The Burmese authorities in Karen State are confiscating unlicensed cars and issuing ultimatums to local car owners to hand over their unregistered car to the police, according to car owners and residents.

“This weekend the authorities began ordering us to hand over our unlicensed vehicles to them by the end of this month,” said a car owner in Myawaddy, the Thailand-Burma border town opposite Mae Sot said. “No o­ne likes to give their car to them.”

Now unlicensed car owners in Myawaddy are afraid to use their cars. Some cars have already been confiscated.

A car owner whose car was confiscated said, “I know more than 10 cars have been confiscated by authorities in Myawaddy alone, including my car.”

He said he tried to get his car back but failed. He said he was told the confiscated cars have been taken to a police station in Pa-an, the capital of Karen State.

According to a car owner at Three Pagoda Pass, opposite Thailand’s Sangkhlaburi District in Kanchanaburi Province, car owners there are hiding their cars, but the confiscation operation has apparently not yet started in that area.

The Thailand-Burma border at Mae Sot-Myawaddy and Three Pagoda Pass are the main gateways in the black market for importing unlicensed cars to Burma. Most import cars are Nissan, Toyota, Suzuki and Honda.

The border price of a Nissan car is between 60,000 baht (US $1,700) to 70,000 baht ($2,000); a Toyota Hilux Tiger Extra-Cab sells for more than 100,000 baht ($2,900). For Suzuki and Honda is prices are between 30,000 ($800) to 40,000 baht ($1,100).

According to a car trader in Rangoon, an unlicensed Toyota brand is priced between 5,000,000 kyat ($4,000) to 6,000,000 kyat ($4,700) while a licensed car sells for between 130 million kyat ($103,000) and 140 million kyat ($110,000).

The authorities are also reportedly searching car garages in Rangoon that are suspected of buying unlicensed cars and supplying them with rebuilt engines and improved exteriors.

A Myawaddy source close to Karen ceasefire groups and the Burmese authorities said many cars have been confiscated in areas such as Kyaikto, Thaton and Moulmein of Mon State and Kawkareik, Myawaddy and Pa-an of Karen State.

He said the cars were sent to Naypyidaw, the junta’s new capital, to provide transportation to government staff in the police force, the Bureau of Special Investigation, the Crime Department, the Special Branch and the Anti- Narcotic Task Force.

The Burmese military government started cracking down o­n unlicensed cars after the dismantling of the military intelligence department o­nce headed by the former Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt who was ousted in October, 2004.