Tar Bone Kyaw’s claim of billion-debt seen as exaggeration though high death toll confirmed
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NP News - Dec 8
High death toll information is true, but the TNLA's claim that the debt is in the billions is just a lie, according to information obtained by The Statesman from people familiar with the matter.
After the TNLA lost Mogok and Momeik, its leader Tar Bone Kyaw posted a tearful post on his Facebook page, expressing regret for collaborating with the NUG.
“During the Spring Revolution, we provided the best support we could with the resources we had built up over more than ten years. We trained and supplied the three-finger-salute youths every month with thousands of sacks of rice. Over the course of three to four years, thousands of comrades sacrificed their lives. We took on weapons debts amounting to billions of dollars. However, when we completed 1027, we were left alone,” Tar Bone Kyaw wrote.
This is not an official press release from the TNLA, but it was written by a third-level leader of the TNLA on its official social media Facebook page, so it can be considered the TNLA's position.
Although Tar Bone Kyaw claims to be in debt, a person familiar with the matter said that the TNLA controlled the Mogok ruby mine and extracted rubies without limit. Therefore, not only would he not be in debt, but he would likely have made a profit.
“Not only is he not in debt, he has already made a huge profit. That claim is just an act. Because in the early days, they supposedly owed 98 billion kyats to ‘Wa’. But that 98 billion kyats is just about 20 million dollars. And those 20 million dollars isn’t even worth the price of a single gemstone they obtained,” he said.
Therefore, the source said that the TNLA, which mined gemstones from the golf-course area in Mogok, gained tens of millions of dollars in profit together with the UWSA and MNAA, and that what they are doing now is merely deceiving the public.