Mizzima
A school teacher and his father who were allegedly involved in conscripting people for the junta were shot and killed in Htanlonetat Village, in Mandalay Region’s Tada-U Township, on the afternoon of 20 March.
Chit Zaw Oo, age 26, was a primary school teacher at the Basic Education High School in Htanlonetat Village. According to local sources, he was riding his bicycle along the main road of Htanlonetat Village on the afternoon of 20 March when two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle drew up and fired five shots at him, killing him on the spot.
The gunmen then drove to Chit Zaw Oo’s house where they shot and killed his father, 61-year-old Zaw Win Myint.
A villager from Htanlonetat explained: “Both the father and the son were members of the Pyu Saw Htee [junta-aligned] militia. The son was not only a primary teacher but also an informant for the military. Recently, I observed them both collecting lists of people for military service. It is rumoured that two assailants on a motorcycle arrived and opened fire.”
The villager also gave other possible reasons for the two men’s murder saying: “In addition to their roles in the military recruitment process, they were also reportedly involved in organising Pyu Saw Htee members to establish a militia team in the village. This could have been a potential motive.”
No organisation has claimed responsibility for the killings, but a soldier from a local revolutionary force speculated to Mizzima that the men were killed because they were working for the junta collecting the names of people eligible for conscription.
Earlier, on 19 March, also in Mandalay Region, the administrator of Theekone Village in Wundwin Township was shot dead by the Wundwin Township Revolution Force who said it was because he was involved in the junta’s conscription process.
