Briefing Concerning the Attacks on Myanmar Tatmadaw Outposts Along the Myanmar Thai Border by the Opium Smuggling Insurgent Group SURA and the KNU Insurgent Group with the Support of the Yodaya Army
[ 14-6-2002 ]

     
General Staff Office (Grade I) Lt-Col Min Lwin explains at the regular press conference with local and foreign correspondents.

A press conference attended by local and foreign news correspondents was held at the Armed Forces Guest House on Inya Roadat 10 a. m. today.

Minister for labor U Tin Win, Vice Chief of the Defence Services Military Intelligence Headquarters Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister U Khin Maung Win, Deputy Minister for Information Brig. Gen. Aung Thein, Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung, high-ranking military and government department officials, responsible officials of the News and Periodicals Department of the Ministry of Information, correspondent of Kyodo News Agency U Sein Win, Patron of the Myanmar Foreign Correspondents Club U Hla Htwe and member correspondents were all present on the occasion.

As explained by Lt-Col Min Lwin at the meeting, it has to be said that Yodaya, especially the Yodaya Army, has exhibited an attitude toward the Myanmar government and the Myanmars that is based not on good neighbourliness and friendship, but on a desire for domination, ill intentions, iniquity, jealousy, grudge and hatred.

In February 2001, Myanmar Tatmadaw columns launched offensives against camps of SURA opium smuggling terrorist insurgents near the Yodaya-Myanmar border at Kya-Hti-Na, approximate map reference U-598642, Shaw-Khaik, approximately at U-556618, and Lwe-Ma-Hsote at U-511642. Six battles took place in which the SURA resisted the Tatmadaw columns with the support of the Yodaya Army.

On 11 February 2001, the Yodaya Army started firing from Yodaya territory on Myanmar Tatmadaw position on E-7 hill at the approximate map reference U-850738 with heavy weapons and small arms. Not limiting its encroachment on military outposts, the Yodaya Army launched heavy-weapons fire into the town of Tachilek. Ten heavy-weapon shells that landed and exploded in the town of Tachilek killed 3 innocent townspeople and wounded 15 others, in addition to destroying 7 houses, 1 Buddhist monastery, 1 church, 3 shops and 3 automobiles. This shows that the Yodaya Army harbours malice, hatred and ill will not only to the Myanmar Tatmadaw but to the Myanmar people as a whole.

On the morning of 22 April 2001, Pachee Camp located close to the border in Maing-ton Township, eastern Shan State, was attacked by about 200 men from Ywet Sit’s opium smuggling insurgent SURA and the Yodaya Army. On this occasion too, the Yodaya Army supported the attackers with cannons, armoured tanks and heavy weapons.

On 22 April when the attack on Pachee was launched, the KNU insurgents and the ABSDF, the so-called student group which is in fact a coalition of terrorist insurgents, attacked Mote Thon Camp near Myawady. At that time too, the Yodaya Army provided heavy-weapons and small-arms fire, with the result that heavy-weapon shells fell on Myawady, killing 4 innocent townspeople and critically wounding 2 adults and 2 children.

Moreover, on the night of 23 April 2001, a 50-strong group from SURA opium smuggling insurgent group and the Yodaya Army attacked the Tatmadaw outpost at the border post BP-1 in Maing-ton while the Yodaya Army fired heavy weapons from the Yodaya territory.

On the night of 25 April, about 200 men from the SURA opium smuggling terrorist group and the Yodaya Army launched another attack on BP-1 Tatmadaw outpost, into which heavy weapons were fired from 4 separate locations within the Yodaya territory opposite the outpost, with the result that about 500 shells fell and exploded within the camp. The Tatmadawmen at the camp fought back with an unyielding spirit and were able to drive back the SURA-Yodaya joint forces back into the Yodaya territory at about 4 am on 26 April.

  
Seized gas mask and gear seized after combing the E-7 hillock by Tatmadaw on 17-2-2001.
 

 
Arms and ammunition of Yodaya army seized by Tatmadaw troops.

Similarly at 0600 hours on 8 February 2002, about 200 men from the opium-smuggling terrorist insurgent group SURA and Yodaya Army arrived on vehicles in Pyek-Lan Village at the approximate map reference of U-443625 and then launched an attack on the Tatmadaw’s Mè Kyote Camp, approximately at U-458668 and Pu-Nar-Ko, and the new Mè Kyote Camp, approximately at U-467662. Then too, the Yodaya Army provided support with heavy weapons, with the result that 5 Tatmadawmen, 3 militiamen and 9 villagers were killed, while 20 houses in Mè Kyote Village, along with 1 automobile and 2 motorcycles were burnt by the insurgents, who also seized 2 motor vehicles and 2 motorcycles and took them into the Yodaya territory.

On 20 May 2002, Tatmadaw camps and militia posts including Pan-Maing-Son and Nyaung-Bin-Gon were attacked by the opium-smuggling terrorist insurgent group SURA and Yodaya Army, on which event a briefing has already taken place.

The responsible persons in the Yodaya Army and Government have time and again denied encouraging the ethnic insurgents fighting against the Myanmar Government and allowing their settlement on Yodaya territory in the face of overwhelming evidence. The above-mentioned events, together with the weapons and equipment used by the Yodaya military confiscated from some of the battles, amply demonstrate that Yodaya Army not only has been encouraging the terrorist insurgents but has itself participated in the insurgents’ campaign toward the detriment of the Myanmar interests. Hence the inevitable conclusion that Yodaya harbours jealousy and grudge, as well as a desire for domination and ill will toward the Myanmar nation.

The next topic for the briefing is the inhuman torture and killings of Myanmar workers in Yodaya committed by the Yodaya people and their military. The 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th February issues of Yodaya dailies, “Bangkok Post” and “The Nation”, include news reports about the discovery of the corpses of 7 males and 7 females of the Kayin nationality aged between 14 and 45, on the banks of Mè-La-Maung Creek near Mè-Ka-Sa Village in Mè-Ra-Mat to the north of Mae Sot in Tak, Yodaya, on 2 February. The corpses had their hands and feet tied with ropes, their faces covered and their throats cut open. Then, 2 more corpses were found nearby on 4 February and 4 more the next day, for a total of 20 dead bodies. According to Wun-Hpa Village headman, they were illegal workers from Myanmar killed by their employers unwilling to pay them their wages. There have also been a many instances of employers, instead of giving Myanmar workers their wages, having them followed and killed to take the money back. Investigations have revealed that most of those killed were ethnic Kayin Myanmar citizens and the number killed stood at 53 on 9 February. The whole families had gone to work at the chopsticks  factory and were then killed by the Mè-Ka-Sa village headman and his men in a case of inhuman and cruel mass murder. Those killed included not only men but also 3-year-old children and pregnant women. Knife wounds, signs of torture and gunshot wounds were found on the dead bodies, which had been thrown into the Mè-La-Maung Creek and were carried down into Thaung-Yin River by the current.

On 30 May, a press briefing was held to provide information to the correspondents concerning the inhuman and cruel torture and killings of Myanmar workers in Yodaya, who were falsely charged with spying for the Myanmar Tatmadaw. Five Myanmar workers from Kokko Village, including one Than Soe Win, had been working in Wun-Hpa Village opposite Kokko Village when platoon commander Captain Mahetaung and his men of platoon 213, No 13 Regiment of Yodaya Army, tortured them using various methods, such as giving them electric shocks, hitting them and kicking them with combat boots, making them lie on the gravelly ground on their stomachs or on their backs and dragging them along. On the night of 27 May, two Myanmar workers were taken away by car by the Yodaya military and were brutally shot. On 28 May, Than Soe Win was singled out to be taken away to the Thaung Yin River bank. After his hands and feet were tied with his longyi, he was kicked into the river and was shot at without mercy. However, Than Soe Win was fortunate enough to survive the ordeal with wounds, and washed up on the river bank on the Myanmar side. Than Soe Win is sitting in front of the correspondents and will answer queries as to the brutality and inhuman behaviour of the Yodaya military that he had undergone. In addition, on 28 May, a dead body washed up under the Myawady Friendship Bridge in the Thaung Yin River. The body, headless with a gunshot wound in the lower belly on the right side, was believed to be a civilian of Kayin nationality.

The 12 June issue of Yodaya daily “The Nation” carried a report of a workshop held at Chulalongkorn University on 11 June. A security expert by the name of Surachart Bamrungsuk was reported to have said that Yodayas have been so accustomed to imitate and copy the strategies adopted by the world powers that they have lost their ability to come up with their own original ways of doing things. Political leaders and senior government officials in Yodaya never take into account their own experience and knowledge in laying down policy but instead settle on the extremist concepts based on historical events of centuries ago during the time of the Yodaya kings when Yodayas and Myanmars fought wars. It is regrettable that the 21^st century Yodaya’s foreign policy toward Myanmar is still dominated by the Ayodaya-age thinking.

Thus the evidence is before the correspondents that Yodaya has all along demonstrated an iniquitous attitude toward the Myanmar nation and the Myanmar government and that their actions have constantly been characterized by a desire for unfair domination, deep grudges, ill intentions, malice and hatred.

  
Local and foreign correspondents view maps and documentary photos shown at the regular press conference.

Maj-Gen Kyaw Win and Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister U Khin Maung Win replied to the queries raised by local and foreign journalists. The press conference concluded at 10.30 pm.

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