Conscripts are simply dragged off the streets. Pay is irregular, training sparse and morale low. In fact, he says, most Burmese soldiers favor the democracy movement, but brutality and fear keep them in the ranks. Rangoon maintains numerous bases in eastern Burma and periodically strikes at villages suspected of harboring rebels. SPDC forces impress civilians, women as well as men, as porters for months at a time.
Hungry soldiers take villagers' crops and livestock.
Refugees also report frequent beatings, rapes, and murder, stories confirmed by Yei Shweh and other defectors. As a result, the Karen fight desperately. The battle remains sadly uneven, however. The KNLA fields 4,000 to 5,000 ill-equipped guerrillas. The troops I met tended to run from teens to 30s.