Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, 64, a leader of the Karen National Union, one of the biggest ethnic groups fighting Myanmar’s military government, was killed by gunmen on 14.02.2008 at his home in Maesot, Thailand, police said.

Padoh Mahn Sha house & neighbourhood

KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha was shot at his home in Mae Sot by three men who arrived in a pickup truck, Thai police Col. Pasawat Tangjui said. He said the killing may have been the result of internal differences in the rebel group.

Mahn Sha was sitting on a balcony on the second floor of his house when the three men arrived in the truck, the police Col. said. “One guy went upstairs, greeted Mahn Sha and then shot him at close range. Then, another guy came up and shot him again before they fled in the same vehicle, while the driver remained in the truck”, he said, “Initial investigations showed that the assailants are also Karen, and after speaking to some witnesses, we believe it was an internal problem within the KNU that prompted the assassination. Still, we have to investigate further to know for sure.”

Anjali Kwatra, a journalist working for the humanitarian group Christian Aid, said that there was no visible security at Mahn Sha’s home, which also served as his office with only one or two office assistants at ground floor, and that’s why gunmen could get easily into Mahn Sha’s home upstairs.

Mahn Sha’s son Hse Hse, another senior member of the predominantly Christian Karen rebel movement, blamed a Buddhist Karen splinter group which brokered a truce with the Myanmar junta in the mid-1990s. “This is the work of the DKBA and the Burmese soldiers,” Hse Hse said, referring to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Mahn Sha, 64, took over leadership of the KNU in 2000 from his ailing predecessor, Bo Mya, who died in 2006. He had been with the KNU since 1963, becoming Bo Mya’s personal assistant and joint general secretary in 1995 before taking the top post.

His neighbor Kim Suay told Reuters at the scene that Mahn Sha Lar Phan, secretary-general of the Karen National Union (KNU), died instantly after being shot at his two-storey wooden home by two men who arrived in a pickup truck.

the place where the tragic incident happened	the light truck alleged too be used by assassins

“One of them walked up to the house and said in Karen ‘How are you, uncle?’ Then the other man joined him after parking the truck and they both shot him with two pistols,” she said.

The assassination was immediately blamed on troops loyal to the former Burma’s military junta. The Karen have been fighting for independence in the hills of eastern Myanmar(Burma) for the last 60 years, one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.

KNU spokesman David Thaw said the group’s leadership would gather Friday in Mae Sot to make funeral preparations and try to unravel the mystery of his killing. “There’s a lot of confusion,  at the moment we think that it must be someone trying to create problems for the Karen, to create more disunity and divisions among each other,” he said, “It might be a professional killer, so someone might have hired this gunman. It is a very cold-blooded killer who can kill Pado Manh Sha at his house. The gunshot was very accurate for someone to die instantly.”

The Karen National Union has now elected a new general secretary. The joint secretary 1, Col. Tutulay, has now become general secretary, taking over the position left vacant by Mahn Sha’s death.

Thai police said they had the registration number of the truck of the assassins and were setting up roadblocks around Mae Sot, a “wild west” frontier town of refugees, illegal migrants and gem dealers, to try to catch the two killers.

Thai police said they were combing through Pado Manh Sha’s double-storey house to search for clues but admitted they were struggling to find a solid lead, except finding 9mm bullet shells earlier at the scene and finding the black light truck used, and left near a stream, by assassins. “We are investigating to look for more evidence,” a senior provincial police officer said.