RELEASED MON LEADER QUESTIONED IN RANGOON

(Kao-Wao, July 9, 2002)

The senior leader of the New Mon State Party was taken to Rangoon for questioning following his release from the breakaway group near Halockhanee Mon refugee camp, Thai-Burma border.

Nai RotSa, the Secretary General of the New Mon State Party was released in the evening on July 6, 2002 after being taken and held by force for three weeks by the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party.  He was released, along with his assistant, Mon Saw Noi, by the breakaway group near Halockhani refugee camp, Karnchanaburi Province of the Thai-Burma border.

Three days later on July 9, 2002, a Thai negotiator, and U Khun Myat, a Kachin businessman, who had been involved in brokering the cease-fire agreement between the New Mon State Party and the military junta in 1995, advised Nai RotSa to go to Rangoon to clarify to the military brass on the circumstances of his abduction. According to reliable source from the border, the Military Intelligence No. 5 base in Moulmein, Mon State reported to Rangoon the NMSP leader was not abducted but met with the breakaway group in an agreed plan by both parties.  It is not known what is being discussed between the Burmese junta and Nai Rotsa or when he will return home to Ye.

Both the HRP and NMSP confirmed Nai RotSa’s release on July 6, 2002 but the NMSP has not issued a formal statement since the leader has yet to return safely to NMSP office and to his family in Ye, Mon State.

Nai Lun, a spoke person from the HRP said the Mon leader was treated well by HRP. On the details behind the release, Nai Aye Mon of the NMSP liaison office explained to Kao-Wao that there was no deal for his release and assumed pressure by a third party, initiated by the Thai, was the main reason for it.

The New Mon State Party (NMSP) was founded in 1958 to struggle for greater autonomy for the Mon people and reached a cease-fire agreement with the military junta of Burma in 1995.  The Hongsawatoi Restoration Party (HRP) was founded in late 2001 by Colonel Nai Pan Nyunt after he split from the NMSP.

Nai Rot Sa joined the Mon armed movement from Rangoon Economic University in the early 1970s and was promoted to Secretary General of NMSP in 1981. He is well respected by the Mons for his honesty, modest lifestyle, and for solving problems within the party and the movement.

KAO WAO NEWS GROUP

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