Sittwe, 4st August 03: "The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta of Burma has taken up a long-term extensive black pepper cultivation plan in the western Burmese state of Rakhine. Under the plan the junta has confiscated villagers? land near the more than sixty battalion headquarters stationed across the state. Sources in the administration said that at Buthidaung Township, close to the Bangladesh-Burma border in the northern part of Rakhine State, the junta has confiscated hundreds of acres of villagers? land for the cultivation of black pepper..."