MAE HONG SON — Scattered across the steep fields, villagers toil with the daily chores of upland rice farming. Women in traditional Karenni costume transport goods in bamboo baskets on their backs while their children play in the fields. There’s very little to suggest that today millions of Burmese voters will take to the polls for the first election in 20 years.
Our convoy, a Karenni Army battalion, begins to secure the perimeter and set up camp. Within minutes, a flow of villagers comes to greet the newly arrived rebels with offerings of rice-wine and papaya. One of them, a middle-aged man, introduces himself as Mu Ar, the village headman.
Like many village headmen in Burma’s various ethnic areas, he was summoned to vote by the government—but not today, Nov. 7, but one week before the official day. Government officials arrived at his farm while he was working in the fields, and told him he had to make the two-hour walk to the town of Shar Dar to vote.
“I had so much work to do in the fields, but they didn’t care. I had to go,” he told The Irrawaddy. “If I didn’t vote, they told me my village would suffer as a result.”
When asked whom he voted for, the wiry man said he didn’t know. He said the vote took place in the office of the Union Solidarity for Development Party (USDP). “I thought it was strange I was voting in a party office, but I didn’t want to make any problems,” he said.
When he arrived at the office, they already had his name and that of many other village headmen on a list. He said they ticked off his name and told him to sit down. They then placed a folded piece of paper in front of him and told him to place his fingerprint on it.
“I didn’t even get to look inside the paper, I had no idea what was going on,” Mu Ar said, clearly frustrated. Before he had time to work out what was going on, his finger had been “assisted” onto the paper and he was being ushered out the front door.
“Before, we were quite excited about the elections, but many people don’t understand what is going on and nobody has explained anything,” he said. “But even though I am a simple farmer I know that what happened was not fair—I didn’t have a choice who I could vote for.”
On hearing the story, another headman came forward and explained what happened to him. Two days before the election, he said, he was summoned to the USDP office in Shar Dar where he had his fingerprint taken.
He said there were village headmen from all over the region waiting in the office. “None of us really understood what was going on,” he said. “It seems really unfair they can just take our name for the election without letting us decide.”
Apart from the selected village headmen, the rest of the area’s population was completely disassociated from the elections.
“If they let us decide who to lead Karenni State, they know we would surely choose Karenni groups who don't cooperate with the junta,” said a man who was hunting by a river. “So, they don't let us vote.
“In the past, the Burmese army did many terrible things to our people,” he said. “They seized our villages and destroyed our peaceful lives.”
Faced with fierce resistance from the Karenni Army, the military junta employed an aggressive campaign in the 1990s to gain control of the region. Using the British “Four Cuts Policy,” they sought to completely disconnect the rebel army from the villagers.
Overnight, the Burmese army ordered all the villagers in Karenni State to move into government-controlled areas. Any villagers found after the order would be considered rebels. The Burmese army then swept the area, burning down villages and killing dozens of villagers who had tried to continue their lives away from the Burmese army.
Those who were captured were rounded up and forced to live in “relocation camps,” which were likened to concentration camps by activists. According to Moe Say, a refugee who lived in Shar Dar during the late 90s, the Burmese army only gave them eight cans of food per year and never allowed them out to tend to their farms.
“We didn’t have enough food. So many people died. It was horrible,” he said.
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Like many village headmen in Burma’s various ethnic areas, he was summoned to vote by the government—but not today, Nov. 7, but one week before the official day. Government officials arrived at his farm while he was working in the fields, and told him he had to make the two-hour walk to the town of Shar Dar to vote.
“I had so much work to do in the fields, but they didn’t care. I had to go,” he told The Irrawaddy. “If I didn’t vote, they told me my village would suffer as a result.”
When asked whom he voted for, the wiry man said he didn’t know. He said the vote took place in the office of the Union Solidarity for Development Party (USDP). “I thought it was strange I was voting in a party office, but I didn’t want to make any problems,” he said.
When he arrived at the office, they already had his name and that of many other village headmen on a list. He said they ticked off his name and told him to sit down. They then placed a folded piece of paper in front of him and told him to place his fingerprint on it.
“I didn’t even get to look inside the paper, I had no idea what was going on,” Mu Ar said, clearly frustrated. Before he had time to work out what was going on, his finger had been “assisted” onto the paper and he was being ushered out the front door.
“Before, we were quite excited about the elections, but many people don’t understand what is going on and nobody has explained anything,” he said. “But even though I am a simple farmer I know that what happened was not fair—I didn’t have a choice who I could vote for.”
On hearing the story, another headman came forward and explained what happened to him. Two days before the election, he said, he was summoned to the USDP office in Shar Dar where he had his fingerprint taken.
He said there were village headmen from all over the region waiting in the office. “None of us really understood what was going on,” he said. “It seems really unfair they can just take our name for the election without letting us decide.”
Apart from the selected village headmen, the rest of the area’s population was completely disassociated from the elections.
“If they let us decide who to lead Karenni State, they know we would surely choose Karenni groups who don't cooperate with the junta,” said a man who was hunting by a river. “So, they don't let us vote.
“In the past, the Burmese army did many terrible things to our people,” he said. “They seized our villages and destroyed our peaceful lives.”
Faced with fierce resistance from the Karenni Army, the military junta employed an aggressive campaign in the 1990s to gain control of the region. Using the British “Four Cuts Policy,” they sought to completely disconnect the rebel army from the villagers.
Overnight, the Burmese army ordered all the villagers in Karenni State to move into government-controlled areas. Any villagers found after the order would be considered rebels. The Burmese army then swept the area, burning down villages and killing dozens of villagers who had tried to continue their lives away from the Burmese army.
Those who were captured were rounded up and forced to live in “relocation camps,” which were likened to concentration camps by activists. According to Moe Say, a refugee who lived in Shar Dar during the late 90s, the Burmese army only gave them eight cans of food per year and never allowed them out to tend to their farms.
“We didn’t have enough food. So many people died. It was horrible,” he said.
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