The construction of a major highway backed by the Asian Development Bank is displacing communities and fueling civil conflict in Karen state, southern Myanmar, according to a new report launched Friday.
The road, which will serve as a trade link with Thailand, has brought increased militarization and skirmishes as armed groups compete for access and the ability to enforce tolls and taxes, Karen rights groups said.
The route connecting Thinganyinaung, Kawareik and Eindu runs through an area embroiled in one of the world’s longest-running civil wars.
“Since the start of the Asian Highway road construction, researchers and civil society have observed a consistent trend of armed clashes breaking out between the military and armed groups,” the report reads.
In January, homes in Tha Nay Moo village, Kawkareik township, were burned down when fighting erupted after the Myanmar Army cleared the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army from the nearby section of the road. Last week, a small bomb exploded along another section, though no group took responsibility.
“This is about somebody trying to show that this area is controlled by them,” Saw Alex Htoo, deputy director of the Karen Environmental and Social Network, which co-authored the report, told Coconuts Yangon. “Without solving the peace, without having the political settlement in which everybody is happy, the conflict will continue.”
The report, Beautiful Words, Ugly Actions, produced in collaboration with the Karen Human Rights Group and Thwee Community Development Network, alleges that during the initial phase of construction financed by Thailand’s Neighboring Countries Economic Development Cooperation Agency, families were forced off their land without warning or plans for resettlement and made to accept inadequate compensation.
“Some villagers were away from home during the road construction period, working as migrant workers in other parts of the country, and returned to find that their land had been illegally confiscated during their absence,” the report reads.
Villagers were allegedly forced to accept $1,270 in compensation from the government, increased by about $500 after armed group the Karen National Union intervened on their behalf.
“In the meeting, we [villagers] agreed that we would not take the money, if we don’t get K3,000,000 per acre for land compensation,” one villager is quoted as saying. “However, authorities said that if we didn’t take the money, the government will put it in the bank [to put to public use]. Then we were being threatened that our land would be taken anyway, so finally we have to take what has been given to us.”
In October 2015, the ADB approved a $100 million loan to the Ministry of Construction to extend the highway. While a resettlement plan for the some 500 villagers estimated to be affected by the extension has been drawn up, the rights groups said it was inadequate and “confusing”.
One section of the plan refers to compensation being distributed in early 2016, while another says it will be handed out in September, according to the report. Coconuts Yangon has contacted the ADB for comment.
“Not only does the ADB-approved Resettlement Plan by the Ministry of Construction fail to meet ADB’s own safeguard standards, it also does not provide satisfactory solutions for the problems they will inflict on affected villagers,” the report reads. “Villagers clearly have not been included in meaningful consultations or been given sufficient information and their fears and concerns have not been addressed adequately.”
There is no indication that a conflict impact assessment has or will be conducted, according to the report.
“The situation follows a familiar pattern seen elsewhere in Myanmar’s ethnic areas, where large-scale development projects take place in active conflict zones,” the report reads. “Development projects move forward under temporary and fragile ceasefire agreements, reignites conflict. Put simply, development can promote peace and improve material standards of living, but can also result in persistent conflict and displacement.”
