The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) has remained silent on the inclusion of a 6-year-old girl on a list of suspects published in junta newspapers for their alleged involvement in the assassination of a retired military officer in Yangon.
Retired Brigadier-General Cho Tun Aung, an instructor at the National Defence College specializing in internal security and counter-terrorism, was fatally shot outside his house in Yangon on the morning of May 22. Urban guerilla group Golden Valley Warriors claimed responsibility for the killing of Cho Tun Aung, who had been awarded a Wunna Kyaw Htin title by junta boss Min Aung Hlaing.
The military regime said it had arrested 16 individuals including a 6-year-old girl and two women on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Cho Tun Aung.
Last week, junta newspapers published the names of the 16 suspects including the alleged gunman, his wife and their six-year-old daughter along with their photos, drawing criticism.
Legal experts and human rights activists noted that the arrest of the child and the publication of her photo violates both domestic and international laws on children’s rights. Meanwhile, the MNHRC remained silent about the incident.
“Both international convention and domestic laws ban publishing the photos of children,” said a lawyer-cum-human activists. “We don’t do so because it can affect his or her future. Publishing their photos violates international conventions. We also have Child Rights Laws in our country that cover accusations of a child for involvement in a crime.”
Myanmar’s 2019 Child Rights Law prohibits psychological violence against children, including actions that frighten, scare, threaten, isolate, or result in the child being neglected, as well as any conduct that causes continuous infringement of the child’s dignity or psychological harm.
The regime has violated the Child Rights Law by frightening the six-year-old girl when she was arrested, the legal experts said.
Former township judge Daw Thinzar Mya, who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement labelled the arbitrary arrests, torture, and imprisonment of innocent civilians as a war crime.
“Detaining, torturing and jailing civilians without legal justification is a war crime. Those actions especially during armed conflicts violate international humanitarian law (IHL). Those involved including the police, judges and legal officers must be held accountable along the with military,” she said.
The Golden Valley Warriors responded to the junta’s allegations by saying that they spent four months preparing for the assassination of Cho Tun Aung and that those involved in the mission were safe.
The group said those arrested were not culprits but drivers of motorbike taxis and taxis that the assassins had taken randomly, workers at nearby construction sites, and civil servants who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement after the coup. The regime arrested the six-year-old girl to instill fear in pro-democracy groups, it said.
They also highlighted discrepancies between the CCTV footage released by the junta and the evidence described in official newspapers, such as differing details about the bicycle used by the suspects. Additionally, weapons analysts have pointed out that the firearm shown as the murder weapon by junta media is actually a fake, further casting doubt on the official account.
“We feel sorry for the innocent civilians. We have said that all our comrades are safe,” a member of the Golden Valley Warriors said.
The regime has accused the Golden Valley Warriors group of committing four assassinations in Yangon including that of Min Tez Nyunt Tin, a legal advisor to businesses run by the children of top junta leaders. The regime alleged that the group was formed in March 2023 in Chiang Mai, Thailand with support from National Unity Government (NUG) Defense Minister U Yee Mon.
Former major Swe Taw, a Tatmadaw defector, said Myanmar’s military intelligence unit and police fabricated the evidence under pressure to arrest the perpetrators while deputy junta chief Vice Senior General Win was visiting Yangon.
One Yangon resident who monitors the junta’s activities said: “It is just their modus operandi. No one ever knows whether their claims are true or not. But there have been previous cases in which passers-by were arrested such as in the case of a bombing. So, in the case of a murder of a brigadier-general, you can imagine that they may arrest people who had nothing to do with it.”
