Ethnic Karen commanders in Myanmar admit killing 25 men

Fortify Rights says two senior commanders admitted to the killings and agree to cooperate with international justice in what amounts to a war crime.

Two senior commanders of the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO) have admitted that security forces under their control detained and later killed 25 men in June in its territory near Myanmar’s border with Thailand, human rights group Fortify Rights has said. General Ner Dah Bo Mya and Lieutenant Saw Ba Wah, who have been suspended from their posts, told Fortify Rights that their men were responsible. General Ner Dah Bo Mya denied wrongdoing, saying the men, who were not armed and not in uniform, were “spies” for the military and that his troops “had to finish them up, otherwise they try to run away during the fighting and then they would come back and it would be very hard for us.” The order came from a “captain of intelligence” at the Karen National Union (KNU) – the political group that controls the KNDO – the general added.