TNLA Agrees to Release Shan Detainee
The announcement from ethnic alliance FPNCC follows the sentencing of Nang Mo Hom to three years in TNLA custody.
By NETWORK MEDIA GROUP
Friday, October 12, 2018
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) will release Shan mother of three Nang Mo Hom—detained by the armed group for more than two months—according to an ethnic alliance of which the TNLA is a member.
The Federal Political Negotiation Consultative Committee (FPNCC) released a statement on Thursday stating that the Shan detainee, who was sentenced to three years in TNLA custody last week, would be allowed to return home.
U Nyi Rang, a representative of the United Wa State Party’s (UWSP) Lashio liaison office in northern Shan State, told NMG that Nang Mo Hom’s older sister had reached out to the FPNCC for help. The UWSP is also a member of the negotiation bloc.
“FPNCC leaders discussed it and accepted it. In response to their request for arbitration, FPNCC leaders called [Nang Mo Hom’s] family members for negotiation,” he said.
The family members, representatives of 10 Shan civil society organizations in Nang Mo Hom’s hometown of Namkham, and leaders from the TNLA and UWSP held a meeting on Wednesday at FPNCC’s exterior affairs hall in the Wa administrative capital of Pang Hsang.
NMG reached out to Nang Mo Hom’s relatives for comment, but they only confirmed that family members had traveled to Pang Hsang.
The FPNCC statement was released following the negotiations, declaring that the TNLA had “agreed to release Nang Mo Hom soon” in order to foster “unity and good relations between the Shan and Ta’ang” ethnic communities. It also added that Nang Mo Hom was sentenced because of a confession she had allegedly made.
A date for her release has yet to be announced.
TNLA spokesperson Maj Mai Aik Kyaw told NMG on Wednesday that Nang Mo Hom had disturbed on-duty TNLA officers last year—when they were collecting “tax” in her community—leading to one being killed by the Burma Army and one injured. The TNLA subsequently arrested her on August 17 and later sentenced her for violating the armed group’s Criminal Act 333.
Since Nang Mo Hom’s arrest, civil society organizations in Namkham have lobbied for her release through demonstrations and public statements.
