...Pho Phyu estimates that since the new government took office in March last year some 10,000 acres of farmland have been seized in Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions alone.

“Under the new law, millions of acres that have been seized by big companies will legally belong to them, and not the farmers,” says Pho Phyu.

A Comparative Study of Land Rights Systems in Southeast
Asia and the Potential of National and International Legal
Frameworks and Guidelines....."Land rights systems in Southeast Asia are in constant
flux; they respond to various socioeconomic and political pressures and to changes in statutory and customary
law. Over the last decade, Southeast Asia has become
one of the hotspots of the global land grab phenomenon,
accounting for about 30 percent of transnational land
grabs globally. Land grabs by domestic urban elites,

Very rich site with many resources..."In a world where billions of people live outside the protection of the law, Namati is building a global movement of grassroots legal advocates who work with communities to advance justice. These advocates are solving problems on the front lines to ensure that people can protect their land, access essential services, and take part in the decisions that govern their lives...

An advisor to President Thein Sein met with a group of ethnic activists in Naypyidaw on Friday and tried to assuage their concerns over a recent rise in land conflicts in Burma’s ethnic areas.

Tin Htut Oo, chairman of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council (NEASAC), told the activists that the government’s attempt at establishing “rule of law” would protect ethnic communities against land-grabbing.

About 40 ethnic activist groups are calling on the government, ethnic militias and the international community to address a surge in land-grabbing, as companies move into Burma’s ethnic regions following recent ceasefire agreements.

But their campaign was off to a rocky start on Thursday when two government committees on land use declined to meet the activists.

Khin Shwe, the chairman of Zay Kabar Company and a member of Burma’s Lower House, will face a lawsuit filed by farmers from Rangoon’s Mingaladon Township whose farmland he allegedly confiscated.

The farmers were previously allowed to continue growing paddy and other crops even after their lands were seized, but they are no longer permitted to do so. Many have been threatened and told to vacate the land, that’s why they are preparing to sue him, said Kyaw Sein, a farmer who lost 50 acres of land...

Summary:
Since 2007, destructive platinum mining has been taking place in the hills north of
Tachilek, eastern Shan State, impacting about 2,000 people from eight Lahu, Akha
and Shan villages. The platinum is being extracted by Burmese mining companies and
exported to China and Thailand.
Five companies are currently operating around the Akha village of Ah Yeh, 13 kilometers
north of Tachilek. They have forced villagers to sell property and land at cheap prices,
and confiscated other lands without compensation. Hundreds of acres of farms and

Zay Kabar, a Burmese company that has been accused of illegally confiscating more than 800 acres of land from farmers in Shwenanthar, a village in Rangoon’s Mingaladon Township, has continued clearing the land despite being told to stop by local authorities.

After embankments on the farmland were leveled last week, around 50 farmers began rebuilding them in preparation for the start of the planting season, prompting officials from the Housing Department and the local administrative office to order both sides to desist.

“We have to work with the voice of the people,” Nai Aue Mon tells me in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, as we discuss the recent rise of land confiscation and land disputes in the Mon State. Aue Mon has been with the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) since 1999, when he started witnessing the abuse and violations of the rights of civilians in the Mon State. He first began working as a journalist for the Mon publication Guiding Star, before beginning his work as documenting and defending human rights.

Over 7,800 acres of farmland in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Division, has been confiscated for a copper mine project with landowners forced out of their villages, according to local sources. A number of concerned residents told The Irrawaddy that grabbed lands belong to people in Salingyi’s Hse Te, Zee Daw, Wet Hmay and Kan Taw villages and authorities ordered residents to leave the area earlier this year. Most of the villagers do not want to relocate but some have already left, they claim.

Executive Summary: "This report is the culmination of a one year investigation by Amnesty International into alleged human
rights abuses by companies, including multinational companies, operating in Myanmar. The
report focuses on the Monywa copper mine project and highlights forced evictions, substantial
environmental and social impacts, and the repression, sometimes brutal, of those who try to protest.
It also raises serious questions about opaque corporate dealings and possible infringements of economic

While foreign governments heap praise on the Burmese government’s liberal tilt, land theft appears to be increasing as state agencies and powerfully placed domestic firms position themselves to welcome foreign investment.

Farmers across the country are being muscled out of their fields with little hope of appeal to the law. This is because despite all the trumpeting in the West about President Thein Sein’s “reforms,” the rule of law in Burma is closer to 12th Century Europe than the 21st Century.