Villagers say a lack of available land is to blame for the problem.

Residents of San Pya, a village on the Ledo Road in Kachin State’s Hukawng Valley, are calling on the authorities to provide them with a cemetery of their own.

The village, which was established in 2008 after people living in the villages of Ban Kok, Awng Ra, Laja Pa and Nam Seng were relocated there by the Yuzana Company, has no place to bury its dead because of a lack of available land, according to local people.

“I have been living in this village for more than 10 years now, but we have never had a graveyard,” said resident La Awng.

“Yuzana has constructed schools and roads in the village, but there is no graveyard. This creates many problems for us when someone in our village passes away,” he told KNG.

In most cases, the only option is to send the bodies of the deceased to the village of Shaduzup, he said.

The Yuzana Company has direct responsibility for building a graveyard in San Pya, but the assistance of the authorities is also required, he added.

Naw Dee, the headman of Warazup, another village in the valley, said that land for a graveyard is not available because the surrounding area is owned by Yuzana or is part of a protected forest.