Three Pagodas villagers forced to gather construction materials

February 13, 2010

HURFOM, TPP: Burmese army Tactical Command (TC) No.3, based in Anankwin village, Three Pagoda Township, Karen State, has forced residents to collect building materials of bamboo poles, wood planks, and leaves for roof thatch and wall packing, for construction on the Tactical Command’s battalion headquarters.

On Feb 3^rd, TC No. 3’s colonel Kyaw Myint, commanded headmen from 7 villages under control of the TC No.3 to order villagers to collect the supplies and bring them to the headquarters at Anankwin.

According to sources from the 7 villages, each are taxed as follows: Anankwin village providing 1000 packs of thatch leaf (each pack consisting of a ream of 50 leaves) and 100 planks and bamboo poles; Tanyin village must provide 500 packs of thatch leaf and 100 planks and 100 bamboo poles; Yelphaw village must provide 500 packs of thatch leaf, 500 planks and 100 bamboo poles; Theelone village must provide 250 packs of thatch leaf, 250 planks and 50 bamboo poles; Yathae village must provide 250 packs of thatch leaf, 250 planks and 50 bamboo poles; Puthaw village must provide 500 packs of thatch leaf, 250 planks and 50 bamboo poles; (7) Winkanae village must provide 500 packets of thatch leaf, 100 planks and 100 bamboo poles.

HURFOM’s field reporter estimates that there are nearly 500 hundred households within the 7 villages, and that the estimated total cost of the supplies demanded would be valued at close to 3,000,000 Kyat.

Kyaw Htwe, a 44 year old farmer from Tanyin village, said “We had to pay because they forced us to [pay]. If we did not pay, we couldn’t stay here. We wasted our time collecting bamboo [poles] and cutting planks of wood. We had to leave our jobs to do their jobs. Our village headman asked me to collect 35 planks of wood and 12 straight bamboo [poles]. I had to spend 1 week to get all of that material].”

A 35 year old Anankwin villager, Saw Nay Pa Lu, who is an expert in commodity prices, confirmed HURFOM’s estimate of the total cost of the building materials that colonel Kyaw Myint collected would be over three millions Kyat. “The military battalions never buy materials like that, they just get them from the resident by force. If we do not do what they ordered, they will put our names onto a black list and they can accuse us without reason all the time. Forcing us to collect [supplies] like this has happened many time before but we don’t know who we need to ask for help from to prevent these cases. That’s why whatever they command to us we have to do.[There are] no words to [act] against their orders.

According to analysis from a former Karen National Union (KNU) soldier, to prevent KNU operations and ambushes, the TC No. 3’s construction is an attempt to improve the security of its battalion headquarters. “KNU know the geography in this area well. Whatever clashes happen, the SPDC always gets the worst from the KNU. The SPDC troops could not influenced the KNU troops by fighting, so that’s the reason they [strengthen] their battalion and force the [Karen] residents to be busy with their [TC No. 3’construction] jobs.”

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News