6-year-old girl among 16 suspects arrested in Myanmar over alleged links to assassination

Vehicles make their ways on a road Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

BANGKOK — Security forces in military-ruled Myanmar have arrested a six-year-old girl along with 15 other people suspected of involvement in the assassination of a retired high-ranking army officer, state-run media reported on Friday.

Former Brig. Gen. Cho Tun Aung, 68, was shot outside his home in Mayangon township, in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, on May 22.

A militant group calling itself the Golden Valley Warriors claimed responsibility for the attack.

The killing of Cho Tun Aung, who was a former ambassador to Cambodia, was the latest attack against figures linked to the ruling military since Myanmar was plunged into civil war after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The 16 suspects -- 13 males and three females -- were arrested in four different regions between May 23-29, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The newspaper said Cho Tun Aung was shot dead while walking with his grandchild.

Those arrested include Lin Latt Shwe, the six-year-old daughter of the alleged assassin, Myo Ko Ko, who was reported to have at least three other aliases. The newspaper report said the child and her parents were arrested in the central city of Bagan.

Others detained include the owner of a private hospital which is alleged to have provided treatment to the gunman, who according to the newspaper report said he suffered a gunshot wound during the attack.

The Golden Valley Warriors said in a statement posted on Facebook soon after the killing that Cho Tun Aung had been teaching internal security and counterterrorism at Myanmar’s National Defense College and that as such he was complicit in what the group said was atrocities committed during the civil war.

The targets of assassinations are often high-ranking active or retired military officers, but senior civil servants and local officials have also been attacked, in addition to business associates of the ruling generals and those believed to be informers or collaborators with the army.

The ruling military has been accused of human rights violation on a far greater scale, including the bombings of villages causing multiple civilian deaths.