Junta-allied Karen militia leader Saw Chit Thu on Tuesday protested against a threat by the Thai government to arrest him over the clusters of online scam operations that thrive in his fiefdom in Myawaddy on the Thai border.
“I would like to ask: what exactly have I done to Thailand that would justify such an arrest?” Saw Chit Thu demanded, speaking to BBC Burmese. “Have I committed any acts of rebellion against Thailand?”
The warlord, who heads one of several so-called Border Guard Forces (BGF) or ethnic junta-aligned militias, runs the scam center hub of Shwe Kokko in Myawaddy Township in a joint venture with Yatai International, owned by notorious Chinese criminal She Zhijiang, who is being held in a Bangkok prison.
On Tuesday, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI) sought an arrest warrant for the three BGF leaders: Saw Chit Thu, Lieutenant Colonel Mote Thone, and Major Tin Win, for human trafficking.
They are accused of involvement in the trafficking of Indian nationals who were forced to work in call-center scams.
Online scam centers mostly targeting Chinese citizens have mushroomed near the border since the 2021 coup, particularly in Myawaddy.
Many local people as well as hundreds of foreign nationals from several countries are forced to work for the scam gangs after being trafficked through northern Thailand amid reports of torture and other abuses.
But Saw Chit Thu told BBC Burmese his armed group had done “a lot” to combat human trafficking and helped rescue and return many trafficked victims. “But our efforts have never been reported in the news,” he complained.
“The arrest warrant plan is a great danger to us. I truly feel bad about the Thais’ planned action,” he added.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Karen BGF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Naing Maung Zaw echoed his boss. “What mistake have we made for Thailand to issue an arrest warrant for us?” he said. “We have done nothing wrong, so we have no comment.”
Instead, the BGF claimed it will be establishing a special task force, led by Saw Chit Thu, “to completely eliminate and suppress the cyber scam networks in the BGF-controlled border areas” in Myawaddy.
The rights group Justice for Myanmar exposed the BGF’s involvement in Chinese-run online scams, illegal casinos, and online gambling operations in Myawaddy in May last year.
The U.K. imposed sanctions against Saw Chit Thu in December 2023 over allegations of human trafficking, forced labor, and human rights violations, as did the EU, which also sanctioned Mote Thone and Tin Win.
Last month, the BGF found itself in the spotlight again when the trafficking of a Chinese celebrity, actor Wang Xing, to Myawaddy made global headlines.
Under pressure from Beijing, Thai police rescued Wang Xing from a scam operation in circumstances that were never fully explained but presumably required the assistance of local authorities.
As pressure from China mounted, Thailand cut electricity, internet services, and fuel supplies to five areas in Myanmar last Wednesday, including the territories controlled by Saw Chit Thu and another Karen armed group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) in Myawaddy.
General Sai Kyaw Hla, the commander of the DKBA’s No. 1 military region, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that his militia will no longer permit online scam centers, except for online gambling businesses, in its territory of Kyauk Khat.
The general claimed that over 100 foreign nationals who had been trafficked to the scam centers there have been rescued and will be handed over to Thai authorities “soon.”
Following the Thai cutoff, the junta and Karen BGF jointly handed over 61 trafficked victims from seven foreign countries to Thai authorities.
The regime also raided online gambling and scam centers in northern Shan State’s Mongyai Township, which it still controls, detaining over 100 people including several dozen foreign nationals.
Thai authorities for their part removed Police Major General Ekkarat Intasuep, the commander of Inspection Division 5, and Pol. Maj-Gen Samrit Aemkamol, chief of Tak Province Police, from their posts for their alleged connections to online gambling and scam centers in Myawaddy and failing to stop the trafficking.
