![](https://thadinn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/57-6.jpg)
TANINTHARYI DIVISION-The 308th junta artillery battalion in Boke Pyin Township forcibly confiscated nearly 600 acres of betel nut farms belonging to more than 50 farmers.
In February of this year, the military junta summoned more than 50 farmers and seized the land that the farmers were currently cultivating, saying that it belonged to the military. In 2000, the farmers cleared the forest land and began working on betel nut farms. Currently, the military junta has taken over and no one is allowed to enter.
“In year 2000, the area was a huge forest and the farmers cleared it and cultivated it for more than 20 years. Now it is called military junta land. Land confiscation continues to happen,” said a local resident.
The junta warned not to encroach on the land owned by the military junta without paying any compensation when they seize the land. Farmers are questioning when the military junta started to own the land.
“The junta says that these lands have been owned by the military junta since 2004. The junta did nothing for more than 20 years from 2004 to 2024, but the people cleared the forest and cultivated it, and then forced them to remove it as junta-owned land. This is a huge loss for the farmers who invested a lot of money, time and labor. It was confiscated without any compensation,” explained a local farmer.
Currently, since the military coup in 2021, the military junta council has been increasing forced land confiscations throughout the country.