Date:
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(1) Forcible paddy purchase at better price
(2) Denied Issuing Travel Documents Made Over 165 Of Rohingya Students
Deprive In Their Exam
(3)
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Forcible paddy
purchase at better price
=======================================
S.H.A.N
Kengtung township rice traders
association to purchase 100,000 baskets
of this year's harvest at 3,800
kyat ($3.8) per basket, a rate ten
times higher than it was before the
scrapping of the compulsory
procurement policy on 23 April last
year, reports Tai Touch from
Chiangrai:
"The market price is presently 4,500 kyat ($4.5),"
said a businessman
who met S.H.A.N. in
north. "And the farmers are
forbidden to sell their harvest outside
their communities before the quota
is filled. The punishment for
defiance is a 5 year
imprisonment."
Rice mill owners who mill paddy without official permission
are also
under threat of confiscation of
their possessions.
As for rice traders, they were required to re-sell their
purchase to
the government at 3,500 kyat ($3.5)
per basket rate. "It appears, at
first glance, a loser
situation," said his colleague. "However, we are
allowed to use 14 pay (1 pay=3.33
liters) measures instead of the
normal 16 pay ones at the official
buying centers. And that may save
the day for us."
The rice traders associations were set up by the government
in place
of customary government procurers
since last year following
announcement by Lt-Gen Soe Win, then Secretary-2 of the State Peace
and Development Council of the end
to 40-year old policy of buying
paddy at discount prices. Before
his announcement, the official paddy
price was fixed at 350 kyat (0.35)
per basket (54 liters).
Shan Human Rights Foundation reported in its November
monthly issue
that the rice procurement policy
would resume in other townships in
eastern
The UN's World Food Program deputy director Sheila Sisulu had said in
September, after a visit
freedom of movement of agricultural
products was impoverishing and
starving the people.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Denied Issuing Travel
Documents Made Over 165 Of Rohingya
Students
Deprive In Their Exam
===================================================================
Kaladan News
Maungda, December 09: Over 165 Rohingya University students were
deprived of appearance in their
supplementary examinations as they
were denied issuing their travel
documents to go to Sittwe by the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authority, said a
parent of
a student of Maungdaw
town who preferred not to mention his name
because of security reason.
Of them, 60 correspondence (Distance) students and over 105
regular
day students of
documents to go to Sittwe by Maungdaw District Peace
and Development
Council (DPDC) Chairman Major Ran Myu
Aung, he further added.
The 60 distance students of
trying to go to Sittwe
to appear the supplementary examinations which
are due to be held on
day students had also to appear
supplementary examinations on December
01, 2004, the father further said.
These two groups of Rohingya
students were denied issuing their travel
documents to go to Sittwe by DPDC Chairman of Maungdaw
District. The
reason given was that the DPDC
Chairman was directed not to make any
decision without the knowledge of
the Western Command Commander Brig.
General Maung Oo based in Ann town,
student who declined to give his
name.
To their utter frustration and dismay, the Rohingya students could not
make their way to Sittwe in time and they may surely fail en masse in
the examination losing a whole
academic year of study. The Rohingya
students of
the leadership change in
Soon after the arrest of Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, Nasaka(
Burmese-Border Security Force) could not issue travel
documents
anymore but the DPDC Chairman has
been exercising in Maungdaw
district, said another student.
Because of several travel restrictions Rohingya
Muslims are still
facing enormous difficulties.
Especially, Rohingya students face
travel ban to pursue education. For
higher education, they need to go
to
Rohingua Muslims can hardly think
of going to Sittwe where as Rohingy
students are somehow allowed to travel
under special consideration.
But, the authorities are very hesitant to give permission.
Previously,
all Rohingya
students were to get special travel permission from
Nasaka Headquarters under very
much humiliating conditions, he further
added.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
========================================
S.H.A.N
The Burma Army, long at the receiving end of strong
criticism from the
local populace, is, in an
exceptional instance, being praised by poppy
growers along the Thai-Burma border
for consideration shown by its
troops during this year's poppy
season, which is being regarded as
payback time for last year's
losses, reports Hawkeye:
"The Burmese soldiers who come to gather vegetables for
their pots are
very understanding," recounted
a hired laborer from Nawng Aw. "They
take care to avoid stepping on the
poppy plants, unlike some Shan
(State Army) soldiers who pass through the fields during
their
patrols."
Nawng Aw, located between Homong in the west and Mongton in
the east,
opposite Maehongson,
is a village where hordes of poppy fields are
besieging the Army's hill outpost
at this time of year.
"A field using one hoe pays 50,000 kyat (US$50)
as a tax to the
Army," she said, "but if it is using up to five
hoes, the tax is up to
100,000 kyat ($100)."
However, the opium tax for the Army is collected for the
most part by
The local militia force of Yang Erh,
whose base is at Kawng Teevee,
east of Nawng
Aw.
A Shan relief worker, who recently returned from a one-month
trip into
the area, told S.H.A.N. that all of
the villagers he interviewed were
confident the 2004-2005 harvest
will be as much as the 2002-2003
season, if not more.
Each household had produced 6-20 viss
(1 viss = 1.6 kg). Last year,
Adverse weather pushed it down to 4 viss,
thereby placing many farmers
in debt to their financiers.
Elsewhere in
except from the north, where
continued suppression has been reported
in most are as for the fourth
consecutive year. "Up here, the UN may
be able to boast a 54% reduction or
even more," said a ceasefire
source from southern
certainly not in the south where we
see only more and more fields as
each year goes by."
In the east, even in the UN's alternative development
project areas in
the Wa region, there is no sign
that acreage is going down. "Bosses
are offering advance payments
and people say they need to make the
most of it while they're still
allowed to grow," said a source from
Mongkhark, some 200 km. north of Tachilek, who recently visited Wa
areas.
beginning on
Meanwhile, a recent report by the Shan State South
Police Force
claims destruction of 1,064 acres
of poppy fields during the ongoing
season.
According to the UN office on Drugs and Crimes Oct.
11,
cultivation has declined 54% since
last year.
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Burma News International is a network of nine exiled media
groups
such as Mizzima
News, Shan Herald Agency for News, Kao Wao News Group,
Khonumthung News Group, Narinjara News, Kaladan Press
Network,
Independent Mon News Agency, Karenni Information
Network Group and Network Media Group.
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