This Photo Set presents 17 still photographs taken by a local community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The photos were all taken in March 2012 at the Toh Boh Dam construction site in Tantabin Township within locally-defined Toungoo District. According to the community member who took these photos, more than 100 households have been relocated from the area now occupied by the dam construction site, where construction is ongoing.

Land grabs demonstrate disconnect between development discourse and practice:

The Asian Human Rights Commission has followed closely reports in recent weeks of an uprising by farmers against a takeover of a large area of agricultural land in upper Burma by an army-owned company and a private partner. The land grab, in the Letpadan Mountain Range of Sarlingyi Township, Sagaing Region, is of some 7800 acres of fertile land, to make way for copper mining. Currently farmers of around 26 villages cultivate the land. The residents of four villages--Siti, Wehmay, Zidaw and Kandaw--have already been forced out of their homes.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in January 2013 by a community member describing events occurring in Nyaunglebin District during the period between November 2012 and January 2013. Specifically, it describes the confiscation of more than 2375.14 acres of villagers' land by Tatmadaw Infantry Battalion #60. One villager was required by Light Infantry Battalion #264 soldiers to collect 250,000 kyat per month from the villagers who operate gold ore processing machines.

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This Photo Set depicts land confiscated in Kawkareik and Kyainseikgyi townships, Dooplaya District for infrastructure development and military purposes. These projects include the expansion of existing roads and the construction of new roads, as well as the construction of buildings for use by the Tatmadaw. The photos were taken between December 2013 and September 2014. Villagers did not receive any compensation for their land which was confiscated and destroyed.

Elites still think they’re running the show. But farmers are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.....In the streets, paths, and paddy fields of hundreds of Burmese towns and villages, thousands of protesters are mobilizing, in creative and often radical ways, for everything from constitutional change, to educational liberalization, to improved labor standards, to fair energy prices.

Inadequate land laws have opened rural Myanmar to rampant land grabbing by unscrupulous, well-connected businessmen who anticipate a boom in agricultural and property investment. If unchecked, the gathering trend has the potential to undermine the country's broad reform process and impede long-term economic progress.

Executive Summary: "This report is the culmination of a one year investigation by Amnesty International into alleged human
rights abuses by companies, including multinational companies, operating in Myanmar. The
report focuses on the Monywa copper mine project and highlights forced evictions, substantial
environmental and social impacts, and the repression, sometimes brutal, of those who try to protest.
It also raises serious questions about opaque corporate dealings and possible infringements of economic

Northern Burma’s borderlands have undergone dramatic changes in the last two decades. Three main and
interconnected developments are simultaneously taking place in Shan State and Kachin State: (1) the increase
in opium cultivation in Burma since 2006 after a decade of steady decline; (2) the increase at about the same
time in Chinese agricultural investments in northern Burma under China’s opium substitution programme,
especially in rubber; and (3) the related increase in dispossession of local communities’ land and livelihoods

This Situation Update describes events occurring in Thandaunggyi Township and Htantabin Township, Toungoo District in November 2014, and includes issues of land confiscation, violent abuse, ongoing militarisation and fighting among armed groups...

This Interview with Maung A--- describes events occurring in Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District in October 2010, including the confiscation of his land by the Tatmadaw for the construction of buildings for the Karen Peace Force (KPF). Villagers were not compensated for the land and Maung A--- remains landless and unemployed. He refrained from submitting a formal land claim due to intimidation from the Tatmadaw...