Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads: - Displacement Solutions

Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads 346. Culturable land, fallow land and waste land - These types of land can be allocated by the regime to Stateownedeconomic organisations, joint ventures, and other organisation and institutions on a commercial basis. Therules governing this type of land are established under the Procedures Conferring the Right to Cultivate Land /Right to Utilise Land for Agriculture and Live-Stock Breeding Purposes.7. Forest land - This type of land is governed underthe Forest Law which requires the granting of permissionfor extracting timber, firewood or other economicuses of forest land. License fees are required. Under theForest Law, forest dwellers can be forcibly evicted fromthe areas despite long-term traditional residence there.8. Town land - This type of land is urban land thatdoes not fall under the freehold or grant land categoriesand is often referred to as ‘La Na 39 Land’. Havingaccess to this form of land enables the rights-holder touse the land for agricultural, construction of housing orother purposes. Town land is transferable and can betransformed into grant land.9. Village land - This type of land is transferable andsituated outside of urban areas. Land revenues arecollected on this form of land.10. Cantonments - This type of land is land acquiredby the junta for the exclusive use of and administrationby the military. When land is given this classification,the Ministry of Home Affairs issues a declaration thatleads to the land being compulsorily acquired underthe Land Acquisition Act. Under law, compensation ismeant to be paid to former owners but only if such landwas formally classified as freehold, grant or town land.Other forms of land acquired in this manner do notreceive compensation. In fact, for other forms of land,reliance on the Land Acquisition Act is not requiredand the land in question can simply be declared to beCantonment Land by the Ministry of Home Affairs.Land revenues are not required, but such land is to besurrendered to the government when it is no longerrequired for military use.11. Monastery land - This type of land once declaredas such, eternally retains this distinction and cannot bealtered. Land revenues are exempted. (17)When the SLORC assumed control of the government in 1988 they inherited a legal code which approachedquestions of land as just outlined. Over the past two decades, both the SLORC and its successor the SPDC, haveessentially relied upon this same land typology. As we will see shortly, however, the latest incarnation of militaryrule in Burma has proven even more adept than its predecessors at using the HLP legal code as a fundamentaltool in entrenching its control in the country as a whole.Photo byAndrew Scherer/ DisplacementSolutions(17) UNHCR Repatriation and Protection Unit, 1999, Salient Legal Features about Land and Land Ownership in Myanmar: A Discussion Paper,UNHCR Office of the Chief of Mission (Yangon, Myanmar).