In a high handed action, civic authorities auctioned off a shop owned by National League for Democracy (NLD) Divisional Organizing Committee member Win Win Mya, this afternoon.
The Mandalay Division municipal committee went ahead with the auction despite repeated requests by shop owners not to do so. The civic body sold the shop No. 9, C Block, Mandalay Zegyo Market, in an auction at the Town Hall No. 1 today at Kyat 51 million (1 USD = Kyat 1020) to a Burmese-Chinese Tin Ko Ko.
"There were only two bidders at the auction. The floor price was Kyat 50 million and Tin Ko Ko bought it at Kyat 51 million at about 2 p.m. today. Another bidder was Thein Myint Oo, another Burmese-Chinese and he offered Kyat 50.5 million," Ba Soe, Win Mya Mya's elder brother, said.
The municipal committee seized their shop on 1 June 2007 for allegedly inciting unrest.
A week before the seizure, Junta-backed Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA) members and Swanahshin took photographs of the shop from close up and a civic Police Colonel from the municipal committee arrived and informed them of the seizure. The shop owners had to sign on a paper acknowledging having received the seizure information, Ba Soe said.
"After signing the paper, I visited the municipal office and they showed me three photographs. The first showed our shop with the signboard. The second showed customers buying at the shop. And the third was an enlarged photograph of 4"x6", where a NLD flag sticker seemed to be pasted on the shop wall. The municipal committee never came and checked our shop. They accused us of inciting unrest in the market by showing the photographs. This was a pretext," he added.
Win Mya Mya, who is also the NLD’s Women’s wing Mandalay Divisional in-charge was arrested in 2007 September during the saffron revolution and sentenced to eight years in prison on 24 October 2009 after being charged with three cases including committing disaffection to the state and insulting the religion.
"People living in Burma will face the same fate. All NLD members are under restriction and oppressed economically and socially," Ba Soe said.
