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Farmers of every type of crop in Burma have to hand over a portion of their crop to the
SPDC authorities. The quotas are set as a certain number of baskets of paddy or units of
another crop per acre. Meetings are held to notify the villages in each area how much
acreage they are supposed to grow (whether they can in fact plant that many acres or not)
and the quotas they must pay per acre. After the harvest, 'paddy-buying' officials go
around the villages to collect the quota. These quotas are usually set at 12-15 baskets of
paddy per acre, and farmers are forced to sell their quota to the authorities at less than
half of market price or face arrest. In practice, when the farmers hand in their quotas
the corrupt local officials steal much of this money by deducting many kinds of bogus
'fees' and claiming that the rice contains straw or impurities, and the farmers end up
receiving only 20% or less of market price; meanwhile, the SPDC takes the crop quota, and
the officials pocket most of the money. For examples of this process, see "Death Squads and Displacement"
(KHRG #99-04, May 1999).
In the past 3 years crops in many regions have been virtually wiped out by droughts and
floods, but no exceptions are granted and the quotas have actually increased during this
period. Many farmers have lost their seed paddy due to SPDC extortion, looting, forced
labour and crop quotas so they cannot even plant a full crop, yet they must still pay full
quota. In many areas the SPDC also claims to be implementing 'development' through double-
and triple-cropping programs. In these areas, farmers are ordered to grow a second or
third crop and promised the irrigation and fertiliser which is necessary; however, the
officials steal the funds and sell the fertiliser so the farmers cannot grow the crop, but
they must still pay the quota on it, and this quota can be even heavier than on the main
crop (Order #207 refers to a quota on a second crop).
In addition, farmers must pay any 'taxes' on their acreage which are invented by the local
military and PDC authorities; Order #209 is an example of this,
where a local Battalion is taxing farmers for every acre they have planted in rubber.
| Order #202
Township Peace & Development Council Myawaddy Town Date:
2-11-99 ______________________________________________________________________________ Chairpersons ( All ) #xxx Infantry Battalion xxxx Village Tract #x Company aaaa / bbbb / cccc / dddd / eeee / ffff [villages] Date: 16-7-99 Subject: Invitation to the Administrative Coordination Affairs meeting [You] are informed by Frontline #xxx Infantry Battalion (yyyy Army Camp), to discuss paddy cultivation affairs in villages, the Chairpersons themselves should come to yyyy Army Camp on the 5th Waxing day of Second Wa Zoh month [17-7-99] without fail. [Sd.] Camp Commander yyyy Army Camp [This would likely be a meeting to assess how much paddy acreage the villages are growing and give orders on how much the authorities demand that they produce and how much they will have to give as quota.] ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Chairperson
Stamp: Date:
16-7-99 ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Chairperson Stamp:
______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: Township
Peace & Development Council ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: Frontline
#xxx Infantry Battalion ______________________________________________________________________________ To, 31-7-98 ______________________________________________________________________________ |
Health, Education and Pagoda-Building
The orders below have been arranged with those concerning health issues
first, followed by education and finally some orders related to building pagodas. The
orders concerning health mainly involve meetings regarding vaccination campaigns, midwife
training, and village support for the local 'health director'. Most of the health
campaigns in Burma are financed by foreign organisations, though when they are implemented
the SPDC rarely mentions this and tries to claim full credit in front of the local people;
in addition, as can be seen from some of these orders, the villagers are ordered to
contribute food and money for various ceremonies connected to these programs and village
leaders are threatened if they fail to cooperate fully.
There are only 2 orders concerning education, one being an order to attend a meeting of
the parent-teacher association at which 'The Tactical Commander himself will attend the
meeting and will give orders for what is required' (Order #216).
The other (#217) is a letter from a student to a former teacher,
criticising him for promoting students based on favouritism rather than merit and
encouraging him to 'follow the truth'; essentially this letter is a reference to the
corruption which has crept into the teaching system, as underpaid teachers struggle to
survive on minuscule pay and face various pressures from the Army and local authorities.
The final orders (#218 through #221)
relate to various stages of the construction of two pagodas in different areas, from the
clearing of the land to the placing of the crowning 'hti' on the finished pagoda.
In both cases the villagers have been ordered to hand over land, then to provide the
building materials and forced labour to build the pagodas, then at their opening the Army
officers claim all the Buddhist merit for the project. Usually villagers are glad to
contribute resources and labour to pagoda projects, but not when they are initiated and
ordered by the Army.
Order #211
Stamp: Date:
21-5-99 ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: Date:
9-5-99 ______________________________________________________________________________
To:
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: Date:
6-12-98 ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ Headmaster: 2-3-99 ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________
Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ Stamp: Date:
11-5-99 ______________________________________________________________________________ To: Village
Head Stamp: ______________________________________________________________________________ |