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Economic predation: taxation, extortion and commandeering in Mon State

I. Introduction

The economic situation on Burma’s southern peninsula is demonstrative of the often spoke truisms about the interconnectedness of the globalized world economy. Though Burma’s foreign trade is limited by government mismanagement and international sanctions, it is still reliant on and impacted by changes in the international financial environment. Today in Mon State, the reduction in the international demand for rubber has lead to a plummet in the value of rubber. Similarly, a bumper paddy croup in Southeast Asia following last year’s international rice shortages has paddy at a fraction of its normal value. The precipitous decline in price of Mon State’s primary agricultural products is being matched by a decline in remittances as migrant workers earn less in now-struggling neighboring countries Thailand and Malaysia.
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Considerations on Human Rights and Political Progress

There has been a new process of international community’s involvement for the national reconciliation in Burma.  Recently, an ASEAN Summit, the Thai Foreign Minister and an official from US State Department have attempted to engage with the regime to encourage national reconciliation in the country. Read more

Local residents reluctant to pay for corrupt authorities’ entertainment permits.

HURFOM, Southern Ye Township, March 27, 2009

Local residents in Southern Ye Township, Mon State have decided to spend less money on public entertainment events such as music or traditional dancing performances due to the heavy taxes levied by the Township authorities. Read more

Permission denied to repair Mon National schools in southern Ye township

HURFOM, Khaw-Zar Sub-township, March 25, 2009
An appeal to repair Mon national schools in southern Ye township has been denied by the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) and the local SPDC Battalion based in the area, according to the local Mon Youth Association’s members and activists who have been trying to repair the NMSP-run schools for their young people.

Members of the joint Mon Youth organizations in the villages under the control of Khaw-Zar Sub-township have tried to ask for the permission to repair their national schools from both the Sub-township PDC and the local Infantry Battalion No. 31 since the beginning of January, 2009. However, both Sub-township officials and the local military Commanders postponed the decision for more than two months and eventually gave a negative response, according to Mehm Lyeh, a 28 year old Yin-Ye villager and worker for Mon national schools.

He explained, “at first, we tried to repair the schools without any official permission. But most of the schools in this area needed major maintenance such as replacing the zinc roofs, the wooden frames and the brick fencing. On the other hand, we have been afraid of the possible consequences from the local authorities if we do it ourselves without any permission.”

According to another 27 year old Mon man from Yin-Ye village, “in our village the school building needs major repair to be in a good condition.  If not, it might cause harm to the students. Most of the frames under the roofs are not really strong enough right now.”

In the first week of March some members of the Joint Mon Youth Association under Khaw-Zar Sub-township attempted to meet with the TPDC leader but received a reply from an assistant officer instead of the council chairman U Kyaw Moe, 48, an ethnic Burman, originally from the middle part of Burma.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk with the chairman. But we met with an assistant officer and he told us that the proposal was rejected by the Sub-township’s management board during the last weekly meeting,” a 25 year old villager from Yin-Dein village, who wishes to remain anonymous, told a HURFOM reporter.

In Toe-Tat-Ywa-Thit village, some security troops from Infantry Battalion No. 31 used the Mon national school as a base to organize village security with the local residents. While based in the school the soldiers broke some classrooms’ windows, chairs, tables and blackboards, according to a local resident who used to work as a Mon national school teacher in the village.

“The soldiers have to repair the wrong they have done in the last three weeks in our school,” said a 30 year old Mon man, a member of the local Mon Youth Association in the village. “This is the main reason why we want to fix our school. We have been ready to repair it for three months. We have collected sufficient funding through the support of our friends who are working abroad in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. We have even bought 70 bags of cement, sand, iron frames and zinc roofs in order to repair the schools. But now we have been denied permission by the authorities. Of course, most of the officials are ethnic Burman and they might want to maintain the junta’s systematic policy of ethnic cleansing. Language and Literature are very important for every minority ethnic groups and thus they have always harassed our Mon education system.

The schools in this area have been running without a break since 1995 after the cease-fire between the main Mon political armed force, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the current regime, SPDC. Occasionally Mon national schools have been threatened with closure by local authorities in a way similar to other Mon areas in the north. The authorities even took photographs of teachers and students in Mon national schools when the session began, to increase fear among the staff and the learners.  In southern Ye township, some Mon schools were forced to close down by a military order in 2004. Local military authorities forced a Mon National School teacher to resign after they demanded that the teacher sign a paper agreeing to teach Burmese instead of the Mon language.

Colonel accuses villagers of supporting KNU

HURFOM: Villagers in Tenasserim Division have been accused of supporting the armed Karen National Union (KNU) and been denied access to their land by a Burmese military Colonel who also refused to let Christian villagers hold meetings about improving their churches. Read more

Nigh time travel banned in Mudon and Thanbyuzayat

Fri 20 Mar 2009, Kyae Goe, HURFOM/IMNA

Residents of Mudon and Thanbyuzayat Townships in Mon State are not being allowed outside of their houses after 9 pm. The order comes after rumors of insurgent activity in the area.

Earlier this week, army officials notified the New Mon State Party (NMSP) liaison offices in Moulmein and Thanbyuzayat Townships of the restrictions. According to NMSP sources, the party was asked to ensure that its members and, particularly, soldiers in the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA), were careful not to travel at night. Read more

Villagers forced to be human minesweepers, suffer other abuses by Karen cease-fire group

Fri 20 Mar 2009,HURFOM/ IMNA
Residents of at least eight villages in Karen state are being forced to provide food for soldiers from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), as well work as porters, guides and human minesweepers.

Beginning in February, residents report that each village has been required to provide 20 baskets of rice and cooking materials to DKBA Battalions No. 901, 906, 907 and “special force.” Affected villages include Kyait Kwin, Maw Hto Ka Lay, Kawk Sign, Pine Ka Lar Don, Ason, Thaung Oot, Tawbawbo and Larm Pharn villages. Read more

Villagers forced to relocate, provide materials to pave way for road project

Tue 17 Mar 2009, Kon Hadae, IMNA

Villagers are being forced to provide construction materials and move their homes to facilitate a road expansion project in southern Mon State. At least four households have been required to relocate or partially dismantle their homes to make room for the road expansion, say local sources. Read more

Clash with Karen rebels wounds two after Burmese army forces civilians to stay at encampment

Tue 17 Mar 2009, Kan Hadae and Blai Mon, IMNA
One civilian was wounded in a clash with Karen rebels after the Burmese army forced passenger trucks to stay the night at their encampment. A Burmese soldier was also wounded in the fighting.

On March 15th, a column from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 357 ordered passenger trucks on the Three Pagodas Pass to Thanbyuzayat road to stop at their camp near Maezeli. Maezeli is a small outpost approximately 25 kilometers from Three Pagodas Pass, in Karen State on the Thai Burma Border.

Though vehicles using the 60 kilometer road are sometimes stopped a checkpoints if they attempt to pass late in the evening, one source who spoke with IMNA said his truck was stopped at an unusually early 3:45 pm.

“Even though [the Burmese soldiers] did not give us any reasons why they stopped the cars, in my opinion I think they tried to make us like hostages for their [safety]. They thought that, if passengers were with them the Karen soldiers would feel sorry and not fight them,” said the IMNA source.

“We were afraid of the soldiers, so we were going to sleep in Mae Sali. After we had taken a rest for about 15 minutes, the gun sounds came out. There were another 8 passenger trucks and many passengers with me. Just in my car, there were 60 passengers,” said a male passenger in the truck that arrived at 3:45.

A source at the New Mon State Party (NMSP) Tadein checkpoint, 15 kilometers away, differed slightly and said that the fighting occurred at 4:48 pm.

According to sources present for the clash, the fighting lasted about 10 minutes with the hundred-strong column from LIB No. 357 responsible for the preponderance of the small arms fire.

One passenger and a soldier were wounded, though unarmed civilians were unprotected and exposed during the firefight. The passenger was shot in the arm, the soldier in the leg; neither wound is serious.

“After the fighting, one soldier was injured. After the army doctor treated him, he came and treated me,” a source that spoke with the wounded man quoted to IMNA. “And then they gave me a supporting letter so that other soldiers would not find fault with me.” Without such a letter, a civilian bearing an obviously military-related injury would likely be presumed for an insurgent.

After the fighting and through the course of the evening, a total of 20 civilian vehicles arrived and were made to stay the night. Civilian sources report being terrified as they worried over the prospect of another KNLA attack.

“We had to sleep there. But I could not,” said the source whose truck was stopped at 3:45 pm. “I dared not to sleep all night because I was afraid the KNLA would come and shoot again.”

An officer in KNLA 6th Brigade, meanwhile, told IMNA that the clash was inadvertent. According to the officer, 5 soldiers from Battalion 16 of 6th Brigade arrived at Maezeli planning to levy a road tax on a group of what they thought were civilian vehicles. The soldiers were not aware of LIB No. 357’s presence, said the source, who could confirm which side initiated the clash. The KNLA is the armed wing of the Karen National Union, which has been waging an armed insurgency against successive central Burmese governments since the country’s independence.

“Because of us one passenger is wounded,” said the KNLA source. “We are very sad for him – we did not know the Burmese soldiers would be there. We were fighting, but we did so unintentionally. If we knew soldiers and civilians were together, we would not have come.”

Army Battalion commits human rights violations

HURFOM: An army battalion has been committing human rights violations in all the villages in Khawzar Sub-township, forcing them to labor on a local road and stand sentry duty against rebel groups as well as demanding that villagers pay for rifles for the Peoples Militia Force (PMF). Villagers have also been forced to pay illegal taxes to military appointed headmen before and after they travel abroad to work. Read more

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