Rakhine activists appealed this week to the chief minister to intervene over allegedly unpaid compensation for villagers displaced by an oil pipeline.

The Rakhine State government decided in May that compensation would be allotted after field inspections were conducted to tabulate the farmlands, orchards, homes and cemeteries damaged by the pipeline project.

According to Ko Myo Lwin, chair of Ann township’s Pipeline Affairs Monitoring Group, some area farmers received only K300 million out of the K800 million that was promised to them in exchange for their land.

On August 10, activists from Ann and Kyaukpyu townships and Mandalay Region met with the Rakhine State Chief Minister to demand the accounts be settled.

Th monitoring group blamed the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) for the holdup, saying the department had yet to send over a finalized list of calculations of who is owed what.

“The Ann Township Administrator informed MOGE via a letter to send the list by July 30. But the list hasn’t been sent yet. The chief minister promised he will help us. He advised us to resubmit the letter,” said Ko Myo Lwin.

A field inspection group started surveying the farmlands last August.

The pipeline passes through over 40 villages under nine village groups in Ann township.