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Burma's farmers make peasant day push to form union
Irrawaddy - March 4, 2011
Ko Htwe – Burma's Snr-Gen Than Shwe delivered a Peasant Day message assuring the nation that the government is taking measures to improve the agricultural sector, but the country's farmers are pushing to form a Peasants' Union to protect against government land confiscation and other intrusions on their rights.
Than Shwe's message, carried in the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, said the government has been scaling up reclamation of vacant lands for agricultural purposes, boosting agricultural production and harnessing land and water resources to the best of its ability. The message said the total paddy output of the nation was about 1.5 billion baskets in 2010, compared with more than 600 million baskets in 1988.
But farmers and their representatives told The Irrawaddy that the government is not working to improve their situation but rather actively confiscating their lands and diminishing their role.
Pho Phyu, a lawyer who has previously represented Rangoon farmers in land seizure cases, told The Irrawaddy that thousands of acres of farmland has been converted to lakes for the purpose of fish breeding.
The confiscated land, which was taken by Burmese authorities and distributed to private companies, includes approximately 8,500 acres in Rangoon Division; nearly 5,000 acres in Irrawaddy Division; 1,338 acres in Kachin State; and 600 acres in Mon State. The farmers filed a lawsuit but no action has been taken.
"In the states and divisions, companies backed by the government will administer the land instead of the new government," said Pho Phyu. "The government is confiscating the land because if the companies prosper they will give support to the government."
He added that it is clear the law does not protect the rights of the farmers, who make up 66 percent of the Burmese population but are not allowed to own their land and are forced to cultivate what the government wants them to grow.
Aye Chan, from Kayan Township in Rangoon, wrote an open letter received by The Irrawaddy that said pasture lands for cattle that have been recognized since the colonial area are being confiscated by local authorities. Complaints from locals have not been effective and there is now very little pasture land left for grazing cattle, he said.
Than Swe, a lawyer who represents farmers, held a Peasant Day meeting in Kayan Township in Rangoon with 200 farmers from Rangoon, Pegu and Mandalay divisions to discuss a letter that was sent to Burma's new President Thein Sein on Thursday that demanded farmers' rights and requested that they be allowed to form a union.
"We decisively request our rights. They [the Burmese authorities] must allow us to form a peasants' network," said Than Swe.
The letter urged Thein Sein: to give back farmland seized by authorities; to enact a law that bans the production of imitation fertilizers; to provide up-to-date agriculture technology to farmers; to grant permission for the formation of a Peasants' Union.
Myint Myint Aye, the secretary of the National League for Democracy in Mikethila Township in Mandalay Division, attended the meeting. Speaking to The Irrawaddy, she said that farmers in his region have to bribe the authorities to get adequate water for their land from the dam.
"Authorities are still practicing a government landlord system. We urge them to cancel this system. Farmers are in trouble and there are no political parties that represent the rights of farmers," said Myint Myint Aye.
The authorities have misused their power by confiscating land from farmers without compensation for the purpose of building factories, roads and bridges, she said, adding that farmers are suffering from land seizures worse than during the colonial era.
"The role of farmers is nearly disappearing because of land confiscation," said Myint Myint Aye.
The 1963 Safeguarding Peasants' Rights Law, Section (3), states that: "A Civil Court shall not make a decree or order for: a warrant of attachment for or confiscation of agricultural land; neither for employed livestock and implements, harrows and implements, other animate and inanimate implements, nor the produce of agricultural land; prohibition of work upon or entry into agricultural land; prohibition of movement or sale in whole or part or use of employed livestock and implements, harrows and implements, other animate and inanimate implements, or the produce of agricultural land."
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