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Myanmar: ‘Potential land conflict epidemic’ warned
THE country may soon face a land conflict epidemic as a result of the growing influx of investments and the subsequent demand for land, unless the laws and policies that adequately address land-rights issues are urgently adopted and implemented, warned the Paris-headquartered International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in a report released on September 27.
The report Land of Sorrow: Human rights violations at Myanmar’s Myotha Industrial Park documents the harmful consequences suffered by rural communities in Mandalay Region as a result of the large-scale industrial park project developed by the domestic company Mandalay Myotha Industrial Development (MMID) in Ngazun township.
Myotha Industrial Park project, which started in 2013 January, comprises 10,000 acres of land owned by more than 1,000 households from 14 villages.
“The Myotha Industrial Park is a glaring example of industrial development gone wrong in Myanmar. Stronger checks and balances are urgently needed so that this model is not replicated and more communities are not rendered landless and destitute,” Dimitris Christopoulos, FIDH president, said in the report.
During the report launch and press conference, the affected community and a representative of FIDH highlighted the human rights violations during the land acquisition procedures.
The compensation rate is only 6 percent of the market price. This is not business. This is robbery.
– Debbie Stothard, FIDH
Daw Aye Htike, one of the affected farmers of the project said “we demand the investors not to come and invest [but only] until the compensation and agreement with the developer company is settled.”
MMID paid K2 million to landowners with Form 7 – a land ownership document – and the rest with K500,000 per acre in later 2013.
Many of the farmers reported that authorities significantly under-calculated their land area, accounted for only 10-25pc of the total amount of land farmers said they used.
Daw Shwe Wine, a farmer of Pyaw Pwe village, said she received the compensation in 2013 because she was threatened by the company and local authorities.
“They said we will lose our land and receive nothing in return if we refuse to take the compensation. Farmers who refused to accept the compensation offered for the land or disturb the company process of repairing the land for the project are intimidated and threatened with arrest and imprisonment,” she complained.
Villagers also suffered violations of their civil and political rights in connection with the project. At least 55 local farmers and villagers were arrested, detained, or faced criminal charges for attempting to oppose the land confiscation and clearance for the development of the Myotha Industrial Park.
The report is intended to be submitted to government and parliament later this year, after a Myanmar-language version is released, said Andrea Giorgetta, director of Asia Desk at FIDH.
Furthermore, FIDH will raise this case at the next United Nations forum on business and human rights, which will take place in Geneva in November, according to Ms Stothard.
Meanwhile, the land ownership documents are another matter in this land acquisition process, said U Aung Naing Oo, Ngazun township administrator.
“Only 900 acres out of 10,000 acres are [done] with the land-ownership document. The rest of the areas are lands categorised under government management. And before the project started, the land price at that dry zone, which is hard to cultivate, was around K 50,000 per acre,” he said.
Both MMID and the Mandalay regional government are trying to provide more than one plot – 480 square feet of land – to the farmers as resettlement in the housing zone of the industrial park, depending on the number of acres they had owned, said U Kyaw Soe Naing, regional MP of Ngazun constituency.
“Before that, all [residents in the project area] are equally said to have been given one plot equally. And the farmers who own multiple acres are not happy with this decision … Though an official letter has not been released yet,” he said.
Approximately 16pc of the families affected by the project refused compensation offers made by the project developer, and are not involved in this agreement scheme.
“As businesses increasingly become the main driver for land confiscation in Myanmar, it is crucial that they uphold their responsibility to respect human rights by conducting due diligence and impact assessments. MMID has failed the human rights litmus test and should quickly provide adequate redress for the communities affected by its operations,” Ms Stothard added in the report.
Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/potential-land-conflict-epidemic-warned.html