Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA)

July 18, 2003

More tax by Village Chairmen after Maj. Gen. Maung Bo trip to Kawkareik Township

After the instruction by a SPDC leader Maj. Gen. Maung Bo to implement more development activities in Kawkareik Township, Karen State, the village headmen have collected money from the civilians.

In Kawbein village tract in Township, the commander instructed to set computer and multimedia room in schools, set television teaching system and build a new hospital, and therefore, the headmen in the village tract collected more fund or money from civilians from these development projects.

The village headmen, who are also the Village Peace and Development Council authorities, planned to collect about 5.1 million Kyat (over 6000 US Dollar) from the villages in the village tract to cover for all costs of the above-mentioned projects. That village tract has about 5 villages. Each household in the village has to pay 2000 Kyat. (The daily income for one man is about 800 Kyat only – note by Editor.)

“This plan is the third plan after Maj. Gen. Maung Bo trip (in the first week of July) to this area. The first plan was to build a new road and the second was confiscation of land for the deployment of new battalion. They also confiscated a lot of the villagers’ farmlands and we all afraid of their serial plans. Now, they collect money again. For any plan, they have to take (labour or money or land) from the civilians. If there are more plans like now, we have to escape from the villages for sure”, expressed by a villager.

Even before Maj. Gen. Maung Bo trip, the local villagers from this area are forced to contribute their labour without payment for a road construction under the SPDC’s “Border Region and Ethnic Nationalities Areas Development Program”.

The local authorities also forced the villagers to build a 30 miles long road that connects Mon State and Karen State, which was known as Tarana - Kyonedoe road.

But at beginning rainy season, in mid-May, some parts were destroyed by flood as its embankment was built by human manual labour and it was not strong enough to prevent the water flow. When Maj. Gen. Maung Bo visited in early May, he found the ruin part the road and then instructed to find new route for the new road construction by abandoning the old route of the road.

The authorities plan to force the villagers again after the end of this rainy season (in September and October) to build the new planned road construction.