About 300 villagers have been protesting after the army commandeered farmland for artillery target practice at Daw-Ta-Ma Gyi Village-Tract, in Demawso Township, Karenni State on 3rd January according to Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) spokesman Khu Nyaeyeh.
On 3rd January about 50 soldiers from the 76mm and 79mm Artillery Launcher-Training Unit 1/2014 under the command of Military Operations Command (MOC) No.7 arrived at the farms between the villages of Daw-Ta-Ma Gyi and Daw-So-Khu. They ordered the farmers there to leave, so the farmers went and congregated in the village. They then returned to the farms on motorcycles, cars and two-wheeled tractors to protest against the army’s use of the land for target practice.
Khu Nyaereh said: “They held signboards saying things like: ‘Don’t fire artillery’ and ‘We don’t want artillery target practice’. Villagers said they are not officially protesting yet and are just making their objections known.”
The army had held a meeting with villagers at the government army camp in Daw-Ta-Ma Gyi village on 31st December and told the villagers that they would inform them of any proposed artillery target practice. But, they never informed the villagers before they turned up for target practice, which was why the villagers were worried, said a farmer who had joined the protest.
He said: “There will be lots of bad effects. Soldiers will go to the farms and pick the vegetables. We know from experience that the army will confiscate the farms and use them as army camps. That is why we will protest as much as we can until other government departments negotiate with the army and stop them using our farmland.”
This behaviour breaks the agreement between the KNPP and the government so there might be problems according to Khu Nyaeyeh.
He said: “Our forces are there, also people sleep there during the vegetable growing season. If they [the army] continue like this there could be problems.”
He also said that the army’s actions broke the peace talk agreements and that they had been reported to the state government and union level minister U Aung Min.
The army carried out similar artillery target practice twice before in 2014. The Border and Security Minister contacted the KNPP and told them that artillery shells left behind after the 2014 practice had been cleared up.
Local residents will send protest letters calling for a halt to artillery target practice to the relevant government departments, ethnic armed groups and political parties.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
