Foreign visitors were under close scrutiny by security agents of the Burmese ruling junta during the Kachin Manau Festival on the 61st anniversary of Kachin State Day in northern Burma held from January 5 to 11, said local sources.

European tourists in Kachin Manau festival in the Kachin National Manau Park in Myitkyina, Kachin State in northern Burma.

European tourists in Kachin manau festival in the Kachin National Manau Park in Myitkyina, Kachin State in northern Burma.
All visitors from European countries and neighbouring China in the Manau festival were monitored and closely watched. Their countries' names and number of visitors were listed by the junta's security agents, said sources close to visitors. The visitors were directly or indirectly asked for this information by security agents.

The visitors were mainly quizzed by military intelligence called the Military Affairs Security Unit (Sa Ya Pha) and the special branch of the police even as 500 Burmese soldiers took up security duty at the Manau festival by camping around the Manau compound, according to local participants.

Residents of Myitkyina said deploying so many troops in the Manau festival was ridiculous when all Kachin armed groups have ceasefire agreements with the ruling junta.

According to the Manau committee, over a hundred visitors from Austria, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Greenwich, Belgium, Israel, Japan and Germany visited the Manau Festival.  Over 300 Kachins also called Jingpo-zu from China's Yunnan province also attended the festival.  Visitors from Switzerland were in highest numbers accounting for 88 of them.

The Manau committee sources added that Burmese security agents also entered the 'no entry zones for outsiders' in the Manau compound and carried out checks without asking for permission from Kachin Manau authorities.

Minister Brig-Gen Thein Zaw of the Posts, Telegraphs and Communication Ministry of the junta and a special Kachin State organizer of the regime, who was born in Kachin state told dignitaries in the special Kachin State Day Dinner party on January 10, that "This year the Manau Festival is the most successful of all," said participants quoting him.

The junta's Kachin state commander Maj-Gen Soe Win and Brig-Gen Thein Zaw were mobilizing the Kachin people to vote for them in the 2010 general elections in their Kachin State Day speeches on the morning of January 10, said participants.