The Chiangmai Mail Reporter printed a report by the Shan News Agency stating that local farmers in Muse on the Sino-Burmese border have condemned the Dec 2 contract farming agreement between Thailand and Burma as the cause of escalation in land seizures in their township.
About 37,000 acres of land in Muse, 175km north of Lashio, have been earmarked for a rubber project. As a result, people in 16 villages have lost their tea, banana and firewood plantations as well as flower and fruit orchards.
Over the New Year holiday period in the neighbouring township of Namkham, there was a massive crackdown by Shan State Army troops which considerably upset the townspeople's normal life, the peace in Muse being shattered by bulldozers that mowed down the plantations and orchards. When Sai Htun Aye Soso-Pyay-Pyay, the owner of the bulldozers, was asked the reason for the outrage, he said he was only following orders from Gen Myint Hlaing (commander of the Northeastern Region Command), said one of the village headmen, whose lands were also among those seized.
However, 20 acres of land belonging to Sai Yi Nawngkham, who surrendered in May and is known to be a close associate of Sai Htun Aye, was reportedly left unscathed.
The unexpected move has brought tears to many. "Before this, we were not rich but had enough to eat," a housewife with two children was quoted as saying. "But all of a sudden we have become beggars."
Informed farmers think it was the contract farming agreement between the two countries that had brought the disaster to them. "Thailand may think it will be able to prevent an influx of migrants from Burma by the project," said a businessman whose relatives were among the casualties. "But they can expect more of us to arrive in the coming days."
According to Thai press reports, Burma had agreed to reserve 7 million hectares (17.5 million acres) to plant crops such as sugarcane, oil palm, maize, cassava and rubber to be supplied to factories in Thailand. A win-win solution for both, exclaimed Thai Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, at the signing. But apparently not quite as cut and dried.