|
BANGKOK: A top leader of Myanmar’s rebel Karen National Union was
likely killed by a professional hitman hired by a rival group, a KNU
spokesman said Friday.
The spokesman said the rival group probably
ordered the assassination of Pado Manh Sha to sow divisions in the
already weakened rebellion that has been battling Myanmar’s rulers
for nearly six decades.
Two gunmen shot dead Pado Manh Sha, the KNU’s
secretary-general based in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, at his
home on Thursday, according to Thai police.
One of the most prominent figures in the KNU, he
was also a critical link between the rebellion and the pro-democracy
movement inside Myanmar.
KNU spokesman David Thaw said the group’s
leadership would gather Friday in Mae Sot to make funeral
preparations and try to unravel the mystery of his killing.
“There’s a lot of confusion,” he told
Agence France-Presse by telephone. “At the moment we think that it
must be someone trying to create problems for the Karen, to create
more disunity and divisions among each other,” he said.
“It might be a professional killer, so someone
might have hired this gunman. It is a very cold-blooded killer who
can kill Pado Manh Sha at his house,” he said. “The gunshot was
very accurate for someone to die instantly.”
Thai police said they were combing through Pado
Manh Sha’s double-story house to search for clues but admitted
they were struggling to find a solid lead.
“We are investigating to look for more
evidence,” a senior provincial police officer said.
A Thai military officer in Mae Sot who asked not
to be named said that investigators believe the killing was likely
committed by a Karen splinter group like the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army (DKBA).
Most Karen are Christians, but the DKBA has
broken away and aligned itself with Myanmar’s junta, which has
ruled the country since 1962.
The KNU is the largest rebel group fighting
Myanmar’s armed forces and one of the few remaining ethnic
insurgencies yet to sign a peace deal with the junta. The group once
controlled broad swaths of eastern Myanmar but now is reduced mainly
to a string of bases pressed against the Thai border.
Myanmar began a bloody offensive against the
Karen two years ago, which activists say has targeted ordinary
villagers rather than rebels. Decades of fighting have devastated
eastern Myanmar, where 500,000 people have been displaced by
violence, according to Human Rights Watch.
-- AFP
|
