Australia announces rise in aid donation

“Our aid is going to mean shelter for an additional 9000,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, who returned from a two-day trip to Yangon yesterday. “It means water and sanitation in the camps is going to be improved.”

The Australian government is also donating $2.77 million to help Myanmar conduct its first nationwide census in 30 years.

 

Farmers protest land confiscation

About 200 farmers gathered in downtown Yangon this week to protest against land confiscation by the military and regional authorities. Farmers from Yangon, Ayeyawady and Bago regions voiced their anger over land-grab cases, many of which go back 20 years.

“The Ayeyawady Naval Regional Command Headquarters confiscated our farmland, saying that it was for a project. The only thing they have done is to fence the land. That was nearly 20 years ago. They used to allow us to rent the land for cultivation, but now they are destroying [the crops],” said Kyi Soe, a farmer from Dala in Yangon Region.

Tin Htut, chairman of the investigating commission on farmland confiscation, told parliament on Monday that ministries and state and regional governments had not taken sufficient action to handle land-grab issues. 

 

Diplomats briefed on Rakhine

Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference in Yangon this week to address the situation in the western state of Rakhine. Foreign ambassadors, diplomats, officials from United Nations and government deputy ministers attended the conference.

Concerning education, Union Minister Aye Myint said that the Ministry of Education is cooperating with UN agencies to build schools. “In Rakhine State, 33 schools are to be constructed. Twenty-six will be built by Unicef and the rest by the Ministry of Education.