This report validates the fact that multi-national and transnational companies are violating the Ta'ang ethnic nationals' fundamental human rights. The confiscation of Ta'ang peoples' land and the exploitation of their natural resources in which they depend for their subsistence and livelihood are outlined in this report. The Myanmar government continues to permit the persistence of business practices which are illegal under national and international laws.

Documentary by the Land Core Group Myanmar, where 70% of the Myanmar population are smallholder farmers, about the challenges faced by poor farmers from land grabbing and land dispossession in rural Myanmar...Interviews with land activists and dispossessed farmers in different parts of the country... sections on: resistance to land-grabbing; Myanmar land law and policies (where customary tenure and women's land rights are not explicitly recognised); efficiency of smallholder practice...

Analysis of the social costs of large-scale Chinese-supported rubber farms in northern Burma suggests that the future for ordinary citizens will be affected as much by the country's chosen economic path as the political reforms underway.

SELECTION OF INFORMATIONAL MATERIAL ON CONTRACT FARMING: Contract farming in general...Contract farming in Asian countries...CAMBODIA...PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA...REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA...JAPAN...LAO
PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC...MALAYSIA...REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR...REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES...KINGDOM OF THAILAND...SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in January 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Dooplaya District, during the period between August and October, 2011. The villager who wrote this report provides information concerning increasing military activity in Kyone Doh Township, including the confiscation of 600 acres of farmland for building a camp in Da Lee Kyo Waing town by Border Guard Battalion #1021, and the construction of new military camps, one by LIB #208 in Htee Poo Than village and another by the KPF near to Htee Poo Than village.

Burma's dramatic turn-around from 'axis of evil' to western darling in the past year has been imagined as Asia's 'final frontier' for global finance institutions, markets and capital. Burma's agrarian landscape is home to three-fourths of the country's total population which is now being constructed as a potential prime investment sink for domestic and international agribusiness.

Introduction: "Emerging from five d
ecades of military
dictatorship,
civil turmoil
and
economic
isolation,
Burma has
lately
come to the
attention of
international
investors keen to
draw profits from the country’s vast
natural resources which
include
fertile land,
minerals,
oil, natural gas and timber.

Introduction: "The goal of poverty alleviation is now seen as a high priority project for
Myanmar’s new
government.
In
public statements the new President, Thein Sein, has raised issues of
poverty in
Myanmar
as a problem
facing
the country (as opposed to a previous failure to
acknowledge any such problems.)
Support for this goal
was verbally
reiterated
in a
May
2011
Poverty Alleviation Seminar headed by Dr. U Myint, and again, more broadly, at an

In September 2011, residents of Je--- village, Kawkareik Township told KHRG that they feared soldiers under Tatmadaw Border Guard Battalion #1022 and LIBs #355 and #546 would soon complete the confiscation of approximately 500 acres of land in their community in order to develop a large camp for Battalion #1022 and homes for soldiers' families. According to the villagers, the area has already been surveyed and the Je--- village head has informed local plantation and paddy farm owners whose lands are to be confiscated.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in September 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in T'Nay Hsah Township, Pa'an District during September 2011. It details an incident in which a soldier from Tatmadaw Border Guard #1017 deliberately shot at villagers in a farm hut, resulting in the death of one civilian and injury to a six-year-old child.

WETHMAY, Myanmar—Anger over plans to expand a Chinese-backed mine near here is emerging as a test case of Myanmar's recent political reforms.

Villagers have staged raucous protests in recent weeks over the giant copper mine near Monywa in northwestern Myanmar, owned jointly by Myanmar's military and a subsidiary of China North Industries Corp., an arms manufacturer. The subsidiary, Wanbao Mining Ltd., and its Myanmar partners are hoping to expand the mine, but that would require taking over huge tracts of land and moving as many as 26 villages, locals say...

The complaint letter below, signed by 25 local community members, was written in July 2011 and raises villagers' concerns related to the construction of the Kanchanaburi – Tavoy [Dawei] highway linking Thailand and the Tavoy deep sea port. Villagers described concerns that the highway would bisect agricultural land and destroy crops under cultivation worth 3,280,500 kyat (US $3,657). In response to these concerns, local community members formed a group called the 'Village and Public Sustainable Development' to represent villagers' concerns and request compensation.