Saturday, December 10, 2011

Application for trade union rejected


9 December 2011
New Delhi (Mizzima) – An application to form a trade union in a Bago textile, garment 
and leather factory has been rejected by Burmese authorities.

The Ministry of Labour said the application was unacceptable noting that President 
Thein Sein had not yet signed a notification that is required to put the new law into 
force and a chief registrar had not yet been appointed.

Livestock traders face extortion


9 December 2011
Burmese Army troops extorted 5 million kyats from livestock traders and local 
people in northern Chin state on November 29.

The soldiers belonged to the Light Infantry Battalion 50, based in Sabawngte
village, Matupi Township.

Farmers Want Burmese Army to Stop Practices of Indian Chettair in Arakan State


9 December 2011
Min Bya: Farmers in western Burma's Arakan State are expecting the current 
U Thein Sein-led regime will stop its army from practices in the similar manner 
of Indian Chettairs, who are known in the post-colonial history of Burma for 
their inhumane exploitations on Burmese farmers.

The farmers said the Burmese armies based in their region have forcibly confiscated 
their traditionally owned arable lands and have been exploiting them by renting 
the land back to them for cultivations.

Gas pipeline victims get pay-off


9 December 2011
Government authorities in Shan state have begun a compensation scheme for
locals forced off their land to make way for the highly lucrative, albeit controversial,
trans-Burma Shwe gas pipeline that will cut through the state before entering China.

Up to 86 households in villages close to Namkham township near the China border
have received the first batch of payments, according to the Shan Herald Agency for
News, which reported that one acre of confiscated farmland near to the town could 
earn as much as $US18,500 in compensation. The figure appears an usually healthy 
one for Burma, but the cost for a number of closed factories and a severance package 
for redundant workers may be included.