People along the Thai-Burma border staged a protest last week against a joint road project between a Thai firm and the Burmese Army, local sources said.
On July 10, villagers in Ban Hintaek (Ban Therd Thai), the former stronghold of the late Mong Tai Army (MTA) leader Khun Sa, in Chiangrai’s Mae Fa Luang district, held a demonstration against the road project of Saraburi Coal Mining, a subsidiary of Ital-Thai, that had been granted concession by Burmese authorities to extract coal from Shan State East’s Mongkok sub-township, Monghsat Township, 70 kilometres north of Chiangrai border towards the end of 2008.
The demonstrators’ contention was that the road project could affect local village life, endanger the environment, promote drug trafficking and place local people’s lives at risk as the proposed area is controlled by the anti-Naypyitaw Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ and the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Tension between the Burmese Army and the UWSA has been on the rise since April, when the latter was urged to become a border security force under the formers command.
“Without their permission, we won’t dare agree,” a participant in the demonstration, who requested anonymity, said.
At the same time, the SSA South’s Lt-Col Gawnzeun, Commander of the Kengtung Front based at Loi Gawwan, 10 miles east of the proposed border pass also told SHAN, “I don’t believe they (the Thai company) will go ahead with the road construction without informing us in advance.”
The deposit in Mongkok is estimated to have at least 150 million tons of raw coal, one third found to be Grade A. It would take 40 years to deplete the fields even with 200 ten wheelers working each day to transport the diggings, according to an official from the company.
In exchange for the coal concession the junta had insisted that the company construct the Mongkok-Maejok route to the diggings despite the existence of a shorter 100-kilometre route inside Burma’s Tachilek to Thailand’s Maesai.
The road is proposed to be built across Maejok on the Burmese side of the border to Thailand’s Hmong Kaolang. It will be roughly 60 kilometres inside Burma and at least 90 kilometres inside Thailand till it connects with the national highway at Pasang, between Maesai and Chiangrai.
The proposed road would be able to transport 5,000 tons of coal per day, according to a security source.
On May 21, the company held a public meeting with 200 villagers of Ban Hintaek to seek their approval.
“About 300 villagers will get jobs as drivers if the project is approved,” a local villager quoted an official from the lobby team as saying.
Since 1996, the Burmese Army has made abortive attempts to dislodge the SSA from its border base and the last time was in 2005.
