Villagers held briefly by LIB No. 315 to coerce land grant signatures

January 7, 2014

HURFOM: Residents of Panga village reported that Second General Myit Hlaing from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 315, located to the west of Waekale village in Thanbyuzayat Township, called 20 local rubber plantation owners and detained some throughout the day on December 10 in an attempt to coax signatures that would release private lands for military use.

According to observers, members of the battalion physically guided the hands of seven plantation owners who could not read or write, including Mi Mya, Mi Yin, Mi Chin, and Nai Pain Khon, in order to generate the desired signatures. The other 13 landowners included Mi Kyu, Nai Kyae, Nai Pain and Mi Yin Kyi who said they read and understood the consequences of the agreement and declined to sign.

“The document said that residents [who signed] agreed to grant their plantations to the battalion in order to expand the [military] camp,” said 39-year-old Mi Kyu. “Seven plantation owners signed the agreement because they cannot read and are elderly. For [the rest of] us, we understood the reasons [for making us sign] and so we refused even though they [tried to] force us. For me, the troops let me go home after two hours because I told them that [my] plantations belong to my parents and were not mine [to give away].”

The LIB No. 315 established its base in the area after the New Mon State Party, the predominant ethnic Mon resistance group, signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in 1995. Since that time, Panga villagers reported that roughly 360 acres of local rubber plantations were surveyed and confiscated by the battalion. In order to continue cultivating their plantations, former landowners were allegedly forced to pay annual fees ranging from 450 kyat to 700 kyat per rubber tree, and some said yearly costs were upwards of 70,000 kyat. Residents described how in 2011 the military troops sold many of the seized plantations to businesses that now have hired laborers tapping the trees or razing the groves to plant new crops.

In an attempt to seek restitution for the 360 confiscated acres, a Parliamentarian from the Mon state Parliament submitted the cases in a letter of appeal to the union-level government, and villagers suspect that Second General Myit Hlaing’s urgent push for signatures indicates concern that an impending legal decision could return the seized plantations to their former owners.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News