JUNTA FORCES FARMERS TO SELL PADDY

[lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Media Release - 19/99
March 20, 1999


             JUNTA FORCES TENASSERIM FARMERS TO SELL PADDY 

Officials of the Yephyu Township Peace and Development Council in
Tenasserim Division are forcing local farmers to sell rice they
had been keeping for consumption, according to sources in the
town.

There are 280 areas of paddy field in The Chaung village tract in
Yephyu Township, although up to two-thirds of this land yields
very little crop output because it is affected by seawater. Crop
production has further dwindled after last year's drought.
Despite this, the authorities have maintained their demands that
each farmer sell 10 baskets of paddy to the state.

The selling of such paddy, known as 'dutiful' or 'quota' paddy,
is required by an agreement between the farmers and the state. 
Farmers are forced to take out loans from the government at the
beginning of the planting season.

These must be repaid after harvesting by selling paddy at a very
low price.

In January this year, officers from Infantry Regiment 273, based
in The Chaung, ordered that each household in 11 villages in the
area sell two baskets of rice to the army. The army paid only 100
Kyat per basket. The requirement was particularly difficult for
non-farmers to meet, as they had to buy rice at inflated prices
to sell to the army. 

Economic difficulties have forced the Burmese junta to cut all
basic rations to its military units across the country since
1988. This has resulted in widespread confiscation of farmland
and forcible sales of rice and other important crops to army
units at very low prices.   


All Burma Students' Democratic Front

For more information please contact 01-253 9082, 01-654 4984.