Ye authorities under investigation for suicide of municipal director

IMNA
February 17, 2006

Burmese military government authorities in Ye town are under investigation by senior Army officials in Moulmein following a series of suicides of government officials in the town.

Military officers of the Military Operation Management Command (MOMC) No-19 and Ye Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) authorities are being investigated because of the suicides, according to sources close the army.

The Director of Township Municipal, U Khin Oo hung himself on January 12 in his house. He was said to be in debt and was under pressure by the MOMC commander because he could not account for departmental expenditure.

He was reported to be depressed. “He was not depressed because of the military commander who was his friend. It is possible that the TPDC chairman U Thein Zaw was pressurizing him. He was regularly insulted by U Thein Zaw in front of the office staff,” a municipal employee said.

According to municipal employees working in his office, U Khin Oo who worked for six months in the town had planned to hang himself earlier and had written a note. But an employee found the note and upset his plan. But U Khin Oo tried again and succeeded in committing suicide because the employee was careless and had not informed anybody when he found the note on the earlier occasion.

In October 2005, township police chief U Wim Myit hung himself as he was under pressure from the MOMC commander. Senior ranking military officials of the Southeastern Region Command in Moulmein then investigated the MOMC and Ye Township authorities, as is being down now.

The police chief left a letter, asking senior ranking authorities to solve the problem plaguing Ye Township.

In his letter he had said that if someone else took his place he too would kill himself. Strange as it may sound the police officer who succeeded him in Ye Township shot himself in a village east of the town.