Two cases have already opened as the commission launched in state capital Mawlamyine [Moulmein] on June 10.

“We can’t inspect all of them immediately. We’re starting with seven cases of land seizures, four of which are related to lands confiscated by the military,” said Htay Win, the head of the farmland Investigation Commission in Mon State.

One of the cases involves lands confiscated by the military in 1996 to build a 300-bed military hospital without any payments of compensation paid to the former occupants.

“The hospital has still not been constructed,” said farmer Daw Nwe Nwe Tin who said she lost two and a half acres of cultivated land to the military. “It has since been built elsewhere and the land remains vacant. We [local farmers] want our lands to finally be returned, and we want an opportunity to meet with this  
 till now. It was built in other place. The land is left as a vacant land till today. So, we want to get our lands back. Now, it’s better that we get to meet with this commission”, said .

The commission made field inspection of land confiscation in Mawlamyaing Township and they also inspected the two cases which are concerning with the land confiscation by military within Yay Township which is in the Southern part of the state and in La-mine Township on 11th June. U Htay Win takes charge as a chief of Investigation sub-commission of Land Confiscation for Mon State, Kayin State and Tanintharyi State which are in Southern part of the country which is part of the Land Confiscation Investigation Commission formed by MPs and Daw Mi Myint Than, Daw Nan Say Awar, U Sai Than Naing and U Win Oo are also the commission members. Land confiscation commission was formed at Pyihtaungsu Hluttaw in 2012, August with 60 commission members and they were working with groups for each division and state.