Movie stars shoot down Karen soldiers
Soldiers from the Karen National Liberation Army’s 1st Brigade were beaten in a friendly football match against a celebrity team, Actor Star FC, from the Myanmar Motion Picture Organization at Bilin on Thursday 1st November. The game was played to help raise funds for development in Bilin Town, Mon State,
The KNLA team was beaten 2-0 win by the Actor Stars in a tightly contested battle. Colonel Saw P’late, the Tactical Commander of the KNLA 1st Brigade told Karen News that the funds raised from the ticket sale will be used to build local facilities.
“Right now, we haven’t counted how much we’ve raised. We will put up the statement after we have counted the money. Since it will be for development, it will be used to build roads, bridges, schools or clinics for local villagers.”
The KNLA team included soldiers and officers from its 1st Brigade, while the movie star’s team had popular actors such as Lu Min, Thu Htoo San, Paing Zay Ye Tun in their line-up. Ticket for the game sold at 500 kyat and as many as 10,000 spectators paid to see the friendly match.
The game was preceded with entertainment and singing by members of the Myanmar Motion Picture Organization before the football match kicked-off at 3:30pm.
Min Win Tun, a 21-year-old Bilin resident who attended the football match spoke to Karen News.
“This is the first time I have seen a game like this. We have football matches at a township level competition in our town, but nothing like this – it was great. ”
The football match was organised by the well-known actor, Wai Lu Kyaw and was sponsored by Shwe Poo Company – a gold mining company that used to mine in the areas under the controlled of KNLA 1st and 5th Brigades.
