Burmese Army resells confiscated land

September 8, 2008

By HURFOM:

Kamarwet village ,mudon Township

The commander of Light Infantry Brigade No. 209 is selling confiscated land, report farmers in southern Mudon Township, Mon State. The battalion’s commander is selling the land before he transfers to another post, reports the 35 year-old son of one the former landowners, triggering fears that his replacement will issue a new round of land confiscation. “My parents’ land was seized seven years ago,” the man said. “It was about seven acres and full of Rubber and Ceylon trees. Recently, the commander sold our land to a businessman from Mudon for five million kyat before he transfers.”

Another former landowner, Nai Lon, from Htoung Kay village in Mudon, reports that the battalion commander is also selling his five-acre rubber plantation, confiscated five years ago. “I lost my land in the 2002. It was worth about three million kyat, and now it is worth five million! The army came for it twice, each time taking half. Captain Aye Tun from LIB No. 209 seized the second half, and later I learned that he sold it to a businessman from Moulmein,” said Nai Lon, adding, “What we can do? Nothing! We have no rights at all.”

Fifteen hundred acres have been confiscated by LIB No. 209 in the last seven years, which it has used to generate income for battalion members. Farmers report that land is usually seized under pretexts related to ownership certificates. Often, the army claims that state law requires owners to have land certificates authorizing them to own and work on their land. Many farms are “fee hold lands,” however, passed down within families for generations and without legal documentation. Though neighbors and the surrounding community may know whom the land belongs to, obtaining documentation from the Land Records Department is difficult and expensive. “I had never heard of having to register free hold lands to be legal,” reports a former landowner, “I couldn’t pay the amount of money asked by the land records office to register my lands. Registering my ten acres would have required a one million kyat bribe to the land record officer in Mudon Township.”

None of the farmers whose land was seized received compensation, and some report being forced into unpaid labor on their former property. “I was forced to clean the bushes on my own land after the army took it. I felt too depressed and could not work, so I asked my two sons to work for me. They were also very upset and fled to Thailand to find another jobs,” said Nai Lon, a 60 year-old villager from Kamarwet village. “I don’t think I’ll ever get my land back.”

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News