Lighting a fuse: Lashio shaken by explosive extortion
www.frontiermyanmar.net
Armed groups collecting taxes in Myanmar’s Lashio is nothing new, but a mysterious outfit is upping the ante by bombing public places if its demands are not met and refusing to negotiate.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/8515726

Armed groups collecting taxes in Myanmar’s Lashio is nothing new, but a mysterious outfit is upping the ante by bombing public places if its demands are not met and refusing to negotiate.

Before the coup, many businesses in Lashio were expected to pay taxes to the ethnic armed groups the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Shan State Progress Party.

Since then, locals say the Kachin Independence Army has also moved into the area, further squeezing businesses. Once close allies, the KIA and TNLA have found themselves at loggerheads due to overlapping territorial claims and competing tax drives.

    • livus@kbin.social
      1·
      11 months ago

      From the body of the article it sounds like it’s just criminals taking advantage of the chaos of the civil war:

      Local sources say there have been at least 17 such bomb attacks in Lashio Township since the coup – at least eight this year alone. In another shocking recent incident, two people were killed and at least 10 injured at a Denko petrol station on the highway connecting Lashio and Mandalay on September 27. Some business sources said Denko was targeted because it refused to pay protection money.

      No group has publicly claimed responsibility for the rash of bombings, but a shadowy organisation called the Bomb Attackers Group has been quietly contacting businesses and demanding tax money – or else.

      The emergence of the bombing group, widely believed to be a criminal organisation without a political agenda, adds to an already heavy tax burden for local entrepreneurs.