Mon community leaders have denied requests by a government-allied armed group to open gambling operations during Mon National Day celebrations (MND) in northern Mon State. The refusal runs counter to permission granted to the armed group by township officials.
According to an IMNA source who spoke with Mon leaders in Mudon Township, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) has been requesting permission to open gambling operations leading up to and during MND. The DKBA is a an ethnic Karen armed group that has been loosely allied with Burma’s central government since splitting from another armed Karen group in 1994.
The Mon leaders planning the celebration, who make up what is known as the MND Working Committee, told IMNA sources that they have staunchly refused requests from the DKBA to offer gambling.
“The Mudon Peace and Development Council called the Mon National Day Committee to come and meet. The TPDC said ‘the DKBA will pay 1.2 million for permission to hold gambling,’” said an IMNA source quoting a member of the Working Committee. “We said, ‘It will disturb the celebration. We have never accepted money to include gambling at Mon National Day.’ We did not grant permission after we told them that.”
“We also heard that the DKBA will open gambling in other villages [in conjunction to MND]. If we hear one village gives permission [to the DKBA for gambling operations during MND], the Committee will take on the responsibility to stop the gambling,” the source further quoted a Working Committee member.
The DKBA is notorious for its gambling operations, as well as narcotics trafficking and human rights abuses, throughout its operating areas in Mon and Karen States. According to a report released by the Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) in December, the group traffics thousands of amphetamine pills into Thailand via the Three Pagodas Pass border crossing. Its gambling operations, including betting on cards, games of chance and cockfighting, have drawn complaints from community members. Festival times are particularly lucrative for the group.
Allowing the gambling, meanwhile, would undermine MND, say members of Mon civil society groups. “The DKBA gambling would disgrace Mon people,” said Marn Nyan Seik, a central executive committee member from the Mon Youth Progressive Organization near the Thai-Burma border. “It is the policy of the government authorities and the DKBA to profit from gambling. That is why we should not give permission. If we give permission, it will disgrace Mon people and obstruct the progress of our nationality.”
