Burmese local authorities have ordered residents near the 105-mile border trade gate office in Muse in Burma’s northern Shan State to relocate, leading the villagers to refuse the order, according to sources in Muse.

“They [authorities] called for a meeting and simply ordered residents to move their homes,” a Muse resident told The Irrawaddy o­n Wednesday. “They offered no compensation or no alternative site to live.”

At the meeting, Aung Naing Oo, the head of Mong Yu Village, Myo Tin of the Muse Municipal Department and Muse police official Kyaw Sein Lin reportedly claimed that the villagers’ compound overlapped into the area of the border trade zone. They were ordered to move by June 20.

The deadline has passed, and the villagers say they will not move unless authorities provide an alternative area to live in.

“They [villagers], ethnic Kachin and Shan, have already lived there for ten years. Their area is connected to the trade zone, but actually it is not in the range of the gate office area,” said a Muse resident.

Muse police officials were not available for comment.
Earlier, the Muse-based Border Trade Committee had ordered a Kachin Baptist Church located near the 105-mile border trade office to be demolished by April 30, claiming the church compound belonged to the trade zone. Church leaders and about 80 supporters submitted a letter to the committee challenging the order.

The letter asked the committee to provide an official letter from the Naypyidaw government ordering the church to move. According to residents, the church was built 10 years ago by ethnic Kachins.

So far, there has been no response from local authorities.