(Kaowao: June 4, 2005)

 

Villagers have been forced to guard the motor road close to the Yadana gas pipeline of Mon State – Tenessarim Division since the third week of April.

 

Despite a settlement reached in the California courts in March 2005 between Unocal and Burmese villagers in which promises were made to improve human rights for local villagers living in the area, the Burmese authorities are ordering villagers from Aleh SaKhan village in Ye Byu Township to attend the military training to protect areas around the Yadana gas pipeline, the single largest investment in Burma.

 

“Over 50 Mon, Tavoyan, and Karen villages situated along the motor road are ordered to keep watch while buses are traveling during the day,” a Mon humanitarian worker told Kaowao.

 

One person per household from ten Mon and Karen villages attended one-month training provided by Burma Army Light Battalions 282, 409, 410 battalions.  During the training the villagers had to provide their own food and drinking water, he said.  Battalion 282 has been responsible for the pipeline since it was first built in the early 90s.

 

“The Burma Army ordered one unarmed villager per post to protect against any attack by the KNU, they watch out for any troublemakers,” a local villager said. “Some women are also required to keep watch, they have to walk to remote areas along the motor road to get to their post,” he explained.

 

The Burma Army battalions are also extorting and forcing the villagers to work and using them to porter their supplies.  Those with the money to bribe military authorities pay up to 10,000 Kyat if they want to avoid the training.

 

The motor road is 100 miles long, 50 of which is located in the northern part of the Tenessarim Division close to the Karen Nation Union (KNU) area where local busses were attacked last April.