Myanmar junta forces commit further atrocities, burning 19 civilians to death

Myanmar troops burned 19 civilians, including eight children, alive on Wednesday, relatives of those killed, witnesses and a shadow government spokesman said, in the latest atrocity by junta soldiers in the country’s civil war.

The attack took place in the south-central Bago region, where junta troops were fighting ethnic Karen rebels and members of the People’s Defense Forces, an informal group of ordinary people who have taken up arms since the military coup of February 2021.

The massacre came hours after remote mine attacks by rebels. Junta forces arrested people living in Nyaung Pin Thar village in Htantabin township and burned them alive at around 5 p.m. on May 10, residents said.

Five members of the same family, including a 6-year-old boy, were killed, a relative said.

“The military junta forces just killed them like that,” said another villager.

The initial count was 18 dead, but on Friday the Karen National Union, the political wing of the Karen National Liberation Army, announced that another resident had been burned to death in Nyaung Pin Thar village of Htantabin township.

Junta forces are still close to the village and the death toll could be higher because the area is now like a battlefield, the KNU statement said.

The junta army’s 44th Battalion and units from the 73rd, 599th, 590th and 48th Light Infantry Divisions are operating in the region and fighting with the KNU and its affiliated armed groups, according to the statement.

another atrocity

The shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, and witnesses told Radio Free Asia that the victims ranged from 5 to 70 years of age.

“They killed a total of 18 innocent villagers, 10 women and eight men,” NUG spokesman Nay Phone Latt said, adding that most of the adults killed were over 50.

“This is yet another massacre by the military council,” he said, referring to the junta that has ruled Myanmar with an iron fist since seizing power in a coup in February 2021.

The troops killed the villagers after a battle broke out between them and the joint forces of the Karen National Liberation Army and the anti-junta People’s Defense Force near the village of Nyaung Pin Thar, a militia member said. local.

“We detonated land mines about 15 times and about 30 junta soldiers were killed,” he said. “After that, the junta troops advanced towards Nyaung Pin Thar village. More battles broke out there too.”

“We found out last night, after the battles ended, that the villagers had been killed,” said a member of the local People’s Defense Forces, an informal group of ordinary people who took up arms to fight the military. “We found the bodies only this morning.”

The 73rd and 36th infantry battalions based in Htantabin township raided other nearby villages, including Nyaung Pin Thar, killing local villagers, it said.

He also said that during the battle, anti-regime forces killed about 20 junta soldiers and captured three officers.

RFA was unable to reach Bago region military junta spokesman Tin Oo or junta spokesman Maj. General Zaw Min Tun for commenting.

Junta troops have carried out 64 mass killings in Myanmar between the February 1, 2021 coup and mid-March 2023, resulting in the deaths of 766 people, according to the Myanmar Ministry of Human Rights. the NUG.

Translated by Myo Min Aung for FRG Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.