(Först tre uttalanden från personer i Kalemyo-området.)
Kalemyo resident I
“We always support all the people who come to see their loved ones at the prison because we pity them.
We are trying to help and support them together as they are also very poor. I am not alone in this, almost
the whole town including market vendors pity them as they had been sent to prison for political reasons.
Almost every one supports them together. For example, the bakeries send their dry cakes and bread to
prisoners. And the women from gold shops would give as much as they could afford such as 2 viss of cooking
oil and the like. For example, almost everyone including our big sisters in the market would buy peanuts and
MSG and all the necessary. Teashops also give roasted beans and the like always. They do help them like
that. Whenever Ma Thandar came here, the locals buy all her dried prawn out of pity. It is the same when she
brought with her ngapi bags. We tried to initiate the sale for her. Some people buy her things even if they
don´t need it. Some merchants bought 5, 3, 2 viss and the like. Last time, he had a stroke and people
felt more pity for them. She has to struggle like that on her own.’
Kalemyo resident II
“Daw Kyi Kyi Myint is helping everyone . People from Rangoon, Tamu, Gangaw and Chin Hills tend to stay
in her house. She hasn´t got enough things at her home, but she does feed them with what she has. She
finds way to feed them. If someone is ill, she would take the patient to the hospital. People love her. She
is always ready to help.’
Kalemyo resident III (Daw Kyi Kyi Myint)
“We are very afraid that the future generations might blame us and say why we have left them with an
odious and dire system. Whatever it is, we must wriggle and struggle out of this dire system and we help all
the family members of prisoners as much as we could. We always have in our heart that we will keep on
helping them.’
Ma Thandar 3
“As I could see my husband quite often, the local commander of National Intelligence Bureau Soe Myint
said that I could come and see my husband because someone was helping me. So, he ordered the host to report
to him when a woman called Ma Thandar arrives. They also looked for me at the market. Who is Ma Thandar from
Rangoon selling ngapi? As they could not find me there, they came to the home of Daw Kyi Kyi Myint where I
stayed. I was weighing the ngapi at the time. I was feeling outraged and sad. What do you want to know? Two
agents came to see me. What we want to know is with whose help you came here.
Then, I will tell you, I said. I pawned my house for 150,000 kyat. I lost my pawn for that
house. Therefore, I have to think of how to survive in the future. My husband was sent to prison for 14
years. I have a 4 year old child. My husband´s parents are still alive. My parents are still alive. I
am feeding all of them. How should I go forward? I could do that only by selling stuff. You also have
children. Try to be understanding. There, they were rather repentant. We are sorry to hear about your
troubles, but you must tell us where you sell your stuff.
I could not tell you that, I retorted. I sell my stuff where there is a market and houses. If
you don´t believe me, follow me. I felt quite hurt and angry.’
“My son is now in the fifth standard. He is still waiting for the homecoming of his father. He was
with his father until the age of four and he knows the value of his father more. And he received the love of
his father but he is not like what it was in our childhood. He remembers his father more. We never knew our
father. He saw his father and [became] friendly with him. So, he is able to appreciate the time with his
father. His father bought him the toys he wanted and told him stories. He also bought him food he liked when
he returned home from work. Therefore, he is feeling the feelings we never had when we were young.
At the time, my son was five years old and attending the kindergarten. Mommy, when is daddy
coming home, he asked me. I have to live separate from daddy and mommy. Therefore, I could understand his
feelings. I felt his feelings when I was young. Therefore, I had to coax him. We will all be together again
one day, I told him.
He has quite a serious respect for his father. The reason is when I was separated from my
father, my mother always told me about him. What kind of things my father liked. My father loves truth. He
is interested in social affairs. He is a kind of person who always thinks how to help other people.
Therefore, your father is in jail, we told him thus. He copies his father´s examples.
Therefore, I told my son like I was brought up as a child. Your father loves truth and wants to
do good things for the world and therefore, he left his parents, wife and children and doing what he
believes in. Therefore, we have to scrimp and save and send things for father, I told him. My son also
reduced his pocket money. He always told me to give the remaining thing for his daddy.
Now, he is starting to ask questions. Why did they arrest daddy? How long are they going to
detain him? He poses this kind of question. When they were unable to answer when grandparents were
distressed and dejected, they would tell him, your daddy is not like your mommy. He is very patient and he
would tell you everything. He has that spirit for the love and dependence on his father.
“They prodded Ko Ne Oo from outside the cell with a bamboo stick for complaining about the leaking
roof of the cell. My son asked me if his father was hit. I told him that he was not hit. Then he said, if
daddy is soaked in rain water, how could he sleep? His blanket will be wet, he said. Like it is in Qiang
Qiao movies (Chinese fantasy Shaolin movies), I want to go and see father to give father the blankets. Do
you only want to give him blankets? Why not bring him home. Mommy, he hasn´t finished serving his
sentence, he said.
He said another thing. On 28 July 2002, the authorities told political prisoners if they sign
the so-called Act 401, they would be released. There, Ko Ne Oo didn´t sign it. My son said, mommy,
does my father really love me? I was feeling rather hurt by it and I asked him the reason. Why didn´t
he sign 401? Doesn´t he love me? No, it is not like that my son, I said. He didn´t sign because
he loves you.’
“We have to struggle economically and we suffer socially. Sometimes, we forget. As I had to go to Kalemyo to do business, I had to leave him behind. As we had to separate too often, on the day I had to leave, I left my clothes in the washing basket. My mother was about to wash them when my son said, grandma, don´t wash mommy´s clothes. Grandson, the clothes are disgusting with the smell of sweats. I will wash them, she said. Don´t wash it, I don´t find them disgusting, he said. If I sleep with her clothes in my hands, I miss her less. I was touched and suffered a lot. My mother cried.’
“Now, I tell my son to listen to the news because it is the media and computer age. You have to be
educated, my son. You have to know how other countries have progressed and what we need in our country, I
told him. The reason being I had to give my back to the classroom and I don´t want you to be like
that. I told him the dream I wanted to have. I want him to see the difference between ‘damma´
and ‘adamma´. I also taught him even now.
I also read him the lines of U Shwe Aung. He is quite familiar with it. It says, if the world is
to be stable, the forces of damma must defeat the forces of adamma. In order to do that knowledge and
feelings are important. The knowledge of business is also important. If we do not have that, we can´t
stabilise the world. Now, we are travelling, who are suffering from what kind of difficulties. I teach him
about nature, earth, water and mountains and geography even.
I told him why the weather changes and the deforestation and the drying up of lakes and rivers
and the like, from what I have learnt. I tell him about the deforestation and that Chindwin River is not
like before and why it happened like that. They will learn to treasure the natural resources of the country
and have the desire to have them and learn to love the country. I want him to have that feeling to protect
what is precious in our country.’
“When there were four brothers and sisters in our family and when my youngest brother was only six
months old and crawling on all four, they arrested my father for the second time. They brought him back to
our home handcuffed, as they wanted to search the house again.
They told us to feed our father. Me, my mother and my brothers and sisters gave him
whatever rice and curry we had, with sorrow and happiness. We fed him with pennywort leaves salad and split
beans curry. They looked at our meals and searched our house. Your family is quite poor, someone told my
father. You have quite a number of family members. If you cooperate with us, things will be better for you.
There, my father shook his head. There and then, he named my brother as he was not named yet. Call him
Lagoon Ein. That´s all he said. There, I saw another light. My father never exchanged his beliefs with
any other materialistic things like success or wealth. I saw the light. We were never ashamed to be poor
again.
A Chin national told me something. I also marked the words he said. He asked me why I was in
Kalemyo. I am a family member of a political prisoner. I came to see my husband in the prison from Rangoon.
Then, he told other people to give me a place to sit. We were riding and hanging on to a goods carrying car.
It was quite high and I found it quite difficult to hang on to it as I was only used to riding a proper bus
in Rangoon. That´s why he knew that I was not from the local area.
He told me: There is something written by Saya Natnwe in a book. It was during the time the
Japanese ruled our country (WW2). During the Japanese era, it is said that if you are a true man, you must
have the experiences of being in prison. If you are a true woman, you must have the experiences of crying
bitterly. But this day and age in Burma is worse than the Japanese era, he said. But do not give up. The
reason is, the current situation is like a mother carrying a pregnancy. Now is the time when she is carrying
the pregnancy called ‘democracy´. Now is the time she has to be careful when she sits or stands
or moves. However difficult and troublesome now, the child she gives birth will be very lovely. That saying
is tonic to me.’
“At the moment, we are in quite a bit of trouble to survive in the outside world. It is very tiring for us. We find it hard to obtain enough medicine, food and clothing. It is very cold for political prisoners in Kalemyo Prison there now and we have to work very hard in the outside world for them to get warm clothing such as hats, socks and blankets. The reason for that is we can´t compare our sufferings to theirs: they threw away their ego and left their families. Of course, they do want to live freely outside the prison. They can only think about today; they can´t think about tomorrow. Their whole life is buried within a 10x10 room with four walls. Those who are married want to see their sons and daughters. Unmarried students want to see their parents and relatives.’