Burma: New law on land rights is threat to the peace process

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is deeply concerned about the peace process in the minority areas of Burma. "From the viewpoint of many members of the ethnic minorities, the planned land reform is a declaration of war. Millions of small farmers might lose their livelihoods," stated Ulrich Delius, the STP's director, in Göttingen on Friday. "The government has to take the criticism of the nationality organizations seriously. They fear that the reform is an attempt to gradually expropriate the small farmers, which would mean that the search for lasting peace in the minority areas – which have been embattled for the past 70 years – has failed," warned the human rights advocate. Further, he emphasized that this would have to be seen as a failure of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who had made the peace process a central goal of her government.

Burma's government is planning a land reform, in the course of which small farmers will have to submit their land claims to the authorities by March 11, 2019. Those who fail to do so might face up to two years imprisonment or a fine, and they risk losing their land. Those who register officially are granted a right to use the land for 30 years.

Several nationality organizations criticized that the new law ignores the traditional land rights of ethnic minorities and their forms of community land use. For example, the Chin Land Affairs Network points out that, traditionally, the indigenous Chin own the entire land in their state – emphasizing that that this should not be challenged by law.

"The reform is intended to simplify domestic and foreign access to land. This, however, will be to the detriment of the indigenous ethnic minorities," Delius criticized. "If they submit their claims, they give up their right to property. If they ignore the law, they become landless criminals." Around 82 percent of the land that in question lies in the minority areas.

According to the STP, it is especially the refugees and displaced persons who will suffer from the new law. Due to the fact that they were forced to abandon their land, most of them are unable to provide documents to substantiate their claims. At least 106,000 small farmers from the states of Shan and Kachin are on the run. Another 100,000 displaced members of the minority groups are living in camps in Thailand. There are 128,000 people on the run in Rakhine State, and another 750,000 Rohingya have sought protection in Bangladesh. On January 25, 2019, Yanghee Lee, UN human rights expert in Burma, criticized that these people will de facto be expropriated and deprived of their rights.

Header image: Carsten Ten Brink via Flickr.