S.H.A.N. has learnt that ethnic Wa hill tribe people living in mountainous areas east of the Thanlwin River in Northern Shan State controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) are being forced to relocate to plain areas.
According to local residents the relocations started in late 2014 and the process is ongoing. About 1,000 Wa people who live in the mountain areas of Panwaing, Nahpan and Mongmao townships in the northern part of Pangsan Township, where the UWSA headquarters are located, are being relocated to UWSA controlled areas of Mongpauk, Mongphyan, Hotaung, and Mongkar sub-townships in Mongyan township in Kyaington district, known as special region 4.
The Wa authorities have already started to prepare housing estates for the migrants. They have built accommodation for 500 people in Mongkar Sub-Township, 200 people in Mongpauk Sub-Township, 300 people in Hotaung Sub-Township, and 300 people in Mongphyan Sub-Township, said local residents.
A UWSA officer who did not want to give his name said: “We want to go through the good times and bad times together. We are already city dwellers. Wa people who live in mountain areas are not well educated. We want them to be able to walk together with us in this modern world, so we are moving them to the plain areas and we will support them for one year. If we need to separate their families we urge them to accept it. Their accommodation has been built, it is ready for them to come and live in immediately.”
U Aik Sinus, a resident of Mongpauk said: “I am also Wa, but I don’t like what they are doing because they are doing it by force. Rural residents are forced to move and local residents from the plains areas are forced to build houses for migrants. Plains residents will also have to share their farmlands, from which they gain their livelihoods, with the new residents. I have only ever heard of this happening in the time of Mao Zedong in China. It is not suitable to use this system nowadays.”
The majority of the people whose farmland is being shared with the new migrants are Shan people who have been living in the area since their grandfather’s times. This has caused some of them to move to Thailand because they have insufficient land.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
