Bicycle-riding gunmen from a rebel group have assassinated a top election official for Myanmar’s military junta. The group accused him of being complicit in “oppressing and terrorizing” the public. This is the latest in a series of high-profile killings targeting a military that has escalated attacks on civilians.
The official, Sai Kyaw Thu, a retired lieutenant colonel who served as deputy director general of the Union Election Commission, was fatally shot Saturday afternoon after driving his wife, a doctor, to her job at a hospital in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.
A resistance group calling itself “For the Yangon” claimed responsibility for the killing. A spokesman for the group, who gave his name only as Sky for fear of retaliation, said Mr. Sai Kyaw Thu was targeted in part because he testified last year against the country’s ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ousted president, U Win Myint, at their trial for election fraud. Both were convicted…
2023-04-23 04:57:28
Original from www.nytimes.com