Myanmar: Mandalay Farmers Begin ‘Plough Protest’ on 3,000 Acres

Jun 13, 2014 | Tun Tun Thein, Democratic Voice of Burma
View Original

Some 800 farmers in Mandalay Division began ploughing more than 3,000 acres of farmland last week as a protest for its return since it was allegedly confiscated by the then ruling military government about 40 years ago.

Villagers in Sintgu Township’s Nyaungwan village said that more than 3,000 acres of their land was confiscated in the 1970s by the Burmese army under the control of former dictator Gen. Ne Win. After President Thein Sein’s government came into power in 2011, the villagers reignited their campaign by sending letters to the authorities to try to negotiate the return of the farmland. They say their letters have been repeatedly ignored.