EXHIBITS

Tun Lay:

"So we couldn’t do our work when there was a war because the Burmese military would come to our village and take us as porters – you know, forcing us to do work for them."

"So if they couldn’t find us, they would go to our work place and kind of drag us to where they wanted to take us; if not, they would come at night and just force us – just drag us out of our house."

Tun Lay audio

Pyo Nwe:

"What makes me more scared is that when I went back to Thailand one day, I saw the Burmese military. They were taking people, you know. They were taking people to – I don’t know where they were taking them, but they were capturing people, so it makes me more scared."

"Okay, what happened was this Thai military guy – he went out, he found a woman, he took her to the camp, not to the camp but to their place, and I lived really close to it. And they were doing some horrible things to her, I think. I heard the noise and everything, but I couldn’t help. I was so scared. So, I think it happened a lot."

Pyo Nwe audio

Aye Win:

"The Burmese military were coming and forcing people to you know forcing people to become a porter. And they were looking for especially like…eighteen to seventeen years old man or woman. Both man and woman. So, you know I…me and my friend we were just really scared. We were like…it’s not safe to live in here anymore. Let’s just go to Thailand."

Aye Win audio

Eh Htoo:

"So there was one thought that came to me: 'If I die during the war,' – before that, I have a mom and an older sister. Because they’re female, the military won’t take them as a porter; and I was only 16 years old, and I was the only boy in the family so I was forced to become a porter. And then I started thinking, 'What if I die during the war? There is no point – I can’t repay my family, nor can I help them in any way.' So I started thinking, 'It’s better for me to go to refugee camp, maybe study there; and that could be a possibility to help my family, or in any other ways.'”

Eh Htoo audio

Kyaw Eh:

"My dad – he die, or we don’t know anything; we don’t have any information – nobody can tell us if he is still alive or no."

"We had a problem with Burmese soldier troop – when they come to our village they just give us whatever they want: torture us, and they just give us the– the bullet, the big–like they fire the gun."

Kyaw Eh audio

Snay Tun:

"Well, I grew up in a camp, but you know sometimes they will tell us not to go out of the camp, or something. Yeah. That's how, but sometimes they let us, you know it's kind of difficult. If you don't have jobs, you need money, right? So you have to go out, but if like, they catch you, they just gonna take you away."

Snay Tun audio