Two Myanmar citizens—charged in New York on Friday in an alleged plot to threaten and possibly kill Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN)—have family and community ties to the military and were backed by a Thailand-based arms dealer, according to a source close to the ambassador.
The US attorney for New York’s Southern District said on Friday that Phyo Hein Htut, 28, and Ye Hein Zaw, 20, were both charged with one count of conspiracy to assault or violently attack a foreign official. If convicted, they face a prison sentence of up to five years.
Permanent Representative to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun represents Myanmar’s elected civilian government, which was ousted by the military in a coup on February 1.
Phyo Hein Htut: Paid to hire a ‘hitman’
According to the court complaint against Phyo Hein Htut, he approached a volunteer security officer for Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun’s detail and described how he had been in contact with an arms dealer in Thailand. Through an intermediary—Ye Hein Zaw—the dealer allegedly paid him to hire a “hitman” to kill or injure the ambassador.
The arms dealer, according to a statement given by the security officer, “sells weapons to the Burmese military.”
A New York resident close to the ambassador and his office told Myanmar Now that Phyo Hein Htut had on two occasions worked as a volunteer in Kyaw Moe Tun’s office at the UN mission.
Court complaints state that the arms dealer in Thailand contacted Phyo Hein Htut over Facebook and FaceTime while he was involved with the office, and had offered him money to arrange the attack against the ambassador.
The source speculated that the conspiracy had two aims—first, to attack the ambassador in an attempt to force him to step down and potentially kill him if he refused, and second, to find out if or how funds for the anti-coup National Unity Government (NUG) are being sent through the ambassador.
The NUG is a cabinet formed with the support of elected lawmakers who were unable to take the seats following the military coup.
Friday’s statement by the US Department of Justice said the arms dealer transferred US$4,000 to Phyo Hein Htut through Ye Hein Zaw to carry out the plan.
Phyo Hein Htut reportedly later asked for additional $1,000 so that attackers could “finish off” the ambassador, which the court complaint said would have been done by “tamper[ing] with the tires on the Ambassador’s car to cause a crash while the Ambassador was inside.”
The source close to Kyaw Moe Tun’s office told Myanmar Now that Phyo Hein Htut likely met the Thailand-based arms dealer through his father, who reportedly worked in real estate and car sales in Yangon.
Phyo Hein Htut was identified in at least one photo supplied to Myanmar Now alongside Kyaw Kyaw Tun Naing, the grandson of Myanmar’s former military chief and notorious dictator Than Shwe.
The 28-year-old had reportedly been facing financial difficulties and had turned to the Myanmar diaspora community in New York for assistance in finding work, the source added.
Ye Hein Zaw: An intermediary for the funds
Ye Hein Zaw, who acted as middleman for payment transfer between the arms dealer and Phyo Hein Htut, is the son of a retired military official and had lived in Yangon’s North Dagon Township before moving to the US, according to the source in New York.
Another source in Yangon told Myanmar Now that Ye Hein Zaw’s father worked in the Bureau of Special Investigation in Myanmar.
“[His father] was not from a high-ranking position. Ye Hein Zaw went to the US to study, but his family could not support him fully. He’s been really struggling, I heard,” the source said.
Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the claims.
Arms dealer: Reported military connections
The arms dealer who transferred the payment to Phyo Hein Htut is allegedly a 60-year-old Myanmar man based in Thailand, according to the source close to Kyaw Moe Tun’s office.
The source maintains that the arms dealer has connections to Bangkok-based company Chaiseri, which, according to its website, is a “defense land system specialist” that designs and manufactures armored vehicles and their subsystems for armed forces and governments.
Myanmar Now did not find any direct involvement by Myanmar nationals in the company’s corporate profile.
In a letter to Myanmar Now, Chaiseri vice chairperson Dr. Noparath Koolhiran denied the allegation made by the source that the the Myanmar arms dealer implicated in the assassination plot had links to the company. Dr. Koolhiran stated that “there is no connection between Chaiseri and [the] funder/mastermind of the plot.”
She made a similar statement to Thai PBS in an August 12 report on the issue.
“We have nothing to do with it. We want to clarify that our company has never been involved at all,” Dr. Koolhiran said.
Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun started serving as Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the UN in September of last year and chose to continue to represent the elected civilian government after the military coup in February.
Myanmar’s junta fired him on February 27 after he rejected the coup and appealed to the international community “to use any means necessary” to depose the military.
He has been charged with high treason and an arrest warrant has been issued against him in Myanmar. In July, the junta tried to replace him with a military-appointed ambassador but the UN has not recognised this individual.
Reuters reported that the US government has stepped up his security since the revelation of the plot against Kyaw Moe Tun. In an interview with Myanmar Now on Friday, he refused to comment on the conspiracy, as the case is still under investigation.
“I would like to pass on the message to the Myanmar people that I am fine and safe,” he told Myanmar Now.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on August 17 to include comments from Chaiseri vice chairperson Dr. Noparath Koolhiran.
