Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on both sides of the Thai-Burma border near Mon State are facing an increasingly tenuous situation as a weak paddy crop highlights aid shortfalls.
Residents of the Tavoy, Halockhani and Che Daik camps report that the combination of crops damaged by heavy rain plus general under-employment makes them heavily dependent on aid distributed by the MRDC. Last year, people living in the four Mon camps received five aid disbursements. In each disbursement, adults received 16 kilograms of rice, said Nai Chit Taw, the chairman of Halockhani. Children received 8 kilograms.
This year, residents will only receive four disbursements. According to Nai Kem Kom Kao, the general secretary of MRDC, aid levels may be cut again, limiting disbursements to three times a year. The MRDC receives its aid from the Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC). According to an MRDC report, Halockhani, Che Daik, Bee Ree, and Tavoy camps are home to at least 9,400 IDPs.
According to Mon human rights workers who recently traveled to IDP camps in Tavoty district, residents will face serious problems because of the reduced aid levels. Most farmers in the area subsist on rice cultivated on hillsides, which has been damaged by unseasonably heavy rainfall.
According to a villager from Halockhani, heavy rainfall has damaged hillside cultivation near Halockhani and Che Daik camps. Other jobs are difficult to find, said the villager, and residents must consequently depend on rice from the MRDC.
“Most villagers who don't have jobs are depending on the rice from the relief organization,” said Nai Chit Taw. “If the relief organization reduces more, the villagers will face deep difficulties because jobs such as hillside cultivations, selling bamboo shoots, leaves, and broom trees are becoming more difficult every year. They have to go very far from the village to get their daily income.”
According to Nai Kem Kom Kao, “Even though Tavoy district has cultivated areas, Burmese military battalions have been tighten restrictions on villagers going to plantation because of the movements of Mon rebel groups in that area. That's why living in that area is more strict than Halackhani, Che Daik, and Bee Ree camps areas.”
The Mon IDP camps have receive less external support since the New Mon State Party (NMSP) signed a cease fire with Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) government in 1995. At the time of the cease-fire, the MRDC urged donors to continue assistance for at least six more years. Before cease-fire, camp residents received rice twelve times a year. After the ceasefire, this was reduced to six, five and now four disbursements.
Donors like the TBBC have continued their support well after the ceasefire because of difficult living conditions documented in the camps, added Nai Kem Kom Kao, who also said that the MRDC plans to discuss a new survey with donors. The survey will be designed to establish whether vulnerable populations like widows, elder persons and the disable should receive aid for the full year.
