard that there is not only one battalion that we have to build but there are three or four battalions as well. And, as there are a lot of buildings, the villagers will be facing some more problems again until all buildings get constructed. I want to know how the BGF-transformed former DKBA feels when they see their Karen people being ordered and oppressed to work for their buildings to live near the Burmese troops. As the Burmese army is using the Karen people to work like this, I also want to know how the DKBA feels about the treatment of the Karen for the DKBA’s benefit.”

The funds available for the construction of the BGF barracks are well-known and abundant. The fact that money is not reaching the hands of those villagers who are being forced to provide manual labor and provide supplies signifies that the money is being appropriated by others involved. The lack of transparency amidst the Burmese government’s dealings creates an easy venue for corruption.

Refusing to pay the local villagers living near the areas of barracks construction, the Burmese government has hired ethnic Burmans to come to these construction sites and pay them for their expertise in building design and carpentry. Even though there are local villagers with these skills, they have not been considered for hired pay. Subsequently, this creates a divide between the local ethnic Karen villagers forced to provide manual labor for free and the ethnic Burmans who have moved into the area, with privileged status and paychecks.

Noticeable from the quotes of villagers who were suffering from the burden of the forced labor, these villagers have no way of protecting themselves from forced labor duty, as well as ways to adapt to forced labor demands, as villagers are selected for duty at random. While already living at a subsistence level, the requests for forced labor, supply demands, and no way of knowing how often labor demands will be made, have prompted some villagers to flee the area.

It will be important to note how many villagers end up fleeing the area from the forced labor demands. The institution of the BGF in the area already appears to be creating a divide between local ethnic villagers and hired Burman workers and the BGF troops. BGF barracks and the establishment of the battalions already appears to be detrimental to local villagers livelihoods and human rights.

The resulting displacement caused by forced labor demands made of residents is a significant concern for HUFOM. As newly implemented BGF battalions become more entrenched, there is a concern that abuses of communities through forced labor, arbitrary taxation and discrimination will increase. Such practices could see an increase in displacement of Karen community members over the border into Thailand.

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