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Extortion of Locals Continues in Yebyu Township

HURFOM: Yebyu Township locals have reported being arbitrarily extorted by a Mon splinter group who threatened torture and continued intimidation if failing to pay. The extortion victims have also claimed that the situation cannot improve if the Burmese Military and New Mon State Party (NMSP) continue to ignore their request for increased security in the affected area. Read more

NMSP and border groups discuss child protection in armed conflict

WCRP: Community-based organizations located in the Thai-Burma border town of Sangkhlaburi met with members of the New Mon State Party, the predominant ethnic Mon resistance group, to discuss commitments the party made in August 2012 upon becoming a signatory to Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment for the protection of children in armed conflict. Read more

Ye Township Residents Recount Trials of Land Disputes with Military

HURFOM: Over the course of this year, land owners have contacted HUROM to discuss their feelings about work-restriction of their farmland, six years after being able to return to land that had been confiscated. Residents of Ye Township, Mon State saw much of their land confiscated in 2001 by LIB No. 586, which is under the control of Burmese Military No. 19. Read more

Locals Face Hardships as Military Conducts Training

HURFOM: Karen and Mon citizens reported an increased risk of danger for locals and farmers after reports surfaced that the Burmese Military would open training in close proximity to local plantations and farmland. Residents have complained that the military training will directly affect their daily income and their livelihood. According to information gathered about the military training, the Burmese Military is planning to use heavy artillery during their exercises. Read more

Ye Township residents appeal to parliament to resolve sluggish land disputes

HURFOM: Several residents have accused officials from the Ye Township land records department of failing to advance local land dispute cases after the office conducted surveys to document confiscations and meet with victims. Members of the community claim that there is a wide discrepancy between the survey’s findings and the real number of land confiscation cases in the area, and state that even cases included in official documentation have not received department support in pursuing legal recourse or compensation. Read more

Labor migration leaves women and children to face flooding in Mon State

WCRP: Although the heavy rains that pounded much of Karen and Mon States abated as July came to a close, renewed downpours in Kyaikmayaw Township last month were particularly hard on women and children. Due to the high numbers of migrant workers from Kyaikmayaw living in Thailand and Malaysia, women were primarily tasked with moving family members and possessions to higher ground, covering gaps in income and food when work and local resources became scarce, and restoring damaged homes and farmlands after the rains subsided. Read more

Farmers describe discrimination and corruption in land compensation schemes

HURFOM: Last week HURFOM reported on exploitative land grabs committed by domestic companies seeking to establish cement production in the region around Kyiakmayaw Township in Mon State. Since then, new accounts have surfaced alleging additional discrimination by Pacific Link Cement Industries Ltd. and June Industry Co. Ltd. against farmers deemed by the companies to have lower levels of education, insufficient awareness of their legal rights, or lacking the benefit of personal ties to local authorities. Read more

Gunshot from Burmese soldier in Kyauk Kadin alarms villagers

HURFOM: After a single shot was allegedly fired by a Burmese soldier at a construction worker in Kyauk Kadin, residents reported staying close to home and avoiding travel to their plantation jobs due to the brief but violent outburst. Local people were dismayed by the sound they said they had not heard since the country initiated a series of reforms and the union government signed ceasefire agreements with local armed ethnic groups. Read more

Land confiscations in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State

Mon Human Rights Foundation of Monland

Introduction

In recent months the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has been surveying on-going cases of land confiscation in Mon areas as well as attempts by farmers to seek justice for past confiscations.  With a full report soon to be published detailing the status of these issues, the short report here offers a preliminary account of one of the more prominent cases of land confiscation encountered in the regions surveyed. Read more

Border communities struggle as monsoon floodwaters rise and recede

WCRP: As a week of heavy downpours and severe flooding that displaced thousands of people in southeastern Burma concludes, a number of news outlets continue to cover the scale of the crisis and the related humanitarian responses. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 33,409 people in Karen State have been displaced due to flooding, while Agence France-Presse reported on August 2 that 4,700 people in neighboring Mon State were temporarily without homes. But much of the media coverage and relief assistance has not penetrated the smaller, remote, and more inaccessible border communities also inundated by rain, and only now are reports from these less publicized areas beginning to seep out. Read more

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