Reports that Burma’s military junta soldiers massacred more than 30 civilians in a central Burma village last week were corroborated on Monday by interviews with a local administrator and a man who claimed to have survived the killing.
Saturday morning’s bloodshed in Let Thokhu village, Min Mu district, Sagaing region, reported by independent media, is the latest of three mass killings in Burma’s brutal civil war in the past few days. .
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The Associated Press could not independently confirm details of what happened, and the military government did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. The government denies past accusations of attacks on civilians and in some cases places the blame on resistance forces.
Burma has been mired in violence since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, but peaceful protests have erupted across the country. Security forces suppressed the attack with deadly force. The violent repression sparked widespread armed resistance, which has since reached the height of civil war.
Two other recent mass killings involved at least 15 members of resistance groups and civilians who were killed in an airstrike while holding a rally at a monastery in the central Magway region on Thursday and the same day. 32 people died in the dispute. Fighting is also underway in the central Mandalay region.
A military raid on Let Tok Do on Saturday killed 33 people, including three 17-year-old boys, two elderly people and three carpenters from a nearby village, the local administration loyal to the opposition unity government said. the official said. To escape from the village.
The country’s main opposition group, the National Unity Government, operates as a shadow government and claims greater legitimacy than the ruling military.
At least 11 other villagers were killed when 100 to 200 soldiers and gunmen, believed to be members of a military-affiliated militia, entered the village, an administrator told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to concerns for their safety. He said he was injured. They are apparently searching for resistance fighters from the People’s Defense Forces, the loosely organized armed wing of the National Unity Government.
This UGC photo provided by the People’s Defense Forces shows a man allegedly killed by soldiers of the Myanmar military government being buried outside Let Tok village in Min Mu district, Zain region, Myanmar, Saturday, May 11, 2024 It shows a truck transporting the bodies of the victims. The fact that Myanmar’s military junta soldiers massacred more than 30 civilians in a village in central Myanmar last week was confirmed on Monday by interviews with a local administrator and a man who claimed to have survived the killings. (People’s Defense Forces via AP)
Villagers in Letkhedaw told The Associated Press on Monday that soldiers opened fire and attacked shortly after 5 a.m., causing panicked residents to try to flee and those who were unable to flee the village to the main building of a local Buddhist monastery. He said he asked for safety. .
The 32-year-old villager, who also insisted on anonymity for his own safety, said he, his wife, two children and other family members eventually made it to the monastery, but were captured by soldiers in the main building there, along with about 10 other soldiers. He said that he was attacked. There are 100 other villagers.
He said he and more than 30 other men were taken outside by soldiers and made to sit in a line on the ground while they were interrogated, including who the local resistance leader was and where they could be found. Ta.
Villagers said that despite the beatings, the men in the front row denied having any such information, and then the soldiers began firing, first one by one and then all at once.
Villagers said they fell to the ground as a man sitting next to them who had been shot multiple times fell on top of them. He said he heard continued firing from several weapons and heard the captain ordering his men to shoot until the victim was dead. He said 24 people died at the scene and nine elsewhere in the village. Photos provided to The Associated Press show that number of bodies, some with visible wounds, arranged in two and a half rows.
The survivor, who was wounded in the left side, burned the bodies of the five dead and took 17 villagers hostage, including his wife and children, then pretended to be dead for 30 minutes until soldiers left the monastery grounds around 7 a.m. He said he was doing . The hostages were reportedly released outside the village.
Both he and administrators say soldiers have burned down 170 to 200 homes in the village, a tactic they are accused of repeatedly using. He also said soldiers destroyed the village’s water pump.
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Sagaing has become a stronghold of armed resistance against the military, which responded with a massive offensive by ground troops supported by artillery and airstrikes, burning villages and forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
The village of Let Tok, located about 70 kilometers (45 miles) west of Mandalay, the country’s second city, has been targeted by resistance fighters before, with about 545 homes destroyed in May last year. It was set on fire.
