Cultivators and local inhabitants face threat to livelihood and life after LIB No. 273 bans travel outside villages in northern Tenasserim Division:

July 20, 2010

HURFOM, Yebu Township,Tenasserim Division:

Villages in Yebyu Township are facing harsh 24 hr travel restrictions outside of their villages due to a joint emergency order issued by two SPDC military commands’ over the presence of armed splinter groups in the area. Famers have been banned from traveling to their farms outside the village. Local residents may face serious threats to their livelihood and economic capacity if travel restrictions continue.

On July 5^th 2010, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) army Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 273 which is based in Yebyu Township restricted travel out of Kyauk Talin and its neighboring villages. The emergency restriction order for travel outside the village is reportedly issued for reasons of local security. In the mean time the order has had a destructive effect on owners of paddy fields and rubber plantations that are located outside the villages. Many villagers have claimed that in order to leave they must have to pay LIB No. 273 a “villages pass fee”.

At that time LIB No. 273, consisting of 50 members including privates and sergeants, temporarily based itself in Kyauk Talin, a village composed of some 200 households. It was reported to HURFOM’s field researcher that the second commander of the battalion issued the travel restriction designated a “temporary emergency security condition”. According to information from locals, as of July 13^thwhen HURFOM researchers were in last contact with the village, travel restrictions orders had been in effect already for eight days.

Kyauk Talin villagers, who work mostly on rubber plantations, have been negatively impacted by the imposition of this order. The day after announcing the travel restriction order, on July 6^th, Nai Tun Shwe, 44, who owns five acres of rubber plantation, was interviewed on phone:

The problem depends on how long they restrict the travel. If there is 24-hour travel limitation for three consecutive weeks, we will run out of food. And then, during the period of alternately coming sunlight and rain, we want to tap rubber more because it [the tree] is productive at that time. It is very unfair to limit travel for 24 hours. We have no alternative but to wait.

In addition to Nai Tun Shwe, close to 50 other rubber cultivators were not allowed to work in their plantations. Nai Kyi (secret name) who owns 7 acres of rubber plantation near Nai Tun Kyi’s, explained why the travel restriction would impact the livelihood of farmers and cultivators:

If they limit movement like this, our investments [into the cultivation of plantations] will be useless. We have invested about twenty millions [kyat] into our work, so we have to save money from our daily income of five thousands to eight thousands [kyat] after subtracting our food expenditure and other various taxes. It’s too bad the army is restricting travel so unfairly. Anyhow, they should explain the reason publicly.

During this period of occupation some Kyauk Talin villagers have highlighted to the HURFOM field reporter that many villagers haven’t been able to save any income due to their living hand to mouth as laborers and farmers during this period.

According to Nai Mon Nyi (not real name), 32, a resident who is close with one of the members of the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) and local militia force, the 24-hour travel restriction by LIB No. 273 was directly ordered by Coastal Regional Command (CRC) and Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No. 8. The order was given as an attempt to suppress possible contact or support for local Mon insurgent armed groups from the villages. Even though most of the villagers have requested thought the village headman, Nai Lwan, that the army allow them to travel outside the village, there has been no change in the restriction order yet.

This area of Yebu Township, in northern Tennaserm Division is home to several armed splinter groups, though none of these field a particularly high number of soldiers. These insurgent forces are the Mon National Defense Army (MNDA) and the Nai Chan Deng group. HURFOM estimates these groups troop strengths to be between 32 to 35 soldiers, and 20 to 30 and soldiers respectively. In comparison, the SPDC operates at least 4 battalions within the region; LIB’s No. 282, No. 273, No. 401 and Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 31.

Mi Than Than Sint, 30, a Kyaut Talin resident, explained to HURFOM that the only option villagers have in reaching their farms is to pay. The army is demanding money from people who must go outside the village though a “villages pass ticket’” for duration of the travel restriction:

If you have an important cause to go outside the village, you have to approach the second commander of LIB No. 273 person to person via the village headman to get a “villages pass ticket” which allows you go outside the village for a few hours. A woman who lives near my house has to go to other villages to collect daily interest rates [to collect on small business loans]. Depending on the tickets duration [length of time gone form the village], we have to pay 500 to 1000 kyat for the ‘villages pass ticket’. The people who are willing to pay for the tickets are the people who must go outside the village. [However] the poor like us can’t afford the tickets. We have already had to pay for many other issues [Security fees, general funding for the township peace and development council (TPDC) and local army units, motorbike license tax, etc.].

In addition to the restriction, LIB No. 273 has taken up positions directly within the village. This includes battalion soldiers guarding in and around villagers homes. This tactic apparently guards against assault by insurgent forces that often aim to liberate an area, but are also careful to protect the lives of ethnic Mon communities. Another Kyauk Talin resident, Nai Lin Tun, 32, highlighted the very real threat the actual presence of SPDC soldiers has for local residents:

This time they have secretly settled down in the village. They organized three or four soldiers into a group and made them hide amongst the villagers’ houses. So we are worried a lot about our village. We have to take care not to lose our properties [to theft] and have to avoid unnecessary social problems with them. Another point is that they have taken positions here for security, so the Mon rebel groups must know Burmese soldiers are in the village. The problem is that they [Burmese soldiers] stay in our houses, so we may also be shot accidentally.

In these instances, the continued presence of LIB No. 273 in the village is like to impact local farmers and cultivators’ livelihoods as well as threaten the lives of residents who are ostensibly being used as human shields by the Burmese battalion. Farmers who have a seasonally dependent window in which to raise their crops, often invest huge amounts of money in the cultivation of the farms and rubber plantations. This often requires farmers to take out loans, and at the least leaves them a hairs breadth of income to be able to continue cultivation and farming next season. Already poor farmers are often unable to pay for even the most basic additional costs, including for the ‘village pass ticket’. If unable to tend to their farms and plantations villagers throughout the region under travel restrictions could loose an entire season’s crop and the investment of millions of kyat.

The presence of LIB No. 273 soldiers is a significant threat to the lives of residents whose homes and villages are occupied. Villagers will potentially be victims of fighting between insurgent forces and Burmese soldiers – one man was killed three weeks ago after being mistaken by soldiers as an insurgent. By attempting to ward off incursions by insurgent forces through the use of villagers as human shields, villagers are directly threatened with severe bodily harm and death, not only via possible insurgent attacks, but by the very soldiers of LIB No. 273 who make little distinction between insurgent and villager.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News