A Burma army battalion has been forcing farmers off their land and harvesting the rice for themselves. Burma army LIB-539 battalian in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State threatened several farmers off their land by gunpoint.
The soldiers behaved like “they were attacking a rebel base”, said one farmer from Prein Chaung village. Twenty soldiers pointed their rifles at him and others and forced them to leave their fields by the time they counted to ten. After the farmers fled the soldiers harvested the rice and took it to their regiment. The battalion claimed they owned the land.
The crop theft, which is being led by Lieutenant Ba Nyar Win, started on Nov.11 and reportedly still ongoing. Nearly 100 soldiers have stolen harvests from 28 other farms in the area, totaling 120 acres.
“He said they were guarding the lives and properties of the people. We don’t understand why they are being so cruel to us,” said one farmer.
The soldiers are also stealing the farmer’s equipment to harvest the rice.
U Saw Nyein, a state politician, confirmed the incident when contacted by Narinjara.
The farms are not owned by the soldiers. They were cleared by locals after the army confiscated 600 acres of their previous farmlands to build their battalion, he said.
“Now that the paddies have become ripe in the farms, the army have come and confiscated the paddies claiming that those lands are theirs.”
