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)

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.

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)

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. 

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)

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)

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

Six Cases Highlight Alleged Torture, Junta’s Failure to Investigate

(Sydney) – Myanmar’s military and police are responsible for scores of deaths in custody since the February 1, 2021 military coup, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch documented the deaths of six detained activists that involved apparent torture or the denial of adequate medical care. The junta authorities have not seriously investigated these deaths or taken action against those responsible.

“The six deaths Human Rights Watch documented are just the tip of the iceberg of suffering and torture of those detained by Myanmar’s military and police,” said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Given the junta’s cruelty in all aspects of its rule, there’s little surprise that no evident action has been taken to investigate deaths in custody and bring those responsible to justice.”

The junta should immediately end its abuses against those opposed to military rule, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trials. Deaths in custody should be immediately reported with proper documentation to the person’s family, the body should be returned, and those responsible for abuses held to account.

The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates that at least 73 people have died in police or military custody in police stations, military interrogation centers, and prisons since the coup, which effectively ended the democratic transition under Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). These deaths are only a small percentage of the at least 690 people that have been killed shortly after being apprehended by the security forces, often during military operations in ethnic minority areas. The military junta has only acknowledged a few custodial deaths but attributes them to illness or heart failure. However, human rights activists, witnesses, and sources close to the victims said that the physical evidence available indicates that many died from torture or other mistreatment, including poor detention conditions and a lack of access to adequate medical care.

Human Rights Watch documented the six deaths between May and July, remotely interviewing 10 witnesses and others familiar with the cases, reviewing 40 photographs and 5 videos posted to social media platforms, and obtaining independent medical analysis of the visual evidence by an emergency physician with expertise in torture.

The six men were all political activists or vocal opponents of the military junta in Yangon, Mandalay, and Sagaing Regions. Khin Maung Latt, 58, Zaw Myat Lynn, 46, and Than Tun Oo, 48, were NLD members apparently arrested for their political affiliation. Khet Thi, 43, Tin Maung Myint, 52, and Kyaw Swe Nyein, 55, joined or led protest movements after the coup. Five died within 24 hours of being arrested and interrogated, while Kyaw Swe Nyein, died two months after his arrest.

Myanmar police and soldiers arrested five of the six victims during night raids; they arrested the sixth, Than Tun Oo, in Mandalay during the day. In all but one of the cases, the arrests were carried out during joint military-police operations. A law enacted in March formally brought the police under junta control, requiring police officers to comply with all military orders, including taking part in military operations.

Photographs of five of the victims show physical marks on their bodies or heads that indicate torture. There are no photographs of Than Tun Oo’s body since junta authorities said he was cremated soon after he died.

Dr. Rohini Haar, an emergency physician whom Human Rights Watch consulted, analyzed images of the bodies: “Having reviewed photographs and videos of the five victims after their deaths, it is clear from the physical marks on the bodies and faces that these men suffered immensely, and that torture occurred.… There are so many signs of abuse and torture that it is hard to pinpoint exactly what killed these individuals.”

None of the men’s families received official medical certificates, cause of death, or autopsy reports, despite evidence that autopsies were conducted on four of the six bodies. The junta should issue medical certificates for all death-in-custody cases and provide autopsy reports to families if autopsies were performed.

Four of the victims’ families said they felt pressured by officials to have the bodies cremated immediately, presumably to hide evidence of wrongdoing. Two families said they buried their loved ones quickly out of fear the authorities would confiscate the body.

The UN special rapporteur on Myanmar said in October 2021 that he had received credible reports of “over 8,000 arbitrarily detained with many tortured, including dozens who were tortured to death.” At the UN Human Rights Council in March, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she had received credible reports that at least 21 percent of deaths by the security forces had occurred while victims were in custody.

Human Rights Watch has found that the junta’s widespread and systematic abuses since the coup amount to crimes against humanity, which include murder, torture, and wrongful imprisonment.

The UN Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016) sets out that all death-in-custody cases should be subjected to “prompt, impartial, and effective investigations into the circumstances and causes” of the death. In addition, “family members should be informed immediately and thereafter a notification of death posted in an easily accessible way. To the extent possible, family members should also be consulted prior to an autopsy. They should be entitled to have a representative present during the autopsy … [H]uman remains should be returned to family members, allowing them to dispose of the deceased according to their beliefs.”

The UN, regional bodies, and governments – including the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – should specifically raise concerns about deaths in custody and press the junta to end them, Human Rights Watch said. They should strengthen targeted sanctions against military-owned businesses, the military and the State Administration Council (SAC) junta leadership under Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

The UN Security Council should urgently take measures against the junta, including by referring the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court and passing a resolution to impose a global arms embargo.

“The deaths of people in custody are among the hidden atrocities that junta security forces are committing every day,” Maung said. “Concerned governments should be ensuring global condemnation of these horrific abuses.”

For detailed accounts of the deaths in custody, please see below.

Deaths in Custody

The following case histories are based on remote interviews with family members of the victims and witnesses and other sources of information. In all but one of the cases, witnesses said they were afraid to be named due to fear of reprisals from the Myanmar military or police.

Kyaw Swe Nyein, Nyaung-U town, Mandalay Region

Plainclothes policemen and a military intelligence unit arrested Kyaw Swe Nyein, 55, at his home in Mandalay Region on January 30, 2022, after he joined protests in Nyaung-U, Mandalay Region.

The authorities accused Kyaw Swe Nyein of spreading “fake news” and sharing a Facebook post supporting anti-coup protests. A closed court in March sentenced him to six months in prison for incitement under section 505A of the penal code. This section, amended by the junta shortly after the coup, makes it a criminal offense to make comments that “cause fear” and spread “false news,” and is punishable by up to three years in prison.

On March 9, Kyaw Swe Nyein sounded well when he spoke to his family on a mobile phone borrowed from one of the prison guards at Nyaung-U prison. However, he told a family member that he had been badly beaten at the Myingyan interrogation center, where he was held for the first 10 days. He told his family that he had experienced some dizziness as a result. On March 11, prison authorities informed Kyaw Swe Nyein’s wife that he had died that evening after complaining of dizziness. Doctors at Nyaung-U hospital, where his body was taken, told relatives that he had died of heart failure.

The family did not receive a death certificate or an autopsy report, even though authorities conducted an autopsy. A family member said a police official told the family to sign a blank document acknowledging they were informed of Kyaw Swe Nyein’s death.

A family member said:

I was so distressed. I just signed the document, but I don’t know what it was, and I don’t have a copy.… If he died from natural causes, then I could forgive myself [that he died in prison] but now, it’s the unknown that is unsettling. Of course, it’s very difficult for us to accept his death with so few answers but we can’t do anything about it now.

After reviewing images of Kyaw Swe Nyein at his funeral, Dr. Haar said a photograph showed evidence of trauma to the head from bruising around the eyes and ears.

Than Tun Oo, Mandalay town, Mandalay Region

On September 26, 2021, at about 3:30 p.m., soldiers and police arrested Than Tun Oo, 48, a former political prisoner and activist, at his home in Mandalay and took him to the No. 7 Area Police Station. Neighbors and family members watched as security forces beat him with his hands tied behind his back and then shot him in the legs, supposedly for being slow to respond to orders. A witness said:

There were around 50 to 100 soldiers and police with army trucks and private cars. Some soldiers were from the LID [Light Infantry Division] 33 command and there were police from the local station here in Mandalay.… They told [Than Tun Oo] to kneel but he weighed 400 pounds, so they shot him in his leg to make him kneel.

The witness said the next day, September 27, police and military officials told Than Tun Oo’s family that he had died in the police station from heart failure. The authorities did not give the family a medical certificate, a witness said, but security forces made family members sign a document acknowledging they had been informed of Than Tun Oo’s death.

The family said Than Tun Oo was in good health prior to his arrest. When the family demanded his body, junta authorities said they had cremated the body immediately because Than Tun Oo had tested positive for Covid-19 while in custody.

A family member said:

Everyone has dreams, so did [Than Tun Oo]. He was interested in art and loved writing. Many people liked him. I could endure the pain of loss if he died while fighting against the [junta]. But he died during interrogation where they have the power to do whatever they wanted. It is painful to accept that he died in this way.

Khet Thi, Shwebo city, Sagaing Region

Khet Thi, 43, a popular poet known for his sharp political wit, took on a leadership role opposing the military coup. He organized protests and spoke at rallies to encourage dissent against the military. His poetry became part of his resistance to military rule. “They shoot in the head, but they don’t know that revolution is in the heart,” he wrote.

On May 8, 2021, about 40 soldiers and police arrested Khet Thi at his home in the city of Shwebo, Sagaing Region, and accused him of leading a plan to lay landmines targeting the security forces. Junta authorities also arrested Khet Thi’s wife, Chaw Suu, and her brother-in-law, Aye Pyo, for allegedly helping to plan the attack.

A witness said that police handcuffed all three, then took them in a police vehicle to Myo Ma, the main police station in Shwebo, where they were separated into male and female cellblocks for interrogation.

After hours of interrogation overnight, Chaw Suu and her brother-in-law were released on the morning of May 9. A police officer informed Chaw Suu that her husband had been taken to Monywa General Hospital, almost 90 kilometers from Myo Ma police station. Sources familiar with the case said that Chaw Suu thought her husband was ill and asked the head of the police station to take her to the hospital so she could care for him. The officer in charge then told her that Khet Thi was dead.

On May 9, at about 2 p.m., junta officials at Monywa hospital told Khet Thi’s family that he had died of a heart attack. However, family members deny that he had any heart problems, and say he was in good health apart from poor eyesight. A source said hospital staff pressured the family to have the body cremated at the hospital the same day. Fearing junta officials would force them to immediately cremate Khet Thi, the family took his body to prepare for burial the next day.

Junta officials failed to provide the family a medical certificate or autopsy report, and there was no investigation into his death.

A family member said:

We rushed back to another township with his body because we were afraid that they would take the body back.… When we went to prepare the body, his head moved slightly and that’s when blood came out of his head. They had performed an autopsy on his head and there was a wound but there were also two bruises on the right side of his face and black marks on his nose. He had square shaped burn marks on his thighs. We didn’t check his back because we were afraid the sutures from the autopsy might burst open.

Khet Thi was buried on May 10, 2021, less than 48 hours after his arrest.

Dr. Haar, the emergency physician, said that images of Khet Thi taken after his death showed likely head trauma.

Zaw Myat Lynn, Shwe Pyi Thar township, Yangon

Zaw Myat Lynn, 46, was a former NLD member who ran a vocational education school named after Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon’s Shwe Pyi Thar township. He and his family lived with the students.

On March 9, 2021, at about 1 a.m., police and soldiers arrived at the school, appearing to target Zaw Myat Lynn for arrest due to pro-democracy posts on his Facebook account. He ran and jumped over a fence but was surrounded by police and soldiers who took him into a military vehicle.

A teacher said:

I heard from students around 2 a.m. on March 9, 2021. [They told me] about 40 police and soldiers were at the Suu Vocational School. Some students were arrested first when military forces came in from the front door. Zaw Myat Lynn jumped over the fence and cleared it, but the building was surrounded, and he was arrested. Neighbors from next door also told me they heard Zaw Myat Lynn say, “Don’t shoot, I’ll surrender and come with you.” He didn’t get any injury from jumping over that fence.

Zaw Myat Lynn’s family was told the next day to come and identify his corpse.

Dr. Haar, who reviewed 12 photographs and 2 videos of Zaw Myat Lynn’s body, said visible injuries suggested scalding liquid was poured onto his face.

After examining similar photographs, The Guardian newspaper concluded that the nature of Zaw Myat Lynn’s injuries were consistent with torture: “It appears that boiling water or a chemical solution had been poured into his mouth. The tongue was melted, his teeth missing. Facial skin was peeling off. The body had been wrapped up to conceal further traumatic injuries.”

A source close to the family said that junta officials told Zaw Myat Lynn’s family that he had died from heart failure. The officials failed to provide the family with a medical certificate or autopsy report.

Tin Maung Myint, Yin Mar Bin township, Sagaing Region

On April 4, 2021, soldiers arrested Tin Maung Myint, 52, during a raid on his village in Yin Mar Bin township, Sagaing Region. He was a farmer and village leader who had joined the opposition to the junta. Witnesses said that soldiers arrested Tin Maung Myint around 4 a.m. along with seven others who were keeping watch on the military column that was preparing to raid their village.

Tin Maung Myint’s body, along with that of another villager who was arrested with him, turned up the next day about 2 p.m. at the Monywa General Hospital, bearing marks of torture. A witness who viewed the body said:

I saw bruises and swollen marks all over his and the other victim’s face. They were in pretty bad shape. We only checked their faces, not their whole bodies. It was unsettling to get close to their bodies. I didn’t want to look that closely, so I don’t know about marks on their bodies, but their faces were so black and blue.

One photograph posted on social media of Tin Maung Myint’s body shows numerous wounds. Dr. Haar, who reviewed the photograph, said she observed massive trauma consistent with skin tears and avulsions – or forcible tearing – on his shoulders that looked like burns. Bruises are visible on the face, as is a deep gash on the forehead. She said it was unclear which injury was the cause of death.

Junta authorities failed to provide a death certificate to the family or explain how Tin Maung Myint had died. Hospital staff who found the bodies told the families the men were already dead when they were discovered dumped at the hospital.

Khin Maung Latt, Pabedan township, Yangon

On March 6, 2021, soldiers and police arrived at the home of Khin Maung Latt, 58, a ward chairman and NLD member, in Pabedan township, Yangon. Witnesses said that after forcibly entering his home, security forces beat and kicked Khin Maung Latt in front of his family, then took him away at gunpoint. His family was notified the next morning that he had died of heart failure, and they retrieved his body at 8 a.m.

A friend of Khin Maung Latt’s who attended his funeral on March 7 said that his legs looked broken, his white funeral shroud was covered in blood, and that his face appeared blue and swollen. The friend said:

When I arrived at Ye Way cemetery, Khin Maung Latt’s body was already being prepared in the morgue, in the Muslim tradition. But we’d instructed our contacts who washed the body to take photos as soon as they’d stripped him. The water ran with blood and his body was marked as if he was badly beaten.… There was blood coming out of his ears and bruises all over his body; his legs looked damaged, broken. The person washing the body had put gauze in the ear and up his nose, but it was still dripping.… The white cloth was no longer white, it was stained red and rust-colored.

He said that the authorities appeared to have carried out an autopsy:

They said he died from a heart attack, but they had performed an autopsy on his body and on his head. The head was cut open, as if they’d taken one side and pulled it back like a flap. But why did they do this? There was no explanation given.… You could see the stitches on his head and on his body and the stitches were still oozing. No matter how we washed the stitches, they kept oozing and his blood was still warm. There were blue and brown marks around his eyes and his body, marks everywhere.

A member of the Muslim community who helped to prepare Khin Maung Latt’s body for a Muslim burial said there were deep wounds on his back and hands consistent with torture.

Dr. Haar, who reviewed nine photographs and one video of Khin Maung Latt’s body, observed unskilled, haphazard suturing of the autopsy wounds on the head and chest: “The sutures are very unusual and not in line with medical best practice. By even conducting the autopsy under such unusual circumstances, may also suggest medical complicity to the acts of torture that clearly occurred to the individual.”

Khin Maung Latt’s body was cremated at the Ye Way cemetery on March 7, less than 24 hours after his arrest. The friend said officials failed to provide the family with a medical certificate or autopsy report.

HRW

Sources said 20,000 residents from 80 villages fled their homes amid the attacks.

Junta troops in Myanmar’s Sagaing region have killed at least 12 civilians and burned down more than 500 houses in 11 days since entering the region’s northern townships of Kawlin, Kanbalu and Kyunhla, villagers and local defense groups said Friday.

Sources in the area told RFA Burmese that the military had set nearly 50 villages alight since Aug. 22, forcing more than 20,000 residents from 80 villages in the area to flee their homes for safety.

Nay Zin Lat, the former National League for Democracy (NLD) representative for Kanbalu township, said a dozen people had been killed over the past 11 days and that three villages in Kyunhla township were set on fire on Thursday alone.

“Kyunhla township’s Hmaw Tone village is still burning today,” he said.

“Eight unidentified bodies were found on Aug. 23 near [Kyunhla’s] Tei Pin Seik village. They might have been burned to death or killed by heavy weapons. We cannot confirm anything yet.”

Nay Zin Lat said three fighter jets fired at Kawlin township’s Thit Seint Kone village at around 11:20 p.m. the same day, adding that “five villagers were hit and only one survived.”

The Kawlin Revolution Group, an anti-junta paramilitary organization, told RFA that four people were killed in the attack, including six-year-old Pyisone, Moe Aung, Zin Myo Tun, and his nine-months pregnant wife, Phyu Zar Win.

RFA tried to contact family members of the victims but was unable to reach them because the phone lines were cut.

Local anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) groups announced that more than 40 enemy troops were killed in a skirmish between the PDF and the military near the border of Kanbalu and Kawlin townships on Aug. 22-23, and that three officers and a cache of ammunition were captured.

A resident of Aung Chan Thar village told RFA that junta troops started burning his and other villages in Kawlin township as they passed through the next day.

“The troops that were airdropped into the area set fire to our village. The fighting took place on Aug. 22 and they started burning the village on the 23rd,” the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There used to be 75 houses in our village. They set fire to almost every village they entered. All those from our village are on the run and are depending on food donated by people nearby. But when it rains, life is miserable and we don’t have any food or medicine.”

500 homes burned

Sources told RFA that more than 500 houses have been burned since Aug. 22, including 75 from Kawlin township’s Aung Chan Thar village, as well as 59 from Kone See village, two from Tei Pin Seik village, 95 from Ein Chay village, 17 from Inn Yar village, and 53 from Ywar Koe Gyi village — all in Kyunhla township. They said at least 220 houses were torched in three other villages as well, without providing details.

“Even my pucca (brick) building has turned to ashes. All 95 of the houses have been destroyed,” said a villager from Ein Chay, who also declined to be named, fearing reprisal.

“Right now, we don’t dare to stay [in the village] and we don’t have a place to live. All the villagers have fled. When it rains, everyone has a difficult time.”

Other sources said the military had cut off internet access in Kawlin and Kanbalu townships and that details of the arson attacks remain unknown.

A member of a local armed-resistance unit said junta troops are still stationed in Kyunhla’s Ywar Koe Gyi and Kaing Wun villages and that a nearby area came under attack by air raid on Thursday night.

“The army columns are not leaving. They aren’t going anywhere,” the fighter said.

“Last night, a jet fighter came and fired at some places between their forces and our camp. It was between Ywar Koe Gyi and Kaing Wun villages and there were no casualties.”

RFA contacted the junta’s minister for social affairs in Sagaing, Aye Hlaing, but was unable to reach him on Friday.

The latest offensive in Sagaing came days after an Aug. 17 meeting between junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and U.N. Special Representative Noeleen Heyzer, during which the former claimed that his forces were not responsible for using arson attacks against villages.

However, Data For Myanmar, a group that monitors the fires nationwide, said on Aug. 29 that a total of 28,434 homes have been burned across the country since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup.

RFA News