* General Khin Nyunt does development by detaining
villagers
* Nasaka Arrests
Three-Member Mosque Committee for not Complying With Order
* Unfriendly Gesture in Dhaka-Rangoon Relations
General Khin Nyunt does development by detaining
villagers
Independent Mon News Agency
Villagers in the area between Ye
and Yepyu township where Prime
Minister General Khin Nyunt wants to have development, have
been
detained in their villages by
Burmese troops, according to villagers
from the area.
According to a New Mon State Party (NMSP) officer, NMSP
leaders asked
General Khin Nyunt to allow the NMSP to do activities in the
area when
they met with him in September. But
General Khin Nyunt denied the NMSP
request for the reason that the
area was undeveloped and needed to
develop. The government wants to do
development in the area and barred
the NMSP, he said.
However, Burmese troops under command of Military Operation
Management
Command (MOMC) No.19, instead of doing development, banned
villagers
from leaving their villages and did
more human rights violations to
villagers in the area.
A village headman from Pouk-pinkwin,
a current arrival in the Mon
Refugee Resettlement Camp at Hlockhani,
Nai Myaing (who didn't want
his
name revealed for his family's
safety), said, ¡§They allowed no
villagers to go out of the village
because the troops wanted to cut
contact between villagers and Mon
rebels moving in the area." He fled
to the camp to escape arrest after
one of his villagers was killed and
three arrested by army troops who
suspected them of supporting rebels.
Now his villagers have been detained in the village and
a15-year-old
schoolgirl, Mi Moe, was raped by an
unidentified soldier under the
command of Light Infantry Battalion
No. 407, according to Mrs. Mi
Phate, who recently arrived at the camp from the village.
According to villagers arriving at the border, and confirmed
by the
IMNA, Tactical commander No.3, Colonel Nyi
Nyi, under the command of
(MOMC) No.19, ordered residents of more than 30 villages in
the area
not to leave their villages or go
to work in the orchid plantation and
farm.
¡§Nai Myit,
about 40, from Khaw-zar village where Tactical
Commander Nyi
Nyi was based, had a bullet put in
his mouth and was beaten after he
was arrested outside the village,¡¨
an IMNA source in the area said.
¡§One villager from Kork-Palaing
was shot in his leg while trying to go
to the farm. After that no villager
dared go out of the village,¡¨ a
villager who fled to the border
recently said.
¡§If the villagers want to go out they have to get a letter
of
permission from the troop, but they
only allow the women, although if
the troop sees them at the farm or
orchid plantation they will be
fined,¡¨ said a resident of Khaw-zar village, where a Burmese troop
forced seven young women 13-20
years old to entertain their commander
everyday.
In Kyauk-kadin village, Yepyu township, Burmese troop LIB
No.282 closed
the village. The troop did not allow villagers to go outside the
village to buy foodstuffs in town.
Even though villagers faced food
shortage, the troop barred
villagers from going out, according to Nai
Toe, a Kyauk-kadin villager kicked
of the village after being arrested
and beaten by the troop which
suspected him of supporting Mon rebels.
Burmese military planned to clean out the rubber in the area
and do
development at the end of 2003. The
tactical commander ordered
villagers to do roadwork in the
area by forced labor. In July, mlitary
leader Gen. Maung Bo went to the
area to check their development in
education by competion
at the Mon National school, in the area for 30
years.
Until now, the Burmese troop has done no development work
for the
people, but only human rights
violations against local people for the
purpose of cleaning out Mon rebels.
Long-term military operations against the Mon rebels have
caused
villagers who cannot tolerate the
civil war to flee to the border as
refugee groups, including current
groups.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Nasaka Arrests Three-Member Mosque Committee
for not Complying With Order
Maungdaw, Oct. 11: Kaladan Press Network
Nasaka (the Burmese Border
Security Force) arrested a three-member
mosque committee for not complying
with a Nasaka order to destroy a
mosque in their village in
In the first week of September, Colonel Tun
Tun Oo, commander of Nasaka
Sector No. 6 of
to destroy the ancient mosque, but
the villagers didn¡¦t comply with the
order, the villager added.
So Nasaka arrested Zahir Ahmed, 56, son of Omor Abbas, Molvi Zakaria,
52, son of Lukman Hakim, and Abul Khasim, 54, son of Tanda Meah on
Sept. 25 because of their leading role in not complying with
Nasaka¡¦s
order. The victims are all from Zun Baina village in
Afterwards, they were detained at the Nasaka
camp, according to another
villager.
However, the arrestees were released Oct. 2 after a 1.5
million Kyat
bribe to the authority concerned.
But, the order was not withdrawn and
the mosque still exists. The
ancient mosque in the village was built
with concrete and roofed with tin
sheeting, he added.
Six years ago, the commander of the same Nasaka
Sector gave permission
for renovation and a small
extension on the mosque after taking a 150,
000 Kyat bribe from villagers. In
August, the present Nasaka Sector
commander ordered the villagers to
abolish the mosque but this order
was withdrawn after a 100, 000 Kyat
bribe, a village schoolteacher said.
On Sept. 22, the
general secretary U Soe Win issued a notice mentioning that photo
requirements, a committee member
list, income sources, land and other
relevant documents of religious
schools, mosques, temples, mondirs and
churches of
by the end of thie
month, the teacher said.
A student, declining to give his name, said, ¡§Collecting
all the
religious building lists is nothing
but deceiving Rohingya people and
the international community by
showing them the SPDC authorities don¡¦t
take action only on Muslim
religious buildings but also those of other
religions. But their main target is
the Rohingya Muslims¡¦ religious
buildings.¡¨
TPDC authorities in
religious schools, mosques,
Buddhist temples, Hindu temples (Mondirs)
and churches in the township.
Groups went to the villages and
collectied
data on religious buildings, the teacher said.
SPDC authorities have been destroying religious schools and
mosques
across the country where Muslims
are densely populated, particularly in
northern Arakan,
since 1994, an elderly man said.
The SPDC is erecting Buddhist temples and pagodas in
minority areas
such as northern Arakan and
donations, while destroying other
non-Buddhist religious buildings, the
elderly man added.
On Aug. 12-13, Nasaka authorities
forcefully destroyed nine mosques in
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unfriendly Gesture in Dhaka-Rangoon Relations
(By Fayas Ahmed) Kaladan Press Network
There is a cloud of misunderstanding between
a visit by a Bangladeshi survey
engineering team that had to
immediately return home for lack of
a response from the
side, "The Daily Ajker Desh Bidesh"
reported on Sept. 26.
new era in correlations between the
two neighbors. She said the planned
road link between the two
neighboring countries would bring them as
well as other countries of the
region closer;. The regular exchange of
visits by high officials of both
countries opened new opportunities
between the neighbors.
General Khin Nyunt, after he took office as prime minister,
arrived in
delegation including several
ministers and government officials. On
April 5,
road link between the two
countries. The road, which will ultimately
link to
economic giants to its east. The
two neighbors also signed two other
MoUs on cooperation in agriculture
and related fields and waived visas
for Bangladeshi diplomats and
government officials.
Under the first MoU,
and financial task forces to
determine details for early implementation
of the road-link project.
bridge over the
two countries.
Minister Major General Hla Myint Swe laid the foundation stone April 5
for the 133-kilometer highway
expected to be completed in a year and a
half. The friendship highway, which
would subsequently link to the
said.
proposed Bangladesh-Burma Asian
highway would start this year, the ¡§The
Daily Star" reported on Sept.18, 2003.
Hearing it, most border traders bought goods hoping to
export them to
construction of the road in the
scheduled time, the ¡§The Daily Ajker
Desh Bidesh¡¨
reported Sept. 26.
Businessmen in
communications linking the Dhaka-Chittagong route with
export Bangladeshi goods to other
Asian countries such as
countries, greatly benefiting
High way between
Frequent meetings were held between the two countries
contributing
improvements to their bilateral
relations, particularly in politics,
trade and business.
The cost of the road is estimated to be Taka 605 crore (US$10.083
crore)
including the cost of a bridge across the
has already given $10 million to
construct bridges and culverts on its
side of the border. The road will
run 36 kilometers from Ramu to
Ghondom in Cox¡¦s
Bazar District in
Taungbro left of
As agreed between the two countries, a three-member survey
team headed
by Abed Uddin,
additional chief engineer of the Roads and Highways
Division of
in-charge of the Bridge Mapping
Department , accompanied Abed Uddin.
They went for four days to make a necessary survey for
construction of
a bridge over the
bridge is part of the
of its construction.
On June 21, the
arriving about
about
counterparts even after the time
elapsed. However, they waited in vain
at Teknaf
until
With the cooperation of Nasaka,
they reached a police station in
They then returned to
to ¡§The Daily Cox¡¦s
Bazar.¡¨ .
Although the
local and higher Burmese officials,
the plan sank into oblivion when
high officials failed to join them
from Akyab (Sittwe) and
Engineer Kabir told newspeople they would go to Arakan
again for
discussions between the two
countries.
The Burmese action surprised many in
understand why
for sometime it has been a subject
of discussion and criticism among
the business community, who want
the proposed project to be completed
soon.
In another development, eight Bangladeshi businessmen
visiting the
border town of Maungdaw
Aug. 24 for border trade were pushed back by
Burmese authorities, causing tension between the two sides
of the
border. However, some speculate this incident might be related to a
grenade explosion Aug. 21 in
Although it has been already one year since Bangladesh
Communication
Minister Nazamal Huda and
Myint Swe laid the foundation
stone for the
is yet to start so the project is
still uncertain.
.................................................................
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