TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsMyanmar’s border ‘raid’ and the scam war
The raid did not signal the beginning of the end for the online scam industry along the Thai-Myanmar border. It was the result of a battlefield gain, repackaged as an anti-crime success.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Members of Myanmar's military stand next to Starlink devices seized during a raid on the KK Park online scam center in Myawaddy, Myanmar's Kayin state in this handout photo taken on Oct. 20, 2025 and released on Oct. 22, 2025 by the Myanmar Military Information Team. (AFP/Myanmar Military Information Team)
I
n mid-October, the Myanmar military raided the KK Park compound along the Thai-Myanmar border, drawing significant media attention as thousands of foreign nationals fled the site, many seeking refuge in Thailand.
However, the raid did not signal the beginning of the end for the online scam industry along the Thai-Myanmar border. It was the result of a battlefield gain, repackaged as an anti-crime success.
KK Park is one of several casino and scam compounds lining the Moei River, a river that separates Thailand and Myanmar in this region. Located on the Myanmar side, it gained a particularly grim reputation even within an industry already notorious for torture and forced labor.
The timing of the high-profile “raid” and subsequent reports of “controlled building demolitions” by the military-aligned Karen BGF coincided with the 47th ASEAN Summit from Oct. 25-28, in Malaysia, a timing that appeared deliberate to curry favor with regional leaders.
Following the end of the recent ASEAN Summit, where leaders said that an end to violence in Myanmar and the start of inclusive dialogue must precede any election, it is useful to reconsider the steps that led to the raid on KK Park, and what is likely to happen next.
Large numbers of military troops were able to reach KK Park only after breaking through Asia Highway 1 from Kawkareik to Myawaddy on Sept. 7.
Myanmar military units had been trapped in Kawkareik, roughly 20 kilometers from the border town of Myawaddy, since mid-2024, pinned down by a series of successful ambushes by the ethnic resistance group, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
