Burmese authorities extorted money from the residents of the villages of Sub-Khawzar Township, Southern Ye Township, Mon State, to support Nai Bin’s group, who surrendered to the Burmese army recently.
The villagers were instructed by the township administration that each village had to support the members of the group with thirty thousand kyats of cash, ten bags of rice and a can of coconut oil per month, according to a village administrator, who attended the meeting and asked not to use his name.
“We knew the township authorities demanded Khawzar Sub-township support the surrendered Mon group for three months with one hundred and eighteen thousand kyats of cash, sixty bags of rice and six cans of oil per month,” confirmed Nai Banyar Lae, the New Mon State Party(NMSP) president of Tavoy District.
Khawzar Sub-township has six village-tracks and about two thousand houses.
The plot of land in Shwe Hin Thar Village, nearby the town of Khawzar, was already specified by the township authorities to construct thirty houses and to create plantation plots for them.
A Khawzar resident, who preferred not to use her name, said the administrative officer instructed them that each house had to bring four cans of sweetened condensed milk, rice, two thousand five hundred kyats of cash and twenty bamboo poles to Shwe Hin Thar (Pop-thaw) New Village, where the houses would be constructed.
She continued, “It was ordered the support must be provided for every house. Some villages have been starting to send bamboo poles and pay the money.”
After the 1995 ceasefire with the NMSP, there was land confiscation and other abuses by government troops in Yebyu Township, Tenasserim Division, adjacent to the southern part of Ye Township. The locals collected weapons and rebelled against the army units because they could not tolerate the abuses. Nai Bin’s group is one of the groups which rebelledagainst the government.
Nai Bin’s armed group surrendered at a ceremony held by Light Infantry Battalion(LIB) No. 31 at 9 am of March 6 and rice, eating-oil and funds were given to them, according to a domestic news journal.
According to the Mirror and the Myawaddy newspapers printed on March 12, 2012, in the area controlled by the South-East Command, the six-member Mon splinter group led by Nai Bin surrendered an M-20 Pistol and 10 bullets peacefully on February 28.
On March 5, ten members of the same group led by Nai Mon Chan surrendered an RBG, 10 different varieties of small weapons, 162 different varieties of bullets, three RBG shells, two triggering bombs, seven different varieties of magazines, two antipersonnel land mines and three walkie-talkies.
Other Mon armed groups – A-loon and A-song’s group, the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party, Ko Yin Than Lwin’s group and A-Htoon(AungHtoon)’s group are currently still active in Yebyu Township of Tenasserim Division, and in the region associated with Myike, and in Thanbyuzayat and Mudon Townships and in the region nearby Three Pagoda Pass, respectively.
