Nowadays many villagers face a lot of
problems because the Burmese military
junta, called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), systematically abuses human rights, especially when the Burmese army carries out offensives targeting villagers and their livelihoods. The SPDC also takes villagers’ land to set up military camps, particularly in rural areas. Villagers have many worries and face a very dangerous situation because of the actions of the SPDC. People want to have freedom to live their lives and to improve them through education or employment opportunities. But there is no freedom for them: movement is not free, education is not free and they cannot improve their lives. They always have to live in fear and worry.
This constant fear and worry that people feel because of the SPDC is not new. They have felt it their whole lives. Naw Htoo Say, a mother living in eastern Karen State in a temporary village near a SPDC army camp, talks about her life on the run and the fact that she has “always fled to the forest to hide with my family to safe our lives”.
“When I was a child, the military made the four cuts policy (see box for more information) and it made me very upset because my parents had difficulties feeding their children - we always ate potato, vegetable bamboo shoot with rice porridge,” she said. “It was not enough for us”.
Four Cuts Policy:
The four cuts policy was introduced in Burma in the 1970s and it aimed to undermine support for the armed opposition groups by cutting their access to supplies, information, recruits and food. To cut these networks the Burmese army targeted the civilian population. This lead to increased militarization, forced displaced, human rights abuses and oppression of Burmese villagers. The Burmese army is still implementing the four cuts policy in eastern Burma today.
By looking to Karen State, especially the rural areas, a lot of villages have been destroyed by the SPDC. The villagers cannot do anything to defend their homes or themselves from the SPDC, and many people have had to leave their farmlands and move to other places. After the people have fled to safety, the SPDC often builds more military camps and constructs new car roads for transportation. In Naw Htoo Say’s area after the SPDC came, they built a new car road between Toungoo and Muthraw districts. She said in the past villagers from Toungoo and Muthraw could easily travel and visit friends and family, but since the road was built, they could not cross it.
Most people who live in Toungoo and Muthraw Districts work in shifting cultivation. When the SPDC made the new car road and built more military camps for their soldiers they took the land that the villagers used for farming from them, without compensation. Naw Htoo Say and her family had their land taken. “I only know how to do farming and cultivation, but now there is no more land for cultivation because the military government built their camp close to my village and took our land,” she said. As there was less land for the villagers, the area that was left for them to plant rice (the main food for villagers) was too small and did not produce enough food for the people to survive. “Sometime I didn’t have any food to eat, but I hoped the trouble would pass me as soon as possible,” Naw Htoo Say said.
Moreover the SPDC and armed opposition groups lay landmines, which means in areas where there are landmines people cannot use the land. To the villagers landmines are a kind of enemy. Some villagers that step on landmines die because there is no medicine to help them, and others have limbs amputated. People worry a lot about their relatives if they stand on landmines, as it will affect their future. As most areas where landmines are used are not marked, it will be a big problem in the future for villagers.
Sometimes I didn't have any food to eat
Animals, such as buffaloes and bulls, are also killed by landmines and the SPDC soldiers sometimes shoot the animals but do not eat them. Villagers use the animals to plough the farmland and also to earn extra income for their families. In the past people could raise animals and grow fruit or crops to sell, earning extra money for their families. This was only a small amount but it could cover their basic needs, for example if they sold one pig they could use the money for the whole year to cover their health care, clothes and other needs. Nowadays it is difficult because they do not have land to plant the crops or to raise the animals. So villagers always have to worry about how they will cover their basic needs.
This situation is made more difficult by the SPDC inhumane treatment of villagers. Military offensives and human rights abuses undermines people’s survival structures and livelihoods, leaving them very vulnerable, particularly to starvation. Naw Htoo Say said that in her life time she had always faced oppression such as forced labour, the Burmese army looting anything they wanted from her village, seeing other people being killed and having her village and rice barns destroyed. “I remember one experience, on March 20th 2003 at 4: 30 PM when suddenly I heard guns sound around my house, and then I ran to escape. After that, my village was bunt by the SPDC, and some villager’s rice stores were burnt as well. At that time four villagers died because of the SPDC’s shooting,” Naw Htoo Say said.
Further making the situation worse is the health situation. Villagers suffer from illness such as malaria, fever, skin irritations and many other diseases. Some people should not die but they do because there is no medicine to buy and use. Naw Htoo Say said she had seen children get malaria because they had to hide from the SPDC troops in the jungle and there was no medicine to help them. Pregnant women also face problems because they cannot get health care and after they give birth, many mothers die and then the baby often dies as well. If the baby survives it is difficult for the family to take care of, because they have no milk for baby and no where to go.
Some community-based organisations based in Thailand are working to provide health care to villagers. However, only some villagers, at sometimes receive treatment because the area for the health workers is very large. Even if villagers get treatment they do not always know how to use the medicine properly. Villagers need educated people to give short trainings to help the grassroots people, for example adult literacy would help villagers use medicine properly because they could read the instructions.
In the past there were no schools or teachers in rural areas so people could not read or write. Naw Htoo Say never dreamed about education because there were no schools or teachers in her village. She cannot read or write Karen, her mother language, or any other languages and sometimes she is upset because of this. Naw Htoo Say wants to improve her skills and gain more knowledge, but does not have any opportunity to go to formal or non-formal trainings.
However, even if people cannot read or write they know that education is important for everyone. Naw Htoo Say worries about how to send her children to school because there is no school in her area. “I have heard that many school have been established on the Thai side of the border, but it would be difficult to send my children across the border,” she said. “Before we reach the border we would meet many problems like landmines and we would have to pass the Burmese military camps. I always see many villagers who have stepped on the landmines and sometimes I see people who have been shot by SPDC soldiers.”
Even if they manage to pass the military camps and cross the border, they have to worry about the cost of living while studying. For Naw Htoo Say when she thinks about the costs for her children to study for one whole year, she does not know how she can find the money for them. She worries a lot about this. “In the area where we are living is covered by the SPDC, so there is no way to find income,” she said. “For me, even if I can not read and write I do not worry because when I was growing up I never had a school in my area, but now if you do not have education you cannot do anything. Because of this I worry for my son and daughter.”
Naw Htoo Say explained that in her lifetime she always have been facing many problems and dangerous situations because of the SPDC offensives, more SPDC troop in the area, and human rights abuses. She said we do not have any opportunities and no freedom. The military junta took over power a long time ago, and they are still in control of the country. The junta’s rule has not helped people to develop; instead it brings more worry and poverty for the villagers.
“Sometime I don’t want to stay alive, but I think for my children and it makes me more upset because they don’t know freedom and we always have to flee to safe our lives. Civil war and ethnic conflict bring people a lot of stress,” Naw Htoo Say said. “We need help from other countries and organisations so that we can live without civil war, ethnic conflict and human rights abuses in Burma”.
To go to the other articles published in the August 2007 BI Newsletter click on the links below:
Sometimes I didn't have any food to eat
