“Because the village track administrator told us that the forest is reopening this morning, locals have begun flowing to their orchards and rubber plantations. It was very crowded. It was closed for more than ten days prior,” said a Yinye villager, who requested to remain as anonymous.
Infantry Battalion (IB) 31, which is based near Kawsar Town, gave an order to locals in Kawsar Sub-township on May 18th that no one was allowed to set foot in the forest. As a result, the locals struggled as they could not work on their orchards and crop plantations.
“The durian price is good this year. And, it is at this time of year that we can pick the durians. However, because we were not allowed to go to our orchards for ten days, many are now rotten,” said a Tho-thet Ywa Htit villager.
The reasons why IB 31 forced the closure is that the [dis]armed groups of Nai Pin and Mon Chan were attempting to extort locals [owners of orchards and plantations] in Kawsar Sub-township.
Although the armed groups of Ah-Lwin, Ah-Saung, and Mon Chan are active in southern Ye Township and blackmail locals often, so far there has been no clashes between the government troops and said groups.
The IB 31 security group seized 40 Lakh (4,000,000) Kyats and 160 extortion letters from wife of the joint-warrant officer from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 299, based in the Ko-mine area. On May 19th, the case was transferred to the police station in Ye Town and the accused faced article 386 of threatening and extortion, adjudicated by the Ye Town Police Station.
According to report from local monks, seven cases of commandeering and looting took place in late 2014 and till May of 2015. Almost all cases were conducted by the [dis]armed groups of Nai Pin and Mon Chan.
In early May, nineteen monks from Kawsar Sub-township sent a letter to South East [Regional] Command requesting help with security in order to keep peace in the area.
