A soldier from an armed Karen cease-fire group remains unpunished after killing two people in an auto accident last week in Myawaddy Town. The accident occurred in full view of a busy teashop and many witnesses, say IMNA sources.
On March 11th, a Toyota Hilux truck driven by a soldier from Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) Battalion No. 907 collided head on with a trishaw carrying two people.
According to eyewitness, the collision occurred at about 9pm after the trishaw turned around a corner made blind by a parked vehicle. The truck dragged the trishaw driver’s body for at least 100 feet, eyewitnesses told IMNA, who also added that the vehicle had only one headlight. The trishaw driver, who is survived by 3 children, died at the scene.
Though the accident occurred just a few blocks from the Myawaddy hospital, the trishaw passenger’s injuries were too serious for the hospital’s capacity and he died en route to a hospital in Mae Sot, just across the Thai-Burma border in Thailand.
The accident occurred in full view of patrons at the Mya Kyun Tha teashop as well as trishaw and motorcycle taxi drivers. Witnesses informed local police and the DKBA, representatives of whom both arrived at the scene soon after.
According to IMNA sources, two officers and a large number of soldiers from DKBA Battalion 907 then questioned witnesses and informed all present that the driver would be arrested if 5 people said they saw the accident. Just two people subsequently dared to speak, explained an IMNA source at the scene who said that the heavily armed DKBA soldiers frightened everyone present.
The DKBA soldiers also appear to have intimidated police officers present at the scene, who IMNA sources say kept quiet throughout the whole process. The DKBA, which has been loosely allied with Burma’s military government since splitting from another armed Karen insurgent group in 1994, has often been accused of committing human rights abuses including summary executions and the burning of villages.
“Traffic police and police, even when they arrived at the accident they dared not to do anything,” described one of the IMNA sources at the scene. “The traffic police always arrest people without licenses or helmets. But in this case when someone died, they say nothing.”
