The Shan Human Rights Foundation claims the Myanmar army shot dead a mentally-ill man in front of his parents at their home in eastern Shan State last month, then forced villagers to join a public demonstration against insurgency.
8 January 2015 | Written by Mizzima | Published in Myanmar
The Shan Human Rights Foundation claims the Myanmar army shot dead a mentally-ill man in front of his parents at their home in eastern Shan State last month, then forced villagers to join a public demonstration against insurgency.
In a press release dated January 7, the NGO said that on December 12, Myanmar army troops shot and killed a 32-year-old mentally ill villager, Sai Sarm Tip, at his house in front of his parents in the village of Wan Tinn in Murng Yawng, eastern Shan State. The troops had surrounded the house, ordered Sai Sarm Tip to come out, then shot him as he stepped outside, the NGO claimed.
Sai Sarm Tip, known to be mentally ill, was a former member of the Shan State Army-South who had resigned from service. A month before he was shot dead, he had trouble with the local army unit.
Two days later, over 1,200 villagers from all 66 villages in Murng Yawng Township, and all nine quarters of the town, were forced by the army to join a public demonstration in the town’s sports field against what they termed “an insurgent group.”
One person from each household was ordered to attend, and local Shan village representatives were paid K50,000 [US$50] each to read out prepared statements denouncing the insurgents, and blaming them for taxing and recruiting local people, and for killing innocent civilians. All the villagers were forced to shout prepared slogans in the Myanmar language, calling for the insurgent group to be “wiped out.”
The main armed ethnic group operating in Murng Yawng is the Restoration Council of Shan State [Shan State Army-South], which has had a ceasefire with the Myanmar government since December 2011.
The NGO said they condemned the Myanmar military for ordering local villagers to join the protest against the ethnic resistance group for crimes which they themselves are committing.
In addition, the NGO said it was reprehensible that the army was launching public campaigns to discredit ethnic armed groups, when the government claims to trying to build peace, and engaging in talks to bring in a nationwide ceasefire.