Another forest defender bites the dust. RIP.

Indigenous environmental campaigner killed by Myanmar government
Saw O Moo, the Karen land rights defender, indigenous knowledge holder and peace advocate who was killed, with his family. Photograph: Doh Doh/Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN)

Fri 13 Apr 2018
Indigenous activists in Myanmar’s Karen state are mourning the killing of a community leader who campaigned for a peace park to protect a local forest and its residents’ land rights.

Saw O Moo was ambushed by government troops on 5 April as he was riding a motorbike with a soldier from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), a rebel group that is fighting for autonomy.

The military has claimed both men were pain-clothes rebels “suspected of sabotage” who were armed with grenades at the time of the shooting, according to the Irrawaddy newspaper.

But colleagues who worked with Saw O Moo say he was a peaceful campaigner who had simply given a ride to the KNLA soldier.

“He was a civilian, and the allegations by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) that he was a plain clothes soldier are blatant lies,” said Hsa Moo, media coordinator for the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network, which works for indigenous rights in the region.

Saw O Moo worked for the network for 12 years and was involved in the campaign to create a “Salween Peace Park”. This is a bottom-up initiative by the Karen people to protect their culture, land and wildlife. Spanning 5,400 sq km in the Salween river basin, it covers the habitats of Asiatic black bear and Sunda pangolin, which are threatened by mercury pollution from goldmines and the Hat Gyi hydroelectric project.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... aren-state