A Burmese Military Security Affairs (MSA) official was killed and two United Wa State Army (UWSA) officials were seriously injured when a meeting in Mong Ton Township, Southern Shan State degenerated into shooting on Wednesday 23 September.
The incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. in a house in Nar Kong Mu Village where UWSA and Burma Army officials were discussing disputed land in Mongsat Township.
After an argument between the two groups allegedly escalated, both began shooting at one another, leaving Ngyi Ngyi Aung, the MSA official, with gunshot wounds to his stomach. He was taken to the nearby Mongsat Hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
A source close to both parties said: “The Burma officials were on an inspection trip regarding the disputed land.” He explained that the Burma Army then allegedly asked the Wa officials to clarify their territorial boundaries in the area, but “the answer from the Wa was unclear.”
He said: “The Burma Army official got angry and then opened fire."
The source added that the case has now been assigned to the Burma Army’s regional command headquarters in Keng Tung, Eastern Shan State
U Ta Lue, a UWSA-South official said: “We will apologize if we are wrong, [but] they [the Burma Army] were the ones who opened fire first. Therefore, they should apologize to us.”
In a meeting in Keng Tung earlier this month, U Thein Zaw, the vice chairman of the government’s Union Peacemaking Working Committee (UPWC), told UWSA representatives that there could be no guarantee of security for the UWSA-controlled areas of Southern Shan State if the UWSA does not sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), which is due to be signed in October.
The UWSA has had a presence in Mongsat since 1998, when Burma was under the rule of Khin Nyunt, the military general who briefly served as the country’s Prime Minister.
BY SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.)
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
