Death and extortion stalk civilians as rival armies clash in northern Shan state

The conflict between the Shan State Army-South and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army is taking a growing toll on civilians

Myat Moe Thu

Published on Jan 13, 2021

Women and children forced to flee fighting in Kyaukme township gather at a temporary refuge on December 27, 2020. (Photo: Myat Moe Thu / Myanmar Now)

With his fists clenched, Maung Tun recounts how his sister Mot Swei died in late November 2019.

She and her sisters were picking corn in a family field in Manwar, a village in northern Shan state’s Namtu township. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an artillery shell fell from the sky. A moment later, the 34-year-old mother of three was dead.

Like many others in the region, Mot Swei had moved to China for work, but returned annually for the traditional Shan New Year. She was visiting with her two-year-old daughter when her life came to an abrupt and bloody end.

“My late sister didn’t live in the village,” said Maung Tun. “She met her husband in China, and later they moved to Kachin state. She was visiting her home village for just a few days. I didn’t know what to say to my brother-in-law and nieces.”

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All three of Maung Tun's sisters were hit by the shell that killed Mot Swei, but two escaped with injuries. Mot Swei’s husband, who had returned to China for work, was unable to attend his wife’s funeral. Their three children are being cared for by their grandparents.

More than a year after Mot Swei’s death, the family still has no idea who fired the artillery shell that ended her life.

There were two ethnic armed groups carrying out military operations near Manwar at the time of the incident—the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). Both have denied responsibility.

Extortion season

Adding to their hardship, local villagers say they are also forced to pay “taxes” to both groups, which use these revenues to finance the cycle of violence.

November and December are the hardest months. Locals call this “the time of protection money,” when the armed groups come to collect their year-end dues and then ramp up their fighting.

Recently, the situation has gotten worse.

“This year is different,” said a local resident who asked not to be named. “In the past, each household had to provide one and a half baskets of rice. Now they will only take money—45,000 kyat, twice as much as before. And businesses such as gas stations or grocery stores have to pay 500,000 kyat.”

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Mot Swei’s mother and youngest daughter take shelter at a monastery in Namtu township in November 2020. (Photo: Supplied)

And it isn’t just two groups extorting money from civilians. In some cases, local businesses are expected to pay off so-called “people’s militias,” too.

No one dares say no to these demands. Everyone pays up at the appointed time, or risks abduction or even murder if they fail to heed warnings.

Counting the clashes

All of this plays out against a backdrop of endemic violence. According to the Burma Monitor, which monitors armed conflict in Myanmar, there were 163 clashes among armed groups, including the Tatmadaw, in northern Shan State in 2019. These left 64 civilians dead and 58 injured.

A recent incident occurred on December 10, when shelling injured an 18-year-old pregnant woman, two women in their fifties, and a 15-year-old student during clashes between the RCSS/SSA and the TNLA near Nampai, a village in Namtu township.

As is usual in such cases, both sides blamed the other.

The reason civilian casualties are so high is that combatants routinely set up camp in the vicinity of village schools and monasteries, making them targets of hostile fire.

Clashes over the past month have forced many to flee. Villagers from around Mansan, another village in Namtu, have only recently begun returning to their homes following clashes between the RCSS/SSA and the TNLA on December 8 and 9.

“They went back yesterday. They had to store their crops and feed their livestock. But the situation there is still very tense,” said Sai Kyaw, a volunteer who works with war refugees.

Meanwhile, fresh clashes in the area between the villages of Na Sai and Pan Chin in Namtu township on January 3 and 4 have sent more people fleeing for their lives.

Located just 45 miles from Lashio, the largest town in northern Shan state, Namtu is also only around 20 miles from the headquarters of the Tatmadaw’s North Eastern Regional Military Command.

A ceasefire-fuelled conflict

The RCSS/SSA is often referred to as the SSA-South, to distinguish it from the Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), or SSA-North. The former group signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in 2015, but the latter is a non-signatory, as is its ally, the TNLA.

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This house in Nyaung Sui, a village in Namtu township, was destroyed by artillery shell on January 5. (Photo: Myat Moe Thu / Myanmar Now)

While the NCA was hailed as a step towards establishing peace in Myanmar, northern Shan state has actually seen an increase in fighting since the RCSS/SSA joined.

The current hostilities between the RCSS/SSA and the TNLA date back to a three-day battle near the village of Panlong in Namtu in late 2016.

In 2018, combined TNLA-SSPP/SSA forces clashed with the RCSS/SSA at least 15 times. The TNLA says it has also fought directly with the Myanmar military more than 100 times in recent years, adding to insecurity in the region.

There are currently around 600 war-displaced civilians in Namtu, and another 1,000 in neighbouring Kyaukme township.

In addition to the direct impact of fighting, local people say the conflict has resulted in a breakdown of basic services and commerce in the region.

Myat Moe Thu

Myat Moe Thu is Reporter with Myanmar Now. She is based in Shan State.

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Win Htein to be tried by tribunal of two judges, says his lawyer

Announcement came as court postponed the 82-year-old’s third hearing, meaning his request for bail on health grounds was not considered

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Win Htein arrives for the opening ceremony of the second session of the Union Peace Conference in 2017 (EPA-EFE)

Detained National League for Democracy party stalwart Win Htein is to be tried by a special tribunal of two judges following an order from the military-controlled Supreme Court, his lawyer said on Friday.

“It was just one judge before, and now there’s two,” Min Min Soe told Myanmar Now.

“District judge Ye Lwin will serve as chair, and deputy district judge Soe Naing will be a member of the tribunal,” she added.

Win Htein faces up to a 20-year prison sentence for sedition under section 124a of the Penal Code.

His third hearing, scheduled for Friday, was postponed, with the court citing the internet shutdown as the reason because it made video conferencing impossible, Min Min Soe said.

“The arguments will be presented at the next hearing, we applied for bail but since they’re setting up a tribunal for the lawsuit, that will be discussed at the next hearing as well,” she said.

At the second hearing on March 5, Win Htein requested an independent judgement, a meeting with his lawyer, and bail due to his health issues, but the court said those requests would be heard on March 19.

Win Htein, 82, uses a wheelchair and suffers from breathing problems that means he often requires an oxygen tank. He also suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Min Min Soe was allowed a brief call with her client on Friday to tell him that his hearing had been postponed until April 2.

Aye Lu, the chair of the Ottara district administration council in Naypyitaw, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Win Htein. Ottara district is where the NLD’s temporary headquarters are located.

Aye Lu filed the charge on February 4 and Win Htein was arrested that evening at his home in Yangon. He has been kept in the Naypyitaw detention center and denied visits from his lawyers.

He was detained after giving media interviews in the wake of the February 1 coup in which he said military chief Min Aung Hlaing had acted on personal ambition when seizing power.

On Wednesday the military council announced that it was investigating Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption, on top of other charges announced since her arrest.

Many other NLD leaders, party members and MPs have been arrested or are the subject of warrants.

Kyi Toe, a senior figure in the NLD, was arrested on Thursday night in Hledan, Yangon.

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

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Op-ed

Seeking justice in the wake of Myanmar’s coup

The country’s military leaders have acted with impunity for decades, but now there is a mechanism to bring them to justice

Lin Htet

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Nationwide protests against the coup have been responded with murders, torture and mass arrests by the military regime. (Myanmar Now)

On March 8, U Ko Ko Lay, a 62-year-old teacher, bled to death on a street in the Kachin state capital Myitkyina. He had been shot in the head while protesting the military coup of February 1. That same night, U Zaw Myat Lynn, an official from the National League for Democracy, was taken from his home in Shwepyithar on the outskirts of Yangon and tortured to death. The list keeps growing.

In the more than six weeks since Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power, images of soldiers and police officers shooting, beating, and arresting protesters have flooded social media and Myanmar and international news outlets. So far, the regime’s forces have killed well over 200 people (more than half of them in the past week) and seriously injured many more. The junta has also arrested nearly 2,200 people, some of whom, like U Zaw Myat Lynn, have died in custody.

Each day, Myanmar human rights organizations update lists with names, dates, locations, and causes of death. Around 600 police and a handful of soldiers have decided they do not want to be involved in such actions. They have left their posts and even joined the anti-coup movement.

Many soldiers, police officers, and commanding officers are acting with impunity now. But they can face prosecution, not only in Myanmar’s courts but also internationally. Like any country, Myanmar is subject to international law. Because of its history of atrocities, most recently against the Rohingya people, Myanmar is also already subject to special international legal proceedings that apply to the current situation.

The most relevant is the United Nations’ Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM). The IIMM was created in 2018 after the Myanmar military’s brutal campaign against the Rohingya people, but it applies to the whole country. Its mission is to investigate “international crimes” from 2011 to the present.

International crimes are generally defined as “widespread and systematic” in nature, involving many victims and locations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.

In keeping with its mandate, the IIMM is collecting information on the current situation. In a statement released on February 11 (available in Myanmar here), it highlighted the “use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the detention of political leaders, members of civil society and protesters.”

More recently, on March 17, the IIMM also called on recipients of illegal orders to share this evidence so that those ultimately responsible for these crimes can be held accountable.

"The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions. They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed,” the head of the IIMM, Nicholas Koumjian, says in the statement (available in Myanmar here).

The crimes the IIMM investigates could be tried in Myanmar courts, courts in other countries, or international courts. International crimes are crimes that are so serious that they are considered to be against the international community, and are therefore not limited to courts in one country.

In other words, an international crime committed in Myanmar—for example, widespread and systematic attacks on civilians—can be tried in a court in another country or in an international court.

The Myanmar military is used to getting away with murder. Decades of well-documented killing, rape, and torture of civilians in ethnic minority areas have gone unpunished. No one has ever been tried for the killing of protesters during previous mass uprisings against military rule in 1988 and 2007.

But this time may be different. On March 4, the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement that “the killing of peaceful protesters by Myanmar’s security forces should be independently investigated as possible crimes against humanity.”

The IIMM is already set up and working. It provides a mechanism for just such an investigation. Those doing the shooting should be aware of this.

For further information:

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) on Facebook

International Accountability Mechanisms for Myanmar (learning materials in English, Myanmar, and Karen)

Lin Htet is a pen name for a team of Myanmar and international writers

Lin Htet

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At least eight killed in junta’s bloody crackdown in Aungban, Shan State

A resident said armed forces used drones to monitor the crowd before opening fire on them

Myanmar Now

Published on Mar 19, 2021

Men carry a wounded protester in Aungban, Shan State, on the morning of March 19 (Supplied)

At least eight anti-coup protesters were killed in Aungban, southern Shan State, during an attack by the military junta on demonstrations on Friday morning, according to the Aungban Free Funeral Service Society.

Sixteen military trucks carrying more than 100 policemen and soldiers arrived at the protest site at around 9:00 a.m. and began shooting at protesters. Seven died at the scene, and another protester who had been shot in the neck was taken to Kalaw Hospital and died by 11:00 a.m.

All eight victims were men.

The body of the man who died at the hospital was sent to his family’s home, but those who were killed at the protest site were taken away by the junta’s armed forces, a representative of the Free Funeral Service Society told Myanmar Now.

Aungban resident Nay Lynn Tun told Myanmar Now that police and soldiers had destroyed the doors of nearby homes in order to arrest people, and that at least 10 people had been detained.

“Initially, police arrived at the site. When the crowd surrounded the police, armed soldiers arrived at the site and began firing,” he told Myanmar Now. “In the coming days, if we cannot gather to protest, we will do it in our own residential areas.”

Since March 13, around 300 volunteer night guards have watched over these residential areas to protect locals from the dangers posed by the junta’s nighttime raids. These forces use drone cameras to monitor the activities of the night guards from 3:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. every day, Nay Lynn Tun said.

He added that hours before Friday’s crackdown, military and police had also used drone cameras to monitor the gathering of protesters in Aungban.

Over the last week, at least 11 protesters have been arrested in Aungban. Only three-- the protesters who were minors-- were released.

South of Shan State, in the Kayah State capital of Loikaw, two pro-democracy protesters were also shot with live ammunition by the regime’s armed forces on Friday. One, 46-year-old Kyan Aung, was shot in the lower abdomen and died from his injuries. The other wounded protester was a nurse, according to eyewitnesses.

According to a March 18 tally by the advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 224 people have been killed across the country by junta’s armed forces since the February 1 coup. Thousands more have been arrested.