The hearing, which took place at the Kyauktan township court in Yangon, determined that the farmers are illegally trespassing on those grounds. As a result, each farmer has been fined K500.

The farmers will file an appeal to the district court, said Daw Than Than Aye, the lawyer representing the farmers in the case. “We will not accept the decision of this case. We have been harvesting paddy on those lands for years,” one farmer, U Aye Htay, said.

“We do not wish to be removed from the land and will appeal against this ruling with the relevant parties and the president,” added U Zaw Tun, who is one of the 33 farmers sentenced.

Based on the farmers’ accounts, the 600-acre plot of land under question was taken over by the Ministry of Construction (MOC) in 1996 for K20,000 per acre. However, the land was left vacant by the MOC. As such, the farmers continued farming paddy in the area.

In 2002 though, the MEC began building a ship-breaking facility across 100 acres of the 600-acre plot. Nevertheless, the farmers continued their farming activities on the remaining 500 acres. Between 2004 and 2011, the farmers contributed paddy as payment for utilising the land to the MEC.

However, in May 2014, the MEC prohibited the farmers from working the land. In July, the MEC sued the farmers for criminal trespass on the land.

In 2015, one year after the charges were filed, the government took initiated steps under the formal legal process to acquire the land from the farmers.

Two years later, in March 2017, the MEC agreed to compensate 10 out of the 33 farmers for 98 acres of the land.

In January, the MEC agreed to compensate the farmers for an additional 39 acres of the land. Despite this, the charges persisted and were heard by the court.

‘The court has found these farmers guilty of trespassing on land that the govt had previously confirmed still belonged to the farmers.’ Ben Hardman, EarthRights International

Response

“Today’s ruling by the Kyauktan township Court represents a blow to the land rights of farmers across Myanmar,” Ben Hardman, deputy legal director at EarthRights International (ERI) in Myanmar, said yesterday.

ERI argued that this case reflects the country’s history of land grabs and widespread failures to follow proper legal process, often at the expense of rural farmers.

“The judgement is wrong because [MEC] are suing us but they are also giving compensation for the farmland during the court process to some of the defendants. So, it is clear that they did wrong,” one of the farmers observed. “If [MEC] think that it is their land, then why would they compensate us for our land?”

“It is very hard to understand how these farmers can be guilty of trespass when the government began a formal process to take their land a year after the charges were filed. In effect, the court has found these farmers guilty of trespassing on land that the government had previously confirmed still belonged to the farmers,” Mr Hardman went on. The NGO stated that the verdict calls into question when, if ever, Myanmar’s courts will enforce land laws to protect tenants like the 33 farmers. This also seems to conflict with the government’s pledges to resolve historic land disputes.

“We are not newcomers. We never left our place,” one of the 33 farmers remarked.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/court-rules-favour-mec-deals-blow-farmer-land-rights.html