By Kantarawaddy Times
In the conflict area along the Pinlaung-Pekon border in Karenni State, the military council and their allied PNO joint forces have harvested and taken locally grown rice from several villages using combine harvesters, according to aid workers assisting internally displaced people (IDPs).
A man involved in assisting displaced persons shared an account from a local resident who witnessed the rice harvesting and transportation by the joint forces of the military council on social media on November 4.
He stated, “Along the road from Hong Pong, Ban Mauk, and towards Saunglan, the joint forces of the PNO and the military council used four combine harvesters to gather rice planted by civilians and transported it along the Pinlaung road.”
Villagers whose rice fields were seized and harvested by the military council and PNO joint forces have been forced to flee due to ongoing clashes. Although locals have cultivated over a thousand acres of rice, only about one-third has been harvested.
For over a month, fighting has intensified around villages near the Pinlaung-Pekon border. The military council and allied forces have seized unharvested rice and household items, even setting some homes on fire, according to a representative from the Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO), speaking to Kantarawaddy Times.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened; similar incidents took place during the battles to capture Hsi Hseng and the southern area of Pinlaung,” said a PYO official.
Most of the conflict zones are under the control of the military council and PNO joint forces, preventing locals from returning to their homes or retrieving belongings, explained a displaced woman.
“We’ve heard reports that they [the military council] started harvesting and taking the rice around the end of last month. It has been three or four days. No one dares to collect exact information about how much rice was taken because those areas are under their control,” she said.
The military has also attacked displaced villagers attempting to retrieve their harvested rice with drone bombings. Locals report frequent clashes in the Pinlaung and Pekon areas during the harvest season, with casualties from artillery fire. Due to past incidents of fatalities from artillery strikes in the farmlands, locals are anxious about safely harvesting their rice and some have been forced to flee without harvestign their peddy crops.
