The above photo was taken on May 3rd 2016 in Thandaunggyi Township, Toungoo District by a KHRG community member. It shows two bodies on the road after the collision with the two villagers’ motorbike and one of LIB #124’s trucks. The trucks were transporting their monthly rations from the Southern Command Headquarters to Thandaunggyi Town for their frontline soldiers on May 3rd 2016. [Photo: KHRG]
On May 3rd 2016, the LIB [Light Infantry Battalion][2] #124 from Thandaunggyi Township, Toungoo District were transporting rations with military trucks to a place which is about 100 yards away from the Tatmadaw officials’ dormitory when they collided with a motorbike being driven by two people who were both killed immediately.
The LIB #124 were transporting their monthly rations from the Southern Command Headquarters to Thandaunggyi Town for their frontline soldiers on May 3rd 2016. There were 12 trucks transporting the rations. The first truck in the line collided with the villagers. They were Saw[3] Maw Gay, who was 22 years old, and his mother Naw[4] Tha Ku, who was 47 years old, and they were both from Le Me Gyi village, Thandaunggyi Township, Toungoo District. The number plate of the truck that hit the two villagers is 8157(ဗ) Ding Feng and the driver’s private military code is တ/409166. These two people died immediately when they were hit by the truck and the 12 trucks did not help them. They briefly stopped to check the bodies and then they drove back to their military camp.
Some villagers who were travelling on the road and some of the local people who live close to where the incident happened found the dead bodies and informed the Christian monk in Thandaunggyi [Town]. The Christian monk then went to the place where the incident happened and questioned people and then reported the case to the Thandaunggyi police station.
According to the local villagers, civilian cars were traveling on the road that day but there was no incident involving those civilian cars. The Southern Command Headquarters transported their rations on the day that the accident happened and, as the villagers do not trust Supply Unit #930, they went to the place where the military trucks were parked. The incident did happen [according to the researcher] but they [Supply Unit #930] denied it at first, and so the villagers and police checked every single military truck and they found the blood and motorbike front casing pieces on the wheel of the truck that private Ko Ye had driven. The other truck drivers also admitted that the incident had happened and they said that the driver Ko Ye had escaped as soon as he arrived at Supply Unit #930. They [Ko Yeh and the officer in Supply Unit #930] did not do anything with the two dead bodies. The villagers put the bodies in a church in Thandaunggyi and the church members then had to take care of everything including the cremation of the bodies. The Christian monk also tried to help to bring Ko Yeh to justice but he had escaped after the incident. However, according to community members, the Christian monk said that at the moment the perpetrator has still escaped and the Tatmadaw military leaders do not know where he has gone either.[5]