Myanmar Spring Chronicle – October 22 Perspective
(MoeMaKa, October 23, 2025)
The Junta’s Manipulation Behind the KK Park Crackdown
A few days after Myanmar’s junta announced that it had entered KK Park—a compound in southern Myawaddy notorious for large-scale online scam syndicates known in Chinese as “pig butchering” (kyar pyan in Burmese)—reports began emerging that thousands of people from the area were fleeing toward Myawaddy town and across the border into Mae Sot, Thailand, in groups.
KK Park was originally established in 2020, when a Thailand-registered business leased land from the Karen National Union (KNU) to build a casino and “new city” development. At present, however, the area’s protection is provided by the BGF/KNA (Border Guard Force/Karen National Army), an armed group that maintains close coordination with Myanmar’s junta.
Since last year, China and several other countries have pressured Thailand to take stronger action against the online scam compounds after discovering that thousands of their citizens were being held and forced to work as cyber slaves in these facilities. In response, Thailand cut off electricity and internet connections to parts of Karen State hosting these scam cities.
During that earlier crackdown, the BGF/KNA and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA)—both of which had provided protection to the scam operations—handed over thousands of Chinese and other foreign nationals to Thai authorities. Despite this mass handover, however, the criminal networks were never truly dismantled.
A year later, KK Park alone reportedly still holds several thousand workers involved in scam operations. On October 22, social media began filling with videos showing people fleeing the compound — riding motorbikes, walking on foot, and crowding onto trucks leaving KK Park. These images went viral on Facebook and TikTok, prompting media outlets to investigate.
Just days earlier, the junta’s announcement claimed that its forces had entered KK Park, inspected over a hundred buildings, and found more than 2,100 people working in scam operations, seizing around 30 Starlink internet units. The statement implied that the entire compound had been seized. But in reality, it was only after the junta’s declaration — on the nights of October 21–22 — that workers began fleeing en masse, suggesting the “raid” may have been largely a staged or coordinated event.
By October 22, it was clear that the BGF/KNA, not the junta, was overseeing the evacuation and movements of people from KK Park. Given the close cooperation between the BGF/KNA and the junta, this “operation” appears less a genuine crackdown than a public relations maneuver designed to impress the international community.
KK Park is only one of several scam hubs along the Thai–Myanmar border. Other centers — such as Kyauk Hkhet, under DKBA control, and Shwe Kokko, under BGF/KNA protection — also operate north and south of Myawaddy along the frontier. These compounds are strategically located near the border to access electricity, internet, and quick escape routes into Thailand whenever raids or power cuts occur.
The kyar pyan (online scam) crisis is no longer a mere cross-border crime between Thailand and Myanmar; it has become a global issue involving victims from dozens of countries across Asia, Africa, and beyond.
Inside these compounds, thousands of foreign nationals — from China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Africa — are subjected to modern-day slavery. Many are trafficked, beaten, and forced to commit financial fraud under threat of violence. Reports indicate that Chinese criminal groups run much of the operation, but victims include citizens from multiple continents. Because these networks operate inside Myanmar’s territory, they typically avoid exploiting local Burmese, fearing backlash from nearby communities. Instead, they target and trade foreign workers between companies like commodities — a system of human trafficking and coercion hidden behind corporate façades.
Ironically, for some local residents in Karen State, scam compounds like KK Park are seen as high-paying job opportunities. Locals often mention friends or relatives who work inside the “zone” and earn decent wages, reflecting how normalized and economically entangled these operations have become in border communities.
Like the drug trade, the scam industry funds armed groups and the ongoing war economy. Some armed organizations provide protection to criminal operators or even directly participate, using illicit profits to finance their military campaigns.
Thus, what the junta presents as an “anti-crime crackdown” is in fact a cynical performance — part of a web where war, corruption, and transnational crime intersect. Behind the rhetoric of law enforcement lies a shared interest between the junta, its allied militias, and border warlords in profiting from Myanmar’s descent into chaos.