Experiences

In 1970, she was relocated three times to three different villages.
She attended school up until the 3 rd grade, but after that she had
to stay with her mother and look after her siblings.
Paw Poe’s family had no choice but to leave their village and hide
in a cave with very little to eat. They were so hungry that they ate
weeds from the river. While they fled from one hiding place to
another, Paw Poe took care of her siblings and her elderly aunt, Ah
Phe, who is now more than 90 years old.
During the civil war, Paw Poe worked as a trader. She maintained
good relationships with army personnel from both sides.
Suspecting that Paw Poe had useful information, military officers
tortured her, keeping her locked up in their office for fifteen days.
While she was held captive, she had only beans, rice, and fish paste
to eat. “I said, ‘I don’t know’ every time they questioned me. I was
terrified that they would rape me at night.”
Finally, Paw Poe was released. On another occasion, while she was
on her way to sell some local goods, a member of a local armed
group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), attempted
to rape her. However, she is very reluctant to speak of this, saying,
“I feel so ashamed I want to die.” Many sexual violations remain
undocumented in this way due to strong cultural taboos.
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In 2004, Paw Poe had just given birth to her youngest son and her
family had to move again.
We had to walk, as we did not have a cart. I carried my
child who was a week old. Both my son and I had seizures.
They relocated us to a field next to the road, on the edge
of a forest. That’s why we moved to this village. We have
never been asked to move back.
Now, Paw Poe looks after her four children. One child is mentally
disabled due to a serious brain disease she developed a few
months after she was born. Paw Poe suffers from low blood
pressure herself. She has not been able to afford to send any of
her children to school. Her hope for the future is for lasting peace,
so that she can return to her village and send her youngest three
children to school. “To go back to our village, we need a school, a
church, and a medical centre. We badly need these things.”
She enjoyed meeting the survivors and workshop facilitators, but
fears most of all having to relocate yet again.
Women’s Experiences of War,
Peace, and Impunity in Myanmar