Two people died after fighting broke out between the Burmese government’s militia force and a Mon splinter group near the Yadana gas pipeline.  
The two groups exchanged a short round of gunfire in the second week of January near a Mon village in Tenasserim Division. It killed a six year old girl and a SPDC soldier, said a Mon village administrator to Kaowao requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The SPDC Light Infantry Battalion No. 282, a special battalion that guards the Yadana Gas Pipeline, and its militia force, surrounded and ambushed the Mon splinter group led by Major Jalon Taw who broke away from the NMSP last year.

The fighting occurred east of Moulmein-Tavoy motor road near Kaloin Ong (Kalein Aung in Burmese) of Yebyu Township. There are over five Mon villages situated along the Yadana pipeline that runs along a portion of the road. The villagers are often caught in the crossfire between the government forces who force the villagers to guard the pipeline and the Mon resistance groups who demand their support. 

The militia force members which are composed of ordinary villagers were recruited by the SPDC local battalion in 2001 and face an uphill battle in following the orders of both the SPDC and the ethnic armed groups who make numerous demands on them.

The village recruits are told to fight their own people, who make up the splinter group; one of the recruited villagers, Yabu (Daik Tao in Mon), said they face continuous harassment in the column alongside the SPDC soldiers and often fear running into their own people while patrolling the area.

Most of the village militia force speak only Mon and have problems communicating in Burmese with the SPDC’s soldiers. Meanwhile, the cash strapped SPDC extorts money from the villagers leaving them with little to feed themselves. Many villagers decide instead to flee to one of the Mon Internally Displaced Camps situated along the Thai- Burma border, while others move to a more urban area where no fighting occurs.