The Shan Herald Agency for News has reported on a spate of land confiscations recently in Muse Township, near the Chinese border. So far, 175 households have lost about 620 acres of land. By logical deduction, most believe that this land has been taken as part of the 37,000 acres within Muse that have been earmarked for a rubber plantation - as part of the contract farming agreement that was reached last month between Burma and Thailand.

In the December 2 MoU, Burma agreed to reserve 17.5 million acres for Thailand, to be farmed under a contract system managed by Thailand. Burma supplies land and labor, Thailand takes care of infrastructure and ensures workers are underpaid. 17.5 million acres happens to be an area as large as Ireland. Thailand's Agriculture Minister Khun Ying Sudarat Keyuraphan says that it will be a 'win-win' situation. Burma gets jobs and money, Thailand gets cheap labor, sugarcane, oil palm, maize, cassava and rubber, and in theory, a stop-gap to keep so many Shan migrant workers from illegally fleeing to Thailand. And what do the people of Shan State get? Well, they now get the same crappy agricultural jobs they work in Thailand, with the added bonus of still being at the mercy of the Burmese military within their own borders!

Of course, neither government seemed to question what those 17.5 million acres are currently being used for. Or what's going to happen when the crops/food grown there is removed from the local market. Or maybe, the indentured workers on the Thai farm will be expected to purchase rice from the Junta at inflated prices. They certianly won't be buying it from their neighbors or the local market. S.H.A.N has also released a report recently detailing the effects of the SPDC's "development" policies in Mong Nai Township, in southern Shan State. The township, which was once 90% food sufficient, has experienced an 80% loss in cultivated land and a 56% drop in rice production.

The Burmese Army routinely confiscates land for its own purposes, developing plantations and then forcing the displaced farmers to work there without pay. Looks like the SPDC is getting smarter, though, with this new MoU with Thailand, they can confiscate the land, steal from the people, and reap the profits, while outsourcing the management to Thailand.

In this most recent confiscation, farmers got to stand by and watch as their plantations were bulldozed. The owner of said bulldozers reported that he had received his orders from Gen Myint Hlaing, the 'Commander of Northeastern Region Command'.

Thailand had hopes that this development project would reduce the number of Shans fleeing across the border, by offering them secure jobs. This shows that either the misperception of Shans as economic migrants rather than refugees runs very deep, or, Thai beauracrats have become blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes as they ogle the land across their border. Assuming the displaced farmers will even be allowed an opportunity to work on this plantation, (or plantations, as it may be), and that the junta won't truck in Burmese laborers from elsewhere, this leaves the Shan with two choices. Work on a plantation where they'll suffer exposure to dangerous pesticides, be forced to live in makeshift huts and hope that they actually get paid their wages in a country where the army doesn't arbitrarily kill and rape, OR, work on a plantation run to those same Thai standards, where the security is run by the Burmese army, in a country where food is scarce, where there are no migrant labor protection groups, and where the government does arbitrarily rape and murder. Hmm...tough choice, hey? I have a sneaking suspicion these plantations will turn into quasi-internment camps where laborers will be denied permission to travel. I'll be interested to see if Thai officials will be able to explain away the impending influx of displaced families in the lead up to this project.