New Rail Link to Eastern Shan State Spells War Escalation

Shan rights groups today launched a campaign against the new Mong Nai-Kengtung railway, denouncing it an expansion of the Burmese regime’s war apparatus in Shan State. In recent months the regime has accelerated construction of the planned 361-km railway, the first rail link across the Salween River to eastern Shan State. The Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) have documented how thousands of acres of farmlands have been confiscated along the route. Farmers complaining have been told the railroad is an “army project” and threatened with prison[…]