A/HRC/39/CRP.2 the Mission also indicates that individuals holding identity documents issued by EAOs have been afraid to flee conflict areas, or return to check on property, for fear of documentation checks or being stopped because of their ethnicity. 606 Land confiscation and violation of property rights of displaced persons 289. Credible information received indicates widespread violation of the obligation to respect the property rights of displaced persons. There is a practice of attacking, destroying and looting civilian property after individuals have fled.607 In some cases people left their homes because of land confiscation.608 In others, the Tatmadaw or other actors confiscated lands after the individuals had fled and were internally displaced. 609 For example, one individual from Laukkaing Township, Kokang Self-Administered Zone, reported that, after his village was attacked by the Tatmadaw in August 2013 and while the villagers were displaced, the Tatmadaw took over their land: One day in 2013, the Tatmadaw attacked our village. The village chief went to talk to the soldiers to try to stop the fighting but they killed him. There was gunfire so we ran into the forest to hide for one night. The next day we went back to the village but our house was burned and all other houses in the village were burned too, so we had to leave. After we had left, the Tatmadaw took over the farmland.610 290. Another person displaced from Waigmaw Township, Kachin State in 2011 explained that her village is now abandoned and there is a new Tatmadaw post there. 611 The Mission has also received credible information that other actors, including corporations, have taken over land of displaced individuals. 612 291. Some internally displaced persons told the Mission that they did not know what had happened to their land and property as they had not been able to return since they were originally displaced, which in many cases was several years earlier. 613 Displaced individuals are concerned that they may be unable to prove ownership over their land should conditions for returns be established.614 There are many impediments to this, including: lack of formal land ownership documents; documents being lost or destroyed during displacements; possession of non-recognised ownership documents issued by ethnic armed organizations; lack of recognition of customary forms of land ownership; and lack of tax receipts as individuals were displaced and therefore unable to work the land. The situation may be further complicated by the legal framework governing land ownership and resolution of land disputes.615 292. Land has also been confiscated by or for the benefit of the Tatmadaw from nondisplaced individuals without any proper process or compensation, including in areas where there was no active fighting in Kachin and Shan States. 616 For example, an individual from Puta-O Township, Kachin State, reported how his land was taken in 2014: My land was inherited from my great-great grandfather. We used to have only one military camp in the area but more were built around 2002 and this was when land confiscation started. Between 2003 and 2005 two whole villages were forced to move by the Tatmadaw and the land was confiscated. In early 2014, a government official 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 74 DI-061, K-064, V-136, V-142. See this chapter, section A.1: Conduct of hostilities in flagrant disregard of civilian life and property. PI-016, PI-082, QI-082. K-142.1, K-143, PI-010, PI-055, PI-073, QI-092, QM-018, SI-002, V-144. See also this chapter, section B: Patterns of violations and abuses committed by non-State armed actors. QI-092. PI-052. K-142.1, QM-014, V-143. PI-052, PI-056. PI-031, V-143. PI-031, PI-048, QM- 014, V-145, see also, Durable Peace Programme, Displaced and Dispossessed, conflict-affected communities and their land of origin in Kachin State (May 2018). PI-032, PI-048, PI-077, QI-078, V-143 see also, Human Rights Watch, “Nothing for our Land”, Impact of Land Confiscation on Farmers in Myanmar (July 2018).