Wa army sentences two men to death

A court operating under the United Wa State Army (UWSA), one of Myanmar’s largest ethnic armed groups, handed down death sentences on Friday to two of three men they had found guilty of involvement in robbery and murder, locals said. Starting Friday morning, Wa judicial authorities tried the three men in front of an audience at a football pitch near the marketplace in the town of Mong Pawk, eastern Shan State. Following the public trial, the three defendants were driven through the town in an open truck bed where they were fully visible to onlookers. “Their crimes were read aloud in both Wa and Chinese,” a Mong Pawk resident said. “They were accused of robbery that resulted in a death. Two were sentenced to be executed, and the third received a prison term.” Details of the proceedings remain unclear, and it is not known whether the accused were granted legal representation or the opportunity to defend themselves against the charges.This is not the first death sentence issued by UWSA authorities in recent months. On December 27 of last year, a man who had killed another during a fight in the UWSA-controlled town of Hopang was killed in a public execution by members of the Wa army. Similarly, in October 2024, a man convicted of robbery and murder at a Hopang store was publicly executed and six men found guilty of rape received lengthy prison sentences. Six townships in Shan State near the Chinese border are designated as belonging to the Wa Self-Administered Division in Myanmar’s military-drafted 2008 Constitution. While lying outside these designated jurisdictions the town of Mong Pawk in Mong Pawk and Mongyang townships, is de facto controlled by the UWSA. Like the UWSA—sometimes called the Wa army—another ethnic armed group active in northern Shan State called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) or Kokang army has been known to hand down death sentences to people convicted of murder and other serious crimes in territory they control. Both the UWSA and MNDAA run administrative and command structures independent of Myanmar’s central authorities in Naypyitaw, but have been known to cooperate with with both the Myanmar military and Chinese authorities to apprehend criminals. One instance of the Wa armed group’s cooperation with the Myanmar military occurred near the beginning of February, when Wa personnel helped to raid an alleged online scam centre in Mongyai, northern Shan State, detaining hundreds suspected of participating in the fraud. The sentencing that occurred on Friday had no apparent connection to the earlier scam centre operation. According to legal experts, the justice system in territories controlled by the Wa and Kokang armies is based on China’s judiciary, functioning completely separately from Myanmar’s legal system.

Wa army sentences two men to death

The sentencing—for robbery and murder charges—appeared unrelated to recent raids targeting online scam operations in other territory controlled by the Wa ethnic armed group

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