New travel restrictions announced in Southern Ye

February 21, 2008

Kaowao:

Every resident of Southern Ye Township must now carry his or her own travel document, an expensive change to previous policy.

Southern Ye Township military commander Kha Ma Ya, Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 31, declared that everyone in Khaw Zar Sub-township must carry the new travel document for his or her own security. The small and simple document costs villagers 1000 Kyat per person, and people caught traveling without the document risk being detained by soldiers.

A Khaw Zar villager reported that these documents were required not only of plantation owners but also daily workers; all are forced to purchase and carry the document whenever traveling to or from the village. He said, “The military is empowered to query everybody that travels to and from the farms; they even stop women and children as they now expect us all to hold this document. We were previously allowed to hold one pair of documents per household but they now refuse this rule, opting instead to enforce one document per person and therefore increasing their profits greatly.”

Karen and Mon resistance groups are active in remote parts of Southern Ye and Yebyu townships and the area is designated a “black area” by the Army, which means soldiers may detain or even shoot individuals without question.