Workers weld a pipeline at a construction site of the Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline in Laibin city, south China. Photo: AFP
Mizzima
The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) says State Administrative Council (SAC) attacks along the Chinese pipelines in northern Shan State have killed dozens of civilians, raising fears of a pipeline explosion.
In a press release dated 21 December, SHRF says that since the start of Operation 1027, launched by the Three Brotherhood Alliance (3BHA) on 27 October 2023, 27 civilians have been killed, 33 injured and over 160 buildings damaged by indiscriminate SAC air and ground attacks in townships along China’s oil and gas pipelines in northern Shan State.
The main target area of Operation 1027 has been townships bordering China, including Namkham, where the pipelines cross into Burma, but fighting has also occurred in townships further south along the pipelines, including Nawngkhio, Kyaukme and Hsipaw, where the 3BHA has been disrupting SAC supply lines along the Muse-Mandalay highway. Clashes in these townships have triggered indiscriminate SAC air and artillery attacks close to the pipelines, raising fears of a deadly pipeline explosion.
Airstrikes along the pipelines began on 29 October, when SAC aircraft bombed Kyaukkyan Village, six kilometers west of Nawngkhio Town on the Muse-Mandalay highway, where Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Mandalay PDF troops were active. The airstrike damaged a Hindu temple in the village, killing a man and injuring two other civilians. The southern edge of Kyaukyan Village lies less than 100 meters from the pipelines.
Over the next few days, SAC continued launching airstrikes to drive out TNLA and PDF troops from villages along the highway west of Nawngkhio Town, damaging about 30 houses, killing one man and injuring three other civilians. Two of the villages where bombs landed, Shwe Nyaung Pin and Oom Markha, lie close to the pipelines.
On 6 November, TNLA and PDF troops attacked a SAC camp guarding the Gokteik bridge, where the Muse-Mandalay highway crosses into Kyaukme Township. This triggered SAC airstrikes over the next few weeks along the highway east of the Gokteik Bridge in Nawng Ping Village Tract, Kyaukme Township, which injured a man and damaged over 20 houses in four villages near the pipelines. On 15 November, a bomb fell only about 200 meters from the Zee Pin pipeline station. At 5:00 pm that evening, about 50
SAC troops came and ransacked the pipeline station, and looted about 20 houses in nearby Pang Din Village, stealing rice, oil and other household items. SAC media then broadcast pictures of the ransacked pipeline station, blaming the TNLA for the damage.
In the second half of November, fighting spread along the highway east of Kyaukme Town into Hsipaw Township, resulting in indiscriminate shelling and shooting by SAC troops in and around Hsipaw Town, killing one man and injuring eight other civilians. On 27 November, SAC launched airstrikes on Pu Khar Village on the Muse to Mandalay highway east of Kyaukme Town, injuring one civilian and damaging three houses. Pu Khar Village lies only 500 meters north of the pipelines.
Since the start of December, the SAC has stepped up shelling and airstrikes in and around Namkham town to prevent TNLA seizure of the main SAC base on the southern edge of the town. By 16 December, the attacks had killed fourteen civilians, injured eleven and damaged over 100 buildings. On the night of 6 December alone, five civilians were killed and four injured in an airstrike on the village of Ho Na, about 10 km southwest of Namkham Town. The pipelines run directly beside Ho Na village, only 40 meters from its northern edge.
The repeated airstrikes and shelling so close to the pipelines, which lie only about one meter underground, are heightening local fears that a direct hit could trigger a huge explosion, harming civilians over a wide radius, NGO SHRF says. Villagers living along the pipelines in northern Shan State have feared possible pipeline leaks and explosions since the project began.
