Monk cheats migrant workers and flees

Chan Mon, IMNA
February 2, 2006

A monk belonging to Burma , living in the Ban Maung temple in Phang Nga cheated migrant workers and a number of Thais and fled with 700,000 Baht.

The monk posed as a fortuneteller and a doctor of herbal medicine and stole about 300,000 Baht from the Ban Maung temple. He deceived and collected another 300,000 Baht from migrant workers in the area and ran away from the temple premises on January 28.

Vi La Sa the monk who never revealed where he hailed from lived for about six months in Ban Maung temple and treated Mon, Burmese, and Karen migrant workers with his herbal medical.

“He said he was from Rangoon when Burmese people asked him. Where he hailed from. When Mon people asked him, he said he was from Ye. He collected money from migrant workers for building a temple but when people started building the temple he escaped with the money.

He did not contact the temple authorities ever since he disappeared leading people to conclude that they had been cheated,” said U Hla Ttwe who lost 5,000 Baht.

“He taught me to say ‘Ni Nyo Nyo- Kyar PhoNyo-Hello- Halae-Hae' and asked me to repeat it 37 times a day to cure the pain in my leg,” said a woman who was cheated of 2,000 Baht.

Many migrant workers were cheated and some lost as much as 10,000 Baht. Some Thai people were also among those deceived. The Thai authorities and workers are searching for the monk.

The monk has been identified as a trafficker of people. The Burmese immigration authorities from Kawthoung are searching for 10 monks including Vi La Sa.

The monk was quite tall and fair. His body was full of tattoos. “His fortune telling attracted migrant workers. He treated people and demanded money,” a monk who is helping migrant workers said.

Now migrant workers are worried that the Thai people would not trust them and look down on them because the Burmese monk escaped with the money from the Thai temple.