Maungdaw: A former Village Peace and Development Council Chairman and eight women were recently sentenced to jail for running a prostitution racket by the district court in Maungdaw in western Burma's Arakan State.

"Than Moe, the former chairman of Taing Gyi Model Village was sentenced to two years in jail, while the women were given one year each by the court on 3 June," said a source close to the accused.

The source said that 43-year-old Than Moe was running a brothel with the women, who had been brought in from the local area and mainland Burma. The brothel was located at the junction of Pandawprun and Nyaunchaung Villages for nearly two years and was allowed to operate because palms of local police and Nasaka were greased.

However, the business was finally closed, when Than Moe and the women were arrested in a raid by Nasaka last April after he refused to pay the regular bribe to the border force personnel.

Apart from Than Moe's, there are currently a number of sex parlours operating openly on the Pandawprun and Nyaunchaung road junction as though they are legally permitted by the authorities.

That road junction in Maungdaw is known for its sex parlours, bars, and video halls located at all corners. The area is always crowded with clients and has been nicknamed by the local people after the Burmese capital Naypyidaw.

Many young women around Arakan State are in the sex business in Maungdaw, a trading town on the western Burma border, as they have been struggling to survive given the economic crisis in Arakan.