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A seven-year-old ceasefire in Mon State is still holding, but just barely. Recent violence could signal a return to civil war in Burma’s southernmost state. Villagers should have had nothing to fear when Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 550 from the Burmese Army entered the remote village of Kyon Kwee on Jan 28 of this year. A ceasefire agreement had been in place for seven years, the conflict between the Rangoon government and the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) was supposedly over and the village was theoretically at peace. Instead, troops arrested, tortured and disrobed a monk and blocked all paths out of the camp before accusing the villagers of being rebel sympathizers. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident, as rape, forced labor and food confiscations have all increased, say Mon human rights workers. When the New Mon State Party (NMSP) entered into a ceasefire agreement on June 29, 1995 with Burma’s military government, both Mon leaders and Mon people thought four decades of civil war had ended. They thought that a political settlement would be forthcoming that recognized the rights of the Mon—the progenitors of Burmese civilization—and more importantly that badly needed developmental infrastructure projects could finally be implemented in this war-torn region of southern Burma. NMSP officials, human rights workers and others along the Thai-Burma border told The Irrawaddy recently that they were increasingly concerned about deteriorating conditions in the Mon State. They said that the NMSP has become weak, with only a few leaders having benefited from the agreement, while life in Monland continues to deteriorate. Burmese troops have also been encroaching on lands once controlled by the NMSP’s military wing, the MNLA, after the party ceded large tracts of land as part of the agreement. All of this has led to a resurgence of fighting between Burmese troops and recently formed Mon splinter groups comprised mainly of former MNLA soldiers. Due to a lack of arms, the NMSP would be hard pressed to rebuild its army to the 6,000 troops they had in 1995. According to some NMSP members, however, if the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) continues to ignore Mon desires to live in peace, there is a real possibility that the party may decide to break the agreement, causing an all-out civil war to return to Monland. "We want dialogue to work but if the SPDC does not want a political settlement and keeps oppressing our people we may fight again," says a NMSP central committee member. A ceasefire agreement is simply the repositioning of troops to minimize conflict and theoretically should lead to a political settlement once a dialogue has begun. Until now, however, little progress has been made in reaching a lasting settlement. The Mon agreed to the ceasefire deal only after being pressured by both Thailand and the generals in Rangoon. The junta made reaching ceasefire agreements with ethnic insurgents a key policy after taking power in 1988. The Thai government and Thai businessmen were eager to invest in Mon State, but a necessary prerequisite was peace. Foreign oil companies had also proposed a natural gas pipeline through contested areas of Mon state: a fact that caused the regime to exert even greater pressure due to its desperate need for foreign investment. Further upping the ante was Thailand’s decision in 1994 to move against a growing Mon refugee population. Fighting had driven thousands of Mon into Thailand’s nearby Kanchanaburi province, creating a domestic headache for Bangkok. Many of these refugees were eventually forcibly repatriated to Burma by Thailand and settled in the Halockhani camp in an area controlled by the NMSP. This move drew heavy criticism from international human rights groups. The Mons are "victims of Thailand’s economic engagement with Burma’s military rulers," Human Rights Watch reported at the time. Shortly after the repatriation, Burmese troops torched the Halockhani camp, thus putting even greater pressure on the NMSP to enter into a settlement agreement. The camp was later rebuilt by the NMSP, which also provides protection for the 6,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) located there. "They [the Thai government] told us if we made a peace agreement with the Slorc [now the SPDC], the refugees would be repatriated and could have good jobs working on the ongoing gas fields projects," said Mon leader Nai Shwe Kyin in 1993, before the party had agreed to the ceasefire. The regime had also promised that if the NMSP entered into a ceasefire agreement it would allow the party to participate in certain business ventures, which along with governmental assistance would help to develop the Mon State. In 1996, the regime granted the NMSP seventeen business concessions, including logging, fishing, inland transportation, trade with Malaysia and Singapore and gold mining.