A local farmer, living in the eastern forest of Yar-buu Village, Yebyu Township, Tanintharyi Region, was shot and killed with a home-made rifle, last Saturday.
On May 16, Nai Thein Win, 56, an orchard farmer, was shot dead from behind by an unknown person. U Khin Maung Oo, Administrator of Yar-buu Village visited the murder site with Kalain-Aung Police officers. He reported that it appears the killer was hiding nearby, while Nai Thein Win was having dinner with his family around 9 PM in a hut in his plantation.
“He was having dinner with his wife, daughters and sons. There was a pile of firewood next to the hut. From there, it’s about 7 feet away, [where the gun ] was fired. The bullet entered near his left ear and exited from his face. He does not have any foes so we can not think of who would be the suspect.” said U Khin Maung Oo.
Nai Thein Win was of Mon ethnicity and originally from the Ye-chaungpaya area. His family lives on a plantation [orchard], about 1 mile from the Tawlabawa “farming” village. They have been living there for more than 15 years.
“It was about 8 o’ clock in the morning, when we visited Nai Thein Win’s family to make our investigation. We took the corpse to the Kalain-Aung Hospital where the doctor examined the body. The victim’s remains have since been cremated. No suspect has been identified yet,” said U Khin Maung Oo.
There are two ethnic armed groups who are known to be active and on patrol in the area.
A stream serves as a natural divide with a Karen armed group from the Karen National Union (KNU) on [south]one side, and a Mon armed group, with the New Mon State Party (NMSP), on the north of the stream.
Local villagers are farmers in the area and work in orchards and rubber and betel nut plantations.
This is the first case deemed to be an assassination in Yebuy Township, Tanintharyi Region. There have been numerous landmine explosions that have also killed and injured local villagers. No one has been identified to date, as being responsible for the placement of those landmines.
These events have made villagers cautious, and they do not go to their plantations in the evening, nor do they stay at night at their plantations.
