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Villagers in Mon State are stuck with extortion imposed by Light Infantry Battalion No.31

The Mon Forum

Taung-Bone villagers were ordered to pay more taxes than they could afford. Taung-Bone village is in Ye Township, Mon State. According to the local people, the order was given by Captain Myint Thein from Light Infantry Battalion IB No. 31.

The order stated that the village head had to take responsibility for finding 10 porters among Taung-Bone’s villagers. If porters could not be found, the village head would have to collect 70,000 Kyat from the villagers. Read more

SPDC Followers are Convincing Pro-Government Groups in Mon State

The Mon Forum

According to the decision of an emergency security meeting, held by top-level military officers in the Southeast Command in the second week of August, every township and village administration in Mon State would have to form secret security services under the arrangement of the township’s Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA). The main purpose of forming the secret security services was to prevent the upcoming economic demonstrations by anti-government protestors and Buddhist monks.

In order to implement their decisions, leaders of the USDA in Chaung-Zone township have reportedly called on youths for security service and started carrying out their secret activities to convince the pro-government groups, such as the Women Affairs Group, the Maternal and Child Welfare Group, militia, Red Cross and the fire station in Chaung-Zone township to be activists. Read more

Burmese Soldiers commandeer villagers’ motorbikes in Mon State

The Mon Forum

It was reported that since 27 August, soldiers from the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 299, have been commandeering villagers’ motorbikes in Han-Gan village. Sergeant Aung Myint and his followers have been taking 3 motorbikes from the villagers everyday.

Han-Gan village is located in Ye Township, Mon State and LIB No. 299 is based in Koe-Mile. They also asked the village head to pay for gasoline. Because of this, the village head has had to collect money from villagers. They’ve been asking for 3 gallons of gasoline each day because they want 1 gallon per motorbike. The soldiers also threatened to simply take bikes if no one would offer up their own. Read more

Police extort money from arrested young people in the Mon village

The Mon Forum

It was reported that on August 14, 2007, five youths from Hnee-padaw village in Mudon Township were arrested at night time by the police for sitting in a public rest-house along the street. Following the arrest the police demanded money from their parents for releasing them.

Police personnel from Kamawet police station entered Hnee-padaw village at night and arrested the youths. Read more

A HIRED PORTER WAS SERIOUSLY TORTURED BY LIGHT INFANTRY BATTALION NO. 18

HURFOM

Ko San Win, a poor, 37 year old, daily wage earner from Three Pagoda Pass, a town on the Thai-Burma border, was seriously beaten by a sergeant while working as a hired porter for Infantry Battalion No.18. He was beaten up because, due to exhaustion, he was finding it difficult to carry his load of supplies. The following are details about how, from July 9 to 18, he had been tortured from while working on the frontline of the LIB No. 18’s military offensive in Karen Area.

“On July 9, 2007, a friend of mine asked me to work as a porter for Light Infantry Battalion No. 18, which is based in the Three Pagoda Pass area. I was to be paid 200 baht per day. At first, I refused because I had heard a lot of awful stories about the way porters were treated on the frontlines. Unfortunately, due to the closure of the Thai-Burma border and the lack of work in this border town, Read more