Four villages near the developing Metta Reservoir in Gangaw township, Magwe Division are being forced to move to Myuak district by the local authorities.

U Aye Myint, a lawyer with the Guiding Star legal aid group, told DVB yesterday the Thetnang, Yinma, Sabai and Sinmon villages were being forced to move by the Burmese military’s Infantry Battalion 50 and the local police.

“There are about 120 households . . . They are about 22 miles away from Gangaw town. They are to be transferred to a place 70 miles away,” U Aye Myint said.

But residents from the villages have said they do not want to move to the area insisted on by local officials and have asked the authorities to find a more appropriate site, according to a Buddhist monk who will also be relocated.

“They don’t want to move to Myauk district. They want to move to the hills near their villages where they can get water,” the monk said on condition of anonymity.

He said the land designated by the military for the villages was unfarmable and that water supplies in the area were scarce.

Construction work on the Metta Reservoir started in 2001 and is due for completion in 2008.