Aung Thein Lin, an MP of Lower House and the leader of Yangon Division Land Seizures Inquiry Commission, said that Parliament's Farmland Investigation Commission is opening inquests into cases of land grabbing under the rule of the previous government.
“Our Yangon Region sector will submit reports about lands seized through misuses of power and authority,” he announced. “We are starting to categorize the cases; there are extensive reports that come from the Yangon area.”
All of the members of the Commission have confirmed to Mizzima that they will not limit their investigations to farmlands that were appropriated illegally.
“We will look into claims made about all sorts of properties that were alleged victims of land grabbing, including residential private properties,” said Min Thu, a member of Mandalay Region land seizure sub-commission “We will also investigate the issues with the gold, metal, and copper mines in the Mogok Region.”
The mines were subject to a controversial transfer to Ministry control.
“We have already begun to examine land grabbing instances in Magway Region,” said U Hla Swe, leader of the Magway Region land seizure sub-commission.“The results of our investigations were submitted to the chairman of the Commission last week.”
Aung Thein Lin noted that one of the issues that the Commission is facing regards boundary disputes due to the differences between what is detailed on a map and the physical layout of the land.
The Yangon Division Land Seizures Inquiry Commission was formed by Parliament on 8 August 2012. It has over 60 members who are law specialists and MPs from the Upper and Lower Houses.
he Commission has already investigated 5,441 cases of land grabbing and sent three reports to Parliament.
