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Two more civilians brutally murdered near Letpadaung copper mining project

June 23, 2022/in News

The men, believed to have been captured by junta troops, are found dismembered following a Myanmar military raid on a nearby village in Sagaing’s Salingyi Township Locals found the mutilated bodies of two men near the Letpadaung copper mining project in Sagaing Region’s Salingyi Township on Wednesday morning following a military raid on a nearby […]

Myanmar army troops set fire to Catholic church in Karenni State

June 17, 2022/in News

A column from LID 66 torched and mined the religious site after suffering casualties in clashes with area resistance forces, a KNDF spokesperson says The military torched a Catholic church in Demoso Township, Karenni (Kayah) State, on Wednesday and laid landmines in the surrounding area before leaving, the spokesperson for a local resistance force said. […]

Two more civilians brutally murdered near Letpadaung copper mining project

June 23, 2022/in News

Myanmar army troops set fire to Catholic church in Karenni State

June 17, 2022/in News

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Two more civilians brutally murdered near Letpadaung copper mining project

June 23, 2022/in News

The men, believed to have been captured by junta troops, are found dismembered following a Myanmar military raid on a nearby village in Sagaing’s Salingyi Township

Locals found the mutilated bodies of two men near the Letpadaung copper mining project in Sagaing Region’s Salingyi Township on Wednesday morning following a military raid on a nearby village.

The deceased were identified as Tin Soe, 50, and Pwa Gyi, 40, of Moe Gyo Pyin village, which was attacked by a column of some 70 junta soldiers on Tuesday.

“Tin Soe was decapitated and both of Pwa Gyi’s hands were cut off from the wrist,” said a villager who saw the bodies. “There were also so many knife wounds on Tin Soe’s body… Intestines were also falling out of Pwa Gyi’s stomach.”

Locals said that it was likely that Tin Soe and Pwa Gyi were killed by the same military unit that raided and shelled Moe Gyo Pyin.

“It seems that they were captured inside the village, taken outside, and then tortured and killed. I think they were killed in the same place where they were found,” said the local man, referring to a field located near Moe Gyo Pyin.

Villagers cremated the bodies on Wednesday morning.
Moegyoepyinnorth_village.jpeg

Smoke is seen rising from Moe Gyo Pyin village on June 21 following (Supplied)

An officer in the Young People’s Force, a Salingyi-based resistance group, said that in retaliation for the military’s assault on Moe Gyo Pyin, they had ambushed three junta police outposts guarding the Letpadaung mining project, the fenced boundary of which is located just across the road from the village. It is jointly operated by China’s Wanbao Mining and the military conglomerate Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (UMEHL).

“We attacked them because they torched Moe Gyo Pyin, unprovoked,” he said, adding that an estimated two-thirds of the village’s 280 households were destroyed in the raid.

A local in the Letpadaung area said he saw the village burning at around 4pm on Tuesday, and that the attacks by resistance fighters began soon after.

“The defence forces attacked them from Se Te Zee Taw, located south of the copper mining project, as soon as smoke started coming out of the village. We also heard gunshots and heavy artillery shells coming from there,” he told Myanmar Now.

The soldiers reportedly took hostages in Moe Gyo Pyin but later released them. They also raided Se Te Zee Taw—eight miles away—where they occupied a monastery and held some 20 villagers as of Wednesday morning.

Since military assaults in the Letpadaung area intensified last month, thousands of locals from at least 15 villages have been displaced.

In late May, two men from Salingyi’s Ywar Thar village who had fled the junta offensives were found murdered after being detained by Myanmar army soldiers. Severe injuries indicated that they had been tortured.

They were identified as employees of the Myanmar branch of Wanbao subsidiary Yangtse Copper Co Ltd, which jointly operates two other copper mines with UMEHL: Sabetaung and Kyisintaung, known as the S&K mines.

A coalition of local resistance forces active in Salingyi and neighbouring Yinmabin Township released a joint statement in April calling on the Wanbao and Yangtse companies to halt their operations at the Letpadaung and S&K mining sites by early May, accusing them of propping up the coup regime.

A column of around 100 junta troops has since been stationed near the Yangtse Copper Co office and linked to assaults on multiple villages in the area, as well as ongoing clashes with guerrilla forces.

Myanmar Now News

Myanmar army troops set fire to Catholic church in Karenni State

June 17, 2022/in News

A column from LID 66 torched and mined the religious site after suffering casualties in clashes with area resistance forces, a KNDF spokesperson says

The military torched a Catholic church in Demoso Township, Karenni (Kayah) State, on Wednesday and laid landmines in the surrounding area before leaving, the spokesperson for a local resistance force said.

Junta forces occupied the church compound in Daw Ngay Khu in the morning, and within hours had set fire to the main worship building, the community hall and the priest’s home, according to the information officer for the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF).

“There was a clash. They came into the village and began to set up a base in the church compound. They torched the church when they left,” he told Myanmar Now.

Since June 10, intense battles have been taking place between the military and allied Karenni resistance forces around Daw Ngay Khu, which is located along the highway connecting Demoso to the state capital of Loikaw, some 10 miles north.

The KNDF estimated that at least 10 junta soldiers were killed in the recent episodes of fighting near the village.

The junta column that suffered the casualties was the same unit that destroyed the church on Wednesday, the KNDF information officer said, noting that the troops belonged to Light Infantry Division (LID) 66 and departed for the town of Hpruso after mining the area.

“They set up landmines in the grass fields outside the church compound. We can’t tell how many there are but there are definitely more than 10 and we can’t defuse them,” he explained,

One day before the assault on the church, the troops in question also torched four homes in Daw Ngay Khu.

The military council has repeatedly denied responsibility for arson attacks on homes and religious buildings nationwide.
Dawngaykhu_church-2.Jpeg

A member of the KNDF is seen walking past a burning building within the church compound in Daw Nyay Khu after a junta attack (KNDF)

The KNDF spokesperson described the destruction in Daw Ngay Khu as part of a larger pattern of attacks that escalated in the region in early June. Military columns from Loikaw and Hpruso have targeted at least five villages in Demoso in what he speculated was an attempt to drive out resistance forces along the north-south highway that runs through Karenni State.

“The main reason is that they want to seize control of the Demoso-Hpruso-Bawlakhe-Hpasawng road so that they can send supplies and soldiers [through the area] more easily,” the information officer said.

Since June 9, at least 22 junta soldiers have been killed in battles with guerrilla forces in Loikaw, Demoso and Hpruso townships, according to the KNDF.

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify the number of casualties.

In May of last year, four people were killed and eight seriously injured when the military fired heavy artillery at a Catholic church near Loikaw where displaced locals were taking shelter.

Karenni religious leaders reported soon after that eight churches had been damaged or destroyed by junta bombs in Karenni and southern Shan states, challenging the military’s claims that their troops had not intentionally targeted the sites.

“There’s no way they shot these churches by mistake. For one thing, they’re on big compounds that are very easy to identify by their buildings. And we’ve set up white flags at every church,” a priest told Myanmar Now at the time.

Across the country in Thantlang, Chin State, the Baptist church—the town’s oldest building—was reportedly burned down by junta forces on June 9, one of more than 60 religious sites destroyed in the state since the February 2021 coup, according to the Chin Human Rights Organisation.

Myanmar Now News

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ND Burma

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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