Food Shortage in Sagaing Rice Basket as Myanmar Junta Raids Force 50,000 to Flee 

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Some 50,000 people have been displaced in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo District since Myanmar junta troops resumed deadly attacks on their villages last month, according to residents and volunteers helping displaced people.

The total number of residents displaced since the 2021 coup now exceeds 70,000 in Shwebo, where rice fields are lying fallow amid a growing food shortage.

A junta unit calling itself the Ogre Column has been raiding the district’s townships of Shwebo, Ye-U, Khin-U, Taze and Depayin since a ceasefire was agreed in neighboring Shan State in January.

Over 20,000 people displaced by junta raids between 2021 and December last year remain homeless. Over 20,000 more were displaced when junta troops raided their villages in January.

Junta forces have deployed the notorious “four cuts” strategy – designed to cut off food sources, funds, information and recruits – in the resistance hotbed of Sagaing.

On Wednesday, around 30,000 people from some 40 villages in western Taze fled when the regime called in airstrikes and infantry reinforcements, a member of the Shwebo District people’s administration told The Irrawaddy.

Displaced people in Shwebo Township. / Depayin Township displaced people support group

The junta onslaught came after the People’s Defense Force (PDF) seized and torched the Kan Htoo Ma village police station, between Taze and Ye-U towns, where around 30 junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee militias had been deployed.

Shwebo District is a rice-growing area where the country’s most popular variety, Shwebo Pawhsan, is cultivated. However, junta raids have disrupted summer paddy cultivation, sparking food shortages.

“These days, we spend more time fleeing from our homes than sleeping there. We can stay at home no more than five days in a month. And then we live in constant fear that soldiers will arrive in the village at any time. This is the time to grow summer paddy, but we can do nothing,” said a displaced villager from Ye-U Township.

Locals in Taze Township said they are unable to grow summer paddy due to the raids, adding they dare not sleep in their homes as junta troops tend to come at night.

“People flee because junta troops kill, rape, amputate and burn alive civilians during their raids,” said a member of a support group for displaced people in Depayin Township.

“And with the cold season not yet over, the cold nights mean displaced people need blankets. They also need food.”

Junta air raids in Taze Township killed a 60-year-old man and injured two travelers and a local woman on Feb. 14-15.

On Monday, junta troops backed by airstrikes clashed with local resistance fighters on the border of Taze and Ye-U, said information officer Ko Htoo Kant Zaw of the People’s Defense Comrades.

In Shwebo Township, Pyu Saw Htee militias from Myinsee village killed a three-year-old boy, a 25-year-old pregnant woman, three women aged 52, 62, 75, and a man, 62, on Feb. 15-16, according to local resistance groups.

Myinsee is one of eight junta-armed Pyu Saw Htee villages in Shwebo Township.

Ogre Column troops killed 14 civilians including a pregnant woman during raids in Ye-U, Khin-U and Depayin townships between early January and Feb. 12, according to residents. One resistance fighter was also killed in Ye-U.

The Shwebo raids involve troops from Light Infantry Battalion 708 based in Yangon Region’s Taikkyi Township, Infantry Battalion 11 based in Ayeyarwady’s Pathein Township, No. 8 Basic Military Training Depot based in Shwebo town, and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militias.

Shwebo District suffered fewer raids during the anti-regime Operation 1027 offensive from November to early January in northern Shan State. However, junta forces intensified their attacks on Sagaing villages after the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance agreed to a ceasefire with the regime in Shan State in mid-January.

Irrawaddy News

Infants, Pregnant Woman Slain as Myanmar Junta Continues War Against Its People

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Warning: Graphic content

At least 39 people – including children, women and senior citizens – were killed in Myanmar over the past eight days by junta forces, according to local media and resistance groups.

Most of those slain were civilians, and they were killed by indiscriminate bombing or extrajudicial killings, an analysis by The Irrawaddy found.

The war crimes occurred in Bago, Mandalay and Sagaing regions as well as Mon and Shan states from Feb. 14 and 21.

On Wednesday, as clashes between the regime and anti-regime forces broke out in and around Kale town in Sagaing Region, regime forces randomly shelled residential wards of the town.

Three civilians were killed and another injured in the bombing, according to local media reports quoting residents.

On Monday, junta forces detained and killed three members of a People’s Defense Force and five other civilians – including three teens aged 14 and 15 – during a raid on a resistance sentry camp near Sakarpin village in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township, the Madaya Township People’s Defense Group told local media.

Three resistance fighters and five civilians who were detained and killed by junta forces in Madaya Township, Mandalay Region on Monday. / Khit Thit Media

Junta propaganda Telegram channels reported that the people were dead when junta troops clashed with them. They said military security forces found the eight bodies during an attack on PDF forces stationed at a monastery near the village.

Photos taken by local residents show all eight victims had their arms tied behind their backs.

Six more civilians – including three senior citizens aged 62 and 75, a three-year-old boy and a woman who was five-months pregnant – were killed by regime forces and allied pro-regime Pyu Saw Htee militia members from a junta military base in Myin See village in Sagaing Region’s Shwebo Township on Feb. 15 and 16.

All the victims were killed while they were in huts near their farms in the township, a member of the Shwebo Township Defense Force told The Irrawaddy.

On Wednesday, a junta helicopter gunship used 81mm explosives and a machine gun to bomb and strafe three villages on the east bank of the Sittaung River in Bago Region’s Yedashe Township even though there was no fighting in the area, reports said.

During the attacks on residential areas, four people – including two children aged eight and 10 –  were slain and five others were injured, the Yedashe Township PDF Daung Minn Thar said.

Three civilians who were killed by indiscriminate shelling on Kale town in Sagaing Region on Wednesday. /CJ

Photos show one child was hit by machine gun fire in the neck and the other in the head.

The country’s oldest ethnic revolutionary group, the Karen National Union, said that the junta continued artillery and airstrikes as well as drone strikes on civilian targets in villages in its territory in Bago Region’s Kyaukkyi Township and Mon State’s Ye Township, killing at least four people and injuring many others.

The junta attacks also destroyed many homes and schools and killed livestock, which are a vital source of income for residents of the villages.

On Monday, regime forces and allied Pa-O militia members used mortars and drones to bombard a convoy of internally displaced persons in southern Shan State’s Hsihseng town, killing seven civilians, the Pa-O National Liberation Army, an anti-regime ethnic revolutionary group, said.

Two civilians, including a six-month-old infant, were killed, and seven others injured in Hsihseng Township on Saturday as regime forces and a pro-junta Pa-O militia based in Ban Yin town shelled two nearby villages with more than 40 bombs.

A child among four killed in junta airstrikes on three villages in Yedashe Township, Bago Region on Wednesday. / Daung Minn Thar PDF

The bombs also destroyed civilian homes. The regime deliberately attacked civilian targets even though there were no clashes or PNLA bases in the villages, the ethnic army said.

On Feb. 14, a junta aircraft also bombed a small village in Hsihseng township five times, killing two residents and injuring eight more, the PNLA said, adding that no fighting was occurring in the area. Photos show civilian homes were destroyed.

As of Wednesday, 4,569 people – including pro-democracy activists and civilians – had been killed by regime forces since the Feb 1, 2021 coup, according to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Irrawaddy News

UN condemns airstrikes on Karenni primary schools

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The U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released a statement condemning airstrikes on two primary schools in Demoso Township of Karenni State that killed four children, ages 12-14, and three adults on Monday, Feb. 5. 

“UNICEF strongly condemns any strikes against schools and places of learning, which must always be safe spaces for children,” the statement said. 

It added that attacks on schools are a “grave” violation of children’s rights and may be a violation of international law. Schools, and other places of learning, should always remain a safe place for children, according to UNICEF. 

“We join their strong condemnation of any strikes against schools and places of learning,” said Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General. 

The Karenni Interim Executive Council (IEC) and National Unity Government (NUG) accused the military of deliberately targeting children. Both groups have called for international justice and accountability.

Regime media denied the military carried out airstrikes on Feb. 5 and accused DVB of spreading false information. Pro-military channels on the social media platform Telegram confirmed that airstrikes took place, but claimed that the military was targeting the People’s Defense Force (PDF) and Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) members working at the schools. 

DVB News

Human Rights Situation weekly update (February 1 to 7, 2024)

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Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Feb 1 to 7, 2024

Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Tanintharyi Region, and Kayin State from February 1st to 7th. 4 children died and 10 children were injured by the bomb dropping airstrike of Military Junta in Demoso Township, Kayah State on January 5th. Military Troop arrested over 300 civilians and used them as human shields from Sagaing Region, Bago Region, Mandalay Region, and Kayin State. A female political prisoner from Mandalay O Bo Prison died from a lack of medical treatment and care.

Over 8 civilians died and over 30 were injured by the Military’s heavy and light artillery attacks within a week. 12 underaged children were injured and 9 died when the Military Junta committed abuses.7 civilians were injured and 1 died by the landmine of Military Junta.

Junta troops seize over 300 villagers in central Myanmar

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During the raid, troops shot dead a woman fleeing the village, villagers said.

One woman died and over 300 villagers were detained after a junta raid in central Myanmar, residents and an armed resistance member told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.

Troops shot 21-year-old Khin Soe Wai while she fled her village in Mandalay township, locals said. 

Over 50 soldiers stormed Kan Swei village following a clash with local resistance forces on Sunday. Mandalay and Myingyan People’s Defense Forces attacked junta troops with drones only half a mile away.

After shooting Khin Soe Wai, villagers said the column occupied the village’s monastery, interrogating more than 100 villagers on Tuesday and burning down three homes. 

Troops took more than 30 of them to a village in nearby Natogyi township.

After arriving in Na Nwin Taw Bo, soldiers arrested over 300 more villagers, who have not been released yet, Myingyan-based defense forces member Bo Moe Kyo told RFA on Wednesday.

“On the fifth, a woman from Kan Swei who ran away was shot dead,” he said. “About 150 villagers in Kan Swei were detained in the monastery. They were beaten and tortured. About 30 of them were taken by the junta troops.”

Since the raid, some 5,000 residents from eight villages in Myingyan township and Natogyi township have been forced to flee due to the junta column, he said.

“Na Nwin Taw Bo was raided by the column again. There were no casualties. But they arrested everyone they met: children, adults and women,” he said. “More than 300 villagers were arrested. They are still being held as hostage.”

Calls by RFA to Mandalay’s junta spokesperson Thein Htay to learn more about the raid went unanswered on Wednesday. 

In January, four women and five men from Mandalay region’s Myingyan township were arrested and killed by junta troops.

As of Feb. 6, over 4,400 people across the country have been killed since the military seized power three years ago, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

RFA News

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

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Warning: Graphic Content

Two anti-junta fighters in their 20s were executed in public in a village in Magwe Region and a video of the crime, which occurred about three months ago, was uploaded to social media on Tuesday and is circulating there.

They were burned alive after being hanged from a tree.

The video, first reported on by two local media outlets – and likely leaked to them – is narrated by a triumphant voice.

Resistance group Yaw Defense Force (YDF) said junta soldiers and allied Pyu Saw Htee militia members were responsible for the crime in Gangaw Township’s Myauk Khin Yan village.

The video circulating on social media shows the two men being forced to admit that they are members of a local People’s Defense Force. They are also forced to refer to themselves as “dogs” by the junta troops – some uniform others in civilian clothes – who, in the video, are seen standing around them.  “Military dogs” is a term used by many civilians to refer to junta troops.

The video shows evidence that they were tortured before they were burned alive. They have severe injuries and are covered in blood. Their hands and legs are bound by iron chains as they are dragged to a tree.

Yaw Defense Force identified that the two men executed as Phoe Tay and Thar Htaung.

After being forced to refer to themselves as “dogs,” they are hanged from a tree. A liquid believed to be fuel is poured on them and then lit.

They were burned alive in front of an audience.

Every household in the village was told to send one member to witness the execution, YDF said. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify this account.

The video is narrated by a joyful voice celebrating the crime as a triumph.

The YDF identified the two men executed as Phoe Tay and Thar Htaung, saying they were YDF members who were arrested by junta troops and Pyu Saw Htee members during an operation in Myauk Khin Yan village on Nov. 7, 2023.

The village is controlled by Pyu Saw Htee militias, reportedly under the direction of “Bullet” Hla Swe, a former lawmaker of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. The militias are notorious for violence against civilians, including shelling into the village and others nearby. In March 2022, two civilians were tortured to death in the village.

Many residents of the village have fled due to the expansion of Pyu Saw Htee militias.

The YDF said the two men were “burned alive in public.” “Before that, they were repeatedly tortured,” it said.

The two young men were dragged toward a tree before being burned alive in public.

Many social-media users are reacting to the video with fury and sorrow. Instead of spreading fear, such inhumanity will only make the revolutionary spirit against dictatorship stronger, many wrote in response.

Others compare the junta’s brutal treatment of detainees with that of anti-regime resistance groups and ethnic armed groups who adhere to international laws governing the treatment of prisoners of war.

“The terrorist military has been committing inhumane terrorist acts since long ago. The only way to ensure that there are no more incidents like this is to root out the military regime and ensure the revolution succeeds,” the YDF said in a statement.

“We would like to urge all people not to be cold-blooded and to unite together until the revolution succeeds,” it said.

Irrawaddy News