Operations Commander Soe Moe Kyaw

The incident happened on April 5th 2019 outside of W--- village, Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District, in a mixed control area. Around 3:30 AM, two Tatmadaw deserters from LIB #339 and LIB #275, Nyein Chan and Myint Wai, reached a local motorbike workshop located 15 minutes away from the village. When the owner refused to give them a motorbike, one of the soldiers shot him with his service rifle.

The brother of the owner, who lived nearby, was also shot when he arrived at the scene. Then, the two deserters entered his house and shot a woman and children who were sleeping inside. They also shot the family members who tried to run away. In total, 7 persons were killed and one was injured. All the victims were from two local Muslim families.

One of the family members, U F--- managed to escape. He ran to the village and reported the case to the village administrator, U H---, who immediately called the KNPF in Hpah Prah. When the KNPF reached the crime scene at around 3:50 AM, the perpetrators were already gone. They were later arrested by the KNPF, one at a KNLA checkpoint in Lut Shan and the other one outside W--- village, and handed over to the Tatmadaw.

The Myanmar police from Three Pagodas Pass first banned the family from burying the dead bodies, presumably for investigation purposes. KNLA Battalion #16 ultimately allowed the family to proceed with the burials, as these should take place as soon as possible according to Islamic belief.

The two deserters remain in military custody awaiting trial. Tatmadaw soldiers based in the area told KHRG that they are likely to face death penalty. However, local people do not know how the Tatmadaw is processing the case. Crimes committed by military personnel are handled by Myanmar’s military justice system. Proceedings of military courts are not public, which makes it difficult to obtain reliable information about pending cases.2

Local people only found out about the killings in the next morning. Some of them were scared because they felt threatened by this incident. U H--- said that Tatmadaw soldiers from Strategic Operations Command’s (SOC) W--- military camp patrol every night around the village, which causes security concerns among civilians. He also said that weak leadership and management in the area contributed to this incident.

He recommended to put an end to the mixed control system to fix these shortcomings, and advocated for the demilitarisation of the area: “We are minorities. We should only have one ruling system. The Tatmadaw should not stay next to the village anymore. We cannot predict whether this kind of incident will happen again. If something happens, it will be dangerous for us because the Tatmadaw established their camp close to the students [children have to travel in front of the camp to go to school] and to our religious land. This can cause additional concerns whenever innocent villagers are killed.”

Operations Commander Soe Moe Kyaw from W--- SOC offered to give 5,000,000 kyats (USD 3267.17) to the victims’ family members in compensation, but U H--- said that they refused and asked for 10,000,000 kyats (USD 6534.35) per dead victim. As a result, no compensation was provided to the families for their deceased relatives.

Daw P---, a woman who was injured during the incident, was admitted to hospital at her own expenses. She has now been discharged. A local interfaith organisation helped her with 1,000,000 kyats (USD 653.44). Commander Soe Moe Kyaw also gave her 1,000,000 kyats in compensation for her injury.