Too many toll booths, too much squeeze

The number of toll booths on the 600 km Taunggyi-Kengtung-Tachilek road has increased five-fold from 23 last year, according to travelers and drivers coming from the Shan capital.

“There are altogether 130 gates,” said a trucker from Taunggyi, “and when I got through the last one, all that’s left out of my whole one-trip payment (100,000 kyat, about $100) was a mere 5,000 kyat ($5). How can you expect folks to make a living, if the government allows its gunmen to continue robbing them this way?”

A businessman who has a boat plying the Mekong from Chiangrai to Yunnan concurred. “The traders say, despite the problems they face during the dry season (when the water level is low), they make more profits transporting their goods by boat than by trucks (from Tachilek through Mongla into China). I don’t know why there are so many toll booths in Burma,” he sighed.

Apart from regular pay-offs, the civilian truck owners are required to make their vehicles available for military use.

There are 7 passenger buses operating between Kengtung and Tachilek and the requisition by the military has become so routine, the owners submitted a petition to the authorities on 16 August. “We were told that there is no longer forced labor in Burma, but only voluntary contribution and we should be proud of it,” said a driver from Monghpyak, halfway between Kengtung and Tachilek, a distance of 160 km.

Forced labor and extortions are illegal in Burma.