Kokang army executes six alleged criminals in town under its control

The ethnic armed organisation Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) claims to have executed several convicts on Thursday in Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang region of northern Shan State. At least 14 offenders convicted on various charges including kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse, and murder were handed sentences the same morning, according to a statement issued by the MNDAA. Photos showed young students among the onlookers who watched the sentencing in Laukkai, a town on the Chinese border claimed as part of the Chinese-speaking Kokang people’s ethnic homeland, which the MNDAA captured from Myanmar junta forces in January. Seven of the offenders—found guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping, or murder—were sentenced to be executed. Six of those seven were executed later that day, including one woman convicted of murdering her husband. Five other convicts, aged between 23 and 30, had been arrested for the illegal possession of firearms and accused of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and two other men were accused of sexually assaulting minors. The audience that watched Thursday’s sentencing included young students (Photo: MNDAA) The MNDAA—an armed organisation with a predominantly Sinophone, ethnically Kokang membership, also informally called the Kokang army—has been operating its own administrative apparatus in Laukkai while the town has been under its control. Laukkai is the recognised capital of the Kokang region or Kokang Self-Administered Zone, a territory nominally designated for autonomous self-government by the Kokang ethnic community in Myanmar’s military-drafted 2008 constitution. The group announced in May that serious crimes committed in Laukkai—such as murder or armed robbery resulting in a fatality—would carry a life sentence or the death penalty upon conviction. Other crimes, such the trafficking of women and children, would be punishable by life in prison, according to the announcement. Those convicted of participating in online scams involving amounts of more than one million Chinese yuan (US $138,000) would also face life imprisonment, as well as the seizure of their assets and property. The Kokang army also executed at least ten people, including three of its own members who had committed murder or armed robbery, in April. The Kokang army, which is currently observing a ceasefire with Myanmar’s military regime, also captured Lashio—the junta’s administrative capital in northern Shan State—as well as Hseni (Hsenwi) and five other towns in and near the Kokang Special Region since October of last year.

Kokang army executes six alleged criminals in town under its control

One of the condemned was a woman found guilty of killing her husband by MNDAA authorities in Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang Special Region in northern Shan State

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