The “Blood Comrades” are back.
The shadowy pro-junta militia spread terror by attacking opponents of the Myanmar army to kill them and leaving a chilling calling card for their victims bearing their logo: an image of a Burmese warrior holding two swords.
Since it emerged about a year ago, the group is believed to be responsible for the deaths of nearly 60 people, many of them members of the ousted National League for Democracy, or NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party that ruled the country. before the February 2021 coup.
“They are neither the police nor the army, they are just the puppets of the junta,” said a Mandalay resident who spoke to Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for fear of his life. They arose because “the rule of law ceased to exist immediately after the military coup.”
After a series of murders last year, the Blood Comrades fell silent for several months.
But in April they resurfaced and killed three people, including two NLD members.
On April 2, a 40-year-old man was found dead near the U Pwar bridge in Chan Mya Thar Si township, on the outskirts of Mandalay, holding a sign bearing the Thway Thauk, or “Blood Comrades” logo.
The next day, the bodies of two NLD members were found at an intersection in the East Amara Htarni district of Mandalay’s Aung Myay Thar Zan township. They also carried cards with the Blood Comrades logo.
The Comrades in Blood attacks illustrate how the conflict that has engulfed Myanmar is not a clear war between junta troops and members of the People’s Defense Forces, ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the military. or ethnic armies like the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Liberation Army, which have been fighting the government for greater autonomy for decades.
Numerous pro-junta militias have aided the junta, including the Pyu Saw Htee militia, which has been responsible for some of the most brutal attacks on civilian villages in the past two years.
Others include Thway Thitsar, or “Loyal Bloods”, in the capital Naypyidaw, Yangon Castigators in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, the Patriotic Coalition in Bago region’s Pyay township, and Soon Ye (Kite Force) in the Tanintharyi region.
But the Blood Comrades are the most feared, residents say.
unclear identity
The group seems to operate mainly in the central region around Mandalay, but its composition is unclear.
Some members are believed to belong to the Pyu Saw Htee militia, or perhaps consisted of relatives of people killed by the armed resistance for allegedly acting as informers for the junta. Or they may be members of a far-right nationalist Buddhist monk group called Ma Ba Tha or sympathizers of the pro-military Union, Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP.
The Junta’s Deputy Information Minister, Major General Zaw Min Tun, has denied links between the Blood Comrades and the military.
The group appears to have come out of hibernation after the PDF recently began attacking USDP members and other junta supporters.
The first known act of the Blood Comrades was an April 21, 2021 post on the Telegram social network that said it was targeting the assassination of NLD members, PDF fighters, and other opponents of the military government in Myanmar.
The group has also threatened reporters and editors working for media outlets in Myanmar, including The Irrawaddy, Mizzima, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and The Irrawaddy Times, as well as their families.
Photos obtained by RFA show leaflets or cards with the Blood Comrades logo left near the dead bodies of NLD members and supporters.
Operating with impunity
Bo Bo Oo, vice president of the NLD’s Sanchaung Township, told RFA that Comrades in Blood are believed to have killed at least 58 of his party members.
He said that even if the junta is not directly responsible for forming the Blood Comrades, it is likely to approve of the group’s stated goals and has created an environment in which it can operate with impunity.
“These types of murders often occur in countries with authoritarian regimes,” he said. “When there are difficulties in directly confronting the resistance forces due to some legal stipulations, the junta raises and financially supports gangs or murderers and thugs to manage the opposition for it.”
Justice attorney Kyee Myint expressed concern that members of groups like Blood Comrades “believe that the only way they can get involved in politics is to kill people.”
But he said the existence of such groups is not surprising, given that they have the tacit support of the junta.
“They kill openly in the middle of the city in broad daylight,” he said. “There’s no reason law enforcement agencies can’t track them, but they haven’t taken any action.”
Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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