Editor’s Note: Some readers may find the content of this article disturbing.
They cut off people’s heads and mutilate the bodies to instill terror. They torture the victims to death.
They seem fearless in battle, advancing when under fire.
Officially, they are part of the 99th Light Infantry Battalion of the Myanmar Army. But to most people, they are known as the “Ogre” column, a unit of assassins known for their ruthlessness in an army already known for its brutality.
And they have been crossing the heart of Myanmar, killing rebel fighters and massacring villagers believed to be supporting them, terrorizing all in their path.
“What makes this column different is that they are specially trained to kill people,” said Nway Oo, a member of a resistance group in Myaung township. “They cut off the heads and ears of the victims in cold blood.”
“They also appear as ghosts in battles,” he said. “They advance in battle no matter how risky the situation or how much they are under attack.”
Myanmar’s army has faced stiff resistance from ordinary men and women who have taken up arms to form People’s Defense Force gangs to fight junta troops since the military coup two years ago.
The Ogres’ atrocities are designed to terrify their enemies, who often have little combat training and are often not well armed.
It is all part of the psychological warfare that was developed by the country’s generals known as “Sit Oo Bi Lu”, the “First Wave Brutal Attack” or “Yakkha Byu Har” – “The Ogre Strategy”, a former military captain who he has defected to the rebel camp since the junta took power.
“The brutal acts of the junta troops, such as beheading people and burning civilian property, are intended to scare people,” said the captain, who calls himself Nat Thar.
“This is a psychological tactic to scare people into thinking that they do not want to be beheaded when the junta’s 99th Division enters their town, so that they fear a frontal conflict, even though they belong to a population of dozens of inhabitants. thousands,” he said.
battlefield saga
Some of the fiercest resistance against the military has been in the northern Sagaing region, and in recent weeks the “Ogre” battalion has been attacking dozens of villages and rebel bases in townships such as Ye-U, Khin-U, Taze , Myinmu. and Myang.
On March 30, the column raided an PDF base under the command of Captain Bo Sin Yine near the village of Swae Lwe Oh.
The junta troops soon overwhelmed the rebel fighters, and the soldiers took Bo Sin Yine, a 31-year-old former corporal of the township Fire Brigade, and his fighters captive.
Footage taken by a drone operated by the Myaung Civil Defense and Security Organization, CDSOM, captured a junta soldier beheading Bo Sin Yine, whose name means “wild elephant,” and carrying its head on his shoulder.
A few days later, Bo Sin Yine’s wife and a team of villagers discovered his abandoned body near the jungle. In addition to beheading him, the junta soldiers cut off his arms and legs.
“They decapitated him and took his head off, but it wasn’t just him. They also took the heads of many people in other townships,” she said of her husband, who became the deputy commander of PDF No.1 battalion in Sagaing.
Before entering Myaung township, the column raided Myinmu’s Let Ka Pin village, killing 10 civilians and disemboweling local PDF leader Kyaw Zaw before cutting off his head and limbs, residents said. The column also killed 16 civilians it had taken as human shields to protect against land mines after storming the Tar Tai village of Sagaing township.
Among the members of the column are soldiers that the CDSOM has identified as the Captain. Aung Hein Oo, lieutenant. Captain Zaw Naing, Sgts. Zaw Set Win, Myint Zaw, Maung Naing, Soe Hlaing, Tun Zaw Myo and Thein Tun; Lieutenant Colonel Sergeants Ye Yint Paing and Thiha Soe; Engineer soldier Nay Lin and Pyae soldiers Sone Aung, Min Thu and Thant Zin.
‘They told us to pass on a message’
In mid-March, the “Ogre” column crossed the Chindwin River from Sagaing to the Magway region and headed south to Yesagyo township, one of several areas under martial law as a hotbed of resistance against the junta.
Early in the morning of March 19, the unit blocked all exits from Mee Laung Kyung Ywar Thit village and arrested around 140 residents who did not have time to flee.
By the end of the day, Ogre’s fighters had shot and killed a man in his 50s named Han, who worked as a cook feeding refugees from the conflict, tortured a mentally disabled 47-year-old man named Sandra to death, and injured to a 16-year-old boy as he tried to escape, villagers told RFA.
Those captured at Mee Laung Kyaung Ywar Thit were added to prisoners from Sagaing’s Myaung Township, where the unit had last raided, including Za Yat Ni, Min Hla, Thar Khaung Lay, Shwe Hlan, Myay Sun and Without Chay Yar. towns
About 200 women were divided into two groups and held at the Taung Kuang Monastery on the outskirts of Mee Laung Kyun village, while another group of 40 men and teenagers were placed under guard in civilian homes, sources who escaped from the police said. unit.
A man who escaped after three days said Ogre fighters confiscated his jewelry and questioned him about the local PDF, claiming they had already smashed more than 20 of the group’s bases.
“We didn’t know if they would take us to the front lines and force us to step on landmines or if they would kill us before they left the village,” said the man, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.
“They told us to send a message to our relatives to stop fighting, bury their weapons and stop supporting the PDF. But despite their threats, we will continue to fight the regime to the end.”
Attempts to contact Aye Hlaing, the junta’s spokesperson for the Sagaing region, and the junta’s Deputy Information Minister, Major General Zaw Min Tun, for comment on the Ogre Column’s reported actions went unanswered, to as are attempts to contact the board’s information team.
Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, told RFA that the Ogre column’s tactics represent the “next level” in the junta’s violence against the Myanmar people and must stop.
“Such inhumane actions against individuals can be considered international war crimes,” he said, suggesting that the perpetrators should be held accountable in an international court of justice.
Seeking justice for the victims
Kyaw Win, chief executive of the UK-based Myanmar Human Rights Network, said his organization is systematically documenting the junta’s atrocities for such a case.
“The junta is committing horrific and heartbreaking war crimes, in violation of existing laws,” he said.
“In a short time, we will be able to prosecute the perpetrators, who are officers at all levels in the armed forces.”
Meanwhile, the wife of Bo Sin Yine, who was beheaded by the Ogre Column in Myaung Township last month, said she will not be able to rest until her husband and other victims receive justice.
“I need justice for him, the crime they committed was cruel and savage,” he said. “These days, the whole country knows the appalling brutality of (junta chief) Min Aung Hlaing.”
Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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