SSA soldiers extort money from NAG Staff

Network Activities Group’s (NAG) staff were threated and were made to give money to the SSA’s soldiers on their way back from helping Panhka’s refugees who were fleeing from the fighting and are now located in Hopan village on January 21^st 2012 in Mantong Township, Kauytme District, Northern Shan State, Burma. 
According to the case, When U Zaw Min Aung, who is the leader of NAG, and his four staff based in Mantong Township returned from helping Panhka’s refugees (178 people), the Shan soldiers pointed their guns to them and demanded money from them.
“The soldier spent a long time interrogating us they then ordered that one of my Shan friends join them to be a soldier. After several questions, they started to demand money from us and finally we had to pay ten thousand kyats in order to continue with our journey. As a villager said, these soldiers are the ones who take responsibility for the commissariats but the rest of the SSA soldiers are in the forest” said by the NAG’s staff.

Human Rights Documentation and Information Department
Ta’ang Students and Youth Organization