Rice mill owners were forced to pay for the battalions’ rations

June 15, 2007

Mudon Township, Mon State

Rice mill owners in Mudon Township, Mon State are at the receiving end of extortion. The Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) have demanded money from the mill owners for funds for the Burma Army.

If the rice mill owners don not pay the TPDC, the township authorities have ordered the police to arrest them, a mill owner said.

”On June 9, the TPDC ordered each rice mill owner to pay 50,000 Kyat per mill by June 15.” The TPDC authorities called a meeting of mill owners in the town and gave them the deadline to pay the money, he added.

The TPDC said at the meeting that the fund is meant for the Burmese Army’s rations. “It is impossible that the money is meant for army rations. It is likely that he is raising the money for himself because U Kyaw Kyaw Maung, the chairman of TPDC in Mudon is being replaced by the end of this month,” the owner alleged.

”Large mill owners can pay that kind of money.” Most owners have already paid the TPDC. But I couldn’t pay that amount because my mill operates just one or two days in a week,” the rice mill owner in Mudon Town said.

Mudon Township has over 100 rice mill owners and they have already given about 100 to 200 tins of their quota of paddy to the army as rations about three months ago.(IMNA)

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News