A boy in southern Ye Township, Mon State, has been hospitalized after being shot by a captain of Infantry Battalion No. 299. The captain accused the boy, A Sorn, 17, of being in contact with exile media groups, and shot him as he attempted to flee.

Witnesses said the captain stopped A Sorn as the boy drove by on a motorbike. It’s not clear what the captain said to the boy after stopping him. The two drove to the center of Kumai village, however, where the captain accused the A Sorn of cooperating with exile media and shot him as he fled.

“Everybody saw it because the captain shot A Sorn in the center of the village,” said a villager from Kumai who witnessed the events. “The captain told A Sorn that they had been watching him for a few months.”

A Sorn is being treated in Ye Hospital. His relatives worry about his condition because he was shot in the center of the body, from very close range.

Southern Ye is home to the worst human rights situation in Mon State. It is classified as a “black area,” free-fire zone. Villagers are subjected to a variety of travel restrictions and forced labor, and land and crops are frequently seized. Two month ago, a family fled to a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border after two of its sons, ages twelve and fourteen, were arrested and tortured after being accused of helping Mon rebels in the area.

In March 2008, IB No. 31 shot two workers on a plantation in Toe That Ywar Thit village for violating a travel restriction. One of the workers was killed at the scene.

In 2007, soldiers in Kumai village also fired shots into the ground in front of a Mon student in an attempt to intimidate him into letting the soldiers use his motorbike. The boy let them use the bike.