Mon rebels and SPDC army execute four village leaders in span of 12 hours

April 9, 2009

HURFOM, Yebyu Township:
A power struggle between the Burmese army and an armed Mon rebel group has resulted in the execution of four village leaders in two separate incidents that occurred in the span of twelve hours last week.

At around 10pm on the night of April 2nd, eight members of the Nai Chan Dein group entered Pauk Pin Kwin village in Yebyu Township and went to the home of the VPDC headman, Nai Bok (45) to demand a ‘tax’ of 700,000 Kyat, which they had ordered the villagers to pay by March 30th. Nai Bok’s Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) colleague, Nai Nyae (43) was then brought to the house and both men were confronted. Shots were heard and the men’s bodies were later found outside the headman’s home.

“I heard three shots, then I heard a Chan Dein member say, ‘this is what would happen to anyone who followed the Burmese army’s orders regarding their group,”’ said a villager in the area at the time of the shooting. “After that, there was silence and then I heard them run away. The headman’s neighbors came out of their homes and found the two men’s bodies.”

The two men executed on April 2nd were known to be unsympathetic towards Nai Chan Dein and had declined to collect money from the villagers to pay the group.

The Nai Chan Dein group has been actively taxing villagers in the Yebyu Township, located in northern Tennaserim Division and southern Ye Township in Mon State. In January and February, the group demanded payments of 5 to 7 million kyat from at least 5 villages in the area. In November, the group kidnapped and ransomed over 100 villagers, as well as executed 3 villagers suspected to be informants after a Burmese army ambush killed 3 of Nai Chan Dein’s soldiers near Ko Mile village in Ye.

Villagers have repeatedly found themselves “living between two fires,” and have been punished by SPDC army battalions in the area when they are suspected of supporting the insurgents. In January, Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 107 beat the headman of Amae village to death. He had returned to the village after it had been forcibly relocated by SPDC soldiers attempting to separate insurgents from local supporters.

In this case, news of the Nai Chan Dein group’s activities in Pauk Pin Kwin traveled fast. By 5 or 6am the following morning, a column of fifty soldiers from LIB No. 107, led by Major Khin Mg Chin arrived in Pauk Pin Kwin. The soldiers seized two other members of the Pauk Pin Kwin VPDC, secretary Nai Dod (40) and Nai Lwayi (38) and took them out of the village. An eyewitness then saw the group near the local Bhidae Monastery and followed them. He saw the men taken to a nearby farm in the direction of Kapoe village.

“I saw the army tie them to a coconut tree near a small hut on the farm. They questioned them for a while but I was too far away to hear what they said. Then they shot them dead. Afterwards Major Khin Mg Chin proclaimed loudly that they would weed out anyone from this area who supported any of the rebel groups.

“After the soldiers left the villagers gathered by the bodies which were still tied to the tree. Everyone was distressed because four members of the VPDC had been killed in only twelve hours by two different armed groups.”

Pauk Pin Kwin village now finds itself leaderless and effectively lacking a village administration. Like many villages in southern Ye and Yebyu, villagers are reluctant to take on leadership roles because doing so risks shouldering blame and abuse at the hands of both rebels and the SPDC army.

One 60-year-old villager commented, “These executions are the result of a power struggle between the army and Chan Dein for control of this area. Our village has lost four members of the VPDC in a very short time.”

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News