Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, on Monday vowed to hold the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings accountable amid an increase in the number of people slain by rebels after being accused of working as informants for the military regime.
In the two and a half years since the military seized power through a coup d’etat there have been 212 complaints referred to the NUG’s Central Commission for the Investigation of Military Crimes related to the killing of alleged junta informants, of which 24 have been resolved, Maung Maung Swe, deputy secretary of the NUG’s ministry of defense, told RFA Burmese.
The NUG is made up of leaders in the former civilian government and other anti-junta activists.
At least 100 of the complaints are still being investigated, he said, including those filed against the anti-junta People’s Defense Force paramilitary group, local PDF groups, People’s Administration Organizations governing territory controlled by the armed resistance, and People’s Security Organizations formed to protect local communities against junta attacks.
Several of the groups have sworn allegiance to the NUG in its declaration of war against the junta, although they are loosely organized and the extent to which the shadow government exercises control over them is unclear.
Extrajudicial killings by armed resistance groups represent a minority of the civilian deaths in Myanmar’s post-coup conflict. According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), junta forces have killed at least 4,174 civilians since the takeover amid a scorched earth offensive against its opponents.
Among the killings referred to the NUG, some were carried out against victims who were later determined to be innocent of the accusations against them, Maung Maung Swe acknowledged.
Naga Nyi Naung killing
In one incident on June 23, six members of the local defense force known as Naga Nyi Naung, or Brother Dragons, arrested and executed Kyaw Win, 52, and his wife Cho Win, 42, in Mandalay region’s Madaya township.
A member of the victims’ family told RFA Burmese that the couple, who sold sebesten leaves used as wrappers for cheroots, left behind five daughters and an elderly mother.
Kyaw Win and Cho Win “were civilians” and had “never acted as informants” for the junta, said the family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
While a complaint was lodged with the Madaya Township PDF district officer in July, the case was not investigated until October, they said.
“My understanding is that the revolution is for brothers and sisters, family, and community,” the family member said. “If [the armed resistance] continues to act disorganized like this, more people will be killed … Going forward, I hope the revolution will proceed in an orderly manner.”
Attempts by RFA to contact the Naga Nyi Naung for comment on the killing went unanswered Monday, but the group had claimed responsibility at the time, referring to the two victims as “informants.”
Shooting in Wetlet township
Another extrajudicial killing took place in Sagaing region’s Wetlet township on Aug. 31, 2022, when the township’s PDF confronted a local defense group led by Bo Kyar Gyi for allegedly collecting unofficial tolls on an area waterway.
Bo Kyar Gyi told RFA that the PDF opened fire as soon as it arrived, killing two members of his group – Yan Lin Tun and Soe Maung Maung.
“As soon as they jumped out of the truck, they shot at us and there was no time to prepare,” he said. “They claimed that they shot at us because we started shooting at them. I am one of the people fighting the junta. If I shot back at them like an enemy, I would definitely have hit them. We didn’t fire back a single shot.”
After the shooting stopped, the PDF carried the bodies away in a vehicle and arrested 12 people, including the wife of one of the victims, who works as a teacher with the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, or CDM, Bo Kar Gyi said.
The victim’s wife, who declined to be named due to security concerns, told RFA that she and the others arrested by the PDF spent some five weeks in detention being interrogated before they were finally released.
“My husband was shot right in front of my eyes,” she said. “He was unarmed and on sentry duty, with just a phone in his hand. When I tried to go to him, he was already in a pool of blood ... It was the last chance [to be together]. I begged them but I was not allowed to be with him.”
The victim’s wife said that she has yet to retrieve her husband’s body, despite making multiple requests over the 15 months since he was killed.
No action has been taken against the Wetlet Township PDF in connection with four complaints of robbery and murder made to the NUG in September 2022, according to Bo Kyar Gyi’s local defense group and family members.
Controlling armed groups
Maung Maung Swe, the deputy secretary of the NUG’s ministry of defense, told RFA that the shadow government is “already planning to resolve” the killings in Mandalay and Sagaing regions.
“Regarding the case in … Sagaing region, the [NUG] ministry of defense is working to form a military court after completing an investigation,” he said. “There has been no complaint filed with us regarding the case in [Mandalay’s] Madaya township in June. We have contacted the person in charge of the region about this case.”
Maung Maung Swe said that while a code of conduct has been established for the country’s PDF groups to follow, “there may still be disputes, due to the complexity of the situation on the ground,” and he called for better oversight to minimize such incidents.
But a member of the PDF in Magway region told RFA that while the perpetrators of such crimes are supposedly arrested by local defense groups and “sentenced to prison by courts,” the reality of law and order in post-coup Myanmar is that “there are no courts, prisons or lawyers to prosecute these cases.”
The PDF member, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that in cases where the perpetrators belong to a powerful group, “there is no way to take action” against them.
Activist Hnin Thet Hmu Khin said that the NUG needs to do more to ensure its subordinate groups follow its code of conduct.
“Accountability is needed for the victims,” she said. “If an incident happened because of you or your forces, you must document what day it happened and how, and take responsibility.”
She said that when mistakes are made, they should be acknowledged and publicly apologized for, and that steps should be taken to prevent such incidents from happening again.
“If you can’t solve the problem right away, then you must explain how you will be held accountable for it later,” she said.
Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.