Maungdaw: A riot battalion arrived at the western Burmese border in the last few days to work on the ongoing construction of a border fence, said a witness from Maungdaw.

"The battalion is from Buthidaung, the township next to Maungdaw. The battalion first stayed at Aung Ba Hla Ward of Maungdaw, and later shifted to Kan Yin Chaung Village to construct the fence from there. There were about 200 riot police in the battalion," he said.

According to an official source, after the riot battalion, there have been about 700 soldiers and 300 riot police so far that have been sent to the western border to construct the fence.

The soldiers are from various battalions based in Buthidaung Township but all of them fall under Sakhaka 15, the Military Operation Planning Bureau.

"The troops are usually working at many construction sites, but most of the troops are setting up barbed wire between one pillar of the fence to another," he said.

The authority stopped construction on the fence during this past rainy season but resumed from the beginning of this month. The entire fence is a three-year project and is expected to be complete in 2012.

According to a local source, there is a rumor spreading in Arakan State that the authority has plans to electrify the fence to keep local people from destroying it. The military junta has set up a hydropower plant at Sai Din Waterfall in Buthidaung Township in northern Arakan, allegedly to provide power for the electric fence.

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