land confiscation

Hpa-an residents who lost their 40 acres of land to a construction project in town’s industrial zone want compensation from the government for the loss of their rubber plantations. Saw Khant Win Aung, had his land confiscated for the construction, said that on January 25, the Karen State Chief Minister, U Zaw Min, visited the project site and said that…

Villagers are planning to seek compensation from the KNU and state government for land confiscated by developers for a palm oil plantation project in Tanintharyi Division. Saw Poe San, one of the petition leaders from the Southern Youth Organization, told Karen News. “Villagers did not get any compensation. No-one informed the villagers that their fields would be cleared for the…

Chief Minister of Karen State has ordered businessmen who have been granted land concession to lands confiscated from local villagers in the Hti Lon area in Hlaing Bwe Township to return the land to traditional owners. U Kyaw Soe Hlaing, a Forest Department officer from Hlaing Bwe Township in Karen State told Karen News that U Zaw Min, the Karen…

Naw Bway Paw looks out of her windowless thatched bamboo home in Hlaing Bwe Township, Karen State, and remembers the day in 1996 when the Burma Army came and took her land. Naw Bway Paw in a video interview with Karen News describes how she lost her ancestral home and lands. “One day a soldier arrived at my home in…

A number of regional human rights organisations have hit out at land confiscation in Burma by companies and individuals with links to the government. The Asian Human Rights Commission has slammed a “frenzy” of land grabs in Burma by the government or government-linked companies, stating that abuses of power continue in spite of the country’s much heralded reforms. AHRC, which…

During his trip to Karen State, Parliament speaker, Thura Shwe Mann, promised farmers to look into land confiscation cases in the region once they are submitted to the House. Thura Shwe Mann, chairman of the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives) was on a visit to Karen State and took the time to meet with local farmers in Hpa-An on April…

Burma’s government and the Thai company involved in the construction of the Asia Highway have paid compensation to landowners affected by the construction, but some landowners have claimed that they did not receive the compensation that the authorities initially promised. The landowners had their land damaged by the building of the highway between Myawaddy to Thin-gan-nyi-naung and then through to…

Landowners in Hpa-an Township are frustrated that they have to pay yearly rent to use lands that once belonged to them, but were confiscated by the military in 2003. Villagers claim that the property, that includes land from four villages in Aein Duu village tract, costs the villagers 300,000 kyat a acre in fees paid to the military to continue…

State-run oil and rubber plantations are blocking displaced Karen villagers from returning to their original land. Since the ceasefire between the Karen National Union and the Burma government in 2012 dispossessed villagers in the Tanintharyi region have begun to return to their former villagers. P’doh Saw Eh Kaw, chairman of Ler Mu Lah township, spoke to Karen News about the…

Following the good feel surrounding the ceasefire between the Karen and Burma government, villagers forced relocated 10 years ago returned in hope to their old village, only to find it occupied by a palm oil company. Following their forced relocation by Burma Army, Karen villagers from the east of Myeik Town, in southern Burma began to return to their old…