Travel restrictions resisted Mon State

August 21, 2009

HURFOM: Beginning on August 12th, Burmese government authorities placed checkpoints restricting travel along roads through Mon State, in the areas such as Thanbyuzayat, Mudon and Moulmein.

According to a resident who lives near the Thanbyuzayat checkpoint, police and soldiers from State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 62, have been thoroughly checking all travelers identity cards and bags, and been made to answer question about the nature of their travel.

Every truck crossing the checkpoint is stopped by authorities at the Thanbyuzayat checkpoint. Passengers in the vehicle are questioned about where they were going, what they were going to do there, who they are going to meet and where they plan on staying while away from home. Passengers at the checkpoint have also had to give addresses to the authorities.

The majority of passengers stopped at the checkpoints have been from different townships. These travelers are often fined between 3,000 and 5,000 kyat before they are allowed to continue their journey.

“This kind of activity had stopped for several months, but now authorities have started again,” said 40 year-old Thanbyuzayat resident. “Passengers are facing difficulties in their travels as some are stopped at the checkpoint.”

Previously checkpoints were installed along area roads in 2008 when the SPDC passed the highly controversial 2008 constitutional referendum. After the referendum was passed, checkpoints were removed.

Like those in Thanbyuzayat, checkpoints in Mudon and Moulmein have brought increased restrictions on travelers. Every passenger truck has been forced to stop, so that passengers must walk across the checkpoint and face questions by authorities.

A Pong Shein resident told a HURFOM field reporter that, he was stopped on his trip home from Moulmein at a Mudon checkpoint. Authorities did not allow him to return home and was sent back to Moulmein because he forgot to bring his identity card. After he paid the security agents 5,000 kyat, he was allowed to go back home. This has been the case with at least a dozen other passengers who were stopped at the checkpoint.

In many cases the road blocks and restrictions placed by authorities went up rapidly and without warning, so that many travelers faced problems since they were traveling without their identity card for which they had to pay the checkpoint guards.

The cause for the sudden reintroduction of checkpoints and travel restrictions remains unclear. In many of the now restricted areas, such as Melamine, public places are full of security agents both in uniform and in plain clothes. These public places include the boat station, at the high way bus station and at the train station, according to sources.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News