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An advisor to President Thein Sein met with a group of ethnic activists in Naypyidaw on Friday and tried to assuage their concerns over a recent rise in land conflicts in Burma’s ethnic areas.
Tin Htut Oo, chairman of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council (NEASAC), told the activists that the government’s attempt at establishing “rule of law” would protect ethnic communities against land-grabbing.
Last week, about 40 activist groups met in Rangoon and called on the government, ethnic rebel militias and the international community to ensure that the recent ceasefires in ethnic areas do not lead to a surge in land-grabbing, deforestation and the damming of rivers.
NEASAC and several other presidential advisory bodies agreed to meet the groups, which were led by the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute and the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network, in order to listen to their concerns.
The groups had also wanted to meet with the two most important government committees on land tenure, but their request for a meeting was declined, to the anger of the organizers...
