General Khin Nyunt does development by detaining villagers

Independent Mon News Agency

October 13, 2004

Villagers in the area between Ye and Yepyu township where Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt wants to have development, have been detained in their villages by Burmese troops, according to villagers from the area.

According to a New Mon State Party (NMSP) officer, NMSP leaders asked General Khin Nyunt to allow the NMSP to do activities in the area when  they met with him in September. But General Khin Nyunt denied the NMSP request for the reason that the area was undeveloped and needed to develop. The government wants to do development in the area and barred the NMSP, he said.

However, Burmese troops under command of Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No.19, instead of doing development, banned villagers from leaving their villages and did more human rights violations to villagers in the area.

A village headman from Pouk-pinkwin, a current arrival in the Mon Refugee Resettlement Camp at Hlockhani, Nai Myaing (who didn't want his name revealed for his family's safety), said, “They allowed no villagers to go out of the village because the troops wanted to cut contact between villagers and Mon rebels moving in the area." He fled to the camp to escape arrest after one of his villagers was killed and three arrested by army troops who suspected them of supporting rebels.

Now his villagers have been detained in the village and a15-year-old schoolgirl, Mi Moe, was raped by an unidentified soldier under the command of Light Infantry Battalion No. 407, according to Mrs. Mi Phate, who recently arrived at  the camp from the village.

According to villagers arriving at the border, and confirmed by the  IMNA, Tactical commander No.3, Colonel Nyi Nyi, under the command of (MOMC) No.19, ordered residents of more than 30 villages in the area not to leave their villages or go to work in the orchid plantation and farm.

“Nai Myit, about 40, from Khaw-zar village where Tactical Commander Nyi Nyi was based, had a bullet put in his mouth and was beaten after he was arrested outside the village,” an IMNA source in the area said.

“One villager from Kork-Palaing was shot in his leg while trying to go to the farm. After that no villager dared go out of the village,” a villager who fled to the border recently said.

“If the villagers want to go out they have to get a letter of permission from the troop, but they only allow the women, although if the troop sees them at the farm or orchid plantation they will be fined,” said a resident of Khaw-zar village, where a Burmese troop forced seven young women 13-20 years old to entertain their commander everyday.

In Kyauk-kadin village, Yepyu township, Burmese troop LIB No.282 closed the village. The troop did  not allow villagers to go outside the village to buy foodstuffs in town. Even though villagers faced food shortage, the troop barred villagers from going out, according to Nai Toe, a Kyauk-kadin villager kicked of the village after being arrested and beaten by the troop which suspected him of supporting Mon rebels.

Burmese military planned to clean out the rubber in the area and do development at the end of 2003. The tactical commander ordered villagers to do roadwork in the area by forced labor. In July, mlitary leader Gen. Maung Bo went to the area to check their development in education by competion at the Mon National school, in the area for 30 years.

Until now, the Burmese troop has done no development work for the people, but only human rights violations against local people for the purpose of cleaning out Mon rebels.

Long-term military operations against the Mon rebels have caused villagers who cannot tolerate the civil war to flee to the border as refugee groups, including current groups.

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