Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma

A new report from the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) has singled out the SPDC military dictatorship in Burma as a major global violator of Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights. The report, Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma, finds that the majority of HLP violations are directly connected to the militarization of the Burmese state. The vast majority of abuses occur during military counter-insurgency operations; for the construction and support of new Tatmadaw (army) barracks; to make way for infrastructure development projects; in the context of natural resource extraction; and to provide vested and foreign interests with business opportunities. The report acknowledges that ethnic nationality peoples are particularly vulnerable to HLP abuses, and that the struggle for self determination by ethnic nationalities inevitably involves struggles for HLP rights relating to their ancestral homelands.
The COHRE report concludes that improved access to HLP rights is a fundamental component of any political transition in Burma. Access to HLP rights is not solely focused on the recognition of individual property rights but include other forms of collective ownership and land stewardship including the recognition of forest-based and self sufficient livelihoods such as rotational farming systems. The COHRE is careful to acknowledge the potential dangers of property/land reform during periods of political transition, noting that business interests may attempt to hijack the reform process and thus ongoing monitoring is needed. The report notes that one solution to the complexity of addressing restitution and compensation for HLP violations would be to set-up a national fund using a percentage of the profits from oil and gas concessions.
Earlier this year COHRE named the SPDC as one of the recipients of the 2007 Housing Rights Violator Award. The other 2007 recipients were the country of Slovakia and the municipality of Beijing.