Aug 21 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s military has deployed hundreds of troops to forcibly clear areas marked for a Russia-backed special economic zone in the country’s south, burning villages and sealing off surrounding tracts of land, according to resistance fighters and a local activist with direct knowledge.
The offensive around the Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) — that includes a planned deep-sea port and power plant on the Andaman Sea — is the clearest sign yet that Myanmar’s military-backed government is willing to use force to revive a project touted as a strategic alternative to the Strait of Malacca.
The push also coincides with a diplomatic charm offensive: junta chief-turned-President Min Aung Hlaing pitched Dawei as a potential gateway to South and West Asia during a landmark visit to Thailand this month and discussed the project again this week in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Since July, the military has pumped hundreds of soldiers into the southern Tanintharyi Region, bordering Thailand, where Dawei is located, sparking battles with local resistance groups who have been forced to retreat, according to two sources.
“The military is advancing its columns and conducting area-clearance operations. Some villages and homes have been burned down,” Saw Dah Ko of the Tanintharyi Region People’s Defence Force told Reuters.
A second resistance fighter from the Dawei District No.1 battalion operating under the shadow National Unity Government, said troops had torched houses in at least three villages and killed three aid workers who were supporting displaced communities.
“They want to run this Dawei SEZ, so they want to clear the area here,” the second fighter said, referring to the military and asking not to be named.
The three aid workers were detained and killed after encountering an advancing military column in Yebyu Township on July 9, local civil society group MAGGA Initiative said in a statement.
Reuters could not independently verify the accounts, and the Myanmar government and Russia’s embassy in Myanmar did not respond to requests for comment.
FREQUENT SKIRMISHES
The intensification followed a late-June visit to southern Myanmar by armed forces’ deputy chief Kyaw Swar Lin, who urged soldiers to protect “strategic projects” such as Dawei.
“Since then, a column of approximately 700 soldiers has been advancing into relevant surrounding areas, raiding villages and killing civilians,” conflict monitor ACLED said in an August report.
The offensive around the Dawei SEZ has been reinforced by air and naval attacks, overwhelming loosely organised local resistance groups, according to Saw Dah Ko and a local activist.
“They enter the region, and once reinforced by the navy, they launch offensives into the villages situated within the deep sea port project area,” said Min Lwin Oo of the Democracy Movement Strike Committee, referring to the military.
“When they launch these offensives, skirmishes occur frequently.”
The Dawei push reflects a broader strategy by the military to reclaim strategic territory and border zones it lost to opposition groups since a 2021 coup, which triggered a civil war that has killed some 100,000 people and displaced over 3.5 million.
The military engineered a widely criticsed election in December and January, with no substantial opposition allowed to run, clearing the way for Min Aung Hlaing to become president.
ALTERNATE TO MALACCA STRAIT
Originally launched in 2008 as a joint venture with Thailand, the project aimed to facilitate trade between Southeast Asian countries and West and East Asia. But work on the Dawei SEZ stalled in 2013 due to local opposition and funding shortages.
In January 2021, just weeks before the coup, the committee overseeing the SEZ said it had moved to terminate 2015-2016 agreements for nine projects in the initial construction phase.
“We will now focus our efforts on finding new partners to unlock the potential of the Dawei Special Economic Zone,” the committee’s chairman said in a statement.
Myanmar’s new government is now looking to revive the project with the support of Russia, a key ally for Min Aung Hlaing and the military.
At a business forum in Moscow on Wednesday, Tanintharyi Region Chief Minister Zaw Naing Oo said that the project could enable cargo to move four to six days quicker than if it were to traverse the Strait of Malacca.
State media reported that he also touted the port’s proximity — about 45 km (28 miles) — to Myanmar’s major offshore gas fields.
Russian companies intend to work with Dawei SEZ, aiming to expand trade and create new jobs, including in small and medium businesses, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said this week in a meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.
The project could give Russia greater market access in Southeast Asia and a port footprint in the Indian Ocean region, according to a source with knowledge of Moscow’s thinking, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“The risk in Myanmar is still very high,” the source said, “Russian investments will have to be linked to connectivity with Thailand for the project to make sense.”
(Reporting by Reuters staff and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Saad Sayeed)
