(This post is direct translation of news articles from the MEG.)
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| Former ABSDF Chairman Moe Thee Zun. |
According
to the case summary (Pa) 831/2012 (Act 302 – Capital Murder) released by the
North Dagon Police Station the plaintiff is deceased Htay Naing’s mother Daw
Khin May Myint (age-78) a resident of Maha Thukha Street, North Dagon of
Rangoon Division.
According to Daw Khin May Myint she had lost contact with her two sons Htay Tint and Htay Naing for more than 15 years since they took to the jungle on Thai border after the failed 8-8-88 Uprising in 1988. Only in 2004 the elder son Htay Tint called her and told her that his younger brother Htay Naing the Chief-of-Staff of the student army ABSDF was severely tortured and jailed and eventually killed by Moe Thee Zun, then the ABSDF Chairman, at Manerplaw KNU stronghold in some time 1993.
Daw Khin
May Myint has reported her son’s murder to the President’s Office on 12
September 2012, after learning from the local media that Moe Thee Zun has come
back to Burma for political purposes, and the President has directed the
Rangoon Division Government to take a criminal action against Moe Thee Zun and
accomplices.
As per
the President’s directive the Rangoon Division Government has decided at the governmental
meeting (44/2012) held on 22 November 2012 to allow Daw Khin May Myint submit a
criminal complaint against the accused Moe Thee Zun. And Daw Khin May Myint has
lodged the official murder complaint with North Dagon Police on December 13.
Moe Thee
Zun (aka) Myo Than Htut a recently-naturalized US citizen is known to have been back in Burma recently. But
his present where-about is unknown and he is still not in the police custody,
confirmed the North Dagon Police Station.
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| Rent-a-Mob Moe Thee Zun at anti-Chinese copper mine protest. |
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Following remarkable story of Htay Naing’s brutal murder was from
Than Win formerly the General-Secretary of ABSDF Central at Manerplaw KNU
Headquarters and a close friend of now-deceased Htay Naing.
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| Former ABSDF Chairman Moe Thee Zun. |
Htay Naing
was a Rangoon University student in
1988. When we re-established the Ta-ka-tha (Rangoon University Student Union)
Htay Naing became the Union Representative of Hlaing Regional College (2) under
me. He was one of my best friends too.
After the
military coup in 1988 I fled to the border and ended at Thay-baw-boe ABSDF
camp. Then was the first ever ABSDF and I was the General-Secretary. Two –
three months later Htay Naing followed me and joined ABSDF. He basically lived
with me at Thay-baw-boe camp.
When
ABSDF split into two groups in 1991 he joined our faction led by Moe Thee and
Ko Ko Oo and me. Moe Thee was the Chairman, Ko Ko Oo was the General Secretary,
and I was the EC. And Mo Thee made Htay Naing the Chief-of-Staff.
Then me
and Ko Ko Oo had to go to the ABSDF South. While we were away we heard that Mo
Thee had arrested Htay Naing and put him in a made-shift jail. By then the
ABSDF North was already arresting their own people. Htay Naing was put in jail
one month after the accused spies were arrested in ABSDF North.
So I and
Ko Ko Oo radioed Moe Thee and asked why he arrested Htay Naing? His explanation
was that when the ABSDF North tortured the captured spies they confessed Htay
Naing was one of them.
But I
didn’t believe that and I strongly protested against the arrest of Htay Naing. I
told him that Htay Naing could not be a spy as we had worked together for a
very long time and I would take full responsibility for Htay Naing and he had
to be released immediately.
To get to
Manerplaw on the border from our position in south we had to cross the border and travel
some distance in Thailand first and then
cross back into Burma at Manerplaw.
I was
surprised and at the same time really angry at that bastard Mo Thee Zun. So we
had to abandon our plan to march to Manerplaw. Well before Manerplaw fell into
the hands of Burma army in January 1995 ABSDF had to move their HQ out of
Manerplaw. And I heard the bad news that Moe Thee killed Htay Naing instead of
taking him and other prisoners along with them.
Later
when things calmed down I went there and met many people who had witnessed Htay
Naing’s arrest and torture and murder. Following was what they told me.
“At the beginning of his arrest Htay Naing was tied-up and cuffed
and kept in a tiny bamboo hut inside Manerplaw ABSDF Central. Two weeks later
they dug a tiny but deep hole in the ground on the opposite bank of Thaungyin (Moei)
River and put Htay Niang inside naked.
Hole was so small he was always in a squat and eventually he
lost the ability to stand up and finally paralysed from the waist. One of the
guards who had to send meagre food regularly to Htay Naing in the hole told me in
tears that Htay Naing, by then his whole naked body was covered with nasty skin rashes, begged him to shoot him as he couldn’t take it no more.
One ABSDF man Ye Lin also told me that when Moe Thee and
ABSDF Central were moving the camp out of Manerplaw they tied him up and put a
gunny bag over his head and forced him to sit on a boat and so that Moe Thee
could point him as Htay Naing the prisoner to the Bo Mya and his KNU Karens.
Just to trick the Karens that Htay Naing was still alive!”
According
to Ye Lin, by then Htay Naing was already killed but since Bo Mya and his
Karens knew Htay Naing very well that Moe thee didn’t want them to know Htay
Naing was already murdered.
Even
though he might not kill Htay Naing personally I truly believe that Moe Thee is
fully responsible for the murder of Htay Naing as he was the man who definitely
ordered Htay Naing’s brutal torture and eventual killing.
Confession of Htay Naing’s
Killer!
Following personal confession of Htu Htun Oo formerly of
ABSDF Central was from Htay Tint the elder brother of murdered Htay Niang. He was telling how he killed Htay Naing to Htay Tint the victim's own brother.
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| ABSDF men at KNU's Manerplaw stronghold. |
(I even
kept the arrest-order signed by Moe Thee Zun and issued by the ABSDF Central
for a while, but I’ve lost it in the jungle later.)
I was a
young student from GTI (Government Technical Institute) and just a teenager
back then. I respected Ko Htay Niang as a senior officer and I loved him like
an older brother. Whenever we were given food-ration he would call me “kid
brother” and gave me more than others I still remember.
I was
told he had an elder brother in Bangkok. Hla Win another teenager told me but I
didn’t believe him as I’d never seen or heard of you before. Only now at
Maniloy I met you.
I think,
in 1993, Moe Thee ordered us to deliver weapons to the Communists on the
Pegu-Yoma. I and a few others carried 25 automatic rifles and many hand
grenades down to the water and put them in the boat waiting on the river at
Manerplaw.
Later KNU
(Karen National Union) men knew of that secret weapon transfer to the Burmese
Communists and arrested all of us and threatened to kill us all. Once ABSDF
leaders knew of our arrests they brought in foreign media reporters and
pressured the KNU Karens to release us. For obvious reasons the KNU Karens are
always scare of bad news about them in the international media.
KNU
released us quickly but they also kicked all of us out of their Manerplaw HQ.
While we were preparing the motorised-long-tailed boats for our move to the
Kareni-controlled area our leaders started scratching their heads about what to
do with two prisoners in our made-shift jail. Moe Thee, Dr. Naing Aung, Lwan
Ni, and Ba Saw Htun, all of them bastards.
And they
decided to kill both and left the bodies with the Karens as no one wanted to
take them along dead or alive. Instead of shooting Htay Naing I decided to
inject poison. The injection was so strong the big guy didn’t even last five
minutes.
(As a
Rangoon University’s champion Volleyball-player and a Mathematics Major student
Htay Naing was much bigger and taller than most Burmese man.)
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| Thaung Yin (Moei) River at Manerplaw. |
Back then
I was not in a right mind and I was quite angry, for we were just let out from
the Karen jail.
Very
sorry, Ko Htay Tint! I’m really sorry. That date might be between March 22 and
27, 1993.
After I
had killed them, the Karens came and asked about Htay Naing. Just to trick them
Karens we just tied someone up in the boat and put a gunny bag over his head
and pointed the Karens to him as Htay Niang.
We then
dumped the bodies of Htay Naing and Hla Win in the nearby bushes. Only when our
boats were motoring away from Manerplaw we yelled out to the fucking Karens
that we’d killed both prisoners and left the bodies there.
(Translator's Notes: 1993 as the year of Htay Naing's murder is still being disputed by some former ABSDF members who have been suggesting that the time of Htay Naing's death was March 1994 almost a whole year before KNU's Manerplaw fell in January 1995.)
(Translator's Notes: 1993 as the year of Htay Naing's murder is still being disputed by some former ABSDF members who have been suggesting that the time of Htay Naing's death was March 1994 almost a whole year before KNU's Manerplaw fell in January 1995.)
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| When he was later interviewed Moe Thee, instead of defending himself, challenged the Government to be charged for the massacres in 1962, 1970, 1988, 2007, and the 2008 Green-lake murders. After that news conference he jumped on the first available flight out off Burma with tail tucked between his hind legs before Burmese police could arrest him. He then fled back to New York City where he is hiding now. |