Article
Letpadaung Farmers Reject Compensation [Myanmar]
While hundreds of farmers have received compensation for land taken from them for the controversial Letpadaung copper mine, many others are refusing to take the money. The government committee tasked with providing compensation to residents around the mine in northwest Burma said that 570 farmers had received a total of 17.8 million kyat (US $20,300) for more than 1,700 acres of land…But the committee has also received 177 complaints to reject the compensation…More than 7,000 acres of farmland were confiscated in 2010 for the Letpadaung copper mining project, a joint venture between the Chinese Wanbao company and Burma’s military-owned Union of Myanmar Economics Holdings…The anti-copper mine protests have resumed...hundreds of protesters [have] demonstrated and posted signs on their land reading, “This land is not for sale” and “End the copper mine project.”