Government decries foreign radio broadcasts at local meeting

Jaloon Htaw, IMNA

At speeches intended to promote safety during the Water Festival period, village headmen spent time decrying the validity of broadcasts by international media. The order for the media targeted speeches came from senior members of the Burmese military, say local residents.

Early in April the village headman from Chaung Zone Township, Mon State, conducted a meeting with area residents, to promote safety during Water Festival, the Buddhist New Years, a period traditionally characterized by celebration, spraying of water, and drinking.

However the only reference to safety was made when the headman advised villagers that, according to an attending resident, “Villagers should not to be dangerous with motorbikes and should drive slowly.” Members of the local Military Intelligence (MI) added that villagers should notify the township police if they have an accident or are injured.

Attending residents reported that the village headman only spent a little time of safety messages, instead focusing on security and 2010 election related issues.

Specifically villagers were warned not to believe the foreign media radiobroadcasts in to Burma. One area resident who attended the meeting quoted him saying, “Don’t believe VOA, RFA, BBC, and DVB because they are not accurate.”

The speech also touched on issues promoting the military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). One villager recounted that the headman talked about how the SPDC would take reasonability for safety during the election and work to keep it a peaceful process. He went on to tell local residents that they must also take reasonability and make sure the election is a peaceful process without violent protest or armed resistance.

However the village headman, prior to giving the speech, admitted to a close source that the topics addressed in the speech had been ordered by Burmese officers from Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 6 and a nearby Burmese Navy battalion. The Chaung Zone Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC), then instructed every village headman had to give a speech to each of their communities.

A political analyst from Caung Zone Township, who requested his name be withheld for security purposes, commented, “They should not say like that because some people listen to the foreign media radio stations. They should not go telling people not to believe foreign radio stations.”

He added that other villages had held similar meetings, and other are planed for the area, on Burmese Army orders.