Taunggyi farmers face criminal charges over land issue
Some 130 farmers in Shan State capital Taunggyi, who claimed their
lands were seized by the Burmese armed forces, are now in turn being sued by
the military, according to local sources.
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Photo by SHRF: land confiscation for Salween Dam in
northern Shan State.
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The farmers are all from Yepu village in the Kunlong tract of Taunggyi Township. They were brought to trial on July 25 and charged with criminal trespassing under Article 447 of Burma's Penal Code.
According to Myo Aung,
a Yepu villager who claims his land was confiscated, more than 4,000 acres of
farmland was confiscated from the local farmers by the Burmese military in
2004.
“Our farmlands were
seized by the military’s eastern command in 2004 in order to grow jatropha,” he
said. “In 2010, they allowed us to cultivate the land again, but we had to pay
them 10,000 kyat per acre.”
Myo Aung added that in
2015, the villagers were ordered to stop growing on the land because it belonged
to the military.
“They ordered us to
stop cultivation, but then they rented the land to another company,” said Maw
Maw Oo, a local woman who is among those being charged with criminal trespassing.
“Some parts of the land were also sold.
“We are the rightful
landowners, but we cannot grow anything on our land,” she exclaimed. “And now
we are being sued because we dared to grow crops on our own property.”
She added: “Almost
everyone in the village is being sued.”
In May 2015, a Yepu villager named Myint
Aung burnt himself to death in frustration at the land grab.
Yepu
residents said that they have endured great difficulties due to the loss of
land, and they have collectively called for the Shan State chief minister to
intervene in the case.
During the
decades of rule by Burma’s military
junta, arbitrary land confiscation was a common complaint across the country. By
the 2000s, much of the seized land had been rented out to agri-business firms,
and a massive government campaign was initiated to encourage investment in the
harvesting of jatropha oil. Ultimately, the scheme failed: investors lost great
sums of money, while farmers lost land and livelihoods.
By
Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Tags: Human Rights, News
