The convergence of military, business and government interests aimed at displacing farmers and residents from their homes poses grave dangers for Burma, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) said in a new report.
Almost daily, news media carry reports of people being forced out of their houses or losing agricultural land to state-backed projects, sometimes being offered paltry compensation, sometimes nothing, People who refuse to move when forced out by land grabbers risk prosecution and jail.
Two fundamental reasons exist for the increase in land grabbing in Myanmar,” said the ALRC.
First, as political, economic and social conditions change rapidly, the country is touted as the last emerging ‘and of opportunity’ for global business with interests in Southeast Asia. Serving and former military officers who are still in government are together with their business partners lining up to do deals that will make them rich. Military-owned or connected companies and businessmen – which dominate the country's economy – are hurrying to force ordinary citizens off real estate that they can use to attract foreign investors.
Second, it said: “As land grabbing accelerates, the legal framework has not only failed to keep pace but has in fact gone backwards. Myanmar's justice system has for decades been integrated into authoritarian structures and mindsets. The system is in massive disrepair: decrepit, incompetent and virtually powerless against vested interests in other parts of the state or in private enterprise. Its institutions are neither inclined to intervene, nor are capable of intervening to protect the rights of farmers, householders and others facing the encroachment of military-owned companies and their partners.”