Type of Incident

Killing, property destruction and indiscriminate shelling

Date of Incident(s)

July 7th 2023

Incident Location

(Village, Township and District)

T'See Ther Mee Lar (Hsel Thon Maing) Town, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District

Victim Information

Name

Saw[2] W---

Z---

Age

Unknown

Unknown

Sex

Male

Male

Ethnicity

Karen

Burmese

Marital status   

Married

Single

Occupation

Unknown

Unknown

Religion

Christian

Buddhist

Position

Villager

Villager

Village

T'See Ther Mee Lar Town, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District

T'See Ther Mee Lar Town, Daw Hpa Hkoh Township, Taw Oo District

Perpetrator Information (Armed Actors)

Name(s)           

Rank

Unit

Base

Commander’s Name

Unknown

Unknown

Light Battalion Infantry (LIB) #603

T'See Ther Mee Lar Town

Battalion Commander Hein San Htun

1. Explain in detail how you collected this information.

A villager from Taw Oo District who had previously attended a Village Agency Workshop (VAW)[3] informed a KHRG staff member about this incident. On July 11th 2023, this villager provided the contact number of his friend who had been in the town when the incident occurred, allowing KHRG to conduct an interview with him over the phone. The villager from the town could provide detailed information about the incident as a friend witnessed the events directly from a hiding place in the town and informed him of the details. On July 13th, KHRG was also provided with one victim’s family member’s contact number by the villager who had attended the VAW. The KHRG staff member called this family member, Naw A---, the wife of Saw W---, and interviewed her over the phone.

2. Explain how the source verified this information.

This information was provided by a family member of one victim and a villager who was in the town at the time, informed by his friend who witnessed the events, and attended the scene afterwards.

Describe the Incident(s) in complete detail. For each incident, be sure to include 1) when the incident happened, 2) where it happened, 3) what happened, 4) how it happened, 5) who was involved, and 6) why it happened. Also describe any villager response(s) to the incident, the aftermath and the current living situation of the victims. Please use the space prepared below, and create an attachment if needed.

On July 7th 2023, at around 2:00 pm, State Administration Council (SAC)[4] soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB)[5] #603, led by Battalion Commander Hein San Htun, attacked People’s Defence Force (PDF)[6]  soldiers in T'See Ther Mee Lar (Hsel Thon Maing) Town, Daw Hpa Hkoh (Thandaunggyi) Township, Taw Oo (Toungoo) District. The fighting lasted for 15 minutes. The SAC soldiers are based in an army camp located in T’See Ther Mee Lar Town. The People’s Defence Force also have a base in the town and there are frequent clashes between SAC and PDF soldiers. After this skirmish, the SAC soldiers shot dead two civilians in the local area. These two civilians are Saw W--- and Z---. Saw W--- is ethnic Karen and Z--- is ethnic Bamar. Neither were affiliated with any armed group in the area.

Saw W--- is survived by a wife, three daughters and two sons. His eldest daughter is 14 years old and his youngest son is one month old. His wife is Naw A---, who is 33 years old. Z--- was single. Naw A--- told KHRG: “He [her husband] told me that he wanted to celebrate our son’s birthday on July 8th 2023, but he was killed on July 7th.” Naw A--- said that the incident happened in their house, where her husband was brutally beaten by the SAC soldiers before they killed him. They shot one bullet through his head, killing him instantly. After he was killed, the SAC soldiers burned his house and his motorbike. Z--- was killed when he came back home after buying things at a market.

After they killed these two civilians, they burned down six motorbikes and five houses in the town, owned by local villagers including Saw W---. Three houses from Section 2 and two houses from Section 3 in the town were burned down. After that, they returned to their army camp. Then, at around 3:30 pm on July 7th 2023, they fired four or five rounds of mortar shells into T’See Ther Mee Lar Town. In the late evening of July 7th 2023, other villagers went to retrieve the bodies of the two civilians killed after the SAC soldiers had returned to their army camp. They were both buried on July 8th 2023.

According to the villager from T'See Ther Mee Lar Town, the SAC soldiers killed civilians and destroyed villagers’ properties because they wanted to make people feel afraid to join the PDF in the future. For the two civilians who were killed and those whose properties were burned down, Battalion Commander Hein San Htun has not provided any compensation to the victims and their family members. The SAC never apologised for what they did to the villagers. The villager interviewed from T'See Ther Mee Lar Town said that this was the first time the SAC had killed villagers in this town but this was the fifth time that SAC had burned houses there between February and July 2023. The villager interviewed estimated that the SAC had burned down at least 23 houses in the town in the period February to July 2023.

Naw A--- and many other villagers had already fled from T’See Ther Mee Lar Town in February 2023, returning periodically to check on their property. Saw W---’s family members are not able to permanently return home yet because of safety concerns and the unstable situation in the town. Saw W--- had returned to the town temporarily without his family when the incident happened and he was killed. Naw A--- wants to go back home to the town and check on the situation. She told KHRG: “I want to go back home but my children don’t want me to go back. They told me, crying, ‘Mom, we are afraid of [SAC] soldiers. Please don’t go back home’. […] Now I don’t have a house anymore even though I want to go back home.” As her husband was killed, she faces difficulties to support her five children and the family’s livelihood: “We mainly relied on him for our livelihood. It will be very difficult for me to take care of my children alone. […] I am just wondering how I can continue to support my children’s livelihood. […] I still cannot forget my husband. Without him, how can I take care of my children alone? […] And I don’t feel secure now. I am also very worried that [some] people will tell [be suspicious of] me [because] I am the wife of a person whom the SAC soldiers killed.” Currently, she and her family receive no support from any aid organisation. She needs financial support to send her children to school.

She also shared her feelings and perspectives with KHRG: “As we are villagers, we will never get it [justice]. I don’t want to sue them [SAC soldiers]. I just [do not] want to see them anymore. If there is no SAC military, we will have peace in our country. […] I am angry with them [SAC soldiers] but what can I do? My family members can even get killed at any time.”

Did the victim(s) provide permission to use this information? Explain how that permission was provided.

The victim’s wife, Naw A---, and the villager from T’See Ther Mee Lar Town gave KHRG permission to use and publish the information.