Mon State at war

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN SOUTHERN YE

(Kao-Wao and IMNA: September 30, 2003)

Fighting continues between the Burmese Army and Mon guerrilla groups in the southern Ye area of Mon State.

According to a refugee who recently fled to Halockhanee camp at the Thai-Burma border, Mon guerrillas led by Nai Bin were actively engaged in encounters with the Burmese Army in southern Ye township in mid September. Four guerrillas of the Mon National Warrior Army were killed during these clashes with Infantry Battalion No. 31 of Burma Army.

Nai Blai of Kabya Wa village said that the Burmese Army has conscripted five villagers on daily basic to serve as standby porters to accompany the army during their search operations in the area. Twenty villages from Harn Gam, Kaw Hlaing, Chang Gu, Yang Dean, Yang Rae and Kwan Tamoi were ordered to provide porters. Porters are forced to carry about 30 kilos of food and ammunition to supply army units during military patrols.

Since the area is defined as a black area, the BA restricts movements of civilians to try block off alleged support for the rebels during military operations. The escaped porter said villagers in the area have to carry travel ID cards issued by the local battalion whenever they go to their farms or other villages and if caught without their ID cards they risk being shot on sight or tortured.

In late August, Infantry Battalion No. 282 of Coastal Command surrounded guerrilla leader Nai Hloin near Mi TawHlar village and he was seriously injured according to a local Mon source.

After the New Mon State Party reached a cease-fire with the ruling military junta in 1995, Nai Hloin split from the Party in 1997 to resume fighting against the BA in the rural area.

The fighting continues to wreak havoc among rural civilians in Ye and Yebyu townships.

According to Nai Kao Charn, a Mon relief worker from Halockhanee refugee camp, villagers in Yebyu and southern Ye recently fled human rights violations in southern Burma to get to the refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. He said over 50 Mon families have arrived at the border to escape systematic persecution by the Burmese Army from conflict areas. The Mon resettlement camp is located on the Thai-Burma border inside Burma, opposite Karnchanabui Province in Thailand.