Local villagers and officials from Ma Kyaing People’s Militia got into a dispute at around 10 am on May 14 after the villagers started clearing an overgrown land between Seng Ngun and Nam Pun villages under Taung Nauk Village Group in Loilen Township to do farming on over 400 acres of land.

U Myint Aung, a farmer from Seng Ngun Village, said the people’s militia shot at the village vice-chair and an 18-year-old man to threaten them during the dispute.

“They kicked our vice-chair and villager with their feet and punched them. The vice-chair became dizzy. He didn’t receive many injuries. Then, they aimed and fired at the men. Around ten bullets have been fired. The bullets missed them by their ears. If they had a heart disease, they could have died,” said U Myint Aung.

The residents of Seng Ngun Village said they had worked on the farmland in the past and the authorities told them that it was a vacant and virgin land when the farmers tried to apply for land use certificate (Form 7).

“There are our farms, paddy farms, and forests owned by the village on this farmland. They have been preserved since the days of our forefathers. Now, we don’t have the authority. They issued Form 7 to Ma Kyaing People’s Militia. That’s why we have come to clear the land for farming,” said a local resident of Seng Ngun Village.

However, Ma Kyaing People’s Militia’s vice-chair Sai Hseng Leng said the local residents have refused to meet with them to discuss this issue so both sides got into a dispute.

“They said they have worked on this land in the days of their grandfathers. They came to clear the vacant land with a bulldozer. We have also submitted for Form 7 to plant trees on this land. When we told them not to clear the land and wait for a while due to the [land] issue, they didn’t listen to us. They refused to discuss with us. They run towards us in a group. Some of them were holding swords so we had to threaten them by firing the gunshots towards the sky in order to make them stop,” he explained.

According to him, the people’s militia is planning to plant 100,000 shade trees on the vacant land for environmental conservation.

“Nobody planted on this land when we came here. We had a dispute with the SNPLO (Shan Nationalities People's Liberation Organization) over this land. The farmers only worked on the plantations on the hill. Now, farming is not going well on the hill so they came and said this land belongs to them,” Sai Hseng Leng added.

Local residents held a press conference in Loilen on May 10.

The farmers claimed that the land belonged to 19 farmers from Seng Ngun Village and they have been planting paddies and sesame on the land every year.

The land is located in the east of Seng Ngun Village and south of the monastery grounds in Nan Pun Village in Taung Nauk Village Group in Loilen District.