SPDC soldiers arbitrarily shoot villager and boy

August 31, 2010

HURFOM, Pegu Division: An SPDC column recently relocated to a new patrol zone in Kyauk Kyi Township shot a villager tending his cattle in a field with no apparent warning or justification. Besides killing the villager, a boy was also injured and is receiving treatment. This comes as the 12th outright execution of a resident by SPDC battalions in Kyauk Kyi Township since the start of 2010.

On, August 22^nd soldiers from Infantry Battalion (IB) No.48 approached a villager from Mar Lar Taw village, Kyauk Kyi Township, Pago division. Without questioning the villager, making any demands or indication that he had committed some crime, solders opened fire. Residents from the area interviewed by HURFOM’s field reporter indicated that this is not the first arbitrary killing of a villager by SPDC troops in the region, and insisted that the man had no possible links to insurgent forces or that there was any justifiable reason for the shooting.

According to a villager from Tal Kway Lay Kol village, who asked to remain anonymous, described the situation leading up to the shooting:

Last 11th of August, soldiers from Infantry Battalion (IB) No.48, based in Mar Lar Taw village, Kyauk Kyi Township, Nyaung Lay Pinn District, Pago Division, led by Captain Khin Maung Kyaw and another troop which is also from the IB No.48 but led by his second in command Thit Kyaw, switched their column locations at the local time of 9 PM. After the columns shifted [location], in the subsequent days [several unidentified soldiers from] the column with 30 soldiers and led by Captain Khin Maung Kyaw aimed at and shot a villager who was tying his cows in the cows’ field between Mar Lar Tar village and Tal Kway Lay Kol village. As a result of the shooting one villager and two cows were killed and another village was injured.

A woman from Mar Lar Taw village, who was familiar with the victim and an eyewitness to the attack, explained to the HURFOM field reporter her fears in response to the shooting:

The villager who got shot by the Burmese soldier was Saw Bar Kuu, 35, from Mar Lar Taw village. Another villager who was injured and also was from Mar Lar Taw village, is Saw Muu Tar an 11 year old [boy]. I do not know why the soldier shot them, but I do know them in person very well and they are innocent villagers. We were so sad when we heard about these innocent people getting shot, and then because of this, we also became very afraid. I am not sure why the soldiers shot at innocent people, but I guess that the soldiers must think that they can shoot any villager from this village and can shoot and kill whoever they want. Our headman thought that the soldiers shot them because they [soldiers] thought they [victims] were from the KNU [Karen National Union insurgent group].

The woman continued, explaining that the next day Saw Muu Tar was taken to a government hospital in Tha Pyay Nyo village, Kyauk Kyi Township, for treatment. On arrival medical attendants, having been ordered by an unidentified military offical, asked Saw Muu Tar’s parents not tell anyone who shot their son.

Currently, Captain Khin Maung Kyaw, who leads Battalion IB No.48, conducts patrols and actions in the four villages of Mar Lar Taw, Kyauk Tan, Saw War Tal, Tha Pyay Nyo, in Kyauk Kyi Township. According to later information from an area resident, Captain Khin Maung Kyaw has demanded that villagers from those four villages support them with enough supplies of food and money though HURFOM could not confirm the amounts demanded.

This is the 12^th arbitrary killing of a villager by SPDC forces in Nyaung Lay Bin District since 2010. Averaging over a killing per month in just one district, this latest killing is indicative of the sever toll the SPDC’s systemic free fire policy has on residents. In light of the recent international pressure to begin a commission of inquiry into the junta’s commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the government appears more sensitive to reports of abuses committed on the ground, tough the abuses themselves continue. Pressure on parents to remain silent about the role of SPDC soldiers in their son’s shooting is one example.

Additionally, the arbitrary nature of the shooing leaves residents with few options for defense or negotiation when they are arbitrarily shot in the middle of common daily tasks, or wounded by stray fire. Villagers that remain in the region continue to face the sever strain of living in daily fear for their lives. Thus, arbitrary willful killings seem to be an intentional systematic tool of the SPDC to keeping residents frightened of assisting or supporting insurgent forces, despite these killings occurring with no indication that targeted victims are in fact connected to insurgent activity.