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Myanmar’s junta has blocked the supply of fuel to a town bordering Thailand where scam centers are rampant days after Thailand cut cross-border power, fuel and internet services to the lawless enclave where fraud and forced labor have thrived.
The Myawaddy district is under the control of a pro-junta militia known as the Border Guard Force, or BGF, that has opened up its zone to criminal networks, many run by Chinese networks, which operate extensive “pig-butchering” online fraud operations.
Thailand, facing damage to its tourist industry because of public alarm throughout Asia about forced labor in the centers, cut off electricity and the internet and blocked the supply of fuel to Myawaddy on Feb. 5.
The Myanmar junta has also stopped fuel reaching Myawaddy from central Myanmar ports to replace the supplies blocked by Thailand, Myawaddy residents told Radio Free Asia.
Myanmar military authorities were not letting fuel trucks through a checkpoint at a bridge on the road between the town of Kawkareik and Myawaddy, they said.
“There’s no fuel at all in the town,” said one Myawaddy resident who declined to be identified for security reasons.
“More than 40 boxers are stuck at the junta checkpoint,” said the resident referring to fuel trucks. “We do not know what’ll happen tomorrow.‘’
RFA tried to telephone the junta’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun, to ask about the fuel restriction but he did not answer.
The scams, known as “pig butchering” in China, usually involve making contact with unsuspecting people online, building a personal relationship with them and then defrauding them. The centres are often staffed by people lured by false job advertisements and forced to work.
The rescue of a Chinese actor from a Myawaddy fraud center last month raised international alarm about the centers, triggered the cancellations of Thai holiday plans by frightened Chinese tourists and encouraged the Thai government to act.
Chinese President Xi Jinping thanked Thailand’s visiting prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra last Thursday for the crackdown.
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Pumps run dry
Ordinary residents of Myawaddy say the restrictions on power and fuel are hitting them as well as the scam centers.
“Many businesses rely on fuel for pumping water, for everything. So while cutting fuel will affect the scam gangs it also impacts the public,” said the town resident.
One Myawaddy gasoline pump said it only had enough fuel for a car or two but that was sold out even though the price had nearly doubled to 10,000 kyat (US$5) a liter.
In the area’s main hub for scam operations at Shwe Kokko, 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of Myawaddy, the price of fuel rose to almost 20,000 kyat before it sold out.
“In Shwe Kokko, there’s absolutely no fuel. You can’t use a car at all,” said the resident.
The ethnic Karen BGF emerged after a split in Myanmar’s oldest minority insurgent force, the Christian-led Karen National Union in the 1990s. Buddhist breakaway fighters formed their own force and allied with the military, which granted them control of Myawaddy.
Analysts say the junta has turned a blind eye to the scam centers, and profited from them, while the BGF has helped the military keep KNU forces out of the main crossing point for trade on the Thai-Myanmar border.
Facing pressure from all sides, the BGF has promised to clean up its zone and stop fraud and forced labor.
On Sunday, it ordered Chinese nationals working in online operations to leave the town of Payathonzu, on the Thai border to the south of Myawaddy, by the end of the month.
The junta leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said last week the military would take action against money laundering.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.