The Yuzana Company, which has been seizing thousands of acres of land in Hukawng Valley for several years, with the go ahead of the military junta in Burma’s northern Kachin State, for multiple crop plantations, has again begun killing buffaloes owned by local people with chemical agents, locals alleged.

Over 20 buffaloes owned by villagers of Warazup on Stilwell Road, also Ledo Road between Myitkyina-Danai (Tanai) connecting the Yuzana Company’s sugar cane and cassava plantations died of unknown chemical poisoning, allegedly used by company workers since early January, a villager told Thailand-based Kachin News Group.

A woman whose two buffaloes died because of the use of the company’s chemical agents told KNG today, “Until yesterday, two to five buffaloes from our village have been dying every day because of chemical agents used near the company’s plantations.”

According to her, the buffaloes died after consuming small packets of chemical agents concealed inside salt packets, which is spread around pastures by the company’s workers.

Till now, the villagers have been unable to identify what kind of killer chemical agent is being used by the company. The chemicals are being spread in the areas without giving any warning to villagers.

Villagers of Warazup and people in the valley need buffaloes for cultivation of rice, said local people.

Villagers are scared of complaining to the authorities of buffaloes dying because the company’s operations in the area are under the protection of Burmese Army soldiers, said villagers.

Soon after the company set up operations in the valley in 2006, wild and domestic animals have been killed by chemical agents.

With the backing of the Burmese military regime, the Rangoon-based Yuzana Company owned by U Htay Myint has seized over 400,000 acres of land so far including paddy fields and plantations owned by Kachin people.

The Yuzana Company has also been converting forests to crop fields in the world’s largest tiger sanctuary in the Hukawng Valley, recognized by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2004, said a recent report released by Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG).

Any complaint regarding land confiscation, social conflicts and rape of local women by Yuzana Company workers and soldiers by Kachin people to the military authorities is studiously ignored, locals said.