Every day Saw Wah walks past his six-acre block of land. In the past he lovingly tended his field and supported his family with crops produced on it. Now, when he sees his land all he feels is pain.

“The Burmese Army wanted land and so they took mine. They also took the land from five other people in my area,” he said. Since Saw Wah was forcibly evicted the army has used the land to grow crops to support the military troops in the area. “After they took the land they replanted betel and cashew nut trees. They did not look after it and now they have destroyed it. I don’t want my land back now, but I want a fair price for it.”

Sadly, stories of land confiscation and forced evictions by the Burmese army are increasingly common. At least one and a half million people in Burma have been forced from their land1. Twelve per cent of all human rights abuses in Eastern Burma are forced evictions2, and according to Amnesty International people are threatened with violence if they do not vacate their villages and land3.

Under Article 17 paragraph two of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it states that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property”. This declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 and is applicable to all people of the world.

In Burma, the junta spends nearly 50 per cent of the national budget on the armed forces. However, very little of this money actually reaches the soldiers in the field. Instead they are left to fend for themselves, stealing crops and land from villagers. In some situations the troops force the villagers to work on the land they confiscated to produce crops that go to the military4.

For the victims of this human rights abuse it is not just that they lose their land, but also their livelihoods, way of life and community.

Saw Wah was lucky and he could continue to live in the same village following his land being confiscated, but forced relocation is often a by-product of eviction.

When Saw Thu’s family land was confiscated he was forced to move to a make-shift village near a highway. He received no compensation for the loss of his land and is under constant observation from the military troops that frequently patrol the road.

Often villagers are forced to relocate to barren land near military bases, after being given only one week notice that they have to vacate their land5. For the villagers the increased proximity to the army means more human rights abuses including forced labour, arbitrary taxation and gender based violence.

Moreover land confiscation induces internal displacement. In 2004 the Thailand Burma Border Consortium estimated there were 526,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Eastern Burma. IDPs live a precarious life, trying to balance merely surviving with rebuilding their lives. Their plight candidly illustrates the harsh reality of the junta’s distain for Burma’s different ethnic groups. Since the Burmese army confiscated Saw Gaw’s land in Mon State nearly a decade ago he has been internally displaced. “I don’t live anywhere, I move to wherever it is easy to live, to where there is food.” Additionally, land confiscation deprives people of their right to food security. Three quarters of Burma’s population relies on the land for survival. Only 23 per cent of house holds in Eastern Burma had access to two meals per day in the last year. Sixteen per cent of children under five are suffering from malnutrition.

In order for Saw Thu to survive he is forced to use infertile land for plantation. Consequently the crops he produces are of poor quality and he is constantly worried about being able to feed his family.

However, even families that manage to produce enough crops do not have food security. Between 2000 and 2002 the Burmese army confiscated more than 7000 acres of land from 300 farmers in Mon State. The land and its crops (lime, betel nut, rubber, durian and rice) had an estimated value of half a million US dollars6.

Most victims of land confiscation, like those from Mon State, receive no compensation and those very few that do, get a pittance compared to what their land is actually worth. For most it is not a question of money, but the repercussions. To the people land equates survival. The people have the capacity to create food, but they lack the physical land resources. For States that have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights they are compelled to protect their citizens against forced eviction. The junta has not ratified this covenant. Instead the Burmese people actually lost their land rights under the 1953 Lands Nationalisation and Agricultural Lands Act. Additional legislation introduced after the 1953 act has strengthened the authorities legal position when forcing people to vacate their land. But to the people land ownership is not a stagnant legal concept, but rather it is an extension of themselves. The Karen and Mon consult the spirits that live in the land before cultivating it for farming. People are tied to their culture and history through the land and when they are forcibly evicted from their land these ties are broken. The consequences of breaking these cultural bonds ripple through the ethnic communities of today, and will continue to do so through the future generations.

Whilst forced evictions happen through out Burma, it is most common in ethnic areas. Ceasefire agreements between ethnic groups and the junta do not prevent land confiscation. Interviews with Karen people living in Mon State reveal that they were forced to vacate their land after the junta and the New Mon State Party reached a verbal ceasefire agreement in 1994. The group of men said over 1000 acres of land was confiscated and some was given to French oil giant TOTAL7.

Developmental displacement is a startling trend and one of the primary causes is land confiscation. In Burma development happens for monetary reasons, without regard for the grassroots people. The Salween Dam project has already displaced over 53,000 Karen and Karenni people. The land they were forced to leave behind is to be submerged under the murky depths of a dam that no one but the greedy needs.

Since 1947 the blood of Burma’s civil war has seeped into the land, forever changing it. The theft of land by the Burmese army jeopardizes the grassroots people’s ability to survive. It makes them vulnerable to food scarcity, internal displacement, landmines and increased human rights violations. Despite this, the people have a clear vision of a better, more dignified future. This future involves the return of their land. As a Karen man working directly with the grassroots people said “first we need peace and then we need land. Only when we get back our land will there be any form of justice.”

Endnotes:

1. Burma Campaign UK Website, October 2005
2. “Internal Displacement and Vulnerability in Eastern Burma”, Thailand Burma Border Consortium, October 2004
3. “Myanmar Leaving Home”, Amnesty International Website October 2005
4. Human Rights Yearbook 2004 Burma
5. Ibid
6. “Reclaiming the Right to Rice”, Burma Border Consortium, October 2003
7. Interviews conducted by BI field staff

To go to the other articles published in the October 2005 BI Newsletter click on the links below:

Burmese Migrant Workers: A Brush with the Law
Motivated by Money: Environmental Policies in Burma