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BURMA
Villagers Accept Compensation, but Some Still Refuse
Protesters gather near the office of the company running the Letpadaung copper mine, near Monywa in Sagaing Division, on Jan. 29, 2013. (Photo: Han Win Aung)
RANGOON — For the first time in two years, a number of landowners in the Letpadaung project area have accepted compensation and agreed to give up their land for the controversial copper mine, while others have continued to refuse to willingly hand over their land.
On Saturday, in Salingyi Township in Monywa region, 69 landowners accepted payments ranging from 700,000 to 1.5 million kyat (US $810-1,735) per acre, depending of the quality of their farmland, according to the stated-owned newspaper Kyemon. That is up from the maximum payment of just over 500,000 kyat ($580) that was given in the last round of compensation in 2011.
A total of 224 million kyat ($259,000) was handed out by government officials. More deals have followed since, although details have yet to emerge.
But many locals say the compensation for the project—a joint venture between China’s Wanbao and the army-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd—is still far too low and they are refusing to part with their land.
San Nu Wai, a farmer from the village of Sel Tel village, said a recent land deal between neighbors had seen just 0.6 acres sell for 8 million kyat ($9,250)—over nine times the government’s maximum compensation.
“We won’t accept compensation from the authorities however much they give,” she added.
In nearby Wetmae village, only four families accepted compensation this weekend. Aye Net, a protest leader from the village, said they only accepted because waste from the copper mine project had already been dumped on their farmland and nothing could grow there.
There were also complaints that farmers were being made to sign away their land forever. That contradicts the recommendations of the Letpadaung parliamentary commission, chaired by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which suggested in last week’s report that farmers should only give up their land for 60 years.
“The villagers will not take the compensation as they will rely on their farms for generations. Even if the compensation is three, four or five million kyat, they will still oppose it,” said U Pyinnyavonsa, the abbot of the village monastery in Sel Tel.
Myint Win, a member of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy from Nyaung Bin Gyi village, said many of those who accepted the compensation this weekend came from relocation camps, rather than protest areas.
Of course generation to generation keep it well & felt sad it coz suddenly confiscate without compensate is very unlawful.
There it is, new kind of tyranny in Burma. They will come with the title “development”, but in reality, they will destroyed nature and beauty of Burma. A fair question, who over look these company to be environmentally responsible? Do they put a deposit money to repair the environmental damage that cause by their business activities? If they don’t put deposit money ahead to repair the environmental damage, how can we trust these guys? The bottom line is, they are foreigner, more over they are Chinese. They only care about money. Their environmental record is the worse in the world. They don’t even care their own country environment, will they care about Burma environment? Why are we depending Chinese to extract our resources? Why don’t we put our own effort to do it ourselves? We are lucky enough sitting on top of natural resources. Why are we allowing Chinese to make profit from our resources? Why not we deal with reliable western companies rather than Chinese company? It is even better, why not we go slow and keep those resources for next generation and for our own development? Why are we selling ourself like no tomorrow? How much Burma will develop from this project? Former military regime sold country out for their own pocket, why should we continue their way? Stop the madness. Save our environment and our resources.