Myanmar’s government plans to return 2,500 acres of confiscated land to farmers in Tant-Se township in the country’s northwestern Sagaing region, more than 35 years after it was taken, an agriculture ministry official said Tuesday.
In 1980, the Burma Socialist Programme Party confiscated nearly 4,000 acres of the township’s land in Shwebo district for a government farm project named “Wet Toe,” Win Tun, deputy minister for agriculture, livestock and irrigation, told lawmakers in the lower house of parliament in Naypyidaw.
The party was formed by the regime led by military commander Ne Win that seized power in 1962, and was the only political party legally permitted to exist from 1974 until it broke up after a popular uprising in 1988. It instituted socialist policies that included land seizures and control of agricultural production.
At the time, Tant-Se township residents were kept in the dark about who was running the Wet Toe project because of a lack of transparency, lawmaker Myint Tun said during a session of a lower house in Naypyidaw.
Win Tun said the project will continue operating on 1,200 acres to produce seeds for farms, while the remaining acres will be returned to farmers.
“Although all of the 3,726 acres were not confiscated from farmers, only 1,200 acres are being used for the project, so 2,526 acres will be returned to the state,” said Tun Win, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.
Myint Tun questioned Win Tun about the project’s benefit to local residents because Wet Toe has not been successful.
“The relevant land management organizations will arrange for farmers to work on the land,” Win Tun responded.
Former landowners in other parts of the country have long appealed to government leaders to return property seized decades ago under Myanmar’s previous military junta which ruled the country for 50 years.
Reported by Win Naung Toe for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.