KNU says it will probe alleged mass killing in Myawaddy District

By DMG 17 Jun 2021

DMG Newsroom
17 June 2021, Sittwe

The Karen National Union (KNU) announced on June 16 that it would investigate allegations that the Karen National Defence Organization (KNDO) killed 25 civilians working on a construction site in Myawaddy District, Kayin State.

The KNU said it would investigate the allegations because the KNDO is one of its military wings.

“The KNU’s Defense Department and the Central Command will jointly handle this issue,” Pado Saw Hla Tun, joint secretary No. 2 of the KNU, told Karen Information Center (KIC). “We have not been able to do anything yet as we do not know what the real cause of the incident was and how true the [allegations are]. We will continue to investigate the matter in accordance with the rules and regulations of the organisation.”

The statement said the KNU was committed to complying with the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the killing of civilians during warfare, and to prosecuting perpetrators in accordance with the respective laws if wrongdoing is uncovered.

A June 13 statement from Myanmar’s military regime accused a group led by KNDO Captain Saw Par Wah of killing 25 civilians at the Uhu Chaung Bridge construction site, located along the Kanelay-Mawkhi road in Myawaddy District.

The KNDO said the 25 were military intelligence agents who were pretending to be construction workers and that ammunition and military uniforms were discovered in support of this claim.

The KNDO chief of staff told the KIC, a Karen news agency, that the dead were a mix of civilians and members of the military council who were posing as civilians.

Fighting between the KNDO and junta forces began on May 31 in the Wawlay area of Myawaddy District. The KNDO reportedly detained 31 men, six women and 10 children at the Uhu Chaung Bridge construction site, totalling 47 people.

Accounts vary as to whether six men, six women and 10 children from the group were released or escaped, but the remaining 25 men were then the alleged victims of a KNDO mass killing.