GWR
21-06-07, 02:12 PM
Brief extract of an interesting article about a controversial deal put together in the Thaksin era:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF21Ae02.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF21Ae03.html
Capitalizing the Thai-Myanmar border
By Clifford McCoy
Clifford McCoy is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist.
...........
Thai investors who invested in farms to grow maize, mung and castor beans on 6,475 hectares of Myanmar land across from Mae Sot, Mae Ramat and the Pho Pra district of Tak province were allowed under the original MoU agreement to export their products to Thailand duty-free. However, the Thai investors allege that tariffs have been levied by Myanmar officials and some have threatened to pull out of the project altogether if the taxes are not repealed.
Forcible evictions
More controversially, land targeted for Thai contract farms is often already under cultivation by small-scale subsistence farmers, many from ethnic minority groups that have long occupied the areas. A recent report by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) detailed the methods the SPDC has used in the past to forcibly evict villagers from their land to clear the way for large-scale commercial farms.
KHRG and other rights groups claim that land is frequently confiscated, access roads are built with the use of forced labor and the farm projects are often subsidized with money extorted from local villagers. Villagers are often forced to work on the farms and plantations for minimal or no pay, the rights groups allege. Specifically, ethnic Shan farmers near Muse along the Chinese border have protested an increase in land seizures in 2006, including a 15,000-hectare area for a contract rubber plantation.
.........
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF21Ae02.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF21Ae03.html
Capitalizing the Thai-Myanmar border
By Clifford McCoy
Clifford McCoy is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist.
...........
Thai investors who invested in farms to grow maize, mung and castor beans on 6,475 hectares of Myanmar land across from Mae Sot, Mae Ramat and the Pho Pra district of Tak province were allowed under the original MoU agreement to export their products to Thailand duty-free. However, the Thai investors allege that tariffs have been levied by Myanmar officials and some have threatened to pull out of the project altogether if the taxes are not repealed.
Forcible evictions
More controversially, land targeted for Thai contract farms is often already under cultivation by small-scale subsistence farmers, many from ethnic minority groups that have long occupied the areas. A recent report by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) detailed the methods the SPDC has used in the past to forcibly evict villagers from their land to clear the way for large-scale commercial farms.
KHRG and other rights groups claim that land is frequently confiscated, access roads are built with the use of forced labor and the farm projects are often subsidized with money extorted from local villagers. Villagers are often forced to work on the farms and plantations for minimal or no pay, the rights groups allege. Specifically, ethnic Shan farmers near Muse along the Chinese border have protested an increase in land seizures in 2006, including a 15,000-hectare area for a contract rubber plantation.
.........