Displaced people from the Kyaikmaraw area of Mon State have posted on their social media with photos showing that their homes have been broken into and valuables stolen.
A local from Kyaikmaraw who returned home reported that in addition to motorcycles, the junta soldiers took valuables such safes, household items, and furniture in vehicles from villages such as Dhamma Tha, Kawt Swei, Kawt Thut, Ta Ra Nar, Than Ka Laung, Kyun Kone, Kawt Bein, Kawt Pauk, and Kawt Pa Laing.
“They broke into houses, took steel food carriers, and generators. They also broke open safes. They shot open the doors with guns to break in. They even brought their wives to carry the items away. Each day, they transported away more than ten truckloads. They broke into locked houses and took motorcycles,” said the local.
He added that most of the houses in the former combat areas such as Dhamma Tha and Ta Ra Nar villages were looted. The locals saw the junta troops loading the trucks but dared not speak up it.
An aid worker helping the displaced said the stolen valuables and motorcycles were also being resold by junta families at Rakhine Kone market in Mawlamyine and Zar Tha Pyin in Pathein.
“They resell the steel food carriers at Rakhine Kone market. In Zar Tha Pyin too, junta families also sell them at cheap prices. They’re making good money from this,” he said.
Just recently in Kawt Pa Laing village too, according to villagers, the junta troops took about 13 motorcycles that were kept by displaced locals in the village monastery. They loaded them into trucks, according to Kawt Pa Laing villagers.
On 28 April, the junta’s township administration announced that the situation in the Dhamma Tha had calmed down and displaced people could return home.
However, as the junta troops still present in the villages and along the roads, not all people have been able to return.
Sent by IMNA.