Military council troops have set up checkpoints in Bu and Ta Pwint villages in Setoketaya Township in Magway Region and are oppressing local residents, according to local sources.
One local resident said, “Two villagers have to stand guard at the checkpoints every day. It’s not that they get weapons from them. It’s because they are afraid that the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) might come and attack.”
Locals also have to provide motorcycles the junta troops with motorcycles for their patrols, costing 10,000-20,000 kyat per household, according to local residents.
In addition, when vendors from other villages come to sell goods in the villages where the junta troops have set up permanent checkpoints are required to provide them with goods free of charge. Specifically, meat sellers required to give up to two visses of meat for free.
Locals report that even when villagers slaughter pigs, cattle, or buffaloes for alms-giving ceremonies, they are required to allocate a portion of the meat as a quota to the military council soldiers.
Around 1,000 soldiers from the Pyu Saw Htee militia and the Battalion 20 of the Directorate of Defence Industries have been stationed in the villages for nearly four months now, extorting and oppressing the residents, according to local villages.
After the resistance forces stormed Ta Pwint village in 2023, the military council troops reoccupied the village before the end of the year, the local villagers said.
Sent by Than Lwin Times.