Although the army has withdrawn from the New Mon State Party military base in Pauline Japan village, local people are concerned that misunderstandings will spark another clash with the Burmese military. The Tatmadaw army base is now located at Hinthar Dine checkpoint, just 900 feet away from the Mon ethnic armed base.
According to Nai Aung Ma Ngae of the New Mon State Party Central Political Affairs division, “the villagers do not feel safe to return to their home as they are concerned the fighting between the two military bases nearby will occur [again]. The situation is not yet secure and safe as the two military bases are too close to one another. We have to be careful because a gunshot could spark another conflict between the two groups anytime. Therefore, the villagers have not [permanently] returned to their homes at the moment.”
The NMSP filed a report to the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee indicating the Tatmadaw violated the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in the conflict that occurred in Paline Japan village in late November. Civilian representatives from the Union-Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC-U) are expected to investigate the conflict, but no date or further details have been confirmed to date.
According to the Colonel Maung Maung Latt of the South-East Command in an interview with RFA news argued that , “we gave them back their base [and that is understood] in the NCA agreement. Pauline Japan is their sub-military base, but Hinther Dine checkpoint in not included in the NCA agreement.”
However, a retired Colonel Gao Rot disagreed. He explained that, in the original agreement with the government, the NMSP permanent base was located in Pauline Japan, and that location was interpreted to be a pinpoint on the map. However, territory within a five-mile radius of that pinpoint was also considered to be NMSP territory up to the TPP boundary.
Colonel Gao Rot was the person in charge of the permanent military base for the NMSP during the ceasefire agreement discussions when the State Peace and Development Council (SLORC Na-Wa-Ta) government was in power.
“In the first ceasefire agreement, the Tatmadaw and NMSP agree to locate a permanent base area with a five-mile radius. There is supposed to also be a 10-mile radius between each base. We have had this agreement with the South Eastern Command since 1995. The agreement was reaffirmed once the government designated 18 places for NMSP permanent bases in 2012, under President Thein Sein. Then, the agreement was re-confirmed during the signing of the NCA. As the Colonel [Maung Maung Latt] has mentioned, the Hinthar Dine checkpoint is not in the NCA agreement, we are unsure whether he did not know about these agreements or is pretending not to know this,” Nai Kao Rot continued.
Fearing another potential clash, local people return to their village during the day and move to a safer place to sleep at night. They have not yet been able to carry out their business regularly. The Secondary School in Palaing Japan village has also been closed for more than two weeks, according to the village head.
There was a clash on November 27th when Mon ethnic armed members fired at Tatmadaw troops intruding on to their area, and the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) followed. The two forces than took control of the Mon military base.
