Khonumthung News
25 February 2009

The Burmese Army authorities are not providing permission to clear forests and sow rice saplings without taking tax from the people in Chin state western Myanmar.

A report said that the Matupi based IB (304) has ordered all farmers to pay tax for rice cultivation to the tune of Kyat 20,000 per land as the military has already occupied the particular stretch in Ngala block.

“The land belonged to our ancestors. But the military has seized it and added it to its territory as
it was very close to their camp. They came up with an excuse that their camp would be burnt if
farmers set fire bushes to clean the area to sow rice seeds,” said a local.

The settlers in Ngala block had already cleared over100 acres of the forest in January, but the
military stopped them and asked them to pay tax first before cultivation.

In Chin state, people are totally dependent on rice as it is their staple food. Now they are facing the problem of paying tax – money or rice -- to the authorities of the Matupi based military. They cannot survive without cultivating rice, he added.

“The farmers do not have any rights without paying the tax. So we give all we have, whatever
they demand from us,” he added.

Similarly, the Forest Department in Falam has collected Kyat 2000 an acre from Auhmun, Palte,
Laizawl, Tilum and Lumte villages as land and wood taxes in the first month of this year.

A report said that the Falam District Peace and Development Council (DPDC) had told the Forest and Revenue Departments not to collect taxes on land and wood in 2008. But the collection continues in some villages, located far from the town.

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Chin State is a state located in the western sector of Burma (Union of Myanmar). Its capital is Hakha. The 13,907-square-mile (36,020 km2) Chin State is home to Zomi also known as Chin and Bamar ethnic groups¹.

According to the UNHCR, there are more than 32,000 Burmese refugees registered in Malaysia. However, there are many more who are unregistered and the unofficial figure may well be more than half a million.

These refugees ran away from their country to escape religious and political persecution but here in Malaysia they face a reality as hard as the one back home. They are fighting hard to obtain their refugee status by the local government. Not securing refugee status means their children cannot attend school and are deprived of education, they live in constant fear of the police & RELA officers, they are reduced to accepting underpaid jobs and are sometimes forced into hiding in the jungles to escape this hard reality.

The Path of A Refugee

There is a Burmese inspiring folk story that says about a woman living in fear. The story is like this - Long time ago, there was a poor woman in a village near to a forest. One day the woman went to collect fire woods, unexpectedly she heard sound of roaring. She was so scared of that she hid around the bushes and gradually approached a gentle man. As soon as she met, with the gentle man, she felt very much comforted but not very long after that moment, the poor pretty woman discovered that the gentle man was worse than the tiger.

A refugee’s life is desperate one. A refugee would find for the safety of his life in any possible means and approach any direction that is first available for him/her. Refugee life is sometime just like the poor woman in the story. Inevitable choices are laid in front of refugees. The situation forced refugees to approach sometimes the wrong place where the wrong persons who look down them and abuses their rights.

Refugee usually faces additional inevitable human rights abuses in their transit countries before resettlement to third countries where they would reestablish a new life.

Sometimes it is also common that the one that helps or is working for refugees also unknowingly committed human rights violations upon the refugees. However, the refugee would not spoke up about it fearing for their further solutions.

So, where should a refugee go? A refugee approaches human trafficker and a refugee approaches insecure places of occupation but just for survival. Sometimes, a refugee inevitably walks through bridges where mocking, assaults and discrimination are still around.

The path of a refugee will only be destined at a place where he/she will gain all his rights as a human

1. Source: Wikipedia

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VOCR news group is an independent and nonprofit news service focusing on the political issues in Burma and the Chin refugees in Malaysia.