Villagers Appeal for Compensation for Farmland Confiscated by Danyawaddy Naval Headquarters

Kyauk Pru: Villagers from Sitetaw Village in Kyaukpru Township in western Burma’s Arakan State have recently submitted an appeal letter to the Chief Minister of the Regional Government requesting compensation for the farmland confiscated by the Danyawaddy Naval Headquarters.

One of the villagers said 43 villagers whose lands were confiscated by the naval force have signed and submitted the petition to the CM on 26 of October, 2011.

“107.50 acres of our farmlands were forcibly confiscated without any compensation by the naval force in 1997. So 43 villagers whose lands were confiscated have written an appeal to the CM requesting compensation to us for our lands, but we have not received any response yet”, said the villager.

The villager said that they have been suffering from great hardships since the land on which they had traditionally cultivated were confiscated.

“We understand it is quite impossible to get back our land from the naval force, but we still need to revive our lives that have been badly affected since our lands were confiscated. So we have requested that the CM provide us with fair compensation for our lands considering the hardships we face as a result”, he said.

U Tin Phay, a lawmaker of the state parliament from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, also said the villagers have submitted a copy of their petition to his party’s office as well.

“There are 43 villagers who signed the letter sent to the CM and they said in the letter that 107.50 acres of their farmlands had been confiscated by the Danyawaddy Naval Base in 1997”, said U Tin Phay.

He said the villagers are expecting that the PM and local government would look into their matter and render compensation to them for the confiscated lands soon, though no response has been given by the government yet.

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