potential partnerships should be vetted to ensure that the partner is not implicated in human rights abuses or corruption. Due diligence on local partners is particularly important. In many ways, the people who are best placed to benefit from new foreign investment in Burma are private individuals with close ties to the military. By virtue of these relationships, they have gained access to capital, equipment, government licenses, and experience that, at first glance, may make them appealing business partners. But these individuals and their companies may be associated with alleged corrupt practices, money laundering, and other illicit activities as well as human rights abuses. Foreign business alliances with them would serve to entrench Burma’s pro-military business elite rather than help create opportunities for the emergence of new private sector actors that could support broad-based economic development that furthers the economic and social rights of the country’s population. Such partnerships could also increase the risk that foreign investors may contribute to human rights abuses. Land Rights and Security Development of Burma’s telecommunications sector will require investment in physical infrastructure such as cell towers sites and cable, including in rural areas. This raises concerns around land rights and human rights violations related to state security forces that have been enlisted to protect other kinds of infrastructure projects. Illegal land confiscations by the government, the military, and in some cases, private interests are ongoing in Burma, perpetuating patterns of human rights abuses.45 Consultation and compensation are frequently absent or inadequate and in many cases the land seizures are arbitrary and not justified by an overriding government interest, nor have they been carried out in accordance with human rights standards. The military also has a track record of engaging in unlawful use of force against local residents, among other serious abuses, in the context of clearing land and providing security for business projects.46 45 See Htet Naing Zaw and Aye Kyaw Khaing, “Military Involved in Massive Land Grabs: Parliamentary Report,” The Irrawaddy, March 5, 2013, http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/28506 (accessed April 10, 2013); Karen Human Rights Group, “Losing Ground: Land conflicts and collective action in eastern Myanmar,” March 5, 2013, http://www.khrg.org/khrg2013/khrg1301.html (accessed April 10, 2013). 46 See Human Rights Watch, "Untold Miseries": Wartime Abuses and Forced Displacement in Kachin State (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2012), http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/03/20/untold-miseries, pp. 29-33. 21 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MAY 2013