Myanmar junta forces killed the wife of the vice chairperson of the Mandalay District National League for Democracy (NLD) branch during interrogation and then dumped her body by the side of the road, according to members of the Mandalay District NLD.
Mandalay District NLD vice chair U Ko Ko Lay has been in hiding since the military regime filed a sedition case against him. His wife Daw Soe Soe was not charged by the junta, but was hiding at someone else’s house in Mandalay for security reasons.
She was taken as a hostage and later killed after junta troops failed to find U Ko Ko Lay at the house where she was hiding, said sources.
The body of 50-year-old Daw Soe Soe was found on Monday outside a fire service office near the New Mingalar Market on 35th Street in downtown Mandalay, one week after her arrest.
“Her body was dumped by the road. Local ward residents held a funeral for her. It appears that she was killed because she did not reveal the whereabouts of her husband,” a Mandalay District NLD member told The Irrawaddy.
On the night of April 12, junta troops arrived in five military vehicles at the house where Daw Soe Soe was sheltering. She was taken away as a hostage after they didn’t find her husband in the house, according to eye-witnesses.
Regime soldiers slapped Daw Soe Soe in the face during the raid, and beat and slashed her thighs with a knife.
A source close to her said: “I was concerned for her safety when I heard that she was slashed on her thighs. They [the junta] don’t view humans as humans but kill people as if they were birds or chickens. They did this to instill fear in people.”
Family members are also concerned about the fate of U Thein Zaw, a brother of U Ko Ko Lay, who is also being held incommunicado by the regime.
There have been reports that U Ko Ko Lay died suddenly of a stroke on Thursday evening while hiding in Shan State. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify those reports.
At least 1,779 people have been killed by the regime since last year’s February 1 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
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