About 200 people from three wards in Yangon’s northeastern Thingangyun Township who say their land was seized by the military more than 20 years ago have begun camping out in front of the Yangon High Court in support of demands for an investigation into their claim.
It is the thirdtime they have camped out to press their claims for the return of the land, which they say was seized by the military in 1991 for a horticulture project.
“We will shut down this camp only after the military returns the land it has grabbed,” protest leader U Sein Than told Mizzima on March 24.
He said the group was confident that an investigation of the case would determine that their claim for the return of the land was justified.
The protest would continue until the land was returned, U Sein Than said.
The claim centres on land in Mi Choung Kan wards 1, 2 and 3, the seizure of which affected about 1,000 people.
U Sein Than said Pyithu Hluttaw MP U Aung Thein Lin (Union Solidarity and Development Party, South Okkalapa Township, Yangon Region), the chair of the Yangon Region Land Seizures Inquiry Commission, had promised that it would resolve the dispute in a meeting with the protesters last year.
The pledge was given during a meeting with the protesters at their second protest camp, on Waizayandar Road, in Thingangyun Township, on December 12 last year.
The protesters then shut down the camp, which had been established on November 26.
The first protest camp was established near the Yangon High Court on October 2 and lasted until October 5.
