Increased security demands force villagers to guard along Kanbauk to Myingkalay pipeline

May 14, 2010

Mon State: In order to tighten the security along the SPDC’s 180 mile-long gas pipeline which is from Kanbauk, Ye byu Township, Tenasserim Division to Myingkalay, opposite the river-side of Pa’an, Karin State, the local authorities ordered the civilians to guard the pipeline every night with 10 persons per village. One resident said that this command would be implemented at the end of the first week of May.

A 35 year old government staff member who had attended the meeting and has a close relationship with the township-level authorities said that the decision to tighten the gas pipeline security was made during the regular monthly security meeting of local regime officials, village headmen, authorities from the township government and their main supporters. While meetings were held in every area township, targeting village headman to disseminate the new security policy, the official only commented on the meeting he was able to attend:

This order was discussed and decided as a security issue by the regular township meeting at the end of April. It affects every township that gas pipeline crosses. Especially, villages that have direct contact with the gas pipeline have to man their security huts with 10 persons per village to guard the pipeline at night. If there is any absence, both the particular village headman and the villagers [from the village] will be punished but I don’t know how they are punished. It will be implemented in the second week of May.

HURFOM’s reporter inquired amongst area residents as to why the this change had been ordered and what the responses of the villagers were on the fact that the civilians who live along side the gas pipeline already have to pay a regular monthly security fee. Villagers who live in Kwan Hlar village, Mudon Township and Wel Rac village, Thanbyuzayat Township explained they have not officially received this order yet, but they have heard rumors about it. Several commented to the field reporter that if the rumors come true it would be an unfair situation. Regarding this situation, Ko Myint, a 33 year-old Wae Yet villager said as the following:

They collected 3,000 kyats per household for the gas pipeline and local security [every] previous month. Some villagers have to pay up to 5,000 kyats. We have to pay money and also guard the pipeline at night. The impact on us is twice. It is totally unfair.

At the end of the previous March, Artillery Regiment (AR) No. 318 which is based in Ahbit, Mudon Township and AR No. 315 which bases in Wel Ka Le, Thanbyuzayat Township announced that they used the funds, 3,000 kyats per household, as the general funding for their regiments. In this way funding provided by the villagers for the gas pipeline and local security is instead directly funding the survival of the two artillery regiments. An Ahbit village resident who preferred his name be withheld for security reasons, commented, “I said it is unfair that we have to guard the pipeline in rotation with 10 persons per village because we had already paid for it [security].”

Nai Ohn Myint, a former government staff member, commented on efforts by area villages to mitigate the costs demanded by the local artillery regiments, and the frustration from getting no result:

The power comes from their mouths. They do as they like. No one can go against them. Our village appealed to [the artillery regiment to] reduce the gas pipeline fee and [instances of] forced labor, via the abbot. We did this two times, in 2003 and 2005. However, it is useless [to complain] because there is no reply and no decline. We cannot complain about this [security increase].

A 60 year-old resident who monitors the politics and the military affairs in the area having worked for Mon State national affairs, said the climate under which the local authorities directed the villagers to guard the pipeline is directly connected with the current situations – an increase in bombings and the unstable relationship between NMSP and the government:

The cases that they worry about came one after one. The gas pipeline gives the main fuel for their [Burmese government] electricity and cement making. Now there is frequently widespread bombing and the NMSP has also alerted their troops. Therefore, they can’t leave the gas pipeline without security. Moreover, the government’s main supporters – militia and police – guarded every village secretly. These situations show we are in a moment which is very important for the security.

Mi Yin, a 32 year-old teacher from Mudon Township told HURFOM’s field reporter that she wished the gas pipeline would not to explode again, after the experiences she ahs already had living near the pipeline:

We wish again and again that the gas pipeline [would] not explode or leak. If something happened, the persons not dealing with that case are arrested like in the past. They are tortured and we have to exchange the arrested persons for money. Every house in the village has to collect the money to pay a fee for the damage of pipeline and gas. We have to guard the pipeline 24 hours. We will have a lot of difficulties. I wish it would not happen again.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News