INTRODUCTION:
"Over the years, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has produced a number of accounts highlighting the hardship faced by Mon people who have become victims to land confiscation. In this report, HURFOM reports on the effects from the recent surge of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) coming into Burma.

Commentary: Why people still flee Shan State and seek refuge in other countries...
Contents: Themes & Places of Violations reported in this issue...
MAP...
Situation of people fleeing their native places in Kae-See...
Land confiscation and mining project causing people to flee, in Murng-Su...
Military operation, forced labour and extortion, causing people to flee, in Murng-Kerng...
Continuing forced labour, forced recuruitment and extortion causing people to flee, in Lai-Kha...
Forced recruitment causing people to flee, in Kung-Hing

INTRODUCTION:
"Over the years, the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has produced a number of accounts highlighting the hardship faced by Mon people who have become victims to land confiscation. In this report, HURFOM reports on the effects from the recent surge of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) coming into Burma.

Commentary: Land Confiscation...
Situation of land confiscation in Nam-Zarng and Kun-Hing...
Land confiscated, villagers house destroyed, in Nam-Zarng...
Cultivated land confiscated in Nam-Zarng...
Farmlands and cemetery ground confiscated in Nam-Zarng...
Lands confiscated, forced labour used, to build new military bases and an airstrip, in Kun-Hing...
Confiscation of land with regard to mining projects...
Land Confiscation due to coal mining concession in Murng-Sart...

This Situation Update describes events occurring in Kyainseikgyi, Kawkareik, and Win Yay townships, Dooplaya District between December 2013 and February 2014, including land confiscation, villagers’ livelihoods, abuses, explicit threats and updates on villagers’ education and healthcare

Commentary: Confiscation and Extortion...
Forcible rice procurement continues in Kaeng - Tung...
Confiscation of rice fields in Kaeng-Tung...
Farmland confiscated for building new military base in Kun-Hing...
Confiscation of rice fields in Murng – Nai...
Leased rice field threatened to be forcibly taken, rent not paid in full, in Murng - Ton...
Houses forcibly taken in Murng-Ton...
Extortion of money from travelers worsens in Kun-Hing...
People forced to pay for election expenses long after poll, in Kaeng-Tung...

A global coalition of 14 Partners and over 120 international, regional and community organizations advancing forest tenure, policy, and market reforms.....

Core Beliefs:

"Based on our experience, we find that empowerment of rural people and asset-based development are part of a process that is dependent on a set of enabling conditions, including security of tenure to access and use natural resources. As a coalition of diverse and varied organizations, RRI is guided by a set of core beliefs...

Rights of Poor Communities Must Be Recognized and Strengthened:

Commentary: Confiscation and Extortion...
Situation of land confiscation...
Confiscation of cultivated land for state infrastructure in Murng-Nai and Kaeng- Tung...
Land confiscated for reselling in Murng-Pan...
Rice fields confiscated and cultivated by military using forced labour, in Murng - Pan...
Situation of abuses related to civilian vehicles...
Confiscation of civilian vehicles in Nam-Zarng,Ta-Khi-Laek and Kaeng-Tung...
Confiscation of civilian motorcycles in Loi-Lem...

... Since ceasefire agreements were signed between the Burmese military government and ethnic political groups in the Burma–China borderlands in the early 1990s, violent waves of counterinsurgency development have replaced warfare to target politically-suspect, resource-rich, ethnic populated borderlands. The Burmese regime allocates land concessions in ceasefire zones as an explicit postwar military strategy to govern land and populations to produce regulated, legible, militarized territory. Tracing the relationship of military–state formation, land control

Over the course of 2013 the Asian Human Rights Commission has followed reports of a larger number of conflicts over land grabs and attempted grabs in Burma, or Myanmar. Some of the conflicts are over recently taken land, and others are reinitiating struggles begun many years ago.

Authors: Carol
Hunsberger,
Esteve
Corbera,
Saturnino
M.
Borras
Jr.,
Romulo
de
la
Rosa,
Vuthy
Eang,
Jennifer
C.
Franco,
Roman
Herre,
Sai
Sam
Kham,
Clara
Park,
David
Pred,
Heng
Sokheng,
Max
Spoor,
Shwe
Thein,
Kyaw
Thu,
Ratha
Thuon,
Chayan
Vaddhanaphuti,
Kevin
Woods
and
Courtney
Work.....

About 40 ethnic activist groups are calling on the government, ethnic militias and the international community to address a surge in land-grabbing, as companies move into Burma’s ethnic regions following recent ceasefire agreements.

But their campaign was off to a rocky start on Thursday when two government committees on land use declined to meet the activists.