Rebels killed 5 farmers in Myanmar's Shan State, local papers say

Asian Political News, August 9, 2004

YANGON, Aug. 6 Kyodo

Five farmers were killed by Shan United Revolutionary Army rebels at Met-mun-laung village, 500 kilometers northeast of Yangon in Shan State last Sunday, state-run newspapers reported in Yangon on Friday.

''The SURA rebels shot and killed five innocent cultivators working on their hillside farm at Met-mun-laung village in Nansang Township on Aug. 1. Bodies of victims were found with hands tied. Government troops are in pursuit of the rebels,'' the brief newspaper reports said.

The rebel army was once part of drug warlord Hkun Sa's Mongtai Army, but it broke away after Hkun Sa surrendered to the government in 1996.