Junta chopper attack on school kills 7 in Myanmar’s Sagaing region

Witnesses said 2 gunships fired on the school ‘for nearly an hour.’

Military helicopters fired on a village school in Myanmar “for nearly an hour” before junta foot soldiers let loose with guns, killing at least seven children, residents said Monday, in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on children since last year’s coup.

UNICEF condemned Friday’s attack in Tabyin township and put the death toll even higher, saying at least 11 children died “in an airstrike and indiscriminate fire in civilian areas.” It said at least 15 other children from the same school were still missing.

The raid is believed to have caused the highest number of child deaths of any single incident since the military seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup and came barely one week after the release of a report that said thousands of students and teachers have been injured or killed in attacks in Myanmar over the past two years.

Residents of Tabayin township said that four helicopters approached the village of Let Yet Kone on the afternoon of Sept. 16. Two of the helicopters landed and deployed around 80 junta troops, while the other two fired at a secondary school located in the nearby Maha Dhammaranthi monastery compound.

“They fired rockets and then machine guns for nearly an hour continuously. Two helicopters hovered above and attacked us from both sides. For an hour, there was nothing we could do,” one parent who witnessed the attack told RFA Burmese, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“After a while, soldiers with baskets on their backs entered our school. They came in, with guns blazing,” the parent said.

“I heard a voice saying ‘Stop! Stop!’ [The troops] said, ‘Keep your heads down and don’t look up.’ They said they would shoot if we looked at them. I took a glimpse and saw children running out of the kindergarten. Some were limping, some were dripping with blood. There were many children covered in blood.”

Witnesses said the soldiers who raided the school belonged to Light Infantry Battalion 368, under the 10th Military Operations Command based in Kyi Kone village, in Sagaing’s Kale township, adding that most were wearing shorts or sweatpants instead of full military uniform.

Another parent, who also declined to be named, said there were 31 teachers and 211 students at the school when it came under attack from the gunships. Four children were killed on the spot, they added.

Residents of Tabayin told RFA that troops detained 15 people, including nine injured students, three teachers, and three villagers — none of whom had been released as of Monday. They said two of the detained children later succumbed to their injuries, bringing the total number of children killed in the school attack to six. Troops buried the bodies of the two children in Ye-U township instead of returning them to their families.

Another child and six adults were killed by troops in Let Yet Kone village following the attack on the school at the Maha Dhammaranthi monastery compound, residents said.  

The seven children killed in the attacks on the school and in Let Yet Kone village were identified as Hpone Tay Za, 7; Suyati Hlaing, 7; Zin Way Phyo, 9;  Win Win Khaing, 11; Zin Ko Oo, 14;  Soe Min Oo, 13; and Aung Aung Oo, 16. Residents said a man and a woman were among the six adults killed in Let Yet Kone, but were unable to provide additional details.

The parent of one student, who asked to remain anonymous citing security concerns, told RFA that the surviving children are dealing with severe trauma from the incident.

“My children are in a state where they do not dare to sleep alone at night. … I have to sit by them and can only leave when they are fast asleep. Otherwise, they wake up startled and begin sobbing,” they said.

“All the other parents say the same about their kids. They all are having nightmares.”

The school was nearly destroyed in the attack and remains closed, according to residents who said the smell of blood hangs heavy in the air around the compound.

The school at the Maha Dhammaranthi monastery near Let Yet Kone village, Sagaing region, was damaged in an attack by Myanmar junta helicopters, Sept. 16, 2022. Credit: Screenshot from social media/Reuters
The school at the Maha Dhammaranthi monastery near Let Yet Kone village, Sagaing region, was damaged in an attack by Myanmar junta helicopters, Sept. 16, 2022. Credit: Screenshot from social media/Reuters

Attack condemned

On Sunday, the ministries of education, women, youth and children’s affairs, and human rights under Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) issued a joint statement condemning the attack, which they called “an inhuman and horrific war crime.”

NUG Deputy Minister of Education Sai Khaing Myo Tun said the incident shows how far the junta is willing to go to cling to power and reach its military objectives.

“It’s an example of how seriously they violate the rights of children, such as freedom of education and freedom of thought. But this incident resulted in a terrible loss of lives,” he said.

“There is an urgent need to take action against this military regime in accordance with international laws.”

Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the office of NUG President Duwa Lashi La, said the military had used Russian-made Mi-35M helicopters in the attack, which he called “brutal and merciless.”

“No country on earth kills children, especially elementary school children,” he said. “This was an act of terrorism.”

Pro-junta media published an official statement on Sept. 17 which confirmed that civilians had been killed in the incident, but blamed the deaths on fighters with the ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group, who it said fought back against troops using residents as human shields.

Witnesses, however, said the attack was one-sided with no return fire.

On Monday, UNICEF Myanmar issued a statement condemning the attack and calling on the military to release the missing students.

“On Sept. 16, at least 11 children died in an airstrike and indiscriminate fire in civilian areas, including a school in Tabyin township, Sagaing region,” the statement said.

“At least 15 children from the same school are still missing. UNICEF calls for their immediate and safe release.”

RFA was unable to independently confirm the number of dead and missing cited by the statement.

A lawyer, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the attack was a violation of  both domestic and international laws.

“It is premeditated and intentional murder [under Myanmar’s Penal Code],” he said.

“Additionally, according to international law and the Geneva Convention, the intentional shooting and killing of civilian targets in an operation area, can be … classified as a war crime.”

The lawyer called for evidence of the attack to be collected and presented to an international court for prosecution, noting that it is impossible to do so in Myanmar while the judiciary is under the control of the junta.

The No. 8 Basic Education High School in Kalay, Sagaing region, was burned down in an attack by Myanmar junta forces, May 29, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist
The No. 8 Basic Education High School in Kalay, Sagaing region, was burned down in an attack by Myanmar junta forces, May 29, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist

Schools under attack

The raid on the school and Let Yet Kone village came only a week after New York-based Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack published a report which found that at least 190 schools were the targets of attack in Myanmar in 2021, up from 10 the previous year.

The report, entitled “The Impacts of Attacks on Education and Military Use in Myanmar” and released on Sept. 9, said attacks on schools spread from at least three to 13 states and regions in Myanmar following the military takeover, with a peak in May 2021, and “often involved the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects.”

Over the past two years, it said, such attacks had killed or injured more than 9,000 students, teachers and education personnel.

The report urged all sides involved in Myanmar’s conflict to refrain from setting up camps in schools and attacking the education sector.

According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, authorities in Myanmar have killed 2,299 civilians and arrested nearly 15,600 since last year’s coup — mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

RFA News

Myanmar army shelling kills four IDPs in Moebye

The victims, who included two children, were among hundreds sheltering at a local monastery in the southern Shan State town 

Shelling by junta forces killed four internally displaced persons (IDPs) in southern Shan State’s Pekhon Township on Friday, according to local sources.

The victims, who were among some 300 people sheltering at a monastery in the town of Moebye, included two sisters aged 7 and 10 and two men in their 50s.

A statement released by a local social welfare group said that the incident occurred at around 6am on Friday, when an artillery shell landed on the Mwe Daw Monastery in Moebye’s Myoma Ward. All four of the deceased died instantly, the group said.

According to a resident of the town, at least 13 others were seriously injured.

“They were staying there because they thought it would be safe, as there hadn’t been any clashes in that area. But the military has been firing shells at random. I could hear guns going off all last night, but it has calmed down again now,” said the local, who did not want to be identified.

Moebye residents say that junta troops have been shelling relentlessly since being forced to retreat from the town on September 11 following four days of fighting that resulted in heavy regime casualties.

According to one source, junta forces appear to be trying to inflict as much damage as possible after at least 60 soldiers were killed by a coalition of anti-regime groups while stationed inside a church in Moebye’s Pwel Kone Ward.

“The shells they’re using now are not the usual kind. These ones detonate two or three times, so it’s very concerning,” said the source.

Moebye, which is located near the border with Karenni (Kayah) State, has a population of around 30,000, according to the 2014 census. However, relief groups estimate that around a third of its inhabitants have been displaced by recent fighting.

There are growing fears that the town could see a massive influx of junta soldiers like Demoso, some 25km to the south in Karenni State, where hundreds of reinforcements were sent last month to consolidate regime control.

“We don’t know yet if it will become like Demoso. It all depends on what the military decides to do next,” said one local.
Mobye_2.Jpeg

A building in Moebye destroyed by Myanmar army shelling  (Myanmar Now)

A building in Moebye destroyed by Myanmar army shelling  (Myanmar Now)

A spokesperson for the Kayan Rescue Committee (KRC) said that while some residents have returned to their homes, many were unable to do so due to the ongoing clashes and the destruction of at least 100 houses by the junta forces’ heavy weapon attacks.

“Many locals just decide to stay out in the fields rather than return to their villages. Even people living in the wards that haven’t seen any fighting don’t feel safe anymore,” said the KRC spokesperson.

He added that high fuel and commodity prices have also added to the hardships of IDPs.

“Many of the organizations that had been providing food and other supplies have stopped operating. Moebye used to be a bustling commercial area, but everything’s so difficult now due to the war,” he said.

More than 200,000 ethnic Karenni civilians have been displaced by clashes in Karenni State and parts of southern Shan State since fighting began in the region last year, according to the Karenni Civil Society Network.

Myanmar Now News

School-hour airstrikes leave six children dead in Depayin

Teachers and students were also reportedly held hostage in one of the villages targeted in the assault on Friday

At least six children were killed when Myanmar’s military launched air and ground assaults on several villages in Sagaing Region’s Depayin Township during school hours on Friday, according to local sources.

Residents of the area said that the attacks, which targeted the villages of Letyetkone, Thitton, and Nyaung Hla, also resulted in many other casualties. However, details were not available as most of the affected villagers were still in hiding, they said.

Most of the confirmed casualties were children studying at a school in Letyetkone, where junta troops also reportedly held teachers and students hostage before sending them to Ye-U Township, according to a statement released by Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the anti-regime Depayin Township People’s Administration Team said that around 50,000 people living in villages along the western bank of the Muu River were forced to flee after the military used two fighter jets and two helicopters to carry out a series of surprise attacks on Friday.

In a statement, the group added that helicopters were also used to transport junta troops into the area to launch ground attacks.

A resident of the area said that the military aircraft appeared without warning and fired indiscriminately on the villages below.

Depayin-2.Jpeg

Blood stains the floor of the village school in Letyetkone after an attack by Myanmar’s military on September 16 (Supplied)

Blood stains the floor of the village school in Letyetkone after an attack by Myanmar’s military on September 16 (Supplied)

“They just suddenly came out of nowhere and started shooting. The two helicopters hovered overhead and fired down on us. When the jets passed over us, there was nothing we could do but lie flat on the ground,” he said.

Another resident said the attacks were unexpected because there hadn’t been any recent clashes in the area.

“There hasn’t been any serious fighting around here lately, or any other significant incident. I think they’re trying to clear the way to bring troops in on the ground,” he said.

The military has carried out at least 10 aerial assaults in the area since late last year, when it began to rely heavily on air power to terrorise civilians amid fierce resistance from local defence forces.

“The revolutionary forces are very strong in this township and have a lot of control over the area. That’s why it’s not easy for military columns to travel here,” said the spokesperson for a local resistance group called Depayin Township Brothers.

According to the spokesperson, the timing of the latest attack made it inevitable that children would be killed.

“Many schools are operating in Depayin Township, and they decided to do this during school hours, so of course several children were hit,” he said.

In many other parts of the country under the control of the regime that seized power last year, schools remain closed due to boycotts by parents opposed to the return of military rule.

In its statement, the NUG said that it strongly condemned the “targeted attacks on the schools [as] an inhuman and brutal war crime” and a gross violation of children’s right to education.

Myanmar Now News

Former BBC presenter Htet Htet Khine sentenced to 3 years by Myanmar junta court

The freelance journalist faced charges of ‘incitement’ and ‘illegal association’ for her reporting.

UPDATED AT 12:44 PM EST ON 9-15-22

A special court in Myanmar on Thursday sentenced Htet Htet Khine, a former BBC television presenter, to three years in prison with hard labor for “incitement” and “illegal association” for her reporting work, according to family members and her legal team.

The face of BBC Media Action’s national television peace program Khan Sar Kyi (Feel It) from 2016 to 2020, which documented the impact of war on Myanmar society, the freelance journalist and video producer had been in detention in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison awaiting trial since Aug. 15, 2021, when she was arrested with fellow reporter Sithu Aung Myint.

A lawyer representing Htet Htet Khine, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns, told RFA Burmese that she accepted her sentence with little emotion at the conclusion of her trial in the prison courtroom on Thursday.

“She bravely faced the case that was filed without any evidence,” he said.

“She was accused of inciting a situation that was already under control. The order was handed down based on the plaintiff’s testimony.”

The lawyer said that his client is “in good health” and “stable.”

A family member, who also declined to be named, told RFA that Htet Htet Khine and Sithu Aung Myint were “unjustly accused” and called for the court to free them.

“I already expected this [outcome]. They were wrongly arrested and I want them to be released as soon as possible,” the family member said.

“[The judges] unjustly sentenced her to three years imprisonment.”

The family member also expressed concern over Htet Htet Khine’s well-being in prison.

“She has been in jail for more than a year now and I worry about her,” they said.

“As a family member, I am worried about her health because inmates are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.”

Threat to press freedom

Reacting to Thursday’s sentencing, veteran journalists told RFA that reporters must subject themselves to serious personal risk to carry out their work under military rule in Myanmar.

Myint Kyaw, the former secretary of the Myanmar Press Council, said the threat of arrest has had the biggest impact on press freedom in the country since the coup.

“The work has become dangerous. [The junta] pressures journalists politically,” he said.

“Reporters can be arrested and sent to prison simply for writing a story that they don’t like.”

Myint Kyaw said journalists are finding it increasingly difficult to uphold media ethics in the current climate.

“Reporters are being forced to develop contacts on Facebook because of the risk of arrest associated with reporting on the scene,” he said.

“There is a limit to the objectivity they can maintain because of this. It’s more challenging to publish balanced reporting than ever.”

Zay Tai, the editor-in-chief of Kanbawza Tai, noted that since the formation of anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary groups last year, authorities have increasingly charged reporters for “illegal association.”

“Nowadays, reporters are being imprisoned under anti-terrorism laws,” he said.

“When a reporter gets a tip about a development, they are going to contact the source. You have to communicate with that person, regardless of who they are. So when reporters call PDF sources, the junta can arrest and charge them this way.”

Zay Tai added that journalists are now targeted for doing their work out in the open.

“In the past, a reporter could go around town with a camera around their necks, but that’s no longer the case,” he said. “Now they have to rely on citizen journalists and freelancers, because of the risks of reporting from the field.”

2021 arrest

Htet Htet Khine was arrested six months after the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup by junta security forces along with freelance journalist Sithu Aung Myint while the two discussed reporting work at the Shwe Gone Yeik Mon housing complex in Yangon’s Bahan township.

BBC Media Action Myanmar released a statement at the time confirming her arrest and expressing concern for her safety.

Sithu Aung Myint remains in detention awaiting trial on charges of “incitement” and “sedition,” for producing content authorities say was critical of the military. He faces up to three years in prison for the first charge and up to 20 for the second.

Sithu Aung Myint’s lawyer said in April that the journalist and others had been denied access to medical care by authorities while in custody.

According to Detained Journalists Information Myanmar, a media watchdog group, at least 142 journalists have been arrested in the 19 months since the coup, 95 of whom have been prosecuted under various sections of the country’s penal code.

The junta has previously denied targeting journalists for their reporting work.

This story has been updated to clarify that Htet Htet Khine was the face of the BBC Media Action’s national television peace program Khan Sar Kyi and to include comments from veteran journalists about the state of media freedom in Myanmar.

RFA News

Jailed Myanmar Protest Leader Faces Possible Death Sentence

Myanmar’s junta added a charge that carries a death sentence against jailed protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing for his role in the protest movement against military rule.

The 27-year-old pro-democracy activist has been held in Monywa Prison, Sagaing Region, since his arrest in April last year during an anti-regime rally. He has already faced several charges and was given a 10-year sentence in five incitement cases last month.

On August 26 the junta filed a fresh case against him under Article 122 of the Penal Code for leading protests in Monywa and for affiliating with the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw of deposed lawmakers, which the junta has declared an unlawful organization, his mother told The Irrawaddy.

Article 122 enforces a death sentence or life in prison for high treason.

Ko Wai Moe Naing defended himself in court as neither of his lawyers was able to attend court. One lawyer was detained and the other has been in hiding for over a month after the junta issued an arrest warrant.

He also faces charges of murder, wrongful confinement, defamation and under the Natural Disaster Management Law.

A hearing for the latest charge is scheduled for September 22.

The regime, which has killed at least 2,273 people since the February 2021 coup, has used the death penalty to intimidate opponents as it struggles to control the country.

It carried out Myanmar’s first execution in nearly four decades in July by hanging four detainees, including veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former National League for Democracy lawmaker, who were sentenced to death in January.

The other two victims were Ko Hla Myo Aung and Ko Aung Thura Zaw, who were accused of murdering a woman they believed to be a junta informant.

Irrawaddy News

‘They burned him alive’ — Residents describe the military raid that destroyed a Hpakant Township village

Dozens of people are missing and presumed dead after a junta siege on the village of Sezin forces thousands of civilians to seek refuge in northern and central Myanmar

The surviving residents of Sezin remember August 9 as the last night in their homes. 

By 2am, they describe their village as being engulfed in flames, bullets and screams. 

It was at that time that they said soldiers from both the Myanmar army and the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) arrived in the community, located in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township, carrying bottles of petrol and shouting at residents to submit to the junta forces.

“They told us to come outside and lie flat on our stomachs on the ground,” 40-year-old Myo Win of Sezin’s first ward told Myanmar Now. “They asked if we were involved with any armed groups. When we told them we were just civilians, they started burning our homes.” 

The raid followed a day-long clash between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the joint forces of the SNA and military—an alliance which the SNA denies. The KIA, which had seized both junta and SNA outposts in the village one day earlier, was outgunned and forced to withdraw.  

Regime forces closed in on Sezin in the hours that followed, laying siege to the community.

As troops set fire to the village’s 700 households, they reportedly shot people who tried to escape, killing an unconfirmed number of civilians. Locals speculate there may have been at least 40 casualties, as multiple residents who went missing that day were still unaccounted for at the time of reporting. Eqpx-7ha.jpeg

Sezin village pictured after the military raid on August 9 (Supplied)

Sezin village pictured after the military raid on August 9 (Supplied)

With around 400 others, Myo Win ran with his family to seek refuge in Sassanapala, Sezin’s Buddhist monastery, passing the bodies of their neighbours as they fled across the village.

“We saw at least six dead bodies on our way. Two of them had been shot in the legs and had bled out,” he said. 

Another Sezin local told Myanmar Now that he saw soldiers dragging the bodies of civilians who had been killed into burning homes to “get rid of them,” and shooting people as they ran out of buildings that had been set ablaze.

KIA soldiers in Mai Ja Yang, a town controlled by the group in northern Kachin State (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Military uses airstrikes to fend off KIA attack in Hpakant

KIA forces successfully overran an army outpost a day before their failed attempt to seize control of a police station on Tuesday

Escalation of tension

Located around 40 miles southwest of Hpakant’s administrative centre and on the border with Sagaing’s Homalin Township, Sezin is a hub for domestic migrants from both neighbouring Sagaing and Magway regions seeking work in the area’s jade and gold mines. 

The village, known for a large number of bars, massage parlours, and karaoke venues disproportionate to its small size, descended into conflict in June. 

Forces from the SNA—an ethnic Shanni armed group—reportedly entered Sezin on June 28, carrying out searches of homes. The move ignited tension with the KIA, which is active in much of Hpakant Township. Eqwpecza_0.Jpeg

Members of the SNA (SNA)

Members of the SNA (SNA)

A series of clashes broke out on July 16 between the KIA and regime troops after locals said Kachin forces intercepted and surrounded a military column around one mile outside of Sezin. The junta launched multiple airstrikes in order to create an escape route for the trapped soldiers, according to residents of the area. 

In the days that followed, locals told Myanmar Now that they saw troops belonging to the SNA joining Myanmar army units in battle. SNA spokesperson Col Sai Aung Mein rejected the allegation that they were allied with the junta’s forces, but confirmed that they had clashed with the KIA, who he said had “trespassed” into the Shanni army’s territory. 

On the day of the arson attack on Sezin, the KIA had attempted to overrun the junta police station in the village but military airstrikes, heavy artillery fire, and the arrival of reinforcement troops prevented them from capturing the site. 

The regime forces that drove them out did not spare the village. 

A KIA soldier seen in September 2012 (EPA)

Junta forces torch Hpakant Township village after forcing KIA withdrawal, locals say

The Myanmar army and the Shanni Nationalities Army set fire to hundreds of homes in the village of Sezin following a day-long clash with Kachin forces, residents say

Arson and murder

At least three of the Sezin residents trapped in houses torched that night were elderly people who were unable to walk and therefore flee, locals said. Among them were two women in Wards 4 and 5, whose names were not known at the time of reporting. 

A third was 79-year-old Maung Ko who lived next to Myo Win in Ward 1. 

“They burned him alive as he was unable to leave the house because he was a parapalegic,” Myo Win said. “They poured petrol on him and burned him along with the house.”

He added that another villager, Nga Mu, age 30, was killed after he pleaded with the soldiers to stop the arson. 

“I heard that he was forced to get on his knees and he was shot when he tried to run,” Myo Win explained.

The list of people killed and those who missing during the raid on August 9 (Myanmar Now)

The list of people killed and those who missing during the raid on August 9 (Myanmar Now)

While both eyewitnesses and local media outlets have reported that the SNA participated in the military’s assault on Sezin, its spokesperson Sai Aung Mein denied his group’s involvement. 

“Everyone knows and everyone saw that it was the KIA and PDF that torched the village,” he told Myanmar Now, referring to the People’s Defence Force, an anti-junta guerrilla group that formed in the aftermath of the February 2021 coup. 

“Many people know the truth,” he added.

He repeated the claim that the KIA had attacked the SNA’s front line across the regional border in Homalin Township, which caused the clashes earlier this month. 

“We have not been collaborating with the junta but our base was attacked by the KIA and we fired back at them. That was all,” the spokesperson said. 

Myanmar Now was unable to obtain comment from KIA information officer Col Naw Bu regarding the incidents in Sezin. 

The junta has released no information on its own actions in the region. 

‘A loss for words’

Dr Kyaw Myo Zin, from Sagaing’s Ye-U Township, was among the many healthcare workers nationwide who left his job and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement after last year’s coup. He and his wife, whose name was not confirmed at the time of reporting, had moved to Sezin in recent months in order to open a clinic. 

While the doctor survived the August 9 raid on the village, his wife did not. Locals said she died of a gunshot wound to the head, fired by a junta soldier. 

Kyaw Myo Zin fled, and was found the following day by other displaced residents, reportedly in severe mental distress. 

Local Myo Win was among those who located the doctor near Hao Pa and Ta Ma Khan villages, some 20 miles away, where most of Sezin’s residents initially sought refuge on August 10. 

“[The couple] hadn’t been here for very long and this attack happened when we thought we were at peace. That suddenness might have been what broke him,” he said, adding that the doctor’s whereabouts were no longer known. 

A house in Sezin village pictured after the raid on August 9 (Supplied)

A house in Sezin village pictured after the raid on August 9 (Supplied)

Naing Naing Win, a 44-year-old vegetable seller from Sezin, was among those who survived the nighttime raid on August 9 and planned to reach Ta Ma Khan with her family the next day.

She received a phone call from a friend telling her that the head monk at the Sassanapala monastery might be able to help them relocate to the neighbouring village. At 6:30pm on August 10, she and her husband, 33-year-old carpenter Pho Pain, sent their daughters, aged 12 and four, to the site by motorcycle. 

The parents followed later, after Pho Pain insisted that he go back to the house to bring his older daughter’s bicycle with them. 

As they approached the monastery, a bullet whizzed past Naing Naing Win’s ear, hitting Pho Pain in the head. He was killed instantly, she said. 

“I am at a loss for words. We survived the aerial bombings but he died right when we were arriving at the monastery,” Naing Naing Win said. “I feel so helpless, because now I have no one to depend on to support our two daughters.”

She managed to retrieve Pho Pain’s body the following day. He was cremated, his ashes scattered in the Uru stream which runs past Sezin. 

At the time of reporting, she and her daughters were staying at the home of her late husband’s relatives. 

Within days, even the villages of Ta Ma Khan and Hao Pa proved to be unsafe for Sezin’s 2,000 displaced civilians, who slept in the communities’ schools and monasteries and relied on food donations from locals.

On August 12, troops at the military base near Ta Ma Khan began firing heavy artillery into the area. Sezin’s residents fled again, this time to the towns of Myitkyina, Hpakant, Mohnyin and Hopin in Kachin State, with some travelling as far as Mandalay, and to Sagaing and Magway.  

With most of Sezin’s residences destroyed, the journey back home is not guaranteed. 

“I don’t think words can do justice to the type of fear we felt that day,” a man from the village said of the raid that forced him into displacement. “We barely survived.”

Myanmar Now News