Myanmar’s resistance faces renewed calls for due process as killings of ‘informants’ continue

Two weeks ago, on the morning of March 12, the owner of the Nanwaddy Gold Shop in Gyobingauk, a town in western Bago Region, was shot and killed in the presence of her mother and young son. The victim’s husband was also targeted, but was somewhere else at the time and so escaped harm.The People’s Defence Force (PDF) group responsible for the fatal shooting released a statement on Facebook later the same day saying that it carried out the action because the couple were supporters of the junta-backed Pyu Saw Htee militia. It also vowed to finish the job by killing the husband.The next day, the husband, Lynn Lynn Htike, responded by saying that he was deeply saddened by the hostility and slander directed against him and his wife. The claims made by the BTZM GBK PDF, which carried out the attack, were completely false, he said.“Regarding my wife and me, please study carefully again and may your conscience be clear,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “When you’re going to do something, please study and analyse carefully.”But Tayza Min, commander of the BTZM GBK PDF, expressed no regrets about the assassination, saying that it was standard procedure and a necessary measure to deprive the military of sources of information.“This case became big news because the victims were prominent people,” he said, adding that any action taken to level the battlefield in the fight against the regime was justified.“When demolishing a house, you have to remove the posts first. We only have a few firearms in our units, and if we directly fight against the military council, our comrades would end up being crushed,” he told Myanmar Now when contacted for comment.Public outcry The aftermath of a massacre by junta forces in Karenni State in December 2021. The regime’s mass killing of civilians has fuelled intense hostility towards suspected collaborators The killing in Gyobingauk was just the latest of many such incidents around war-torn Myanmar since the military seized power more than four years ago. Increasingly, however, there are calls to rein in extrajudicial killings by resistance forces. In some cases, the allegations that lead to someone being shot dead as an alleged informant stem from disputes among local people, according to Lu Aye, a member of the National League for Democracy’s information team in western Bago Region.“Issues like disagreements over financial transactions or bullying should be taken to court by the parties involved,” he said. “Rather than killing anyone who has a complaint made against them by civilians, it would better to send them a letter of warning.”In some cases, people are wrongly gunned down and then labelled as regime collaborators—something that is completely against the spirit of the revolution, which aims to restore justice, he said.The killing of junta administrators is also too widely tolerated, he said, noting that this is likely due to the fact that many who are targeted are involved in efforts to forcibly recruit civilians into the military under the junta’s deeply unpopular conscription scheme.Despite such apparent public acceptance of killings by resistance groups, there has been a backlash against this practice in some parts of the country.In late 2023, many were appalled by reports that an anti-junta group based in Launglon Township, in southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi Region, had killed 16 alleged informants, including an elderly Buddhist nun.According to a report released by monitor group FE5 Tanintharyi in December of that year, about 10 people were being killed in the area each month as a result of unfounded allegations. The group says the number of cases has since fallen dramatically due to the public outcry.Enforcing due process The anti-regime Karenni Police Force inspects a motorcycle in a resistance-held area of Karenni State (Photo: Karenni Police Force / Facebook) Ultimately, however, it is up to resistance groups to police their own members to prevent them from committing egregious acts of violence.Earlier this month, the Pekon Township People’s Security Organisation, operating under the command of the National Unity Government (NUG) in southern Shan State, issued a statement saying that it would impose “appropriate punishment” on a resistance fighter who “impulsively” shot and killed a Buddhist abbot and his assistant after finding the telephone numbers of junta soldiers on their phones.While such punitive actions are intended to deter similar incidents in the future, their effectiveness will ultimately depend on the ability of the NUG to do more to enforce its own directives.The NUG’s policy on the issue, announced by its Ministry of Defence's Central Commission for Investigation of War Crimes on March 14, 2022, is clear: “When taking action against enemy informants and prisoners of war in accordance with the law, evidence and documentation must be maintained, and special care must be taken not to harm innocent civilians.”In many parts of the country, however, the NUG is unable to ensure that the principle of due process is followed. But one area where legal safeguards are in place is in territory controlled by the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF).According to the KNDF’s deputy commander, Marwi, suspected informants are arrested, investigated, and tried before any punishment is imposed on them. Throughout this process, they are held, like prisoners of war, in specially built prisons.“On our side, when it comes to informants and spies, we do not allow and do not permit lawless killing or mistreatment. We are not doing such things,” he told Myanmar Now.The important thing, he said, is to avoid becoming like the regime that the resistance forces are trying to defeat.“Not becoming like the military means not relying on weapons and the authority of the gun for everything. The idea that one person with a gun can decide who lives and who dies is bad,” he said.“Instead of that, we need to use both the sword and the law fairly and justly.”

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