The Burmese Army’s five-day scorched earth campaign, also known as ‘Four Cuts’ - cutting off food, funds, intelligence and recruitment to the resistance, from 27 July to 1 August, in townships in southern Shan State, has accounted for a loss of around Kyat 700 million (US$ 700,000) to the villagers in one village tract alone, according to updated reports.
In Mongkeung, villagers in Hokhai village tract had to contend with 125 houses being affected along with three rice mills, 596,330,666 liters of paddy (11,812 Tin), three bullock carts, six motor cycles and one farm tractor (Tolaji), an informed source said.
“The total loss was Kyat 699,420,000. It did not include the amount looted by the Burmese soldiers,” he said.
He added that there was a villager whose gold and money was being robbed, while she was trying to escape. “The gold was 2 Kyattha (3.26 gram) and her money was Kyat 700,000 (US$700).”
The incident occurred in Mongkeung, Laikha and Kehsi townships and the acts were perpetrated by the battalions under the Mongnawng-based Military Operations Command # 2 of Col Kyaw Zan Myint. It was in keeping with the order of the Chairman of the Shan State (South) Peace and Development Council and Commander of Eastern Region Command Brig-Gen Ya Pyae. But the Burmese Army later told villagers, in a public meeting, that the campaign was not waged by them, but by the Shan State Army.
A month later, the MOC#2 was assigned to rebuild houses for the affected villagers. All houses had to be two-storied made of wood on the Nargis home model and had to be finished by September. However, the construction project was started early this month.
Victims were being told that they would be given the houses free of cost. But local traders and nearby villages were forced to provide hundred tons of wood for rebuilding houses. And over 500 carpenters from Taunggyi were ordered to help in the construction. Currently, 10 out of 125 affected houses in Hokhai village tract are almost complete and one other finished.
Each house is 15 feet in length and 20 feet in width.
Till date most villagers are still staying in temporary shelters they built themselves in their fields and some are still in their farms.
However, they are being forced to continue the construction. Moreover, they were told to provide one cow to the local based Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 517, every two weeks, said a villager in Hokhai.
The project does not seem to be succeeding as almost all the carpenters were reportedly turned back and traders also stopped providing wood because most did not get paid by the officials. And the officials were reported to have quarreled with each other over power sharing, according to another source.
“An official of the municipality was slapped by the battalion commander Major Kyaw Thu,” he said. “After that many of the civilian officials left.”
According to the rights groups Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) and Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN)’s report, more than 500 houses and 200 granaries in villages in Mongkeung, Laikha and Kehsi townships, where the campaign took place, had been razed to the ground and over 10,000 people from most villages in the townships were rendered homeless.
