Shan State Railway to Suppress Armed Ethnic Groups: Rights Groups

By WAI MOE

The Burmese junta is building a strategic railroad from southern Shan State to eastern Shan State to suppress ethnic armed groups, particularly the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Shan ethnic human rights groups said at a press conference on Tuesday.


At the launch of a campaign opposing construction of the new railway begun in 2009 from Mong Nai to Kengtung, the Shan Women Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) said the railroad, which runs near the Thai-Burmese border, is directly related to the junta's military strategy to suppress ethnic armed forces.

The junta is targeting ethnic armed groups such as the UWSA, the largest of the groups with an estimated 30,000 trops, that are opposed to the junta's border guard force plan, they said.

Speakers from the two Shan groups claimed the main reason for construction of the 361-kilometer railway is to cut communications between UWSA troops in southern and northern Shan State.

The military junta claims the project will promote development and is for better transport of local people.

“The rail project is for transporting the junta's amour and artillery from divisions in the southern to the eastern part of the state,” said Puen Kham of the SHRF. “It is the first railway to cross the Salween River in Shan State."

The railway project began with the recently completed first section between Taungyi, the headquarters of the Eastern Regional Military Command of the Burmese armed forces, and Mong Nai.

Local residents in southern Shan State say they prefer to travel by road on this route since it takes far less time.

“The railway is really for transporting goods. It takes a day to travel by car but three days if we go by train,” said one resident.

Once the Mong Nai-Kengtung railway has been completed, the Eastern Regional Military Command in Taungyi will have direct contact by rail with the Triangle Regional Military Command in Kengtung.
The railway will permit better mobilization of military equipment including tanks, howitzers and multiple rocket launchers in Shan State and the Thai-Burmese border area, the Shan groups said.

Ying Harn Fah of SWAN said the project is causing human rights violations along its route with land confiscation affecting an estimated 1,000 acres of rice fields in Mong Nai and 2,000 acres of agriculture land in Kengtung.

Meanwhile, Burmese newspapers have often reported in recent months that Chief of the Bureau of Special Operations-2, Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, has inspected the railway project along with Maj-Gen Ya Pyae, commander of the Eastern Regional Military Command and Maj-Gen Kyaw Phyo, commander of the Triangle Regional Military Command.