Mother and 3 children murdered in Ye Township

Tue 30 Mar 2010, Khatter Non
A 27 year-old Mon woman named Ma Htwe was stabbed to death in her home along with her 3 children on March 27th, in Ye Township’s Hplang village, within the New Mon State Party-controlled area of Ye Chaungpayar.

The perpetrator, a young male neighbor named Min Seik Son, is only 17 years old.

“Ma Htwe and her younger children were together in the house, at that time [the morning of the 27th] this young man stabbed Ma Htwe in her back with a knife six times and also her younger son, and then he also killed her other 2 children” a Hplang villager reported.

According to the Hplang residents interviewed by IMNA, the crime was discovered on the same day it was committed, after neighbors entered the victims’ home, located on the village’s more heavily populated main road, and discovered the bodies. Village residents immediately joined in a massive search of the area, and soon discovered Min Seik Son at a nearby stream, where he was reportedly caught washing his victims’ blood off of his body.

Min Seik Son was immediately taken into custody by the local Hplang villager, and taken to the village headman’s office, where he confessed that he had committed the murders at around 11 am that morning. He has since been sent to a NMSP base in nearby Weazin village, where he is being prosecuted by the party.

In an interview, Ma Htwe’s husband Oo Kon Plai explained that neighbors had told him that the crimes was likely linked to a March 27th dispute between the murderer and Ma Htwe about a possible theft, which Ma Htwe had reportedly shared with her neighbors just before her death.

“We have never had any problems with this guy, he came to our house every day to visit. On that day [the day of the murder] I was not at home, I was in Ye town. A neighbor told me that my wife went to Hplang Chaung Wa village to bring back the children [from a visit with our family living there]. She allowed that young man to wait in our home, and when my wife returned, she checked her money, and two thousand kyat was gone, that’s why my wife talk to him, telling him ‘You stole my money’ and ‘don’t do that next time’, ” Oo Kon Plai explained.

“The oldest of her [Ma Htwe’s] children was a girl, she was about 6 years old, other two were boys, one of 4 them was years old and the other 2 years old. Now just her husband is left in their house,” said a second villager.

Oo Kon Plai told IMNA “I don’t want to ever see that guy again. If people like him are still alive, it [violence] will happen again and again. Now I have no wife and no children. I don’t know, what can I do? I feel so sad for my family, also I am so angry at that guy”. Min Seik Son resided in Hplang village with his aunt, as his parents are currently employed as migrant workers in Thailand.

Oo Kon Plai and his wife had reportedly started a new business selling “toddy”, an alcoholic beverage made from coconut palms, a mere 2 months ago.