Myanmar may soon face a land conflict epidemic as a result of the growing influx of investments and the consequent demand for land, unless laws and policies that adequately address land rights issues are urgently adopted and implemented, FIDH warned in a new report published today.

The FIDH report titled “ Land of sorrow: Human rights violations at Myanmar’s Myotha Industrial Park ”, documents the harmful consequences suffered by rural communities in Myanmar’s Mandalay Region as a result of the Myotha Industrial Park, a large-scale industrial project developed by the Burmese company Mandalay Myotha Industrial Development (MMID) in Ngazun Township.

In the Myotha Industrial Park development area, the combination of a flawed legal framework, unscrupulous authorities, and irresponsible investors produced a perfect storm in which more than 1,000 families from 14 villages lost their land – their sole source of livelihood – to make way for the project’s development…