Guns, Cronies and Crops: How Myanmar’s Business, Political and Military Cronies Conspired to Grab Farmers’ Land, Leaving Communities Struggling to Survive
Publisher: Global Witness
Date: 2015
Topics: Governance, Land, Livelihoods, Renewable Resources
Countries: Myanmar
As Myanmar’s junta prepared to step down from government, the military set about seizing public assets and natural resources to ensure its economic control in a new era of democratic rule.
This report details the collusion at the heart of operations carried out by Myanmar’s armed forces in northeastern Shan State. Large swathes of land were taken from farming communities in the mid-2000s and handed to companies and political associates to develop rubber plantations.
Our investigation reveals those involved, including Myanmar’s current Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, U Myint Hlaing, the country’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, and Sein Wut Hmon, a rubber company which collaborated with the former military junta to gain control of land.