Local protestors removed fences expanded by Myanmar Wanbao Mining Copper Co Ltd in the controversial Letpadaungtaung copper mine project and opened a protest camp there on December 29.
Local residents from Sede and Tom villages took part in the new protests restarted on December 29, a week after a female protestor was shot to death in the clashes with police.
The protestors removed the fence near Sede village at around 2pm on December 29 and resumed their protesting.
Police fired a number of warning shots while the protestors removing the fence. The protestors say they will continue their protest. After that, local farmers removed a fence extended near Tom village.
“We retake our lands by removing fences. We will continue our protests till our demands are met,” said a farmer from Sede.
“When the company [Wanboa] files a case against it, we will acknowledge it. The fencing will not be continued. And there will be no violent crackdown on protest camps,” said Yinmarbin District Administrator.
A woman was killed and many others were injured in the recent clashes with police and local residents lost their lands to the fencing. Locals say they received no compensation for their lands seized. R.EMG photocr. yangon globe
BREAKING NEWS:
One woman killed, 20 villagers injured, when riot police fired on villagers at Latpadaung copper mine site at 2:20pm local time on Monday. Two hundred local villagers tried to stop Myanmar Wanbao employees from laying fence around site by firing stones with slingshots. Police in riot gear responded with slingshots and gunfire.Khin San Hlaing, a lawmaker from the National League for Democracy party, said the Monday’s confrontation occurred as police and Chinese workers erected a fence on land that the villagers claimed as theirs.
She said a 50-year-old woman was fatally shot in the head, though it was not clear if she was shot by police or mining company security personnel.
Wai Lwin Lwin
22/12/2014 at Letpadaung
How to continue to get community participation
Really Really ….Really sad for that.Where is negotiation process? I don’t have to consider why government authority can’t consult with local villagers. Does a villager need to die for natural resource extraction? She died while saving her land.
(I would like to say about it as a member of EITI Yangon Region.)
We would like to urge the friends of Burma and those who tirelessly work for Burma to voice out for the local farmers in Burma. Please kindly voice out for the small, unheard stories of Burma land grabbing problems. This could definitely have huge impact on 70% of the total population of Burma. Your help will save the lives of the most vulnerable people in Burma. This is somehow link to the matter of poverty reduction in our country not by forcing them but by cooperating with them to become the better lives for them.
The most vulnerable people are Farmers in Burma. The impact of Land grabbing is becoming the major challenges for Burma Reform. It’s a familiar stories for developing countries that land grabbing is sweeping across the countries.
“land grabbing” under the title of development and investment shouldn’t have to end in a poor deal for local Farmers in Burma.
There are several ways to work out that the farmers could also benefit from these land expansions. Without proper protection for farmers rights, the situation could lead to explosive terms in the near future in Burma.
Arresting the farmers simply doesn’t work, as 70% of our country population depend on agriculture for a living.
The Land Investigation Commission is calling for compensation to be paid to farmers whose land was taken to build a golf course near the capital. The farmland was expropriated in the Nay Pyi Taw Council Area to build a golf course in Shwe Kyar Pin Ward of Zabuthiri Township, it said in a report. Farmers were given Ks 250,000-350,000 per acre but were also promised new land plots, which they have not received, the report said. As a result, the farmers should receive more compensation, it recommends. The report also draws attention to a case in Ward 6 of Lewe Township where a total of 113 households were removed for a development project. Each family was promised new land, but only 13 received plots. The report recommends that the remaining 100 families receive compensation. Compensation should also be paid to the residents of the six villages removed to make way for Nay Pyi Taw International Airport, and those who lost land to build the Thawuthti-Bawgathiri City Detour Road in the capital, the report says.
Compensation was paid to residents of some townships in Bago Region who lost land for the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, but residents of numerous other townships in different regions who lost land to the expressway have yet to receive compensation, the report says.
It notes that a total of 202.13 acres of farmland was expropriated to build the Dahatgon Sugar Plant in Tatkon Township in Nay Pyi Taw but only 69.78 acres of this was used for the plant. The rest was not returned to the farmers it was taken from and they should be compensated as well as given permission to farm the land, the report says.
Land grabbing was rife under previous governments, the report says, adding that it occurred without rules, regulations or compensation.
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Land Grabbing is a serious problem in Burma. If this is for industrial development, we need to make sure it doesn’t hurt the livelihood of the people. The negative impacts on local communities is unbearable and we urge the investors to make sure to consider this before they invest which involve land expansions.
Land Grabbing problem in Burma is getting to its hight as the government aggressivly grab lands from locals. The international communities should highlight on this issue as there is no voice for the poor locals.
democracy for burma 
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