A town road sign under construction in Tachileik in north eastern Shan State was set on fire and destroyed on 21 June.
The Shan language sign at Tachilek covered with a tarpaulin
It appears that someone threw gasoline on the sign and set it on fire. The Shan State Development Affairs Minister recently gave permission to allow road signs written in Shan to be erected in the state. Tachileik residents made a new sign in Shan earlier this month, but local authorities ordered that this be removed so the sign was covered with a tarpaulin.
Sai Kyaw, a resident of Tachileik said: “The signboard was covered with a green cloth on the 18th [June]. We even went there to see it. The words in the Shan language have been removed since then. There are mostly military people residing in the area. Nobody would dare to do this unless they know the area.”
It is not yet known who burned the sign and their reasons for burning the sign.
The Tachileik Development Affairs Department’s deputy director, U Kyaw Moe Tun, told the Tachileik News Agency on 18 June that the entry sign in Tachileik had been built after the Shan State Minister of Development Affairs ordered all town entry signs in the Shan State to be written in both Burmese and Shan languages as part of the 100 day project of the Shan State Development Affairs Department.
A spokesperson for the Shan State Chief Minister U Lin Htut told the Mynmar Times that he was unaware of the details relating to the sign.
He said: “That wasn’t a Shan State project. It was a Municipal Development Committee minister’s project. I don’t know the situation.”
Translated by Thida Linn
