IMNA : This season, Mudon township villagers are struggling to pay demands for money from Peoples’ Militias after the previous seasons exceptionally poor harvest.
The taxation order comes from the Burmese government State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to village headmen in Mudon Township, specifying that they collect money to support their local People’s Militias. However while villagers have faced these taxes yearly, villagers are struggling to meet the demand because of severe crop losses the experienced last harvest season from extensive flooding, pest problems, and paddy blight.
According to one villager from Hnee Pa Daw, “The village headman collects money every year for the People’s Militia – the previous year we had no problem to give the money. But for this year we have problems because this year many farmers harvested less paddy. [In this village] many farms were damaged by insects.”
Area farmers throughout Mon state have had a particularly difficult year. The flooding, pest, and blight aflicted harvest was previously reported on by IMNA in November, and elicited widespread concern form area residents. The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) published a report in September 2009, noting the significance of the extreme crop loss, at its peak.
Since reporting on the varied crop destruction, these are the first major instances IMNA has found of longer term knock-on impacts the sever crop loss has had on area residents.
The taxes asked of villagers to support the village People’s Militia vary depending on the village in which they live. “We have to pay money for the People’s Militia like for their salary… For the houses who have farms they have to pay a basket of rice [1 basket = 47 lbs],” explained another Hnee Pa Daw villager who does not own a farm. “If the house does not have a farm, they need to pay money (6,000 kyat) for each house.”
In the above villager’s village of Hnee Pa Daw, Mudon Township, there are over 1,000 households and only 8 members of the People’s Militia. It is unclear how many of those households have paid the tax through cash or through rice. The taxation excludes those who work closely with the SPDC or have provided some benefit to the government, explains a Hnee Pa Daw resident. “They collected that money from every house except for the houses that work with the authorities’ groups (like working with village headman, Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, Union of Solidarity and Development Association) and also the houses of widows [whose husbands were SPDC soldiers].”
“They have collected money since the harvest, up till now…”, complained a villager from Kalort-tort village. In Kalort-tort, members of the People’s Militia collected 3 baskets of paddy per house, or for homes without farms, residents had to pay about 12,000 kyat per house.
The added burden of this year’s tax, when villagers already are struggling financially, has irked villagers who see the militias as not having earned their pay due to their failure to fill their intended security role.
“They [SPDC] form the people militia group for village security; that’s why we villagers have to pay money (like a salary), the authorities don’t give them that,” a Moudon town resident said.
He added, “For their cause the authorities manage [the People’s Militia],– it is not the villagers responsibility. They [SPDC] say it [People’s Militia] is for village security but they don’t actually give any sort of security.”
