The New Mon State Party (NMSP) has refused to provide a list of its members and their families to Special Branch police officers who said they wished to use the information for ID cards.

According to an officer from the NMSP, “The Special Branch came on March 3rd to tell us that if we wanted IDs we had to provide a list of all our members and their families [in the Three Pagodas Pass area] by March 8th. They’ve never asked for this before, an ID list just for the NMSP, and they didn’t say how much the IDs would cost.”

The NMSP requested further information from the immigration department. They were told that the department intended to obtain lists of the residents of Three Pagodas Pass and the surrounding area altogether and at the same time. This was decided at a department meeting in December 2008. They denied that they would request a separate list of details from the NMSP before anyone else.   

The NMSP officer said, “We didn’t want to hand over the list because we didn’t want to answer any questions that senior officers might ask once they had it.”

According to a resident of Three Pagodas, “right now the immigration department hasn’t done the IDs for anyone here. We heard that they’d do the NMSP first and then all the other residents.” However, the resident added that in NMSP controlled Halockhanee village the department was currently preparing IDs for all residents.

According to a villager from Kyawbalu, Three Pagodas Pass Township, “in our village the immigration department came to prepare our IDs and we had to pay 500 baht each although other villages had to pay different amounts.”

Another Three Pagodas resident said, “in my opinion, the Special Branch were asking for the list from the NMSP because they want to know how many people are in the party. But no-one can be sure of their purpose.”