Dawei-based resistance force admits to killing 16 civilians accused of being military informants

An anti-junta resistance force based in Tanintharyi Region’s Dawei District killed at least 16 civilians over a period of several months last year after accusing the individuals of acting as military informants, Myanmar Now has learned. The group responsible, the Launglon People’s Defence Team (PDT), named for the township in which it operates, submitted a comprehensive report on their operations to the Tanintharyi Region PDT in early October 2023. Such updates are required by the publicly mandated National Unity Government’s (NUG) defence ministry under which they serve. In the document, seen by Myanmar Now, the township PDT admitted to the killings, which had been perpetrated between March and September 2023, leading to the ministry’s suspension of two Launglon PDT officials accused of orchestrating the acts: the 34-year-old officer in charge, Htwe Aung—also known as Nagar Min, or “Dragon King”—and his deputy, 37-year-old Hein Thu Aung, who also goes by the name Ma Ma Gyi. No further action was believed to have been taken against the officers at the time of reporting. The bodies of the 16 victims, who were from villages west of Launglon town and among whom was a Buddhist nun, were interrogated before being shot or bludgeoned to death, then buried at a rubber farm. Their bodies were found last December, according to the leader of the Warriors Of Liberation Force (WOLF), a local armed group under the command of the Launglon PDT. The WOLF leader explained that Launglon had been divided into five zones by the resistance, and that the rubber farm in question was located in Zone 3, which is controlled by the PDT. “There are rubber farms around the Zone 3 base of the Launglon PDT and it appears that they usually bury the people there after killing them,” he said, adding that the victims were found some 400 metres from the base and had not yet been exhumed. He explained that there were at least three such farms that the PDT used as “killing fields” and that the mounds that indicated where people were buried had been covered with sticks and branches. Launglon PDT members seen in November 2023 (Launglon PDT) WOLF had not visited the rubber farm in question until one of the group’s members and a member of the Dawei District People’s Defence Force were detained by the PDT on December 11 for one week, the leader said. It was when their troops went to look for the detainees that they found the slain civilians. “We were worried that our troops were also killed and buried there, so we went there to check. Although there were no fresh bodies, there were at least 10 areas where dead bodies had previously been piled up.” While the members of the PDF and WOLF were released, the PDT’s deceased victims were identified as: Ven Nanda Sari, 64, a Buddhist nun Pe Win, 78, a former military officer Kan Sein, 62 Hla Kyaing, 61, a retired police officer Aung Moe, 51, the driver for Nanda Sari Thein Soe, 45, killed in the home of a locally known pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia leader Thet Htike Soe, 42, killed in a village pub, accused of collecting taxes for the junta Wah Wah, 42, accused of collaborating with junta district police Naing Aung, 40, accused of funding anti-jutna forces to obtain information leaked to the military Pe Toe, 40 Paing Kyaw Lin, 27, and Yan Paing Aung, 25, both privates in the Myanmar army Ye Nay Soe, 25, and Aung Naing Shein, 23, both accused of being apprentices for a local Pyu Saw Htee leader There were two more victims, whose names are not known, who had been trekking through the hills in the area when they too were killed. ‘Accusations without certainty’ When the Launglon PDT was established soon after the February 2021 coup—one of the first new resistance forces to emerge during that period in Dawei District—Nagar Min was deputy to another leader, Ko Tar. Internal disagreements reportedly caused Ko Tar to leave the force in August 2022, and Nagar Min assumed the leadership role. The leader of WOLF who spoke to Myanmar Now was originally a PDT member, he explained, but also left—with others—in the months after Nagar Min took over. Nagar Min became notorious for failing to report operations to district and regional leaders, and was accused of imposing fees on fishing boats that had not been cleared with the People’s Administration Team under the NUG. He gained a reputation for executing alleged military informants, another PDT official said on the condition of anonymity. “He made the accusations without certainty, and he had no legitimacy to levy fees,” the official told Myanmar Now. “The most obvious instance is that the nun targeted by the Launglon PDT was not an informant and not a Pyu Saw Htee member. Despite repeated warnings not to, they killed her.” Tanintharyi Region PDT officer Star explained that the NUG’s defence ministry had no official policy calling for the execution of pro-junta informants, and described the Launglon PDT’s killing of civilians as violating several rules, regulations, and their code of ethics. “There are civilians who support us and those who do not, and there are even ones who support the military council,” Star said. “Just because one is pro-junta, we can’t just say they are military informants. A military informant only refers to the people trained for espionage by the military. There has been no direct order regarding the killing of military informants.” The required October report to the regional PDT only came after the Launglon chapter released a statement claiming to have killed 16 people, Star noted. “We only learned of the case and started questioning the motives after they released that statement. It’s not like we turned a blind eye to the case: we just weren’t informed of it,” Star told Myanmar Now. A regional monitoring group called FE5 Tanintharyi published a December report opposing the Launglon PDT’s killing of civilians accused of being military informants. The group alleged that following public criticism of such acts, the number of people targeted in this way had decreased in this part of southeastern Myanmar. The NUG’s complaints council will eventually hand over evidence to a tribunal related to the Launglon PDT killings, according to permanent deputy secretary of the defence ministry Maung Maung Swe. “While we are investigating the matter, we will also suspend those against whom the complaints were filed from their duties, disarm them, and send them to relevant jails: military or otherwise,” he said. Maung Maung Swe admitted that it has proven difficult to apprehend such individuals, and that the defence ministry would be “collaborating with on-ground officers and everyone involved to solve this problem.” Nagar Min’s whereabouts were not known at the time of reporting. Hein Thu Aung or Ma Ma Gyi, Nagar Min’s deputy implicated in the civilian deaths, is not in NUG custody. He is said to have become the leader of another local anti-junta group after being suspended from his role in the PDT by the NUG. He commands the Ba Htoo Army, which reformed after the breakup of the Ba Htoo Column in Dawei District in early January. Hein Thu Aung, also known as Ma Ma Gyi, left, is seen on January 3 with the Ba Htoo Army that he now commands (Ba Htoo Army)

Dawei-based resistance force admits to killing 16 civilians accused of being military informants

Resistance sources say the leaders of Launglon People’s Defence Team used local farms as ‘killing fields’ and acted on unsubstantiated allegations against the victims

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