Burma: War Crimes Against Convict Porters

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Prisoners work on land belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture in Shan State. © 2005 Nic Dunlop/Panos 231073
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Convict porters in blue prison uniforms carry supplies for the Burmese army in northern Karen state, 2011. Forcing prisoners to work for the army in frontline areas is a longstanding practice in Burma. © 2011 Free Burma Rangers 231073
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Burmese army sergeant with rocket-propelled grenade on patrol in northern Karen State. © 2011 Free Burma Rangers 231073
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A convict porter in telltale blue uniform carries a bamboo basket of supplies and a military pack on his head in Karen State. © 2011 Free Burma Rangers 231073
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Burmese army column with convict porters moves through a village in northern Karen State, January 2011. © 2011 Karen Human Rights Group 231073
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Burmese army mortar rounds carried by convict porters. © 2006 Karen Human Rights Group 231073
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Burmese army mortar rounds and landmines carried by convict porters. © 2011 Karen Human Rights Group 231073
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Burmese army soldiers on patrol in Karen State in early 2011. The man in the middle (wearing a white shirt) is a civilian porter forced to carry supplies for the unit. Civilians, particularly from ethnic minority communities, have also long been forced to serve as porters for the army. © 2011 Free Burma Rangers 231073
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Former convict porter Maung Nyunt (pseudonym) escaped in January 2011. “If the porters stepped on a landmine and were injured, the soldiers would just leave them there. One porter stepped on a mine and lost his leg. The soldiers left him, he was screaming but no one helped. When we came down the mountain he was dead. I looked up and saw bits of his clothing in the trees, and parts of his leg in a tree.” © 2011 Phil Thornton 231073
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Former convict porter Myint Shwe (pseudonym) was interviewed by Human Rights Watch in February 2011: “I really wanted to run away, the army was treating us like animals, but we couldn’t go anywhere. I shouldn’t have been put on the [convict porter] list; my sentence was only one-and-a-half years.” © 2011 Phil Thornton 231073
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Former convict porter Tun Tun Aung (pseudonym), 20, receives treatment for a gunshot wound. Burmese soldiers shot him in the shoulder when he escaped to Thailand in January 2011. “The soldiers told us at night that there was a lot of fighting on the mountain, and that if we were alive tomorrow night we would be lucky. We are all dead, I thought. Alive or dead, it’s the same thing here.” © 2011 Phil Thornton 231073
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An escaped convict porter, originally from Mytkina prison in the far north of Burma, shows scars from carrying heavy loads of military supplies in Karen State. © 2008 Free Burma Rangers 231073
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The remains of four convict porters killed by the Burmese army in northern Karen State in 2006. © 2006 Karen Human Rights Group 231073
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Soldiers parade on Armed Forces Day, which celebrates the founding of the modern Burmese army. © 2007 Nic Dunlop/Panos 231073
The Burmese army’s abusive treatment of convicts who are forced to serve as porters under dangerous front-line conditions constitutes war crimes. These abuses against convict porters include summary executions, torture, and the use of the convicts as “human shields.” The Burmese government’s longtime failure to investigate abuses by its forces should prompt concerned governments to support a United Nations-led commission of inquiry into violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Burma. Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group call on the military to stop forcibly recruiting prisoners as porters and to prosecute those responsible for ordering or participating in such abuses.
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