KALADAN NEWS
FORCED LABOUR AND
EXTORTION STILL EXISTS IN ARAKAN
Buthidaung, December 26: Forced labour and extortion
are still continuing in
authorities have officially denied
the existence any
forced labour across the country,
according to our
correspondent.
The Commander of the Military Operation Command
(MOC)-15 of
ordered the Chairmen of the Nanragon and Quandaung
village tracts Peace and Development
Councils (VPDCs)
on December 01,to provide 200
laborers daily for
cultivation of seasonal crops like
chili, tomato, egg
plant, potato, cabbage, pea and
cauliflower…etc, he
further added.
About six acres of farmland had already been
confiscated from nearby villagers
for seasonal
cultivation. The villagers of the
two village tracts
were also asked to complete the
cultivation of six
acres of land by December 15 for
growing vegetables,
said a daily labor to our
correspondent.
In this connection, Abul Kalam and U Kyaw Thein, the
two Chairmen respectively of Quandaung and Nanragoon
village tracts, had sent forcibly
200 laborers daily,
from these two village tracts for
the army camp for
the purpose of cultivation, he
further said.
At present, there are a total of 1,490 houses in these
village tracts. The two Chairmen of
the village tracts
had collected an amount of Kyats 3, 87,000/- from
1,290 households at the rate of Kyats
300/-each per
house. The rest of the 200 houses
had to supply forced
labor---one person per house---
continuing for 15 days
for which they were paid Kyats 200/- each from the
money collected from the villagers.
Normally the daily
wage of an ordinary labor is Kyats 800 to 1,000 in the
area, a clerk from VPDC office told
our source.
Editor
Kaladan Press Network