One of the most powerful guerrilla groups offered protection. Their offer was accepted and a large sum of money was paid which went to their cause. They would guard the prawn ponds and prevent the prawns being stolen. This guerrilla group was very efficient at its job but they had to be ruthless when it came to keeping out the prawn stealers, even if they were their own people, the people from the village. As I said, they were very conscientious. They mounted guard at night but this did nothing to deter the villagers who came in by stealth. One of them was caught and warned. He came again. This time he was beaten up severely. The final time arrived when he was caught yet again. This time he was killed. The victim’s wife wrote to the army command complaining that there were terrorists operating on the prawn farms and that they had killed her husband. Because of this it was now only a matter of time before the State troops moved in with their commando units. This was war. The policies on both sides allowed for no compromise. If any terrorist was caught he would be given short shrift. There would be no give and take on either side. Extermination would take place. Where the guerrillas were concerned, this often constituted a problem. They moved freely among the people and did not always wear uniforms. This meant that any young or even middle-aged male was suspect.

Often the foreign investors were seen with their uniformed guerrilla guards, posing for photographs. No one could be absolutely certain whether they had any political interests in these areas. They simply came and went. They pursued their other lives. The guerrillas remained. So did the villagers. In a situation as volatile as this, there is room for underhand goings-on. Collaborators, quislings, informers and traitors—those hooded people—will always be there. Sometimes out of fear, sometimes compulsion, sometimes for thirty pieces of silver. The traitors, if they were caught, were made to pay with their lives. There were ‘kangaroo courts’, summary executions, lamp post killings.

Yet another man who was in the habit of stealing prawns was caught by the guerrilla group. He was a strong, fearless man. The guerrillas beat him up badly. He warned them and said, ‘Finish me off now because if I escape I will revenge myself on you.’ But they did not kill him. They bound him up tightly and left him in a room. Meanwhile they relaxed in that man’s house and watched television. There appears to have been a certain naïvete in their actions, a naïvete which lay in their confidence in their own power. The man managed to free himself and crawl out into the dark, carrying information to the army headquarters. Everything led to a confrontation with the guerrillas at the prawn farm.