Colonel Saw Chit Thu ( my, စောချစ်သူ) is a

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

military officer and former insurgent commander who is the current general secretary and executive advisor of the Central Command of

Border Guard Forces Border Guard Forces ( my, နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ်; abbreviated BGF) are subdivisions of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) consisting of former insurgent groups in Myanmar under the instruction of Regional Military Com ...

(BGF). Saw Chit Thu is a former commander of DKBA Battalion 999, and majority of BGF troops operating in Karen State are from the

Democratic Karen Buddhist Army The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA; my, တိုးတက်သော ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာ ကရင်အမျိုးသား တပ်ဖွဲ့) was originally an insurgent group of Buddhist soldiers and officers in Mya ...

(DKBA) faction that broke away from the

Karen National Union The Karen National Union ( my, ကရင် အမျိုးသား အစည်းအရုံး; abbreviated KNU) is a political organisation with an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), that claims to represent the Ka ...

(KNU) and allied itself with the Burma Army in 1994. Among the DKBA leaders, he is believed to the most powerful decision-maker in both the DKBA's military wing and its political administration. He also owns large businesses dealing with logging and auto trading, and he is rumored to be involved in

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

. In 2010, he accepted the Burmese government’s demands to transform the DKBA into a Border Guard Force, under the command of the

Tatmadaw Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

. In 2017, Saw Chit Thu began working with Yatai International Holding Group, led by Chinese convict, She Zhijiang, to develop Yatai New City in

Shwe Kokko Shwe Kokko Myaing ( my, ရွှေကုက္ကိုမြိုင်; ), commonly known as Shwe Kokko ( my, ရွှေကုက္ကို), is a village in Myawaddy Township in Myawaddy District in the Kayin State of south-east Myanmar. ...

, after She gave Chit Thu a down payment of US$300,000. He also linked a deal with the Dongmei Group, led by Chinese triad leader,

Wan Kuok-koi Wan Kuok-koi (; born 1955), popularly known as Broken Tooth Koi (崩牙駒; Cantonese: bung nga keui; Mandarin: bēng yá jū), is a gangster and former leader of the Macau branch of the 14K triad. He was released after more than 14 years in pr ...

, to develop Saixigang. In June 2020, the civilian-led government launched a tribunal to investigate the Yatai development, successfully halting ongoing construction. The probe embarrassed the Myanmar Armed Forces, which oversees Saw Chit Thu's BGF. In December 2020, the Tatmadaw pressured Saw Chit Thu and other high-ranking officers including Major Saw Mout Thon and Major Saw Tin Win, to resign from the BGF. Major Saw Mout Thon of BGF Battalion 1022 resigned on 8 January, along with 13 commanders, 77 officers and 13 battalions of 4 regiments who collectively signed and submitted their resignations. Under pressure amid controversy, at least 7,000 BGF members resigned to protest the ouster of their top leaders. However, Saw refused to retire. In the aftermath of the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then veste ...

, the Myanmar Armed Forces have become pre-occupied with the ensuing

Myanmar civil war (2021–present) Insurgencies have been ongoing in Myanmar since 1948, the year the country, then known as Burma, gained independence from the United Kingdom. The conflict has largely been ethnic-based, with several ethnic armed groups fighting Myanmar's ...

, which has enabled the Yatai New City to resume development. In November 2022, he was awarded the title of ''

Thiri Pyanchi This article considers the religious, military and civil orders, decorations and medals of Union of Myanmar. Religious honorary orders Before and after Myanmar's independence, governments presented two religious orders, Abhidhaja Maha Ratht ...

'', one of the country’s highest honors.

References

{{reflist Burmese people of Karen descent Burmese military personnel Burmese rebels Year of birth missing (living people) Living people