Myanmar junta forces chasing insurgents raided the home of a journalist, killing him, another journalist and two other people, one of whom was a member of a rebel group, associated with the victims, including a former employer, told Radio Free Asia.
Troops raided the home of journalist Htet Myat Thu in Mon State on Wednesday after receiving reports that insurgents were meeting there.
Since the military seized power and overthrew a civilian government more than three years ago, junta officials have shut down independent media and arrested and tortured some journalists, victims and rights groups.
Junta soldiers opened fire on Htet Myat Thu’s house in Kyaikto commune, suspecting the residents were members of a pro-democracy insurgent group called the Kyaikto Revolutionary Force, the men’s associates said.
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The second journalist killed in the raid was Win Htut Oo, 28, a freelance journalist who worked for Democratic Voice of Burma and The Nation Voice, one of his employers told RFA.
Around thirty soldiers burst into the house, said a source close to one of the victims who requested anonymity for security reasons.
“Htet Myat Thu was shot first when he opened the door. Another man, Kyin Wak, was shot in the leg when he jumped out of the window,” the source said.
“Win Htut Oo and another man, Ah Win, were shot dead at the back of the house as they tried to flee.”
Ah Win was a member of the Kyaikto Revolutionary Force, but the other man, Kyin Wak, simply lived in the house and had no militia affiliation, his associates said.
The authorities did not return the bodies to their relatives but cremated them, they added.
Htet Myat Thu, 26, worked for the Voice of Thanbyuzayat newspaper. He was previously arrested once while covering protests following the 2021 coup, but continued his work as a journalist after being released.
Nay Aung, editor-in-chief of The Nation Voice, rejected any suggestion that either journalist was a member of an insurgent group.
“Journalists are just trying to report the right information in a timely manner while they are in the field,” he said. “But the junta saw this as an attack on the military and retaliated against them, step by step. »
Pro-junta channels on the messaging app Telegram reported that four soldiers from Kyaikto’s revolutionary forces were killed in a shootout during a raid on a house where rebel soldiers were gathering.
RFA attempted to contact Mon State junta spokesperson Saw Kyi Naing for comment, but he did not respond.
According to data from the Independent Journalists Association of Myanmar, 176 journalists have been arrested since the 2021 coup. Of these, five were killed and 52 remain in detention.
Myanmar ranks ninth for the number of journalists killed and second for the number of journalists imprisoned globally, according to the 2023 Global Impunity Index released by press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.