The ethnic army that drove the regime out of Kokang in northern Shan State executed three of its soldiers on Wednesday after it found them guilty of murder and other crimes linked to the online scam centers that once dotted the autonomous region on the border with China.
The three soldiers – aged 34, 36 and 38 – from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) were “immediately executed” by a firing squad after a public trial in Kokang’s capital Laukkai on Wednesday.
A video of the trial posted on Facebook by The Kokang, the autonomous region’s official information page, ends with three shackled men being led into a forested area followed by the sound of gun fire.
The Kokang said about 1,000 people attended the trial, which comprised three separate cases against 10 accused. Six were MNDAA soldiers and one was a member of an MNDAA-affiliated militia.
In the first and second cases, eight men were found guilty of charges that included kidnapping, extortion, premeditated murder and human trafficking. In the third case, two men were found guilty of stealing weapons and selling them to the junta-affiliated government that ran Kokang before it was ousted by the MNDAA.
Charges in the first case related to the kidnapping of 15 Chinese citizens, their Myanmar drivers and six Vietnamese nationals. In the second case, the charges related to two Chinese citizens abducted for ransom and later killed.
One suspect in each of the three cases was executed. Two others (one in the first case and another in the second case) were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. The other five men were sentenced to five to 15 years in prison.
Kokakng was liberated from the Myanmar military regime early this year after the MNDAA retook its capital Laukkai, a border town notorious for scam syndicates that were controlled by the junta-affiliated Kokang border guard force.
The MNDAA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army, known collectively as the Brotherhood Alliance, launched a coordinated offensive against the junta in northern Shan State on Oct. 27 last year. They captured major trade routes with China, strategic army bases and liberated several towns. But the offensive, known as Operation 1027, came to a halt due to China’s intervention at the regime’s request.
A ceasefire between the Brotherhood Alliance and the junta was agreed to in January.
The MNDAA has kept full control of Kokang and established its own administration there. Wednesday’s triple execution marked the post-liberation debut of the death penalty.
The Kokang said the trial’s audience included members of the MNDAA district and town administration, as well as representatives of students and the public. Officers from the MNDAA led the public trial.
The accused – who ranged in age from 19 to 38 – were shackled and lined up for public display on a stage before the verdicts were announced via loud speakers.
Each of the three men who heard he was about to be executed had a red X drawn on the sign that hanged from his neck before being transported by motorcade to the execution site.
