Myanmar: Civil society groups demand resignation of Karen National Union leaders over alleged involvement in development project potentially linked to human trafficking and forced labour
"Controversial border project looms over KNU congress" 3 May 2023 [Updated 11 May 2023]
In late 2019, U Shwe Win sold a small plot of land near Mae Htaw Talay village, where he lives with his family in the south of Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township, to a company that said it wanted to develop a new town. [...] That land has since become the centre of a major controversy within the Karen National Union, Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed group, which has been closely allied to the anti-junta struggle since the 2021 coup. Both civil society groups and other KNU members have accused some senior leaders of involvement in the development project that critics warn could be linked to human trafficking and forced labour. [...]
It’s not the only shadowy project in the area. Shwe Win said there is another development project about 45 minutes north of Mae Htaw Talay by motorbike called KK Park, which allegedly has much in common with the controversial Shwe Kokko new city project, even farther north in Myawaddy Township.
Like Shwe Kokko, KK Park may have links the Kayin BGF and Yatai International, a company chaired by a Chinese fugitive who was arrested in Thailand last year. Shwe Win said BGF and Yatai representatives came to the village in 2018 to buy land from residents for the KK Park project.
On May 10, Yatai published a statement in the Bangkok Post, denying any involvement in KK Park or criminal activity in general. “We are a professional enterprise engaged in real estate development and urban construction,” the statement read. [...]
On February 23 this year, 68 Karen civil society and diaspora groups issued an open letter demanding the resignation of all KNU central executive committee members over their alleged involvement in what they described as a casino project. [...]
The KNU responded three days later, denying that any of its leaders were involved in the project, declaring that it did not permit criminal activities on its territory and explaining that Roger Khin attended the 2020 ceremony as an observer. [...]