Ceasefire leader

Ceasefire leader:Junta committing genocide

The leader of the Shan ceasefire group charged that Rangoon had been launching a genocide program in central and southern Shan State, according to an interview reported recently.

In reply to a question by the interviewer on 19 August, Gen Hsoten, President of the Shan State Peace Council, a joint setup of two Shan ceasefire groups, Shan State Army "North" (1 st Regional Command) and Shan State National Army, (3 rd Regional Command), replied: "Everyone who hears about people in the central and south being driven out of their homes, villages and fields, being shot to death in bunches and the women being molested, shares in their sorrow. In English, these acts are (collectively) termed as genocide. That was why when we met Lt-Gen KhinNyunt, Secretary-1, on 15 March 1999, we submitted the list of people massacred at the Faho Falls in southern Shan State and urged him to take action on the culprits."

Faho Falls is in Hoyarn Tract, Kunhing Township. The massacre in June-July 1997 killed altogether 400 people from the area, including women and children. Kunhing is known as the most "uncivilized" township in the whole of Shan State in terms of rights violations. Despite the tense situation, Hsoten thought Rangoon would continue to maintain the ceasefire agreements with the non-Burman groups that include, apart from Shans, Kachin, Wa and Karen. "They are at pains to show the world that the whole country is at peace because of their correct policies. 

During our meeting on 30 May with Gen Khin Nyunt, he said peace was essential, without which the union would fall to pieces." Gen. Hsoten, however, did not say whether action had been taken against the trespassers. Another series of massacres broke out in May 2000 in the same township when hundreds of people were reported killed.

Courtesy: Shan State Journal, Vol-2 No.3, 10 September 2000.