A general responsible for the massacre of 29 civilians in Ye-U Township, Sagaing Region, last year has been promoted to the chief of Myanmar military’s Southern Command in Bago Region.
Then Brigadier General Kyi Thike was appointed head of the 4th Military Operations Command based in Hpugyi, Yangon Region, in February 2021 following the military coup. His troops killed civilians and torched houses in Sagaing, a hotbed of the resistance movement. He is now a major general.
Amid pressures following the massacre of 29 civilians in Mon Taing Pin village in Ye-U Township by his Light Infantry Battalion 708 in May last year, Kyi Thike was transferred to head the Bayintnaung army combat training school in Thantaunggyi, Taungoo District.
The civilian National Unity Government has accused the LIB commander Lieutenant Colonel Tun Lin Aung and his boss, Kyi Thike, of ordering the massacre.
Some nine months after the massacre in Mon Taing Pin village, the battalion headed by Lt-Col Tun Lin Aung carried out raids from February to early April this year.
Calling themselves the ‘Ogre Colum’, junta soldiers raided resistance bases and villages in Ayadaw, Myinmu, Sagaing and Myaung townships in Sagaing Region and Yesagyo Township in Magwe Region.
In a series of raids, junta soldiers slaughtered civilians and resistance fighters. Some were beheaded and women were raped. Nearly 50 people, including resistance fighters, were killed in the raids.
Kyi Thike has succeeded Major General Htein Win as Southern Command chief, said a military source, after Htein Win was promoted to lieutenant general to head of armed forces training.
Military observers suggest that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has transferred his loyalist Kyi Thike to suppress the rising resistance movement in Bago Region.
