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Rock sampling for coal plan spreads fears of land confiscation in Kyaikmayaw Township

Villagers from Kwan Ngai village in Kyaikmayaw have reported extensive testing of rock samples by a private team of geologists, around Pyar Mountain. This testing marks the first step in plans for the construction of a large scale coal mine and refining plant, which is intended to power the Ni Don cement plant, planned less then a mile away. Wide spread land seizer and significant environmental degradation from such heavy industry is likely to destroy the livelihoods and communities around Pyar Mountain. Read more

Kyaikmayaw Township landowners complain after village head illegally sells land to Zaykabar Company

Framers in the Ni Don area, Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State, already contending with the threat of land seizer and paltry compensation by Zaykabar Company Ltd., now report even further losses as the nominal compensation that is handed down has been seized by the local headman who have falsely signed over villager farmland to Zaykabar Company.

The following accounts gathered in mid January, 2011, are interviews taken from Ni Don land owners who have each had land illegally sold to Zaykabar Company without their permission or knowledge by the local headman Ko Kyaw Htun. As a result, Ko Kyaw Tun has been awarded the nominal compensation rate of 350,000 kyat per acre, rather then the land owns[1]. Read more

Land Survey Department research near Tavoy spark fears of impending land confiscation

In early January representatives from the local land-surveying department in Tennaserim Division, visited villages that fall within the project area of Thai-Italian Development Company’s slated Tavoy deep-sea port project. While only preliminary information has been collected, residents see the research as a warning sign of the imminent seizer of their land. Without compensation the livelihoods of Tavoy’s landowners would be destroyed, and already, there are indications that the numbers of residents fleeing the area for migrant work in Thailand, has increased.

On January 8th, 2011, local authorities from the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military government started the collection of ownership lists, of houses, plantations, and paddy fields that are owned by local civilians within the area in which the Tavoy deep-sea port will be constructed. These areas currently visited by local authorities include villages north-west of land already surveyed and designated as the site for the project’s Upstream and Downstream Petrochemical Complex. These visits have caused fear amongst local communities that they will face land confiscation and absent or nominal compensation in the coming months. Communities are not new to the threat, as already so called development projects have seen the loss of villager land to railroad construction in 1995 to 1998 and the Yadana and Yetagun gas pipelines in 1999 to 2003. Read more

‘When I became desperate’: Opinions of residents during forced land acquisition in Kyaikmayaw Township

Introduction

Since the release of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland’s (HURFOM’s) October 2010 report, Waiting In Tears[1], farmers in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon Sate, have faced increases in pressure to give up freehold land holdings that have been passed down from generation to generation, in order to make way for the construction of several private large scale cement factories and lime stone processing plants.

Throughout the month of December 2010, land owners of Ni Don and Mae Garow villages have faced significant efforts by the development company, Zaykabar Company, and local Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) leaders, to give up their farms. While residents have been offered some tenable opportunity for compensation by Zaykabar Company, the amount offered for compensation is 9 times lower then the estimated value of the per acre price for the land. Zaykabar Company staff and senior leadership have made multiple visits to the area, demanding that residents settle for this degraded price. Additionally, villages have been exhorted by the movie actress Nan Dar Hlaing to sell their land, and were threatened by the local village headman that if they refuse to sell, they would be forced to leave the area. Download report as PDF [467KB]

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The Regime and The Companies in Collaboration in Land Confiscations

The current military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), will withdraw from power. While it transfers its political power to a new regime, it is expected this military regime will hold ‘economic power’ behind the scene through its cronies.  The recent award to the companies of the regime’s cronies as the main contractors in the new Tavoy deep seaport construction in Tenasserim Division, and the placement of Zaykabar Company at the head of constructing a cement plant on lands in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State, are the evidence how the regime connected cronies continue to get involved in making profits from the country’s natural resources.

Land and properties confiscation in all the ethnic areas by the Burmese Army has continued since 2000, when, in the southern part of Mon State, the Burmese Army deployed more troops to set up a ‘self-reliance’ program with its armed forces.  The farmers and local villagers in Ye and Yebyu Township do not forget their suffering after the Burmese Army took their lands without compensation. Read more