Despite improved relations between the Shan State Army (SSA) ‘South’ and Naypyitaw and the recent release of more than 300 political prisoners, 29 SSA members, including a well-known commander, are still languishing in prison since 2006.
Lt Col Khun Kyaw, 46, and his men from 241st Brigade were sentenced to death on 4 March 2006, 2 months after he surrendered to the Burma Army, following months of hide-and-seek and clashes in Nothern Shan State.
A native of Moe Hnyin (Mongyang in Shan), he had joined the armed struggle after the 1988 countrywide movement for democracy was bloodily crushed by the military. In 1994, he moved down to the Shan State from Kachin State, following a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army, in whose area he had been operating, and the Burma Army. After 4 years with the SSA North, another ceasefire group, he came down further south to join the SSA South, whose ceasefire offer the regime had turned down.
Khun Kyaw and his men, during their sojourn with the SSA South, had fought in the 2002 Pang Mai Hsoong Battle and the 2005 Loi Taileng Battle against the joint Burma Army-United Wa State Army (UWSA) forces. “His coolness under fire and valor were unquestionable,” an SSA commander had commented at that time.
He and his men were also well liked by the populace for their cheerfulness and charming manners. “The only fault with them was they didn’t speak much Shan,” remembered a villager. “Naturally we at first thought they were Burmese, as they spoke only Burmese among themselves.”
That apparently was one of the reasons they had gone without food for days during their ill-starred march to Shan State North to re-establish their contacts in Kachin State in 2005.
“For one thing, the Burma Army was able to intercept radio messages between himself and his units which were composed in Burmese,” said an informed source on the Sino-Burmese border at that time. “For another, the villagers were afraid of him and his men, mistaking them for Burma Army personnel masquerading as Shans, because they spoke very poor Shan. The villagers rarely failed to report their presence in their areas to the nearest Burmese units for fear of retaliation by the Burma Army.”
Contacted by a Burmese field commander promising humane treatment in return for surrender, he and his remaining 31 men gave themselves up at Namti village, a few miles south of Namkham on New Year’s Day 2006.
On the next morning, they were handcuffed and taken to Lashio, where they went on trial on several charges. On 4 March, two months later, 29 of them including himself were given the death penalty and the remaining three 7 years imprisonment each.
Asked what he had to say about the court decision made behind the doors, he reportedly re-affirmed his innocence. “I have never killed an innocent person,” he was said to have told the judge. “I have never been involved in the drug trade. And I have never done all the bad things as charged.
“The only bad thing I have done is that I trusted the Burma Army commander when he said my comrades and the people would be spared of further sufferings if I agreed to surrender. My message to our comrades who are still fighting therefore is:
- To struggle on against the unjust rule
- Never to surrender like me
- And never to swallow lies by the regime like me.”
Khun Kyaw was sent to Mandalay and then to Tharawaddy, 78 miles north of Rangoon.
His wife and two children are living on the Thai-Burma border.
According to home minister Ko Ko, 128 political prisoners still remain behind bars after the 12 January amnesty. But according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) there are still some 1,260 political prisoners waiting to be released.
