Mutual farming system results in loss of land for farmers

by Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The mutual farming system in collaboration with private companies has been a disaster for over 1,600 farmers from Dagon Seikkan Township in Rangoon Division, with farmers losing their lands, according to the NLD Peasant Affairs Committee.

The new mutual farming system took off in over 30,000 acres of farmlands in a special agricultural zone last year. But this year, the private companies paid a pittance of only Kyat 20,000 per acre instead of the market price of Kyat 400,000 to 500,000 and then seized farmers’ lands.

"The farmlands were taken over by paying only Kyat 20,000 per acre and farmers are not allowed to till the land.

Moreover farmers were ordered to demolish the farmhouses on the lands. The farmers are seething in anger," the NLD Peasant Affairs Committee Secretary Kyaw Myint told Mizzima.

Over 10 private companies including Htoo, Dagon International, Pinle Koe Thwe, Good Brother, Ahmyother Totetyay, Shwe Nagar Min, Aden Co. worked the farmlands along with the farmers on a mutual farming system by sharing farm produce.

Under the agreement, the farmers, who own the lands, were to get 40 per cent of the profit and get extra money as wages if they worked on their own farmland as farmhands.

The private companies were to provide farming equipments and implements and all production costs. They firms were to get 60 per cent of the profit for investing.

But the private companies seem to have gone back on their commitment and are now paying at a rate, which is much below the market price. To make matters worse the companies are not letting the farmers work in their paddy fields as farmhands. Adding insult to injury they are being forced to demolish their farmhouses. A farmer from Thayetpin Chaung village has lodged a complaint at the NLD office by providing documentary evidence.

An official of one of the private companies working with farmers said that they could not make profits in keeping with the agreement but some companies did make some profit.

"Initially, we agreed. But later it didn't work out. Some companies paid Kyat 20,000. Those who could not work in their land were content with what they got. Some worked in their land and they got something but not in accordance with the agreement reached," he told Mizzima.

"As for the discontent among farmers, some people who bought the land when prices were low would say they are losing their farmlands. It depends on the private companies too. It's impossible to please everybody in every business," he added.

Over 8,800 acres of paddy fields owned by over 1,600 farmers have a dispute regarding profit sharing and ownership in the agriculture special zone in Dagon Seikkan Township. The villages were the dispute exists are Thayetpinchaung, Nyaungbin, Kyisu, Laydaungkan and Thonegwa, the NLD Peasant Affair Committee Secretary said.

It is learnt that some farmers who received refund for their paddy fields have already lodged complaints with the Ministry of Agriculture and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

READ MORE---> Mutual farming system results in loss of land for farmers...

What to do with The Lady

By Larry Jagan

Delays in the trial of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi have fuelled the rumour mill about what the secretive junta is really up to as elections draw closer

(Bangkok Post) -The delay in the trial of Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has fuelled intense speculation about why the military junta is dragging out the court ruling and what its real agenda is. As Burma's top general Than Shwe has often told subordinates, international pressure "is like an elastic band" - when it's pulled tight nothing should be done as it only makes matters worse. When the elastic band is relaxed "we proceed with our plans".

There is no doubt that the international pressure is very taut at the moment, and the delaying tactics appear to fit neatly into Than Shwe's strategy of dealing with the opposition leader's continued detention. But he must know that the campaign in support of Aung San Suu Kyi will not subside.

The democracy icon is poised to learn her fate on Tuesday when the judges reconvene their secret court inside Insein prison. She is on trial for allegedly breaking the conditions of her house arrest, when she gave food and shelter to an uninvited American who swam to her lakeside residence. If found guilty, she faces a maximum of five years in jail.

The verdict was originally scheduled to be announced more than a week ago, but the court postponed its decision on the grounds that it needed more time to consider the legal arguments in relation to the 1974 constitution - which Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers insist is no longer relevant.

There is no doubt that one of the regime's main concerns is the possibility of street protests when the verdict is announced. The state-run media warned the public against protesting for several days before the scheduled court verdict last week. They particularly wanted to avoid the Aug 8 anniversary of the mass pro-democracy movement which toppled the previous military ruler, Ne Win.

Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Bangkok-based Burma researcher, said the delay could be a tactic to "bait any potential demonstrators or activists anticipating a guilty verdict to identify themselves, and then switch the date of the verdict so there is enough time to crack down on them".

At least 30 National League for Democracy (NLD) activists were arrested in Rangoon and other towns on the eve of the original verdict hearing, although many have since been released.

Some Burma watchers say that Aung San Suu Kyi being found guilty is a fait accompli.

"These charges are a complete and crude fabrication, a pretext to keep Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in detention," the former UN human rights rapporteur for Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro, told Spectrum.

British ambassador to Burma Mark Canning, who completed his posting there last month, said: "The trial has been entirely scripted and the end already decided before hand," he said after a rare occasion when he was allowed to attend the court hearing.

Public sentiment echoes that of the diplomats. "No one is in any doubt about the outcome," said Moe Moe, a taxi driver in the country's main commercial city.

"Those men in green in Naypyidaw [the new capital] know she is the people's hero and the real leader of this country."

But is it as cut and dried as the diplomats would have us believe, or is Than Shwe unsure of how to handle the case with one eye on next year's election and the ongoing problem Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters would present him with after a transition to his homegrown version of "democracy"?

Than Shwe plans to announce the formation of an interim government that will hold administrative power for at least one year, until the elections are staged, according to senior military sources in Naypyidaw.

He and other senior generals around him, especially Maung Aye, plan to stand down when the time is right, after the elections planned for next year. New houses are being built for them near Maymeo. The regional commander has confiscated large tracts of land there and new residences for the top military brass are already being built, according to Burmese military sources.

All government ministries have been told to complete all their outstanding work by the end of August, especially the preparation of statistical information.

Aung Thaung, the minister and a close confidant of Than Shwe's, recently told his deputies that there would be a new government soon, and he may no longer be the minister. Most of the current crop of ministers have also told their staff they will no longer be ministers by the end of the year. It is understood that members of the interim government will not be allowed to run in the elections, which is why the ministers will resign their posts and not take part in the pre-election administration.

"According to Than Shwe's plans, all the current ministers will have to resign, if they are to join a political party and fight the forthcoming elections," said the independent Burmese academic, Win Min.

Many analysts believe Than Shwe has been waiting for the verdict to further marginalise Aung San Suu Kyi before proceeding with his plans for a a civilian administration ahead of the elections. "The whole country will really be surprised to see how power is handed over," he reportedly told a high-ranking visiting foreign official.

So far there have been no hints as to who will be in the interim administration. Some analysts speculate that it may even include a senior member of the NLD - which would then preclude them from running for office in next year's elections.

This would also be one way of giving this body credibility - both nationally and internationally. It is possible that Than Shwe wants Aung San Suu Kyi herself to participate in the interim administration, a senior government official recently told Spectrum.

For Than Shwe, there is another major consideration - what to do with Aung San Suu Kyi after the elections. While it may be relatively easy to keep her locked up until then, the problem is that releasing her afterwards would only ensure she would be an enormous thorn in the side of any civilian government.

So Than Shwe's plans must involve finding a way to neutralise her and at the same time give her freedom. That is the key issue Than Shwe now has to grapple with, and until he decides what to do with her, she will remain in detention.

The timing of the election is crucial to what happens next week. All indications are that it is likely to take place towards the end of next year. So the further away it is, the more likely it is that the process will be drawn out - first a verdict, then another delay before sentencing, and appeals to the high court.

If Than Shwe is considering ways to co-opt Aung San Suu Kyi, then there must be secret talks or contact between the two. Leading opposition figures in Rangoon, including her lawyers, categorically dismiss these suggestions. Diplomats are equally sceptical.

"But if there were such talks I wouldn't tell diplomats - and certainly not journalists," a western diplomat in Rangoon told Spectrum. After all, it took months for news of the regime's secret talks with Aung San Suu Kyi to emerge, when she was under house arrest in 2000. Those, brokered by the UN envoy Razali Ismail, led to her release in May 2002.

"Whatever happens, Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed before the elections take place," claimed a senior government official with close links to Than Shwe.

READ MORE---> What to do with The Lady...

Lawyers oppose sale of Suu Kyi’s plot

Contempt of Court...
the verdict will be announce tomrrow and
the plot has already been sold by the junta hahaha Jeg

by Phanida

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The sale of a plot of land in detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house compound has been opposed by her lawyer through an official letter on Thursday.

“We have sent our opposition to the two lawyers, whose names were in the announcement. We said the plot of land cannot be sold as it is owned by our client. We have sent a letter opposing it,” Nyan Win, Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer told Mizzima.

The July 24, issue of the state-run newspaper “Mirror” carried an announcement stating that a plot of land in the compound of House No 54 in Rangoon’s University Avenue has been sold and anybody, who objects to the sale, can oppose it within seven days.

The announcement said, a plot of land – 40 A, 41, 42, 42 A, 44 B, 44 C, and 64 C – 200 feet in length and 70 feet wide in Rangoon’s Bahan township has been sold-off by Khin Maung Aye and that any objection can be lodged within a week.

But following the announcement, Khin Maung Aye’s wife Daw Tin Tin Oo, living separately, made an announcement objecting to the sale of the plot of land and the constructions on the land.

Khin Muang Aye is the foster son of late Thakhin Than Tun and Daw Khin Gyi, who was the sister of detained Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Daw Khin Kyi. He is a retired army officer and also a writer.

Though the announcement, signed by High Grade Pleaders Cho The May and Wai Wai Aung said opposition to the transfer can be made, it made no mention of the buyer.

“The plot of land mentioned in the notice is the area that has not been divided. But the notice does not name the buyer. They have hidden the name of the buyer. We are worried about the notice. We cannot divulge what we will do but we have our plans,” Nyan Win said.

The sale of the plot of land comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi, who lived in the compound, is awaiting a verdict at the Insein prison court.

Earlier, Aung San Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo, claiming to be the rightful heir to the compound of House No. 54, filed a lawsuit.

READ MORE---> Lawyers oppose sale of Suu Kyi’s plot...

Forlorn cry of Kachin hill tribes in northern Burma

by KNG

There is no one to hear the forlorn cry of the Kachin hill tribes, who are losing their life long possession – arable farmlands in the Kachin Hills in Burma's northern Kachin State, said local sources.

Over 500 households belonging to the Lisu hill tribes have been living with mobile land-farm cultivation in N'wan Kawng hill under the pro-Burmese ruling junta Kachin armed group called the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) in Sadon (Sadung in Kachin) area in Waingmaw Township. The NDA-K's is now confiscating both their old and new farms, said Lisu hill tribes' sources.

The NDA-K led by Zahkung Ting Ying accepted the junta’s proposal to convert to a Border Guard Force (BGF) in June just before the United Nations' Secretary General Ban-ki Moon visited Burma on July 3 and 4. The group is locally viewed as a business group rather than a political unit, said local sources close to NDA-K.

According to Lisu hill people in N'wan Kawng hill, their mobile land farm areas or forests have been gradually seized by NDA-K's high ranking officials on the pretext of development projects since 2007.

The NDA-K officers are repressing and forcibly confiscating farms from the local hill tribes. The lands seized, are being sold to Chinese businessmen for large amounts of money, sources among the Lisu hill tribe people added.

The Chinese businessmen mainly grow rubber and teak saplings on thousands of acres of confiscated land, said local residents.

At the same time, cattle belonging to villagers are also slaughtered by the owners of rubber and teak plantations --- NDA-K and Chinese businessmen -- whenever the cattle strays into their area, said villagers.

The NDA-K has put up a signboard saying "N'wan Kawng Hill Development Area" in the N'wang Kawng hill. They claim to be into development activities, whereas the survival of the local people in the areas is at stake, said locals. The development project is designed for NDA-K officers and Chinese businessmen, they added.

Till now, the NDA-K has not arranged for any alternative land or vocational jobs for the survival of the Lisu hill people, who cannot complain to the local NDA-K authorities and the ruling junta, locals said.

Earlier, they formally or informally complained to the NDA-K and the ruling junta about losing their land but they have not paid any heed, said villagers.

Currently, more and more Lisu hill tribes in N'wan Kawng are in a hopeless situation in terms of survival and villagers are looking at moving to the hills where they can cultivate paddy freely, villagers said.

The Lisu hill tribes in the NDA-K's N'wan Kawng hill development area can do nothing except cry over lost arable land, sources said.

READ MORE---> Forlorn cry of Kachin hill tribes in northern Burma...

Russian Mine to Supply Uranium to Junta?

By KHUN CHAN KHE
The Irrawaddy News

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s controversial two-day trip to military-ruled Burma to discuss the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and conditions in the country prior to the 2010 elections has been widely criticized as a failure. Eight previous diplomatic visits by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari also failed to dent the intransigence of the military regime.

However, the reason for the UN’s inability to effect positive change in Burma has less to do with these failed diplomatic visits than with the remaining obstacles at the UN Security Council.

Conventional wisdom suggests that China’s permanent seat on the Security Council and its policy of non-interference in Burma, a policy no doubt underscored by Chinas well-documented interest in maintaining access to Burma’s natural resources, has prevented effective UN action on Burma.

Much less attention, however, has been paid to the obstacle posed by Russia. Like China, Russia has a permanent seat on the Security Council and also blocked a 2007 UN draft resolution that would have applied enormous pressure on the regime. Russia also has interests in Burma’s natural resources, and perhaps in cooperating with the regime’s increasingly public nuclear ambitions.

Since 2006, I have been monitoring an iron ore mining project unfolding around my village in a remote ethnic Pa-O area in war torn Shan State, led by the state-owned Russian company Tyazhpromexport.

The company has invested upwards of US$150 million and is constructing an iron processing plant only 10 kilometers from the Burmese Army’s Eastern Command. This command is responsible for fighting in several areas of Shan State, and Burmese army soldiers have raped, beaten, mutilated, tortured and murdered civilians in their ongoing suppression of ethnic minorities. I, my colleagues, and other organizations have documented these abuses.

The Russian processing plant, which is sited in the Hopone Valley located at the east of the Shan State capital of Taunggyi, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. It is equipped with underground bunkers and is surrounded by two ten-feet-high cement walls and barbed wire.

The direct impact of the project has already been severe: 55 people have been forcibly relocated out of three villages to make way for the factory, and 11,000 acres of farmlands have been confiscated by local authorities on behalf of the company. Complaints by the villagers to local government offices were summarily dismissed.

Preparations for the first of a series of open pit mines in the area by Tyazhpromexport have also begun. Barring a radical change in the way the regime and its corporate partners do business, the forced relocation of approximately 7,000 ethnic Pa-O people living directly around the site is all but certain.

Erosion and the release of mining waste into our main water source, the Thabet Stream, is also a serious concern. This would affect 35,000 people downstream. The company is already diverting the stream to their factory, leading to unusually low water levels this year.

However, there is an even more serious aspect to this operation. In May 2007, one year after Tyazhpromexport declared its involvement in the iron ore project, Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom announced that it had reached a deal for cooperation with the Burmese regime on a nuclear program. No further information about this nuclear cooperation has been made public, but suspicions are rife that it is linked to the Hopone Valley mining project.

Local people in my community are worried. Uranium occurs naturally alongside iron ore and the military regime’s Ministry of Energy has acknowledged the existence of uranium deposits in Burma. Extreme travel restrictions have been imposed against local people by the Burma Army around the iron project, and there has been an almost complete lack of public information about the project, to a degree unusual even for the reclusive Burmese regime. Local villagers have quietly heard from staff insiders that the factory will be used to process both iron and uranium.

The Burmese regime’s nuclear ambitions are no secret. For years it has been sending students to Russia to study nuclear technology, and it has normalized relations with North Korea, the world's problem child playing with nuclear arms, despite a problematic history between the two nations. Recently, The US tracked a North Korean ship that was thought to be headed for Burma’s shores with arms and ammunitions, in violation of a UN Security resolution against Pyongyang. The vessel turned around and returned to North Korea.

Japanese authorities arrested three men in June for allegedly attempting to send weapons-making technology to Burma at the behest of North Korean agents, and photos have been distributed showing an intricate tunnel system throughout Burma being constructed with North Korea’s help. The idea that a Russian firm might be quietly mining uranium in the country is by no means so far-fetched.

Whatever the case, the widespread human rights abuses connected to the project are no less worrying.

We don’t expect Ban Ki-moon’s visit to change our plight in any significant way. What is really needed is a way to subvert the so-called policies of “non-interference” at the UN Security Council so it can do its job to protect against the military regime’s ongoing threats to international peace and security.

Khun Chan Khe is an ethnic Pa-O and the General Secretary of the Thailand-based Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO). Recently the PYO released firsthand documentation on the Russian-led mining project in a report entitled “Robbing the Future.”

READ MORE---> Russian Mine to Supply Uranium to Junta?...

Extensive farm lands confiscated in Maungdaw

Maungdaw, Arakan State (Kaladan): The concerned authorities, namely Nasaka or Burma’s border security force, confiscated more than 1,000 acres of farmland in Maungdaw Township on June 15, a local from Kyikanpyin village said.

The confiscated lands belong to Kyikanpyin village tract, he added.

The authorities did not mention the reason for the confiscation. During the monsoon season, the authorities offered to take lease of the farm lands from the Nasaka, in a bid to cultivate the lands during the season, a farmer from the village said.

However, none of the farmers agreed to lease their lands and the area was existing as a grass field.

On the other hand, the concerned authorities with the Land Survey Committee members measured the lands and erected posts with red flags and marked the boundary area in Shweza village tract, claiming it was for the new settlers, who would come from Burma proper. But, still the owners of the lands would be able to cultivate on those field, a village authority member said.

In Buthidaung Township, the authorities ordered the evacuation of 12 Rohingya villages of Wariyoung (Say Ohkya) village tract, last month for relocation of Natala villagers in that area, a school teacher from Buthidaung said.

Most of the villagers are farmers, after confiscation of their lands, the Rohingya become landless and jobless. Arakan State will turn into a place, where the Rohingya community will starve, because without their land, the Rohingya farmers will be compelled to cross the Burma-Bangladesh border. It is a very dangerous policy, which is followed by the junta authorities to wipe out the Rohingya community from Arakan soil, according to a politician from Arakan.

READ MORE---> Extensive farm lands confiscated in Maungdaw...

IDPs, land confiscation and forced recruitment in Papun District

Karen Human Reports

Download File here

In the northernmost township of Papun District, 13 of 46 Burma Army battalions deployed as part of an ongoing offensive in northern Karen State were withdrawn between the end of 2008 and the start of 2009. Although this has opened some space for villagers, they report continued patrols, restricted access to farmland and severe food shortages. Elsewhere in the district where SPDC control is more comprehensive, villagers report forced labour and land confiscation for road construction as well as conscription as 'human minesweepers' and into the local government militia. This report presents information on ongoing abuses committed by SPDC forces in Papun District from February to May 2009.

IDPs, land confiscation and forced recruitment in Papun District

READ MORE---> IDPs, land confiscation and forced recruitment in Papun District...

New arrivals flee from Northern Arakan

Maungdaw, Arakan State (Kaladan): More people brought from Burma proper, who were recently settled in Northern Arakan, fled from their village, said a village headman from a Model (Natala) village.

Most of the new settlers in the village were provided money, food, houses and other necessities for two months work, he added.

The authorities gave them facilities two months after which they were supposed to work for themselves with the equipment provided. Soon after they ran away from the village, said a Rakhine villager from Taungbro of Maungdaw.

“We know that the new settlers from Burma are being brought here for the ensuing election in 2010 to mobilise the people in Natala villages for votes. They get more facility than us. We don’t know why they run away despite this,” he said.

“Because of the Natala settlers, we have lost our farmlands and cattle. We had to pay for them. They create trouble for our community making the place unsafe, said a Rohingya villager from Alaythan Kyaw.

About 1,000 acres of land were seized in Maungdaw Township for Natala (model) villagers after the Western Command Commander Brig General Thaung Aye visited Northern Arakan on May 4, said a village headman from Maungdaw South.

Around 200 settler families arrived in Maungdaw on April 4. They were settled in Maungdaw Township. Twenty families were settled in Taungbro village, 80 families in Nurula Para, 20 families in Sikdar Para and the rest were settled in south of Maungdaw Town.

The junta authorities plan to annihilate the Rohingya community from Arakan State by setting up Natala villagers in northern Arakan and stepping up human rights violations against the Rohingya community by arbitrary arrests and torture, extortion on false and fabricated cases, restriction of movement, restriction in marriages and insulting the women folk, said a schoolteacher.

Thus the Rohingya community is forced to flee to Bangladesh from their home land, he added.

But the settlers, who were brought from Burma, were given everything for their livelihood and all types of facilities. He wondered why they were running away from their village where they were to settle.

READ MORE---> New arrivals flee from Northern Arakan...

Army Seizes Villager’s Rice Paddy, Demands Money for Pipeline Security

by Kon Hadae

(Mon News) -Burmese Army soldiers seized a villager’s rice paddy field by force in Mudon Township, Mon State.

Three day ago, soldiers informed the Doe Mar villager that they would take 2.5 acres for themselves for rainy season rice cultivation. They offered no compensation, said a source close to the farmer.

When he arrived at his farm, the soldiers, who are guarding the nearby Myaing Kalay pipeline, informed him that they would be working in his field and that he should go home. The villager’s property is located close to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) base.

A land seizure of this type continues what has been called an “expansive set of human rights violations,“ along the 180-mile pipeline since its construction began in November 2000. A May 2009 report by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) found 298 acres of farmland seized and nearly 12,000 acres in total.

A villager told IMNA that the soldiers said “[they] will work in his field for the rainy [paddy season]. So that paddy field owner had to go back home.”

Another Doe Mar villager added that, if the soldiers asked last year it may not have been such an imposition; the farmer did not grow rice then, due to the high price of rubber. This year, however, rubber prices have dropped and the farmer needs the rice paddy to support his family.

Residents told IMNA that soldiers have abused their power and demanded money from the villagers for a long time: “they try to take everything from the villagers. Not just the paddy field, money as well. We have been giving them [SPDC soldiers] money for a long time for gas pipeline security.”

Since April 2006, when the gas pipeline exploded, villages in Mudon Township have had to give 2,500 Kyat per family every single month to local battalions for gas pipeline security.

A resident from Hnee Padaw village , Mudon township, added that “in our village, not only do we have to pay money for pipeline security, but also for the salary of the [SPDC organized] militia in the village.”

The May 2009 HURFOM report found that the most common of the numerous human rights abuses by the SPDC surrounding the Myaing Kalay gas pipeline were Land Confiscation, Forced Labor, Taxation, Extortion and Commandeering.

READ MORE---> Army Seizes Villager’s Rice Paddy, Demands Money for Pipeline Security...

Three Families Desert Home After Losing Farms

Ponna Kyunt (Narinjara): Three families left their villages in Ponna Kyunt Township north of Sittwe for southern Arakan State after they lost their freehold lands to confiscation by local authorities aided by the Burmese army, said a village elder.

He said, "The families left our village, Ah Mae Kin, for a village in Gwa Township before the rainy season after they lost their lands when the authority confiscated their farms."

At least 15 acres of farmland belonging to the three families of U Maung Aye Kyaw, U Kong Zauk, and Maung Pu Nyo were confiscated by Village Chairman U Aung Mra U with the help of local army officials.

After the confiscation, the three families found themselves without a job or livelihood and eventually left for another village in Gwa Township where land prices are cheaper than in Ponna Kyunt.

"They left for a village in Gwa Township but I do not know the village name. I heard land prices in the area are much cheaper and work is available there. So they left their freehold lands," the elder added.

20 acres of land in the village were first confiscated by army officials from Light Infantry Battalions 550 and 344 with the help of Village Chairman Aung Mra U for army purposes. Later, the village chairman confiscated another 43 acres of land with the local high authorities to sell to rich families in the village.

Among the confiscated lands were some that belonged to the entire village for use as a grazing pasture, and most of the lands had been owned by villagers for many decades.

"We heard that that the Burmese army needed 20 acres of land from our village to construct army buildings, but the army officials confiscated 63 acres of land from our village without paying any compensation," said the villager.

Later the officers and village chairman sold the extra land to wealthy local villagers for 50,000 kyats per acre, the elder said.

The army officers sold 43 acres to U Kyaw Hla Sein, U Sein Tha, Maung Kyaw Bu, Alon Khin, Maung Tun Aye, and Own Kyaw, all of whom are from Ah Mae Kin Village.

After the land was sold by the officers to the wealthy residents, the village found itself divided into two factions - the rich and the poor. The three families subsequently left the village to look for a better place to find work.

According to the source, seven families from the village are likely to leave at the end of this rainy season due to the many obstacles facing them in their livelihoods since the village chairman and army officials confiscated local lands.

Many villages in Arakan State are facing similar problems as Ah Mae Kin, since the Burmese army has been confiscating land belonging to the common people and selling it to the wealthy.

READ MORE---> Three Families Desert Home After Losing Farms...

Forced labour increases in Maungdaw Township

Maungdaw, Arakan State (KPN): Forced labour is increasing in Maungdaw Township due to the building of the fence on the Burma-Bangladesh border, after Cyclone Aila lashed the area, a local businessman said on condition of anonymity.

The storm and tidal waves have destroyed almost 80 percent of the shrimp enclosures of villagers and barrier or walls, which were recently completed on the Burma-Bangladesh border, to erect the fence, said a shrimp owner of Maungdaw Township.

As a result, the ruling military junta, which had recently carried barbed wires, cement and iron rods from Rangoon to Maungdaw Township by ships, had to take the initiative again to erect the fence in the border area.

The army accompanied by Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) recently ordered every village in Maungdaw Township to provide at least 100 labourers for four days to work at the work site, without any wages and also to take their own food. The concerned authority had already ordered the village tracts of Padaung and Donkhali of Maungdaw Township to provide 100 labourers per village. Having worked at the work site for four days, they had to return to their homes and another group had to go to the work site for another four days, said a school teacher.

On the other hand, the authority concerned invited some other labourers for fence construction from other places, such as Buthidaung and Rathedaung Townships and other villages. But, they were provided Kyat 1,500 to 2,000 per day according to their work capacity, said a local shopkeeper.

Erecting the fence on the Burma-Bangladesh border area causes a lot of hardship for the local people of Maungdaw Township and forced labour also escalated.

Besides, yesterday, the concerned authorities distributed 2 acres of land per family to the new settlers, who were recently brought to Arakan State from Burma proper. The lands were seized from the Rohingya community for Natala villagers. This also upset the Rohingya villagers, said an ex-chairman requesting not to be named.

READ MORE---> Forced labour increases in Maungdaw Township...

Kachin student in coma after brutal assault by soldiers -Hpuwan La San

Written by KNG

After the brutal assault by Burmese Army soldiers, a teenaged Kachin student is in a coma for three days in hospital. He was beaten up severely at the railway station of Mayan Village in Burma's northern Kachin State on May 31 by a section of soldiers, said local sources close to the boy.

An eighth grade student Hpuwan La San (14) was innocent but wrongly assaulted by a group of angry soldiers from the village-based Burmese Army Artillery Battalion No. 372 led by Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe . The assault followed a dispute between the soldiers and local Kachin young men, according to the students' relatives.

Public Hospital in Myitkyina where Hpuwan La San is moved yesterday from Namti hospital.
His relatives added that teenaged Hpuwan La San was assaulted without being asked any questions by the Burmese soldiers while he was waiting for a train to go back to his home in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. He fell unconscious on the scene of assault, said relatives.

He was first hospitalized in Namti, a small city near Mayan Village and later moved to the government Public Hospital in Myitkyina, said Namti hospital sources. He is now in a coma and vomiting blood. He has multiple fractures on his entire body following the assault, said relatives who visited him in hospital.

Besides, over four more innocent high school students from the village were also assaulted in their homes by Burmese soldiers but their injuries are not serious, said villagers.

La San was not involved in the clash between the soldiers and young men in the village. The fight took place after the young men prevented a teenage Kachin girl called Wa Sha Ki from being raped with a knife held to her throat by four Burmese soldiers in the afternoon of May 31.

The four Burmese soldiers were beaten up by a group of Kachin youths soon after they attempted to rape Wa Sha Ki. In a harsh retaliation local Burmese soldiers, led by the Artillery battalion commander Lt-Col. Ye Yint Twe went on the rampage on Kachin young men. Over 30 troops were ordered to "Kill all Kachin young men in the village."

The army operation took place between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Burma Standard Time. The troops assaulted Kachin young men in every place in the village, said villagers.

Yesterday, a high ranking army officer from the Northern Command HQ based in Myitkyina visited the scene and met village administrators and village leaders.

He ordered that Hpuwan La San’s responsibility must be taken by both the village and the village-based Artillery Battalion. He made a simple apology for the words of the battalion commander Ye Yint Twe---- ‘Kill all Kachin young men in the village.’ He said "Don't listen to those words. It is what wicked people say," said villagers.

During the short visit, the army officer promised that soldiers will not assault Kachin young men in the village any more. But more than 30 young men are still hiding in the forests, said villagers.

According to villagers, severe problems in the village started cropping up after the Burmese Army's Artillery Battalion set up base in the village in 2004. The soldiers slaughter cattle owned by villagers without paying, confiscate land and rape women.

It is at such tumultuous times that Kachin people in Burma and abroad have voiced their opinion and suggested that the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the biggest Kachin ceasefire group in the country break the ceasefire agreement and resume war with the Burmese military regime.

READ MORE---> Kachin student in coma after brutal assault by soldiers -Hpuwan La San...

Jailed farmers’ lawyer refused appeal - Pho Phyu

(DVB)–An appeal for a renowned lawyer jailed after helping Burmese farmers complain to the United Nations of land confiscation by the military was last week rejected by court authorities, his lawyer said.

In January this year, lawyer Pho Phyu was arrested and then sentenced in March under the Unlawful Associations Act to four years in prison.

He had been assisting farmers in Magwe division, central Burma, to file complaints to the UN’s International Labour Organisation regarding the confiscation of over 5000 acres of farmland by the Burmese army.

“The court rejected our request to reconsider his sentence so his term remains at four years as before,” said lawyer Myint Thwin.

“We are to take our appeal to a higher level court.”

Min Lwin Oo, spokesperson for the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission denounced the court decision and charges, pointing out that Pho Phyu had not formed any association under which he could be charged under the Act.

“The organisation never existed and there is also no evidence that Pho Phyu was drawing plans to form one,” he said.

“Yet they still passed the sentence upon him before they could prove anything and it is very wrong to reaffirm that at court.”

The ILO’s liaison office in Rangoon was unavailable for a comment.

The Unlawful Associations Act outlaws groups and organizations deemed by the government to be a threat to national stability.

It has been used to sentence numerous activists and politicians, often under very spurious grounds given the arbitrary criteria under which groups are deemed ‘unlawful’.

In April, the exiled Burma Lawyers Council called for abolishment of the Act, citing the malleability under which the government uses it to sentence opposition members, journalists and activists.

Reporting by Aye Nai

READ MORE---> Jailed farmers’ lawyer refused appeal - Pho Phyu...

USDA official confiscates public land for self

Kyauk Pru (Narinjara): The Secretary of Kyauk Pru Township Union Solidarity Development Associations, (USDA) organizing department has allegedly confiscated many acres of forest land with the help of local army officials for his own interest, said a teacher in the area.

“U Myo Ko Han, Secretary of the USDA township organizing department, confiscated many acres of forest lands located at the foot of Kyauk Si Daung mountain in Kyauk Pru township. The forest is used by the people in the area.”

U Myo Ko Han is not only a highly placed official of the township USDA but also a senior clerk of the government survey department in Kyauk Pru Township.

“He can take possession of the lands and make it his own easily as he in power. At the same time he is a senior clerk of the survey department. So he knows how to occupy public land for his own use. Many public lands in the area are his own and people do not have a chance to work there,” the teacher said.

Even though the local Burma Army authorities know about U Myo Ko Han confiscating the public land no action has been taken against him because he has managed army officers by bribing them with money and gifts, so that they do not disturb him for land confiscation.

Many villagers from villages including Thi Chy, Htin Thway, Kyauk Si, Pri Daw, Ma Ahu Pri and Dwe Cha are facing problems after he confiscated forest lands.

“The villagers living near the mountain are now in trouble because U Myo Ko Han has prohibited them from procuring bamboos and timber from the forest. Earlier, local people procured timber and bamboo from the forest to build their homes. There is no rule or law which allows government officials in rural areas of Arakan to do what they like as Myo Ko Han has done,” he said.

It is an abuse of the law by Myo Ko Han but there is no one to complain about the confiscation of public lands for private use as Myo Ko Han has done.

“Every body will be in trouble if he or she complains to higher authorities. So the local people are silent despite knowing it is an injustice. It is tantamount to oppression by a powerful official on innocent people,” the teacher added.

READ MORE---> USDA official confiscates public land for self...

Frequency of rape by Burmese army appalls researchers

(DVB)–Rape of women by Burmese soldiers in Kachin state is common, and could be part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Burmese army, a group investigating human rights abuses in northern Burma has found.

Despite a ceasefire agreement in 1994 between the Burmese army and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), human rights violations remain very serious, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) who recently conducted a three-week research trip in Kachin state.

“We heard many stories of land confiscation, religious discrimination, human trafficking and various other violations,” said Benedict Rogers, South Asia’s Advocacy Officer for CSW.

Rogers was particularly appalled by the frequency of rape. In the CSW report, a Kachin claims that Burmese army soldiers raping Kachin women is a deliberate policy aimed at “mixing blood”, designed to achieve “ethnic cleansing”, although the report acknowledge the difficulty in verifying this accusation.

Earlier this month, however, a group of British MPs urged the United Nations to investigate “a campaign of ethnic cleansing Burma’s military regime is carrying out against its ethnic nationalities,” including use of “rape as a weapon of war”.

The report highlighted the impunity which the Burmese army can operate under, documenting cases of rape and human trafficking that went ignored by authorities.

“We met for example a 21-year-old woman who had been raped just a few months ago. She had been getting off a train on her way to her village to visit her mother,” he said.

“Two soldiers had approached her, raped her and then strangled her and left her for dead.”

Like many others, she has filed complaints to the authorities but the perpetrators have not been punished.

Another threat to Kachin women is human trafficking. The report states that since 2006, there have been 138 documented cases of human trafficking in Kachin state.

The cases have primarily involved women between the ages of fifteen and 30 years who are usually trafficked to China and sold as wives to local men. Many of them have been sold multiple times.

The tense situation in Kachin state has been compounded since the Burmese regime asked the KIO to disarm and turn into border guards, which the KIO seem unlikely to accept, say CSW.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

READ MORE---> Frequency of rape by Burmese army appalls researchers...

Junta’s violations severe in Northern Burma: CSW

by Solomon

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an advocacy group, said human rights violations continue to be grave in areas where ethnic minorities live and have come out with fresh accounts of violations during their field trip to Northern Burma.

CSW, in a report released after their three-week field trip to Kachin state in northern Burma, said they heard horrifying testimonies from victims of human rights violations committed by the ruling junta’s army.

“The situation in Kachin State is bad, we found first hand evidence of rape, religious discrimination, land confiscation and human trafficking,” Benedict Rogers, CSW’s South Asia Advocacy officer, told Mizzima.

He said, during their trip, they were able to meet victims of rape, religious discrimination and people whose land were confiscated by the army.

During the trip, from the end of April to the first week of May, 2009, the CSW team was also able to meet the Kachin Independent Organization, an armed rebel group fighting for self-determination but which has a ceasefire pact with the junta.

Rogers, who was the team leader visiting Burma, said they have seen ethnic Kachin people living under constant fear, especially women, as they fall easy prey to Burmese soldiers and no one dares to intervene as they are scared of the Burmese soldiers.

“Despite the ceasefire, human rights violations continue and people suffer,” said Rogers, referring to the more than one decade old ceasefire agreement between the KIO and the Burmese junta.

The KIO in 1994 entered into a ceasefire agreement with the ruling junta on grounds that continued war had devastated the people. But their expectations were belied because the pact turned out to be worse than the people expected as the junta’s army slowly expanded in the areas, which were earlier controlled by the rebel group.

The KIO was officially banned from making fresh recruitments.

During their visit, Rogers said, he met a 21-year old Bible school student, who narrated her experience of being raped by two Burmese soldiers, and how she is left helpless.

The girl apparently did not get any compensation and the perpetrator went unpunished.

“Every woman should be careful. My experience is an example for other girls … I want justice to be done,” the CSW quoted the girl as saying in its press release on May 22.

The girl did file a case at three different military courts and requested for investigations but there hasn’t been any action or compensation except 100,000 Kyats she received for medical care, a rice bag and cooking oil, she said.

“Many rape cases in Kachin State go unreported because victims are afraid and to ashamed to report it. There are many more cases we don’t know about,” said Rogers.

“No women are safe in Kachin State,” he added.

Rogers said, even the KIO, cannot provide protection to their people except within their controlled areas, said Rogers.

In July last year, Burmese soldiers reportedly raped and murdered a 15 year old girl, Nhkum Hkawn, from the Din Nam Sai villiage in Kachin State but the army closed the case after paying the girl’s parents of 500,000 Kyats (US$ 500) as compensation and took no action against the accused soldiers.

Awng Wa, Chairman of the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), which is working inside Burma said, human rights abuses such as rape, torture, forced labour and land confiscation are common and are not strange in Kachin State.

“You can hear of rape cases everywhere, if there is a military camp set up. But no one dares to complain because they are afraid that it could create a backlash with more repression,” said Awng Wa.

“Instead of getting support or action, the authorities usually punish the complainants. So many cases have gone under reported,” he added.

He said, before the ceasefire between the military government and the Kachin Independent Organization and its armed wing the Kachin Independent Army(KIO/A), which represent the Kachin people, there were human rights violations of the highest order within the ethnic people and after ceasefire abuses continue.

“Land confiscation and forced labour are common too,” said Awng Wa. He said, forced labour, however, changes during war into use of porters but during peace, people have been forced to cultivate physic nut trees.

The report also talks about the plight of Chin refugees. Rogers, who had also visited Malaysia and met Chin refugees, said life of Chin refugees is not favourable as they live and work in deplorable conditions.

“The situation in Northern and Western Burma of Kachin and Chin State, have gone unknown and are ignored by many in the world,” said Rogers.

“It is time that their voices were heard, and that the international community responded to the political, social, humanitarian and environmental disaster in northern and western Burma,” said Rogers in the press statement.

“The international community needs to know that the ceasefire areas are not really in peace. People in ceasefire areas are really suffering seriously,” Rogers told Mizzima.

READ MORE---> Junta’s violations severe in Northern Burma: CSW...

Rights violations along 180-mile gas pipeline shocking, ongoing, says new report

Mon Son and Blai Mon - IMNA

“Pervasive human rights abuses” are occurring along an extensive overland pipeline in southern Burma, says a report released by a rights group yesterday. Rape, summary execution, forced labor and other abuses are the deliberate, predictable result of the pipeline, says the group, as is the confiscation of almost 15,000 acres of land.

The report, released by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), deals with the government-owned Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline, which branches off the Yadana gas project in Tenasserim Division. The Yadana project has received intense international criticism for its role in rights abuses; the consortium of international energy companies who control it have been sued in 3 countries, with one investor pulling out.

According to HURFOM, abuses along the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline are comparable in type, though not in scale, to those documented in relation to the Yadana project; at 183-miles, the Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline is more than four times longer than the 40-mile Yadana project.

HURFOM organizes abuses documented in the report into two broad categories. In the first, the group argues that a threefold increase in Burmese army deployments to the area since is “fundamentally due” to the pipeline.

“The predictable result of deploying large numbers of soldiers and encouraging them to extract what they can from the countryside, without oversight,” says the group, is a “raft of abuses.” According to the group, these include: 12,000 acres of land confiscation for barracks and army agriculture projects, forced labor, 62 incidents of rape and the commandeering of food and property.

In the second category, abuses along the pipeline are also a “deliberate, calculated part of the pipeline security effort” in which “battalions seeking to protect the pipeline from insurgents do so largely by targeting civilians.” According to HURFOM, this has entailed travel restrictions, forced relocation, and 68 incidents of torture and summary execution involving more than 600 victims.

Also related to pipeline security, HURFOM says it has confirmed that residents of more than 40 villages – including children as young as 12 – are required to work as forced laborers maintaining and guarding the pipeline. More than 2,400 acres of land, meanwhile, have been confiscated to ensure the pipeline’s route can be easily patrolled.

Making clear just how “ongoing” the abuses really are, a press release distributed to mark the report’s publication notes that, in just the last week, HURFOM has documented the summary execution of one villager and the burning of 36 homes. “In both cases,” says the release, “the army committed the abuses less than a mile from the pipeline.”

On the other side of Burma, meanwhile, construction of another pipeline is just beginning: in late March, Burma and China agreed to transport gas from the Shwe gas fields 1,200 miles overland to southwestern China.

Win Aung, coordinator of the Shwe Gas Movement, which opposes the project, says abuses like those documented by HURFOM have already begun. “The number of army battalions have already increased in the area,” Win Aung told IMNA today. “Human rights violations happened when the government started this project – and they are still happening.”

“They have not started building the pipeline yet. But they have to make the way clear for the pipeline – so villagers have to work as forced laborers clearing brush and digging.” These abuses are just the beginning, says Win Aung.

“According to what I see in the HURFOM report, these kinds of human rights violations – forced labor, torture, etc. – will happen in the Shwe Gas area. And the Shwe Gas pipeline is much longer than the pipeline to Kanbauk.”

READ MORE---> Rights violations along 180-mile gas pipeline shocking, ongoing, says new report...

Ground control: militarization and the theft of Burma’s land

By Rosalie Smith

(DVB)–In the last two decades Burma has aggressively expanded its military, doubling army personnel to the point where now there is one troop for every 100 citizens.

Only North Korea now ranks higher than Burma for army size relative to country population. This has been helped along by the 29 per cent of total government spending being allocated to defence; all despite Burma having no external enemies.

To date, international media has almost myopically focused on detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the other 2,100 political prisoners held behind bars. Rightly so, the picture being broadcast is of a government bent on controlling its population through starvation of resources and freedom. But beyond this, the human cost sacrificed to support Burma’s military might has seldom been exposed.

The aggressive expansion of the military has required land on which to build more barracks, outposts and training sites. According to Holding our Ground, a report released earlier this week on land confiscation in Arakan state, Mon state and the Pa-O region of southern Shan state, Burma’s farmers have borne the brunt of this.

The report documents the increasing incidences of land confiscation. The problem is widespread, and farmers and villagers whose land and livelihood is being stolen often receive no compensation. Indeed, many are then forced to work on the government projects carried out on their old land.

It also documents how soldiers moving onto confiscated land in ethnic states are encouraged to either bring with them their families or marry local women, while schools close to militarised areas are banned from teaching ethnic languages. This is all part of a policy to dilute people’s ethnic identity.

Legally, there are no obstacles that prevent the government or army from confiscating land. Unlike the majority of functional democracies in the world, Burma doesn’t recognise private land ownership. A single farmer is powerless if an official decides that his land is needed for government purposes.

To compound the problem, there are substantial risks for people who complain about land confiscation.

“People often get arrested or fined as punishment if they inform organisations like [International Labour Organisation] that their land has been confiscated,” said Aung Marm Oo, chief author of Holding Our Ground.

“Sometimes the local community has to complain to the very authorities who confiscated their land.”

Stolen land is also providing lucrative business for the government. The Karen Human Rights Group recently found that large tracts of land have been confiscated and sold on to Max (Myanmar) Company who intend to use the area for rubber cultivation.

Villagers in western Karen state speak of their fear of being relocated. Many of them have been forced to work as porters for the army or on stretches of the Asian Highway being constructed in the area. Arbitrary arrests and extortion have also been reported.

Similarly, foreign companies’ interests in Burma’s natural resources have accelerated land confiscation. The Yadana and Yetagun natural gas pipelines in the early 1990’s are perhaps the most obvious example of this.

According to EarthRights International’s report, pipeline construction resulted in numerous villages within 20 miles either side of the pipeline being relocated. Western oil companies Total, Premier and Unocal were in partnership with the ruling State Peace and Development Council in construction of the pipeline.

And now the Burmese government is working with corporations from South Korea, India and China to build an overland pipeline running across northwest Burma to China.

“The energy resources are not being used for Burma but are sold to a foreign country,” said Ko Kin, spokesperson for the anti-pipeline campaign group, Shwe Gas Movement.

“Farmlands on the way will be confiscated and more troops will be stationed for the pipeline’s security,” he said, adding that plans for the pipeline have already caused forcible relocation of locals.

According to Aung Htoo, general secretary of exiled lawyers group, Burma Lawyer’s Council, land confiscation is common in the numerous ethnic states, although there is a lack of valid data. This is likely one of the reasons for the problem being neglected by the media.

Owner of all the lands

The impunity under which the Burmese government operates is staggering. Numerous laws have been established that blatantly prioritise military strength and financial capital over civilian rights.

Article 18 of the 1974 constitution states that ‘the State is the ultimate owner of all natural resources above and below the ground, above and beneath the waters and in the atmosphere, and also of all the lands.’

This law was revalidated in 2004 and adopted as one of the state’s fundamental principles. Thus, farmers are leaseholders with a right to cultivate their land, but the state remains the ultimate owner.

The only breath of hope would be the Land Acquisition Act, which states that if the government wants to occupy private land, it has to provide notice and some kind of compensation to the land owners, although this only comes into play when the land is fallow.

Regardless, many farmers don’t even know about the possibility of seeking justice for themselves, says Aung Marm Oo.

‘Holding Our Ground’ found that between 1998 and 2002, over 7,000 acres of land and hundreds of millions of kyats worth of crops and plantations in Mon state were confiscated. This has left a vast number of Mon unemployed and poverty stricken.

The International Labour Organisation is the only body to deal with land confiscation in Burma, although it only accepts cases where confiscation issues are the result of proven case of forced labour.

The risks for complaints are substantial, however. In January labour activist Zaw Htay was sentenced to ten years imprisonment after helping farmers in Magwe division file a report to the ILO on land seizures. His lawyer Pho Phyu, was subsequently sentenced in March to four years imprisonment after defending him at the trial.

Groups such as Burma Lawyer’s Council are investing resources in collecting valid data about land confiscation but, they say, the problem can only be tackled properly when the Burmese government takes the first step. Yet with one eye focused firmly on military dominance, and the other on staving off economic collapse, land confiscation is likely to continue.

“First, as long as the state does not recognise private ownership of land, there’s no hope for the people,” said Aung Htoo.

“What can the people do?”

READ ALSO:
Expansion of Military Forces Citizens Off Land

READ MORE---> Ground control: militarization and the theft of Burma’s land...

Junta Trying to Erase Non-Burman Identities, Say Ethnic Groups

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Burma’s military junta is carrying out a policy of “Burmanization” in areas under its control, using land confiscation and intermarriage, sometimes by force, to dilute ethnic identities, according to a new report by three exiled ethnic groups released on Tuesday.

The joint report, by three groups representing Burma’s Arakan, Mon and Pa-O ethnic minorities, accuses the country’s ruling generals of “looking to tighten their grip on power is through their policy of ‘Burmanization.’”

“As a greater number of troops are deployed in the border regions populated by the ethnic minorities, many soldiers move their families onto land confiscated from local villagers or are encouraged to marry local women,” said the report.

In some cases, the report claims, ethnic women are pressured to marry soldiers as a means of escaping destitution.

Titled “Holding Our Ground: Land Confiscation in Arakan & Mon States, and Pa-O Area of Southern Shan State,” the report was co-written by the Thailand-based All Arakan Students’ & Youths’ Congress (AASYC), the Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO) and the Mon Youth Progressive Organization (MYPO).

The report also claims that Burmese authorities award business contracts in their areas to soldiers, while businesses owned by local people are shifted into “the hands of regional and local authorities.”

The groups also said that in Burma, laws ban teaching ethnic languages “in order to promote Burmese as the only language.”

Such measures are part of the junta’s ongoing efforts to dilute the culture of ethnic minorities and spread the influence of the majority Burman race, the report stated.

The three ethnic groups also pointed out how military installations in Burma affect land confiscation in their areas.

“As long as the expansion of the military in ethnic states of Burma continues, land will be forcibly confiscated with little or no compensation being given to the owners,” they said in the report.

According to the report, land seized by the army is used both for military purposes and for state-run projects such as farms and other businesses operated by military personnel.

The report claimed that the military has seized more than 7,600 acres of land in Mon State since 1998 and more than 1,100 acres in Arakan State in the past five years.

The report did not include the situation in Arakan State’s Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships, which are predominantly inhabited by members of the Rohingya Muslim minority group. Aung Marm Oo of the Arakan group, the AASYC, one of the co-authors of the report, said he did not include the Rohingya areas because it is a “sensitive” issue.

The Irrawaddy could not verify the facts and claims in the report with independent sources. However, a Shan independent researcher on development in Kachin State and northern Shan State recently said that ethnic language schools were allowed in areas controlled by the ceasefire groups, the Kachin Independence Organization and the Shan State Army- North.

READ MORE---> Junta Trying to Erase Non-Burman Identities, Say Ethnic Groups...

Expansion of military forces citizens off land

21 April 2009

(DVB)–Fertile farmland is being confiscated by the government and converted to army barracks, outposts and training sites as Burma’s military increases in size, says a report released today on land confiscation in Burma.

Forced land confiscation without compensation has caused widespread problems throughout the country, says ‘Holding our Ground’, which focuses on Arakan State, Mon State and the Pa-O region of southern Shan State.

“The main reason for land confiscation is the need to feed and financially support increasing troop numbers”, explains Aung Marm Oo, chief author of the report.

Army personnel now number 490,000, having more than doubled in size since 1989. Troops are expected to produce their own food and obtain basic living materials.

The report cites a Global Witness investigation in 2003 which found that army personnel steal food and other resources from areas close to their bases.

“Generally villagers receive no compensation for lost land,” Aung Marm Oo said. “They can go and complain to the village headman, but they get no assistance from township authority.”

Victims of land confiscation have faced drastic problems such as food and water shortages, and often are unable to educate their children or find work.

Further reasons for land confiscation include government development projects, says the report.

“For example, for the Sittwe to Yangoon highway a few years ago government confiscated large amounts of land,” said Aung Marm Oo.

These projects often use forced labour and have disastrous environmental effects in many areas.

Land is increasingly being confiscated to grow biodiesel crops such as jatropha or castor oil plants to fight rising oil prices.

The government has stated their intention to plant eight million acres of the plant within three years, with each state or division, regardless of size or suitable land, required to plant 500,000 acres.

A report released earlier this month by the Lahu National Development Organisation cited China’s insatiable hunger for rubber as another reason for the increase in land confiscation, as large tracts of land are being converted to rubber plantations.

Burma cultivated 302,000 hectares of rubber in 2006; the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation stated their aim to increase that by a further 100,000 acres last year.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

READ MORE---> Expansion of military forces citizens off land...