19.09.2009: 
A Child Porter Irrawaddy
September 16, Irrawaddy
A Child Porter – Lawi Weng
After 16 days of being an ammunition porter on the frontline with Burmese
military government troops, Aung Naing was reunited with his parents
recently at Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Burmese border.
Recounting his ordeal to The Irrawaddy, 16-year-old Aung Naing said he
begged the government troops to let him go because he did not want to be a
soldier. He finally escaped after the soldiers told him they would take
him for military training in Rangoon.
According to Aung Naing, junta troops from Light Infantry Battalion 32
seized him and four other youngsters near Three Pagodas Pass during a
troop exchange in August. The five children were made to carry ammunition
on the frontline.
He said they came and seized him in the yard of his home when his parents
were out. He was taken to a battalion base near Three Pagodas Pass, where
he spent one night before he was made to carry ammunition.
“When they seized me, they just ordered me to go with them to the hospital
at Three Pagodas Pass,” he said.
“They made me carry mines, mortar shells and a radio transmitter,” he
said, unable to guess at how much weight he had to carry because he had
never had to carry such loads before.
“They were very rough,” he said. “They didn’t give me any food for two
days. I only had water to drink. All I could do was try to get some sleep
at night.
“Without food, I became more and more tired. I could barely lift my feet
to walk, but if I sat down, they beat me.”
“They forced me to walk on the frontline, where Karen troops could shoot
at me,” Aung Naing said.
Aung Naing said he was wounded when Karen National Liberation Army troops
ambushed government troops on their way to Anan Kwin village in Kyar Inn
Seik Gyi Township, Karen State.
“The Karens fired mortars at us first,” he said. “I tried to get as close
to the ground as possible, but the basket was too heavy, and I couldn’t
get my arms out quickly—that’s when the bullet hit my right arm near the
elbow. Luckily it only gave me a flesh wound.
“The soldiers gave me some medicine but left the wound to bleed,” he said.
The soldiers removed half the load from his basket after he was shot, but
they still forced him to carry ammunition, even though his arm was
bleeding.
“Each time we had to cross a stream or river, they told me if I dropped
their transmitter, I would go to prison for 20 years,” he said. “I held it
firmly despite my injury.”
He said the government soldiers did not dare cook rice at night because
they were afraid the Karen might see the fire, he said.
“The soldiers had rations to eat if they couldn’t cook rice, but I had
nothing but water to drink. They didn’t want to share food with me
because they were afraid they would run out of supplies in the jungle.”
“Once or twice they gave me a can of fish, and sometimes I was able to get
some rice with a bit of salt,” he said.
When he finally reached home, Aung Naing said he felt like a convict on
the run. His arm had been injured, but it was the brutal wound to his
spirit that caused more pain.
[Aung Naing is not the real name of the boy in the story]
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