Farmers Become Tenants on Their Own Farmland in Arakan

By Maung Rammar
-------------------------
Kyauk Taw: Farmers in western Burma's Arakan State have become tenants on their own farmland as the army has been renting the land for cultivation after confiscating it from them.

A farmer from Apaukwa Village in Kyauktaw Township said the army has been renting the confiscated land at a rate of 25 baskets - a Burmese unit of measure for rice, approximately 11 kilograms in a basket- of paddy per acre to the farmers who owned the land previously.

"We have to hire our own farmland from the army for our cultivation at a payment of 25 baskets of paddy for an acre of land, since the army forcibly confiscated our land. We are forced to do so because we have become landless and have no choice for our livelihoods of cultivation in our area," said the farmer.

According to the farmers, there are over 280 acres of arable land being confiscated by army battalion 539 of Sa Ka Kha, or Military Operations Command 9, in the villages of Apaukwa, Kyaoak Taungpyin, Thakkay Chaung, and Kan Zauk in southern Kyauktaw Township, and the army has been renting the land to the farmers for paddy that is used for income and soldiers' rations.

Apart from those farmlands, army battalions 374, 375, and 376 of Sa Ka Kha 9 have also confiscated nearly 400 acres of land from the farmers from the villages of Lanmataw, Daungtaungyaw, Nyaungpunhla, Tharaktapu, and Tharakoak, and they have been leasing out the land to the farmers in a similar manner.

It was reported that land confiscation by the army in Arakan State started during the reign of Maung Oo as commander of Western Command under the SPDC regime around 2005.

The farmer said that they are left without any profit and it is like working to feed the army because they have to give 25 baskets of their paddy produced each season.

"It is like working to feed the army because if we cultivate and acre of land, it can not produce 100 baskets of paddy and we have to invest everything, like labor, seed, fertilizer, insecticides, and everything that is needed for cultivation, and we have no profit but we are working to survive ourselves," said the farmer.

According to farmer sources, this situation is occurring not only in Kyauktaw Township; every other township in Arakan State has been suffering the same fate with over-militarization in the state.

The army's battalions have been confiscating arable land from the public not only for construction of their bases, but also for their finances and rations for soldiers in the battalions. According to farmers from Ponnakyunt Township in northeastern Arakan State, the local army battalions forcibly confiscated more than 200 acres of farmland from the local farmers last year because land they had confiscated earlier was lost to railroad construction in the area.

There were only three battalions of the Burmese army in Arakan State, mostly based in Sittwe, until 1989, when the current military took hold of power. Since then, the army junta has extended its battalions and there are now over 60 battalions based in Arakan State.

Sources said that local people in Arakan State have been suffering from the rights abuses and land confiscation, illegal tax collection, monopolization of commerce and the economy, and various restrictions and oppression with over-militarization and strengthening of the armed forces in the state.

They added that although it was declared that power was transferred to the democratic government in Burma, they have not seen anything chance from the way things were run with the former military regime.