NLD Statement 46 in English

[nldburma@xxxxxxxxxxx]

National League for Democracy
NO (97/B), West Shwegondine Road
Bahan, Rangoon

Statement No: 46 (3/99)

1.	Based on information received this statement is issued regarding the 
illegal abuse of power by  the wielders of authority in Wakhema Township 
and villages.

2.	We have information that Township SPDC Chairman and Secretaries give 
a format to the Village SPDC chairmen regarding the quantity of paddy, 
beans and pulses, and chillies that have to be supplied by the different 
villages which has to be fulfilled willy nilly.

3.	Though the cost of a bag of fertiliser issued by the relevant 
authorities is two thousand kyats, the cultivators are made to pay an 
additional two hundred kyats for the District SPDC plus the additional 
sum of two kyats for one gallon of diesel . Overall, the power wielding 
authorities make more than 60 millions kyats on three and a half lakhs 
of fertiliser bags and 720,000 kyats on three lakhs , sixty thousand 
gallons of diesel.

4.	Also, when cultivators do not want to sow a summer paddy crop, they 
have to pay from between kyats 3000/- to 5000/-  to the Township SPDC 
Chairman, Secretary, council members and heads of administrative 
departments. If these officials can not agree among themselves on 
certain matters, the cultivator could them lose not only his money and 
his crops of beans, pulses, chilies etc. but the land on which his 
forefathers first settled, cleared and cultivated could be confiscated. 
(Example- the Education department confiscated seventy four acres in 
Thar-yar-gone village, Wakema township for their Welfare General Fund.)

5.	For growing chillies instead of a summer paddy crop, one hundred 
acres of agricultural land was confiscated in the village tracts of 
Ka-sa-kae, Min-lan, Yay-lain and Oo-kyun villages as a result of which
(1) 	An investment of about four lakhs on chillies plantation by U Maung 
Kan and daughter Ma Khin Sein was destroyed and confiscated.
(2)	Sixty acres of beans and pulses plantation ready for harvesting was 
destroyed at the orders of the township SPDC chairman and secretary even 
though payment at the rate of Kyats one thousand per acre had been paid 
by them to U Aung Tun Oo, the Information Officer in charge of lands.
(3)	One cultivator from Ta-dar-gyi village, Wakama township who failed 
to grow a summer paddy crop was bound with ropes and arrested.
(4)	A cultivator from Kyone-pa-tode village was so distraught, he died 
of mental depression because his crop of chillies on two acres of land 

was destroyed.

6.	Confiscation of land seems to be a regular practice. The people's 
predicament is similar to that envisaged in the saying " A leper is 
infected with scabes (mange); the fallen man is attacked by thieves." 
They are suffering extreme hardship and poverty. We deplore and condemn 
the actions of those wielding power.

Central Executive Committee
National League for Democracy

Rangoon
16 March 1999








Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com