Junta’s pipeline root of rights violation: Report

http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/2099-juntas-pipeline-root-of-rights-violation-report.html

by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 08 May 2009 20:39


New Delhi - The Burmese military regime’s Kanbawk-Myaing Kalay gas pipeline has been a source of widespread human rights violation in southern Burma, a new report said.

The 100-page report titled ‘Laid waste: Human rights along Kanbawk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline’ released on Wednesday said, the junta, on the pretext of guarding the gas pipeline has forcibly relocated local villagers, raped ethnic women, used forced labour, and in many cases killed with impunity.

Burma’s military government began constructing a gas pipeline from Kanbawk in Tenasserim division to Myaing Kalay in Karen state, to transport gas from the Yadana gas field in the Andaman Sea to be used in cement factories and for electricity projects in Myaing Kalay in November 2000.

Nai Kasauh Director of the Mon Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), the group that compiled the report said, at least 15,000 acres of land was confiscated by the Burmese Army to make way for the pipeline and to support 30 army battalions deployed in the area to protect the pipeline.



“They [Burmese regime] moved several villages and confiscated over 2,400 acres of land such as paddy fields and rubber farms which fell on the route of the gas pipeline,” said Nai Kasauh Mon.

“Over 11,000 acres of land were confiscated and used to plant rubber and Durian [fruit] for ration for the army battalions,” he added.

According to HURFOM, the junta has drastically expanded the presence of the army along the gas pipeline route since 2000. Along with the expansion, the Burmese Army began widespread rights abuses ranging from rape of women, forced labour, extra-judicial killings, extortion and demanded food from local villagers.

Nai Kasauh Mon said the villagers near the gas pipeline are subjected to forced labour in vulnerable situations, where the Kanbawk-Myaing Kalay pipeline construction had several times been attacked by ethnic rebel groups.

The northern Tenisserim division in Mon and Karen state, where the pipeline passes through, is home to a number of ethnic armed rebel groups including the Karen National Union (KNU), and the New Mon State Party (NMSP).

“Sometime it [the gas pipeline] exploded on its own. Sometimes rebels attacked it. And such incidents caused damages to the villages and rubber farms close to the pipeline, as it caused fires several times,” Nai Kasauh Mon said.

“As a result, local villagers have to work for the pipeline without being paid and are used for guarding the pipeline and even carrying army equipments for soldiers on duty,” he added.

He said, the human rights violation committed by the soldiers guarding the pipeline have largely been ignored by the junta’s army officers.

Similar atrocities have been reported when the junta engaged in construction of the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines in early 1990s, which was used for transporting gas to neighbouring Thailand.

“This time, since the pipeline is solely constructed by the junta and no foreign companies are involved, the campaign against human rights violation is too little and it is difficult for the victims to raise their voices,” Nai Kasauh Mon said.

“But the extent of violations are no less,” he added.