LNDO Interview

I used to work on three plots of opium (one acre each). If we planted rice, we could grow sixteen “pyi” (small tins) of rice. If the soil was good, we could get at least 10 viss of opium, but the soil was not good, so we could get only two viss.

I also had two plots of rice on the mountainside. I got sixteen baskets of rice from one of my plots, which was one and a half acres. I got 40 baskets of rice in a good season. The rice I got could last us for five months. I had to exchange opium to get rice for the next seven months.

People who had rice to sell could get richer day by day, because they could exchange their rice with opium and make a big profit. They preferred to get opium in exchange for their rice, rather than pigs, buffalo and so on. Since people needed rice to survive, the rice sellers could drive the price right up.

My family were never able to repay the debts from former years, and were always incurring new debts each year even though we worked so hard. I could not send any of my children to school since we did not have a school in my village. Two of my older daughters helped their mother work in the kitchen and work on the farm. After they came back from the farm, one fed the pigs and one cooked rice for us.

Two years ago, we had to build a new road from Panghsang to Pangyang. One villager from each house had to go. We had to work non-stop even throughout the rainy season. Most of the time, my oldest daughter and my wife were the ones who had to do that work. It was difficult for me to walk, because I had been injured in my thigh during fighting at Pangsang, and my legs were not of the same length.

One day, a militia leader called Ngao Kap who had come back from a meeting at the headquarters at Pangsang told us that soon all the people in the village would have to move to the Thai-Burma borderline. We were told that there would be good soil there, we could plant new fields, and get as much land to work or to stay on as we wanted. It was close to Thailand, so we could sell our chickens, pigs, buffalo, cows and so on for a good price. We could also sell easily the vegetables we grew for a good price.

Because of this news, some villagers were happy and some were sad. The villagers who were sad were the people who had once fought against with Khun Sa at Loi Lang, on the Thai-Burma border. Many of their fellow-soldiers had died to malaria at that time. But they were afraid to talk about this to other people. We all knew that we had to obey the orders of the Wa leaders, or else we would be killed.

Most of my family were happy to be moving, especially two of my older daughters who wanted to escape from their miserable life. I could not feel happy because I did not know anything about the new place. My friend Ngao Kap did not tell the truth to anyone except me, so I thought no one else knew. I told my wife I did not want to leave my farm and opium plot, which was how I really felt. But I did not tell anyone else that I did not want to move.

Within a week, the order came from headquarters again that no one could sell their rice, buffalo, cows and pigs. They said they would reimburse the costs later.

Every year those of us who planted opium were busy in December, January and February. These three months were the most important time. We started to plant seed at the end of November, and we could start to collect the first opium in January. This was also the time to harvest rice, and it was the time when people could get money. This was really the time when we could get what we wanted. This was because the Chinese traders came and sold many different things. Some Chinese traders came right to our fields and sold food to us. We could exchange opium for food and other things we wanted. It was the most beautiful time of the year. It was during this time, one night, that 20 soldiers from the headquarters came and said: “Early tomorrow morning, when you hear the signal of a whistle, everyone must get up and cook and eat quickly. By the second whistle, you must all leave the village. No one is allowed to carry any pots, plates, or other belongings. When we arrive at the new place, you will be given new things,” said the soldiers.

Because of this order we were only allowed to carry our money and a little bit of opium. After we had been walking for five days, we heard a sound far in the distance. The sound was like a strong wind blowing and thunder. My wife and my daughter asked me what the sound was, but I did not know. Only after I asked one of the soldiers, did I learn that it was the sound of a car. I had never seen a car before. None of the other people in the village had seen one either, except for two villagers who had come back from fighting with Khun Sa. We were all eager to see one

When we arrived at the Wa military camp in the Mong Pawk area, we saw a truck for the first time. It was a big six-wheel truck, made in China. When we arrived there, we saw many strange things and more villagers than we could count. I had never seen such a big group of people in my life. I had never heard some of the languages they were speaking. We have many types of Wa; we are not all the same. There were also some Lahu and Chinese. Big and small cars came and went throughout the day. We stayed there for two days. On the third night when the children were sleeping, 500 of us were ordered to get into nine big six-wheel trucks. There was a big rush to get into the trucks. Then the trucks started to move. Before we had even gone beyond shouting distance, all the people, old, young and children started feeling sick, and began crying and shouting. There were three Wa soldiers in each truck. The soldiers threatened those who were shouting. Some of the villagers in the truck begged to go on foot instead of in the trucks. The soldiers told them that if they went on foot, it would take one month, and they would have to sleep along the way. A cover was put over the back of the truck. It became dark as night, and we could not see where we were going. Me and my younger daughter and my son were feeling very sick. My wife and oldest daughter could not look after all of us. Even though I’m a strong man, I felt too weak to take care of myself. I had never felt so bad in all my life. I felt like I was being punished in hell. I told my wife that what I prayed for in the next life was never to ride in a car again. I preferred to be killed than suffer so much. I was surprised that my wife and eldest daughter were not feeling sick. Anyhow, many others were suffering like me.

The next morning, the soldiers said: “We are arriving in Mong Pieng town. Everyone can get out and go to the toilet. After that, we will have some rice to eat.” I did not want to eat. My throat felt dry. I drank water, and I was sick again. My son seemed to be feeling better than me because he was able to drink and eat.

The trucks carried on driving non-stop. Late at night we arrived at Mong Kyet town and they stopped and we got some food, then continued. The next day in the evening we arrived at Mong Hsat township at San Lu Yao village. That was 23 February 1999. We were told about two villages not so far from the village where we slept. One was a Lahu village with 100 houses and the other was Wa and Chinese, with about 200 houses. The villagers in those two villages had arrived one month before us. They had all come form the north.

The soil and location of those villages were better than the place we had arrived at. It was easy to walk across the mountain. Those villagers had built their houses easily with bamboo within a week after they had arrived.

The Wa organisation said they would provide us with rice for one year. They gave us a soldier’s uniform each, including to the women. Everyone was busy planting new farms during the first month. Everyone tried hard to work hard. I planted 32 pyi of paddy and I got 2048 pyi because of the good soil. Nothing had been grown on the soil before. We felt that we were better off than in our native place. My family was happy because we had no debts. We thought that we had now escaped from our life of debts.

At the end of the rainy season, we still felt happy but not for long. We started falling sick one by one, with a strange illness which we had never suffered from before. Before the one who was sick had recovered, another of us would start feeling sick again. We used the opium we had brought with us for medicine. Everyone in my family started using opium every night, both to treat and prevent the illness. The fevers went down, but then started again. We asked a spirit doctor to make offerings to the spirits. It was difficult and expensive, but we had to get chickens, pigs and dogs from our neighbours to give as offerings.

Our money had run out as well as our opium. Here we had no one to borrow from. In our old village, we could borrow for the next year till our next opium crop came. There was a rich Chinese man who lived in the middle of our village. We begged him to lend us money, and promised to pay back double the amount, but he refused to lend anything to us. The Wa organisation had told us they would repay our belongings like rice, pigs, dogs, chicken, buffalo and cows when we arrived at the new place. Because of the illness, every house was facing hunger. Many people went to ask from money from the Wa organisation but they all came back with empty hands. The soldiers simply said they were taking responsibility for the villagers, but they gave nothing. I also wanted to go and ask for rice and pigs, but I didn’t because I knew we could get nothing. Also, we were afraid that if we looked like we were not patient with the organisation, we could be killed. Because they were afraid of punishment, my daughter and my wife prohibited me from going to talk to the Wa authorities.

The Wa leader Wei Hsiao Kang, said to us: “If you need money, you can grow opium. We have made an agreement with SPDC. You can grow it for three years and you don’t have to pay tax.” This was opposite from what we had been told in our native place (before we came here). They had said we could not continue to grow opium when we arrived at the new place. But now no one cared about that. They just wanted to do any job to get money.

Before we had come to the new place, we had only heard the name “Ya Ba”. We had never seen it. Here there was a lot. If we transported it into Thailand, which would take one day and one night, we could get 10,000 Baht. If I hadn’t been disabled, I’m sure I would have done it. The people who did this earned a lot of money and bought things which we had never seen before. I simply grew four plots of opium (where we could have planted 80 pyi of rice on each plot). When my wife and daughter were not sick they were able to go to work on the farm. We had to work hard from the morning through to the evening.

We, Wa, have a saying: “In the hope of gaining a lot of honey, we are able to take a beehive and brave the terrible bees, but finally we get only a little honey.” We grew poppy in our fields, and it looked like we would get a good harvest, but in fact, there was hardly any sap in the pods. People thought it was because it had rained during the harvest time. We had no choice but to try and plant again next year.

After we had been in the new place for one year, many more Wa and Chinese came from the north again. Some came to stay in our village. This new Wa group had a lot of money. Everyone could speak Chinese. They could buy oxen, horses and buffalo as soon as they arrived. They were busy searching for land. Some worked on the farms of Shan and Lahu who were the original inhabitants of the area. They told them they had bought the land from their leader. The original villagers had no one to complain and were forced to move out. We don’t know where they moved to.

The new group worked even harder than us. They were busy on their farms, cutting down the trees. Green forests were disappearing day by day. They got a lot of rice. They were happy like we were at first.

After their first harvest, they started to fall sick and die. They tried to cure themselves with all kinds ofmagic, and traditional medicines. They used chickens, pigs, dogs and more than 10 buffalo to offer to the spirits but they did not get better. 3-4 people died each day. Because of all the wailing and crying, I sometimes thought I had come to a living hell.

My older daughter fell sick again and we gave her opium as medicine. Her body was hot, like fire. She had bad diarrhoea all night. In spite of the opium, she died early in the morning. After two days, her mother too had bad diarrhoea and died. I was griefstricken and felt so helpless. I felt especially sorry for my young son. He usually slept with his mother, and cried all night. I had to carry him myself to try and make him go to sleep.

At that time, our new neighbours also died. All five members of the family next door died. Altogether 50 people died within two weeks. In our old native place, we used to cure ourselves with the spirit-doctor we were sick. And we used to take opium when we had diarrhoea. We had never faced this kind of disease before. The spirit-medium said that the gods here in the south were different from the north. We bought 3 expensive buffaloes to offer to the spirits by collecting money from the villagers. 5 doctors from the north came, and two of them came to my village but people kept dying because there was not enough medicine.