The Moso Christmas Eve Massacre (Mini-doc)

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One year on from the horrific massacre, watch Myanmar Witness’ mini-doc investigation.

“Do you know what happened in Myanmar last Christmas?” is a first mini-documentary by Myanmar Witness, investigating the horrific events at Moso on Christmas Eve 2021. 24 December 2021. Footage emerges on social media of burnt out vehicles somewhere in Myanmar. Reports of many killed and images of burnt bodies soon follow. Myanmar Witness investigators immediately start collecting and analysing and attempting to verify the footage so that international media can report accurately on the unfolding atrocity and one day those responsible can be held to account.

To read the full investigation into the Moso Christmas Eve Massacre online click here or download the full report as PDF with the button below.

Myanmar Witness

Myanmar junta raid and burn 20 villages over 3 days in Sagaing region

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More than 10,000 fled their homes in Tigyaing township ahead of the raids.

Junta troops stormed 20 villages in Tigyaing township over three days this week, burning down over 400 houses as their arson campaign continued in Myanmar’s Sagaing region.

Local residents told RFA around 300 troops took part in the campaign, prompting more than 10,000 people to abandon their homes ahead of the raids.

The latest wave of arson attacks began early on Tuesday morning when troops stormed and burned Aung Thar Kone village. Locals said more than 1,000 people abandoned three nearby villages on hearing about the raid.

Troops continued their raids on Wednesday and Thursday, burning homes in villages – including 40 houses in Lay Thar Kone and Inn Tein – forcing thousands more residents to flee.

A local, who declined to be named for security reasons, told RFA a soldier shot and killed a man in his 80s, identified as Sein Maung, after entering Inn Tein village Thursday.

“He was planting crops in the field. He might have gone to see his sons and been shot dead. They said the junta soldier took 400,000 Myanmar Kyat (U.S.$190) from him,” the local said.

Junta spokesman for Sagaing region Aye Hlaing, who is also the military regime’s regional social affairs minister, told RFA he was unaware of any killings or arson and was not authorized to speak on such issues for security reasons.

Fighting has intensified in Myanmar’s northernmost region in the 22 months since the military toppled the country’s democratically elected government. The fighting has forced people from their homes leading to 616,500 being displaced in Sagaing since the coup, according to a Dec. 3 statement by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

RFA News

Junta to file criminal charges against detained Kachin reverend

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Officials from the Kachin Baptist Convention are summoned to the Northern Regional Command in Myitkyina and reportedly shown video ‘evidence’ of Dr Hkalam Samson’s ‘crimes’

The junta is expected to soon file criminal charges against the detained former chair of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) Dr Hkalam Samson, a representative of the organisation said on Wednesday. 

Kachin religious leader Dr Samson was arrested at Mandalay’s Tada-U Airport on Monday and reportedly sent to the military’s Northern Regional Command headquarters in Myitkyina, Kachin State. He has not been heard from since.

KBC’s deputy secretary Lahpai Zau Ra said in a video message posted on the organisation’s Facebook page that the junta’s minister of border affairs and state security summoned four of the organisation’s officials to the Myitkyina military base on Tuesday. There, he reportedly informed them that Dr Samson would soon be facing charges.

Lahpai Zau Ra said that the border affairs minister did not elaborate on which laws the reverend had allegedly violated, but it was understood that the charges could be related to the content of his lectures and religious sermons.

“He showed us several videos as ‘evidence’ of the reverend’s ‘crimes.’ Some of them were meeting records,” Lahpai Zau Ra said in the video posted to KBC’s Facebook page.

KBC said it has formed a committee dedicated to working for Dr Samson’s release.

13 Rohingya, believed to be human trafficking victims, found dead near Yangon

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The incident comes a week after 68 Rohingya men and women were arrested in the same area while being transported in a truck

The bodies of 13 Rohingya men and boys were found dumped on the side of a road in a northern Yangon suburb on Monday morning, two sources told Myanmar Now.

The victims, who were estimated to be between the ages of 16 and 20, were found dead near Ngwe Nant Thar, a village in Hlegu Township about 25km north of Yangon’s city centre, said a local regime authority who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“There were no injuries found on their bodies. The cause of their deaths is still unknown. The bodies were sent to the Yangon General Hospital and we are still waiting for the autopsy results,” the official told Myanmar Now on Monday afternoon.

The bodies were all dumped along a road less than a kilometre from Ngwe Nant Thar, he added.

A police source familiar with the case said that while the victims were known to be Rohingya, it was unclear where they had travelled from or how they got to Ngwe Nant Thar.

“I was informed that they were smuggled inside a vehicle and died due to a lack of oxygen,” the police source said.

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify this information.

Most of Myanmar’s more than one million Rohingya have fled the country in recent years due to ethnic cleansing campaigns by the military. They have been subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement and other basic rights for decades.

These restrictions have made them vulnerable to human traffickers, who promise them better living conditions and work opportunities in Malaysia and other countries in the region.

Many are arrested in transit as they make the journey from Rakhine State to the Thai-Myanmar border or coastal areas in the country’s south. They are then charged with immigration offences that carry sentences of at least two years in prison.

On November 28, Radio Free Asia’s Burmese-language service reported that 54 men and 14 women of Rohingya ethnicity were arrested at a checkpoint in Hlegu while travelling inside a truck.

Myanmar Now News

Karenni forces capture soldiers linked to last year’s Christmas Eve massacre

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The soldiers belonged to a unit that arrived in Karenni State just days before it witnessed one of the worst mass killings since the coup

Four soldiers accused of taking part in one of the worst atrocities committed by Myanmar’s military since it seized power nearly two years ago were captured in battle on Saturday, according to a Karenni resistance group.

The Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) said that the soldiers—a sergeant, two corporals, and a private—were taken prisoner following a clash in Karenni (Kayah) State’s Demoso Township that also left 20 regime troops dead.

The group said that the captives were members of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 108, a unit under the command of the notorious Light Infantry Division (LID) 66.

The LIB 108 troops were transferred to Karenni State from their base in Ayeyarwady Region’s Danubyu Township on December 19 of last year—just days before at least 40 civilians, including children, were burned to death in LID 66 custody near the village of Moso on Christmas Eve.

Vehicles torched by the military troops near the village of Moso in Karenni State's Hpruso Township are seen on December 25 (KNDF)
At least 35 charred bodies found in Karenni State village on Christmas
The KNDF says that Myanmar junta troops are responsible for the massacre of who they believe to be men, women and children fleeing clashes near a Karenni village

According to KNDF spokesperson Khu Reedu, who is also the group’s Secretary 3, the soldiers captured in the village of Dungkame (Dawkame) on Saturday admitted to their involvement in the massacre.

“They confessed to the crime themselves,” said Khu Reedu, adding that the prisoners would be handed over to the Karenni State Police (KSP), a resistance law enforcement agency, and detained in accordance with international law.

Myanmar Now was unable to speak to the prisoners or regime officials regarding the KNDF spokesperson’s claims.

Investigators who inspected the site of the mass killing said they found the charred remains of 26 men and five women, including two aid workers, among more than a dozen vehicles consumed by fire. Many more bodies were reduced to ash and collected in bags.

Local residents and resistance forces accused the LID 66 troops of deliberately starting the inferno, but the regime claimed that it was caused by the accidental explosion of fuel containers loaded on some of the vehicles.

The KSP and the shadow National Unity Government’s Ministry of Human Rights said that plans were underway to prosecute regime officials for the incident, but no details about the progress of the proceedings were available.

Myanmar Now News