Chinese state-owned oil firms occupying Myanmar territory in wake of development projects
Naypyidaw [Myanmar], March 11 (ANI): The Chinese state-ownedcompanies during implementation of the FDI in oil and gas project in Myanmarhave illegally acquired land by violating existing laws.
In a recent development, China through its state-owned ChinaNational Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and South East Asia Oil Pipeline Co. Ltd.(SEAOP) and South East Asia Gas Pipeline Co. Ltd. (SEAGP) implemented the 2.5billion dollar largest FDI investment in Myanmar, namely the Myanmar China Oiland Gas Pipeline (MCOGP).
The gas and oil pipeline started at Kyauk Phyu in Rakhinestate and ended in Nam Kham, a northeast border town with China. The pipelinemeasured 30 meters in width for a distance of 793 km.
The Myanmar-China Pipeline Watch Committee (MCPWC), the onlycivil society organization in Myanmar dedicated to monitoring the Myanmar-ChinaOil and Gas Pipeline Project, in its research found that a large-scale foreigndirect investment project in the country’s oil and gas sector generatedenvironmental destruction and had a major social impact on the life andlivelihood of Myanmar’s farmers.
The MCPWC had conducted field research in 100 villages andpublished a report in January 2016 explaining in detail issues of land use,corruption, damage to farmland and land compensation.
The MCPWC also met and discussed with the Natural Resourceand Environmental Conservation Committee of the Upper House of Parliament. ThisCommittee categorically stated that “the pipeline has been constructed dividingthe country”.
The matter was discussed in the Parliament of Myanmar inDecember 2016. The then deputy minister of the Ministry of Electricity andEnergy revealed that CNPC had acquired the land by paying direct compensationto the farmers. The transfer of land should, however, had to be done throughthe Transfer of Immovable Property Restriction Act 1987; Foreign Investment Law(2012), and Farmland Law (2012).
According to the foreign investment law, the Myanmar-Chinapipeline project has the right to lease the land for the pipeline route fromthe Myanmar government through the long-term land lease agreement.
If the lands along the pipeline route are the agriculturallands owned by the Myanmar citizen farmers, according to the 1894 landconfiscation law or Article 29 of the 2012 farmland law, the concerned ministryof the Myanmar government (at that time, Ministry of Energy) was the onlygovernment entity that was entitled to conduct land acquisition from thefarmers.
As per the law, after taking the necessary lands from the farmers,the ministry had to enter into a legal process to change the land title fromthe farmlands to the other lands, according to Article 30 of the 2012 FarmlandLaw, or the old law’s Article 39.
Only after the title of the lands were changed, the ministryand the project operator CNPC-SEAP Company had to make a land lease agreementaccording to the foreign investment law and bylaw.
“Without implementing these steps, the MOEE allowedCNPC-SEAP to directly make an agreement with the Myanmar farmers, giving anexcuse that it was because the company invested their money in the compensationand when signing these agreements, it used the term “on behalf of MOGE.”Therefore, MCPWC analyzed that the agreements actually violated the abovementioned existing laws”, said a document.
Sources reveal that the Myanmar China Oil and Gas Pipelineproject violated Myanmar’s existing laws because the company officials who wereChinese from the China-owned CNPC-SEAP made a direct agreement with individualMyanmar farmers to procure farmlands for the project.
The project violated Myanmar’s existing laws because it wasimplemented on the ground without legally changing the land title in accordancewith the law.
The document said, “In the special cases in Kyaukpadaung andNgaphe townships among the six townships where the research was conducted, thefarmers do not receive any copies of the compensation agreement. Thus, thefarmers did not know whether the amount of compensation that they received wasthe same amount as it was shown in the agreements”.
The report also examined that the CNPC took noresponsibility for post-construction requirements, namely soil erosion amongthe pipeline resulting in damage to water resources and environmentaldestruction.
In effect as the land of 30 meters in width starting fromthe Myanmar western border to the Chinese border was acquired by Beijing, thecountry has in effect been split into two, resulting in affecting Myanmar’ssecurity and national interests adversely.
(ANI)This report is auto-generated from ANI news service.ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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