More garrisons for more abuses

As more army units are being created and relocated in key areas in northern Shan State, the number of reports on the army excesses have also been correspondingly on the rise, report sources from the Thai border:

Early this year, a new formed artillery battalion (the 351st, according to a separate report) moved into Tangyan, 83 miles (133km) south of the Shan State North capital Lashio, and the town’s long-standing garrison, Infantry Battalion 33, moved out further south to Mongkao, where the ceasefire group, Shan State Army-North’s First Brigade is active.

A 4-square mile (2,500 acres) of land was confiscated as army property on 17 April on the orders of the area commander Col Khin Maung Myint and Lt-Col Thant Zin, Commander of IB 33.

As a result, local people lost groves of bamboo and Khilek (cassia simea) and several plots of land where they had planted corn and peanuts, together with their paddy fields.

Hundreds of logs and bamboos and thousands of woven thatch were needed to construct the new garrison, and hundreds of villagers, some with their field tractors, have been engaged in the task since April. “They were supposed to pay us 1,000 kyat ($1) each day plus fuel for the use of our tolagi (farm tractors),”said an owner of the vehicle. “But in the end, we got nothing.”

According to the sources, the construction is still going on at the time of this reporting, despite the monsoons and the need for the farmers to tend the rice fields.

“We were told the fields inside the perimeter would be off-limits to us after harvest time,” said a farmer.

Related report,
Junta goads ceasefire group on, 15 July 2005