Kumai villagers forced to guard at night and work by day at army base

Sat 02 Aug 2008, IMNA
The Burmese military battalion in Ye township southern Mon State is forcing villagers to work and do sentry duty near Kumai village on a daily basis.

According to a Kumai villager in Ye Township, five villagers were forced to work at the Light Infantry Battalion LIB No- 299 based in their village during daytime and guard the village at night.

LIB No-299 has been confiscating land since 1999 in southern Ye Township paying small amounts of compensation for crops but not for the land. And the army has issued an order for land confiscation again since February.

"I have to go at least twice a month to work. We have to arrive at the battalion at 6 in the evening and we are let off next evening," he added.

If they don't want to go for duty, they have to hire other people to go to the battalion by paying about 5,000 Kyat at a time.

The Kumai villager said "villagers would like to find other jobs when there is not enough work to be done at the plantations. They have to leave their work to go for the battalion duty." The villagers have to work inside the battalion where they clear the bushes near the army building and rebuild the Ye-Tavoy highway road by force.

Villagers are also forced to work in the quarters of the army officers who do not provide any food to them. Villagers have to bring their own food.

If those on security duty do not have information that strangers are around the village during patrolling, army officers punish them by torturing and beating them up.

The LIB No-299 has out up a signboard saying 'Army Land" in the areas of local land owners - Nai Win, Nai Maung, and Nai Thawar this year. The three owners are afraid their land will confiscated though the army has said they will not.

In 2007, the LIB No-299 put motorcycle owners in jail when a Captain died in an accident after colliding with a villager's motorbike while going to investigate an explosion about two miles from Kumai village.