The government should promptly provide redress for past illegal confiscations of land and stop arbitrarily arresting activists, New York-headquartered Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released this afternoon. The NGO also called on Nay Pyi Taw to enact laws and regulations to safeguard the rights of farmers and other small landholders from future confiscations.
Over the past three decades, “Myanmar government and military officials have seized vast swathes of land from farmers while providing them no or inadequate compensation, which denies them livelihoods and erodes access to basic services”, the HRW said in a press statement today. Many farmers have faced criminal prosecution for protesting the lack of redress and refusing to leave or cease work on the land that was taken from them.
The NGO launched the report “Nothing for Our Land’: Impacts of Land Confiscation on Farmers in Myanmar” today, which documents the devastating effects of land confiscations for farmers in southern Shan State and the Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions. Farmers describe their loss of livelihoods, access to health care, and children’s education, and their efforts to obtain redress, which frequently ends in arrest.
“Widespread land confiscations across Myanmar have harmed rural communities in profound ways for decades,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW, said, adding that the government should “promptly address illegal land confiscations, compensate aggrieved parties, and reform laws to protect people against future abuses.”
Widespread land confiscations across Myanmar have harmed rural communities in profound ways for decades. - Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch
Land confiscations have long plagued the rural population under repressive military juntas in the country. While official statistics confirm that the government took hundreds of thousands of acres since the early 1990s, activists believe millions of acres were seized. Military government confiscations often occurred with little or no notice and inadequate compensation, and have a profoundly harmful impact on those affected, according to HRW.
Many farmers described the impact of the sudden confiscations on their livelihoods. “We were starved because we didn’t have any business or job to get any income,” U Thein Win, 61, from the Ayeyarwady Region, told HRW. He said that after his land was taken his family could barely afford to eat two regular meals a day. The negative effects of the land seizures seeped into other aspects of farmers’ lives, such as limiting access to healthcare and ability to provide their children education opportunities.
Since the transition from the military government to the National League for Democracy-led government in 2011, the authorities have sought to address the issue of land confiscations. Former president U Thein Sein instituted multiple reforms, including the passage of the Farmland Law and the Virgin, Fallow, Vacant Management Law, and the adoption of the National Land Use Policy and an investigation commission to investigate claims of confiscated land. However, by the time the newly elected NLD-led government took office in 2016, many thousands of confiscated land claims remained unresolved.
In fact, a core part of the NLD’s manifesto was to end the pernicious effects of mass land confiscations carried out under military rule. The new government took important steps by forming another investigative body and undertaking reforms of critical laws. Still, despite some limited successes, many farmers have not seen any results, the NGO argued.
Human Rights Watch urged Nay Pyi Taw to stop arbitrarily arresting land rights activists, and immediately release all those who are awaiting trial for peacefully protesting land seizures.
“The government should also impartially investigate allegations of unlawful land confiscation, publicly report the findings, appropriately prosecute those responsible for land rights abuses, and provide prompt and adequate compensation to farmers and others who have been unlawfully deprived of their land,” the HRW stated.
“Donor governments shouldn’t be fooled by the flurry of proclaimed land reforms in Myanmar,” Mr Robertson emphasised. “The Myanmar government needs to provide redress for victims of past unlawful confiscations and ensure that new laws safeguard the rights of farm families in the future.”
Photo: Patrick Brown/ Human Rights Watch