Independent Mon News Agency

December 5, 2003

SPDC’s Model Village Project Makes Poors in Trouble

The SPDC Mon State authorities have implemented the model village/ city ward project and they force the civilians to recreate their houses and gardens accordingly the set model and so that thousands of poor who have no available money get serious trouble.

The project has been implemented since last years and the village with over 1000 houses is included in the program to create ‘model’ village with the same type of clean and beautiful house.

The authorities ordered old and ruin house owners to rebuild their houses accordingly to model housing, if they could not afford they must have to leave from villages. For those, who can afford they must listen the authorities’ order and need to re-decorate their houses and gardens according to the model.

The civilians need to create their model village/city ward in ‘self-help’ condition and the civilians are also forced to build new-tarred roads, high schools and other infrastructures with their own money and labour contribution.

According to the villagers from Hnee-padaw village, which theirs is included in the project said, “the government (authority) claim modeling the village is modernization, but our villagers are getting in trouble”. The village situates on Moulmein-Thanbyuzayat motor road in Mon State and the villagers have to re-decorate their houses, gardens, and the villagers who could not afford to build new houses have to leave from their homes.

In creating the model village, the authorities forced the villagers from Hnee-padaw village for those who have old house have to rebuild new houses, roofing the houses with iron sheets, and to fence their houses with bricks. If they could not to do so, they must leave from their village, added in the order.

Other villagers are also suffered in creating ‘model villages’, to re-decorate their houses, fence their house gardens, to tar the roads and to build a high school and the villagers are forced to pay money for these building and road construction.

The similar modeling the city wards project has been implemented since early of this year in Moulmein city, the capital of Mon State, and about 2 city wards were affected. The civilians in city had to fence their houses and the families who stayed close to the main roads were forced to re-build brick houses.