Reveals new massacres in Myanmar: – Systematic and widespread

Da den unge the worker returned to his village in Myanmar, he found a burnt out hut with smoldering embers. Inside the cabin there were corpses, several of them were tied.

stormed the village of Done Taw on December 7th. About fifty soldiers had taken up the hunt on foot and killed ten people, including five teenagers.

– I am very upset, says the 19-year-old agricultural worker. As among other news agency AP interviews, he will not appear in the name of fear of reprisals.

The massacre in Done Taw is just one of the latest signs that the military in Myanmar has started using massacres as weapons again. It shows a survey conducted by AP. The news agency has interviewed 40 witnesses, seen satellite images, examined data on deaths and used information on social media.

Photos VG has seen from the village, show the remains of burnt, charred corpses after the ten who were killed in early December.

Burnt Earth Tactics

The military in Myanmar is known for taking brutal action against the country’s ethnic minorities, such as the Muslim Rohingya. Thousands of Rohingya were killed in 2017, triggering a massive flight. About 800,000 Rohingya probably fled across the border into Bangladesh after the abuses, and an unknown number left the Rakhine state as boat refugees.

Since the military took power in February last year, the regime has become increasingly brutal. Young men and boys abducted, health workers killed and prisoners tortured. Burnt land tactics – in which entire villages have been razed – represent the latest escalation in military violence against civilians and the opposition.

The military was accused of killing at least 35 people on Christmas Eve in the village of Mo So, where the inhabitants are mainly from the ethnic Karen people.

The military now also seems to use the same methods against its own Buddhist people – the Burmese, which is the largest ethnic group in the country.

Most of the recent killings have taken place in the northwest of the country with a large Burmese population, but where support for the opposition is strong.

The Sagain region, including the attack on Done Taw, since August last year. It shows figures from Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a group monitoring confirmed arrests and deaths in Myanmar. villages destroyed

The military is attacking entire villages that are considered to support the opposition. AP has obtained satellite images from Maxar Technologies showing that over 580 buildings have been burnt down in the northwestern city of Thantlang – only since September.

There are similar examples across the country, especially in the northwest, says UN envoy to Myanmar, Kyaw Moe Tun, who has remained in the post even after the military took power.

– You can look at the pattern, see on how it has happened. It is systematic and widespread, he says. The military, known as Tatmadaw, has not responded to APS requests by phone or email for comment.

But three days after the Done Taw attack, the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar rejected the reports of the killings as “fake news”. Avisa accused unidentified countries of “wanting to dissolve Myanmar by calling for bloodshed.” ) Since the military took power in February, over 1375 people have been killed by soldiers and police, and more than 11,200 arrested, according to the AP.

The Opposition’s Defense War

Opposition Alternative Government National Unity Government (NUG) announced in May last year the creation of a new military wing, People’s Defense Force (PDF), and in September it declared a «defense war».

Loosely welded guerrilla groups calling themselves PDF have since appeared across the country, with varying degree of fidelity to NUG.

Already in July last year, it is clear that the military had attacked a Buddhist majority area. It happened in the Kani area, not far from Done Taw. Pictures from four small villages in the area showed that massacres had been committed there.

To the news agency AP, four witnesses told that soldiers killed 43 people in four different incidents. The bodies were dumped in the jungle.

– We all live in fear, says a woman brother was killed. Like other villagers, she will be anonymous.

The army’s attack in the Sagaing region is feared to be part of a new campaign to eradicate the resistance there. New force transfers signal that the violence campaign will soon be stepped up.

Two military columns on 80 trucks each with soldiers and supplies from Sagaing have reached the neighboring state of Chin. This information comes from an opposition group.

A former military captain, who deserted in March, has informed the AP that soldiers in Chin received reinforcements and supplies in October, and that they have accumulated stocks of ammunition, fuel and provisions in Sagaing.

As soldiers have infiltrated Chin State, residents there have reported increasing violence. Soldiers have staged protests with direct fire and great brutality.

A teacher in the city of Mindat tells that the soldiers fired artillery at the city so the houses shook. She fled to India in October after her cousin, a member of PDF, was killed by a sniper.

The young population flees

Half a day’s drive west of Mindat is Matupi, a city where there are two military camps.

A female student states that most of the city’s young population has now fled. It happened after soldiers locked people inside houses and set them on fire, hid bombs in churches and schools and killed three opposition leaders. Corpses had been left in the middle of the road to scare and terrorize people.