From Prison to Frontline
Burma Issues
January 2005
In
November 2003, in the wake of the joint military offensive
by the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) and
the DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army), Burma Issues
set about documenting the systematic use of prisoners
as porters for military purposes. This practice constitutes
an egregious human rights abuse. Research for the project
began with interviews with twenty-two escapees who had
taken refuge near the Thai-Burma border. We dealt with
issues such as their prison lives, their journey to the
conflict area, their treatment at the hands of the soldiers,
their experiences in battle, and also their experiences
relating to landmines. We then proceeded to conduct more
in-depth research to supplement this invaluable first
hand information. We have compiled the analysis and present
our findings in this report.
In addition, three of the initial interviews which had
been shot in video were edited to create two videos, one
being specifically intended for the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC), both under the title 'From Prison
to Frontline'. In both videos the porters describe their
experience in prison, how they were harshly exploited
by SPDC troops and how they finally escaped. Through video,
the porters could express themselves in their own voices.
The 7th Brigade1 Offensive (Pa-an District), which forms
the backdrop for the subject of this report, originally
started on July 23, 2003 when fighting broke out between
the DKBA and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA),
the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU). In September
2003, the DKBA asked for military reinforcements from
Burmese troops. From then on, the offensive was marked
by intensified fighting between the KNLA and the combined
military forces of the SPDC and the DKBA. In addition
to forcing many villagers from their homes, either into
the jungle to become Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
or across the border into refugee camps in Thailand, this
offensive led to a marked increase in the prevalence of
landmines in Karen state.
During the offensive, 800 prisoners were removed from
prison and forced to carry equipment and supplies for
the military. They were rarely given adequate food, water,
or rest, and were often made to carry out heavy manual
tasks in addition to their portering duties. They were
as, or more, endangered than the soldiers for whom they
served, and placed in positions which rendered them vulnerable
to artillery fire, opposition forces and, in particular,
to landmines.
The SPDC may have believed that because they were using
criminals as porters, not as much attention would be given
to the human rights abuses involved. Indeed, some of the
men involved had committed serious crimes before being
recruited as forced porters. However, it is important
to separate the issue of the prisoners' guilt from that
of human rights violations by the government.
The porters' accounts of prisons in Burma describe corruption,
abuse, and numerous contraventions of international conventions.
Prisoners were beaten, forced to carry out hard manual
labour and denied aid from, and forced to lie to, representatives
of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
when they visited.
The range of sentences which they were serving reveals
glaring inconsistencies in the Burmese judicial system.
The majority of the sentences, of seemingly random duration,
were for petty offences. Some even reported being taken
directly from their homes to prison, and then to the offensive
site, without ever being charged with or convicted of
crimes. On the other hand, some of the escaped porters
are convicted murderers who are now free.
The accounts of these porters serve to highlight a planned,
premeditated campaign by the Burmese military to exploit
prisoners as porters throughout the offensive. The only
consistency seems to have been the methods of exploitation:
- All
were forced to carry extremely heavy loads (on average,
over forty kilograms per porter), for long periods with
little or no rest and minimal food and water
- All
were mistreated in similar ways, as soldiers resorted
to tactics such as intimidation and physical abuse.
Almost
all interviewees were punched, kicked, beaten, or tortured
by Burmese soldiers at some point during their time as porters
Forced portering, involving prisoners or anyone else,
constitutes a form of forced labour under international
law (International Labour Organisation Convention No.
29). Such forced labour is also banned by Burmese law
(Order No. 1/99). Therefore in planning the role of forced
porters in this offensive, the SPDC broke international
conventions as well as laws proclaimed by its own government.
In addition to the ritual humiliation of forced portering,
these people were extremely vulerable to injury from landmines.
Almost half of the porters interviewed witnessed the deadly
effects of mines, seeing soldiers or fellow porters killed
or injured. Mines were a major hazard during escape attempts,
and interviewed porters reported witnessing other escapees
killed or mortally injured by mines soon after their escape.
Moreover, as a matter of Burmese military policy, many
porters were used as human minesweepers. In some cases,
this meant walking ahead of soldiers over terrain suspected
of being mined, so as to detonate mines before the soldiers
reached them. In other cases, porters with no prior training
or adequate equipment were forced to test suspected mine
fields with sharpened bamboo, or even their bare hands,
and then to remove the mines. Such 'atrocity demining'
illustrates the lack of respect shown by the Burmese soldiers
for the porters' humanity. It is also a severe violation
of humanitarian and human rights law.
 |
The offensive ended in November 2003. SPDC troops did
not achieve their primary military objectives, but were
able to take control of some areas where intense logging
and forced labour is now taking place under DKBA and SPDC
supervision.
