“Over 1,000 acres from 60 people in Hakha and over 300 acres from 20 people in Kanpetlet have been seized. The commission sent a notification letter to the Chin State government to give a response on its tasks within 60 days in order to continue working on the reports. Although the Anti-Corruption Commission is working under the law, we can say that the state government is creating chaos in the country by neglecting us. We won’t comment on whether or not it’s beneficial for the State to seize the lands and demarcate them without transparency. The ethnic people are facing hardship in making a living,” said U Kyi Lwin.

The Chin State government has been carrying out urban planning projects in Hakha, Falam, and Kanpetlet in the Chin State and the project areas include land that has been forcibly seized by the government, according to U Kyi Lwin.

“This is ancestor land. Documents show that it has been [recognized as] ancestral land before Myanmar became independent. It has been seized under this existing administration. It is included in the urban planning project to expand the city. Ancestral land has been included in this project. Also, farmland has been seized for some projects in Kanpetlet,” he continued.

U Soe Htet, spokesperson of the Chin State government and minister of municipal affairs, said the Chin State government is currently carrying out urban planning projects with permission from the union government and it has not discussed or seized any land at the moment.

“We haven’t seized anything at the moment. We haven’t discussed about seizing the land during the cabinet meeting. We do have the urban planning project. This has already been permitted after submitting to the union level. It has already been permitted in Hakha. There has been implementation of Falam urban planning project and Paletwa urban planning project. We haven’t seized any land blindly. We haven’t seized 1,000 acres. The town residents want us to implement the urban planning projects so they will be carried out in Hakha, Falam, and Paletwa as the first stage. The second stage will be Tedim, Mindat, and Matupi. The third stage will be to develop the remaining towns. We are struggling to do this,” said U Soe Htet.

U Kyi Lwin from the External Parliament Anti-Corruption Commission said the commission is not stopping the government from carrying out the projects and the government has the duty to develop its area and country.

However, the project areas cover ancestral land so they need to be seized under Section 4 (d) of the Land Acquisition Act and compensations and land replacement must be given to the public but it is against democratic standard to implement the project without revealing to the public first, he explained.

He added that the protection of ethnic people’s right has been clearly stated under citizenship and citizen right and the commission will submit the issue to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office if there are difficulties in providing protection under the Ethnic Rights Law.

Local farmers have protested against the implementation satellite town projects in Hakha and Falam.

The Chin State Minister of Municipal Affairs U Soe Htet said the Chin State government is carrying out the projects after holding several meetings with the local farmers.