Page 2 of
2 Rohingya
miss boat on development By Syed Tashfin Chowdhury and
Chris Stewart
Elsewhere in Myanmar, these
families, many until recently under travel and
other financial sanctions imposed by the United
States and the European Union, are already
associated with land-grabbing on a vast scale.
Among numerous document examples, the army-linked
Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd is the
target of protest in central Sagaing division over
"massive" land confiscation for a copper mine
development
In northern Kachin State, the
army is accused of widespread abuses and forced
evictions in relation to, among other projects,
the gas and oil pipelines running from Rakhine
State and jade mining.
In eastern
Tanintharyi Division, bordering Thailand, the
Paung Ku non-government organization estimates
that more than 100,000
people are being
displaced for the Dawei Special Economic Zone.
Companies named as developing the zone included
Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, and two
companies controlled by once-sanctioned
businessmen considered to be among the country's
wealthiest - Max Myanmar (led by Zaw Zaw) and Htoo
Trading, owned by U Tay Za. (Max Myanmar Company
in September was reported to be quitting the Dawei
project. [5])
The Paung Ku NGO report
quoted a local land-broker in Dawei as estimating
that
"Local prices of farmland have
multiplied up to fifteen times the pre-SEZ price
… In one case, a Max Myanmar director acquired
300 acres [121 hectares] … in hopes of making a
windfall profit by re-selling to ITD [ItalThai
Development, the lead foreign company for the
project]".
The report continues:
"Reports on the ground suggest that
business-elites with strong ties to the
military-backed government are easily securing
hundreds of acres for eventual re-sale and to
develop smaller industries (e.g. coal mines, gas
refineries, etc), while foreigners are keen to
cash-in on a potential boom in the hotel and
hospitality industry." [6]
In Rakhine
State, Max Myanmar is implementing the
above-mentioned Kaladan River Project with Indian
firm Essar. Tay Za is reported to be helping to
expand an airport in Thandwe.
Other
members of the business elite interested in
Rakhine State's new developments include Tun Myint
Naing, aka Steven Law, who with his father, Lo
Hsing Han, runs Asia World Group, the country's
largest conglomerate. Asia World announced in 2007
that it would be building a deep sea port at
Kyaukphyu.
It is not known yet whether Obama will have the opportunity
to meet these and other leading local businessmen
when he visits Myanmar during a November 17-20
trip to Southeast Asia, the first visit to the
country by a US president, as confirmed on
Thursday.
Shwe Taung Development Co, led
by chairman Aik Htun and his son, Aung Zaw Naing,
recently released from US sanctions, is reported
to be building two hydropower projects on the
Laymro river upstream from Mrauk-U town along with
China Datang Overseas Investment Co Ltd. [7]
Shwe Taung's involvement in the area will
likely extend well beyond dam work. A division of
the company last month became the sole distributor
in the country for Scania trucks, which will
doubtless find plenty of SEZ and other work in the
area - if and when present land-holders can be
persuaded to give up space for parking,
warehousing and maintenance services.
Buddhists also feel the
squeeze Buddhist farmers are also being
forced off their land with little or no
compensation (which in some cases is then squeezed
back out from them by local officials demanding a
25% cut) - but they can take their complaints to
the local authorities. [8]
A report last
month by international NGO Displacement Solutions
warns that
Myanmar faces an unprecedented scale
of structural landlessness in rural areas,
increasing displacement threats to farmers as a
result of growing investment interest by both
national and international firms, expanding
speculation in land and real estate, and grossly
inadequate housing conditions facing significant
sections of both the urban and rural population.
Legal and other protections afforded by the
current legal framework, the new Farmland Law
and other newly enacted legislation are wholly
inadequate ...
Recent legislation
enacted by Burma’s government, including the
Farmland Law, has meant that farmers and the
urban poor are probably even more vulnerable to
possible loss of land and displacement and
dispossession than they had been under the
previous regime. [9]
On September 18,
a month before the latest outbreak of violence in
Rakhine State, a land commission started touring
the area to investigate complaints, including some
in Kyaukphyu. Local people say the army is the
main organization behind seizure of farmlands,
claiming high-ranking officers "misused the army
explicitly for this purpose and personal profit".
A senior army officer is reported to lead the
local investigating commission. [10]
Several other factors certainly feed
inter-religions tensions. The central government
has long had a policy of trying to limit the
Rohingya population by forced removal and curbs on
marriages and births. (For a comprehensive account
of the Rohingya in Rakhine State, see Nowhere
to go for the Rohingya, Phil Radford, Asia
Times Online, November 9, 2012.)
Buddhists
from elsewhere in Myanmar are encouraged to settle
in the area bordering Muslim Bangladesh in the
northwest of the state, where the population is
estimated to be as much as 90% Rohingya. Recent
violence occurred in Maungdaw, opposite
Bangladesh, and Buthidaung, further east, where
hydropower projects are also planned.
Muslim farmers in the northwest regularly
claim that family members are attacked by the
newcomers - or Natala - and their cattle or fodder
stolen. "The army and the Natala villagers looted
our property, committed robbery and killing
villagers occasionally. But they are not given
punishment by the concerned higher authority," one
said after an attack last month, a week before the
widespread outbreak of violence across the state.
[11)
Local Buddhists also complain of the
high birth rate of Rohingya and want tighter
controls to prevent more arriving. Whether there
is immigration from Bangladesh, which hosts
thousands of Rohingya refugees, is contested by
some NGOs in the area. US intelligence may believe
otherwise. Kamran Bokhari, Mideast and South Asia
director for Stratfor, described by Barron's as
"the shadow CIA" for its revolving door with the
intelligence community, referred in an October 27
interview to the Rohingya as "sort of shuttling
between two nation states both of whom do not want
them, at least not in large numbers". [12]
Indigenous Buddhists, or Arakanese, at a
September 29 public meeting listed their
complaints. [13] They include an objection to
putting Buddhist and Muslim people together "due
to their bitter experiences from recent violence
in Arakan" and a demand for tighter controls "of
the birth rate of the Muslim Bangali community
living in Arakan. An estimated 800,000 stateless
Rohingya live in Rakhine, and perhaps around
200,000 who may acquired some rights, out of a
state population of possibly 3.8 million. [14]
The deep-rooted and well-documented
xenophobia of the Myanmar government, not to
mention local antipathies, may prove
counterproductive as the Ramree Island complex
takes shape. Rakhine State, with an ill-educated
population, will provide few of the thousands of
skilled workers required, but numerous unskilled
and semi-skilled laborers will be needed (and
housed and fed) if the SEZ is to get off the
ground.
It may be some time before the
ultimate beneficiaries of last month's clearances
become apparent, while some of those who fled
their homes are reported to be returning. The new
buildings that go up on the ashes of the old will
tell a more complete story.
Meanwhile, the
reputation for outstanding courage earned by
Buddhist monks and other Burmese during the 2007
"Saffron protests" against the then military
government is being dragged through blood spilled,
and the core beliefs of their religion mocked, as
they attack Rohingya to the profit of local
mercenary interests.
Nippon Koei Company
is to be the lead company in laying the groundwork
for assessing tenders in the Kyaukphyu SEZ.
Self-described as Japan's No.1 engineering
consultants, it is charged with "designating
project area, assessing the cost of electricity
through gas turbines, laying down master plan and
promulgation of Kyaukphyu SEZ Law".
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
