14 May 2010: Over 70 people in Hakha are into forced labour at the behest of the Hakha Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) to clear a tea plantation as of 12 May in Chin state western Burma.

TPDC authorities have ordered one person from each family in the old (Myo Hong) block of Hakha town to clean a tea plantation five miles from Hakha town. If anybody fails to do so he pays Kyat 5000 as fine.

Tea

“We cleaned the tea plantation area five miles from Hakha town after the authorities forced us to Fortunately we completed it in a day, but in the monsoons it cannot be done in a day. It will take at least two or three days,” said a local.

We were not given any food or rations by the authorities. We took our food from home. We cannot hope to get wages either, he told Khonumthung News.

The junta has started tea plantation projects in Chin state from the year 2000 with the help of local people. It has forced people to work for the tea plantation without wages year after year.

The regime and private enterprise produces tea in Hakha town areas for the government’s emporium in Hakha town.