MAUTAAM

The Canada-based Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), in its new report ‘On the edge of Survival’ released on Thursday said, the ongoing rat infestation, which began in 2007 had aggravated food insecurity in seven townships in Chin state as well as some areas of Sagaing division in north-western Burma.

“Rats continue to destroy the crops in fields. In some areas, the people face shortage of food, while others survive with little rice and other crops in hand. But it will be just enough for a short period,” Terah Thantluang, Field Coordinator of CHRO told Mizzima on Thursday.

“Some villagers survive merely on wild yams dug up from the forests,” he added.

According to the previous report of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), a total of 34,764 farmers in three townships in Chin state faced shortage of food while CHRO’s report last year claimed around 100,000 people were in ‘hunger condition’ from food insecurity related to bamboo flowering causing rat infestation.

Now, CHRO says the rat infestation has spread to Hakha, Falam, Matupi, Paletwa, Thantlang, Tiddim, and Tongzang in Chin state and some parts of Sagaing Division where the pests had already damaged about 82 percent of farmlands.

Adding the condition is worsening, the CHRO report said not only rats but also crop-eating insects, such as locusts or grasshoppers, destroyed rat-left crops in the fields.

“The insects reportedly not only eat the fruit and grain, but all the leaves and stalks, turning entire fields and farms into barren wastelands in a short time,” the report said.

Meanwhile, Win Hlaing Oo, director of Rangoon based Country Agency for Rural Development in Myanmar (CAD) said, the late monsoon and low rainfall this year in Chin state resulted in some farmers abandoning crop cultivation in some areas of Thangtlang and Matupi and Hakha Township.

“In my village [Hnaring village in Thangtlang], there are about 300 acres of farmlands but only 50 acres are cultivated because of low rainfall and late monsoons,” he told Mizzima.

Win Hlaing Oo also said food insecurity in the future is imminent as the people are just surviving on recently harvested few crops such as maize and millet which were left by rats.

“However, they are not in the condition where they are getting nothing to eat but are surviving on rat-leftover crops. It won’t be sustainable in the long run,” he explained.

Limited international aid

World Food Program (WFP) led International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs) and National NGOs started implementing emergency food assistance for the first three month in the hardest hit townships in Chin state in early 2009.

Eighty five percent (85%) of households in Chin state were in debt and needed to repay the loan which they took for purchasing food, according to WFP’s recent report.

CHRO said the aid from WFP led aid groups is limited and could not cover the entire affected areas.

Each person just received about 7 to 10 kilograms of rice over a three-month period, while the people in some areas such as Thantlang, Hakha, Tonzang and Tedim Townships, were helped under the food-for-work/cash programmes, the CHRO report said.

Moreover, Win Hlaing Oo from CAD said the first four-month assistance programme was halted last month as no more relief aid remained.

“The food and cash distributing programmes were suspended for the time being as there is no more assistance remaining,” said Win Hlaing Oo from CAD.

But Win Hlaing Oo said, the aid work will possibly be resumed next month after the next batch of rice of an estimated 300 metric tons from WFP arrives in Chin state for another four-month assistance programme in his organization projected areas in Thangtlang, Matupi and Hakha.

Ban on cross-border aid

Recently, the commander of Military Tactical Command (1) of Chin state Brig-Gen Hung Ngai, who is also the chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, warned the people not to accept relief aid from overseas except from WFP, said a relief worker from the community based Relief group known as Chin Mautam Relief Committee (CMRC).

“He told the people not to receive any foreign aid or they will face reprisal,” a relief worker told Mizzima on condition of anonymity.

Terah from CHRO said, the exile based Chin community, had been providing relief to the villagers through the India-Burma border. The aid was for people facing shortage of food in the areas which WFP led aids groups could not reach.

However, he said, “The aid is very little. Not enough to solve the problem.”

The Burmese junta, instead of helping is committing human right abuses including forced labour against the people in rat plagued areas, CHRO said.

“Constant demand for labourers has forced people to leave their farms and fields in order to work on SPDC projects without compensation,” the report added.