About 30 Burma Army soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 81 (LIB-81) seized a New Mon State party (NMSP) tollgate near Kaw Sak Village in Kyaikmaraw Township, Thaton District at around 12.30pm on 17 June.
The checkpoint is at the entrance to Kaw Sak Village on the Mawlamyine to Kaw Bein Ramawaddy Road in Mon State.
The Thaton District NMSP secretary Nai Kyi San told I.M.N.A that the Burma Army confiscated an AK rifle, a pistol, and a walkie-talkie from the tollgate supervisor Nai Shwe Par Kit.
He said: “LIB-81 are based in Zar Ta Pyin. Around 30 soldiers surrounded [the tollgate] and detained our tollgate supervisor Nai Shwe Par Kit, but our man was released [whilst being taken somewhere else] after being told not to show his face [in the area] again and to take down the tollgate. [They] didn’t give back the weapons and equipment.”
He also said that the Burma Army’s sudden seizure of the tollgate without any reason was an act of bullying against the NMSP.
The Thaton District NMSP took charge of building Mawlamyine to Kaw Bein Ramawaddy road in 1997-98, under the Border Areas National Races Youth Development program. They opened the tollgate to collect money for road security and maintenance.
Nai Han Thar Bon Khai, the head of the NMSP Regional Development Department who is based in Mawlamyine said that the NMSP would continue to make enquiries with the authorities to try and find out the reasons why the army took over Kaw Sak Tollgate.
A similar incident took place in Ye Township on 15 May after the Burma Navy detained five workers from an NMSP-owned sheep farm on Kaw Kun Lon Island in the west of Andin Village. The workers were eventually released after being held for a few days.
Reported by Min Paing for M.N.A.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
