Burmese junta authorities in Maungnama Village in Maugndaw Township forced villagers on Tuesday to work in a rubber plantation owned by Nasaka Burma's border security force without pay, said a villager over telephone yesterday.

"Yesterday, the village authorities sent 100 villagers, mostly young people, to a rubber plantation located in Aung Min Galar model village to clear bushes in the plantation," he said.

Village Chairman Zu Bai directed all households in Maungnama Vilalge to send one person from each household to the rubber plantation.

"I heard that Chairman Zu Bai was forced by Nasaka headquarters in Kyi Gan Byint to send villagers to the rubber plantation to work on many different areas in the plantation," he said.

The villagers went to the rubber plantation carrying their own food at 8 am yesterday and had to work till 4 pm. Villagers were clearing land of weeds and bushes and putting up a fence in the plantation.

However, there is no information on whether the village authorities will be forcing villagers to work again today.

The villager said that Nasaka authorities are in the habit of summoning villagers through the village authority whenever they need villagers to work at the Nasaka headquarters or at other Nasaka sites. However, the villager was unable to confirm how many days the villagers had been forced by the authorities to work in the rubber plantation without wages.

It was learnt today that Nasaka authorities also summoned 100 villagers from Kyi Gan Byint Village, where the Nasaka headquarters is located, to work in the rubber plantation yesterday.