LAND GRABBING AS A PROCESS OF STATE-BUILDING IN KACHIN AREAS NORTH SHAN STATE MYANMAR

Land issues in Myanmar are complex and driven by both formal and informal institutional practices of the interactions between the neoliberal agenda, state interventions, power relations and exploitation. Generally, Land grabbing can be perceived as a means for political and economic elite classes to benefit not only from exploitation, but also as a boost to their traditional social status and political power (Kyaw Thein 2012). However, land grabbing in ethnic areas is interconnect with militarization strategy and economic development because it have been used as a process of military state-building to control ethnic areas.