AN ethnic minority armed group has executed six men following a public trial in an enclave it controls near the China border, media affiliated with the group said.
Fourteen people were tried on Thursday by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) for offences, including kidnap, extortion and murder, “The Kokang” outlet reported.
Photos showed the accused in identical blue tracksuits being held in front of a crowd of around 1,000 people in the city of Laukkai, about 5km from China’s Yunnan province.All wore placards around their necks marked with the word “criminal” in Chinese characters.
Six men who were convicted of robbery, kidnap and murder while pretending to be MNDAA soldiers were executed on the spot, The Kokang said.
It did not give details on the sentences given to the other eight accused.
Many of Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups run parallel legal systems in territory they hold along the country’s borders.
In April, the MNDAA executed three of its fighters for murder and selling weapons and ammunition stolen from the group.
The United Wa State Army, another group with territory along the China border, sentenced a man to death at a public trial in October for murdering an eight-year-old girl.
In 2022, Myanmar’s junta executed four people -- the first judicial execution in the country in decades.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the military seized power in a 2021 coup, with ethnic rebel groups and newer “People’s Defence Forces” battling the military across the country.
The MNDAA, with 8,000 fighters, took control of Laukkai in January after 2,000 government troops surrendered following weeks of fighting, in a huge blow to the junta.
Earlier this week the MNDAA said it was ready for China-mediated talks with the junta to end more than a year of renewed fighting.
China is a major ally and arms supplier of the junta but also maintains ties with ethnic rebel groups that hold territory near its border.
It has repeatedly called for fighting to stop in Shan State, a key link in its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure. — AFP
