Farmers Fight for Their Land in Kachin State

“Every day, I can hear farmers crying. I see their despair and their tears,” said Bauk Ja, a Kachin farmer who lost her land to the Yuzana Company in December 2008. “We farmers depend on our land for agriculture. It is our livelihood and our life. Without land, we have nothing!”

The 44-year-old is the appointed leader of one of the groups of farmers in Hukawng Township, a rural area west of state capital Myitkyina. She spoke to The Irrawaddy after a State Court decision exonerated Yuzana Company Chairman Htay Myint from prosecution on Tuesday.

However, all is not lost for Bauk Ja and her fellow farmers: although the court in Myitkyina threw out the lawsuit against the company chairman, it said it would allow a case to be launched against the director of Yuzana, whose name was not revealed.

The State Court decision was greeted with skepticism by most observers who see the case as yet another signal that military cronies such as Htay Myint are above the law.

Htay Myint is known to be close to several military generals in Burma and is blacklisted with sanctions by the US and the EU. He is running as a candidate for the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party in Tenasserim Division in next month's general election, and, according to sources, has upward of 100 million kyat (US $100,000) to spend on campaigning.

“We cannot omit the chairman of the company from our lawsuit, because the director is below the chairman on the company ladder,” said Bauk Ja.
Htay Myint is accused by the farmers of establishing a massive mono-crop plantation on 200,000 acres of land in the Hukawng valley.

The 600 farmers were evicted from their farms between 2006 and 2008 without full compensation and displaced to areas far from their ancestral lands while the state granted 1,338 acres of the seized property to the Yuzana Company. Bulldozers and backhoes arrived shortly after and razed the land to make way for sugar cane and tapioca cultivation.

“The company confiscated the farmers' land and razed it. That is why we filed a lawsuit—to claim adequate compensation from the company,” said Myint Thwin, one of the lawyers for the farmers.

A group of 148 farmers filed a lawsuit in August, but Yuzana reacted by convincing the group to drop the case in return for payments of 80,000 kyat ($80) per acre each to a maximum of 500 evicted farmers.

However, in many instances the farmers did not receive any payments and enquiries to lawyers and Yuzana Company executives went unanswered or were stonewalled, said Bauk Ja.

“They evicted us to rocky land where we can grow nothing,” she said. “Some farmers have been forced to sign documents saying they agree to the land confiscation.”

Two groups of farmers have already filed lawsuits claiming compensation. A third group, representing 46 farmers, filed a lawsuit on Thursday. The court will reconvene on Oct. 20, according to Bauk Ja.

The land in dispute lies in the Hugawng Valley in the western part of Kachin State near the Indian border. It is also the site of the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve where conservationists are fighting to protect the endangered species.