First assault and robbery in Arutaung village leaves woman hospitalized

June 15, 2009

WCRP: Mi Kyi Kyi’s (name changed for security purposes) gold was stolen and she was stabbed in the head by two men in Arutaung village, Ye Township, according to villagers from Arutaung village.

On June 6, she and her 4-year-old child were sleeping. At midnight two men broke into her home and she woke up. They took her necklace and bracelet that she had been wearing, about 2 kyat weight of gold (30.32 US g), and stabbed her in between the ear and forehead in the course of the robbery.

She shouted and cried from the pain, bringing neighbors who had heard her, to the house. However by the time they had arrived the two men had run off. She has been in Ye’s hospital for the last 5 days. Her husband has not yet returned from taking Durian fruit to Moulmein, and does not know about the robbery and assault.

Mi Kyi Kyi sells Durian fruit along the road between Arutaung village and Moulmein where busses drop off passengers.

“Many women are working here in the village and there are many people of different ethnicities, some of whom are looking for opportunities to take advantage like in this case,” said a neighbor.
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“Most of the migrant works that come here are from upper and middle Burma, and come for the many jobs. The two men were possibly migrants here, because before we never have had anything happen like this,” a source close to Mi Kyi Kyi speculated.

This is the first case of robbery and assault in Arutaung village. According to an article published in February by the Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA), migrant workers from upper and middle Burma have caused trouble in several villages in Mon State with robbery, drunkenness, stealing produce and damaging paddy fields. Villagers have been afraid to protest because of the potential threat of violence from migrant workers who have migrated mostly to find work on rubber plantations, in vegetable gardens, in the salt industry and small brick factories. Some of the migrant workers are ex-soldiers.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News