Aung's Story

I was a mountain farmer. I grew rice, long beans, sesame, coconut trees and many other fruits. After the Burmese soldiers came to my village, we had to run to the forest. The Burmese army burned my whole village. We had about twenty houses, a small village. My family and I ran into the forest in all directions. We were separated until we could find each other. My friend and I were shot by the soldiers when we went to find food for our families. My friend who was a doctor, not like American doctor but a forest doctor, took out the bullet. I had four children at the time this happened. We had to stay in the forest and we had to move all the time. We built a skinny house, very small. We stayed in the forest for three or four years then we moved to another village. My wife's cousin lived in this village but she told us we had to get out of the village because it's not good, the army treat's us bad. They would take all of the food. We had to run to the forest again. Many people were sick with no medicine and no salt. We couldn't go back to the village because of the landmines. We moved to a different village, Pu Ya Loon, for one year. My wife was pregnant and we had to run to the border in a town called Matterea. We lived there one year and then moved to So Klo Camp in Thailand because the Burmese soldiers came and chased us to Thailand. We lived there many years but the Burmese army would always come across the river in hot weather because the water was low. We were always scared. My grandchild and son-in-law were shot in our house. My grandson was almost two years old when he was shot. Because there were so many problems with the Burmese army we moved to Mae La Camp.