By Min Khant
A trending news report on social media that attracts the people’s attention is a video clip about an inhumane murder crime committed by members of the so-called PDF, affiliates of NUG declared as a terrorist group. At the beginning of December, the final month of 2022, there emerged a video clip in which an innocent young woman was violently beaten while she was handcuffed and repeatedly shot in her head to death on the middle of a public road by PDF terrorists from Tamu township. The video clip not only went viral on social media but did catch the attention of international news agencies.
The perpetrators of terrorists from the 4th Battalion of the Tamu PDF claimed responsibility for the hideous murder in an interview made by themselves. Moreover, the announcement of the NUG terrorist group claiming a probe will be carried out into the case simply confesses the terrorists of their armed wing PDF actually committed the crime. As they released a statement on social media admitting that they actually committed the grisly and inhumane murder, the perpetrators of the crime are indisputably the NUG and its affiliate members of Tamu PDF.
The young woman who got brutally murdered in the terrorist act was found out to be a 22-year-old general worker living in the Myoma (12) ward of Tamu. The victim was reportedly abducted by PDF terrorists on her way back home from work on 8 May 2022 and the date of the murder was not discerned exactly. The emergence of such a video clip is not the first time as a similar video clip also appeared in June 2022. In the video clip, a woman called Ma Nandar with hands tied behind her back was forced to kneel and chopped to death with a machete. Two months after in September, on social media emerged another video clip in which PDF members were beheading a woman, who was blindfolded, with hands tied behind her back. They alleged the woman was a military informant before killing her.
In the third video clip recently going viral on social media, the young woman had denied until her last breath that she was not a Dalan (informant). Against the backdrop of such situations, the number of atrocious murder crimes committed by PDF terrorists as per the instruction of NUG might be much higher than we can think of. Even some Myanmar people remark that such inhumanities are far worse than the acts of terrorists from the Middle East region. The brutalities and inhumanities of the so-called PDF terrorist groups, who got instilled with ideologies of extremism in Myanmar’s political change, have created an atmosphere of loathing among people for almost two years. Despite that, the Western bloc led by the United States, with a reason to put one-sided political pressure on the current administration of Myanmar, has taken all possible measures to cover up and prevent the heinous acts of PDF terrorists from reaching widely among Myanmar people and international communities by using various means of manpower, finance and media.
Reviewing the situation, international communities and individuals should take heed of the fact that the Western bloc is clouding the judgement on and misinforming about Myanmar by using the power of finance, manpower, technology and media. There are many individuals and organizations out there engaging with and supporting or abstaining from the recognition of chaotic NUG and PDF terrorist groups crowned with all kinds of cruelties and therefore, I wonder what attitudes to such acts of terrorism they would take.
As a response to the hideous terrorist incident, people from Kalay township demonstrated by holding placards that read ‘We don’t want PDF murders and terrorists’ and ‘oppose terrorist groups of CRPH, NUG and PDF.’ Similarly, people from Tamu township also demonstrated against the PDF terrorists by holding placards that read, ‘Rest in peace Ma Aye Mar Tun, who got violently killed’, ‘Fall of PDF terrorists – our cause’, ‘Oppose any act of terrorism’ and so on.
Likewise, on social media, all people, regardless of political colours, denounced in a single overtone against the terrorist acts of PDF. However, fewer reported such incidents. Moreover, it is notably observed that subversive media outlets particularly the ones supported by the Western bloc under various labels have not reported on or described the inhumane acts of PDF terrorists. Only BBC perfunctorily described a news report stating that NUG would carry out a probe into the crime. The US Embassy in Yangon, interfering in Myanmar’s internal affairs and releasing many statements, was then found to be blind and deaf to the case.
Moreover, it is amazing to witness that such diplomatic missions to Myanmar, that are releasing various statements condemning the rule-based legal actions of security force members against the terrorist groups by comparing with human rights norms and values, are now burying their heads in the sand and literally ignore the undeniable terrorist acts of NUG/PDF. No matter how the unscrupulous ones remain blind and deaf, everyone who witnesses such terrorist acts is saddened by the deaths of the victims who got killed for no reason.
Therefore, the voices of Myanmar people who do not want terrorism and admire the truth can be seen on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and VK as follows.
I also like to highlight some provisions and definitions of terrorism set by the United Nations and other powerful countries. In the Resolution adopted by the General Assembly (49/60) on 9 December 1994, a point of declaration describes terrorism as “Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.” Therefore, terrorism purports to be the criminal acts intended to provoke a state of terror in the general public with any reason of political, racial and religious or any other nature.
The definition of terrorism by the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) of the University of Maryland is also notable. The GTD defines terrorism as ‘Acts of violence by non-state actors, perpetrated against civilian populations, intended to cause fear, in order to achieve a political objective’.
In the overall review of the definitions of terrorism mentioned above, the acts of threatening or targeted killings of innocent civilians or non-combatants, to provoke fear among the general public rather than seeking a political solution through peaceful political means, can be clearly seen as the acts of terrorism recognized by all societies around the globe. Even an ordinary person can see the acts of PDF terrorists are merely targeted assassinations and extrajudicial killings of innocent civilians or non-combatants. That is just terrorism far worse than human rights violations.
In the nature of the global political order of a zero-sum game, we should consider and be aware of the fact that some interest groups are installing radicalism and extremism into the Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific regions based on the diversities of politics, races and religions. The interest groups are apparently willing to manipulate and create a volatile situation in the Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific regions including Myanmar which holds a strategic geopolitical location. Accordingly, they are exerting all-round pressure on the State Administration Council government that temporarily assumed the State’s responsibilities as per the State Constitution without accommodating their manipulation. On the other hand, for the mere intention to build pressure on the State government, it is quite ugly to perceive their attempts to cover up the terrorism and acts of NUG/PDF as though they know nothing about it.
However that may be, the case of terrorizing and murdering a 22-year-old young woman from Tamu township is an acute alert for the society of Myanmar, the region and the whole world as well. Moreover, we should also heed the fact that similar problems might break out in the region if we all fail to stop such demonstrations of wrongdoing. For that reason, I hereby urge the peaceable people, to prevent and stop together the NUG’s course of terrorism by finding out the realities of terrorism doctrine and the inhumanities of NUG/PDF groups.
