New Delhi - A soldier from the Burmese Army's Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 757 based in Hmawbe Township of Rangoon Division, reportedly committed suicide on Saturday after allegedly killing his commander, local residents said.
A resident of Oat Pho Township in Pegu Division, who claimed to witness the ensuing standoff among soldiers in nearby Aye Mya Thar Yar Village, said Private Kyaw Shwe Maung committed suicide on Saturday evening as he was cornered by fellow soldiers for allegedly killing his captain.
According to the witness, Kyaw Shwe Maung fled his battalion on Saturday evening after allegedly killing his captain. However the accused ended up cornered in an electricity transformer building after several soldiers based in surrounding areas including those from LIB 707, LIB 35, LIB 6, LIB 4 and LIB 5 along with local police stopped him as he was trying to escape on a motorbike.
"He shot more than ten times into the sky and took shelter against the transformer boxes," related the resident, who claims to have rushed to the scene along with several other local residents.
The local said there was a brief shoot-out between the accused and an officer who was leading soldiers from the Oat Pho-based LIB 707 in their search. The officer was reportedly severely injured in the exchange.
The ensuing standoff persisted for several hours as soldiers feared they might destroy the electric transformer. But at about 11 o'clock there came the loud sound of repeated gunfire, and when a few soldiers went in they found the Private dead with multiple bullet wounds, the local said.
"Soldiers recovered more than 170 bullets, hand grenades, a 9 mm pistol and a rifle from the private. They [the soldiers] took the body and buried it in nearby Pyidawthar Village," he added.
Another local resident of Oat Pho, when contacted by Mizzima, said she also heard of the incident but had not gone to witness the events, as she feared for her safety.
Similarly, a shopkeeper in Pyi, about 70 miles north of Oat Pho, said she also heard of the incident as she was returning from Rangoon on Saturday evening.
"As I was returning from Rangoon, soldiers stopped and searched all buses at Latpadan Town. The soldiers were saying that they were looking for a defector," she added.
Latpadan lies on the Rangoon-Pyi highway and is about 85 miles north of Rangoon and about 15 miles south of Oat Pho, where the incident took place.
She added that according to the soldiers and other rumors, the soldier was defecting from his base in Hmawbe after killing his commander. Soldiers from various battalions joined in the search of surrounding areas.
However, the local police station in Oat Pho was unavailable for comment.
The local witness, citing rumors spreading among the soldiers, said Private Kyaw Shwe Maung, an ethnic Arakanese, had allegedly killed his captain for abusing his social rights. But details of the case cannot be verified.
