Immigration officials mobilize locals to support new constitution

By Myo Gyi
Mizzima News

March 21, 2008 - Officials of the Burmese Immigration Department in Shan State are reportedly mobilizing local people to support the ensuing referendum on a new constitution.

Immigration officials, who are providing national registration cards to local people in Nam Khan, Man Hero and Pan Hseng Townships in Muse district of Shan State, and are exhorting and organizing the people to vote 'Yes' in referendum, local residents said.

The Township Immigration officers Myint Maung and his subordinate Nyan Linn were leading the team in persuading the local people in Nam Khan Township, a local resident said.

The officials registered people and provided national ID cards to those who could prove their identity and produce valid original household registration certificates, the local resident added.

"This officer said that we must cast 'YES' vote when they issued the IDs to us," he said.

The local added that the registrations were done on a paper, which has the heading 'National Referendum Manpower Registration'. The ID cards are of two types - green for males and red for females.

Similarly in Man Hero town, the Deputy Township Immigration Officer Thaung Chit on March 12 told locals that they must support the new constitution in the referendum as his department is giving the IDs free of charge.

In Pan Hseng, a meeting was held at the Township Peace and Development Council Office on March 15 and the local residents were shown how to vote in the forthcoming constitutional referendum.

During the meeting, the Township Immigration Officer Kyaw Thet Han threatened the Ward and Village PDC members saying the people in the area must vote 'YES' in the referendum, and failing which will result in punishment of three years in prison and a fine of Kyat 100,000 (USD 80).

"He explained how to cast the vote in the referendum on a blackboard. He said that the IDs of voters must be kept at the polling station and they would issue the ballot papers after that. There will be only one ballot box, he said. Illiterate persons will be held by their hands from the door of the polling booth and then shown how to cast their votes," a source close to the Ward and Village PDC office said.

The Chairmen of Ward and Village PDC will be responsible for bringing all eligible voters to the polling stations and the Chairmen will be punished with three years in prison if voters avoid casting votes on the day, the source further said.

Another local from Pan Hseng said that the officials haven't yet threatened the villagers.

"The Ward and Village level PDC members haven't yet threatened us with imprisonment. But early this month, the township PDC Chairman personally organized us to cast 'YES' vote in the coming referendum. He said that a new nation will be built and we need to support it. In this new nation, the President may be Shan or Palaung. We heard something like that," he said.

At the same time, the leader of Pan Hse village militia in Nam Khan township, Pan Hse Kyaw Myint is organizing the local villagers to cast 'YES' vote in the national constitutional referendum otherwise the whole village would be wiped out from this place by the military junta, he has threatened.