Over the course of 2013 the Asian Human Rights Commission has followed reports of a larger number of conflicts over land grabs and attempted grabs in Burma, or Myanmar. Some of the conflicts are over recently taken land, and others are reinitiating struggles begun many years ago.

Authors: Carol
Hunsberger,
Esteve
Corbera,
Saturnino
M.
Borras
Jr.,
Romulo
de
la
Rosa,
Vuthy
Eang,
Jennifer
C.
Franco,
Roman
Herre,
Sai
Sam
Kham,
Clara
Park,
David
Pred,
Heng
Sokheng,
Max
Spoor,
Shwe
Thein,
Kyaw
Thu,
Ratha
Thuon,
Chayan
Vaddhanaphuti,
Kevin
Woods
and
Courtney
Work.....

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.

Commentary: Confiscation and Extortion...
Situation of land confiscation...
Confiscation of cultivated land for state infrastructure in Murng-Nai and Kaeng- Tung...
Land confiscated for reselling in Murng-Pan...
Rice fields confiscated and cultivated by military using forced labour, in Murng - Pan...
Situation of abuses related to civilian vehicles...
Confiscation of civilian vehicles in Nam-Zarng,Ta-Khi-Laek and Kaeng-Tung...
Confiscation of civilian motorcycles in Loi-Lem...

... Since ceasefire agreements were signed between the Burmese military government and ethnic political groups in the Burma–China borderlands in the early 1990s, violent waves of counterinsurgency development have replaced warfare to target politically-suspect, resource-rich, ethnic populated borderlands. The Burmese regime allocates land concessions in ceasefire zones as an explicit postwar military strategy to govern land and populations to produce regulated, legible, militarized territory. Tracing the relationship of military–state formation, land control

This Interview with Saw A--- describes events and issues occurring in Bu Tho Township, Hpapun District, during January 2015, including improvements in education, villager opinions about the ceasefire, and land confiscation....

The Karen Education Department (KED) said they will raise each teachers' salaries from 4,500 baht (US $133.48) to 7,500 baht (US $222.47) per year starting in 2014 in B--- village...

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.

Abstract"
"This research was framed by a human rights approach to development as pursued by Amartya
Sen. Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development but they are the principle means of
development. The research was informed by international obligations to human rights and was placed
within a context of global pluralism and recognition of universal human dignity. The first research aim
was to study the State Peace and Development Council military regime confiscation of land and labour of

...The objective of this research paper is to describe specific ways in which the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) deprives the people of Burma of their land
and livelihood. Confiscation of land, labour, crops and capital; destruction of person
and property; forced labour; looting and expropriation of food and possessions;
forced sale of crops to the military; extortion of money through official and
unofficial taxes and levies; forced relocation and other abuses by the State...

...The main objective of this research is to examine housing, land, and property rights in the context of Burma’s societal transition towards a democratic polity and economy. Much has been written and discussed about property rights in their various manifestations, private, public, collective, and common in terms of “rights”. When property rights are widely and fairly distributed, they are inseparable from the rights of people to a means of living.

Over the years HURFOM has produced a number of accounts highlighting the
hardships faced by Mon farmers who became victims of land confiscation or
unjust land acquisition.1 In this report HURFOM follows-up on previously
documented abuses and concentrates on an emerging new trend: farmers’ active and
collective pursuits for rights to their land.
Disputed Territory aims to elaborate on the activities of and express solidarity with
farmers who are resolutely, and in some cases for the first time, seeking justice

This Short Update describes events occurring in Hti Lon Township, Hpa-an District in March 2014, including land confiscation committed by the Burma/Myanmar government and wealthy individuals, destruction of villagers land due to flooding caused by a dam, as well as the strategies of villagers to claim back their land, and obtain compensation for the land that they have lost.