8 March 2025
Interim Executive Council of Karenni State
Statement No (2/2025)
- A displaced monk residing in On Taing Village, Nar He Village Tract, Phekhon Township, in Karenni State, who is “The abbot of Shan Monastery, Phekhon Town, Venerable Ashin Dhammasara (aged 47, with 28 years in the monkhood)” was shot and killed together with his lay assistant, Ai Bee (aged 40), on the evening of 4 March 2025. Both the monk and the lay assistant died as a result of the shooting.
- The Interim Executive Council will work in cooperation with the Township Joint Administrative Council, as well as local revolutionary allied forces, to conduct a detailed investigation into this incident and will transparently announce the findings to the public once the incident is identified.
- The arbitrary killing of individuals without due legal process, of suspected informants of the unlawful military junta, as well as captured soldiers who have surrendered and been taken as prisoners of war, is a clear violation of international law.
- The public needs to pay close attention and stay alert, as the unlawful military junta is exploiting this incident to create and spread various forms of propaganda with the intention of further inflaming ethnic and religious conflicts.
- Thus, the Interim Executive Council of Karenni State hereby announces that we will work in cooperation with the Township Joint Administrative Council, as well as local revolutionary allied forces, to find out the justice and truth of the incident.
Interim Executive Council of Karenni State