Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA)

July 17, 2003

Mon splinter group executed a local village headman

On July 15 night a Mon village headman from Yingye village in the southern part of Ye Township was killed by the Mon splinter commander, San Shay, accordingly to the family members of the headman.

The Mon splinter group, which is fighting against the Burmese Army, and name themselves as “Mon National Warrior Army” (MNWA) executed the Yingye village chairman, Mr. Nai Karat or Mr. Nai Tay (43 years) after several attempts to arrest and kill him, said by the brothers of Nai Karat.

Nai Karat was village headman for that village for some years and he also escaped for some months to his native village in Kawkareik Township, Karen State, and while he returned to village in which he was the Chairman, he was arrested and killed by the commander of the splinter group.

The members of his family informed to IMNA that they did not know the reason of this execution but felt sorrowful for the Mon armed group killed the Mon people.

Nai Halein and Nai Bin lead the splinter group, MNWA, and they have fought against the Burmese Army since 1997/1998 in southern part of Ye Township and northern part of Tenasserim Division.

MNWA involves in collecting food and tax from the Mon civilians in the area. Some rural villagers also relied on the splinter group for the juridical matters.

The local civilians are afraid of execution and torture by both sides of the armed groups, Burmese Army and MNWA, and villagers and village headmen have been often executed by the soldiers without trials.

Currently the troops of Burmese Army has launched intensive military operations in the area and deployed more troops along the main roads that connect from one village to another.

With an objective to cut supports from the civilians to rebel soldiers, the Burmese Army does not allow farmers to take more food supplies when they go to the farms, and they could take food that is only sufficient for one meal. They also instructed to stay in their farms only day-time. The farmers have to go to their farms at 6:00 a.m. and return to home at 6:00 p.m.

The military operations have lasted over 5 months and the splinter group could not ask get support and cash from the civilians. Therefore, they also kidnapped 12 villagers from Wae-paing village in the northern part Ye Township in May and asked for 3 million Kyat money as a ransom from the release of these villagers.