Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 31 is forcing residents of southern Mon State to pay a new 10,000 kyat tax. The tax, allegedly to pay for new batteries for army communications equipment, began being levied last week in Yin-ye village, Khawza Sub-Township, Ye Township.

According to a villager from Yin-ye, officer Tun Tun Naing from IB No. 31 ordered village headman Nai Kyaw Hein to collect the tax. Every rubber plantation must pay 10,000 kyat, regardless of its acreage or the number of workers it employs. There are thirty plantations in the Yin-ye area.

Troops in the area are notorious for violating the human rights of residents. According to a group of twelve displaced people who recently arrived to Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, villages in the area are becoming seriously depopulated as people flee. Only 70 of 150 households remain in Amae village, a former resident told IMNA. Amae village is in neighboring Yebyu Township of Tenasserim Division.

The displaced people, interviewed on October 28th, told IMNA that soldiers assault residents, heavily restrict their movements, levy a variety of punitive taxes and conscript them as forced laborers and porters, as well as make them stand sentry and go on patrols.

“We normally pay about 2,000 kyat every month,” said a resident from Magyi village, Khawza Sub-township. “But when the soldiers come, we have to give more money to our headman to pay for feeding them while they stay awhile in the village.” The source added that some villagers could afford to pay the taxes, especially because they are not on a consistent or predictable schedule, and have to borrow from relatives.

In Kabya Wa village, also in Khawza, an IMNA source said that the army typically collects about 50,000 kyat per fisherman and farmer every year. Rubber plantation owners have to pay 100,000 kyat annually.

IMNA sources also reported that the army makes them work as forced laborers, which is both miserable in its own right and a direct trade-off with income-generating work. One villager reported being forced to carry officers’ equipment when they moved between villages. The source said that his leg and foot suffered permanent damage from beatings he received when he became too tired to continue carrying the heavy load.

Residents of Kabya Wa are also banned from selling their farms or plantations, said a former resident, who added that troops frequently steal from farms and gardens.

“If you get all the news from Khawza Township, you will become too tired to keep writing,” a woman from Khawza town told IMNA. “There is not enough room in your notebook. On one day the beat someone at one house. The next day they confiscate property from someone at another house. Everyday, something happens.”