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‘Ogre’ battalion uses brutality to instill terror in Myanmar

April 22, 2023/in News

Sources say the unit takes heads as trophies to strike fear into the hearts of the junta’s enemies. Eds Note: Some readers may find the content of this article disturbing. They lop off people’s heads and mutilate bodies to instill terror. They torture victims to death. They seem fearless in battle, surging forward when under […]

Five resistance fighters killed, five civilians missing after clash with junta forces west of Khin-U

April 21, 2023/in News

The Myin Daung village defence team reportedly encountered soldiers preparing to raid another village in western Khin-U Township, Sagaing Region, and lost five members in the ensuing fight Five members of a local defence force were killed and five villagers went missing after the resistance fighters fought an advancing military column in southern Sagaing Region […]

‘Ogre’ battalion uses brutality to instill terror in Myanmar

April 22, 2023/in News

Five resistance fighters killed, five civilians missing after clash with junta forces west of Khin-U

April 21, 2023/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

‘Ogre’ battalion uses brutality to instill terror in Myanmar

April 22, 2023/in News

Sources say the unit takes heads as trophies to strike fear into the hearts of the junta’s enemies.

Eds Note: Some readers may find the content of this article disturbing.

They lop off people’s heads and mutilate bodies to instill terror. They torture victims to death.

They seem fearless in battle, surging forward when under fire.

Officially, they make up part of the 99th Light Infantry Battalion of the Myanmar military. But to most people, they are known as the “Ogre” column, a unit of killers notorious for their cruelty in a military already known for its brutality.

And they have been criss-crossing Myanmar’s heartland, killing rebel fighters and massacring villagers believed to be supporting them, terrorizing everyone in their path.

“What makes this column different is that they are specially trained to kill people,” said Nway Oo, a member of a resistance group in Myaung township. “They chop off the heads and ears of victims in cold blood.”

“They appear ghostly in battles, too,” he said. “They move forward in battles no matter how risky the situation is or how much they are under attack.”

Myanmar’s military has faced stiff resistance from ordinary men and women who have taken up arms to form People’s Defense Force bands to fight junta troops since the military’s coup two years ago.

The Ogres’ atrocities are meant to terrorize their foes, who often have little combat training and aren’t usually well-armed.

It’s all part of psychological warfare that was developed by the country’s generals known as “Sit Oo Bi Lu,” the “First wave of brutal attack,” or “Yakkha Byu Har” – “The Ogre Strategy,” a former military captain who defected to the rebel side since the junta’s takeover.

“Brutal acts by the junta troops, such as beheading people and burning down civilian properties, are intended to frighten the people,” said the captain, who goes by Nat Thar.

“This is a psychological tactic to scare the people into thinking that they don’t want to be the one beheaded when the junta’s 99th Division enters their village, to make them fear head-on conflict, although they belong to a population of tens of thousands,” he said.

Battleground Sagaing

Some of the fiercest resistance against the military has been in the northern Sagaing region, and in recent weeks the “Ogre” battalion has been attacking dozens of villages and rebel bases there in townships such as Ye-U, Khin-U, Taze, Myinmu and Myaung.

On March 30, the column raided a PDF base under the command of Capt. Bo Sin Yine near the village of Swae Lwe Oh.

The junta troops soon overwhelmed the rebel fighters, and soldiers then took Bo Sin Yine, a 31-year-old former corporal in the township’s Fire Brigade, and his fighters captive.

Footage taken by a drone operated by the Civilian’s Defense and Security Organization of Myaung, CDSOM, captured a junta soldier beheading Bo Sin Yine, whose name means “wild elephant,” and carrying his head away on his shoulder.

A few days later, Bo Sin Yine’s wife and a team of villagers discovered his body abandoned near the jungle. In addition to beheading him, junta soldiers had lopped off his arms and legs.

“They beheaded him and took away his head, but it wasn’t just him. They took away the heads of many people in other townships, too,” she said of her husband, who became the deputy battalion commander of the PDF No.1 in Sagaing.

Prior to entering Myaung township, the column raided Myinmu’s Let Ka Pin village, where it killed 10 civilians and disemboweled local PDF leader Kyaw Zaw before chopping off his head and limbs, residents said. The column also killed 16 civilians it had taken as human shields to protect against landmines after raiding Sagaing township’s Tar Tai village.

Among the column’s members are soldiers the CDSOM has identified as Capt. Aung Hein Oo, Lt. Capt. Zaw Naing, Sgts. Zaw Set Win, Myint Zaw, Maung Naing, Soe Hlaing, Tun Zaw Myo, and Thein Tun; Lt. Sgts. Ye Yint Paing and Thiha Soe; Engineer Trooper Nay Lin, and Troopers Pyae Sone Aung, Min Thu, and Thant Zin.

‘They told us to pass a message’

In mid-March, the “Ogre” column crossed the Chindwin River from Sagaing into Magway region and made its way south to Yesagyo township, one of several areas under martial law as a hotbed of anti-junta resistance.

Early on the morning of March 19, the unit blocked all of the exits from Mee Laung Kyung Ywar Thit village and arrested some 140 residents who didn’t have time to flee.

By the end of the day, Ogre fighters had shot and killed a man in his 50s named Han, who worked as a cook feeding refugees of conflict, tortured a 47-year-old mentally disabled man named Sandra to death, and wounded a 16-year-old boy as he tried to escape, villagers told RFA.

Villagers in Myinmu township, Sagaing region, move the bodies of people killed by Myanmar military troops on Nyaung Yin island, March 3, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist

Those captured in Mee Laung Kyaung Ywar Thit were added to prisoners from Sagaing’s Myaung township, where the unit had conducted its last raid, including inhabitants of Za Yat Ni, Min Hla, Thar Khaung Lay, Shwe Hlan, Myay Sun, and Sin Chay Yar villages.

Around 200 women were divided into two groups and held at the Taung Kuang Monastery on the outskirts of Mee Laung Kyun village, while another group of 40 men and teenage boys were placed under guard in civilian homes, sources who escaped the unit said.

A man who escaped after three days said that Ogre fighters confiscated his jewelry and interrogated him about the local PDF, claiming they had already crushed more than 20 of the group’s bases.

“We didn’t know if they would take us to the battlefront and force us to step on landmines or kill us before they left the village,” said the man, who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal.

“They told us to pass a message to our relatives to give up fighting, bury their weapons, and end their support for the PDF. But despite their threats, we will continue to fight against the regime until the end.”

Attempts to reach Aye Hlaing, the junta’s spokesman for Sagaing region, and junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the reported actions of the Ogre column went unanswered, as did efforts to contact the junta’s information team.

Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, told RFA that the tactics of the Ogre column represent the “next level” in the junta’s violence against the people of Myanmar and must be stopped.

“Such inhumane actions against individuals can be regarded as international war crimes,” he said, suggesting that the perpetrators should be held accountable by an international court of law.

Seeking justice for victims

Kyaw Win, executive director of the U.K.-based Myanmar Human Rights Network, said his organization is systematically documenting the junta’s atrocities for just such a case.

“The junta is committing horrible and disheartening war crimes, in violation of existing … laws,” he said.

“Before long, we will be able to prosecute the perpetrators, who are officials at all levels in the military.”

In the meantime, the wife of Bo Sin Yine, who was decapitated by the Ogre column in Myaung township last month, said that she will not be able to rest until her husband and other victims receive justice.

“I need justice for him – the crime they committed was cruel and savage,” she said. “These days, the whole country knows about the atrocious brutality of [junta chief] Min Aung Hlaing.”

RFA News

Five resistance fighters killed, five civilians missing after clash with junta forces west of Khin-U

April 21, 2023/in News

The Myin Daung village defence team reportedly encountered soldiers preparing to raid another village in western Khin-U Township, Sagaing Region, and lost five members in the ensuing fight

Five members of a local defence force were killed and five villagers went missing after the resistance fighters fought an advancing military column in southern Sagaing Region on Wednesday.

According to the Khin-U Special Force Organisation (KSO), a locally based defence force, some 140 junta soldiers advanced east into Khin-U Township from Ye-U, located across the Mu River. The Myin Daung village defence force intercepted between the villages of Myin Daung and Mya Kan shortly thereafter.

A Lin Yaung, leader of the Myin Daung village defence force, said members of his group were on their way back from setting up explosive devices when they encountered junta forces initiating a raid on Mya Kan.

“We were deployed in two separate spots and three junta columns were preparing to raid Mya Kan village. We tried to fight them off but we lost our troops because of the disadvantage in firepower,” A Lin Yaung told Myanmar Now.

“We used explosives first, when the military dogs arrived at the minefield,” A Lin Yaung said, referring to the soldiers. “We tried to keep them back as they marched further, but we only had two rifles, so we were outmatched.”

The deceased, all members of the local defence force of Myin Daung village, were identified as Kyaw Naing, Phoe Kyaw and Moe Hein, all in their 20s; Tayoke Gyi, 46; and Ko Naung, 40.

Two of the missing civilians were identified as Sein Myo Tin and Aung Kyaw Lwin of Myin Daung. The others are only known to be three men from Mya Kan, according to A Lin Yaung.

The defence teams said that even as they were making funeral preparations, they anticipated having to fight the junta forces again soon.

The bodies of the deceased defence team members (Supplied)

According to a KSO spokesperson, the day before the raid on Mya Kan, a junta convoy consisting of four vehicles and carrying around 100 troops as well as provisions and ammunition for military bases had also entered Khin-U Township from the west. After entering the township on Tuesday, the convoy’s troops started to establish outposts in nearby villages.

“I thought it would be over after they sent supplies yesterday, but another column started raiding villages this morning,” a KSO spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Close to 10,000 civilians from some 20 villages have been displaced by junta raids in western Khin-U Township, according to a Khin-U Township People’s Defence Team spokesperson.

Local resistance forces said they could not give precise estimates of the damage the military had sustained from attacks by anti-junta village defence teams.

As of Wednesday afternoon, junta troops are stationed in Kyun Lel village, some five miles south of Myin Daung, with local defence teams anticipating that they would move soon.

Myanmar Now News

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ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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