Independent Mon News
Agency
The village headmen
in
Tax demands are depending on the
property of each family that who have gardens and large houses have to pay
4500-5000 Kyat per month, while the slightly poor family has to pay 1500 Kyat
per month to heads of the village in the area.
The villages in
The extorted taxes are not really
spent for the fee of village security.
Heads of villages have to spend in buying foods and other materials for
troops of Burmese Army when they come to villages, said a village headman of Kwe-ta-lin village.
A villager earns only 1500 Kyat
per day, and no one wants to pay the taxes, but they are afraid of the abuses
by the soldiers or do not want to be in prison if they refused to pay. This is the main reason why they have to pay
to headmen, accordingly to a villager from Kwe-ta-lin
village.
Moreover, the villagers
themselves have to guard their villages at night time by the instruction of the
local military battalion’s commanders. If someone failed to perform his duty,
they have to pay 1500 Kyat instead as compensation. They have to guard at the
entrance or crossroad of two villages that are close and they have to bring
their personal homemade guns, said a villager from Kwe-ta-lin.
Without the helps by Burmese
Army, the villagers have to guard their villages in the entrances, main road
that connects from one village to another.
If they found some activities or strange people in the area, they have
to suddenly inform the army outposts nearby or battalion bases immediately.
Additionally, the Burmese Army
also instructed for the movement restriction against the villagers in order to
cut their contacts to the rebels.
“While we have to guard our village, we also are n not always allowed to
work at our gardens (or plantations and rice-fields). We also have to pay 100 Kyat per day to get
travel documents by the troops,” added by the village from Kwe-ta-lin.
Burmese Army’s Military Operation
Management Command (MOMC) No. 8 and its 10 battalions based in Yebyu, Tavoy and Long-lon Township and those battalions has to take outer
security for Yatana gas pipeline, railway road and
motor road in the area. Those
battalions have intensively involved in extortion from villagers via heads of
the villages to cover for all of their expenses during their military operations. On the other hand, they also forced the
villagers as ‘militia force’ to guard their own areas.
For more information contact Independence Mon News
Agency
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Tel: 66-095494296