Narinjara news
Burmese junta’s gangs of rice robbers
Kyauk-pru, 3 February: The Rice Procurement Team in
Kyaukpru District in the western part of Burma have started to rob the
villagers of whatever rice is available in the face of failure to realize even
half of the targeted amount of rice collection in the present harvest season,
according to our correspondent in the area.
On 3rd January, the Kyaukpru District Peace and Development Council
junta chairman Lieutenant Colonel Aye Gyaw summoned all the government
employees related to the rice collection drive including members of the police
force, army officers and local junta leaders in a meeting and declared that the
target for rice collection this year is 330,000 tinns (1 tinn = 30 kgs)
for the district. He called for total
cooperation of all the concerned officials and armed forces to make the rice
collection drive successful in the face of non-realization of the target though
the harvest season has long been over, sources said.
In compliance of the order the rice from all the villages in the district
including the village tracts of Rann-chaung, Ungdaw, Zin-chaung, and
Leik-khamaw has been confiscated from the villagers beginning January 5. The rice, according to a village councillor,
is realized at twelve tinns for each
acre.
This year not only the rice-growers but also the owners of shrimp farms, salt
fields, and fruit orchards are also compulsorily made to pay ten tinns of rice for each acre of
their own farmlands. Those who cannot pay the rice toll are forced
to pay kyat 1,500 for each tinn of
the demanded amount of rice. ‘This is
clean state-sponsored extortion down to an inhuman scale,’ commented a village councillor.
At Leik-khamaw some seven villagers were arrested and taken to the Kyaukpru
police station as they were too poor to pay the demanded toll of rice, said a
source in the village council. The
arrest is also made in other parts of the district. ‘Failure to realize the target amount of rice
means demotion or even dismissal from job of the concerned township and village
officials including the law enforcement agencies,’ said our correspondent
quoting the lieutenant colonel.
The best arable land in the state can hardly yield 25 tinns of paddy per acre, while the price for 100 tinns of rice is kyat 150,000 in the
open market, the junta pays one-fifth the actual price to the rice growers,
which cannot even cover the cost for farming rice, said a local farmer. The four townships of Kyaukpru, Rambre,
Mrebon and Ann make up Kyaukpru District in
Last year the target for rice collection was nine million tinns while the fresh target for this year has been set for 9.3
million for