Free Burma Rangers relief team member Saw Lee Reh Kyaw was executed by the Burma Army on 10 April 2007.

Lee Reh was captured two days earlier as he was providing humanitarian assistance to villagers in Karenni State. He was then taken to the Burma Army headquarters where he was interrogated and tortured before being shot dead.

Lee Reh was captured after patrolling Burma Army troops attacked Ha Lee Ku village, killing one pro-democracy Karenni (KNPP) soldier. On 9 April 2007 the Burma Army also arrested the headman and secretary of the village, although their whereabouts remain unknown.

In Karen State, three Burma Army battalions burned down four villages on 22 April 2007. One villager was killed in the attack as he tried to escape. More than one thousand people fled the villages and are now in hiding.

These attacks follow a month of smaller attacks against villagers in northern Karen State, during which five people were killed and a nurse was shot and severely wounded.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide's National Director, Stuart Windsor, said: "The tragic and brutal death of Saw Lee Reh Kyaw, who was providing much needed assistance to the Karenni people, illustrates the brutality of the Burmese regime. Their total disregard for the lives and needs of the Burmese people is horrifying. The international community, and particularly Burma's neighboring governments, must send a clear signal to the ruling military junta that these violations of human rights cannot be tolerated."


Notes to editors.

1. In 2006, the Burma Army began its worst offensive against civilians in Karen State in almost a decade. Over 27,000 civilians were displaced in Karen State last year, and several thousand have been displaced so far this year.

2. In 2006, over 86,000 were displaced in eastern Burma as a whole.

3. Since 1996, over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed by the Burma Army, and it is estimated that one million people are internally displaced.