December in Myanmar begin with high-profile Political assassinations by the Opposition hit-squads
U Than Tun the Chairman of New National Democracy Party was assassinated by NLD party's PDF hitmen in 1 December 2023 morning
Yangon, 1 December 2023
U Than Tun, the Chairman of the ” New National Democratic Party” NNDP was assassinated by gunmen in his house in Yangon around 8 AM on 1 December morning.
The 54 year old chairman of the pro-Democracy political NNDP party was shot 4 times at point blank by armed assassins who posed as the customers for photocopy services in his home based office supply business. He was a veteran pro-Democracy activist since 1988 as a student leader and worked for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy NLD for decades before breaking away to form a new political party. The NLD party was ousted by the military Junta on February 2021 after the election dispute which is claimed by the NLD as winning by land slide. The Junta claimed that they seized power for the electoral fraud committed by the NLD and promised to hold a new election.
The armed resistance wing of NLD party, the “Peoples’ Defense Force” PDF and the NLD led parallel Government in exile “the National Unity Government” NUG which formed after the coup, considered all the political parties who registered with Junta for the new election as the collaborators of Junta and threatened to assassinate. All the Government employees, health professionals and school teachers who continue to work under the Junta regime are also officially declared as the collaborators who would be punished.
Two day earlier on 29 November in other area of the country, the Mayor of Chauk city in Magway Division was assassinated by gunmen on motorbike. The Mayor U Thant Zin Oo was riding scooter back to his home from office while 2 motorbikes follow him and one rider shot him fatally at point blank. The assassination was recorded by the associate of the hitman on other motorbike and widely circulated on Burmese language Social Media.
The local hit-squads claimed responsibilities for both assassinations on Social Media by saying both victims were punished as the collaborators of Junta regime. There are hundreds of armed groups, if not thousand since no one know the exact number, in the country of 55 million population. Most of the armed groups are formed after the 2021 coup and some veteran opposition groups have their own arms and ammunition factories as well as some are armed with sophisticated Chinese made anti-aircraft weapons. Myanmar is the largest producer of narcotic drug in the region and most of the armed groups are funded by lucrative drug trafficking, gambling and natural resources extraction.
Those killings seemed to reconfirm the Junta’s recent statement about the number of politically motivated assassinations which stand around 6700 since February 2021 coup. Everyday there are at least 3 credible Burmese language Social Media reports with photographic evidence about the political assassinations of civilians who are accused as the collaborators of the Junta. The opposition media reported that 4200 civilians who are pro-NLD are killed in the same period by the Junta by quoting another UK based opposition website www.aappb.org. Both of the claims can not be independently confirmed but the quick research on the opposition claims showed their death toll of 4200 counted the prisoners who die with Covid-19 while in incarceration. The Junta’s death toll can not be independently confirmed neither.
On May 2022, the major opposition party USDP which competed against NLD on the disputed election claimed that 1530 of their party member and families were assassinated by the NLD/PDF hit-squads on politically motivated killings. The recent kidnapping of 204 Loikaw University employees by the NLD led PDF forces also is proving that the targeted political violence is not limited to the political party members who are not associated with the NLD party.
There were over 90 political parties in the last General Election of 2020 for the bicameral parliament. The “Union Solidarity and Development Party” USDP is the main opposition party which is accused of being aligned with the Myanmar military because it is led by ex-military officers. The main political party NLD is also led by daughter of the ex-military General and other ex-soldiers in this country with 75 year of active civil war.
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