Police in at least six townships in Mon State are forcing black market businesspeople to buy tickets for concerts held to raise money to aid Cyclone Nargis victims, say local sources.

People involved in illegal, but common, business activities are being forced to buy the tickets, which cost 5,000 kyat each. Targeted businesspeople included sellers of lottery tickets, owners of Thai cordless phones and unlicensed machine operators “I have to buy three tickets although I have no wish to attend the concert. But I am afraid the police will arrest if I do not purchase a ticket because of my business,” said that a cordless phone owner from Naing Hlone village, Mudon Township.

Sellers of lottery tickets who sell them from an established shop are made to purchase even more tickets, said the owner of a teashop in Mudon Township friends with a vendor who had to purchase 20,000 kyat worth of tickets. Lottery tickets are popular in Mon State, and each village is home to about two lottery organizers and at least seven ticket sellers, said a Mudon a lottery organizer who has been collecting commissions throughout the township for 5 years.

Some people who live far from the concert venue are have been permitted to pay 3,000 for the right to not purchase a ticket or attend the concert, said a source close to a lottery ticket vendor in Nyaung Gone village, Mudon Township. In other cases, the right to not attend the concert is more expensive, said a source in Kyaikmayaw town, where a source said a friend who sold lottery tickets had to spend 20,000 kyat to not attend the concert.

In other villages, police have ordered village headmen to sell the tickets.

Five concerts have already been held, in Mudon, Thanbyuzayat (Thanpyuzayart), Moulmein, Chaung zone and Paung townships, though they were not well-attended. At least one more concert is scheduled for the near future, in Kyiatmyo next week. The concerts have all featured popular Mon singers Sai Sai Khan Hlaing, Ye Lay and Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein and moldes. The police have had to pay at least 20 million kyat for each concert, said a concert organizer from Mon State.