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BAGO DIVISION – A junta appointed administrator in Paungde Township, western Bago Division extorted the villagers and asked them to pay “porter charges,” shared a junta council staff who asked to remain anonymous.
The administration officer of Taungboehla Village Tract in Paungde Township is said to have collected 10,000 Kyats per household in the first week of December.
Ten villages of Taungboehla Village Tract including the villages of Taungboehla and Thayetchin, with around 850 households, were reportedly victim to the reported extortion.
“He personally went to the households that didn’t pay and told them he won’t be responsible for the consequences. The villagers were threatened into paying. The administrator said that he had to make payment to the (junta council in) town so that the residents won’t be abducted as porters (forcibly conscripted by the junta council),” said a resident of Taungboehla Village Tract.
The resident continued that hundred household chiefs went from door to door collecting the payment for the administrator and that the houses of junta council staff were exempted from the payment.
The administrator in question has frequently made it clear to the civilians that he would only follow the orders of the junta council as he was appointed by the junta regime and would always be accompanied by two junta soldiers he has invited to his home.
Around 800,000 Kyats were reportedly collected from the villages but it is unclear how much of it was actually submitted to the township junta council.
Taungboehla Village Tract is heavily reliant on agriculture and many of the households are in the low income category.