The junta has paid nothing to 11,043 displaced people (IDPs) from seven Tanintharyi Region townships, despite announcing on 17 February 2025 that it had given them 20,000 MMK each as the first of 12 monthly payments.
The junta promised to pay the IDPs 12 monthly payments of 20,000 MMK from February 2025 to January 2026 but has still given them nothing, despite claiming to have done so.
Of the 11,043 IDPs promised the money, 6,355 are sheltering in Dawei District, 4,289 are sheltering in Myeik District, 365 are in Kawthung District and 34 are in Bokepyin District.
An IDP staying in Taungpyauk Sub-township in Dawei District told Than Lwin Times that he had never heard of IDPs in that area receiving support from the junta.
He said: “I don't know who the junta was referring to when it said it provided funds for war-displaced people. We were displaced by the violence the junta itself started, and we don’t believe the junta would unselfishly support us. Even if it did actually allocate funds for us, the junta would have plans to exploit us.”
An official from the Nway Oo Myittar (Spring Love) social relief organisation, which is assisting IDPs in Myeik District’s Tanintharyi Township said that no IDPs in that area had received any money from the junta.
An IDP from Theinkhun Village Tract in Tanintharyi Township also confirmed this to Than Lwin Times.
He said: “In the area where I live, the junta's claimed funding support for people displaced by fighting has never reached us, neither in the past nor now. If we were to receive such an allocation, we would accept it. Most of the people displaced by fighting are taking shelter in forested areas, orchards, and plantations, enduring significant hardships.”
Some aid organisations assisting IDPs have speculated that the junta’s promise of funding is just a way for it to gather data about the IDPs for the elections it wants to hold.
According to a report by FE5 Tanintharyi, a research group based in the region, as of January 2025, there were approximately 77,200 IDPs sheltering in Tanintharyi Region.
