The Burmese military junta disrupted the Kachin Christian minority’s third celebration of Thanksgiving and traditional Manau festival in Manmaw (Bhamo) district, in Kachin State, according to festival officials.

The checking of motorcycles by traffic police prevented hundreds of local Kachin people from joining the festival, which was held in Aung Ta quarter, in Manmaw Township, on November 24 and 25, festival committee members said.

Beginning on the eve of the festival, motorcycles were strictly checked by traffic officers, and fines levied on the riders (or owners) for three straight days, during an operation the police call the “Motorcycle Supply Check”.

On November 23 and 24, the motorcycles were only checked in downtown Manmaw, which did not interfere with local participation in the festival, an organizer said.

However, the next day, on November 25, the day of theThanksgiving service and Manau dance programme, (known as ‘Shawa Manau’ in Kachin), the traffic police stationed at the vehicle custom gate on Manmaw-N’Mawk Road, about 300 feet from the festival venue, carefully checked festival participants’ motorcycles, eyewitnesses said. The owners of unlicensed motorcycles and riders without driving licenses or helmets were fined by traffic police, the eyewitnesses said.

A festival official said, “Over 200 participants wearing traditional suits, who came from N’Mawk (Momauk) Township to dance for Shawa Manau, had to return home because they wanted to avoid traffic police and fines. They mainly came to the festival on motorcycles”.

Every family in Manmaw, and other towns in Kachin State, has one or more poor-quality Chinese motorcycles transported from the border because of cheap prices. But, most vehicle owners do not want to procure licenses because the regime’s license fee is more costly than the purchase price, local motorcycle owners said.

Many people in Kachin villages within 10 miles of Manmaw downtown also could not join the festival because of the police operation, said residents.

Manmaw is the second largest city after Myitkyina, the capital, but the government has banned the construction of permanent Kachin cultural facilities, including Manau Poles and a Manau dance field.

Since Burma’s independence in 1948, the celebration of Thanksgiving and the Manau dance festival has only been authorized in Manmaw three times. The previous celebrations were in 1996 and 2009.