{{Short description|Karen military officer}} {{Burmese name|Saw}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Saw Chit Thu | native_name = စောချစ်သူ | image = Saw Chit Thu speaking.png | caption = Saw Chit Thu during a speech | office = Leader of the Karen National Army | term_start = 19 February 2024 | term_end = <!-- Incumbent --> | predecessor = | successor = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|12|15}} | birth_place = Kyar Inn village, Hlaingbwe, Karen State, Myanmar (Burma) | occupation = Soldier, businessperson | allegiance = Myanmar | branch = Karen National Army<br>Border Guard Forces<br>Democratic Karen Buddhist Army | service_years = 1994–present | rank = Colonel | unit = * Former commander of DKBA Battalion 999 * Border Guard Forces * KNA | battles = Myanmar civil war (2021–present) | awards = Thiri Pyanchi (awarded November 2022) | children = Saw Htoo Eh Moo{{br}}Saw Chit Chit{{br}}Nan Hnin Nandar Aye | native_name_lang = my | birth_name = San Myint | spouse = Nan Khin Hla Thu | honorific_prefix = Thiri Pyanchi }}
Colonel '''Saw Chit Thu''' ({{langx|my|စောချစ်သူ}}) is a Karen soldier and businessman, sometimes identified as a warlord,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Myanmar rebel group withdraws from Thai border after army returns |url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar-Crisis/Myanmar-rebel-group-withdraws-from-Thai-border-after-army-returns |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Nikkei Asia |language=en-GB |archive-date=2024-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240424230545/https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Myanmar-Crisis/Myanmar-rebel-group-withdraws-from-Thai-border-after-army-returns |url-status=dead }}</ref> who has held a leading position in armed groups in Karen State, Myanmar, including the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the Border Guard Forces (BGF) and the Karen National Army (KNA). He is considered a powerful figure in the border area,<ref>{{cite news |title=BGF Colonel Saw Chit Thu appeals for more time before resigning |url=https://monnews.org/2021/01/21/bgf-colonel-saw-chit-thu-appeals-for-more-time-before-resigning/ |work=Monnews |date=21 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=|first1=|title=Colonel Chit Thu – "Border Guard Force Stands By The Karen People…" |url=https://karennews.org/2014/08/colonel-chit-thu-border-guard-force-stands-by-the-karen-people/ |work=Karen News |date=27 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Karen State Militia Leadership Quits en Masse After Military Ousts Its Chief |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/karen-state-militia-leadership-quits-en-masse-military-ousts-chief.html |work=The Irrawaddy |date=15 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Uniting ethnic Karen armed groups 90 per cent successful |url=https://www.mizzima.com/article/uniting-ethnic-karen-armed-groups-90-cent-successful |work=Mizzima |date=30 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> and has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the United States for links to projects which use trafficked and forced labour in online scam farms.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
==Early life== Saw Chit Thu was born on 15 December 1969<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20250505|title=Burma-related Designations; Transnational Criminal Organization Designations|accessdate=18 May 2025|publisher=Office of Foreign Assets Control|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250518131848/https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20250505|archivedate=18 May 2025}}</ref> in Kyar Inn village, Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nationalist Monk Joins Chinese Gambling City-Linked BGF Leader's Mass Donation |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/nationalist-monk-joins-chinese-gambling-city-linked-bgf-leaders-mass-donation.html |work=The Irrawaddy}}</ref> He was previously known as '''San Myint''', and adopted the pseudonym Saw Chit Thu.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-22 |title=The Karen Border Guard Force/Karen National Army criminal business network exposed |url=https://www.justiceformyanmar.org/stories/the-karen-border-guard-force-karen-national-army-criminal-business-network-exposed |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Justice For Myanmar}}</ref>
==Military career== Saw Chit Thu was a colonel in the Karen National Union (KNU) / Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and close ally of General Tin Maung, commander of the KNU/KNLA's 7th Brigade. In 1994, a faction of Buddhist Karen soldiers broke away from the predominantly Christian-led KNU,<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=2025-02-12 |title=From rebel to kingpin: The ruthless rise of Saw Chit Thu |url=https://www.nationthailand.com/news/asean/40046208 |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=nationthailand |language=en-US}}</ref> and established Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in the following year. The event dealt a serious blow to the KNU.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Gravers |first=Mikael |year=2022 |title=A Saint in Command? Spiritual Protection, Justice and Religious Tensions in the Karen State |url=https://ijbs.online/journal-issues/2020-vol-1/ |journal=Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship |volume=2020, Vol.1 |page=Unknown}}</ref> Saw Chit Thu is a former commander of DKBA Battalion 999,<ref name=":4">{{cite news |date=21 August 2019 |title=ကရင်လူထုကောင်းစားရေးအတွက် ကေအန်ယူ အပေါ်သစ္စာဖောက်ခဲ့ရဟု ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီး စောချစ်သူပြော |url=https://burmese.dvb.no/archives/343336 |work=DVB |language=my}}</ref> and led the DKBA troops in the Battle of Kawmoora. In return, he received control over Kawmoora and timber trade rights along the Moei River, particularly in Shwe Kokko.<ref name=":5" />
In the spring of 1998, he was accused of leading DKBA attacks on Karen civilians in refugee camps in Thailand.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-07-24 |title=ATTACKS ON KAREN REFUGEE CAMPS: 1998 |url=https://khrg.org/1998/05/khrg9804/attacks-karen-refugee-camps-1998 |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Karen Human Rights Group |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1998-03-24 |title=Thais clamp down on Burmese refugees |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/despatches/69031.stm |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=BBC News}}</ref> Among the DKBA leaders, he is believed to the most powerful decision-maker in both the DKBA's military wing and its political administration.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Junta Hit Men |url=https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=16297 |work=The Irrawaddy |date=July 9, 2009}}</ref> He also owns large businesses dealing with logging and auto trading, and he is rumored to be involved in drug trafficking.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-27 |title=Analysis {{!}} Shwe Kokko: How Myanmar's Crime Hub is Destabilizing the Region |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/analysis/shwe-kokko-how-myanmars-crime-hub-is-destabilizing-the-region.html |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=The Irrawaddy |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=13 May 2021 |title=With conflict escalating, Karen BGF gets back to business |work=Frontier Myanmar |url=https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/with-conflict-escalating-karen-bgf-gets-back-to-business/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=16 August 2022 |title=အခုက ဟိုး တစ်ကနေ သုည ပြန်ဆုတ်သွားတာ |work=The Irrawaddy |url=https://burma.irrawaddy.com/opinion/interview/2022/08/16/253911.html}}</ref> In 2010, he accepted the Burmese government’s demands to transform the DKBA into a Border Guard Force, under the command of the Tatmadaw.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kayin State BGF officers and others collectively resign |url=https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/kayin-state-bgf-officers-and-others-collectively-resign |work=Eleven Media Group |date=16 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref> The majority of BGF troops operating in Karen State are from the DKBA faction.<ref name=":4" />
Saw Chit Thu is the founder and former chairman of Chit Lin Myaing Company, a major conglomerate run by the BGF. The company has claimed significant projects and been granted special permits in Kayin State.<ref>{{cite news |last1=|first1=|title=ဇွဲကပင်တောင် ကေဘယ်လ်ကားစီမံကိန်းကို ချစ်လင်းမြိုင် တိုယိုတာကုမ္ပဏီ အကျိုးတူ လုပ်ကိုင်ခွင့်ရရှိ |url=https://kicnews.org/2017/01/ဇြဲကပင္ေတာင္-ေကဘယ္လ္ကား/ |work=ကေအိုင်စီ - KIC News |date=13 January 2017}}</ref> 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, after She gave Chit Thu a down payment of US$300,000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Myanmar's Casino Cities: The Role of China and Transnational Criminal Networks |url=https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/20200727-sr_471-myanmars_casino_cities_the_role_of_china_and_transnational_criminal_networks-sr.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200828073512/https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2020-07/20200727-sr_471-myanmars_casino_cities_the_role_of_china_and_transnational_criminal_networks-sr.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 28, 2020 |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=United States Institute of Peace |language=en}}</ref> He also linked a deal with the Dongmei Group, led by Chinese triad leader, Wan Kuok-koi, to develop Saixigang.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinese Crime Networks Partner with Myanmar Armed Groups |url=https://www.usip.org/publications/2020/04/chinese-crime-networks-partner-myanmar-armed-groups |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422043541/https://www.usip.org/publications/2020/04/chinese-crime-networks-partner-myanmar-armed-groups |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 22, 2020 |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=United States Institute of Peace |language=en}}</ref> In June 2020, the civilian-led government launched a tribunal to investigate the Yatai development, successfully halting ongoing construction.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-06-23 |title=Scam City: How the coup brought Shwe Kokko back to life |url=https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/scam-city-how-the-coup-brought-shwe-kokko-back-to-life/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Frontier Myanmar |language=en-US}}</ref> The probe embarrassed the Myanmar Armed Forces, which oversees Saw Chit Thu's BGF.<ref name=":0" />
In January 2021, the Tatmadaw pressured Saw Chit Thu and other high-ranking officers, including Saw Mout Thon and Saw Tin Win, to resign from the BGF. Saw Mout Thon resigned on January 8, along with 13 commanders, 77 officers, and 13 battalions from 4 regiments who collectively signed and submitted their resignations.<ref>{{cite news |title=BGF ထိပ်သီးခေါင်းဆောင်များ နုတ်ထွက်ခြင်းမပြုရန် တပ်မတော်တိုက်တွန်း |url=https://www.myanmar-now.org/mm/news/5479 |work=Myanmar NOW |date=15 January 2021 |language=my}}</ref> Amid controversy and under pressure, at least 7,000 BGF members resigned to protest the ouster of their top leaders. However, Saw refused to retire.<ref>{{cite news |date=12 January 2021 |title=ယူနီဖောင်းချွတ်ရန် အစီအစဉ် မရှိသေးဟု ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီးစောချစ်သူပြော |language=my |work=Mizzima |url=https://www.mizzimaburmese.com/article/77374}}</ref>
In the aftermath of the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, the Myanmar Armed Forces have become preoccupied with the ensuing Myanmar civil war (2021–present), which has enabled the Yatai New City to resume development.<ref name=":0" /> After the death of Lieutenant Colonel Saw Kyaw Myint from COVID-19 in July 2021, Saw Chit Thu succeeded him as the Garrison Commander of Border Guard Force (BGF) Battalion No. 3.<ref>{{cite news |title=ကရင်ပြည်နယ် နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ် (BGF) အမှတ် ၃ တပ်နယ်မှူး ကိုဗစ်ဖြင့်ကွယ်လွန် |url=https://www.bnionline.net/mm/news-83263 |work=BNI |language=my}}</ref> As commander of the BGF's 3rd Battalion, he controlled northern Myawaddy, while Lieutenant Colonel Saw Mote Thone, commander of the 2nd Battalion, controlled southern Myawaddy.<ref>{{cite news |title=From rebel to kingpin: The ruthless rise of Saw Chit Thu |url=https://www.nationthailand.com/news/asean/40046208 |work=nationthailand |date=12 February 2025}}</ref> In November 2022, he was awarded the title of ''Thiri Pyanchi'', one of the country’s highest honors.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wirathu, preacher of hate, receives top honour from Myanmar junta chief |url=https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/wirathu-preacher-of-hate-receives-top-honour-from-myanmar-junta-chief |access-date=2023-01-05 |website=Myanmar NOW |language=en}}</ref> In December 2023, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Saw Chit Thu for being linked to "forced labor schemes" in which "victims were trafficked to work for online scam farms."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=UK and allies sanction human rights abusers |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-allies-sanction-human-rights-abusers |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite news |title=UK Hits Myanmar Border Guard Force Colonel, Two Others, With Sanctions |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/uk-hits-myanmar-border-guard-force-colonel-two-others-with-sanctions.html |work=The Irrawaddy}}</ref>
On 23 January 2024, Saw Chit Thu told the media that he discussed with Lt. Gen. Soe Win, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, that the Border Guard Force (BGF), would no longer wish to accept money and supplies from the military. They aim to stand independently, and he also claimed that they don't want to fight against their fellow Karen people.<ref>{{cite news |title=ကရင်နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ် သီးခြားရပ်တည်ရေး ဒုတပ်ချုပ်နဲ့ ဗိုလ်မှူးကြီးစောချစ်သူဆွေးနွေး |url=https://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/bgf-saw-chit-thu-01242024024421.html |work=Radio Free Asia |language=my}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=ဒုတိယ ဗိုလ်ချုပ်မှူးကြီးစိုးဝင်း ကရင်ပြည်နယ်ကို နေ့ချင်းပြန်သွားရောက် |url=https://www.bbc.com/burmese/articles/cy953kl3q95o |work=BBC News မြန်မာ |date=23 January 2024 |language=my}}</ref>
In response to this surprise announcement, long-time Myanmar analyst David Scott Mathieson noted that:
<blockquote>Even Saw Chit Thu has made a dramatic realignment, recently ending his alliance with the military, and after first attempting to retire in Yangon and Mandalay, then declaring “autonomy” in a stunning turn after 30 years of being the Sit-Tat’s hired thug. Chit Thu claims the decision was prompted by “Karen not wanting to kill other Karen.” This may apply to some of the BGF personnel, but Chit Thu has been murdering other Karen since 1994, so to assume he had a recent change of heart is a contemptible canard. After three decades of the DKBA, then BGF, burning down refugee camps, drug dealing, land grabbing and conniving with Chinese gangsters to create the monstrosity of Shwe Kokko casino and the scam centers, Chit Thu should be in the top five defendants at any eventual Karen State War Crimes Trial.<ref>https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/myanmars-multi-generational-karen-revolution.html</ref></blockquote>
On 19 February 2024, Saw Chit Thu dissolved the Karen BGF and reformed it into the Karen National Army (KNA).<ref>{{cite tweet|author=Krackhauer|user=krackhauer|number=1759604129088106615|date=February 19, 2024|title=Col. Saw Chit Thu led junta affiliated #Karen Border Guard Force was abolished and it has been reformed into a new faction called Karen National Army, #KNA whose allegiance is still not clear though.|access-date=February 29, 2024|archiveurl=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/JPjgB|archive-date=February 29, 2024}}</ref>
On 5 May 2025, the United States Department of the Treasury issued sanctions against Saw Chit Thu and his two sons, citing their role in organizing scam centers, human trafficking and smuggling across borders as KNA/BGF leaders.<ref>{{cite web|title=Treasury Sanctions Burma Warlord and Militia Tied to Cyber Scam Operations|url=https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0129|website=U.S. Department of the Treasury|access-date=May 6, 2025|location=Washington}}</ref>
== Personal life == Saw Chit Thu is married to Nan Khin Hla Thu, and has two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, and one daughter, Nan Hnin Nandar Aye.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Irrawaddy |first=The |date=2024-05-22 |title=Myanmar's BGF: A Family-Run Criminal Enterprise With Friends Across Asia |url=https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmars-bgf-a-family-run-criminal-enterprise-with-friends-across-asia.html |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=The Irrawaddy |language=en-US}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Burmese Karen people Category:Burmese military personnel Category:Burmese rebels Category:Living people Category:1969 births